How do international schools in China promote themselves? A comparative content analysis of public WeChat posts

Once primarily serving expatriate elites, the international school industry has increasingly turned its attention to affluent host-country clientele, following trends of marketisation and commercialisation. Promotion on social media has become a necessary effort for student recruitment in a competitive market. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate how international schools in China promote themselves on WeChat, a multifunctional social media application. Employing Goffman’s dramaturgical theory and Bourdieu’s theory of social fields, this research compared the promotional strategies employed by two types of international schools and contrasted them with those of Chinese public schools. Findings revealed differences in promotional approaches across the three school types and exposed unexpected divergences within the school types. The study identified four key promotional themes visible in the schools’ WeChat posts: enhancing status and visibility, student recruitment efforts, fostering school-home relationships, and reporting about student life and achievements. A trend of commercialisation became evident in all the sampled international schools, with a strong emphasis on student recruitment efforts and paid extracurriculars. The study addresses gaps in research on marketisation, commercialisation, and parental choice within the international education sector. Its focus on social media promotion and student recruitment through WeChat reveals an unexplored side of the international education business.