| As a unified multi-ethnic country,China has always attached great importance to national unity and the common development of all ethnic groups,and education for national unity and progress is an important way to promote national unity and common development of all ethnic groups in China.In the face of the new domestic and international situation,education for national unity and progress is particularly important in the multi-ethnic Yunnan region,where the unity of the motherland,social stability and border security are at stake.While Yunnan’s education on ethnic unity and progress has deepened and achieved remarkable results under the guidance of national policies,it also faces new difficulties and challenges.Compared to Yunnan’s rich educational practices,research and study on national unity and progress education in Yunnan has lagged behind,making it incompetent to play a leading and guiding role.Based on this background,this study will focus on Yunnan’s national unity and progress education from the policy level,use Yunnan’s national unity and progress education policy texts as the basis for research,build an analytical framework with the help of policy instrument theory and Smith’s policy implementation process model theory,retrace the development history of Yunnan’s national unity and progress education policy,explore the implementation path of Yunnan’s national unity and progress education policy,sort out Yunnan’s national unity and progress education policy.The aim is to further improve Yunnan’s national unity and progress education policy and promote the development of Yunnan’s national unity and progress education in depth.At the same time,it will serve as a reference for other regions’ education on national unity and progress works.Based on 37 texts from October 1949 to October 2021 on Yunnan national unity and progress education policy,this study constructs an analytical framework of Yunnan national unity and progress education policy texts from the horizontal policy instrument dimension and the vertical national unity and progress education policy element dimension with the help of Mc Donald and Elmore’s policy instrument theory.The study shows that Yunnan’s national unity and progress education policy can be divided into three stages,namely,the steady exploration stage（1949-1978）,the systematic construction stage（1979-2012）,and the consolidation and deepening stage（2013-2021）,with policy goals of each stage focus on social stability,economic development,and livelihood improvement respectively.They also differ in terms of policy background and policy content,as well as the use of policy tools,which also shows characteristics of each stage.The study found that the implementation route of Yunnan’s national unity and progress education policy can be summarized as refining the national unity and progress education policy goals in compliance with the instructions from higher levels,improving the national unity and progress education policy measures according to the actual conditions,pooling resources from the province to coalesce the national unity and progress education policy synergy,and strengthening supervision and evaluation to ensure the effectiveness of the national unity and progress education policy.Yunnan’s national unity and progress education policy has maintained Yunnan’s national unity and border stability,promoted the economic development of Yunnan’s ethnic regions,facilitated the systematization of national unity and progress education,improved national unity and progress education management institutions,and completed the national unity and progress education policy system.Despite the remarkable achievements of Yunnan’s policy on national unity and progress education,challenges remained such as: undesirable operability of policy content,a lack of incentive on executive agency’s cooperation,a lack of subjectivity on the policy target groups,and the non-ideal policy implementation environment,which are attributed to insufficient preparation before policy formulation,unclear authority and responsibility of policy implementing agencies,lower than expected quality of policy target groups,and the uneven distribution of policy implementation resources.The following distinctive features of Yunnan’s education policy on national unity and progress have been formed: a comprehensive implementation of the spirit of the central government,achieving precise positioning by grasping the correct political direction;respecting the needs of ethnic development to realize the cohesion of common beliefs and refining the policy content;motivating the entire personnel to actively participate in education on national unity and progress to advance on the whole and to take control of the overall situation;strengthening its own capability to solve practical problems and to ensure the implementation of Yunnan’s education policy on national unity and progress;innovate on means and approaches to improve the quality of Yunnan national unity and progress education policy and enhance the effectiveness of Yunnan national unity and progress education policy.Finally,in view of the problems faced by Yunnan’s education policy on national unity and progress,this study proposes 1)to focus on field surveys to promote the "reformulation" of the policy;2)to strengthen the linkage of departments to improve the implementation efficiency of the policy;3)to awaken the endogenous motivation of different subjects to enhance the implementation effect of the policy;and 4)to cultivate the atmosphere to foster a firm sense of "community" and pave way for the optimal path of "community" consciousness. |
