2025/09/23 by Wan Yi, Xiaodong Zeng · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Psychology · Health Professions · #Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare #Resilience and Mental Health #Homelessness and Social Issues
paper · doi:10.1080/00131911.2025.2559812
openalex publication_date 2025/09/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
This article investigates the resilience of low-cost private schools serving migrant children in urban China, focusing on their management strategies and interactions with governmental entities. Amid economic constraints, regulatory tightening, and the demands of migrant communities, these schools must balance operational sustainability with compliance and quality standards. Drawing on fieldwork in Shanghai and Beijing, this study uses observation and semi-structured interviews, combined with a resilience-based analytical framework, to examine how school administrators navigate these challenges through diverse strategies–ranging from service adaption and stakeholder collaboration to strategic policy negotiation. A key contribution of this study lies in its novel focus on the adaptive strategies of low-cost private schools during periods of dual pressure: post-pandemic recovery and intensified government regulation. It further explores the evolving interactions between schools, government agencies, non-governmental organisations and employers of migrant workers, highlighting the role of collaboration, regulatory negotiation, and strategic partnerships in fostering school improvement. By approaching the institutional resilience of low cost private schools within a constrained policy environment from a practical perspective, this article offers new insights into school governance in marginalised educational settings.