A Study On The Theme History Of Primary School Chinese Textbooks After The Founding Of New China

Chinese teaching of primary school does not only serve as a basic implemental subject during primary education but also assuming the task of transmitting social values to the students. Therefore, the themes of the Chinese language textbooks must reflect the mainstream social values. Textbooks published by People’s education Press (PEP) are always edited uniformly and used nationwide. Hence, studying the history of the themes in these textbooks will intensively reflect the leading value orientation of the society. This thesis focuses on the textbooks since the foundation of People’s Republic of China, studies the evolution of the history of themes, analyzes its affects on Chinese teaching, and tries to give some suggestions for the future.Chapter I classifies these textbooks into four representative periods as:exploring period in early days of new China (1949—1965);breakthrough period of open textbooks (1977—1986); steady developing period (1987—2000); reformation period of new curriculum (2001—present).The1956,1978,1993and2001versions are introduced to represent the four periods respectively. Chapter II summarizes all the themes of each version and divides them into19dimensions:eulogize of the motherland, eulogize of the leaders, spirit of revolution, social ethics, moral quality, working knowledge, general knowledge, love of science, criticism and expose, eulogize of nature, period flavor, collectivism, way of thinking, ecological consciousness, human affection, school life, international friendship, life education, and the sense of peace. They are further divided into four categories:typical themes, weakened themes, strengthened themes, and newly-added themes. Chapter III studies the representations of the typical themes in different periods. For one theme, the corresponding lessons can be different due to different social background. Chapter IV explores the influence of the thematic evolution on Chinese teaching through its relation with value orientation, teaching methods and studying methods. Finally, Chapter V gives some advices to the edit of future Chinese textbooks.