School Choice in Chinese Context: Analysing the “Nearby Enrollment” Policy for Compulsory Education in Beijing through the Policy Cycle

Abstract

School choice policies have been viewed as a widely debated topic in education policy. A number of scholars have contended that school choice policies meet the needs of diverse student populations and provide parents with a variety of enrollment options. Nevertheless, other scholars argue that the policies have created problems such as disorganization in education. A significant amount of research has been devoted to understanding how these policies have been implemented in public education systems around the world and the effects that the policies have led to. It can be worth mentioning that few studies have analyzed the discrepancies between the policy text and the policy implementation of school choice policies in terms of the policy cycle and policy implementation, especially in the context of China. This paper will use textual analysis under the guide of the theory of policy cycle to analyze the dynamics of the policy and the factors that led to the discrepancy between the policy text and the policy implementation, using the example of Beijing’s “nearby enrollment” policy. Overall, although Beijing’s enrollment policy has been constantly adjusted at different stages of development due to the dynamic nature of the policy’s continuous adjustment, there are still discrepancies between the policy text and the policy implementation.