Homeschooling in Chinese cities: The middle-class remaking of Chinese parenting?

Homeschooling in Chinese cities, mostly wielded by middle-class families, is a growing but under-researched phenomenon. This phenomenon represents an exemplary case in which to look beyond what sociologists generally think of middle-class discourses and practices of parenting (e.g., middle-class parents are often framed as making choices for their children that maximize academic performance, particularly in the Chinese context). Contemporary homeschooling, broadly construed, is an educational choice exercised by parents who tend to take sole responsibility for their children's education, partially or entirely substituting the attendance of regular schools. As an expression of parental agency, the choice of homeschooling epitomizes (i) an extreme form of parents' intensive approach to childrearing; (ii) a special kind of privatized education that operates "without markets"; and (iii) a conspicuous exception to the Chinese culture in which parents value school highly (e.g., school institutions and credentials, in particular). In my research, based on interviews with 31 Chinese homeschooling parents in Hong Kong and Taipei, I look into how these middle-class parents perceive and rationalize their choice of opting out of the mainstream school system. I discuss examples of the parents‘ navigations and negotiations of multiple discourses of parenting in contemporary Chinese societies. Copyright © 2022 Hong Kong Sociological Association.