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In The Struggle Before The Line: The History Of Modern Chinese Vocational Education Curriculum

Posted on:2016-02-06Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y XiaFull Text:PDF
GTID:1107330491452311Subject:Curriculum and pedagogy
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At present, the development of modern vocational education has been put in an important strategic position, but the fact that it is difficult for vocational education curriculum to overcome the traditional model has become the bottleneck of vocational education reform and development. Why is vocational education today in such a state? Are there any historical reasons that caused such a result? Education tradition is an important factor which is different from other countries in the development of vocational education curriculum in our country. Its characteristics such as potential, statute and exclusion affect the development of modern vocational education in different levels and areas.Western modern vocational education was the product of the industrial revolution, but the earliest establishment of vocational schools in China was not the inherent demand of economic and social development. Facing the crisis of domestic trouble and foreign invasion, the Qing government made such a choice in order to preserve its dominant position and follow the example of western countries. This passive process was subject to the deep foundation of the old system and the inertia effect of the social ideology, which made the development of vocational education in our country lag behind and could not form a kind of consciousness in a long period of time. The development history of modern vocational education curriculum has experienced three stages, respectively technical education curriculum, industrial education curriculum and vocational education curriculum.The modern vocational education in China started from Westernization Colleges which had the characteristics of higher technical education. It began with Fuzhou Shipping School. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the ruling class introduced western curriculum. Although there had been a cognitive process which went through the study of translation, machine-making, politics and skills, in some extent it still took the new curriculum to cultivate the scholars, and the objective of the reform was to make up for the shallow and stale traditional educational contents. Therefore, in the aspects of curriculum organization, teaching methods, examination and evaluation etc., people were used to the imperial examination system model of academy education which highlighted memorization but belittled practice, thus from Westernization Colleges to reform schools, it was difficult to go beyond this tradition. It can be said that the stage of technical education was characterized by external imitation and internal regulation.After the failure of the first Sino-Japanese War, Japan had become an example for our country to promote a comprehensive model of school education, and the new educational system was used to implement vocational education curriculum. From renyin educational system to kuimao educational system and renzi-kuichou educational system, several governments consistently put industrial education in a prominent position for the salvation of the country, which made industrial education curriculum development to be under an unbearable burden. However, the imitation and improvement of the curriculum system were far from the social development of our country, which became a restriction for the development of talents. The curriculum management laid too much emphasis on centralization and unification, which sacrificed the characteristics of the industrial education, departed from the industrial development logic, and caused the generalization and politicization of industrial schools. It can be said that the stage of industrial education was characterized by ideological struggle and compromise.After experiencing the transplant curriculum to reference school system, the huge gap between the ideal and reality prompted more and more intellectuals to reflect. In the Republic of China, the western thought was no longer to be resisted as in the past; the traditional ideas were no longer bound to people’s hearts as in the past. The development of vocational education curriculum in this period was the result of the interaction between the folk education community and the national government, and the interaction between the social industrialization development and the education tradition. It can be said that the stage of vocational education curriculum was characterized by the awakening of the chaos and the independence.The development of modern vocational education curriculum in China has experienced the process of deconstruction of traditional education and construction of modem education. Each development period was influenced by the internal and external factors, and the complex curriculum development logic was deduced. There are three main contradictions in the development of modern vocational education curriculum in China:Chinese and Western contradictions, internal and external contradictions and conflicts between the upper and lower levels. Its development also showed the interactive influence of two development logics:the curriculum development logic under the restriction of school system and one drove by social industrial development. In view of the history, we cannot neglect the restrictions of own national culture tradition and education tradition. Only in this way can we have little prejudice and avoid detours when facing the new problems and new measures.
Keywords/Search Tags:vocational education, curriculum history, education tradition, historical logic
PDF Full Text Request
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