Learning in Absence: How Left-behind Children Navigate Education in Rural China Households

China’s internal labour migration has profoundly reshaped rural family life, leaving millions of children to grow up apart from their parents. This article examines how left-behind children (LBC) in rural households perceive and pursue education when parental academic guidance is largely absent. Drawing on Social Learning Theory, the article employs a qualitative approach that integrates home-based observation and semi-structured interviews with LBC and their caregivers. Findings show that children’s perceptions of schooling are highly instrumental; education is seen as a pathway to stability and social mobility, but emotionally ambivalent when daily support relies on distant parents or elderly caregivers. Challenges cluster around thin academic scaffolding at home (generational and educational gaps, inconsistent digital access) and pronounced emotional strain (loneliness, insecurity). Yet, children and caregivers demonstrate resilience and ingenuity: self-directed study routines, peer-supported homework circles, ‘silent scaffolding’ by caregivers, teacher reinforcement via phone or video and micro-community resources all play key roles. The study argues that the household, even in parental absence, remains a critical learning site where modelling and reinforcement are sustained through alternative figures and mediated environments. Effective support should go beyond remedying deficits, instead leveraging and amplifying the resources and routines already present in rural families and communities to bridge remaining academic and emotional gaps.