The study of academic engagement of junior secondary school students in Wuhan, China

Abstract

The aim of this research was to study the left behind children and their non-left behind peers' academic engagement at the junior secondary school level in Wuhan, China. This study was administered within quantitative and qualitative methods. The sample of this study was 487 junior secondary school students from 13 schools in three suburban and rural districts of Wuhan, China. Questionnaire was used as research main instrument. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 students to support quantitative results. The findings revealed that the students' academic engagement level were at high level with the mean score of 4.07, there were statistically significant difference between left behind children and non-left behind children on their academic engagement, t (485) = 6.944, p < .05, left behind children had lower level of academic engagement than non-left behind children. The evident also manifested that there were significant difference among three parental migration status types toward their academic engagement, F (2, 260) = 17.065, p < .05, and only father migration students had the highest level of academic engagement, whilst only mother migration students had the lowest level of academic engagement. According to the findings, it was recommended that students' academic engagement could be improved in both left behind children and non-left behind children with the support from teachers, school principals and local education policy