“Building Digital Communities” is one of the ten major actions of the New Education Initiative. This paper aims to systematically review over two decades of theoretical exploration and practical experience in the “Building Digital Communities” action of the New Education Initiative, elucidating its essence, value, principles, and methodologies. With the core concept of living a happy and complete educational life, this paper deeply integrates technologies including Internet, big data, and generative AI, to plan new pathways for action upgrades in the digital-intelligent era and explore more possibilities for technology-empowered education. This paper calls for the joint construction of digital-intelligent communities and the co-creation of a new educational ecosystem, contributing the wisdom and strength of New Education to the construction of a socialist modernization strong country in education.
In the current field of Chinese humanities and social sciences, there is a paradigm shift from viewing indigenous analytical units as “objects” or “ends” to using them as “methods”. This shift aims to identify analytical units sensitive to capturing Chinese experiences, thereby constructing an autonomous knowledge system that fosters subjectivity and global dialogue. The “Chinese class headteacher” is such a unit, deeply embedded in Chinese basic education in China amid the successive transformations of Chinese path to education modernization. Its development reflects issues like the paradox of division of labor, individual-collective tensions, management myths, and discourse gaps.As a self-revolution in class headteacher research, it requires researchers to reconstruct an overall perspective on “the Chinese class headteacher”, inherit and develop the traditional Chinese academic research qualities and ethical responsibilities of seeking knowledge from facts. The specific practical approach lies in the two-way unfolding of “historicizing present experiences” and “localizing global perspectives”.
Amid intensifying global competition for academic discourse power, Chinese education scholars face a strategic imperative: communicating China’s educational narratives and innovating indigenous knowledge production paradigms to transcend “dependent knowledge creation.” Jing Zhou from Fujian Normal University and Jun Li, President of the Chinese Education Association, engaged in a dialogue focusing on educational narrative dissemination, the nexus between narrative and knowledge production, and pathways for emerging interdisciplinary development, reaching profound consensus. Jun Li emphasized that authentically communicating China’s educational stories requires respecting narrative diversity among stakeholders and adhering to the principle of “listening before speaking” alongside the JTB (truth, belief, justification) framework. His practice in constructing an autonomous knowledge system follows the pathway of “educational narrative→knowledge production→disciplinary development.” He proposed institutionalizing disciplines, cultivating international academic influence, and fostering cross-cultural scholarly communities to transform China’s educational experience into a discipline with both local distinctiveness and global relevance, thereby contributing to an independent pedagogical knowledge system.
As generative artificial intelligence (GAI) becomes increasingly embedded in educational practice, the inherent limitations of traditional self-regulated learning theory are becoming more pronounced: ontologically, it neglects the mediating role of the body; epistemologically, it adheres to a linear regulation paradigm; and in practice, it faces the challenge of fragmented technological support—making it difficult to effectively address learners’ complex developmental needs in learning to learn. With its generativity, human-computer interactivity, higher-order capabilities, and autonomy, GAI transcends the dualistic cognitive structure of subject and object. It co-constructs a triadic system of “subject-mediator (technology)-object” with the learner, thereby reshaping the meaning of “learning to learn” toward a model characterized by human-machine collaboration and directly addressing “Jobs question”. In this context, generative self-regulated learning (GSRL) emerges. Guided by dialectical constructivism and Vygotsky’s cognitive development theory at the macro level, and supported by micro-theoretical frameworks of human-technology relationship theory, embodied cognition theory, and dialogic theory, GSRL constructs a triple-loop pathway—“pure thinking-embodied experience-deep cognition”. This pathway not only redefines the logical framework of SRL but also enriches the contemporary connotation of “learning to learn”, signifying a genuine revolution of learning. At the same time, GSRL may pose risks such as loss of reflexivity, alienation of practice, deconstruction of subjectivity, and disruption of intersubjective communication. Therefore, a dialectical balance must be maintained between the instrumental rationality of technology and the value rationality of education, ensuring that education remains centered on human development and contributes to the construction of a Chinese educational knowledge system with both contemporary relevance and indigenous significance.
The rapid development of artificial intelligence is triggering a paradigmatic crisis in educational research. Through a critical inheritance of the “narrative turn” in the 1980s educational research, this study proposes the theory of the “second turn” in narrative inquiry for the AI era, constructing a new paradigm of “resisting data alienation” and “reconstructing humanistic narratives.” Centered on technological critique, the “second turn” achieves methodological breakthroughs via threefold paradigmatic innovation. Ontologically, it reveals how AI deconstructs and reconstructs educational experience, shifting narrative ontology from “human-centered experience” to a hybrid intentional existence of “human-technology-experience.” Epistemologically, guided by Feenberg’s secondary instrumentalization, it integrates techno-hermeneutics with Actor-Network Theory (ANT), redefining narrative production as a dynamic negotiation network between humans and technologies. Axiologically, it establishes a dynamic ethical review mechanism by embedding algorithm transparency audits and participatory negotiation procedures into research workflows, safeguarding the emancipatory potential of educational narratives. The practical pathways include transparent human-AI collaborative narrative collection, critically symbiotic human-machine decoding, technology-mediated narrative recreation, and dynamically negotiated ethical evaluation. Ultimately, the “second turn” fulfills dual missions: reconstructing narrative existential depth by resisting data alienation and building narrative resilience, while revolutionizing educational research’s humanistic character through constructing a techno-critical narrative community.
As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) becomes increasingly integrated into college students’ academic activities, some scholars and education administrators have expressed concerns about students’ blind reliance on GenAI and the potential weakening of higher-order thinking skills. Based on a survey of 12,678 undergraduates from 20 universities across China and empirical analysis, this study finds that most students exhibit a critical attitude when engaging in higher-order thinking tasks such as critical and creative activities with GenAI, and believe that GenAI-assisted learning positively contributes to their higher-order cognitive development. Furthermore, a latent profile analysis reveals four distinct types of GenAI-assisted learning users, reflecting the interaction between students' level of technology acceptance and their self-regulated learning abilities: (1) Cautious Experiencers (42%): low acceptance, high critical use; (2) Labor Substituters (24%): low acceptance, low critical use; (3) Balanced Explorers (21.2%): high acceptance, low critical use; (4) Deep Users (12.8%): high acceptance, high critical use. Based on these findings, the paper underscores the necessity for universities to guide undergraduates in the appropriate use of GenAI tools and proposes effective strategies such as targeted educational interventions and the cultivation of AI literacy. These measures aim to help students transition toward the ideal profile of "high acceptance – high critical use."
The implementation of curriculum standards is the process of transforming educational blueprints into reality, and the quality of its implementation largely determines the effectiveness of curriculum education. In response to the lack of research on the perspective of a nationwide implementation of the “Compulsory Education Information Technology Curriculum Standards (2022 Edition)”, this study conducted extensive research on information technology teachers nationwide using a scale survey method. The survey results reflect that most teachers have confidence in the reform of information technology curriculum standards, actively participate in curriculum standard learning, curriculum resource development and construction, and innovative teaching methods, and generally possess the basic competence of information technology curriculum teaching; At the same time, there are problems such as teachers' professional mismatch, insufficient understanding of curriculum standards, difficulty in supporting high-quality implementation of curriculum standards with existing curriculum resources, and inadequate appropriateness of teaching methods. Based on the actual situation of information technology curriculum construction, corresponding measures can be taken systematically from the aspects of optimizing teacher allocation, improving educational and teaching capabilities, innovating teaching methods, constructing digital and intelligent resource supply, and strengthening basic research to comprehensively promote the high-quality implementation of information technology curriculum standards.
The cultivation of digital literacy is an urgent priority. As a higher-order manifestation and a key means of fostering digital literacy, digital creation has become a crucial topic in the realm of digital education. Currently, digital creation education in China remains at an initial stage, highlighting the need for systematic theoretical guidance and practical frameworks. In this context, the present study deeply discusses the interweaving relationship between digital creation and digital literacy, reviews the evolution of digital creation from text and programming to multimedia and the metaverse, constructing a conceptual understanding of digital creation based on a digital literacy framework. The study identifies five key characteristics of digital creation: multimodal, intelligentization, inclusiveness, personalization and expansibility. In terms of theoretical foundations, the research focuses on the importance of constructionism and human-computer interaction theory for understanding digital creation. Additionally, this study sorted out three paradigms of digital creation in teaching: progressive training of tool mastery, transformational learning of discipline integration and project-driven comprehensive creation, so as to provide reference for the practical implementation of digital creation. Finally, the research proposes strategic recommendations for the development of digital creation across three dimensions: policy support, technological infrastructure, and pedagogical approaches.
Based on self-determination theory and career construction theory, this study systematically examines the impact of principals' authentic leadership on teachers' participation in school decision-making and its underlying mechanism. The results indicate that principals' authentic leadership significantly and positively predicts teachers' participation in school decision-making; basic psychological need satisfaction and job crafting each play a partial mediating role between principals' authentic leadership and teachers' participation in school decision-making, while the chain mediating effect of "basic psychological need satisfaction-job crafting" is also verified in this relationship. Additionally, teachers' career adaptability positively moderates the association between principals' authentic leadership and teachers' participation in school decision-making—specifically, the higher teachers' career adaptability, the stronger the positive impact of principals' authentic leadership on teachers' participation in school decision-making. Therefore, to promote teachers' participation in school decision-making and enhance school governance effectiveness, it is necessary to: improve principals' authentic leadership through the spirit of educators and foster a culture of respect and democracy; innovate teacher incentive mechanisms to stimulate their intrinsic motivation for participation; and emphasize the cultivation of teachers' career adaptability to enhance their capacity for effective participation.
Improving the status of teachers is an important foundation for building a highly qualified and professionalized teaching force for the new era. Starting from theoretical logic, teacher status refers to the position of the individual or group of teachers in the social hierarchy, and is comprehensively influenced by such elements as political status, economic status, professional status and social prestige. As the number of related policy supplies continues to increase, in order to realize the holistic goal of status enhancement, all policies must form a system and be synergistically promoted. From the perspective of vertical synergy, the policy system for improving teachers' status has been initially formed, but the relevant specific policies have not been incorporated into a coherent policy framework. From the perspective of horizontal synergy, the number of joint documents issued by multiple departments has increased, but there is insufficient complementarity between different policy initiatives. From the perspective of micro-articulation, the continuity and stability of policies in various fields are good, but there is insufficient correlation. Further analysis of the reasons for the lack of policy synergy reveals that there is a lack of a strong grip on policy synergy at the meta-policy level, an inadequate inter-ministerial and intra-ministerial synergy mechanism, and a lack of implementation of policies at the grass-roots level of government. Based on this, synergistic strategies are proposed in terms of establishing core basic policies, promoting specific policy synergies, establishing a cross-functional departmental joint meeting system, and clarifying the division of responsibilities at the upper and lower levels.
Against the backdrop of profound transformations in the global knowledge landscape and the growing urgency to construct China’s independent knowledge system, educational jurisprudence—an interdisciplinary field dedicated to studying the phenomena and laws of educational law—bears significant practical importance in building its own independent knowledge system. This endeavor is crucial for accurately grasping education’s political, people-centered, and strategic attributes, as well as advancing the modernization of educational governance capacity and governance systems.The construction of an independent knowledge system for Chinese educational jurisprudence aims to break free from the constraints of Western theories and address local educational issues in a way that better aligns with China’s national conditions, and its foundation lies in clearly defining its underlying logics: the educational logic, legal logic, and value logic. The educational logic, rooted in the fundamental attributes of Chinese education, clarifies that educational jurisprudence must serve the core mission of “nurturing talents for the Party and the nation,”safeguard the priority of educational development, and adhere to the people-centered value orientation. The legal logic focuses on the internal structure and operational mechanism of the knowledge system. It conducts in-depth analysis of the connotation of educational subjects’ rights under the guidance of the Constitution, demonstrates the systemic integration paradigm shifting from “branch law”to “domain law” to meet the complex governance needs of the lifelong education era, and emphasizes the realization of localized transformation in educational governance through a “dual-drive” model. The value logic is committed to addressing the inherent tensions among diverse values in educational practice and exploring dynamic adjustment methods and balancing paths for resolving value conflicts. These three interrelated and progressive logics together form a comprehensive framework characterized by theoretical consistency, practical guidance, and value leadership, laying a solid foundation for the deepening and innovation of the independent knowledge system of Chinese educational jurisprudence.
The nurturing of creative talent in basic and higher education has been a burgeoning movement in China. However, there is a lack of solid theoretical foundation and methodological guidance as to how talent identification and learning process evaluation can be done. This article proposes a three-phase theoretical framework of creative talent development based on developmental science. It uses the framing concepts of “proximal processes” and “dynamic changes” for situated appraisals and decision-making. It further proposes five application scenarios (selection, diagnosis, nurturing, counseling, and self-assessment), each carrying its own objectives, foci, and methods. The main argument is that assessment and evaluation need to go hand-in-hand with educational activities so that they become an integral part of nurturing creative talent and supporting optimal development. In this spirit, with the support of AI, we look forward to a future when a self-directed learning can be enhanced with an automated assessment/guidance system, and many students can learn to develop an innovative edge and make creative contributions in their own ways.
Scientists are critical drivers for the evolution of world centers of education, technology and talent. The evolution of the three major centers is positioned around scientists, showing high correlation with knowledge accumulation and scientists’ mobility. Constructing a database of 204,643 scientists on education, technology, and talent, through correlation analysis, principal component analysis, OLS regression analysis, and Granger causality analysis, it is found that scientists take center stage to the three major centers and significantly contribute to the development of economy, education and technology. Cohort analysis and Kernal density estimation analysis reveal that the evolution of three centers is consistent. Scientist cultivation in era of big science can focus on three aspects: clarifying the centrality of scientists in an epistemological sense, shortening the time lag between the transformation of scientists’ human capital and social value, and considering the national government a leading force in the identification and nurturing of scientists.
Building a scientifically valid and operationally feasible measurement indicator system for adolescent innovation capability that aligns with contemporary developmental demands is crucial for identifying innovative talent and advancing the autonomous cultivation of top-tier innovators in China. Given the inconsistent validity of indicators in prior studies, this study employs meta-analysis to comprehensively analyze 45 quantitative studies (including 35,424 independent samples) from the Web of Science database, focusing on measurement indicators and influencing factors of adolescent innovation capability. The results reveal that five first-level dimensions—learning agility, problem-solving ability, practical operational ability, teamwork competency, and resilience—significantly predict adolescent innovation capability. Among the second-level indicators, ideational fluency demonstrates the strongest correlation with innovation capability, whereas empathic ability shows the weakest predictive effect. Furthermore, the meta-analysis identifies sample mean age, gender, and measurement tool type as significant moderators of the relationship between these indicators and innovation capability, while cultural background exhibits no moderating effect. The study proposes a multidimensional measurement system for adolescent innovation capability based on these findings, comprising five primary dimensions and 14 specific indicators.
The mobility and clustering of international academic talent is changing fundamentally. Under the change of global “center-periphery” system, “clustering talent through international education” and “clustering talent through international academic professional opportunity” have emerged as two major approaches to attracting and assembling international talent. Based on the analysis of overseas returnees and foreign scholars in “double first-class universities” in China, the study finds that China has established the brain circulation relations with the center countries of world academic system. International education of international students, and reversed returning of overseas Chinese undergraduates have become the weak approaches to “clustering talent through international education”. Overseas Chinese academic returning to China and inflow of foreign international scholars have respectively been the weak and strong approaches to “clustering talent through international academic professional opportunity”. It is suggested that conductive institutional measures need to be implemented so as to lure more scholars working in China, and the pace of building up the regional higher education hub and global talent center should be sped up.
In the new trend of childbirth in our country, studying the trends of fertility motivations of highly-educated women across different generations is of forward-looking significance for understanding the future societal trends in childbirth. Based on Miller et al.’s classification of fertility motivation and the theory of planned behavior, this paper constructs a child-specific fertility motivation measurement framework for highly-educated women of childbearing age, and investigates the generational differences in fertility motivations among 1,030 female doctoral degree holders and candidates in our country. The results show that: the fertility motivation for having one child among female doctorate holders and candidates is strongly individualistic, with value and emotional motivations having the most positive impact; time cost and career development opportunities are the primary negative motivations, with older generations being heavily constrained by health conditions and younger generations being significantly constrained by economic costs. The fertility motivation for having a second child places greater emphasis on family factors, with the motivation for child development being the most important, and the motivation for gender preference growing stronger among younger generations; the influence of family resource constraints on fertility intentions is more pronounced for second-child aspirations compared to first-child decisions. Samples with compromised health status demonstrate fertility motivations that are predominantly driven by familial and societal factors, while those who are either only-children or married exhibit familialism-oriented fertility motivations. In order to stimulate positive fertility motivations and mitigate the impact of negative fertility motivations among highly-educated women of childbearing age in China, it is recommended to explore flexible working arrangements and parental leave, reduce the time cost for women to care for their families; provide high-quality and inclusive childcare services to ensure the continuity of career development before and after childbirth; expand the coverage of maternity and medical insurance, and reduce the age and health condition restrictions on childbirth; comprehensively reduce the economic costs of raising multiple children, and relax the economic resource constraints on families of childbearing age.
In the context of the dual pressures of high-level talent cultivation strategies and intensifying employment competition, pursuing a graduate degree has become one of the primary educational choices for the majority of Chinese youth. The extension of higher education duration not only represents a vertical extension of one’s academic career but also has profound effects on the construction of individual life courses. This extension may exacerbate the “education-employment-marriage-childbearing” temporal squeeze, potentially accelerating the process of low fertility rate in China. Based on data from the national university student tracking survey, this study investigates the impact of graduate education choices on college students’ future marriage and childbearing intentions. The findings reveal that graduate education significantly inhibits students’ marriage intentions, delays their expected age at first marriage, reduces their childbearing intentions, and lowers their expected number of children. Notably, the inhibitory effects are more pronounced among female students and those from low-income family backgrounds. This study expands the theoretical perspective on the relationship between education and marriage/childbearing, providing empirical evidence for future collaborative reforms in higher education systems and population policies.
In recent years, the reform of compulsory education has been continuously deepened, but the phenomenon of insufficient student motivation remains widespread and tends to affect younger students. This continues to be a significant challenge in the field of education. To effectively improve students’ intellectual development, it is crucial to understand the characteristics and developmental patterns of students’ learning motivation. Based on the situated expectancy-value theory, this study explored the latent transitions of primary school students’ motivation profiles and examined the impact of gender, socio-economic status, and parenting styles on these transitions. The study conducted three rounds of one-year follow-up surveys and found that students’ perceptions of their learning ability, value, and cost could form four typical motivational profiles: the average motivation group, well-adapted group, poorly adapted group, and high-cost group. These profiles generally remained stable over the year, but there were also trajectories of transitions between different profiles. In terms of influencing factors, the results showed that girls exhibited more positive changes in learning motivation, while family economic status did not significantly affect motivational transitions. Furthermore, parental autonomy support positively influenced motivational transitions, whereas parental psychological control had a negative impact. These findings provide a scientific basis for understanding the patterns and developmental trends of primary school students’ learning motivation in China.
The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence is reshaping the foundations of educational research, exposing longstanding methodological and epistemological limitations while introducing new complexities. Traditional educational research has been constrained by inconsistent peer review, quantitative bias and false precision, paradigm wars between qualitative and quantitative traditions, overgeneralization across diverse contexts, neglect of learner individuality, a dominant focus on typical rather than possible educational futures, and an overly narrow definition of educational outcomes. These issues have limited the field’s relevance, validity, and impact. AI amplifies these challenges by accelerating the obsolescence of educational interventions, fundamentally altering the question of what knowledge is of most worth, and transforming learning environments through human–AI collaboration. These developments demand research approaches informed by complexity science, distributed cognition, and sociotechnical critique, particularly in relation to ethics, equity, algorithmic bias, and surveillance. At the same time, AI is transforming literature reviews, research design, and epistemic assumptions, shifting educational research from static causal models toward dynamic, co-evolving systems, and from human-centered interpretation to hybrid human–machine knowledge production. This paper argues that educational research must move beyond existing paradigmatic limitations and embrace more adaptive, participatory, pluralistic, and future-oriented methodologies. Such a transformation represents not merely an improvement but a rebirth of educational research necessary for maintaining scientific rigor, ethical responsibility, and societal relevance in the age of AI.
Artificial intelligence is reopening the history Fukuyama once declared closed. Centering on a “Technology-Governance” Dual Curve framework, this paper examines the widening “legitimacy gap” between technology’s exponential rise and governance’s linear lag, arguing that bridging this gap holds the key to confronting today’s global crises. Three structural transformations emerge: ideological competition has migrated from the “ideas versus institutions” battleground to the “technology versus governance” arena; computing power, data, and intelligence have become the new “political surplus” reshaping national power; and individuals find themselves caught between two predicaments—Fukuyama’s “last man” and the algorithm-driven “predicted man.” These shifts have opened three critical gaps—in interpretation, in norms, and in order—that call urgently for a systematic response from the humanities, social sciences, and education. Drawing on Latour’s actor-network theory, the paper contends that education must shoulder a dual mission: fostering AI literacy for effective human-machine collaboration, while rebuilding humanistic literacy to equip citizens with the capacity to audit algorithms, challenge automated decisions, and participate in governance. Only by advancing both tracks in tandem can society cultivate the resilience to self-correct and rebuild the trust networks and legitimacy that a human-machine symbiotic era demands.
The new generation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is having a profound and far-reaching impact on the economy and economics, and there is an urgent need for innovation in economics and its talent cultivation paradigm. Therefore, this article first analyzes the rapid development trend of artificial intelligence technology and reviews the existing research on the impact of artificial intelligence on disciplines including economics. Secondly, further analysis was conducted on the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence technology for economics, and it was clarified that the new orientation of economic development in the era of artificial intelligence is to achieve a fundamental transformation from classical econometrics driven by iteration, integration, and upgrading to AI technology driven. Based on this, we innovatively propose a “five dimensional” foundational literacy for cultivating economic talents in the AI era, including domain knowledge and skills, interdisciplinary integration skills, data-driven skills, AI application skills, and frontier sensitivity skills. We also classify talents into research-oriented and application-oriented categories, and analyze the unique literacy needs of these two types of talents in detail. Finally, this article analyzes the innovative path of educational reform and reasonable institutional arrangements for cultivating economic talents in the era of artificial intelligence from two dimensions: the transformation of teaching through digitalization and learning through interactivity. It can be said that the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology will accelerate the pace of the construction of new liberal arts, further promoting the innovation of talent cultivation paradigms that deeply integrate economics with other disciplines such as technology, ethics, and society, as well as industry and practice.
The development of online courses has become a critical driver of global higher education’s digital transformation, characterized by complex and dynamic patterns in disciplinary and regional evolution. Drawing on data from 168,115 courses offered by 965 universities and research institutions across 57 countries between 2012 and 2022, this study employs complex network analysis combined with the theories of comparative advantage and product space to construct a global digital course space and explore proximity effects in online course development. The results reveal a distinct “core-periphery” structure within the global digital course space. Over the long term, universities tend to develop courses closely aligned with their existing comparative advantages, demonstrating a reliance on proximity. In the short term, however, a greater emphasis on diversification is observed. Regionally, the degree of digital transformation in course development is strongly tied to national economic development, with North America maintaining significant advantages in traditional disciplines and emerging technologies, while developing nations lag behind in computer science and advanced technology. Additionally, the distribution of proximity within the course space significantly shapes the pathways of digital transformation, constraining the efficiency and scalability of course upgrading. This study suggests that universities need to strengthen their disciplinary comparative advantages by optimising their curricular structures, thereby advancing the digital transformation of higher education.
In the context of building China into a powerhouse in education, the focus of international curriculum research needs to shift from mere introduction to mutual learning. The global promotion of international curricula in basic education, like the International Baccalaureate (IB), has made full use of historical opportunities and a shared global educational consensus. However, the core challenge lies in effectively navigating tensions and conflicts encountered when such curricula enter national education systems—particularly those involving international mindedness versus national identity, performance orientation versus holistic education, and elite education versus inclusive education. Through extensive literature review, case studies, and analysis based on Actor-Network Theory (ANT), this study finds that the mechanisms by which international curricula address these tensions are dynamically negotiated among diverse actors—governments, schools, markets, and civil society—within various cultural contexts. To shift from curriculum introduction to mutual learning, it is essential to foster a new understanding that promotes the global articulation of educational value discourses, the creation of social negotiation networks among diverse actors, and the development of multi-level localization models. This approach aims to achieve a two-way construction and embedded negotiation between Chinese curricula and overseas local education systems. It offers a practical pathway to enhance the international influence of Chinese curricula and promote dialogue and mutual learning between Chinese and other international curricula.
The sense of place among rural teachers serves as a crucial emotional bond for sustaining the rural educational ecosystem, and its cultivation holds strategic significance for the revitalization of rural education. Guided by the theory of sense of place, this study deconstructs rural teachers’ sense of place into four dimensions: place cognition, place dependence, place attachment, and place identity. Employing an innovative photovoice method, a qualitative research was conducted on 24 rural teachers to systematically explore the formation and cultivation paths of their sense of place.The findings reveal that material space stimulates the linear generation of the sense of place through environmental elements; teachers’ daily behavioral practices shape the sense of place non-linearly via human-environment interaction; and key events process the sense of place by triggering mental imagery movements. These three factors interact multidimensionally and collaboratively to shape rural teachers’ sense of place. Based on these findings, a strategy system for cultivating rural teachers’ sense of place should be established from three aspects: reconstructing the embodied material environment and activating the potential of spatial narratives; innovating interactive practical activities to co-shape emotional connections; and creating a positive emotional atmosphere to drive emotional resonance. This study breaks through traditional research paradigms, realizes the visual “presentation” of “on-site” experiences through photovoice, dynamically analyzes the complex process of sense of place formation, and provides new theoretical and practical approaches for the construction of rural teacher teams and the revitalization of rural education.
In 2012, China launched the policy of professional tilting senior towards rural teachers. After more than ten years, the problem of “historical arrears” caused by the low proportion of senior teachers in rural areas has been effectively resolved. This policy has provided varying degrees of contribution to promoting the professional growth of rural teachers, increasing their salary and benefits, enhancing their career attractiveness. But with the advancement of reforms, the proportion of senior teachers in rural areas has grown too fast and there are significant inter-provincial differences. In some provinces, there is an inverted urban-rural ratio, and the obvious gap between high rural and low urban teachers has become apparent. There is a significant gap between the literacy, professional vitality, and high-quality teacher demand of senior rural teachers. In accelerating the construction of a strong education country, the goal should be to improve the professional level of teachers and adhere to professional title evaluation and appointment towards rural teachers. Based on urban-rural integration, establish and improve a moderate tilt mechanism for senior teacher positions towards rural teachers. With attracting outstanding talents as the core, we will implement a tilt policy towards rural teachers with outstanding contributions and high potential for literacy in senior teacher positions. Using the high-quality teaching staff assist rural education in better serving the construction of an education powerhouse.
Lifelong education should be provided in the Education Code. The specific pathway for lifelong education into the Education Code can be analyzed from the perspective of legal dogmatics, employing methods of conceptual interpretation and systemic positioning. Compared with the concept of “lifelong learning”, the concept of “lifelong education” aligns with China’s existing educational legislation while also corresponding to its normative focus. In terms of specific connotation, the concept of lifelong education encompasses both an ideational dimension and a systemic dimension. On the ideational dimension, lifelong education should be established as one of the fundamental principles in the Education Code, guiding the structural arrangement of the specific provisions at a macro level and informing the formulation of specific regulations at a micro level. On the systemic dimension, lifelong education should be provided as an independent section within the Education Code at a meso level, stipulating its basic types, contents, and norms in connection with the national education system.
An accurate understanding of the purpose of the Triangle Partnership (partnership among schools families-society led by governments)serves as the most fundamental cornerstone and essential prerequisite for its effectiveness. “What”Triangle Partnership is for operates by optimizing the social environment and refining operational modalities, which in turn exerts an influence on individuals’ life experiences and further facilitates their growth progression and transformative growth. It needs a collective societal endeavour to rebuild expectations for childhood, enhance childhood experiences, and return to and reconstruct the Evolved Developmental Niche (EDN) of childhood——a process that may be termed “Experience Education” (“Bildung”). EDN childhood, an objective baseline from humanity’s evolution, is a prosocial paradigm of mixed-age free play, social learning and emotional harmony, with no educational goals but abundant fun. Fundamentally, as a core strategic task and capacity-building priority for constructing a leading education powerhouse, the Triangle Partnership is fundamentally the Construction of Modern Educational Institution. The Triangle Partnership, core to building an education powerhouse, focuses on optimal childhood and its social operation mode, aiming to reconstruct an EDN via family-anchored "dual reconstruction of childhood" for societal and national development.
To facilitate the codification of the Education Code, it is imperative to systematically organize and analyze the existing research findings. The academic community has reached a certain consensus on key aspects such as the concept, necessity, feasibility, challenges, timing, moderate codification approach, digitization, and legal responsibilities of the Education Code. However, divergences remain regarding its positioning, compilation model, and logical thread. Moreover, there has been an insufficient review of the achievements in the development of the educational system. Future research should address the shortcomings of existing studies and strengthen the investigation of legislative gaps in education and issues related to legal reservations. These legislative gaps include, but are not limited to, the evaluation system for the effectiveness of moral education and the assurance system for equitable and high-quality secondary education. Issues related to legal reservations encompass specialized education and the fundamental right to education.
Secondary education serves as a pivotal link in the entire school system, wherein a slight adjustment can affect the system as a whole. Simultaneously, secondary education represents an intermediate stage with the most complex contradictions and challenges within the educational structure of any nation or society, often regarded as a “globally unsolved puzzle.” The concept of the “intermediacy” of secondary education is formulated to address this puzzle; it summarizes and articulates the fundamental characteristics, major assumptions, internal contradictions, and developmental approaches of this stage. This paper describes and analyzes the complexity of secondary education and the specific characteristics of the Chinese context. It proposes three major assumptions regarding secondary education and provides an in-depth elaboration of its fundamental contradictions and internal tensions. In particular, the study systematically examines the content, function, and significance of self-identity. The article argues that within the internal contradictions concerning secondary education and the growth process of students, self-identity represents the principal aspect. It is a key factor directly influencing the high-quality development of secondary education and the healthy growth of students. Moreover, self-identity constitutes the theoretical variable with the strongest explanatory power for various phenomena in secondary education and embodies the core connotation of its “intermediacy”. Therefore, helping and guiding students to achieve the phased goals of self-identity in a timely manner is the primary task of secondary education reform and development.
As a crucial component of China’s education system, the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) not only serves the functions of talent selection and educational evaluation but also acts as an effective approach and a significant educational method for cultivating morality and fostering talent. Gaokao reform has long been a focal point in the field of educational research. In particular, the Gaokao evaluation system, as the core implementation basis for deepening the content reform of Gaokao in the new era, plays a pivotal role in guiding Gaokao test design, making it a critical topic in current research. Based on the Chinese Gaokao evaluation system, this study systematically explores the fundamental concepts and overall framework of Gaokao reform from an upstream research, proposing a new concept for Gaokao content reform guided by subject competencies. In midstream research, it further investigates how to construct an overall test design framework for Gaokao reform based on the subject competency system. Finally, in downstream research, it provides an in-depth analysis of the design of subject-specific test design plans based on subject competencies, thereby completing a closed-loop study of the overall concept and implementation pathways of Gaokao reform.
Creating an institutional environment that supports the development of students’ creative thinking is a critical foundation for building an education powerhouse. High-stakes testing (HST) has played an important role in improving educational quality and ensuring fairness, but it is also widely seen as a major constraint on creativity. Yet its actual effects on students’ creative thinking and the mechanisms behind them remain unclear. Drawing on the perspective of multiple institutional logics and data from PISA 2022, this study examined the effects and mechanisms of HST on students’ creative thinking by applying three-level hierarchical linear modeling, quantile regression, cross-level interaction, and mediation analysis.The findings revealed that (1) systems with more HST were more likely to have lower creativity scores; (2) the impact of HST was strongly differentiated across student groups, with more negative effects for students with lower cognitive ability, weaker creative thinking, and disadvantaged family backgrounds; (3) the negative impact of HST was also more pronounced for schools with lower educational quality and relatively scarce resources; (4) as intermediate organizations that transmitted institutional pressure, schools in high-stakes environments tended to increase “creative” activities, yet these activities were often formalistic and symbolic, and thus did not substantively enhance students’ creative thinking—even well-resourced schools tended to engage in such symbolic innovation practices. For China, these results underline the importance of advancing education evaluation reform, reducing the dominance of single-metric HST, and building a more diversified evaluation system that creates an environment supportive of cultivating innovative talents.
From the perspective of economic history, the deep integration of industry and education, driven by active participation from enterprises, has optimized vocational education outcomes, improved the quality of skilled talent, and promoted industrial development. In the current context of intensified international competition and accelerated industrial and technological transformation, the methods and degree of integration between industry and education struggle to meet the strategic demands of national industrial policies.Theoretically, the deep integration of industry and education in vocational education can balance talent supply and demand, enhance enterprise utility, and increase social welfare. However, in practice, the various stakeholders involved—government, educational institutions, industries, and enterprises—often have conflicting interests, making it difficult to achieve synergy. The underlying issue lies in the lack of a clear accountability mechanism. The positive externalities of vocational education as a public good result in inefficient resource allocation, while market failures hinder effective regulation.To address these challenges, policies should focus on clarifying stakeholder interests and employing scientific accounting methods to allocate the educational costs that talent users should bear. Establishing new contracts and fostering new social expectations can facilitate cost-sharing mechanisms to correct market failures, thereby preventing the cyclical issues of localized talent shortages and surpluses.
China's promotion of integration between vocational education and general education is by no means a compromise with social opinion, the control of vocational education and general education ratio, not to mention the internal reform of the vocational education system itself, but the active adaptation of education to the national economic and social development, is the key means to enhance the quality of independent training of talents, and is the need for all levels of various types of education collaborative efforts in the systematic project. At present, the essence of promoting the integration of vocational and general education in China is the readjustment of the starting point of professional talent cultivation. The key is to integrate the cognitive value of knowledge into high school education, with the focus on opening up the growth paths of engineering and technical talents. In this regard, China should deepen the integration of vocational and general education through an overall transformation of the education system, re-establish the positioning of vocational and general education in the high school stage, return to the original intention of preparing for higher education, optimize the dual channels of academic and vocational development in higher education, highlight the mission of professional talent cultivation, establish a talent evaluation system that allows the intercommunication of knowledge and experience, and meet the needs of diverse talent growth.
Without technological innovation from the craftsmen working on the front lines of production, it is difficult to achieve a fundamental breakthrough in the problem of “big but not strong” made in China. The cultivation of craftsmen’s technological innovation ability is the key content of the current construction of a strong country in education. Technological innovation as an essential part of craftsmen has not always been the case. The development of industrial technology has continuously deconstructed and reconstructed the connotation of craftsmen. After undergoing the connotation evolution from “the artistry of skill” in the development stage of physical experience technology in ancient times to “proficiency in action” in the development stage of mechanical technology in modern times, technological innovation has become the core essence of contemporary craftsmen under the background of the development of intelligent manufacturing technology. The cultivation of craftsmen’s technological innovation ability has its realistic basis, including the theoretical logic of the independent status of craftsmen’s technological innovation, the division of labor model basis from vertical to integrated, and the ability guarantee that craftsmen have the potential for technological innovation. The key characteristics of cultivation of craftsmen’s technological innovation ability can be summarized as follows: the type of responsibility points to practical experience, the scope of responsibility focuses on technical details, and the growth path emphasizes “reflection-practice”. Based on this, the cultivation of craftsmen’s technological innovation ability should focus on three issues: in terms of the cultivation subject, a talent cultivation pattern with vocational education as the core and the participation of multiple subjects should be formed; in terms of the cultivation content, technical knowledge should be taken as the knowledge theory basis of talent cultivation; in terms of the cultivation strategy, the methodological support of reflective practice should be emphasized.
The sustained decline in China’s birth rate will significantly impact the higher education sector. Disparities among provinces in demographic shifts and higher education resource endowments further complicate the system’s response. This study employs a multi-factor population projection model to forecast the scale of the higher education-age population at both national and provincial levels for 2025—2040. Results indicate that provincial trends in higher education-age populations diverge from the national trajectory, exhibiting distinct patterns that can be categorized into four types: rapid rise followed by sharp decline, steady rise followed by abrupt drop, steady rise with gradual decline, and fluctuating decline. Based on provincial-level data on age-group population shifts and higher education resources, the study categorizes China’s 31 provinces and municipalities into six policy pressure zones according to their future adjustment pressures, regulatory flexibility, and adjustment priorities. It proposes establishing a nationwide, multi-generational long-term mechanism for allocating higher education resources alongside dynamic, differentiated provincial policy responses. Optimizing the spatial distribution of institutions is essential to effectively address challenges arising from shifts in the higher education age-group population.
Amidst rising individualism and the rapid expansion of higher education, effectively supporting highly-educated women in balancing career development and childbearing has emerged as a crucial challenge for advancing both the construction of a leading country of education and fostering high-quality population development. Grounded in preference theory and the conservation of resources theory, this study develops a theoretical framework to explore how workplace Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) influences fertility intentions among highly-educated women. Using empirical data from the “Highly Educated Women’s Fertility Intentions” survey, the analysis reveals that career development is a priority for these women, with workplace FoMO exerting a significant negative effect on their willingness to have more children. Furthermore, the study identifies work-life balance as a mediator in this relationship, while spousal involvement in childcare mitigates the negative impact of workplace FoMO on work-life balance. However, intergenerational support shows only a limited buffering effect. Workplace FoMO exerts a statistically significant negative impact on fertility intentions among highly educated women aged 38 and below, whereas no such effect is observed in women over 38. Based on these insights, the study recommends policies to foster a supportive environment for working women that balances career development with caregiving responsibilities, establish a policy system for father parenting incentives and effectively increase their participation in parenting, and optimize alternative caregiving mechanisms through strengthening high-quality institutional childcare support networks.
The construction of an independent knowledge system of educational jurisprudence in China is a major academic proposition, arising from the deep integration of China’s educational rule-of-law practices with the development of the discipline itself. Understanding this proposition requires starting from both historical inevitability and realistic motivations, thereby addressing the fundamental question: why must it be independent? Independence represents the intrinsic unity of autonomy and localization. The independence of educational jurisprudence as a discipline is embodied within the process of localization, and ultimately achieved through the realization of localization as their inner unity. In the construction of an independent knowledge system of educational jurisprudence, “real problems” in China’s educational practice should serve as the primary materials, while the “core propositions” distilled from them serve as the direct materials. Therefore, the construction of such a knowledge system must respond to China’s real problems and integrate into China’s cultural context. At the same time, this is a dynamic developmental process that requires both self-reflection within the knowledge system and critical reflection that transcends it, so as to continuously advance toward refinement and maturity.
The rank institution for primary and secondary school principals serves as an institutional arrangement aimed at promoting professional development among principals and modernizing school governance. However, its implementation faces challenges such as fragmented regional practices and insufficient scientific grounding. This study systematically analyzes the design features, regional practice models, and inherent governance logic of the rank structure, the core institutional vehicle within China’s reform, to address the deep-seated tensions between standardization and differentiation, as well as between motivation and sustainability. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, this research integrates a comparative analysis of policy documents from 30 regions, a questionnaire survey of 1,172 principals nationwide, and field interviews in several pioneering reform areas, enabling cross-validation from multiple data sources. The findings reveal that the rank structure exhibits dual institutional characteristics of vertical stratification and horizontal differentiation. Existing practices can be categorized into three regional models: “multi-tier grading systems,” “basic hierarchy systems,” and “separate-track position sequences.” The system’s rationale is built on a triple institutional logic—facilitating professional development, implementing fiscally sustainable incentives, and integrating bureaucratic and professional elements. Accordingly, this study proposes a differentiated central-local governance framework: the central government should establish a four-tier benchmark structure, a composite ratio control mechanism, and a fiscally graded security system; local governments should conduct differentiated adaptations, and multi-stakeholder collaboration mechanisms should be introduced. The ultimate aim is to deeply integrate the rank structure into the educational governance system, transforming it from a mere personnel management tool into an institutional cornerstone for realizing educator-led school innovation.
A good educational ecology is an inherent part of a high-quality education system and a core indicator of building a strong educational nation. Based on the perspectives of systems theory, environmental theory, and functionalism, this paper draws on the “fourth-generation evaluation” theory and constructs an evaluation index system for the educational ecology index through multiple rounds of Delphi method, encompassing five dimensions: educational equity, standardized school operation, teacher and student burden, collaborative education, and student development. The educational ecology index is evaluated based on 10,651 household survey data from 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government in 2024. The evaluation results show that the average score of the national educational ecology index is 66.70. Through cluster analysis, the 31 provincial units can be divided into four categories, presenting a gradient pattern of the eastern region leading, the northeastern region following closely, the western region in the middle, and the central region catching up. The study finds that the main factors affecting the educational ecology include deviations in the educational performance view of local party committees and governments, the dependence of educational resource allocation on economic development, and weak collaboration in home-school-community education. It is suggested to reconstruct the educational performance view to guide the educational evaluation baton, establish a performance-oriented educational resource allocation mechanism, leverage the quality improvement of classroom teaching and the coordination effect of the “double reduction” policy, promote the legalization of home-school-community collaboration in education, establish and improve a negative list management mechanism, and drive the transformation of China’s basic education ecology from “exam-oriented” to “harmonious education”, fully supporting the construction of a strong educational nation.
Labor, as the essential mode of existence distinguishing humans from animals, constitutes the core proposition of Marxist humanistic theory. Examining the practical dilemma of “value alienation” in labor education from this theoretical perspective, and clarifying the intrinsic connections between labor, labor education, and its ontological value, this paper draws upon core Marxist concepts concerning “human essence” “human needs” “human value” and “human development”. It proposes the inherent characteristics labor education itself should pursue—namely, its humanistic attribute, value attribute, need attribute, and developmental attribute—thus providing a frame of reference for the return of contemporary labor education to its ontological value of “cultivating human beings through labor”. Realizing the ontological value of labor education requires using Marxist humanistic theory as the overarching foundation. This necessitates driving a transformation in the goals and philosophy of labor education—shifting it from an instrumental means towards a path confirming “the species-being of humans.” It demands establishing the primacy of labor education’s “ontological value” over its “instrumental value,” thereby correcting the practical deviation of simplifying labor education into an appendage of other forms of education. Furthermore, it requires clarifying the content boundaries, shifting labor education from satisfying the “need for cultivating talents” to the “need for cultivating human beings.” Only through the coordinated advancement of these three aspects can labor education, in practice, achieve the real confirmation of human essential powers, ultimately fulfilling its logical aim: cultivating a new generation for the times through the essence of humanity.
中国人文社会科学核心期刊
