A Study On Chinese Education About Science & Technology In The Westernization Movement Period

The education about science & technology in the westernization movement period initiates the exploration of science & technology and education in modern China. It exerts an important effect on the radiation, acquisition and popularity of modern science and technology in China, infuses the heterogeneous cultures combined with science and technology into farming plough civilization in ancient China, and brings about a deep change to Chinese traditional education. Although the westernization movement, owing to varieties of factors, has not reached the expected result, the study on this special historical period can provide an insight into Chinese education about science & technology in the current innovative-oriented country. This is the purpose and objective of the thesis.The thesis firstly introduces the historic background in which the birth and the rise of education about science & technology occurs in the westernization movement period. Both the period of"western learning introduced into China"when the modern western foreign cultural factors are assimilated into Chinese cultures and late Qing Dynasty when domestic trouble and foreign invasion take place engender the exotic conditions for the birth of development of education about science & technology in the westernization movement period. And the good traditions of science and education in ancient China, the drawbacks of traditional education, and the emergence of new elite intellectuals, pave the way for the rise of science and education in the western movement period and become the inner conditions for the science and education in the movement.The paper then analyzes the influence of social background composed of political, economic, and cultural elements on education about science & technology in the westernization movement period. The conflicts of heterogeneous cultures between China and western countries gradually lead to the guiding idea of"the medium body west use", which confine education about science & technology in this period to superficial level rather than institutional and spiritual level. Education about science & technology in the western movement period exhibits the unique characteristics of that time and influences modern Chinese society.The thesis, based on the historic facts about foreign-style schools, church schools, innovative academies and enterprises, introduces specific operation of education about science & technology in the westernization movement period. Moreover, it introduces science and education resources in terms of scientific materials, translated books, foreign education and media broadcast, etc. so as to reveal the general picture of education about science & technology in that period.The paper compares education about science & technology in the westernization movement period in China with that in Meiji reform in Japan in the same period from four perspectives: guiding ideas, main body, contents, and safeguard mechanisms. But it emphasizes the differences between two movements in the two countries. The different results from the two movements, in spite of their astonishingly similar historic backgrounds, similar processes and contents, are really thought- provoking.Finally, the thesis makes an objective evaluation on the effects of education about science & technology in the westernization movement period on Chinese educational development. In addition, it reflects on the ideas, inner values, educational scales, and cultures of the westernization movement, so that it can provide heuristic suggestions to education about science & technology in our current innovative-oriented country.