Multiculturalism has become recognized as a powerful force, not just for understanding exotic groups. The application of multiculturalism can move beyond specific group categories to understand the general lived experiences of cultural groups and how they dealt with other cultures they are forced to face, which in turn can stimulate cultural critique of the concept of multiculturalism itself.
This study argues that there existed a type of counter-school culture based on the cultural logic of “negotiation”, which reflects the actual dilemmas and risks of having “low academic qualifications" faced by young vocational school students from lower social class who are forced to participate in an education that is supported by a different cultural model with which they are unfamiliar. The resilience and creativity of the culture of these students can be demonstrated in their responding actions to such dilemmas and risks. The so-called "counter-school culture" that has developed among such student groups can be considered as the cultural strategy created by these young "academic failures" through making sense of their rural life experience and endow the cultural elements they familiar with to the unfamiliar education culture they were currently involved. In this way, they are keep trying to explore how they can move ahead as the unfavorable type of students in general education context.
This finding underscores the fact that school is not an "ivory tower" that transmits dominant culture and values in one direction, but rather a site of cultural conflict shaped by the interactions of various actors from various cultural groups. As a social process, schooling provide a solid ground for students from specific cultural backgrounds to develop their very own subcultures. Therefore, relevant policy design needs to face and to respond to the existence of such subcultures in a complex and diversified cultural environment.
