A Historical Documentaryanalysis Of Chinese Educational Values And Their Transformations

As the core of culture(Hofstede,Hofstede,& Minkov,2010),values play a critical role in national development(Childe,1952;Halamandaris,2004;Tu,1996;Wiener,2004),social cultural construction(Basá?ez,2016;Brogan,1994)and individual behavior patterns(Gudykunst,2001;Kim & Park,2015;Triandis,2012).Values are dynamic,because they are perpetually “constructed,deconstructed,and reconstructed”(Kulich,2011,p.52)by generations of key influential figures within certain historical periods.In particular,values exert influence on man and society via the pathway of education.Accordingly,studying the educational values of a certain human community and their historical transformation is an insightful way to understand its people and culture.This dissertation examines Chinese educational values and their transformation by utilizing a historical documentary approach,specifically answering two broad research questions:1)What are Chinese educational values,including traditional Chinese Confucian educational values and current Chinese educational values?2)How have Chinese educational values transformed from traditional times to today?By using a synthesis of historical and documentary analysis,this research project identified extensive lists of Chinese educational values(see Figure 6.1 and Appendix)and categorized them into basic Chinese educational values(Figure 6.2),traditional Chinese Confucian educational values(see Figure 4.12)and current(from 2010 to2016)Chinese educational values(see Figure 5.3).Regarding educational transformation,this research mapped five distinctive categories of Chinese educational values: stable,transformative,revived,emerging,and neglected Chinese educational values(see Table 6.1).Finally,the general trends of change for specific Chinese educational values are elicited,both from the founding of People's Republic of China(since 1949,see Figure 5.2)to today and across the centuries(see Figure 6.3,6.4 and 6.5).Findings show that Chinese educational values and their historical transformations demonstrate the following features.Firstly,the importance of education,respect for teachers,knowledge,and talents are generally emphasized in Chinese education at all times.Secondly,respect for Heaven/God and Taoist educational values such as wuwei,having few desires and being close to nature are generally NOT highlighted in Chinese education.Thirdly,Chinese educational valueshave generally transformed from a strong emphasis on teaching morality to an integration of morality and intelligence(knowledge achievement).At the national level,moral education has always appeared to be more important than intelligence education.However,the content of Chinese moral education has transitioned from the traditional Confucian “Three Cardinal and Five Constant Virtues” to the current“Socialist Core Values”.Fourthly,Chinese educational values have generally transformed from fostering respect for tradition to objection to tradition and concurrently renewed respect for history.Current Chinese educational values today contain a mixture of tradition and modernization,inheritance of the past and creativity,Chinese-ness and internationalization.Finally,Chinese education has generally transitioned from hierarchy to equality,from priority to fairness,from individual-constraint to respect for individual freedom,and from dependence on teachers to independence of students.The dissertation is organized around two analytic studies(Chapters 4-5).The first study focuses on a historical analysis of Chinese educational values before the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949.By introducing Chinese educational history,policies,and especially the educational thoughts of most important Chinese educators,this study highlights traditional Chinese Confucian educational values and Chinese educational value transformation before 1949.The second study carries out a documentary analysis of Chinese educational values during People's Republic of China.From a corpus selected from the educational documents published in “People's Daily” from 1949 to 2016,this study identifies current Chinese educational values and Chinese educational value transformations since 1949.Putting this research program in a cross-cultural value research context,a comparison was further made between the research findings in this dissertation and pre-existing cross-cultural value theories.