"Study on Repetition and Dropout of Basic Education in Poverty-stricken Provinces of China" is a technical assistance sub-project of the poverty alleviation project funded by the World Bank in China. The project involves six provinces in China. As the national coordinating body of the project, Peking University "Repetition and Dropout Research Group" is responsible for the overall design of the project, the selection and formulation of research tools and the writing of the project summary report. 1In June, 1995, our research group and researchers from the Institute of Educational Sciences in a northwestern province conducted a pre-survey in Heyang County. The following is a case report of qualitative research.
The first thing to explain here is that the qualitative research method we refer to here is different from the "qualitative research" commonly used in social sciences in China at present. The latter mainly relies on personal intuition and philosophical speculation, puts forward some opinions according to personal subjective experience, and then verifies his thinking by deduction. The former refers to: in the natural environment, using field experience, open interviews, participatory and non-participatory observation, literature analysis, case investigation and other methods to conduct in-depth and detailed and long-term research on social phenomena. This kind of research usually takes induction as the main analysis method, collects the first-hand information at that time, understands the significance of their behavior and their views on things from the perspective of the parties, and then establishes hypotheses and theories on this basis, and verifies the research results through various channels.
In order to protect the researchers, all names and places used in this report are fictitious. The "I" in this article is a middle-aged female researcher in Peking University, and the qualitative research part of this survey is presided over by her. The purpose of using the first person in the report is to reproduce the research site and let readers know under what circumstances the researchers collected the existing materials, so as to make their own judgments on the reliability of the research conclusions. The first-person narrative angle also gives researchers the opportunity to introduce their own reflections on research methods, so that readers can fully understand the research process.
First of all, the questions raised
The research object put forward by the World Bank is the problem of students' re-reading and dropping out of school in poor provinces of China, hoping to find relevant countermeasures to alleviate and solve the problem through this research. The qualitative research part of our survey only pays attention to the problem of dropping out of school. The definition of "dropping out of school" has different understandings in the field of education. The Research on the Benefits of Compulsory Education compiled by the National Education Development Research Center calls "all the phenomena of stopping studying and leaving school without completing the required number of years of schooling". Then, they collectively refer to this big concept of "dropping out of school" as "loss", such as non-illness suspension, dropping out of school, failure to continue attending school after going through the transfer formalities, and other interruptions without going through any formalities. [1] We didn't make such an inclusive definition of "dropping out of school" in this survey. We basically use the above big concepts.
Second, the research background
China is a country with a large population, and the education of its school-age children has been closely concerned by people from all walks of life. Although the dropout rates of primary schools and secondary schools announced by the State Education Commission are 2. 19% and 5.78% respectively, the proportion of primary school graduates entering junior high schools is only 66.95438+0%. [2] In addition, the above figures cover all regions of the country, especially in rural areas, especially in poor areas. People in education generally believe that dropping out of school not only wastes educational resources, affects the development of basic education and the cultivation of the overall population quality of the country, but also brings physical and mental harm to the dropouts themselves.
At present, there is little research on the phenomenon of dropping out of school in China. The research done by the National Education Development Research Center mainly uses quantitative methods to make a statistical analysis of the number of dropouts, the reasons for dropouts and the countermeasures that can be taken in some provinces and regions of China. [3] Although some surveys adopt the form of discussion, and their reports are called "case analysis" and "typical surveys", these reports still adopt the framework of quantitative research to analyze and predict the dropout problem from the perspective of researchers. Quantitative methods are very helpful for us to understand the phenomenon of dropping out of school at the macro level, but it is impossible to describe and analyze it in detail at the micro level. In addition, because quantitative research does not pay attention to the influence of researchers and the relationship between researchers and subjects, we can't see the figure of researchers and their reflection on their own behavior from such reports, so we can't judge the reliability of the research.
Although Ai Yiping used a combination of questionnaire and field survey, their research report did not hear the voices of dropouts. [4] The survey still pays attention to the status quo, causes and countermeasures of dropping out of school from the perspective of researchers, but does not reproduce the psychological state and meaning construction model of dropouts. In addition, the research on the phenomenon of dropping out of school mostly stays at the level of thinking and appeal, without discussing the specific situation and process of dropping out of school. [5] Therefore, we think it is very necessary to conduct a more in-depth and detailed explanatory case study on the phenomenon of dropping out of school.
Third, research methods.
(1) sampling
We adopt purposive sampling, that is, according to the purpose of the study, we choose the sample that may provide the greatest information for the studied problem. The choice of Heyang County is decided by the teaching department of this province, because this county is a poverty-stricken county, its per capita annual income is lower than the average level of the whole province, and there should be more dropouts than other counties. In addition, the county seat is close to the provincial capital, which is convenient for us to return on time in the case of tight time. As a result, I learned from the county education bureau in Heyang County that there are not many students who drop out of school here. Although the county's economy is relatively backward, it has a long cultural tradition, and people generally pay more attention to education. And ironically, it is precisely because of the backward economy and underdeveloped township enterprises that there is no job opportunity for child laborers like other economically developed areas. In addition, we have just arrived at the county's "two basics" (that is, basically popularizing nine-year compulsory education and basically eliminating illiteracy), and the students who left school basically returned to school. With the help of the county education bureau, we searched around and finally found six dropouts in four schools (half primary school and half middle school), and interviewed their parents, class teachers, principals and classmates.
Wang Xiaogang, the protagonist of this case, was found through his former classmates. Jin Zhushan, the headmaster of Lishugou Middle School, learned from the county education bureau the day after we arrived in Heyang County that we were going to the school to learn about the dropout situation, and called teachers and students to ask about the whereabouts of the dropouts. After many inquiries, he learned that three students had dropped out of school since last year. One of them went out to work, the other went to visit relatives, and only one named Wang Xiaogang was still in the village, so he sent a student to his home and asked him and his parents to meet us at school the next afternoon. Although we told the county education bureau many times that we wanted to meet them at Wang Xiaogang's house, the county insisted that they come to see us at school, saying it was "more convenient this way" (who is more convenient? -we don't have the courage to ask.
(2) Collecting materials
The methods of collecting data include open interview, informal conversation and field observation. The interview lasts for about one and a half hours at a place designated by the school, in the dormitory of a male teacher on the second floor of the school building. In every interview, I use a tape recorder to record the voice with the consent of the interviewee, and at the same time record the interviewee's expression, body movements and my own reflection on the method. After returning to the guest house, I immediately arranged the recording word by word. Because I didn't understand the dialect, I asked the staff of the Provincial Education Institute for help. If the conversation is informal and can't be recorded, I will write it down from memory as much as possible after I get in the car, walk or go back to my room. I interviewed Wang Xiaogang twice, once with his mother, Jin Zhushan, the current principal of Lishugou Middle School, Donglai Lai, the head teacher, and Yu Hong, the principal. I also visited my classmate Ma Li's home in Wang Xiaogang and got some information from him and his parents.
1995 On the morning of June 20th, four researchers from Peking University, three researchers from the Education Society of this province, and the deputy director and staff of Heyang County Education Bureau, a group of nine people drove two cars to Lishugou Middle School. President Jin and several other teachers prepared refreshments in the conference room to welcome us. We first introduced the purpose of this trip to President Jin, and then learned the basic situation of the school. At about 10, Wang Xiaogang and his mother came (his father went out to build a house for others). Wang Xiaogang is not tall, with a fat suit hanging from his thin body and a pair of thick sneakers on his feet (my first thought at that time was that the child came in his father's suit. Later, when I asked him, he said it was his own, and he made it bigger on purpose, so that it could last longer. His facial expression looks more mature than other children of his age: his long round eyes are smart and a little worried. When President Jin told him that "the experts from Beijing want to talk to you and learn about your situation", he immediately replied "Yes, no problem", but he told me with a little cold eyes and a clenched mouth that this is a smart, stubborn and independent child.
My conversation with him was accompanied by Feng Li, a researcher from the Provincial Education Institute, in order to help me understand Xiaogang's dialect (although Xiaogang said he used "Mandarin", I still couldn't understand some of what he said). At the beginning of the interview, the deputy director of the county education bureau pushed the door and came in, sitting next to us, as if interested in attending. I saw Xiao Gang obviously become nervous; He twisted nervously, and his facial muscles were tense. I want to ask the director out, but I'm too embarrassed to say it right away. He said, "Excuse me, can you go out for a while?" It is inconvenient to have too many people. "Who is not convenient? I didn't say either. Since then, people have come in from time to time to see what we are doing. During the whole interview, except for being disturbed by others, Xiaogang appeared very calm and spoke very orderly. The language he uses is also more formal. I was surprised at this: I thought that children who dropped out of school would not have such clear thinking and expression skills-obviously, my method was wrong.
We visited his mother again that day. She is of medium height and looks over forty years old. Her brand-new clothes and brightly combed hair told me that she dressed up specially for coming to school to meet Beijingers. Throughout the conversation, she was smiling, speaking very fast, and sometimes she didn't understand, so I had to ask further questions frequently. She seems to be honored that we met our son, and kept saying things like "thank you for your concern".
After talking to Xiaogang's mother, we interviewed President Jin of Lishugou Middle School. He is a middle-aged man in his forties. He looks tired, with deep wrinkles on his dark face and bloodshot eyes. When he dropped out of Wang Xiaogang and was transferred to this school, he knew nothing about Wang Xiaogang. He mainly talked about the difficulties faced by some schools and the possible impact of these difficulties on students dropping out of school.
Later, in order to test what we learned from, his mother and President Jin, we proposed to interview Yu Hong, the head teacher and principal. It took the county two days to find Mr. Liu and Mr. Guan, who were transferred to other schools last summer. The county said it was inconvenient to go to their school or their home, so they arranged for them to meet us at Lishugou Middle School. On the morning of June 22nd, we met Teacher Liu for the first time. He is 28 years old, unmarried, stocky and energetic, with long and narrow eyes and always smiling. He is very talkative, and he said a lot during the interview. He doesn't need me to ask too many questions. /kloc-0 transferred to lishugou middle school in August, 1993,/kloc-0 transferred to July, 1994. So he only knows that three students in his class dropped out of school last year (from here I know that three students in his class dropped out of school alone). The reason why Wang Xiaogang dropped out of school he introduced is quite different from what Wang Xiaogang himself said. This makes me very confused.
The conversation with former headmaster Guan Yuhong was also held on June 22nd. President Guan is 45 years old and has been a principal for ten years. He spoke slowly and seemed calm. Although he was transferred to a foreign school last August, he didn't know much about Wang Xiaogang: "I don't know much about the students who dropped out of school. Students mainly contact the class teacher. " President Guan mainly talked about the worsening plight of rural education in China and its influence on children dropping out of school. For President Jin, President Guan and Teacher Liu, I not only learned their introductions and views on dropping out of school, but also asked their own children or brothers and sisters about their study and their expectations. The purpose is to understand their behavior in personal life and avoid them answering my questions in some slogan language.
I asked to visit Wang Xiaogang again because the reason why Wang Xiaogang dropped out of school that I learned from others was somewhat different from what he said. On the morning of June 23rd, we went to Lishugou Middle School again. As the school can't find Wang Xiaogang at the moment, I have to wait for him at school. The responsible comrades in the county strongly urged me to go back to the county for dinner with the car at noon, and I made great efforts to persuade them to let me stay. While waiting, I had a warm conversation with several teachers and administrators in the school. From them, I learned a lot about schools in Heyang County, especially the teachers' current situation and ideas, which further verified many problems mentioned by President Jin, President Guan and Teacher Liu, and the relationship between these problems and students' dropout. At noon, I had lunch with the headmaster and three teachers. The meal is simple: a plate of fried eggplant with green peppers and noodle soup. I'm glad they didn't deliberately add more meals because of me (I made it a condition when I decided to stay). Although the food here is very different from that in the county, I eat better than that in the county: because I have the opportunity to talk to the school staff alone. Wherever this trip goes, there are always "leaders" at all levels. I don't know how much material I can collect in this case is "true and reliable".
After lunch, Xiaogang still didn't come. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, Xiaogang came, covered in mud and sweating on his forehead, only to know that he and his mother were waiting for irrigation in the field, and it was not his turn yet. He was called by his classmates from other places. This time, he was wearing a shabby undershirt and trousers, and he had lost his reserve and restraint when wearing a suit. He looks much smaller than last time. We talked for more than an hour in the room where we first talked. I further inquired about the reasons for his dropping out of school and some details. Except for some details, what he said is basically the same as last time.
Because the reasons he gave for dropping out of school were still different from others' explanations, I wanted to verify in many ways and see the specific situation in the village with my own eyes, so I proposed to visit Xiaogang's house and his classmates' house. President Jin strongly disagreed and said, "The village is not safe, and you will get lost." It took me a lot of talking and finally persuaded President Jin. Accompanied by President Jin's uneasy eyes, Xiaogang and I set off. Soon after I entered the village, I saw the county coming to pick up my car. I rushed over and asked the driver to wait for me for a while. Then I asked Xiaogang if he could take me to a classmate's house near him. Xiaogang's home is at the western end of the village. It's too far to go. When we arrived at Xiao Gang's classmate Ma Li's house, he was lying on the kang watching TV with his parents. When you see us coming, get up and get dressed at once. Mary looks shy and blushes at the sight of me. I introduced myself and then asked him some questions. His parents interrupt from time to time, but unfortunately, most of them are beyond my comprehension. Mary's answer confirms some of Wang Xiaogang's words from the side. His parents' views also reflect the attitudes of some parents. I find that this kind of home visit can provide a more natural and true situation.
(3) written documents
This report uses five written forms commonly used in qualitative research to varying degrees [6]. (1)realistic tale, which reproduces the views of the parties as truly as possible, describes and analyzes Wang Xiaogang's dropout from the perspective of the respondents, and describes the research results in their language as much as possible; (2) Confession stories, introducing the methods I used in the research process and my introspection and thinking, and reproducing interview scenes and dialogue fragments; (3) Impressionist stories, which describe in detail the situation at the time of the incident and the reaction and expression dynamics of the parties; (4) The Critical Story makes a deeper discussion on Wang Xiaogang's situation from the social and cultural environment; (5) a formal story. Although I didn't try to verify an external theory with research results, my research design and questioning methods reflected some preconceived ideas in my mind. I will explain this further in the discussion section below.
(4) Promotion degree and others
Qualitative research adopts purposeful sampling, and its research results cannot be naturally extended to the people sampled from it like quantitative research. However, the purpose of qualitative research is not to promote the research results to the relevant people, but to let people with similar experiences achieve promotion through identification. Although the investigation of Wang Xiaogang is only an example, and its authenticity is limited to him alone, the in-depth analysis of his dropout situation can make many people with similar situations get a kind of recognition, and we can get some enlightenment and resonance from reading this report.
For the validity test, ethical issues and hypothesis establishment of this study, please refer to the discussion section at the end of this article.
Fourth, research results.
(1) background introduction
Wang Xiaogang is a boy of 15 years old who lives in Lishugou, Heyang County. Heyang County is dominated by hills, and Lishugou is located between two mountains, with more than 300 families. 1978 since the reform and opening up, the villagers' life has improved, but it is still lower than other places in Heyang County. The simple earthen houses in the village gather together to form a long and narrow strip that runs east and west. There is a dirt road in the middle, and you can see scattered dirt and garbage on the roadside. When our car passed by the side of the road, the old people squatting on the side of the road looked up at us, their eyes full of curiosity and surprise. Their clothes all look old, with white marks left by repeated washing.
Lishugou Middle School is located at the eastern end of the village. The school building is a two-story white building, which was built last year with loans from the World Bank and donations from villagers, replacing dilapidated dangerous houses. The new school building has good lighting and bright rooms, but the structure is rough, the walls are painted unevenly and there are no screens on the windows. Although it was very hot during our interview, we were afraid to open the window for fear of mosquitoes coming in. We can see from the window that some students are sitting at desks reading in rows, and some students are reading English aloud under the guidance of the teacher. Discipline seems very good. In the north of the building is a big playground paved with mud, and in the northwest corner is a shabby little bungalow where teachers eat. Toilet is located in the east of the teaching building, and it is also a common pit in rural China: a pit is dug on the ground, and a board is placed on it, and maggots surge in the pit, and the stench is pungent. Lishugou Middle School has eight teachers, three of whom are private teachers. Two female teachers. The average age of teachers is 30. There are three classes in three grades in Lishugou Middle School, with students 12 1 person, including 50 girls. Students all live in the village, go home for dinner at noon and go home to sleep at night. The school is not responsible for their accommodation.
There are five people in Wang Xiaogang's family. Dad is a mason. In addition to building and repairing houses for the village, I often go out to work, and I have no time and energy to take care of my children's life and study. My mother farmed and did housework at home. Both parents read only until they graduated from primary school. My sister, who has the highest education in my family, went to the third grade of junior high school. She had planned to go on to high school, but failed to pass the exam. After a year of repeated study, she still failed the exam, so she gave up the idea of continuing her studies and now she is married in a foreign village. Xiaogang's sister is in the second grade of Lishugou Primary School, and her grades are good. Wang Xiaogang himself entered Lishugou Middle School in September 1993 to study in the first grade of junior high school. He was only thirteen years old at that time. His head teacher, Donglai Lai, is a young male teacher who teaches Chinese and politics. Xiaogang's homework is not very good, especially Chinese and politics.
The process and reasons of dropping out of school
After entering junior high school for half a year, in the early winter morning of 1994, Xiaogang had a direct conflict with Teacher Liu, which prompted Xiaogang to make a decision to quit school. The following is what Xiao Gang said about it when I first interviewed him.
Me: "Why didn't I go to school at that time?"
He: "because our teacher ... my grades are not very good, and my teacher doesn't play well ... so I can't get up."
Me: "What's the matter?"
He: "One morning I was studying by myself, and it was terribly cold. I was so cold that I ran to the fire to keep warm. The teacher saw it and said why you didn't recite well, so he hit me. Then he went out, and I didn't recite it. Go to the fire again. He came in and hit me. Tell me to call again at the office. "
Me: "How?"
He: "Slapped in the face, slapped several times."
Me: "Where?"
He: "Hit the face."
Me: "Do you know why he hit you?"
He: "It was the fire ... because I didn't take it, so I ran to the fire."
Me: "What were you thinking?"
He: "I was angry ... I was angry at that time ... I was depressed after hitting me, and I was depressed for several days." I won't go to school in two or three days. "
Xiaogang said that before this beating, he had been beaten several times by Mr. Liu, slapping his face and ass. "The teacher often talks about me in class and often hits me." After that, he skipped class during Mr. Liu's class and escaped five or six times. Every time I sneak out, hide on the other side of the school playground, sit for 45 minutes, and then go in after this class. Sometimes, classmates come to him, but they can't find him all the time. "I wandered around." He is afraid of Mr. Liu, because he is not good at Chinese and politics, he can't recite and will be beaten. "I'd rather carry my textbook outside than go to class, for fear that he would hit me." This time, because of "playing hard", he decided not to go after another class with Teacher Liu a few days later. "I decided not to go. If I go again, the teacher will hit me again. He hit me and will look for me in the future. "
Here, Wang Xiaogang raised two different questions: (1) whether he was really punished by Mr. Liu; (2) Whether corporal punishment is the main reason for his dropping out of school. In order to answer the second question, we must first find the answer to the first question.
When interviewing Donglai Lai, the head teacher in Wang Xiaogang, he talked about the reason why Xiaogang dropped out of school because of his poor grades, and did not mention the corporal punishment of Xiaogang. Finally, I had to beat around the bush and ask him if there were any teachers beating students at school. He looks a little upset. "Individuals also have. For example, students have done destructive things, such as hitting light bulbs with marbles, and some students have sheltered students who have committed crimes. The teacher didn't find it for a long time, only corporal punishment was used. " I asked him, "How?" He replied, "by hand." "Where?" "Neck or ass, that's all." He wiped his hands hard and narrowed his eyes. "Is this the case in your class?" He said, "There are also incidents of lighting light bulbs, but I am just educating them." I asked, "Have you ever hit a student?" He looks a little embarrassed. "I just played when I graduated from teaching. I can't teach and I'm in a hurry. I haven't played since. " At the beginning of the interview, he told me that he had been teaching for nine years-obviously, from his statement, he didn't play Wang Xiaogang last year.
Yu Hong, the former principal of Lishugou Middle School, said that there was no corporal punishment in the school. "There are corporal punishment in disguise, such as satirizing students. There was no fight. Junior high school generally does not play. " "Why didn't you fight in junior high school?" I asked. "Because the students are older." He has worked in Lishugou Middle School for five years, and there has been no corporal punishment, and no students have reflected this problem.
On the issue of corporal punishment, Xiaogang's mother gave a different statement from Mr. Liu and Mr. Guan. I asked her if she had heard Xiaogang say that the teacher hit him. She said yes, "He has a bad relationship with the teacher. Sometimes the teacher hits him, but if he can't recite it, the teacher hits him. " However, "how can I learn if the teacher doesn't fight?" She smiled and said, "dolls are not easy to learn, and you can't blame the teacher." She heard that there are many cases of teachers beating people at school, mainly because young teachers have a quick temper and hate poor students.
For the first time, I asked Ma Li, a classmate in Wang Xiaogang, if he had ever seen a school teacher beating people. He said that he had heard of it, but he had never seen it with his own eyes. After I further explained that I was a researcher from Beijing and would not tell the school what he said, he said that he had seen it once: "(A classmate) couldn't recite a book and was slapped by Teacher Liu." I asked him if he was afraid of Mr. Liu, and he said no, because Mr. Zuo ("a foreign language teacher") was even more terrible. Typing if you can't recite a book, the students are very afraid of him. His parents chimed in: "The teacher beat the students for their own good; Parents can't control students if they don't study hard. What if they don't fight? ..... This is not a real fight! " On the way out of Ma Li's house, I asked Xiaogang, "Why did Mary say that he didn't see the teacher beating people at first?" He said he didn't know, and I said the school teacher said there was no corporal punishment. He looked up at me and said, "Maybe they don't know, or maybe they don't want to tell you." Xiao Gang seems to be convinced of his point of view, and it is hard to believe that he is lying.
From the limited investigation materials, it is difficult for me to know whether I was really beaten by Mr. Liu. The answers of Mr. Liu and President Guan are negative, while the answers of his mother and classmates are positive. Because this question can't be answered, it's even more difficult to answer the second question (that is, is corporal punishment the main reason why Wang Xiaogang dropped out of school). Wang Xiaogang himself was outspoken in both interviews, insisting that the teacher's beating was the main reason for his dropping out of school. However, because Mr. Liu and President Guan have a negative attitude towards the first question, I can't ask them the second question. Wang Xiaogang's mother said that the teacher's beating was one of the reasons why her son didn't go to school, but she didn't think it was a bad thing. Although Mary said that he saw Mr. Liu beating people, and Mary's parents also thought that the teacher was beating people for the sake of students, I didn't ask them whether Mr. Liu's beating people caused Xiaogang to drop out of school (in fact, I couldn't ask them either). I thought at that time: If I can find circumstantial evidence about whether Mr. Liu beat the students, I can know why Wang Xiaogang dropped out of school. Now it seems that this is not enough. Even if teacher Liu's corporal punishment is true, it cannot be inferred that corporal punishment is the real reason for dropping out of school.
Please give me this.