The theory of cultural capital has long been applied to explain academic achievement. This qualitative study investigated first-year students in higher vocational colleges and, taking this low cultural capital group as an example, explored how cultural capital has affected their past teacher–student interactions. Participants described their experience of interacting with their teachers. We found that these students primarily experienced authoritative and laissez-faire teacher–student interactions. Students’ embodied and institutionalized cultural capital profoundly affected different aspects of the teacher–student interaction. In modern China, vocational and academic education are of the same status, so teachers should modify their evaluations based solely on academic achievement. When interacting with students, teachers should be more understanding and interact in a more student-centred way. Teacher training programmes should also be reformed, and training for teachers in general and vocational schools should be distinguished.

This paper reports the motivations of middle-class Asian students who choose German universities of applied sciences under the third wave of international student mobility. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the students’ qualitative experiences in Asian countries that influenced their preference for German universities of applied sciences and their expectations of their German degree as cultural capital. The research analyzes the family, school, peer experiences of 23 Asian students currently enrolled in a German university of applied sciences to understand their motivations for choosing this type of institution and Germany. The findings reveal that the cultural capital that influenced their choice includes differentiation strategies of middle-class students, reasonable education investment choices of Asian students, and the use of a German degree as a trump card in the labor market. The study provides implications for the development of international higher education by connecting Asian students’ aspirations for global cultural capital to a complex and atypical structure that encompasses global, national, and individual dimensions simultaneously.

Habitus is a concept from Bourdieu’s theories that plays a key role in explaining individuals’ behaviours. The social reputation and recognition of vocational education in modern China are declining, and vocational college students are bearing a negative stigma, although they have a positive learning behaviour toward academic education. The aim of this study was to examine those students’ previous life experiences, especially in the education field. The main research questions are as follows: (1) How does the individual’s experience construct his or her learning habitus? (2) How does their learning habitus change their learning behaviours? The findings show that the interaction between participants and their parents and teachers mainly leads to the construction of learning habitus, that is, to pursue the success of academic education. Even though they originate from the working class, with less cultural capital and poor academic performance, this does not mean that they have negative learning behaviours. Therefore, it is necessary to give objective and fair evaluations to higher vocational students and address educational inequity problems.

The mobility of rural teachers has a significant influence on education quality, while teachers’ self-identity plays a significant role in their mobility. Teachers’ self-identity impacts whether they are willing to stay in rural areas and become teachers, highlighting their identification with the rural areas; meanwhile, their professional identity influences whether teachers are willing to become teachers in rural schools, emphasising recognition of the rural school. Working conditions in rural schools and the living conditions in rural areas can have a great impact on rural teachers. This study explored the data of 1,420 rural teachers in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, a typical Chinese rural area, where almost half of primary school teachers are rural teachers. Using structural equation modelling, the data show that living conditions can have positive direct effects on self-identity, and professional development can affect self-identity positively as a mediating variable. Working conditions and professional identity are mediating variables that can have a positive effect on self-identity. However, the relationship between working conditions and professional development is not significant. The policy should promote the development of rural areas, enhance schools’ hardware, and provide assistance to teachers to facilitate professional development and ultimately enhance their self-identity. Cited as: Jiang, J., Zhang, H., Huang, J. (2024). Living conditions, working conditions, professional development and self-identity in Chinese rural primary school teachers: A chain-mediating model. Education and Lifelong Development Research, 1(4): 180-191. https://doi.org/10.46690/elder.2024.04.03 References Azano, A. P., Brenner, D., Downey, J., Eppley, K., & Schulte, A. K. (2020). Teaching in rural places: Thriving in classrooms, schools, and communities. Routledge. Abdulrahman, A. S., & Hui, X. (2018). 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This study examines the phenomenon of ‘invisible family violence ’ in Chinese families, specifically focusing on the experiences of accompanying mothers who provide full-time support to their children during critical academic periods. Drawing on Randall Collins ’ theory of micro-violence, the research explores how intense academic pressure, particularly surrounding the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao), reshapes parent-child power dynamics and enables subtle, non-physical forms of verbal and emotional violence from children toward their mothers. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with 17 participants in China’s Anhui Province. The study identifies four forms of invisible violence: verbal aggression, psychological withdrawal, asymmetry in emotional communication, and accumulated physical and mental harm. The invisible family violence does not arise randomly but is situationally triggered and gradually escalates under three specific contexts: (1) high educational pressure as a triggering context, (2) shifting family power dynamics and a lack of external support, and (3) accumulated emotional energy and micro-escalations. However, it was found that when facing invisible family violence, accompanying mothers consistently lose their maternal authority and sense of self-worth; although they attempt to regulate their emotions through silent endurance and avoidance of responsibility to reduce pressure, they remain vulnerable. The findings highlight the significant emotional work mothers perform to maintain family harmony amid escalating tension and fear, which often leads to emotional and physical exhaustion. This research contributes to the understanding of family violence by foregrounding culturally embedded, low-intensity emotional harm, with important implications for maternal mental health and family education policies in high-pressure academic environments.