Education and Society in Post-Mao China

Pragmatism and Ideology in the Quest for Modernization
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-0-415-59739-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 408 Seiten, Format (B × H): 241 mm x 162 mm, Gewicht: 746 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Education and Society in Asia

The post-Mao period has witnessed rapid social and economic transformation in all walks of Chinese life – much of it fuelled by, or reflected in, changes to the country’s education system. This book analyses the development of that system since the abandonment of radical Maoism and the inauguration of ‘Reform and Opening’ in the late 1970s.

The principal focus is on formal education in schools and conventional institutions of tertiary education, but there is also some discussion of preschools, vocational training, and learning in non-formal contexts. The book begins with a discussion of the historical and comparative context for evaluating China’s educational ‘achievements’, followed by an extensive discussion of the key transitions in education policymaking during the ‘Reform and Opening’ period. This informs the subsequent examination of changes affecting the different phases of education from preschool to tertiary level. There are also chapters dealing specifically with the financing and administration of schooling, curriculum development, the public examinations system, the teaching profession, the phenomenon of marketisation, and the ‘international dimension’ of Chinese education. The book concludes with an assessment of the social consequences of educational change in the post-Mao era and a critical discussion of the recent fashion in certain Western countries for hailing China as an educational model. The analysis is supported by a wealth of sources – primary and secondary, textual and statistical – and is informed by both authors’ wide-ranging experience of Chinese education.

As the first monograph on China's educational development during the forty years of the post-Mao era, this book will be essential reading for all those seeking to understand the world’s largest education system. It will also be crucial reference for educational comparativists, and for scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds researching contemporary Chinese society.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Vickers, Edward

Zeng, Xiao-Dong

Xiaodong, Zeng

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Empirische Sozialforschung, Statistik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Education, development and social change in post-Mao China – framing the debate

- Comparative and historical perspectives on education and development in contemporary China

- The politics of education in Post-Mao China: An overview

- Early childhood education and care

- The funding and administration of basic education

- The school curriculum: Ideology and control

- The teaching profession: Training, retention and professional development

- Evaluation, assessment and the senior high school

- Marketisation, competition and schooling

- Vocational and technical education

- Higher education from 1977 to the mid-1990s

- Higher education since 1998: Expansion, stratification and control

- The international dimension

- Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Edward Vickers is Professor of Comparative Education at Kyushu University and co-editor of Imagining Japan in Post-war East Asia: Identity Poitics, Schooling and Popular Culture (with Paul Morris and Naoko Shimazu, Routledge 2013).

Zeng Xiaodong is Professor at Beijing Normal University and author of A Historical Analysis on Education Development from 1978 to 2008: Key Indicators and International Comparisons (2008).