What kind of essay question is this, and what is it asking?• This essay question is asking you to understand and describe certain issues, concepts, orprocesses relating to schooling and development – and particularly the links betweenthem.• Regarding your introduction, this question is not necessarily asking for you to take aparticularly strong position (yes or no, good or bad, should or should not) and defend it.However, you still need to be assertive in your introduction – a concise thesis statementthat says something about the links between schooling and development in Gongshancounty (“there are no links”, “there are many links”, “there are few but very significantlinks”, “there are numerous links”, “the links are so strong that education and developmentare synonymous from the party-state’s perspective”, “there are strong links that function ina two-way process whereby development is dependent on education and education is dependent on development”, etc.).What are the relevant issues, concepts, factors, processes?• Note: Nine years of compulsory education (six in primary / elementary school, three inmiddle / junior secondary school) – three years of senior secondary school (high school)are not compulsory and not free (parents have to pay school fees).• What do we mean by ‘development’? Think about the concepts of ‘development’,‘underdevelopment’, and ‘modernization’.Why are minorities, their farming practices and their ‘traditional’ livelihoods seen as‘backward’?• What is schooling doing, and what is the curriculum?• What opportunities does schooling bring?• What kind of rural–urban migration options are there?• Is moving to a city and working in a factory really ‘development’?• Nine years of school education is now ‘free’, but it still costs parents money! (See Harwood’s Chapter 3 for more on costs.) Therefore, note that while schooling is meant to bring socio-cultural change amongst young people, the costs (and opportunity costs) of education bring socio-cultural change amongst parents who seek cash incomes away from their traditional livelihoods.Sources: Harwood, Russell (2013). China’s new socialist countryside: Modernity arrives in the NuRiver valley. Seattle: University of Washington Press.o Introduction chapter o Chapter 3 on education o Chapter 4 on migration
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