Chapter 5; Discussion

            This chapter discusses the results and their use in formulating the conceptual model: Production Cycle of Habitus for Migrant Students in China. Four thematic stages of the cycle are discussed in relation to the results. Next, integration of the cycle with the study and research findings is conducted, revealing the power of the cycle model to predict how new cultural participants assimilate with cultural capital.

Production Cycle of Habitus for Migrant Students

            The Production Cycle of Habitus contains four themes that are sequential stages moving clockwise as noted in the Visual Theme Map and discussed in more detail in the Thematic Summary Report (Figure 1; Table 3). The Production Cycle of Habitus refers to a process whereby habitus is constructed. Habitus is the cultural participant’s demonstration of behaviors, acceptance of ideas, and generation of thoughts/feelings, reflecting their ability to use cultural capital for advantage.[1] Habitus is the individual manifestation of the learning and socialization that occurs in cultural capital formation.

Identification of the Cultural Gap

Beginning the cycle is the first stage, Identification of the Cultural Gap. The findings of this study show how instructors, friends, acquaintances, fellow students, and school officials alerted students, and their parents, to a cultural gap between personal traits, behaviors, and ideologies between rural migrants and Beijing elites. Identification of the cultural gap also occurred through student and parents’ observations and awareness of differences between themselves and others in the Beijing educational environment. The cultural gap included how to assert oneself in the classroom (i.e., proactive versus passive in oral exercises), how to participate in self-led study behaviors (i.e., student groups), how to use rules and norms to gain advantage in the admissions process, how to set goals and objectives, how to study for the national entrance examination, and how to speak and write English at levels that constitute proficiency. Identification of the cultural gap requires awareness of the self, others, and cultural objects.[2]

[1] Schirone, “Field, Capital, and Habitus,” p. 188

[2] Wong and Liao, “Cultural Capital and Habitus,” p. 778.

Opportunity Behaviors for Parents

            The results show an unexpected though predictable finding: habitus production for students requires transmission of cultural capital to their parents. Specifically, parents receive cultural capital transmission that helps them identify and socialize into the opportunity behaviors necessary to gain advantages for their children in the Beijing educational environment. These behaviors are guided by the rules and norms of admissions processes and practices, accessing supplemental tutoring, supervising children’s study habits, helping children set goals and objectives, and constructing guanxi specifically within the Beijing school environment to gain resources for their children. Cultural capital transmission provided the information about opportunity-seeking behaviors, which parents employed as they realized their children were at a cultural/academic/linguistic deficit.

Short-Term Habitus Development

            Short-term habitus development occurs through the acquisition of information and skills necessary to produce habitus. The results show how this cultural capital transmission occurred in the short-term as students learned of their cultural deficits, learned what was necessary to close the cultural gap, agreed to formulate cultural capital, and began to adopt habitus. At this stage of habitus development, much of the development occurs in two domains: learning and overcoming resistance to change. The actual demonstration of habitus is weak and probably unnoticed by students and others. However, this is still a developmental stage, since habitus formation begins when cultural participants agree to socialization processes that will eventually lead to the demonstration of habitus.[1]

Long-Term Habitus Development

            This stage is the culmination of cultural capital formulation, resulting in the successful demonstration in the cultural field of behaviors that reflect the incorporation of ideas, thoughts, and feelings of cultural capital. The results showed long-term habitus development as students made specific achievements that reflect habitus in the field of the Beijing educational environment: They gained access to desired high schools and universities, improved their academic performance, improved their language proficiency, established social networks, and, in some cases, achieved the highest-status goal of all: an American education. Habitus development was evident in the ability of students to replicate habitus across similar but different fields, such as from the Beijing educational environment to the Chinese university or American university environment.

Integration with Literature

Role of Parents

            The results affirm and contribute new findings to the literature on cultural capital formation for migrant students in China. The results show a high degree of concern among migrant parents about the importance of school selection in Beijing. The parents understood the variation in status and at least perceived quality among schools. Parents understood how school selection would deliver educational, social, and professional outcomes for their children on their journey from middle school, through high school and higher education, and into professional careers. Migrant parents applied maximum resources of time, mental energy, and financial commitment to select the schools they believed would optimize their children’s opportunities for success.

            Most of my clients were more affluent migrant parents, which supports research findings that socioeconomic status of migrant parents’ influences their school choice decisions.[2] Socioeconomic status of migrant parents is believed to influence school choice decisions in several ways, the researcher found. First, migrant parents of higher socioeconomic status have higher educational attainment, which delivers an understanding of the importance of school quality to educational outcomes. Migrant parents with university degrees are more aware of the relationship between individual academic performance and school quality than migrant parents with lesser education. Second, migrant parents of higher socioeconomic status have both social and economic resources to make choices about schools rather than rely on the district’s assignation of their children into schools based on residential location. By contrast, migrants of less socioeconomic status, the researchers found, were more likely to send their children to the school in their neighborhood. Social resources include relationships with other parents and school officials, while economic resources are the finances available to prepare their children for competitive admissions to desirable schools.   

            The results of the study and these findings reveal how some parents already hold a generalized form of cultural capital that contributes to school choice and academic preparation decisions. Migrant parents knew that there were higher-quality schools available in Beijing. They knew that admissions were competitive. What they were less familiar with, and which required cultural capital transmission, was the norms and rules of competition.

            The results of the study affirm what the literature has determined is the significant impact of family dynamics, particularly the parent-child relationship, in migrant students’ development of habitus. Parents and students were partners in developing awareness of cultural gaps, accepting the need to socialize, and engaging in the process of capital formation toward habitus. This result is affirmed by the literature, which found that cultural capital for students’ academic performance requires the participation of parents.[3] Parents play instrumental roles in supervising study habits, accessing resources beyond the formal school environment, and helping their children aspire to academic success.[4]

The results illustrate the paramount importance of parental involvement in every aspect of a child’s education to secure positive outcomes for their children in Chinese secondary and American higher education environments. Such involvement is necessary to move students from the short-term to long-term developmental stage. Every student that succeeded had a parent behind them delivering various forms of support. Beyond the financial (which is exempted as a form of cultural capital), this support included overall management of the child’s educational career and activities. Parental involvement required the following:

1. Gathering information about competitive factors that must be addressed for entry to schools.
2. Identifying resources necessary for competitive advantage, including forming relationships with admissions officers, other parents, and procuring tutors.
3. Supervising their child’s educational activities, including in-school, self-study, study abroad, extracurricular activities, and private tutoring.

The most successful students were always supported by a highly involved parent. These parents often went to extraordinary lengths to maximize their child’s academic outcomes. They served as cultural capital brokers even if they lacked the cultural capital themselves. They identified holders of cultural capital and arranged to place their children into contact with them, whether they were language instructors, teachers, other Chinese students, or American families willing to host their child.

Parental involvement also includes a less tangible element – expectations. This is described by the literature as the “educational aspiration” component of cultural capital, which is manifested in the habitus of developing strategies and setting goals/objectives.[5] Indeed, parental involvement begins with the parent’s expectations for their child’s academic success and its contribution to professional attainment. This expectation includes several elements beyond just expecting the child to succeed, including:

1. Belief that educational opportunity is available for their child
2. Belief that the opportunity can be obtained by those parents and children who perform certain activities to a high standard
3. Belief that other parties are necessary to deliver resources to their children to gain access

Belief that educational access is highly competitive so all available resources must be optimized to gain advantage

[1] Yang, “How Does Cultural Capital Influence,” p. 95.

[2] Yang, “How Does Cultural Capital Influence,” p. 90.

[3] Tang and Fang, “Family Social and Cultural Capital,” p. 15-16.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Tan and Fang, “Family Social and Cultural Capital,” p. 14.