Research Highlighted:
Fei, M. (2024). Concerted cultivation from afar: Wealthy Chinese families and their children at Swiss international boarding schools. Swiss Journal of Sociology, 50(2), 193–208. https://doi.org/10.26034/cm.sjs.2024.6036
This study examines a rarely explored education and parenting practice among a hard-to-reach population from China––namely, the early study abroad of Chinese children at Swiss international boarding schools (SIBSs) and the “concerted cultivation from afar” practiced by their affluent families. Existing literature primarily focuses on the parenting practices of the middle and working class, often defining class in broad strokes (Sherman, 2017). Additionally, study abroad literature in the case of China typically characterizes it as a middle-class phenomenon, collapsing more economically privileged families into the “middle” category (e.g., Zhou et al., 2019; Wang, 2020). The study expands the scope of existing research on both studying abroad and parenting by highlighting the practices of a highly privileged population.
Theoretical Framework
The study adopts Ma and Wright’s (2021) “outsourced concerted cultivation” as its guiding theoretical framework, a new framework built upon Lareau’s (2003) original discussions on concerted cultivation within the context of Chinese parents sending their children abroad for education. While Ma and Wright (2021) focus on how “new rich” Chinese families outsource concerted cultivation to international high schools and educational consultants in China, this study discusses how affluent Chinese families do so with SIBSs while still practicing concerted cultivation from afar.
Methods
Seven participants who 1) self-identified as Chinese and 2) had children who were studying or had studied at SIBSs within the past five years were recruited in my social network and through snowballing. While I did not specify any gender preference when recruiting participants, all participants happened to be mothers. I identified the participants as “wealthy” as they could fund their children’s SIBS tuition without financial aid from the schools, which cost from around 70,000 CHF to 150,000 CHF per year. Semi-structured interviews in Mandarin Chinese conducted mostly online in late 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic were the primary data collection method. They lasted between 40 and 166 minutes, with a median of 63 minutes.
At the time of the study, all participants lived in top-tier Chinese cities except for one, who had accompanied her child to Switzerland for one and a half years. Five participants had two children; two had one child. Only one participant sent both her children to SIBSs. The age at which the children started school at a SIBS ranged from 7–15, and they had spent 1.5–5 years at SIBSs at the time of the study.
Findings
I identified two main themes from the interviews, which answer the question of how wealthy Chinese families cultivate their children through schooling at SIBSs. The participants were confident that their children would inherit their social class advantages and continue their lifestyles. Therefore, while they valued their children’s education, they did not demonstrate class anxiety and disagreed with the competitive parenting practices that are prevalent among the middle class in China. Their decision to send their children to SIBSs demonstrated what Irwin and Elley (2011) call concerted cultivation in the present, placing value on diverse cultural pursuits and socio-emotional development at school.
At the same time, participants in this study strived to make up for a lack of direct parental support entailed by the ESA practice. At the very beginning of their children’s ESA journey, they made on-site visits with their children to make informed school choices. After their children enrolled at a SIBS, they traveled to Switzerland frequently, closely monitored their children’s well-being, kept regular contact with the school, and intervened in institutional settings when necessary. Therefore, while it seemed like the participants had outsourced concerted cultivation (Ma & Wright, 2021) to the SIBSs, they still practiced it from afar, made possible by their economic resources, time, and cultural dispositions in some cases.
Implications
This study has the following implications. First, it adds to the literature on parenting practices of the wealthy, an area to which existing research pays little attention. Relatedly, the study confirms the finding of Irwin and Elley (2011) and Maxwell and Aggleton (2013) that class anxiety is not necessarily the main drive for concerted cultivation. Additionally, the study foregrounds economic resources in the practice of concerted cultivation, as suggested by Ma and Wright (2021). It also highlights the importance of cultural knowledge, which enabled the participants to be more engaged in their children’s schooling than the parents in Ma and Wright (2021).
Note: This article is part of the Swiss Journal of Sociology’s special issue titled “Switzerland as a Site of Capital Accumulation: The Case of International Education,” edited by Lillie and Delval (2024). This issue explores how and why foreign families and individuals, as well as local institutions, capitalize on the Swiss private schools’ market. Click here to read more.
References
Irwin, S., & Elley, S. (2011). Concerted cultivation? Parenting values, education and class diversity. Sociology, 45(3), 480–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511399618
Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. University of California Press.
Lillie, K., & Delval, A. S. (2024). Switzerland as a site of capital accumulation: The case of international education. Swiss Journal of Sociology, 50(2), 127–142. https://doi.org/10.26034/cm.sjs.2024.6033
Ma, Y., & Wright, E. (2021). Outsourced concerted cultivation: International schooling and educational consulting in China. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 32(3), 799–821. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2021.1878565
Maxwell, C., & Aggleton, P. (2013). Becoming accomplished: Concerted cultivation among privately educated young women. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 21(1), 75–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2013.764032
Sherman, R. (2017). Conflicted cultivation: Parenting, privilege, and moral worth in wealthy New York families. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 5(1), 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-016-0011-3
Wang, X. (2020). Capital, habitus, and education in contemporary China: Understanding motivations of middle-class families in pursuing studying abroad in the United States. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(12), 1314–1328. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1767074
Zhou, X., Li, J., & Jordan, L. P. (2019). Parental intent for children to study abroad: The role of educational aspiration and children’s characteristics. Cambridge Journal of Education, 49(6), 789–807. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2019.1590526
Author bio
Mianmian Fei is a Ph.D. Candidate in Higher Education and Student Affairs at The Ohio State University’s College of Education and Human Ecology in the United States and a Research Associate at the QualLab qualitative research center. Before her Ph.D. studies, she earned a Master’s in Anthropology and Sociology as a Hans Wilsdorf Scholar at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland and worked for the Science Consulate of Switzerland in Shanghai and the UNESCO International Bureau of Education. Her research interests include international and comparative higher education, qualitative methodology, and the sociological aspects of education. Email: fei.132@buckeyemail.osu.edu.
Managing Editor: Xin Fan
Network for Research into Chinese Education Mobilities (NRCEM) 