China Education Innovation Institute of Beijing Normal University (CEII, BNU) was entrusted by World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) to summarize the global experience of developing 21st Century Skills and Competencies. It aims to help policy makers, education leaders and researchers to have a comprehensive understanding of the formulation, connotation and implementation of 21st Century Competencies around the world. International organizations or economies use various terms to describe the educational goals. For the purpose of the current study we use the term “21st Century Skills and Competencies” or “21rst Century Competencies”. A competency is, therefore, a broader concept that may comprise skills, attitudes and knowledge. The study has four aims: (a) to identify the driving forces behind these competencies, (b) to analyze the elements and structures of the frameworks, (c) to investigate the implementation of the frameworks in education, and (d) to discuss necessary support from government and communities. Finally, suggestions are put forward based on the above analysis. Official publications on the frameworks of 21st Century Competencies by five international organizations and 24 countries or regions have been reviewed. The frameworks represent organizations or economies from six different continents. The inclusion of more economies from Asia, Africa and South America in this study presents more substantive research findings, compared with previous studies focusing on Europe or America. The economies are at different stages of their development. Besides, the inclusion of middleincome economies may be a meaningful expansion of previous studies. The research process includes defining the terms, identifying the research questions, selecting research subjects, reviewing literature and writing the report, suggesting strategies to promote, develop and apply these competencies, etc. As the outcome of this study, the report EDUCATION FOR THE FUTURE: Global Experience of Developing 21st Century Skills and Competencies was published in this journal, together with four research papers centered around the four aims. The papers are: (a) Driving Forces under the Construction of 21st Century Competencies, (b) Analysis of 21st Century Competencies and Frameworks, (c) Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, and Assessment for 21st Century Competencies, (d) Supporting 21st Century Competencies education. We conclude this study with some issues worthy of further study, e. g, what competencies are needed today and in the future and how they can be cultivated? The traditional Chinese philosophy (e.g. dealing with changes with changelessness) could offer alternative perspectives on these issues. On the one hand, it requires considering whether there are some core competencies based on children’s cognitive development. Moreover, the wholeperson development is not simply a total of these competencies. Therefore it’s essential to explore the connotation of a “whole person” and the way to cultivate such a person.
What kind of talents should be nurtured to embrace the future? What competencies should they have? These are the perennial questions most countries have been pondering. The stakes are high when they try to identify the future direction for education and set development goals. Demands from all sides must be taken into consideration, including an understanding of the changing era and the transformations in science & technology, demands for social and economic development, as well as the challenges arising from the educational sector. These factors, as the driving forces behind 21st century competencies, affect their frameworks and connotations. This paper presents the ten driving forces identified by different international organizations and economies. Often, they fall into three categories: a) changes in science and technology: globalization, knowledge age, scientific and technological development; b) economic and social development: economic growth, occupational needs, demographic changes, multicultural trends, environmental and sustainable development; c) educational development: education equity and quality improvement. The results show that there are both similarities and differences among the driving forces identified by the international organizations and economies. Over half of the 29 international organizations or economies put a focus on six driving forces: globalization, knowledge age, scientific and technological development and information age, economic growth, occupational competencies and education quality improvement. This indicates that these driving forces are, to some extent, universal. Fewer than half international organizations or economies focus on demographical changes, multiculturalism, environment and sustainable development, educational equity. In addition, these driving forces tend to reflect regional or national demands. Some highincome economies are now pursuing knowledge economy as a priority, while some middle or lowermiddle income groups are more concerned with educational equity. Highincome economies are more concerned with the needs of knowledge age, which may reflect their postindustrial context. The driving force of knowledge age attracts more attention to education reform of highincome economies while the middle or lowermiddleincome groups are more concerned with educational equity. This paper concludes with three suggestions on how to generate these driving forces for various economies: a) policymaking should be based on a comprehensive, indepth analysis of the driving forces at a global level; b) when identifying the driving forces, societies should fully consider their levels of socioeconomic development, cultural traditions and geographical features; and c) education policies based on driving forces need to center on the nature and developmental needs of children.
Due to the overlap in their educational goals, international organizations and economies possess both similarities and differences in the selection and framework construction of 21st Century Competencies. This article first presents different frameworks for 21st Century Competencies. For instance, the framework of OECD aims to help its citizens live a successful life and develop wellfunctioning societies; the EU framework is to sharpen citizens’ learning skills and promote lifelong learning; and the US P21 framework is to cultivate creativity and entrepreneurship with a focus on the needs of job market. Frameworks of some Asian economies like Singapore, and Mainland China, emphasize core values and sense of responsibility. Still there are other frameworks focusing on enriching citizens’ daily life and improving the quality of their leisure time, such as Russia’s framework. Then it identifies 18 competencies from 29 frameworks, which are categorized into two groups: subjectspecific and general competencies. Next, the authors offer a comparative analysis of how much attention are paid to the 18 competencies in different frameworks, especially the discrepancy in competency selection between highincome, middleand lowerincome economies. Findings show that competency frameworks are characterized by inclusiveness, comprehensiveness and diversity. Seven competencies have gained attention from most organizations and economies, including competencies of communication and collaboration, information, creativity and problem solving, selfperception and selfcontrol, critical thinking, learning skills and lifelong learning, civic responsibility and social participation. However, competencies like environment, finance, life planning and wellbeing and leadership, which are considered important in future education development, are not incorporated in many frameworks. Moreover, most economies have incorporated competencies like language, mathematics, humanities, sports and health, critical thinking, communication and collaboration, civic responsibility and social participation. Highincome economies pay special attention to several competencies, such as information literacy, creativity and problem solving, crosscultural competence, especially selfperception and selfcontrol. Competencies like science and technology, art, environment, especially learning skills and lifelong learning, have become the focus of the middle and lowerincome groups. In conclusion, based on the analysis above, the article makes some policy suggestions regarding the development of 21st Century Competencies frameworks. Competencies should be developed in line with the times, global trends, regional demands, and local educational goals. The concept of competencies should be precisely interpreted and a systematic network within competencies should also be established. The framework and education practice of 21st century competencies should focus on lifelong learning. In particular, it’s important to pursue some eternal competencies facing the future.
To meet the challenges of globalization, knowledge age, and scientific and technological development, various frameworks of 21st Century Competencies have been constructed by different countries or regions. Fostering 21st Century Competencies is a sophisticated process which can only be achieved through multilayered education systems. Examples in official documents or research reports from various countries and regions could illustrate the ideas and understanding about how 21st Century Competencies could be incorporated into current educational systems. The examples show that curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment, as three interconnected elements in education, should target these competencies. First, the framework of 21stCentury Competencies should be integrated into every stage of K12 disciplinary curriculum. Meanwhile, some interdisciplinary themes should also be embedded into the current curricula to help cultivate students’ competencies through experiential learning in the real world. Three interdisciplinary themes are typical of this kind. The first one concerns international, domestic or local events or affairs, which could engage students in learning. The second theme—STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) has already been universally accepted as interdisciplinary. In addition, the theme of entrepreneurship and innovation is getting more attention and become an interdisciplinary theme as well. These changes in curricula for 21st Century Competencies need to be supported by proper teaching resources. Second, competencybased education calls for reform in teaching and learning strategies. The studentcentered approach could motivate students, satisfy their various needs and promote the development of related competencies. Problem or ProjectBased Learning (PBLs) can help teachers shift from teachercenteredness to studentcenteredness. Third, besides changes in curriculum and strategies of teaching and learning, assessment reform is imperative to monitor and guide the implementation of competencybased education. Formative assessment can provide timely and complete record and feedback to students so as to promote their further learning. Meanwhile, national, regional or school examinations should be geared towards competencies. In addition, many competencies are closely related to professions and occupations. Certificate tests are another important way to carry out evaluation. Nevertheless, there are still many issues to be explored about the implementing of 21stCentury Competencies education.
To push the implementation of 21st Century Competencies education, it’s important for the stakeholder like governments, research institutes, communities, and other civil organizations to work together. In this article, the authors discuss the international experience of supporting 21st Century Competencies education and describe the development of its supporting system from three aspects. First, governments have had the policies in place to drive and guide these education practices. Some practices promote the competencybased education through integrating the framework into the curriculum; others advance competencybased education through policies targeting some specific competencies, or through enhancing some aspects of the framework. Different practices reflect the varied needs of economies in different development phases and the impacts of local societies and cultures. Second, more autonomy should be granted to local education authorities, schools and teachers. By strengthening local autonomy, schools can tailor education to meet their unique needs. Cooperation should be promoted between schools and research institutes or NGOs. Apart from education authorities, some research institutes and civil societies have also voiced their own opinions on Competencies, thereby prompting deeper thinking and further reform. Also, communities and civil organizations should be encouraged to be engaged, providing authentic learning opportunities to children. Occupational needs are important starting points for developing a competency framework. Connection with vocational education is another important way to pursue competencybased education. Third, training programs should be delivered to ensure that teachers have a full undersatnding of 21st century competencies and master the proper teaching methods. We should also provide teachers with teaching resources and tools to help them transform ideas into practice. Based on the above discussion, the authors finally make the following policy suggestions: (a) a systematic design is needed for cultivating 21st Century Competencies in education and such a design involves driving forces, frameworks, practices and support systems. (b) a support system should be built, including support from within the schooling system (education authorities and school leaders), and beyond (research organizations, social organizations, businesses, communities, parents, and the public). (c) professional development pathways for teachers should be explored to improve the effectiveness of teacher training programs. (d)systematic solutions should be developed that can be disseminated elsewhere to promote competencybased education.
With China’s rapid economic and social development and the increasing internationalization of higher education, the number of students studying abroad and returning after graduation keeps growing. In recent years, most of the returned students were born in the 1980s or 90s, who obtained a bachelor degree or master degree at public expense or their own expense, i.e. socalled ‘overseas returnees of the new generation’. They are not only internationalminded, but also skilled at the international advanced technology and business management, belonging to a typical ‘intelligence intensive group’. However, under the wave of massive entrepreneurship and innovation, they are having difficulties starting their business. This paper first presents a new analysis framework, in which entrepreneurial process is divides into four stages: seeding (preentrepreneurship), budding (early entrepreneurship), rooting (midentrepreneurship) and fruiting (mature entrepreneurship). Then, adopting descriptive statistics and regression analysis based on the questionnaire survey of 1200 new generation overseas returnees in Hunan, it conducts an attribution analysis of the difficulties facing the overseas returnees of the new generation from four aspects including individual traits, entrepreneurial resources, entrepreneurial preparation and retention policy environment. The descriptive statistics shows that, in the 1200 new generation overseas returnees, 320 （26.5%）chose to be employed,528(44.1%) chose to start a business, and 280（23.5%）have employment and entrepreneurial experience. In short, there are more entrepreneurs than employees among the new generation overseas returnees. However, more than 78% entrepreneurs of the new generation overseas returnees face serious difficulties, and there are great variations in the entrepreneurial bugs. For example, the item Your business is a massive layoffs has the lowest score, only 1.54 points; and the item The costs of your product or service continue to rise has the highest points, i.e. 4.28 points. Regression analysis shows that the main contributing factors include gender disparities and specialty differences in individual traits, inadequate entrepreneurial preparation, deficient entrepreneurial resources especially social capital, and imperfect and exclusive retention policy. In order to encourage the new generation overseas returnees to start businesses, we should establish a “revolving door” system to bring in more talents of new generation overseas returnees, formulate preferential entrepreneurship policies, build a entrepreneurial platform and financing dynamics for new generation overseas returnees.
Since the 1980s, scholars in China have been reflecting and reconstructing pedagogics as an intellectual discipline or field of study. In the framework of metatheory of education, many a researcher has been intellectually enthusiastic about the pedagogical issues such as pedagogics’ connection with other disciplines and its intertwining between past and present, West and China, knowledge and action. In recent years, a pedagogical shift has emerged from the epistemological dimension to the sociological one concerning the institutionalization of pedagogics, i.e. the establishment of faculty and development of courses and textbooks. This paper attempts to depict and interpret the emergence and logic of the institutionalization of pedagogics in some European countries using a historical and comparative method. It has been found that pedagogics was institutionalized in the eighteenth century in Germany, in the form of textbooks, chairs, seminars and faculties. This process sought to meet the demands for welltrained teachers in secondary grammar schools and the philanthropic movement sparked by Rousseau’s discovery of children, and was rooted in the intellectually free atmosphere of modern universities. Later, pedagogics displayed diverse institutionalization when spreading to Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, UK and France etc. In general, the institutionalization of pedagogics was to meet the practical or even political demands for training and educating teachers for the nationstates, rather than theoretical or knowledge interest. This institutionalization to a certain degree shaped the traditions of pedagogical knowledge, including the normative paradigm in Germany, “comprehensive social science”mode in France, and “foundations disciplines”mode in UK. And also the institutionalization served to construct pedagogics as a professional identity. With the accumulation of pedagogical knowledge and the multiplication of interdisciplinary interactions, pedagogics has produced the strong awareness of its own professional identity from its reliance on other disciplines in the early stage of institutionalization. Meanwhile, it has been struggling to legitimize itself as an academic discipline, not simply driven by practical demands.
From the perspective of conservative ideology of human, this paper aims to reveal the relationship between education and human. Although conservative ideology of human serves its political science, it is meaningful to examine education from the conservative angle, which contributes to refining the ideology of human and humanism position of education. Based on the review of related literatures about the proposition of conservative ideology of human, this paper argues that conservatism has abundant and unique propositions about human nature. In the view of conservatism, human nature is a potential ability. The moral issue of human nature is concrete, while goodness and evil is the concrete manifestation of the social realities. The relationship between human nature (as human potential) and the goodness and evil in human behavior is the same as a seed in different soil has different growth. Human being is a dignified existence, if a person lives without dignity, his or her life is not a real human life. Human nature is not only constant but also is the same everywhere. Human moral issue is no abstract, on the contrary it is concrete. As a concrete human morality, it is imperfect, and it is unlikely to be perfect. Human nature is the source of goodness and evil, the social system is not the source but is goodness or evil itself. Even if the social system is perfect, the tendency of evil in human nature also cannot be got rid of. Although human nature shows great uncertainty and difference, the possibility of human nature potential (goodness and evil) is constant, which makes human born imperfect, and is unlikely to achieve the highest goodness. Human nature is equal, and the actual performance of human nature is diverse. Immutable human nature is not only diverse but also natural. This natural diversity determines the social ability of different individuals and the difference between social roles. And the social ability of different individuals and the difference between social role leads to social inequality. Freedom is a part of human nature, but freedom is concrete and societal; it changes with the times and the environment. What’s more, freedom is based on the premise of order, which is real and meaningful. Although freedom cannot be separated from order, the value of freedom takes precedence over the value of order and authority. Without freedom of human nature, there would be no true virtue; without moral, there would be no human nature freedom. The conservative ideology of human nature has important educational implications. Based on the above analysis, this paper concludes that educators should not take the moral character and behavior of human being as a substantive nature but show much respect for the dignity of the educated. Only when the dignity of the educated is well respected can education be improved. The effect of education is limited, as it cannot change human nature and it should respect the imperfectness of human being. Education result equality should not be taken as a direct and primary objective of education justice. The orderly and virtuous freedom of human nature which liberal education aims to achieve is based on educational freedom. Without it there would be no liberal education. Education should enable the free growth of human nature by maintaining and creating freedom.
Education law studies is an emerging crossdiscipline subject in China. Since the reform and opening, China's education law studies has made great progress and played an increasingly prominent role in pedagogy and law studies. Meanwhile, the research of education law studies has made great achievements, and qualitative research methods are used to review and summarize the development of China’s education law. But in general, the study of education law still lacks a systematic quantitative analysis. For example, a textual description is subject to the influence of personal subjective experience, thus leading to improper classification and summary, which makes it difficult to dig out the dynamic relationship between research themes. Based on 1409 papers of CNKI database from 1985 to 2015, this study, using Bicomb and Spss, attempts to analyze the coword visualization of research focus in China’s education law studies through knowledge mapping. It identifies highfrequency keywords, creates a coword matrix of highfrequency keywords and conducts a cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. The results show that the research focus of education law studies involves six fields: the legal status of higher learning institutions and legal relationship and legal remedy, the autonomy of higher learning institutions, education by law and the system of education law, education of the legal institution among university students and their legal consciousness, student injury accidents and legal obligations, and right to compulsory education. In addition, our study shows the general trend of researches on legal education (ten more and ten less) in the past 30 years. There have been more qualitative researches but less innovative methods; more researches on substantive laws but less on procedural laws; more on education legal affairs but less on education jurisprudence; more on statute but less on act; more generalized but less disciplinary perspective; more single discipline researches but less interdisciplinary researches; more on legal systems but less rule of law; more on legal text elaboration but less on legal creation; more macro researches but less microscopic; more administrative researches but less on internal corporate governance. Therefore, more research work needs to be done in the procedural law, education jurisprudence, education legal case, discipline vision, rule by education law and so on, so as to enrich the research areas of education law and highlight the relatively independent discipline status of education law.
The relationship between education and politics, economy, science and technology is complex, supportive and restrictive. In the period of social transition, the transfer of the decentralized educational administrative law enforcement（EALE）not only makes the environment of EALE more complicated but also makes its agents more diversified. All this requires a highly coordinated mechanism. Thus, the ongoing reform of the system of EALE launched by Ministry of Education, China puts emphasis on enhancing the synergy of EALE and establishing an efficient EALE system. The policy documents state some strategies from the following aspects: distribution of administrative powers, arrangement of law enforcement agencies, and capacitybuilding of law enforcement. In order to improve the synergy of EALE, it is very essential to examine and analyze the existing patterns and its shortages. The synergy of EALE occurs at two levels: the inner synergy in the educational administrative system and the crosssector synergy. The practice pattern of the inner synergy pays more attention to the hierarchical synergy and the synergy between the inner agencies; to the reform of inner comprehensive EALE; to the building of special functional offices and affiliated institutions; and to the administrative agency itself or the power delegated by the superior. However, there are some problems in the inner synergy, such as limited staffing, vague power allocation, legislation barriers, flawed crossregional synergy. On the other hand, the practice pattern of the crosssector synergy focuses on the reform of joint law enforcement and the synergy between different administrative departments. Also, there are some shortages in the crosssector synergy, including insufficient synergy between different government departments, improper synergy between governments and nongovernment organizations, etc. In the future, it is imperative to improve the synergy of EALE from the following six aspects: reinforcing the toplevel design and institutional supply, allocating powers rationally, combining EALE with education supervision, exploring the reform of crosssector comprehensive administrative law enforcement, making the best of the local organizations and cooperating with nongovernment organizations.
Study on the relationship between academic procrastination and academic selfefficacy of junior middle school students will not only help better understand the influence mechanism but also help improve the learning and mental health of junior middle school students. Using Academic Procrastination Questionnaire for Junior Middle School Students and Academic Selfefficacy Questionnaire, along with cluster random sampling, this study selected 500 junior middle school students from two junior middle schools in X City. The findings reveal that: first, as a whole, the academic procrastination among junior middle school students was below average level. Academic procrastination among junior middle school students is characterized by their low performance, slow learning behavior, and lack of learning plans, as well as the least possibilities of bad state of learning. Second, their learning behavior selfefficacy was superior to their learning ability selfefficacy. Third, there was significant negative correlation between academic procrastination and academic selfefficacy. Fourth, in selfefficacy to learning ability (SELA), two main factor effects were significant, lack of implementation plans and inadequate implementation, and in case of inadequate implementation, the lack of planning and the poor state of interaction were significant. Fifth, four main factor effects of academic procrastination were significantly different in selfefficacy to learning behavior (SELB). There were significant differences in interaction between inadequate implementation and lack of planning, inadequate implementation and poor performance, lack of planning and behavior of hysteresis, lack of planning and poor state. Conclusions drawn from this study are as follows: first, the academic procrastination of junior middle school students mainly embodied the insufficiency of learning performance and slow learning behavior. As a whole, the academic procrastination among junior middle school students was better, but special attention should be paid to the lack of learning plans. Second, learning behavior selfefficacy was superior to their learning ability selfefficacy. Third, there was significant negative correlation between the academic procrastination and academic selfefficacy. Fourth, junior high school students’ SELA was mainly affected by such factors as lack of performance and lack of planning. Fifth, junior high school students’ SELB was greatly influenced by the four factors and their interaction of academic procrastination.
Education of International Students in China is an important part of the education in new China, which has helped deepen mutual understanding and communication between China and the outside world. Today, great achievements have been made in the education of international students studying in China, which dates from the early 1950s, when China first received foreign students studying in China. However, previous studies on this issue are far from the needs of practice and no formal academic paper was published on this process. Based on historical and document analysis, this article examines the origin, process and significance of the education of foreign students in China in the 1950s. It is divided into three parts. The first part discusses the practical considerations and preparations to receive foreign students. In the early years since the founding of new China, the then central government launched the “onesided” diplomatic strategy, and the diplomatic relations were limited to the Soviet Union and some socialist countries of Eastern Europe. Before its educational exchanges with the Soviet Union, China had established educational and cultural exchanges with Eastern European countries. And by the end of 1950, bilateral educational and cultural exchange system and the supporting measures had been created, which laid a good foundation for Eastern European students studying in China. The second part focuses on the study and daily life of foreign students. Due to the differences both in culture and understanding of studying in China, the foreign students were not accustomed to their study when they first arrived. For example, they came to study in China at different time, so their study lacked a unified teaching plan. In addition, some students were eager for quick success and they were not satisfied with the political and moral lessons arranged by the Chinese government, though these disagreements were finally settled through negotiation. The third part deals with the ways of teaching the foreign students through multiple channels and approaches, in particular through onetoone guidance by instructors, oneonone coaching by student assistants and oneonone help by peers. These measures helped the foreign students overcome their language barriers in the shortest time before they were able to enter the selected courses in colleges and universities. To sum up, the education of international students in China in the 1950s had great implication for the development of a new system of studying abroad in China. Meanwhile, receiving foreign students studying in China also puts forward new tasks and requirements for teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
The history of educational body, based on the history of the body, examines the body changes of education participants and their influence on education and society, which reflects the return to the origin of education history and to the pursuit of life care for the education participants. Of course, the history of educational body, as an emerging research focus, does not occur overnight. It reflects the need and the pursuit of the study of educational history, which concerns people’s life experiences, promoted by the existing achievements and theories of the philosophy, history, education, sociology, psychology and anthropology. Some underlying disciplines like the philosophy of the body, the body history, physical education science research provide solid theoretical support for the research of the history of educational body. Meanwhile, their attention to and discussion on the body are helpful to clarify the nature and attributes of body in the research on the history of educational body. Based on this, it’s essential to form a comprehensive understanding of the participants, beyond the binary opposition mode of body and spirit. The discussion on body in those disciplines helps to clarify the need that education participants should return to the center of educational activities in the research of the educational body. Besides, the body is no longer limited to the flesh from the perspective of biology and medicine, but a physical and spiritual unity which carries abundant social meaning and understanding of the world. This epistemology resulting from these disciplines has contributed to the development of the history of educational body, which in turn led to the basic ideas behind the focus on the education participants’ body and their life. All this has provided a basis for the analysis of the feeling and experience in education. In addition, it helps to explore the rich social significance for education participants’ body and social and other interaction. Also, such body types as the division of time, space, state of gender, and the state of consumption in these disciplines as well as the research on the body appendages, physical senses and emotions, body disease, the application of fieldwork, ethnography and the research methods, are helpful to researchers in writing the history of educational body. This can help better determine the research framework, enrich the research methods, and pay more attention to the real feeling of the research participants. Taking the body as the foundation, researchers can return to the life care for education participants, and eventually writes the history of education for the presence of people and the human body. In short, as a new field of research, the research of the history of educational body, drawing on the relevant research resource such as philosophy, history, education, anthropology, aesthetics and sociology, will offer some guidance for those who work on history of educational body.
Human’s physical body is greatly valued in Chinese traditional culture and there accumulated abundant resources of body education. However, the physical body mainly became a display of people’s spiritual virtue, due to the fact that human being was deemed as the existence of virtue in the context of Chinese traditional culture. Human body was highly disciplined with the popularity of etiquette culture, the penetration of power, as well as the tame of social customs and educational tradition. Thus, the body became the practice of etiquette, power, social customs and educational tradition, and fell victim to maintaining the social order. Dominated by etiquettes and manners, scholars and students firmly adhered to social customs and allow their physical bodies to be tightly bound by the rule of ritual. As a result, their bodies could not be fully utilized and were getting weaker and weaker. While the ritual was exercised as a moderate way to dominate human body, the act of shaving man’s hair and wearing braid would be a violent manifestation. Besides, under the influence of power, the Han people’s head was transformed into the Manchu people’s head, and men were used to having their tails shaved, which was popular in the Qing Empire. In addition, foot binding, as a social custom, was a principal way to discipline female’s body, which caused severe distortion of their feet and directly affected female’s body health as well as their action capacity. In particular, educational tradition emphasizing reading, memorizing, and punishment was monotonous and dull. Corporal punishment was widely used as a teaching method. The lack of P.E. class, the prohibition of playing games, and the poor sanitary conditions resulted in students’ weak and vulnerable bodies, which was the root cause of the decline of Qing Dynasty. Stimulated by the foreign culture, the Chinese people in the late Qing Dynasty began to gain a new understanding of human being, and human being was redefined, that is, human being was not merely the existence of virtue, but freedom, equality, and empowerment, as well as a rational being (with knowledge, skill, intelligence and reason as the core elements). Both virtue and rationality were attached to human’s body. Only then was human body seen as important as virtue and rationality. The body under the discipline of etiquette culture, social custom, and educational tradition began to get liberated. The cramming education of instilling book knowledge was replaced by the combination of the transition of book knowledge and handson activities; empirical knowledge was valued; students’ bodies were less bounded; and gymnastics became the principal means of human body liberation. In this sense, the liberation of human body began, though the degree was preliminary in the late Qing Dynasty. The extent to which people emphasized body was closely related to the extent of their understanding of human being. Human body would be overlooked if human being was merely understood as the existence of spirit, and thus harmonious development of body and mind would be a fantasy rather than a reality. It should be noted that in Chinese education today there widely exist health problems caused by the cramming education for examination. In conclusion, the problem of body education in the late Qing Dynasty is not only a historical issue, but more importantly, a reality concern.
Chinese education in the past century has undergone a series of major transformation. Most previous studies discussed the transformation either from the aspects of ideas, systems and culture, or from the aspects of specialized subjects, such as science education, Chinese education, history education, physical education and health education, etc. Such research tends to overlook the value and subjectivity of human in education. The research on education history from the perspective of body is a new trend in the field of academic research in recent years. It can change the status quo of fragmentation, highlight the subjectivity of human, and expand the research on the history of Education. Along with both domestic strife and foreign aggression, the national crisis compelled some enlightened people like Liang Qi chao and Yan Fu put forward the thought of “building a strong country to protect the Chinese”. Among them, Cai’e, a then well known general, emphasized the importance of education for the shaping of the national body and put forward the idea of military nationalism education. This had a tremendous impact on the transformation of modern education. The focus of “Saving the nation” was on the transformation of national characteristics, especially the national body. And education played an important role in transforming the national body. As the most basic part of national education, the elementary school education is the most important part of the national body shaping. In this paper, body shaping mainly referred to the educational activities required to shape the standardized body image based on certain standard for ideal personality. The premise of body shaping is man’s being unaccom plished. The main targets of shaping were the primary school students. Body shaping emphasized the concurrent development of the external shaping and self cultivation, mainly including the shaping of behavioral habits of health, physical education, etiquette, order and so on. The body shaping of the pupils consisted of the external shaping and the self cultivation. As the Gui mao school system promulgated during the late Qing Dynasty in 1904, the government exercised its control of the enactment of body shaping. Some journals, especially educational journals, such as Educational Review, the Chinese Education Circles and other publications, published a large number of pictures of the primary school students, disseminating the ideas and values among the pupils. Meanwhile, the schools laid down some guidelines to direct the behavior of students, and the school staff came up with the implementation details. The pupils’ diaries showed that they had a comprehensive understanding of their body and that they tried to improve their health by physical activities. They believed their own body connected to the country. When it came to physical punishment, they stressed self reflection and self admonishing. The process of pupils’ body shaping in modern China has the following main characteristics: internalization rather than externalization, multiple driving forces, a trend of particularization, etc. In short, the pupils’ body shaping made great contributions to the transformation of modern education in modern China.
Research on the history of educational activities requires researchers to pay more attention to the common people and multiple sources of historical documents. As a classic novel，A Dream of the Red Chamber has been used as the research text of history, as well as one of the important material for studying the history of education, e.g. body history during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This article attempts to study female body education through combining the official historical documents of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and A Dream of the Red Chamber. Results show that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, though men favored talented women, they could not escape from the influence of deep rooted feudal ethics. In terms of female education, Confucian ethics is full of contradictions. On the one hand, intellectual men disliked foolish women; on the other hand, women were not supposed to read many books, but to restrain their body and behaviors. This made women depressed about receiving education. Influenced by the traditional Confucianism, female body education gradually developed into that of the nobleness and humbleness, and thus legally prescribed. Female body education in this period tended to pursue the gentle and quiet state of body as noble, while the active state of the body as humble. At the same time, female body education emphasized the ethical structures through the relationship between superior and subordinate, father and son, husband and wife, and that a woman's body belonged to her husband or son. As a result, female body education was mandatory under strict legal control. The authorities published many textbooks for women, and women's words and deeds were limited to men’s requirements in the form of mandatory laws. The alienation of female body education is not just about the discipline of social ideology under male’s surveillance, rather, the female themselves transformed the education into a kind of selfsurveillance. This invisible surveillance and discourse could gradually erode and change the female group, reducing them to obedient group. In the official historical documents, we see death in women, most of whom committed suicide in the name of love. However, A Dream of the Red Chamber revealed the true cause of women’s death, which reflected their fight against female body education. The novel may help us return to the fundamental problem of women's liberation, that is, to regain the body’s self consciousness. In this sense, A Dream of the Red Chamber is the enlightenment of female body education in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
In Republican China, construction of human body was a vehicle of displacing and displaying social anxieties, and the Chinese body encountered intensive and continuous configuration (Huang jinlin, 2006, P.3). Schools in Republican China, as an enclosed space, organized along with Republican China, are of importance to regulate bodies. Human body gives a privileged access to the research of history of education in Republican China. In this paper, we will examine the conflicts and struggles between school authorities and girls around “girls’ hair”, which occurred in the early Republican China. Republican China experienced a series of conflicts and struggles around girls’ hair in school. It is interesting to find a more traditional view on girls’ hair cutting or hair perm prevailed, while forbidding feet binding and liberating breast were seen as a rebellion against body repression. Based on literature review, we analyze the possible reasons behind it. In the early 20th century, inspired by national liberation movement, as well as democratic revolution movement and international feminist movement, women’s self consciousness in China was awakened. Women’s pursuit of liberation evoked the anxiety of men, who, for a long time, monitored the discourse on what image of women should be. The right of self determination of hair was considered as a protest against male domination, hence the conflicts and struggles between girls and schools. That girls’ hair cutting or hair perm was not an endowed symbol of modernity was another reason. In Republican China, women were imbued with “nationalist universality in a masculinist discourse” (Tani Barlow, 1996, pp. 58). While girls’ hair cutting or hair perm even in modern western countries met with opposition, the image of modern women which the progressive intellectual class (overwhelmingly male) constructed, who put all modern western experiences as reference, did not involve hair cutting or hair perm. Furthermore, in the article Figuring Modernity: The New Woman and the Modern Girl in Republican China, Sarahe Stevens proposed that there were two images of woman in Republican China, the figure of the New Woman and the figure of Modern Girl, and these two images reflected opposite views of modernity, the former stood for the nation and its quest for modernity and the latter was described as the expression of modernity visually, represented fears for the modern nation and the drawback of modernity. This paper explores the factors which contributed to the construction of girls’ hair in school in Republican China, that is, the issue of modernity and nation, the pursuit of women’s liberation and being fashionable.
This article discusses the historiography of emotions in the history of education with an emphasis on some emerging approaches and promising directions in the field in the last decade. The first section of the article deals with the paradigm shift of emotional regulation treated by historians of education. For much of the twentieth century, a “hydraulic” conceptualization of emotions as liquids and pressures that “build up” and must be accommodated dominated the ways historians address emotions. Therefore, emotional regulation has long been a theme in educational history of emotions, much of which can be characterized by a “governmentality studies”. And studies of emotional behavior in schools have typically focused on the affective behaviors. The second section offers an introduction of the concept of affect and the emergence of affective histories. An affective turn had been popular since the late 1890s, which had considerable effect on humanities, historical studies in particular. Though the examinationof social norms and desired affective behaviors remain at the core of much research in the history of education, historians of education are increasingly contextualizing their work in a broader history of affect. Affect is not reduced to emotion. The article argues that affective turn can help understand the history of education from three key aspects. The final section explores the effect of the latest studies on consciousness and choice making in current neuroscienceas well as an increased attention to practices of embodiment can have on the history of education. Focus on the body can be seen as a bridge between the studies of affect and those of emotional regulation. To grapple with the problems with the historical study of human body, this paper argues that we need to move from affective histories to histories of the emotions. In developing a better understanding of the body rather than considering it as organism/self/subject, it’s necessary to explore the developments in cognitive neuroscience and psychology concerninghow human brain works. What we are beginning to learn about the similarities and differences in how the brain relates to its own body and how it relates to the outside world, together with our understanding of how humans make choices, help to have a profound impact on historical studies. For historians of education working on the history of emotion and affect, a new understanding of human consciousness will have an effect on how we understand human agency.
In recent years, access to top universities and its regional disparity have become a major concern. With government initiatives launched to improve the quality of higher education through building world class universities, the research focus is shifting from access to higher education to access to high quality top universities. This paper first defines the criteria for top universities in China. According to three Chinese universities rankings and four international universities rankings from 2011 to 2015, 34 Chinese universities are regarded as top universities in China. In addition, considering several factors in the enrollment procedures in college entrance examinations, this paper employs the Principle Component Analysis method to construct the index of the access to top universities. Based on province level descriptive statistics analysis of the access index from both longitudinal trends and horizontal regional differences, three empirical results were produced. First, the access to the 34 top universities has been increasing year by year at a moderate race, i.e. by about 4.57%. It is true that an increasing quota has been allocated to west China. However, as more and more students from west China participate in the college entrance examination, the increased access to top universities was attenuated. Therefore, the effectiveness of quota policy on bridging the regional gap is relatively weak. Moreover, as the relevant compensatory policies target some provinces in the middle and western area, provinces in other area, like Guangdong, Hainan, Chongqing and Sichuan, have less support from the central government. Compared with the increasing number of students entering for the college entrance exam, the access to top universities in these provinces is decreasing. Secondly, while in 2015 the regional disparity was reduced, it has been greater in the other years. The phenomenon is most obvious in east China, where the widening gaps in school age population, the number of examinees and enrollment quotas have aggravated the regional disparity. In terms of the access to top universities throughout the years, cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin have their comparative advantages, while in some other provinces like Guangdong and Hainan, the access is reducing. Finally, using a fixed effect model, this paper continues to explore the factors that might influence the access index. Results show that, when controlling provincial endowment, though quota reallocation policy may have significant positive effect on the access to the top universities, it contributes little to reducing the access inequality in different provinces. Rather, the economic development becomes the key factor in explaining the variance of access. Therefore, with the widening inequality of the economic development in different provinces, the inequality of opportunity might be greater as well.
Based on the analysis of a national survey (2,957sampls), the research team gained a clear understanding of the current situation and summarized the success and the existing problems from four aspects (concept, system, support and behavior). An indepth analysis was conducted on how to improve the integrity culture of education system in China. The second paper focuses on the nature of integrity culture in education, which involves morality, fairness and rule of law.
How to activate research productivity by standardized fund management is discussed in the fifth paper. China's development is driven by innovation rather than by elements, and the importance of funding scientific researches and innovation is growing. However, the dilemma is how to deal with rigid fund regulations and the flexible innovation excitation. Based on international experience, the authors propose that the key solution is not only to strengthen budget management and follow the rules of scientific research, but also to establish a new system to facilitate the scientific researches and innovation.
The primary objective of curriculum studies in China today is to revive its world leading status in the early 1920s and 1930s, and to have East West curriculum dialogues based on equality and reciprocity. To achieve this, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the curriculum studies at the global level. Employing a knowledge mapping software Citespace III, this paper tries to offer a systematic review of the collected SSCI essays on different curriculum themes from the database of WoS (Web of Science), conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis from several dimensions (state and institution, keywords, cited reference, theoretical framework and research method) and then reveal the evolution process, characteristics of curriculum research in the past decade as well as its future trends. The study shows that most authors of the published original articles on curriculum are from the USA, Australia and European countries (such as Britain, Sweden and Holland), though some authors from Asian and African countries are trying to catch up with their western counterparts. As to the research focus, international curriculum scholars attempt to reexamine the complex conflicts and implications concerning curriculum from economic, political, cultural, racial and gender perspectives at the macro level. At the micro level, they are interested in the lived experiences, identity and caring for the individual teachers and students in subject teaching and curriculum policy making process. These scholars have also begun to use varied qualitative research methodologies instead of traditional quantitative research dominated paradigm, such as case study, narrative inquiry, ethnographic study, discourse analysis and historical inquiry. They emphasize the building of collaborative relationship between the researcher and the research objects. What's more, they have created a number of original curriculum theories or discourses, contributing to developing curriculum studies into an independent academic discipline. Therefore, to promote the internationalization of curriculum research in China, curriculum scholars are encouraged to accomplish the following tasks. First, it’s essential to establish some critical writing communities at different geographical levels. They can not only turn to international peers for consultation and even invite them to participate in our research process, but also establish sustainable research partnership with foreign institutions through attending or co sponsoring international curriculum conferences (such as the Division B sessions in AERA, the IAACS and AAACS conferences). Second, it's necessary to develop more diversified perspectives or discourses to understand the curriculum in Chinese context, and pay more attention to the multiple identities (such as gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status), lived experiences and positive strengths of Chinese teachers and students in educational arenas. Third, we should conduct more research studies by using different quantitative and qualitative methodologies, in addition to the traditional philosophical research methods which are currently the mainstream in our curriculum research field. Besides, we should enhance the consciousness of collaborating with research objects (especially the young children) and develop more effective strategies to make this collaboration happen. Finally and also most importantly, curriculum researchers should devote themselves to the localization and reconstruction of western curriculum theories and practical experiences, and on this basis create native and valuable theoretical systems of curriculum informed by our traditional wisdoms (such as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism).
Mixed methods research (MMR) is a kind of research that combines the elements of both quantitative and qualitative approaches, which not only combines different specific methods but also attempts to integrate theunderlying philosophies and theories. MMR was introduced in the late of 1950s，and became a distinctive methodology with the development of its underlying theoriesand applied processesduring the Paradigm War in the 1980s. Since the 1990s, MMR has developed into a relatively complete methodology as well as a popular research design. Advocates harshly criticize the viewpoint that different paradigms and methodsare notcompatible. They argue that: a) MMR reveals the continuity of paradigmsin that different paradigms do not oppose completely;b) even if different paradigms might beincompatible, specific methods still can be mixed; c) MMR has complementary advantages over quantitative or qualitative research. Thecriticisms provide space for the development of MMR. Moreover, pragmatism, as a widely acceptedparadigm, provides MMR with anunderlying philosophy. However, many researchers question the selection of pragmatism as the paradigm of MMR, as pragmatism seems to be a perfect excuse for researchers to escape reflectingits underlying philosophy. In practice, researchers should first respond to why they choose the design of MMR (DMMR). In particular, they should clarify the process and function of the integration.The integration tends tooccurwhere the qualitative research and the quantitative research joinor when researchers attempt to reach the conclusions from different parts. It can promote the research or mutual attestation, complementation or innovative conclusions. Based on the sequence,and status of the qualitativeand quantitative research as well as the process and function of integration,DMMR can be divided intothree categories: parallel design, quantitative qualitative sequence design, and qualitative quantitative sequence design. Researchers may reorganize the three designs according toparticularresearch questions and research conditions. Currently, researchers still have to face the problems with data collection and analysis, data translation, conclusion integration, and the judgment of inference quality when they choose DMMR. In addition, they should first prove the rationality of the choice of MMR and provide a panoramic research process and conclusion in the articles. Finally, an investigation is conductedon35 MMRsfrom 330 educational doctoral dissertations, which reveals that few researchers prove the rationality of DMMR or try to integrate the conclusions from different approaches. Thedoctoral candidates seem to choose MMR because MMR has become a fashion, not that they need to integrate different solutions to their research questions more efficiently. In sum, Chinese researchers should pay more attention to addressing MMR in a moresystematic way.
with the development of public education, collective education gradually replaced individual education. On the one hand, although the model of education is collective education, we always think that collective education should stick to the spirit of individual education; one the other hand, for the sake of more opportunities of education and high quality education, we wish collective education pursue the effectiveness and fairness of education which are two major issues in the current education development. Educational performance management is an useful management model to make collective education more effective. In the collective education, the investment and contribution of teachers become fuzzy, so teachers have no motivation to devote more investment to collective education because they are not sure that they can get contribution enough according with the investment. So, educational performance evaluation is the premise of the reconstruction of the dynamic mechanism of teachers. With the construction of the educational performance management system, we should have a scientific assessment of teacher’s investment and contribution, but also need to respect the teacher’s professional autonomy and follow the inherent law of the development of education. If we only pay attention to the result of measurable teacher’s investment and contribution, teachers will avoid devoting the unmeasurable investment and contribution. In the educational performance standard setting, we need to consider the students’ learning achievement, also must consider complex relationship between the teachers’ teaching investment and students’ learning achievement. If we pay more attention to the students’ learning achievement, teachers will only cultivate the students’ learning achievement at the present. So, students should lost the opportunity to grow up in distance. Of course, the educational performance management is not all the school management. if we want to make good use of educational performance management, we must think about it under the eyesight of whole school management system. Education is complex, education and school management is complex too. In response to complex problems in education, we should develop more extensive management tools, so we can not only enhance the efficiency of school but also improve the quality of education.
中国人文社会科学核心期刊
