Despite sustained policy efforts to expand preschool education (PSE) provision in rural China, disparities between urban and rural areas persist. While recent reforms have significantly increased the number of kindergartens and improved affordability, uneven patterns of participation remain. Existing research and policy interventions have largely conceptualised access to PSE in terms of enrolment rates and have prioritised supply-side expansion. Far less attention has been paid to how rural families make decisions about when, where and for how long their children attend preschool, even in contexts where formal provision exists.

This study addresses this gap by examining rural families’ decision-making processes regarding preschool education attendance from the perspective of parents themselves. Drawing on qualitative case studies of two rural villages in Ningxia Province, north-western China, the research foregrounds parents’ lived experiences and locally constructed meanings of PSE. Although children in both villages generally participated in some form of preschool education, substantial differences emerged in enrolment timing, duration and location, revealing forms of inequality that are not captured by enrolment statistics alone.

Guided by four research questions, the study explores: (1) parents’ expectations and perceived benefits of PSE; (2) the factors shaping parental decision-making; (3) how these factors interact to produce concrete decisions regarding preschool attendance; and (4) how local governments might better incorporate families’ voices to improve PSE access. The findings show that parents in both villages shared a common primary need for PSE: preparing children for primary school within an exam-oriented education system. Only when this primary need was perceived to be met did parents articulate secondary needs, such as safety and wellbeing, social and language development, or the cultivation of learning interest. Importantly, these secondary needs were non-linear and highly context-dependent.

The study further demonstrates that parental expectations and perceived benefits are shaped through socially structured mechanisms. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus and capital, the analysis shows how rural parents’ educational aspirations for upward social mobility coexist with constrained expectations and a bounded capacity to act. In more remote villages, limited economic resources, caregiving obligations and restricted mobility led parents to delay enrolment or limit participation to one year of preschool. In contrast, families located closer to urban centres were more likely to enrol children at age three and sustain longer participation, supported by greater spatial opportunity and an “in-between” rural–urban identity.

By conceptualising PSE through a supply–demand lens, the study argues that persistent inequalities are not simply the result of insufficient provision, but of a mismatch between policy-driven supply and families’ differentiated needs and capacities. The findings highlight the importance of moving beyond supply-oriented solutions and towards context-sensitive approaches that engage with parents’ lived realities. By foregrounding rural parents’ voices, this research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of PSE participation and offers insights for policymakers seeking to improve equitable access in structurally unequal contexts.

This study adopts a qualitative multi-case study design to examine family decision-making regarding preschool education attendance in rural China. Two rural villages in Ningxia Province were selected through purposive sampling to capture variation in geographical location, economic conditions, access to educational resources and levels of urbanisation. While both villages were classified as rural, one was located in close proximity to an urban centre, whereas the other was more remote. This design enabled an in-depth exploration of how differing local contexts shape parental decision-making processes without adopting a comparative or evaluative framework. Data collection combined semi-structured interviews with a creative participatory method. Eighteen participants were involved: fourteen parents of preschool-aged children, two preschool staff members and two Directors of Villagers’ Committees. Parents were the primary focus of the study, as they are the key decision-makers regarding children’s preschool attendance. Preschool staff and local governance actors were included to provide contextual and institutional perspectives and to support data triangulation. Semi-structured interviews explored parents’ expectations of PSE, perceived benefits and risks, family economic circumstances, caregiving responsibilities, and experiences with local preschool provision. To complement verbal accounts, parents were invited to draw pie charts representing the relative importance of different factors influencing their decisions. This visual elicitation method facilitated reflection and discussion and helped to make implicit decision-making processes more explicit. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and anonymised. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke’s six-phase approach. Analysis was iterative and interpretive, combining inductive coding with theoretically informed interpretation. In later stages, Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field were used as sensitising tools to examine how parents’ dispositions, resources and social positioning interacted with local educational opportunity structures. This approach enabled a nuanced analysis of how structural constraints and subjective interpretations jointly shaped parental decisions regarding preschool attendance.

This study demonstrates that rural families’ decisions about preschool education attendance in China cannot be understood solely through measures of enrolment or availability. Even where preschool provision exists, families’ choices regarding when, where and for how long children attend preschool are shaped by a complex interplay of expectations, perceived benefits, family circumstances and structural constraints. The findings show that parents across both villages shared a common primary expectation of PSE as preparation for primary school, reflecting the enduring association between education and upward social mobility in China. However, secondary needs varied significantly across contexts and were activated only when the primary function of school readiness was secured. These needs were non-linear and locally constructed, highlighting the importance of contextualised analysis. By applying Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, the study illustrates how rural parents’ aspirations coexist with constrained expectations and a bounded capacity to act. Structural inequalities related to geography, economic resources, caregiving responsibilities and mobility shaped parents’ sense of what was realistically achievable, producing differentiated patterns of preschool participation. Importantly, these findings challenge policy narratives that attribute low or uneven participation to parental attitudes or lack of awareness. The study argues that improving equitable access to PSE in rural China requires addressing both supply and demand. While continued investment in provision remains important, policies must also engage with families’ lived realities, differentiated needs and constrained capacities. Incorporating parents’ voices into local policy design and implementation may help align institutional provision more closely with family demand. By offering an empirically grounded, theoretically informed account of rural parental decision-making, this research contributes to international discussions on early childhood education, educational inequality and family–policy relations. It highlights the value of moving beyond enrolment metrics towards a more nuanced understanding of access in contexts of structural inequality.

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