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China's Higher Curricular Reform in Historical Perspective*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Ruth E. S. Hayhoe
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Extract

The educational reform document of May 1985 has set the policy framework for a transformation of the structure and organization of knowledge in the Chinese higher curriculum that may have far-reaching consequences. It has been the tradition in research on Chinese education to interpret educational reform movements in relation to broad political changes, policy debates among factions within the communist leadership and changing economic strategies represented in successive Five-Year Plans. More sociologically oriented studies have focused on issues such as access to higher education and changes in the composition of those who found their way into the upper echelons of the formal educational system in terms of social class background. These approaches have shed considerable light on aspects of China's modern educational development and their conclusions are of primary importance in seeking an understanding of the wide-ranging reforms announced in the document of May 1985.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 110 , June 1987 , pp. 196 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1987

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References

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40. Ibid. p. 53.

41. Zhongguo jiaoyu nianjian 1949–1981 (Chinese Educational Yearbook 1949–1981) (Beijing: China Encyclopedic Publishers, 1984), p. 236. The rich and detailed information given in this publication on all aspects of higher education development in China since 1949 has been the indispensable main source of data for this chapter.Google Scholar

42. This represents a reappearance of the German idea of academic freedom which had been defended by Cai Yuanpei in the 1930s and which represented little threat to established political authority. See supra, fn. 27.

43. Ibid. pp. 237–39.

44. Ibid. p. 266.

45. Achievement of Education in China, p. 62.

46. Zhongguo jiaoyu nianjian, pp. 265–66.

47. Ibid. p. 267. People's University is described as the muji, mother aircraft or launching aircraft of political legal education, and this directive function was maintained by its graduate programmes and the fact that it accepted professors from other institutes of law and politics for short-term refresher courses.

48. Ibid. pp. 422–24. The development of course content is described in detail in this section on higher political education. The special role of People's University in training political educators for higher institutions is made explicit on p. 424.

49. Ibid. pp. 270–71.

50. Throughout the two sections of the yearbook describing the evolution of politics and law, finance and economics as fields of study after 1949, People's University is the constant reference point.

51. Ibid. p. 261. A very clear and explicit definition of the teaching plan (jiaoxue jihua) is given here, appropriately in the section on normal higher institutions.

52. Ibid. p. 264.

53. Ibid. pp. 332–42, 348–52.

54. Achievement of Education in China, pp. 54–55.

55. Ibid. p. 53.

56. Ibid. pp. 82–87. By 1965 there was a ratio of 9,952zhuanke enrolments to 72,909 benke in medicine, 7,320zhuanke to 86,948 benke in teacher training and 5,905 zhuanke to 40,053 benke in humanities. The total zhuanke enrolment in 1965 was 30,420, contrasting with 644,088 in benke programmes.

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60. Sheng, Langxi, Zhongguo shuyuan zhidu (The Chinese Shuyuan System) (Shanghai, Zhonghua shuju, 1934), pp. 47,76. This writer draws a parallel between the teaching and learning style of theshuyuan and Dewey's five stages of reflective thinking and problem-solving.Google Scholar

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63. Ibid. pp. 18–19.

64. Ibid. p. 7.

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66. Ibid. pp. 322–23.

67. Ibid. pp. 319–20.

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72. Enrolments in finance and economics dropped from 15,324 (2–9%) in 1966 to 90 (0–19%) in 1970 and reached 6,569 (1–2%) in 1976.

73. Ibid. p. 53. No figures are given for the number of specializations between 1965 and 1978 in Achievements of Education in China.

74. Ibid. p. 54. Enrolments in medicine moved from 12% to 17–6% of the total between 1966 and 1976, teacher training from 13–5% to 19–4% and agriculture from 8–0% to 8–9%.

75. “Resolutions on certain questions in the history of our Party since the founding of the PRC,” Beijing Review, No. 27 (6 July 1981).

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77. Zhongguo jiaoyu nianjian, p. 237.

78. Achievement of China in Education, p. 53.

79. In 1980 a useful chart was issued by the Chinese Educational Association for International Exchanges which made clear the three major administrative groups of the then 675 higher institutions in the system. This has been widely reproduced in western sources. See for example the section on China in Cowen, R. and McLean, M., International Handbook of Educational Systems (London: John Wiley and Sons, 1984), Vol. 3, p. 120.Google Scholar

80. Zhongguo jiaoyu nianjian, p. 239.

81. “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the reform of the education system,” 27 May 1985, Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), No. 104 (30 May 1985), p. K7.

82. For the key documents, see Xinhua News Agency (London; XH), Special Issues, 22 October 1984, 11 April 1985.

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84. To illustrate the scale of possibility this opens up, Zhongguo jiaoyu bao (Chinese Education Newspaper), 11 November, 1985, reported that the China petroleum industry had made contracts with three technical universities to recruit 1,000 students per year to a jointly administered college, with an investment in these institutions of nine million yuan each. Twelve other institutions received a total of 9–9 million yuan in return for contracts to train 12,000 undergraduates and 300 graduate students.

85. “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the reform of the education system,” p. K8.

86. Ibid.

87. Ibid. p. K9.

88. Ibid. pp. 54–55.

89. Ibid. p. 76.

90. Ibid. p. 53.

91. Ibid. pp. 74–75.

92. FBIS, Nos. 115, 118 (June 1985); XH, 27 June 1985.

93. In fact this point is not made explicit in the reform document, and apparently there were intense debates over it in the preparation of the document. But I was informed by officials of the first and second departments of higher education within the State Education Commission and officials of provincial higher education bureaus that final decision-making power over the establishment of zhuanke specializations had been given to the provinces.

94. Wan, Li, “Changing educational theory and methods,” Beijing Review, No. 24 (17 June 1985), pp. 19–21.Google Scholar

95. This list has not yet been officially promulgated, which accounts for the disparity between this figure and the 389 engineering specializations noted in Achievements of Education in China, p. 53.

96. Interview with officials responsible for the engineering and agricultural-forestry sections of the Second Department of Higher Education, State Education Commission, 7 September 1985. SeeZhongguo jiaoyu bao, 5 May, 8 May 1984 for a press discussion of this reform.

97. Interview with Mr Li Jiabin, deputy division chief, First Department of Higher Education, State Education Commission, 7 September 1985.

98. Interview with Professor Liang Zhiwen, vice-director, Jilin Province Educational Commission, 29 September 1985.

99. Interview with Mr Kang Yongxiang, vice-director, Liaoning Province Higher Education Bureau, 23 September 1985.

100. In the education reform document, explicit suggestions are given for the universalization of the credit system for curricular organization. All of the 25 or so higher institutions I visited in September-October of 1985, either already had or were at that time starting the credit system.

101. A new direction for political education in higher institutions was put forward at a national meeting in November of 1984. A document was published in Zhongguo jiaoyu bao, 12 November 1984. Many discussions of the role of political education in the new period have been published since then. See for example an article by Yang, Deqing in Jiaoyu yanjiu, No. 4 (1985), pp. 67–70.Google Scholar

102. See Zhongguo jiaoyu bao, 14 December 1985, for an article describing the reforms Qinghua has made in this course since 1980.

103. Some discussion of these new course ideas can be found in the press. See Zhongguo jiaoyu bao, 7, 24 September 1983. My comments here are drawn for an illuminating discussion of the subject at Heilongjiang University, 4 October 1985.

104. This information was gathered in interviews at Beijing University of Iron and Steel Technology, Qinghua University, and Dongbei Teachers University. I was not able to get a complete list of the 12, but found that it included the above three, as well as Fudan, Nankai, Huadong Normal University, Beijing Normal University and Huazhong Normal University.

105. See Shanxi daxue xuebao: shekeban, No. 1 (1985), pp. 144–46, in Daxue jiaoyu, G4 (1985), No. 3 (Beijing, Zhongguo renmin daxue shubao ziliao she, 1985), pp. 24–26.