On The Issue Of Individual Education Choice

The research will be of practical value which advocates individual interest, especially in a time when the interest of educatees is being restricted or even ignored. The perspective from the individual is complementary to the social and wholistic perspective on education development theories. Individual education choice is an expression of the will of the educatees and the exterior realization of individual interest. This thesis deals with the issue of individual education choice. It is an attempt to give voice to individual interest and to interpret educational development and reform in China since 1949 from an individual perspective.The whole thesis probes into three issues concerning the present topic, i.e., the significance of individual education choice, the feasibility of the realization of individual education choice under restriction, and the problem and solutions for individual education choice in China. The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter 1 defines the concept of individual education choice and reviews the literature of education choice. There are three different schools of education choice theories resulting from the different viewpoints on education choices available to the individual, the education public choice school, the education market choice school, and the radical school. After a survey the theories of the different schools, several weaknesses are detected: 1) These theories do not cover the value of individual education choice as comprehensively as they should, they are overly preoccupied with the instrumentality value of individual education choice, and their explorations of the constitutive value are inadequate. 2) Their observations of potential regulations of individual education choice are restricted either to the government orientation or the market orientation.Chapter 2 addresses the value basis of individual education choice. It is held that individual education choice not only has instrumentality value for it can promote the proficiency of education production and improve education service quality, it also has constitutive value in that it constitutes one of the elementary human rights and is a realization of the interest of the educatees.Chapter 3 deals with the institutional possibilities of individual education choice under restriction. It is found that the institutional establishment of individual education choice is far more than government or market orientation can cover, there exist richpossibilities between the two poles of sheer government-oriented education choice and sheer market-oriented individual education choice. We reach a model which explores the room for institutional establishment between collective education choice and individual education choice. After an analysis of the possibilities of individual education choice institutional establishment and with reference to the existing education choice practice in western countries, we propose the following characteristics of education choice institutional arrangement which may encourage individual education choice: 1) The educatees are endowed with the freedom of education choice. 2) Part of the educational resources is in the disposal of educatees, which will influence the interest of educational institutions. 3) Educational institutions have the decision-making power to take action in response to the choice made by educatees.Chapter 4 is a survey of the changes and developments in individual education choice since 1949. We propose two periods in the individual education choice development: the planned economy periods and the market economy period. The launching of The Decree of Reforming the Educational System by the Central Government in 1985 marked the ending of the one and the beginning of the other period. Beginning with the situation before the launching of the decree, this chapter reviews the changes in individual education choice in China as a result of the reform of the educational system. It is found that great improvement is achieved in individual education choice in market e...