ABSTRACT
China carried out Moral Education in out-of-school education organizations such as Youth Palaces, museums, cinemas and theatres. Many studies have noted the important role family socioeconomic status (SES) plays in students’ out-of-school learning. However, very little is known about the relationship between students’ SES and moral and citizenship education in out-of-school contexts. This study conducted an out-of-school Moral Education survey (involving 2,950 teachers, 7,388 students, 2,564 parents and 112 out-of-school education organizations in Shanghai, China) in 2015 to explore the relationship between SES and students’ out-of-school Moral Education and address this research gap. This chapter discusses how SES affected primary and junior middle school (but not high school) students’ participation in out-of-school Moral Education. It adopts a power-knowledge relationship perspective to explain this pattern, showing that the relationship between education and power is not so mechanical that only powerful groups in society can determine knowledge and learning; instead, educational forces and students may mediate the influence of SES.
