Journal of East China Normal University(Educationa ›› 2017, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (2): 24-32+116.doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2017.02.003

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Equity Transition of Educational Purpose

XIANG Xianming   

  1. School of Educational Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097
  • Online:2017-04-20 Published:2017-03-27

Abstract: Equity and educational equity are historical concepts, with different connotations in the historical contexts. Educational equity, closely related to social equity, is an educational and public policy issue. Educational equity can be explored from the perspectives of politics, sociology, ethics and pedagogy. Studies can also be conducted at the level of implementation, social structure and core values. Freedom being priority among equity principles, human's free development has its priority over educational equity. On the one hand, educational quality is hard to measure; on the other hand, educational equity is hardly guaranteed by school-choice and equalization, where the key is human's freedom to choose in education."Freedom" here refers to its authenticity but not unconditional indulgence. If we draw a John Rowel's"Veil of Ignorance" for all school-choosing people, and no one knows how his/her choice influences future development. Then, educational choice reflects the authenticity of freedom and everyone can choose from their interests and expectation for their future development. However, there is an alienated relationship between human being and their education in modern society. Human being is considered as a tool. Educational purpose has changed from human's development to upward social mobility,which has deprived humans of their freedom in education choice. This is the fundamental cause to impair educational equity. The solution to educational alienation is to make human as educational purpose, which is essential in socialist and communist education. Freedom is a fundamental principle for educational equity.#br#Educational equity won't happen if one's freedom is limited by a state's compulsory power. Human's free development is a fundamental principle. Educational equity recognizes natural equality and that free development for all is educational purpose. The inclusive and diversified education helps all develop their interest and potential. Performance of education shouldn't be evaluated by upward social mobility. Communist society is expected to diminish human's self-alienation and in socialist society, educational purpose should be human's free development as its key connotation.

Key words: educational purpose, educational equity, human's development, pedagogy