Modernity Emerging From Tradition

Parents have been assuming an uncertain image in preschool education research.Although the importance of their role as children's first teachers is well received,the attention they enjoy in theoretical research is not quite proportional to the critical role they play within children's growth.Based on what has been mentioned above,qualitative research method is adopted in this research to examine,from the perspective of indigenous cultural psychology,the deep-rooted and tradition-related values,thinking patterns as well as behavioral habits Chinese adopt in parenting practice.The analysis of raw interview material will help extract such indigenous cultural concepts as comparing,relationship,face-saving,and controlling from "parenting philosophies" lying in parents' minds.The research starts from individual analysis to collective generalization,which is extracting common parenting ideas and behaviors through observing individual parenting activities,followed by in-depth analysis and interpretation from indigenous cultural perspective.The thesis mainly consists of three parts.The first part,including first four chapters,is mainly about the research background.The second part,the fifth to the ninth chapter,extracts,by analyzing interview material,the indigenized parenting concepts shared by parents born in 1970s.The concepts,including comparing,relationship,dominating,experience,conflict,etc.are thoroughly scrutinized from indigenous cultural perspective in chapter ten and eleven.Chapter ten analyzes,from a static view,the Chinese indigenous cultural psychology,which is the inner psychological reason for Chinese parenting.Chinese culture exhibits the characteristic of dualism,which includes focusing on comparing and analogy in thinking pattern,as well as emphasizing on interpersonal interaction in relationships.Besides,relationship-centeredness is another striking characteristic because self-conception is constructed within relation network.These two characters explain the reason why Chinese parents see their children as their prestige,and consequently,show strong desire in comparison with others as well as controlling their children.Chapter eleven analyzes,from a dynamic view,the changes and conflicts that local culture,including Chinese parenting values,experience under the influence of western culture.The influence of western culture is characterized by the stress and amplification of self in Chinese dualism.For example,"self"in interpersonal relationships is emphasized while the traditional values of emphasis on "collective" and "others" fade away.Within Chinese parenting values and rearing behaviors,such changes manifest themselves as "the expansion of ego",diversification in child-rearing,and the explicit as well as underlying challenges facing teachers and education institutions.In parenting values,the tradition extends while the modernization takes place,which gives birth to all kinds of conflicts and contradictions.Last but not least,the thesis explores what preschool education can do to promote the cultivation of future talents.The most desirable result of future talent development is to elicit the essence of Chinese and western cultures and avoid their downsides.In order to achieve this,preschool education,being the start of cultural inheritance and personal development,can be carried out in following aspects.Firstly,in terms of the education content,inversion of traditional culture should be emphasized in order to avoid the unbalance due to the absence of traditional culture.Secondly,in terms of the coordination of all relationships,relationships with parents should be maintained tactfully.It is highly recommended that teachers and educational institutions should carry out interactions and co-operations with parents with full understanding of indigenous cultural reasons which account for Chinese parenting patterns.Such existing practices as criticism without constructive value should be avoided in parenting interaction.All resources including parenting should pool together to nurture a sound environment for children's development.Thirdly,during the implementation of education policy and education reform,indigenous cultural psychology should be taken into consideration.