Education As Cultivation In Chinese Culture

Given the increasing global interest in Chinese culture, this book uses case studies to describe and interpret Chinese cultivation in contemporary Taiwanese schools. Cultivation is a concept unique to Chinese culture and is characterized by different attitudes towards teaching and learning compared to Western models of education. The book starts with a discussion of human nature in Chinese schools of philosophy and levels of goodness. Following the philosophical background is a presentation of how cultivation is practiced in Chinese culture from prenatal through high school education. The case studies focus both on how students are cultivated as they become members of Chinese society, and on what role teachers play in cultivating the children in school. In addition, supports from Chinese educational institutions, including public schools, families, and organizations such as private cram schools, are introduced and explained. In closing, the book presents a critique of the modern school reform movement and the conflicts between the reform proposals and traditional practices. Based on the collective work of Taiwanese researchers in the fields of education, history and anthropology, the book identifies the purpose of education as cultivating virtue in a process of creating an ideal person who serves society, and describes the way teachers have carried on this tradition despite its faltering status in contemporary educational discourse and in the face of reform movements.

Maintaining education as a pedagogical space for human formation, this book is distinctive in looking at the crisis rather than the success of Chinese education. The editors and contributors, mostly overseas and mainland Chinese scholars, argue that modern Chinese education has been built upon a superficial and instrumental embrace of Western modernity and a fragmented appropriation of Chinese cultural heritage. They call for a rethinking and re-envisioning of Chinese education, grounded in and enriched by various cultural traditions and cross-cultural dialogues. Drawing on Chinese history and culture, Western and Chinese philosophies, curriculum and pedagogical theories, the collected volume analyzes (1) why education as person-making has failed to take root in contemporary China, (2) how the purpose of education has changed during the process of China’s modernization, and (3) what a rediscovery of the meaning of person-making implies for rethinking and re-envisioning Chinese education in the current age of globalization and social change. Re-envisioning Chinese Education: The meaning of person-making in a new age discusses among other issues: China’s Historical Encounter with the West and Modern Chinese Education Rediscover Lasting Values: Confucian Cultural Learning Models in the Twenty-first Century Rethinking and Re-envisioning Chinese Didactics: Implications from the German Didaktik Tradition The New Basic Education and the Development of Human Subjectivity: A Chinese Experience This book will be relevant for scholars, researchers, and policy makers everywhere who seek a more balanced, more sophisticated, and philosophically better grounded understanding of Chinese education.

Cultural Foundations of Chinese Education describes the evolution of Chinese education for more than 5,000 years, and analyzes in depth its interaction with Chinese culture. From the Imperial Civil Examinations to the Western Learning; from the transplant of Western systems of education to the New Democratic Education Movement; from the copying of the Soviet experience in education to the explorations for approaches to establish new education in China since the Economic Reforms in the late 1970s, this book provides unique analyses on conflicting elements in Chinese education, and leads to the understanding of the issues in modernizing education in China. With condensed and concentrated analyses on the process of historical evolution and the interactions between Chinese education and Chinese cultural traditions, this book can be used as a major reference for international readers to understand education in China from the perspective of cultural evolution.

Educational philosophies of self-cultivation as the cultural foundation and philosophical ethos for education have strong and historically effective traditions stretching back to antiquity in the classical ‘cradle’ civilizations of China and East Asia, India and Pakistan, Greece and Anatolia, focused on the cultural traditions in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism in the East and Hellenistic philosophy in the West. This volume in East-West dialogues in philosophy of education examines both Confucian and Western classical traditions revealing that although each provides its own distinct figure of the virtuous person, they are remarkably similar in their conception and emphasis on moral self-cultivation as a practical answer to how humans become virtuous. The collection also examines self-cultivation in Japanese traditions and also the nature of Michel Foucault’s work in relation to ethical and aesthetic ideals of Hellenistic self-cultivation.

This book calls for a change in the way interculturality is introduced in Chinese language education, while the demand for Chinese language teaching increases around the world. The concept of culture – as in the phrase ‘Chinese culture’ – has often been one of the main emphases of Chinese language education, providing students with facts about China and ‘recipes’ on how to meet Chinese people and how to behave like them. However, Chinese culture, like all cultures, does not constitute a closed system, but is constantly evolving and exchanging with other cultures. This unique volume comprises studies from around the world that promote intercultural awareness, dialogue, and encounters in Chinese language education. Written in a clear and readable style, this book will appeal to a diverse readership, from practising and training teachers of Chinese, to researchers interested in language and intercultural education.

The book depicts a unique historical and cultural phenomenon, the philosophy of Chinese moral education, in an attempt to capture the essence of Chinese culture. While tracing the historical journey of this philosophy, the book rearranges and interprets the conceptual frameworks concerning moral education in various Chinese philosophical schools and religions. In so doing, it summarizes the ideas of human relations, man and nature, cosmology, moral virtues, and educational approaches, posing intriguing questions about how they have influenced Chinese characteristics, social norms, and value orientations. In particular, the book brings up discussions on the culture of family and state, the challenges that the philosophy had encountered in early modern and present China, as well as the prospect of regeneration of the philosophy and its significance for our world today. This is the book to read if you want to have a deep understanding about China and its belief and educational system.

Throughout its history, education in China has played a pivotal role in the nation’s governance, civic society, and the social and cultural lives of its citizens. Today we see a nation grappling with how to modernize and internationalize its education system, while still retaining China’s intellectual traditions and values in the face of growing educational inequalities. This book analyses the historical and contemporary place of education in China and how the past has influenced today’s trends. Recent fundamental educational reforms have been driven by the need for continuing economic development and a highly skilled workforce, at the same time fulfilling the aspirations of its citizens and their desire for the prestige education brings. Moreover, ideological education plays a key role in enlisting citizens to the national cause. Although China has ambitious plans for its education system, several problems remain, including an examination-obsessed system and highly competitive culture, which skew the social fabric and dominate family life and childhoods. This accessible analysis will be a welcome resource for students of comparative education as well as those across the social sciences interested in Chinese society.

A comprehensive collection on twentieth-century educational practices in China