Modern Public Education Transformation And Its Plight,

From the perspective of political philosophy, this thesis intends to make a normative argument about 'which kind of education is public education'. On the basis of academic analysis, this thesis believes that the basic character of public education is publicity, however, the modern transition of public education under the wave of modernity leads to the loss of publicity in public education. Therefore, this thesis puts forward several suggestions to rebuild the publicity in public education, and this thesis, concretely speaking, supports the argument from four aspects as follows:The first aspect deeply analyzes the concept of public education which is from the practical problem 'which kind of education is public education' mentioned in the introduction. Then this part analyzes the ancient source of public education through the political theory of Greek city-state to argue that the basic values of civic education is the publicity, that is, pursuing commonwealth, common good as well as caring civic virtue. The individualization as well as the blossom of private sphere in social structure made the break of ancient foundation of public education, and the full-development of liberalism made the theoretical basis for the development of modern public education. The second aspect expounds the theoretical deficiency of liberalism which leads to the loss of publicity in the development of liberalism, and then analyzes the effect of republicanism on the solving the dilemma of publicity. Therefore, this thesis analyzes the origin, basis as well as phenomenon of the publicity of modern public education. The thesis believes that with the development of liberalism, the modern public education transforms from three aspects: institution, effect and value, and this brings on the loss of publicity in modern education. Therefore, the modern public education becomes the public education without publicity. This thesis makes the historical reflection and realistic analysis for the question that the public education in China should pursue the publicity or not. This thesis believes that education in ancient China is the education without publicity, although the education in ancient China pursued the idea of 'public spirit rules all under the sky'. The modern China had the theoretical pursuit for the publicity of public education. This, however, didn't turn into practice for the education in modern China, it is the public education without publicity because of the loss of publicity in modern society in China. In the end, this thesis believes that the public education should be rebuilt on the public sphere in civic society, and it should cultivate good citizen, and should rebuilted ethos of the public schools.