Education and Parenting in China

Abstract

The education system and parenting in China both emphasize academic achievement. Today’s Chinese students (including those from Hong Kong and Taiwan) do indeed demonstrate distinguished academic performance at home and abroad. However, cramming and rote learning, reinforced by excessive parental control, ostensibly underlie these academic results. This chapter seeks to clarify some of these seemingly causal effects of Chinese educational and parenting practices on children’s academic achievement. It begins with a sociocultural background of Chinese education and Chinese parenting, followed by a brief outline of the status quo and reform attempts of the Chinese school system. Then, it discusses the features of Chinese parenting in light of the school system in China. Finally, it identify several aspects of Chinese parenting practices that might contribute to academic achievement. Throughout the chapter, we highlight the role of social learning (i.e., learning from other individuals, whether through direct observation and imitation, or through reading and formal training, rather than learning through one’s own trial and error and independent experimentation), which is encouraged in the Chinese culture and also constitutes key components in education and parenting in China. Specifically, we argue that maintaining social harmony and stability in such a large and diverse country as China necessitates the emphasis on social learning. This contributes to a school system that is characterized by rote learning, top-down indoctrination, and intense academic competition. To promote adolescents’ social learning skills that are highly important in the school system, Chinese parents adopt parenting practices characterized by high expectations, high parental involvement, and encouragement of academic motivation and conformity. This trend is expected to change as the education system pays more attention to independent exploration and innovation and as the society becomes more diversified, pluralistic, and individualistic.