The Study Of Educational Associations In The Changing Modern China

During the progress of modern education in China, the two educational systems, namely the Christian education system and China's national education system, coexisted independently with two different educational associations, the first of which is the Educational Association of China associated with the Christian Education in China, and the second which is the National Union of Educational Associations and all levels of "Educational Associations" in the Chinese educational circle. Both kinds of educational associations had greater political influence, were representative of a big group of educators and grew to a complete national system which is independent from the governmental educational administration. They are different from official organizations and other non-governmental associations. It is necessary to breach the limits of traditional research domains and study the two types of "Educational Associations" with a fair attitude, and regarding the Christian education as an integrated part of Chinese education. It will help to find out the character and function of these organizations in the process of the changing modern China and its education transformation.Before the implementation of the political reforms in the late Qing Dynasty, China's modern education was mainly in the form of Christian schools established by the missionaries. China's national modern education was limited to the dozens of language or technology schools founded in the Westernization Movement Period. Since its founding in the year of 1890, the Educational Association of China, through its "Triennial Meetings" and committees, has made a great contribution in many aspects, namely research of educational ideology, spread of educational theories, improvement of educational methodology, publication of teaching materials, unification of scientific terminology, as well as the coordination of the inner relationship of the Christian schools. Thus it also accelerated the specialization of Christian education in China. During the period of The Wuxu Reform Movement, a time when China social reform would begin, the missionaries working with the Christian education urgently hoped that they could gain the prevailing power of educational reform, so the Chinese national educational system could help to spread the Gospel and for the Christian schools to achieve the recognition as well. During The Wuxu Reform Movement, with great help from The Educational Association of China and other missionary organizations and reformists, the missionaries introduced their plans of systematically reforming China's education to the Qing government, which could exert some influences at that time.When it came to the reforming stage of the late Qing, there was a very popular trend that the Chinese educators and students were enthusiastic in learning from Japan. Then, not only manyChinese went to Japan for some education, but also a great number of Japanese teachers came to China to spread their new teaching methods and curricula. With this situation, the Educational Association of China was very disappointed yet tried its best to call on the Christian schools to compete with China's National Education, in the hope that Christian educational practices would be the model for the Chinese national schools;thus the Christian education could preserve its "rightful position" for the introduction of "western Learning". In this period, the Christian education in China moved towards independent development, and the systematization trend emerged gradually with the coordination of the Educational Association of China. At the same time, the modem Chinese intellectuals began to gather together to form various organizations to maintain and develop collectively the delicate modern education. Among those organizations, The "Educational Associations" at all levels had a greater influence because they were greater in number, better organized and had regular activities. For example, The Educational Association of Jiangsu Province was typical among them. With their own high-level democracy, they could employ forces from different aspects;meanwhile, with the support from late Qing government, they could enjoy governmental financial help and make use of the administrative power when necessary. All of these made the Chinese "Educational Associations" an integrated part of the whole educational system. As a result, they could play a special positive role in expressing the position of the educational circle;give a full play of the educators' initiatives, and promot the modern education in China as well.During the period of The Republic of China, the educational progress in China had been faster. Because of the rapid development of the size of China's national education, the Educational Association of China gradually gave up the competition with China's national education. During this stage, the trend of the systematization of Christian Education in China had been strengthened so deeply that unified curricula, testing and management appeared in some areas. Local organizations were established in different provinces or regions, and The Educational Association of China gradually changed to a coordinating organization of local educational associations and unions of the Christian Education in China. As Christian schools had not been a part of the Chinese national education system for a long term, they were completely embarrassed by the problem of registration with the Chinese government. On one hand, the Christian schools wanted to be in harmony with China's educational system in order to find more opportunities for their students;on the other hand, the missionaries hoped to continue to enjoy the extraterritoriality and the protection of the missionary toleration clause to keep the autonomy of Christian education. In the meantime, the founding of The Republic of China promoted the intellectuals to the collective. "The Educational Associations" at all levels had restructured resulting in great development. They not only worked actively on the study,promotion and investigation of modern education, but also took part in the politics and safeguarded the rights and interests for schools, teachers and students. In particular, they tried their best to realize the independence, institutionalization and normalization of educational funding so that they would not be disrupted by the ever changing political situation. In fact, they became "public opinion organizations" which is equal to the educational administration branch of the government. What's more, the intellectual associations developed nationwide, and many powerful nationwide educational organizations consequently came into being, such as The National Union of Educational Associations, The Association of China's Vocational Education and The Association of Promoting China Education. The National Union of Educational Associations was the most politically powerful, representing all levels of "The Education Associations" around the country and it had direct influence on the educational legislation and administration during the Northern Government Period. At that time, the local "Educational Associations" and their National Union played a very importance role in the setting-up of The Renxu School System in 1992, The Independence Movement of the educational fund and the activities of regaining the educational authority from the Christian schools.In a word, in such a changing situation politically and economically caused by the transformation of the modern society, the education circle must try to safeguard the normal running and development of the modern schools. "Grouping together" was the only way to strengthen itself. Undoubtedly, "grouping together" activities resulted in the formation of the Educational Association of China of the Christian schools, all levels of Chinese local "Educational Associations" and their national union as well. The missionary educators formed "The Educational Association of China", aiming at the specialization and systematization of the Christian education, and the enlargement of their influence on Chinese pubic schools. The reason for it laid in the solution to many problems, such as the disagreement among the Christian schools, the conflicts between the missionary goals and educational purpose, the difference between the western educational methodology and the Chinese traditional education. The existence and function of the association are presenting the relationship among the Christian schools, Chinese public education and missionary educators. However, China's educators organized the "Educational Associations", which reflected the interaction and mutual restricting between national educational policies, all levels of schools and educator groups. Moreover, the democratic principle and large-scale membership representation created the institutional basis for educational associations from "grouping together" to "joining forces", resulting in a consolidation of common understanding among them to face different "powers". In modern times, the transition of main groups in the spreading of western learning to the East from missionaries to Chinese intellectuals had given the educational associations a leading position for the spreading of neweducational ideology and theory. The fact that the governmental administration could not adjust to the educational development, which led to self-organization and therefore to assumption of the necessary managerial function, was the institutional reason for the deep reason of the great influences and unique functions of the educational associations in the modern times.