How Parents Respond to Education Reform

A Typological Analysis of Thought, Emotion, and Behaviour Under China’s “Double Reduction” Policy

Bibliographic Data

ID22327604
AuthorsYufeng Song (0000-0002-6478-628X, Hengshui University, corresponding author), Mohamad Reevany Bustami (Universiti Sains Malaysia)
Year2026
Volume12
Issue1
Pages109
Publication date2026-05-31
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1823-8521 • E-ISSN: 3009-0237
PublisherQualitative Research Association of Malaysia (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.61211/mjqr120108
OpenAlexW7165627669
LanguageEN
References cited18

In 2021, China implemented the "Double Reduction" strategy, a statewide reform aimed at reducing excessive homework and expanding off-campus academic tutoring in compulsory education. Rather than treating parents as a homogeneous stakeholder group, the study approaches them as interpretive actors who actively construct policy meaning within specific social and familial contexts. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 51 parents of school-aged children in Hebei Province, this study, conducted between 2024 and 2025, explores how policy interpretations, emotional responses, and practical adjustments become interconnected in lived experience. The data was analysed using Atlas.Ti version 23. The findings indicate that parental responses to the reform are neither uniform nor linear. Parents describe dynamic processes through which understandings of policy intent evolve alongside emotional shifts such as relief, uncertainty, anxiety, and cautious optimism. These affective movements are closely linked to concrete decisions regarding homework supervision, tutoring participation, school cooperation, and broader developmental activities. Under conditions of ongoing educational competition and regulatory change, parents continuously reassess perceived risks and responsibilities. Through cross-case typological analysis, the study develops a fourfold response typology: supportive, contradictory, exam-oriented, and passive. Each type reflects a distinctive configuration of thought, emotion, and behavioural adjustment rather than a fixed parental identity. The analysis demonstrates that parental engagement cannot be adequately captured through a simple binary of compliance versus resistance. Instead, it involves sustained interpretive negotiation and emotional work through which policy is enacted within everyday routines. By foregrounding patterned diversity in parental sensemaking, the study contributes to qualitative research on policy enactment and offers a nuanced understanding of how education reform operates at the household level in contemporary China

Ambivalence · Foregrounding · Negotiation · Policy analysis · Qualitative research · Typology · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities · Parental Involvement in Education

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