Educational Development In Western China

In 2000, the “Western Development” plan of the Chinese Mainland attracted attention of educators and policy makers. Around that period, the Chinese government also launched large scale and systemic curriculum reforms in basic education and secondary education in achieving quality education across the vast country. Despite significant progress that has been made in educational investments and attainments in China, issues of quality and regional disparities across China remain, especially in the less developed, western part of China where the significance of ethnic diversity, urban-rural disparity and variations in school development exists. In addition, there have been entrenched problems of teacher and teaching quality, resources inadequacy and ‘left-behind’ children. Written by a group of Chinese and international scholars, the book provides an updated analysis and discussion of educational development and related issues in the less developed part of Western China. These chapters cover broad contextual issues of educational development and reforms, issues of quality and equality in different sectors of education, as well as curriculum implementation, teaching innovations and professional development of teachers.

This book offers a comprehensive, up-to-date review of the recent professional developments of teachers of English in the western region of China in the context of English language teaching reform and teacher education reform. It discusses a wealth of theories, frameworks, qualitative case studies and quantitative investigations, while also covering a range of key practices that are indispensable. It equips readers with an in-depth understanding of the impact of the current curriculum reform on the promotion of teachers’ cognition, emotions, attitudes and awareness of their self-development, as well as teachers’ corresponding efforts to update their educational concepts, reassess their teacher roles, enhance their teaching skills, and implement new approaches to their professional development. It is a valuable resource for anyone pursuing research in this field as well as in-service teachers, teacher educators and education administrators. And as it offers practical help for the potential difficulties and challenges they might encounter, it is also a must-read for the student teachers of English.

This book investigates the educational equity in China from multiple perspectives, including rural and urban educational equity, interschool educational equity, Eastern and Western educational equity and administrative policies related to the educational equity. All those perspectives concentrate on examining the comprehensive development of the educational equity in contemporary China. In addition, this book also presents specific historical and cultural shifts for policymakers and stakeholders to offer an in-depth understanding of the educational equity strategy in a long term.

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.

The first volume of the English-language Chinese Research Perspectives on Educational Development (formerly The China Educational Development Yearbook offers international scholars a glimpse into key issues in Chinese education today from the perspective of Chinese academics, practitioners, and applied researchers. This volume starts with an excellent overview of educational developments in 2010, which witnessed the formulation of the Outline of China’s National Plan for Medium and Long Term Educational Reform and Development 2010-2020. With the formulation of the Outline and the start of implementation in 2011, China saw progress by the government, at all levels, in prioritizing educational development. Scholars and practitioners discuss the significance of the Outline and its implications on the development and reform of pre-school education, basic education and higher education. In addition, this volume provides timely surveys and research on a variety of topics from government’s investment in education to the mental health of Elementary and Secondary school teachers and students. Chinese Research Perspectives on Educational Development, Volume 1 informs the Western readers of the current educational development in policy, practice, and research in China. Chinese Research Perspectives on Educational Development is a co-publication of Brill and Social Sciences Academic Press (China).

Recent dramatic developments in China have increased Western interest in both her institutions and her politics. However, most of the studies dealing with the 'new' China tend to concentrate on recent events, leaving undocumented, particularly, the years between the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949 and the onset of the Cultural Revolution. To supplement this gap in the literature, Dr. Julia Kwong here examines the workings of a crucial institution— education—during this period in China's history. The years from 1949 to 1966 saw swings from one educational policy to another, as proponents with differing views on how to achieve a true socialist state gained or lost ascendancy. The reciprocal key influence on each other of the economy and the educational system is Professor Kwong's focus. A deliberate attempt is made to evaluate critically the Chinese educational system in its cultural context, thus avoiding the pitfall of superimposing Western theoretical assumptions and biases on Chinese data. Part I of the work details Chinese educational philosophy, the organization of the educational institutions, and the economic and social infrastructure established since 1949. Part II analyses the educational developments from the Great Leap Forward to the eve of the Cultural Revolution. The interaction between ideology, objective conditions, and power politics at both decision-making and implementation levels is discussed in detail, as are their various roles in shaping educational policy, and, consequently, the lives of the children concerned.

This book investigates the endogenous forces in the relation of “One Belt and One Road” and educational development in China. The conceptual framework of analyzing the relations offers an in-depth understanding of the vocational education, higher education system, and basic education system, locally, nationally, and internationally. The current situations, problems, and strategies of addressing the relation of “One Belt and One Road” and educational development in China have been explored in this book.

The Blue Book of Education, as it is known in Chinese, has gained a reputation for offering the most penetrating perspective in China on educational reform and development. In this important English translation combining the Blue Books published in 2007 and 2008, the issues, developments, challenges, and crises in Chinese education are comprehensively discussed and critically analyzed.