Children’s emotional geographies at a boarding school in rural China

Abstract

This study deployed photo-elicitation interviews (PEIs) to explore children’s emotional experiences of the boarding school and their subjective views in a town-centred boarding school in central China. Through triangulating the visual and oral data generated from PEIs, this study found that child boarders were generally apathetic towards the boarding school. This study further elaborated on children’s apathy by analysing their subjective views on the school’s physical environment, disciplinary power, adult authority, and peer interaction. Accordingly, I argue that boarding school in rural China has formed a space where children’s emotional activities are heavily neglected or suppressed. However, children can tactically retreat from the domination of the boarding school over their emotions, reshaping the school’s spatiality from within. These findings highlighted the importance of mutual impacts between children’s emotions and the construction of boarding school space. It is also recommended to adopt new research techniques, such as PEIs, to incorporate children’s voices into future assessments of boarding schools in rural China.