The Politics, Practices, and Possibilities of Migrant Children Schools in Contemporary China

"Yu has written a superb book that is highly illuminating and thought provoking about social movements, migration, equality, and schooling through the lens of migrant children schools in China. Based on an impressive ethnographic study about children, parents and educators in these schools, this highly engaging book immediately draws readers into an important and fascinating story that has nuanced and far-reaching implications." (Diana Hess, Professor and Dean of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA) "First a teacher in China and now a researcher, Yu has authored a book that expands and deepens perspective on migrant student experiences. Focusing on migrant students in contemporary China, Yu enables readers to see migration through non-Western lenses that situated within local contexts, offering novel social movement concepts, such as guanxi networks or social relations. I recommend serious study of the implications of this research to anyone in any culture who is concerned with the educational rights of all children, especially those who are considered to be migrants." (William H. Schubert, Professor Emeritus and former University Scholar, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA) "Grounded in scholarly traditions in sociology, anthropology, education, ethnographic research methods, interdisciplinary history research, and decolonizing methodology, Yu explores the lives and identities of migrant families, their children, and educators of their children working in "migrant" or "underground" schools from the critical perspectives of race, gender, culture, identity, equity, and education in China and the United States. Yu's work on complex cultural identities, formation of diasporic ties, and educational trajectory of migrant workers and their children will make contributions to cross-cultural, bilingual/bicultural, and interdisciplinary approaches to curriculum studies, teacher education, sociology, anthropology, ethnographic research methods, interdisciplinary history research, critical theory, and transnational/diasporic studies not only in the People's Republic of China or the Asia Pacific region but also in the United States and other international contexts." (Ming Fang He, Professor of Curriculum Studies at Georgia Southern University, USA)

​Winner of the AERA Division B Outstanding Book Recognition Award

This book examines the dynamics surrounding the education of children in the unofficial schools in China’s urban migrant communities.​Winner of the AERA Division B Outstanding Book Recognition Award

This book examines the dynamics surrounding the education of children in the unofficial schools in China’s urban migrant communities. This ethnographic study focuses on both the complex structural factors impacting the education of children attending unofficial migrant children schools and the personal experiences of individuals working within these communities. As the book illustrates in careful detail, the migrant children schools serve a critical function in the community by serving as a hub for organized collective action around shared grievances related to issues of education, employment, wellbeing, and other social rights. In turn, the development of a collective identity among teachers, students, parents, and other members in the migrant communities makes it possible for activists to begin to working to address multiple forms of discrimination and maltreatment while simultaneously moving towards the possibility of more profound social transformation.