Diversifying youth temporal orientations during educational transitions in China
Corresponding Author
Ziyu Wang
School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
Correspondence
Ziyu Wang, School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorFengshu Liu
Department of Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Search for more papers by this authorIlse Julkunen
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Ziyu Wang
School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
Correspondence
Ziyu Wang, School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorFengshu Liu
Department of Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Search for more papers by this authorIlse Julkunen
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Analysing young people's temporal experiences can help understand their varied transition pathways in individualised societies. This study explores the diversity of Chinese youths' orientations towards time by addressing how they practise agency, situated within the temporal, familial and gender matrices. We surveyed and interviewed young people at a county-seat lower secondary school in North China and identified three temporal orientations: ‘long-term planners’, ‘seizers of the day’ and ‘compromisers’. The findings challenge the conventional understanding of Chinese youth temporal orientations as homogeneous by identifying the differentiations and complexities when navigating their transition to upper secondary education.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
Research data are not shared.
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