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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Serie: China Today
- Sprache: Englisch
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.
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Seitenzahl: 385
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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Table of Contents
Cover
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Map
Chronology
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1
:
The Genesis of Chinese Education: From Confucius to the Twenty-First Century
The imperial Confucian period
The late imperial period to the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949
The socialist era from 1949 to 1978
The reform era from 1978 to the twenty-first century
Conclusions
2
:
Formal and Informal Education: Policies, Structures, Governance and Contexts
National goals
Structure and funding of public education
‘Elite’ education and hyper-competitiveness
Early childhood education
Basic education
Examination system
Senior high schools
Vocational and technical education
Higher education
Online and distance learning
Adult, continuing and lifelong education
Non-formal education and extra-curricular learning
The role of teachers
Conclusions
3
:
Reform and Resistance
School education reform
Challenges to implementation
Teacher education and professional development
Vocational and higher education reform
Conclusions
4
:
Inequalities and Disparities
Urban and rural education
‘Left-behind’ children
Migrant children
Minority education
Students with disabilities
Private education
International schools and programmes
Conclusions
5
:
Ideologies in Competition
Neoliberalism versus traditionalism
Resurrecting Confucius
Moral education
Citizenship and patriotic education
Ethnic solidarity education
Political and ideological education
The CCP embedded in education
Conclusions
6
:
Changing Relationships with the World and Future Challenges
China's rise and impact on international relationships
Changing flows of people, ideas and knowledge
From importing to exporting education and culture
Opportunities for mutual learning and understanding
Continuing challenges and tensions
Conclusions
References
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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China Today series
Richard P. Appelbaum, Cong Cao, Xueying Han, Rachel Parker and Denis Simon, Innovation in China
Greg Austin, Cyber Policy in China
Yanjie Bian, Guanxi: How China Works
Jeroen de Kloet and Anthony Y. H. Fung, Youth Cultures in China
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Pitman B. Potter, China's Legal System
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Janette Ryan, Education in China
Judith Shapiro, China's Environmental Challenges 2nd edition
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Jie Yang, Mental Health in China
You Ji, China's Military Transformation
LiAnne Yu, Consumption in China
Xiaowei Zang, Ethnicity in China
Education in China
Philosophy, Politics and Culture
Janette Ryan
polity
Copyright © Janette Ryan 2019
The right of Janette Ryan to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2019 by Polity Press
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ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-6408-8 (hardback)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-6410-1 (paperback)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ryan, Janette, 1956- author.
Title: Education in China : philosophy, politics and culture / Janette Ryan.
Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2019. | Series: China today | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018045218 (print) | LCCN 2018045667 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509535972 (Epub) | ISBN 9780745664088 (hardback) | ISBN 9780745664101 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Education–China–Philosophy. | Education and state–China. | Education–Aims and objectives–China. | Educational change–China. | Education and globalization–China. | BISAC: EDUCATION / General.
Classification: LCC LA1131.82 (ebook) | LCC LA1131.82 .R93 2019 (print) | DDC 370.951–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018045218
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Map
Chronology
Preface and Acknowledgements
This book draws on my first-hand experience of education in China over four decades, first as an international student there in the early 1980s; then in government in Australia, working on a sister state–province relationship with Jiangsu Province just as China was beginning to engage more with the world; and later as an academic, teaching and researching in China and in several universities worldwide. These experiences have given me a perspective over time and in different contexts. The personal examples given in this book are the product of my experience researching and working in education in China and the wide network of acquaintances that this has enabled me to build up. These examples are anecdotal but are intended to illustrate the arguments being offered as well as to give ‘voice’ to those engaged in Chinese education themselves.
Many people have given me generous assistance, especially when I have visited schools and universities, and have shared their personal stories and ideas, and I am grateful to them all. I would especially like to acknowledge the assistance of several colleagues who read sections of the manuscript, including Jiaxin Chen, Lin Li, Xi Liang, Lu Wang, Fuyi Yang and Yue Ying.
Introduction
China had stunning success in the 2009 and 2012 rounds of the triennial Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), testing worldwide competency in mathematics, science and reading. These were the first years in which China participated in these global assessments of student learning, and students from Shanghai (the only students in China to participate in these two rounds) topped the rankings. This led in many countries to the valorization of Chinese education and intense interest in the nation's education system, including calls to copy it to emulate China's success.
Within China education has been designated a national priority to underpin continued economic development and meet the need for a highly skilled workforce and also to fulfil the social and cultural aspirations of its citizens. As Postiglione (2016) states: ‘If there is a unifying consensus across society, it is for education to transform China from a middle- to high-income market economy’ (p. x). There has been intense focus on the development of and investment in the education system and reform of all its levels, from preschool through to higher education and beyond. The past decade has seen radical change and fundamental reform of administration, finances, governance, policy, and curriculum and pedagogy across all parts of education in China and across all its regions.
The dazzling recent achievements of China, economically and in its increasing importance on the world stage, and in such measures as the PISA results, have led to growing fascination about what it is apparently ‘doing right’. But before any decision is taken that China's education system should be emulated, what is needed is an examination of the genesis of its educational philosophies, ideologies and practices, and the role that education plays in the national psyche and in the public and political arenas. The success of educational approaches anywhere is based to a large degree on context, and systems cannot easily be transplanted from one place to another. In many Western countries, for example, education is seen by some, particularly politicians, often to be ‘struggling’ by comparison with the recent advances in Asia. But Chinese education has its own problems and tensions – they just come from different sources. This book examines many of these.
Education, culture and politics in China are inextricably linked and education has played a key role in the nation's intellectual, political and civic development. It has both influenced, and been influenced by, all these interweaving forces. Education has been at the very heart of Chinese society throughout its long history, from the time of Confucius and even before. It has been, and is, the primary vehicle for social mobility and status for individuals and is a marker of one's ‘culture’. Indeed, the word ‘culture’ in Chinese (wenhua 文化) also means to be educated or learned and through which to be ‘civilized’. Whereas in most countries in past centuries military prowess was usually the means to gain great fortune, land or political favour, in China one's ‘culture’ or ‘educatedness’ was considered the most important factor in determining prestige, respect, and social and political standing and hence wealth. Education in China has a primacy not found in other cultures and has influenced its history, philosophy, politics, culture and society, and indeed its ‘mindset’, and its influence on the social and economic life of its citizens continues unabated to the present day. It also plays a key role for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) party-state in enlisting citizens to its national cause and in instilling in them its ideology of ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’.
As well as being used by the central government for the nation's continued economic success, national development and modernization, education has also become an instrument of soft power for the party-state's ambitions for China to become a dominant super power and regain a leading status in the world. This has been particularly highlighted by President Xi Jinping in recent speeches. These aims are evident in the ‘New Silk Road’ or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (yidai yilu 一带一路) which includes supranational educational initiatives across central Asia and beyond (described in Chapter 6). There has been a move away from simply reaping the benefits of sending people overseas to learn from the West and other advanced economies such as Japan. There is a desperation within China to regain the geopolitical pre-eminence it had in earlier imperial times, and education has become an instrument of foreign policy as well as a source of national pride as Chinese education is now exported to countries such as the United Kingdom, its former imperialist aggressor.
Although China was never colonized in the same way as other Asian nations, and instead carved up into foreign ‘concessions’ during the nineteenth century and then occupied by Japan during the Second World War, the psychological impact of its newfound global influence has been incredibly powerful. This ties in with the recent resurgence of pride often found among people in China in its long intellectual history, as part of its national triumphalism in regaining the nation's ‘rightful’ place in the world. The Chinese government and many of its citizens have a strong sense of national identity and historical purpose, and a continuing nostalgia for past glory, and education plays a constitutive role in both these realms.
Education has also for some time been a major vehicle for China's new engagement with the world precisely through its unprecedented flows of international students and scholars from China engaging with countries in the Western world, and beyond, especially in Anglophone countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The movement of people and ideas, however, has been until very recently mostly one-way, and those with whom China engages are often remarkably unaware of both the past and contemporary nature of education in China and the role it has played in the nation's historical development and will continue to play in its future trajectory.
Education within China is the most important determinant of one's social status, economic wellbeing, career potential and even marriage prospects, and has been for most of China's history. China's imperial examination system (keju kaoshi 科举考试), which began in the Sui Dynasty (581–618) and lasted nearly 1,400 years, selected government officials (and therefore the main privileged class) by merit in the imperial examinations and was claimed to be open to rich and poor alike (though in reality was based on merit among the gentry). This helps to explain Chinese people's long valuing of education as bringing power, status, wealth and honour.
China has a highly aspirational culture and is fiercely competitive. Most Chinese parents spend enormous sums on their child's education in their quest for their child, and the family, to get ahead; the child embodies their dreams and aspirations for higher status and a better life. The nature of this educational culture also means that even the scions of China's new mega-wealthy class are sent to the best and most prestigious educational institutions in China and abroad. They receive the best education money can buy, including at the most ‘elite’ kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, as well as at the most ‘famous’ universities overseas, even if the child's parents have high-level connections which mean they won't have to compete in the open job market as they will simply enter or profit from the family business. These children have the benefits not just of their parents’ wealth but also their power and connections. To give a sense of scale and competition, in 2016, there were 1.6 million of these ‘high net wealth individuals’ in China with assets of at least CNY10 million (USD1.5 million) (Reuters 2017).
But the rise of a middle class in China, and growing social stratification of its society, has fuelled an even more insatiable desire for education as a means to social standing and prestige. Foreign study has increasingly been an aim for the children of the middle and lower urban classes, not just for children of the elite. But not all citizens have the same access to educational opportunities, and now that China has moved from a socialist to a hyper-capitalist society, education is increasingly acting as a filter by which its citizens are afforded access or not to China's new wealth and prosperity.
As will be seen, behaviours and practices of education in China today have arisen from a deeply embedded set of historical, political, ideological, social and cultural conditions that have had an enduring impact and cannot, and should not, be easily mimicked or transposed onto other social and cultural systems. Although education in China undoubtedly has its merits, it also has serious flaws, and what appears on the surface is not always a good indication of what is happening underneath. The early PISA results which sparked cries in several countries to learn from China's success by copying its teaching methods resulted in countries like the United Kingdom and Australia bringing teachers from China to model their teaching. However, this view was shattered when the 2015 PISA results, which included a broader range of students than just those in Shanghai, saw China falling to twelfth place. The original test results were confined to Shanghai, and Shanghai is not representative of the broader picture of education in China. In such a vast and diverse country, the educational picture is much more complex than it appears from the outside and requires deeper examination.
There is no doubt, however, that there is a voracious appetite for education among people in China, not found to the same extent anywhere else, and the Chinese government is using its education in both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ ways as an instrument of foreign and international policy (as well as for domestic political and ideological purposes). These national desires mix with individual aspirations, and social and cultural imperatives to achieve educational success, and result in an intensely competitive education system which dominates family life and children's childhood experiences.
The Chinese government has made some moves to address the serious shortcomings in its educational system and has introduced a series of policies and measures to reform (and internationalize) education. Although there are differing views of how education reform can (or should) be achieved, there is a general desire, both for political and pedagogical reasons, to confront contemporary challenges not through slavish adoption of outside, especially ‘Western’, intellectual values or mimicking of Western academic ways, but instead to examine the past, resurrecting (or even ‘reinventing’) China's intellectual traditions and attempting to combine these with lessons learnt from outside.
There is much to admire and to be learnt from China. Distinctive features include a deep respect for education and significant investment in schools and children's learning. However, although many individual school leaders are working hard to change educational practices, it is clear that the school system is still largely characterized by overly long hours, excessive homework, drill-based learning and enormous pressure from teachers and parents, and complicated by political and ideological pressures arising from CCP control over virtually all aspects of education.
The heavy toll of the existing education system was recognized in the Outline of National Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) when the State Council called for a reduction in the ‘burden’ of schooling for children, though concerns had been raised much earlier. The gruelling gaokao (高考) university entrance examination, the culmination of years of constant exams, produces exhausted students who have missed out on a childhood.
However, attempts at education reform are a story of contradictions, arising not only from cultural resistance and traditional views of education but also from national and state imperatives. Evidence of this can be seen in President Xi Jinping's attempts to make Chinese education ‘world-class’ (though generally reflecting a narrow definition relating to topping specific world league tables) but within a context where there exist restrictions on access to the international academic literature and increased government control over curriculum.
The Chinese government's more muscular foreign policy and rising nationalism mean that it is seeking to broaden its influence internationally and education is performing a symbolic and ideological role in this pursuit. Over the past decades, China has sought to learn from Western and other countries by sending students and scholars to learn from other educational systems (and in earlier periods to Japan and Russia). The aims have been the reform and internationalization of its educational system as well as national educational capacity building. Now – reversing a trend of nearly one hundred and fifty years – it is attracting large numbers of international students to study in the country, as well as through a number of overseas ventures (see Chapter 6). The Chinese government is using education to increase its global influence by supporting the establishment of Chinese schools and universities in countries including the United Kingdom, the United States and Malaysia but also to meet demand overseas for Chinese bilingual and bicultural education. This demand from outside springs from recognition of the role that China will play in world affairs in the future. Parents in other countries want their children to be equipped with the Chinese language and intercultural skills that they believe will be needed to achieve success in this new world order.
Yet, despite efforts in China to reform education, it is beset with a number of problems. These include: the examination-orientation of its education system; contradictory and competing ideologies and political agendas; growing inequality; a hierarchical system obsessed with elitism; ambitious aims for education but lack of capacity and expertise; increasingly blurred lines between public and private education; continuity of cultural beliefs that hamper reform; corruption and fraud; and high aspirations and fierce competition which are skewing the social fabric.
The crucial question for the Chinese government and Chinese society more broadly is whether education acts as a cohesive force propelling the party-state's goals of economic prosperity and national unity or continues on its course to be the major vehicle for the increasing stratification of Chinese society, which can have serious and deleterious effects for individuals and families.
This book offers an overview of contemporary education policy and teaching and learning contexts in China and the place of education in the political, economic, social and cultural affairs of the nation. It describes the historical, philosophical and political antecedents of education in China today as important elements for understanding contemporary trends in education in China as well as the role of government and government policy in education. It examines the aims of the education reform programme and discusses the vast changes taking place across all levels of the education system. It shows repeatedly a nation grappling with issues such as how to modernize and internationalize its education system and engage with education systems worldwide while also retaining China's intellectual traditions and values.
But this book also engages with the question of what other countries can learn from China in the current era of globalization and in the context of increased and unprecedented flows of people and their ideas between China and other nations. It argues that mutual respect for traditions and values is vital for the development of transcultural learning and the two-way internationalization of education and for less hegemonic relationships between China and its international educational partners.
The book uses as its analytical framework a multi-perspective approach, examining historical, philosophical, political, cultural and social dimensions of education in China and the relationships between these to explain the current contexts and future trajectory of education in China today. A major theme is the continuity of educational ideas and traditions in the midst of the radical transformation of China's economic, social and political conditions.
Key questions are raised in each section and are as follows:
How is the education system in China both a ‘mirror’ and ‘motor’ of political, economic and social conditions and agendas?
How does education in China act as a vehicle for cultural continuity as well as change?
How does education in China act to promote individuals’ economic and social mobility and status?
What are the implications of the increasing disparity in educational access and outcomes in China between rich and poor, developed and less developed areas, and urban and rural and remote regions?
Do traditional Chinese values act as impediments to modernization and internationalization in education?
Why are Confucianism and Confucian educational tenets being revived in China today?
What are the implications for the rest of the world of China's rising nationalism and its pride in its intellectual heritage?
What can China and the rest of the world learn from each other and how can this be a mutual enterprise based on reciprocal respect and joint endeavour?
Although some, such as Vickers and Zeng (2017), caution against adopting ‘exceptionalist’ approaches to China which point to its uniqueness compared with other systems of educational practice, arguing that such approaches militate against criticism of China, there are areas where China can be considered exceptional and are worthy of study. These include the quest, even obsession, to be ‘world class’ in education and to regain its former intellectual glory, its valuing of education throughout its long history, and the symbolic role that educational attainment plays in its society.
Generalizations about Chinese education and Chinese students can of course belie the complexity and immense differences within China's borders. There is a vast diversity of people within China (and among Chinese populations outside China), with great variety even within the dominant Han ethnic group, as well as in the 55 ethnic minorities. This creates dilemmas in describing either ‘Chinese culture’ or ‘Chinese-ness’ (as indeed it can with ‘Western’ culture). In addition to this is the diversity of religions and belief systems comprising dominant Confucian beliefs, but also Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity and Islam, which have historically intermingled and can even harmoniously co-exist within individuals (in contrast to the fiercely contested boundaries of Western Abrahamic religions). Added to this are individual, spatial and generational differences, to name but a few. Although this diversity must be kept in mind in any descriptions of China, there are some general patterns and historical trends that point to how education and educational beliefs in China have developed and influenced contemporary thinking and practice.
Definitions of ‘culture’ are contested and attempts to define it can essentialize phenomena that are fluid, dynamic and occupy vast temporal and geographical spaces. The way that the term Chinese ‘culture’ is used in this volume is in the sense of referring to traditions and belief systems in mainland China that, with the focus of this book, can be seen to influence beliefs and practices in classrooms and educational institutions. ‘Chinese students’ refers to those in, or from, the People's Republic of China, but does not include the Hong Kong or Macau Special Administrative Regions, which for historical reasons have very different educational systems and conditions and are beyond the scope of this book. It should be noted, however, that with the return to Chinese sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997 and Macau in 1999, education systems there are increasingly coming within the purview of CCP educational policies and regulations and are adapting to these new regimes (see Cheng 2017 and Lee & Cheng 2017 respectively for discussion of these two systems).
It is also recognized that ‘large culture’ explanations of systems of cultural and social practice risk essentializing or dehistoricizing them and ignoring important distinctions and features as well as the fact that individuals within a culture can have vastly differing ideas and perspectives about that culture. A focus on culture can also downplay the impact of other forces such as political or ideological ones as well as philosophical and psychological factors, which are all inter-related and on their own provide only limited explanatory power.
Kipnis (2011) articulates the dilemma in describing attributes of Chinese education as they are ‘usually dismissed as an exercise in orientalism’ (p. 4) illustrating the difficulties and tensions in work such as the present one even though it looks through multiple lenses and over a long time period. But this book offers an overview of education in China from my own perspective and through my personal experiences as a student, researcher and teacher in China as well as my field work and academic work in China over a forty-year period. It offers a snapshot at the current point in time, recognizing that China is a rapidly changing society with a dramatically changing educational landscape and growing global political profile.
It is difficult to capture and do justice in a single volume to such a rich and diverse subject as education in China both temporally and spatially and it has been necessary to truncate and perhaps at times over-simplify many important topics and events. The intention of this book, however, is to identify some major trends and features as a basis for analysis of the most significant factors and influences on education in China today.
In this book, how tertiary education institutions are referred to follows the British and Australian model rather than the American one. Higher education institutions are referred to as ‘universities’ rather than the American term ‘college’, and vocational and technical institutions (those devoted specifically to this type of education rather than vocational programmes in schools) are referred to as ‘colleges’ (though ‘colleges’ can also be used in universities to describe faculties). Schools after the primary school level are referred to as ‘junior high’ schools, although in China they are sometimes referred to as middle schools, to show their relationship to senior high schools.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of the historical, philosophical and political roots of education in China today to explain the roles of both tradition and innovation – of continuity and change – in China's education system. It describes the history of China's education from the time of Confucius and how his thought has been used over the centuries by different dynastic periods to train the scholar class and instil a moral civic code. The link between education and what became the official State orthodoxy of Confucianism is explored to contribute to an understanding of the development of educational thought and philosophy historically and in the contemporary context. It demonstrates that many ancient ideologies and philosophies are alive and well in China and continue to have an enduring influence in ideas about education and society.
China's contemporary educational policies, governance and funding mechanisms, and formal education systems at preschool, school, vocational, and higher education levels, and the development of educational infrastructure and capacity, are explained in Chapter 2. The role of the CCP party-state is examined to show how governments at various levels determine and implement educational policies and influence educational practices. A discussion is also provided of the role of adult and lifelong learning in China and other, more informal, systems of learning such as extra-curricular activities and the ‘shadow’ education system of extra private fee-paying tuition in academic subjects. The chapter documents government efforts to build capacity in a nation with ambitious goals for its educational achievements and the place of schools and teachers in this system within a culture of intense competition and aspiration, and high-stakes testing. These developments provide a backdrop to the broader and sweeping curriculum reforms taking place at all levels of education, which are discussed more fully in Chapter 3.
Chapter 3 explains efforts by government and educators over the past two decades to reform all levels of the education system to improve its quality. China's aim, like that of most other countries, is to have among the best educational institutions in the world (although China is probably exceptional in its ambition) and provide the knowledge and skills to continue to drive economic growth and increase its global influence. This chapter also examines the major challenges and tensions limiting reform, including: resistance by teachers and parents; incompatibility of indigenous and foreign educational theories and philosophies; gaps between policies and their implementation; and the endurance of the guanxi (关系) network of personal connections, which can inhibit experimentation and innovation and potentially lead to further stratification in Chinese society.
Chapter 4 considers the growing inequalities between different sectors of Chinese education, mirroring and driving those in society, and examines how these might operate as threats to the nation's cohesion. Although the education reform programme has achieved some success, there remain significant inequalities in the provision of education and educational resources in different parts of the country, particularly in the western and central provinces where conditions may have changed very little. In addition to this, a rise in private and international education means that wealth-based disparities are increasing even further.
The tensions between a traditional view of education and neoliberal ideology (extremely important now, even in a Communist Party-run state), and their underpinning values and beliefs, are examined in Chapter 5. This chapter further discusses the role of the CCP in education and how it seeks to instil moral and civic attitudes and values and enlist the hearts and minds of its citizens to the national (CCP) cause through various forms of political and ideological curriculum in public education. The reintroduction and ‘reinvention’ of Confucian ideas of education as part of the central government's national and international agendas is also examined. The reintroduction of traditional moral values in the curriculum also arises from attempts to re-set the nation's ‘moral compass’ as a counter to widespread corruption and materialism, through subjects such as moral education, patriotic education, citizenship education, and political and ideological education.
As China becomes more confident about its own power, traditions and abilities, the Chinese government does not want merely to learn from other countries but to surpass them. Chapter 6 charts the course of educational interchanges between China and the West over the past two decades and argues that China and the rest of the world can work together more effectively to develop mutual understanding, a more pluralistic knowledge base and less hegemonic relationships. It identifies some continuing challenges facing China in the development and reform of its education system and in its collaboration with Western and other systems of educational practice.
1 The Genesis of Chinese Education: From Confucius to the Twenty-First Century
For millennia, education and learning have played central roles in Chinese government and society, as well as in the development of state-sponsored ideologies in which a range of ‘desirable’ moral and ethical behaviours are considered necessary for the proper governance and wellbeing of the people. Apart from a few brief periods such as the Cultural Revolution when education and educators were targeted as representing ‘feudal’ ideas, these close connections have endured to the present day.
This chapter looks at the history of China's education system to show how the past has had a deep and enduring influence. It starts from the time of Confucius and considers how Confucius's moral teachings were invoked over the centuries by different dynasties to train the scholar class and instil a moral and civic code, and to legitimize and enhance their power and hegemony. It considers how Confucianism has been both valourized and vilified in the modern period and now once again is being eulogized in contemporary educational settings and discourses. The inextricable link of education to politics, economics and culture in China is again becoming apparent as, although the formal education system suffered neglect in some recent times, it has been designated by the Chinese government as a top priority for reform and improvement to ensure the nation's continued progress and prosperity and as a key site for ideological education to ensure the allegiance of the citizenry to the national cause.
This chapter maps the role that education has played in supplying the nation's officials and thus ruling class over the past two millennia and in the development of the state bureaucracy. It discusses China's claim to be the first ‘meritocracy’, as the imperial examination system, rather than merely wealth or birth, became the avenue for social and political mobility. According to Li (Forthcoming):
Throughout China's practice of political meritocracy, there [has] existed a close relationship between education and politics, as education has always been deemed not only to promote personal development but, more importantly, to fulfill its social function to nurture qualified talents for governmental appointments.
(p. 1)
This points to the unique link between governance, culture and education that has existed in China. The discussion below provides a framework for understanding the influence of education in the affairs of the nation and also the more recent resurgence of popularity in Confucian educational ideas. There has been a ‘re-traditionalizing’ of cultural values via the re-introduction of Confucianism in moral education programmes and the promotion of Confucian educational tenets (explored further in Chapter 5).
China is a country in a hurry; it has been racing to catch up with the Western world as quickly as possible so that it can surpass it, and it has already made major gains. The Chinese government is determined to reclaim the nation's former glory and the leading position it once held in the world. An examination of past fluctuations in Chinese fortunes helps to explain current attitudes to education and the role it plays in the national psyche and in contemporary educational beliefs and practices.
People in China pride themselves on what they often cite as China's ‘5,000-year civilization’ and the fact that learning and education have been valued throughout this history. China is proudly portrayed as ‘the first meritocracy’ and Confucius is venerated as ‘the first teacher’; ‘perhaps the first teacher who taught all capable students what had been to that time reserved to the children of nobles’ (Bai 2011, pp. 617–18). In Chinese society, education has been seen as the primary vehicle for social mobility, position and status, and economic and political power and wealth. This is evidenced by the significant percentage of their income that parents (and grandparents) are prepared to spend on their children's or grandchildren's education.
The following sections charting the history of education in China are, for the sake of brevity, divided into four periods: the imperial Confucian era from the second century BCE to the mid nineteenth century; the late imperial period from the 1860s to the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949; the socialist era from 1949 to 1978; and the reform era from 1978 to the twenty-first century. Although there were immense changes and developments from the second century BCE to the nineteenth century, for example, all that can be included here are the most significant events and factors which can be seen to have shaped aspects of contemporary education over the past century and the last twenty years in particular.
The imperial Confucian period
To understand education in China and its historical antecedents, it is necessary to go back two and a half thousand years to the time of Confucius (551–479 BCE). Although education in the sense that we know it today didn't start with Confucius, what we now recognize as the educational values and ideologies of China today most certainly did.
The reasons for the primacy of education in contemporary China can be found in China's distant past, at a time when there was no ‘China’ and widespread political and civil turmoil continued until the central regions of China were unified in the third century BCE under the Qin Dynasty, the name of which (pronounced ‘chin’ in English), is thought to be the origin of the name ‘China’. The Chinese name for the country – the ‘Middle [or central] Kingdom’ (zhongguo 中国) – provides a clue to the central position that China saw and still sees itself having in the world.
Confucius lived during this period of instability with continuing warfare between rival warlords and kingdoms. This turmoil prompted him to hark back to an earlier ‘more refined’ golden era when poetry, dancing and music were revered as desirable intellectual pursuits and were demonstrated through cultural rituals. Confucius believed in the importance of the morality of the individual and of the State as essential elements for a stable, civic and well-governed society and thus a path to peace and harmony. Confucius was said to have had over 3,000 disciples and travelled through China advising kings and state officials seeking political influence, but it was his disciples and subsequent followers who later promulgated and proselytized his thoughts and philosophy (much like other sages such as Christ and the Buddha) through the ‘classic texts’ or scriptures. Confucianism was adopted, or co-opted, by successive dynasties, becoming the official State orthodoxy over following centuries and later introduced to other countries in the region such as Vietnam, Korea and Japan. It became the political and ideological tool by which Chinese rulers trained and selected the ruling class and its discourses of ‘morality’ were used to establish social norms and hierarchies. According to Pepper (1996):
Confucian learning, imperial power, and bureaucratic authority were thus bound together in a mutually sustaining relationship that would dominate Chinese intellectual life until the [imperial] examinations were abolished in 1905 and the imperial system was overthrown in the 1911 revolution.
(p. 47)
Confucius was not the only influential philosopher during this early period, however. Scholarly and philosophical debate flourished in the
