Pedagogical concept and social environment matters: example from parents’ attitudes towards student-learning burden reduction policy and its influencing factors in China

In many societies, parents’ perceptions play a key role in assessing the quality of education policy implementation, and the student learning burden reduction policy is the most discussed and influential education policy among K-12 education policies in China. However, there are few studies examining parents’ attitudes toward the student learning burden reduction policy and its influencing factors. In this study, we used nationally representative data and public opinion data to identify the factors influencing parents’ attitudes towards the student learning burden reduction policy. The. Hovland’s model of attitude change have been adopted in this study. Using factor analysis and structural equation modeling, we found that, for survey analysis results, a total of 83.2% of parents supported the implementation of student learning reduction policies. Parents’ educational/pedagogical and academic concepts, students’ academic burdens, and parents’ after-school service concepts had significant influences on parents’ attitudes toward the implementation of the student burden reduction policy. Our findings show how the social implicit environment in which parents live can shape their perceptions of the implementation of the student burden reduction policy.