The occupational status and professional development of teachers in schools for migrant workers' children in Shanghai

Transition, demographic change and educational development are intertwined. One of the main drivers of China`s phenomenal economic growth during the past three decades has been the large-scale and persistent rural-to-urban migration. As a consequence, half of China`s 1.3 billion people now live in cities, as compared to only twenty percent in the early 1980s. The enormous social transformations and urbanization in China have led millions of people to migrate from rural areas to cities since 1980s. It is estimated that there are 260 million people from the countryside now living in the cities, and approximately 96 million migrant school-aged children have accompanied their parents in relocating to cities. Most of the migrants travel from the western and central inlands to the urban cities in the esastern coastal areas.