China's higher education system has undergone a rapid expansion over the last two decades. By drawing on hand-collected data, we explore students' experiences in college and in the labor market post-graduation in the wake of this expansion. According to our data, the largest employer of college graduates in the labor market was the state sector, followed by the domestic private sector. To explain the returns to college education in China, we explore three mechanisms: human capital, social networks, and signaling. We find that human capital measures, apart from a student's college English test scores, cannot explain the college wage premium, whereas both social networks (for example, membership of the Communist Party) and signaling matter significantly. This seems to indicate that in China, connections are crucial for student success in the labor market, whereas the higher education system itself is more a system for selecting talented individuals than it is for educating them. Finally, students allocate their time accordingly, for example, by spending more time studying English in college than any other subject.
One out of every three children under the age of 5 in developing countries lives in an environment that impedes human capital development. Children growing up in resource-poor settings are at an increased risk of early developmental delay due to risk factors such as being in environments that lack cognitive stimulation, nutrition, or care in the home environment. Given that early developmental deficits are difficult to reverse later in life, such deficits are key drivers of inequality and impediments for intergenerational mobility. This policy brief reviews this problem and then proposes a design of cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable parental training programs (focusing on psychosocial stimulation for young children) as a global strategy to improve the developmental opportunities of children before they reach the age of 5 in developing countries, to remediate social inequalities, and to boost long-term economic development. We present concrete policy recommendations for the implementation of such programs at scale.
The newly-founded Stanford Democracy Initiative, which brings together scholars and community stakeholders to examine Stanford’s role in the promotion of democratic norms nationally and globally, has compiled and released a list of courses, projects and activities at Stanford that the initiative claims advance democracy.
Upon completing the inventory phase of its research, the effort released a list of the courses, research and engagement activities that it feels advance democracy. The next phase involves holding deliberations with the larger Stanford community.
This study utilizes semi-structured interviews to explore the status quo of teacher training of rural and urban public primary school teachers in Henan Province China. Our findings showed that both rural and urban teachers had very limited training opportunities available to them. Most of the participants did not find the current training opportunities useful in improving their teaching practices. Both rural and urban teachers desired training in pedagogy, educational psychology, and curriculum. Rural teachers particularly expressed the need for training in ICT and classroom management skills. Observing education experts’ demonstration classes is the most preferred training format. Policy implications are discussed.
This study investigated the association between household characteristics, perceived family support (PFS), and the developmental outcomes (resilience, academic performance, and prosociality) among at-risk students. Our large sample included 1564 primary and secondary school students from poor rural China (M = 11.55 years old). Having a caregiver whose resilience score was in the top 50% of the sample was associated with a 0.48-point increase (or 0.31 d effect size), while having a migrant mother was correlated with a 0.26-point decrease (or 0.17 d effect size). PFS was a significant (p < 0.0001) mediator between household characteristics and developmental outcomes. Our study highlights the link between caregiver resilience and PFS, and the healthy functioning of disadvantaged students in a developing context.
Parental investment in the home language environment during the earliest years is a critical predictor of early language development. Because most studies investigating the home language environment and child language development have been conducted in Western, high-income, and developed settings, less is known about such environments in low- or middle-income settings. This study was conducted in a peri-urban area in Southwestern China in a sample of 81 rural migrant and urbanized farmer families with children aged 18-24 months. The home language environment was measured using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) recorders and software, while early language development was measured using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventories expressive vocabulary scale. Findings reveal large and substantial variation in the sample's home language environments and a strong association between the home language environment and child language development. Certain demographic characteristics, such as household resources, maternal employment, and gender, are associated with the home language environment. These findings highlight the needs for interventions specifically targeting the home language environment to improve early language development of young children and for more research on early childhood development in peri-urban China.
Using premier Language Environment Analysis technology to measure and analyze the home language environment, this observational study aims to describe the home language environment and child language ability, drawing on empirical data from 77 households with children aged 18–24 months from rural China. The results show large variation in measures of the home language environment and early language ability, similar to other rural Chinese samples. Results also demonstrate significant correlations between child age and the home language environment, maternal employment and the home language environment, father’s educational attainment and the home language environment, adult–child conversations and early language ability, and child vocalizations and early language ability.
The Stanford/SPICE East Asia Seminars for Teachers in Hawai‘i or “Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i” is a nine-month fellowship program created to empower educators to reinvigorate their teaching of Asia. The program is made possible through the generous support of the Freeman Foundation.
Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i convenes Stanford/Freeman SEAS Hawai‘i Fellows for four virtual seminars during the academic year and a culminating three-day in-person institute the following summer. So far, this year’s Fellows have participated in virtual seminars featuring Stanford-affiliated scholars Ethan Segal (Associate Professor of History and Chairperson of the Japan Council at Michigan State University), Zoë Gioja (PhD candidate in History and a PhD minor in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stanford University), and Andrew Walder (Denise O’Leary and Kent Thiry Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University). These sessions have focused on Japan, Korea, and China, respectively. The final virtual seminar will take place next month, when Fellows will meet Scot Marciel, former U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar and Indonesia, and deepen their understanding of Southeast Asia.
“I’ve really enjoyed learning in this environment alongside all of the SPICE fellows, and [I] find the content very interesting and informative to my work,” commented Fellow Jonathan Chang, who manages a national mentorship program for Asian American youth. “I’ve had several conversations with my family, friends, and colleagues about our learnings and it’s been really great!”
Besides receiving content lectures and engaging in Q&A sessions with the guest speakers, Fellows also debrief their learnings and share favorite teaching resources with each other, so that everyone can benefit from their shared learning and teaching experience.
Fellows discuss the lecture content and share their key takeaways in small groups.
The current 2022–23 cohort of Stanford/Freeman SEAS Hawai‘i Fellows is comprised of 19 teachers representing three islands (Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, and Hawai‘i Island). Most teach world history and/or U.S. history, and others teach subjects such as English, math, foreign language, and civics. The SPICE staff is pleased to work with the Hawai‘i educators below.
Amy Boehning, Mililani High School Carl Wright, Kapolei High School Chayanee Brooks, Ka‘u High and Pahala Elementary School David Brooks, Ka‘u High and Pahala Elementary School Grace Nguyen, Konawaena High School Gregory Gushiken, Punahou School Hannah Lim, ‘Iolani School John Ates, Le Jardin Academy Jonathan Chang, Apex for Youth Jonathon Medeiros, Kauaʻi High School Laura Viana, Mid-Pacific Institute Mariko Shiraishi, Hawaii Baptist Academy Michael Hamilton, Leilehua High School Molly M. Satta-Ellis, Konawaena High School Niti D. Villinger, Hawai‘i Pacific University Patricia Tupinio, Leilehua High School Ria Lulla, Kawananakoa Middle School Sarah Fujioka, Waipahu High School William Milks, ‘Iolani School
Fellow Amy Boehning launched Mililani High School’s Asian Studies class eight years ago, offering it for a single period. Now it is offered for four periods and still has a waiting list. Like many others in her cohort, she joined Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i in hopes of adding more depth and richness to her existing practice. “I’m so excited to be a part of [this] program. Everything so far has been stellar, and I have immediately been able to add to my Asian Studies curriculum and Social Studies Directed Studies curriculum.”
Boehning also leads Mililani’s National History Day program, and she has noticed that each year more students choose to focus their projects on Asia-centric topics.
“It’s our goal to support teachers like Amy as they coach and mentor students like that,” said Sabrina Ishimatsu, a coordinator of Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i. “It’s always gratifying to know that our program is making a positive difference for both educators and students.”
Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i is coordinated by Ishimatsu and Rylan Sekiguchi.
In addition to Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i, SPICE offers teacher PD opportunities virtually to teachers nationwide and locally in California to middle school teachers, high school teachers, and community college instructors.
Indigenous Voices: Educational Perspectives from Navajo, Native Hawaiian, and Ainu Scholars in the Diaspora
This article recaps a June 18, 2021 webinar that featured three Native and Indigenous scholars and includes recommendations for using the webinar recording in classrooms.
Announcing the Stanford/SPICE East Asia Seminars for Teachers in Hawaii
SPICE, with generous support from the Freeman Foundation, is proud to announce the launch of a new teacher professional development opportunity for secondary school teachers in Hawaii.
According to World Bank data, only a handful of economies have risen from middle to high-income status since 1960, when economic catch-up growth in many developing economies took off. This article looks at how China compares to other countries stuck at the middle-income level.
By traditional measures, South Korea is not a large country. It ranks 28th in the world in population and only 107th in land mass. Its language is not widely spoken outside the Korean peninsula, and it does not have a large diaspora. Yet since around 2005, it has arguably become the major producer of youth culture in the world. How did this happen?
Stanford professor Dafna Zur has filmed a video to answer that complicated and important question. Dr. Zur is an Associate Professor of Korean literature and culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures of Stanford University. She specializes in Korean literature, cinema, and popular culture. As part of her research, Dr. Zur has interviewed the main architects of South Korea’s popular culture wave, including SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man and many K-Pop stars.
Stanford’s Center for East Asian Studies and SPICE collaborated on a discussion guide to bring the lessons from Dr. Zur’s video to high school and university students. The video and discussion guide are available for free on SPICE’s Multimedia page. They address the following questions:
What is popular culture?
What is soft power, and why is it important?
How did South Korea become such a successful producer of popular culture in the past 20 years?
How can we measure South Korea’s success in becoming a popular culture powerhouse?
How did South Korea’s popular culture evolve in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? What’s the next stage in its development?
How easy would it be for other countries to replicate South Korea’s soft power success?
Because the main vehicle for South Korea’s rise as a soft power giant has been Korean pop music, known as K-Pop, Dr. Zur directs viewers to several music videos that illustrate how K-Pop has evolved since 1997 and where it might go in the future.
She provides deep insight into the building blocks of K-Pop’s success, which she identifies as support from the national government, the kihoeksa (entertainment conglomerate) system, technology, timing, content release strategy, and fan communities. In particular, Dr. Zur explains how the kihoeksa are able to produce high-quality entertainment at a low cost and how their scale has allowed them to invest in new technologies that keep them at the forefront of pop culture production.
The discussion guide provides context for students to understand the complexity in Dr. Zur’s video. In preparation for the video, students take and then discuss a quiz on South Korea’s popular culture. The teacher then defines key terms such as popular culture and soft power and displays charts that show how South Korea’s soft power has increased since 2000.
Students view Dr. Zur’s video and the accompanying K-Pop music videos as homework and respond to a series of questions on the main themes of the video. During the next class period, they work in groups to develop a plan for another country to elevate its soft power by drawing on what they learned about South Korea’s success. This complex activity requires students to clearly define the factors that have led to the popularity of Korean popular culture, distinguish between the factors they believe are replicable and those that are not, and then adapt this analysis into a set of recommendations for another country that hopes to achieve the same success as South Korea. After groups present their findings to the class, the teacher concludes the lesson by asking students to predict whether South Korea will be able to maintain its soft power dominance into the future.
The discussion guide contains a complete transcript of the video and is appropriate for advanced secondary students and university students.
The video lecture and guide were made possible through the support of U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center funding under the auspices of Title VI, Section 602(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Korea Gone Global: K-Pop and Technologies of Soft Power
Stanford professor Dr. Dafna Zur is an Associate Professor of Korean literature and culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures of Stanford University. She specializes in Korean literature, cinema, and popular culture. In this video, Dr. Zur covers the origins, features, consequences, and future of Korean popular culture. A free classroom-friendly discussion guide for this video is also available for download.
SPICE offers a series of Korea-focused lesson plans, an online course for U.S. high school students, and teacher professional development opportunities.
Stanford professor Dafna Zur speaks with members of K-Pop group NCT during a visit to SM Entertainment in Seoul, South Korea in 2022; photo courtesy SM Entertainment
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Stanford’s Center for East Asian Studies and SPICE release new video lecture and discussion guide.
