Introduction   

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) has emerged as an ‘education hub’ for international schooling, broadly defined here as schools offering international curricula at least partly in English outside an English-speaking country. In 2022, there were 168 international schools with 80,565 students and 11,458 staff across the GBA region (ISC Research, 2022). International schooling was traditionally associated with education for expatriate families (Hayden, 2016). One of the main social groups attending these schools was an affluent, cosmopolitan, and globally mobile social class of highly educated professionals, that is, the ‘Global Middle-Class’ (Ball & Nikita, 2014; Beach et al., 2021; Wright & Lee, 2019). However, the demographics of international schools are changing. The greatest demand in China and elsewhere has been from a ‘local’ base of middle-class families seeking an internationalised education that offers a pathway to overseas higher education and/or to ‘escape’ the local education system (Bunnell, 2020; Poole, 2020; Wright et al., 2022). Kim and Mobrand (2019) describe this pattern as ‘stealth marketisation’ in that the growth of an international schooling market for local families has happened without much fanfare or public discourse. Put differently, a growing number of local middle-class parents in China are capitalising on the changing landscape of international schooling. Nonetheless, there has been limited research into the implications of this change for social stratification in education.

We conducted a multi-site case study of five international schools in the GBA that primarily serve local students. Drawing on Brown’s (e.g., 2000) positional conflict theory, we had two objectives. First, uncover the motivations of local families for sending their children to international schools, experiences of attending an international school, and students’ post-high school trajectories, focusing on if and how international schools provide a pathway to join the Global Middle-Class. Second, consider the impacts of international schooling on social stratification. Overall, we sought answers to the question: ‘What are the roles of international schooling in (re)producing the Global Middle-Class in the GBA?’. 

Framework  

The framework was positional conflict theory (e.g., Brown, 2000, 2022; Kim, 2016). The approach is grounded in neo-Weberian notions of social closure that reject ideas of an open and fair contest within education. We move the analysis beyond the confines of the nation to consider the potential for competition on a global scale to join a privileged Global Middle-Class who are separate from national class structures. We apply Brown’s (2000) conceptualisation of three types of exclusion and inclusion – ‘Market’, Membership’, ‘Meritocracy’ – to investigate how local middle-class families mobilise resources to ‘get ahead’ in the race for class advantage through international schooling. Specifically, we examine if and how international schooling may create new forms of advantage for local students in terms of (re)producing a Global Middle-Class, especially in comparison to their peers in the local education system.

First, ‘Market’ rule is based on the price mechanism regulating the demand and restricting supply, including the cost of attending an international school (e.g., school fees). Second, the ‘Membership’ rule highlights group membership, demarcating eligibility based on socially-ascribed attributes. We consider how the international school experience may cultivate particular identities aligned with the Global Middle-Class (e.g., cosmopolitan worldviews, English proficiency, global networks) that are distinct from other local students. Third, the ‘Meritocracy’ rule is based on individual achievement. We explore how international schooling may present advantages to students in developing abilities and credentials, especially for elite higher education as a crucial entry point into the Global Middle-Class. Overall, we apply Brown’s (2000) positional conflict theory to illuminate the implications of expanding international schooling for class (re)production and social stratification in the GBA’s expanding international schooling hub.

The research context was the GBA in Southern China. Encompassing nine major cities in Guangdong Province as well as Hong Kong and Macau, the region holds geo-political significance as one of East Asia’s most globally integrated and rapidly developing economies, standing at the forefront of China’s rising position in the world (State Council, 2019). The metropolitan centres in the GBA have witnessed a proliferation of international schools (Wright et al., 2022). To investigate the impact on social stratification, the research team conducted a multi-site case study of five international schools that primarily serve local students: two in Guangdong Province, two in Hong Kong, and one in Macau. The research focused on high schools offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, one of the most popular curricula offered by international schools worldwide. The research team undertook one-to-one interviews with the school principal, teachers, students, and parents between January and December 2022. We purposefully targeted final-year students, so they could reflect back on their international schooling and look forward towards their post-high school futures. The interviews were semi-structured, lasted approximately one hour each, and were conducted in the language preferred by the participant (English, Cantonese, or Mandarin). The interviews covered (1) international school choice, (2) international school experiences, (3) internationalised aspects of education, (4) preparation for higher education, (5) identities and worldviews, and (6) post-high school plans. After the interviews, the student participants completed a survey to gather information on their family background and confirm their post-high school plans. The final sample included five school principals, 25 teachers, 51 students, and 25 parents. Each interview was transcribed and translated into English if required. As of January 2023, the research team are qualitatively analysing the interview data. ‘First cycle coding’ is being applied to generate codes as initial labels that assign symbolic meaning to the interview data. Afterwards, ‘pattern coding’ will group the first-cycle codes into broader themes or threads to tie together different parts of the interview data (see Miles et al., 2014). During the analytical process, we are seeking to illuminate the role of international schooling as a class strategy, especially considering if and how international schooling provides a pipeline to the Global Middle-Class. The analysis also aims to illuminate potential tensions, challenges, or limitations of international schooling. The next section briefly reports our initial findings, which will be discussed in more detail at the conference if the proposal is accepted.

The participants perceived international schooling as fundamentally different from local schools. A key motivation for attending an international school was a more internationalised education that would provide positional advantages for their futures. For many, this involved a pathway into an affluent, cosmopolitan, and mobile Global Middle-Class, which was perceived as blocked through the local education system. The findings demonstrated how expanding international schooling for local students creates a new layer of social stratification. First, for ‘Market’ rules, international schooling was limited by economic barriers: high fees, schools in expensive neighbourhoods, and admission practices favouring students with overseas exposure and advanced English proficiency. Second, the participants described international schooling experiences as cultivating a globalised identity through worldviews, interests, and values beyond the nation and a capacity to ‘get along’ with others from diverse cultural backgrounds. From this perspective, the experience was aligned with cosmopolitan sensibilities for Global Middle-Class ‘Membership’. Third, for the ‘Meritocratic’ rule, international schooling provided privileged access to global higher education. Nearly all students planned to enter elite overseas universities that may offer a springboard to Global Middle-Class careers. The perceived advantages were not only the credential but a broader spectrum of talents via extracurricular pursuits (study trips, competitions, societies) to support applications. Nonetheless, the findings highlighted tensions in international schooling. The participants perceived barriers to nationally-oriented futures in China related to rising nationalism and growing mistrust of the West (e.g., Weiss, 2019). They noted societal perceptions that international school students are ‘rich, lazy, arrogant’, lacking in Mandarin proficiency, and uncritically accepting of Western values. Consequently, international school students may face social closure in national class structures, underscoring evidence of career difficulties faced by Chinese returnees from Western universities (Xiong & Mok, 2020). Overall, the findings highlight the growing societal impact of international schooling, which warrants further research.

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