Research on educational equality based on accessibility to community education facilities - A case study of Beijing (Lili Xiang)
Author: Lili Xiang
I'm a first-year PhD student in CSAP and this is an outline of my PhD research:
Background:
Education is key to reducing polarisation and difference and itself is an important factor of social differentiation. Since China is experiencing rapid urbanisation, both educational and social equality are facing serious challenges. At present, both the government and scholars in China usually quantify educational equality in terms of fiscal expenditure. Welfare of different classes however, also depends on the allocation of community education facilities (Breheny, 1978). Thus, it is important to determine the relationship between the imbalance of education facilities location and educational inequality.
To quantitatively measure the rationality of how educational facilities are located, spatial accessibility is usually taken into account. Accessibility to community education facilities not only directly influences residential living standards, but also acts as a critical factor of the survival and development of low-income residents. Poor accessibility to community education facilities can result in the spatial deprivation of low-income and disadvantaged groups, thus causing further social and spatial problems.
Methodology and Research Process:
1 Analysis of spatial pattern of community education facilities accessibility
Spatial proximity analysis will be used to measure accessibility of community to education facilities. A spatial distribution diagram of community accessibility to education facilities will be generated which will be used to analyse the spatial agglomeration pattern of community accessibility to education facilities through global and local spatial autocorrelation analysis. The results will indicate whether there is education inequality for people in certain regions from the perspective of low accessibility to education facility. The results will also show where these areas are concentrated.
2 Analysis of spatial distribution pattern of different social groups
Communities will be divided into high-income, middle-income, and low-income groups. Similarly, the spatial autocorrelation analysis method will be used to analyse the location of all kinds of social agglomeration areas, generating a social space differentiation figure. The low-low social agglomeration region (LL) shows concentrated distribution area of low income groups.
The social space differentiation figure will be overlaid with the spatial distribution of community accessibility (education facilities) diagram to find the distribution of low-income groups with poor accessibility to education facilities.
3 Analysis of spatial pattern of low income community with low education facilities accessibility
Field research will be conducted by employing questionnaire and in-depth interviews. Through the field research, likely causes of the education spatial deprivation will be found with improvement measures proposed which can be used for the government’s future planning.
Significance:
At present, there are few policies to restrict the travel distance to education facilities in China. Coupled with the continuous expansion of cities, the present layout of education facilities in China is now very chaotic.
The findings can be a reference to guide urban authorities with the distribution and allocation of the different educational resources and opportunities in the city (e.g. designate additional education facilities). This will help reduce educational inequality in terms of accessibility to education facilities.
Author: Lili Xiang