The foundation of Shanxi University is a prime example of the collaborative efforts in higher education between the Chinese and British in late Qing China (1842-1912). Both sides made compromises, with the Chinese adapting their ideas of educational sovereignty, and the British agreeing to work under the supervision of the local government. Such a…

With China's growing significance in the global economy ever more evident, studies in recent years have highlighted multiple aspects of China's "Globalization" (or global connections) that predate the contemporary period. This article focuses on educational reform in the late Qing and early Republic as a way of illuminating a…

Over the last century, the development of didactics (???) in China has been profoundly influenced by Kairov's theory of pedagogics. The German Didaktik tradition, which can date back to Comenius and Herbart, remains largely unknown to educational scholars in China while they possess basic knowledge of Comenius and Herbart. This article…

Since the early 20th century, numerous scholars have proposed theories and models describing, interpreting, and suggesting the development paths countries have taken or should take. None of these, however, can fully explain China's efforts, mainly through education and citizenship education, to modernize itself and foster a modern citizenry…

Since the 1980s, China has entered an era of transformation which has extended its reach to education and school reforms. The "New Basic Education" (NBE) was born in this era and implemented by the East China Normal University together with schools around the country. NBE aims at nurturing the active, healthy development of a new…

This essay argues that the concept of reaching peace within in order to sustain peace outside in classical Confucianism and Daoism offers us important lessons for peace education in the contemporary age. Building harmonious connections between differences in one's personhood paves a path for negotiating interconnections across conflicting…

China is becoming an increasingly important actor in global governance. This paper contends that China participates by promoting its own global governance concepts on the one hand and by complying with the established global norms on the other. The paper introduces several key global governance concepts of the Chinese government and argues that…

The outstanding performance of Shanghai students in the 4th Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2009) gained widespread attention at home and abroad. In this paper, the authors attribute this outstanding performance to three traditional factors and six modern factors. The traditional factors are high parental expectations, belief…

Ma Xiangbo was born in 1840 and became a pioneer of educational reform during the republican period. He was responsible for introducing the idea that science and humanities should be valued equally in liberal arts education, a concept that became key to the model of university education. Ma's view of education combined Western humanism and science…

This paper is a critical examination of the life and work of David Crook (1910-2000) as an English teacher in China from just prior to 1949 through the 1980's. It describes Crook's struggle to transcend attitudes of superiority commonly associated with native speaking English teachers at the time as well as his efforts to introduce innovations in…

Many traditional ethnic cultural items are being endangered in China. Using the Dongba dance culture of the Naxi people as a case study, this paper seeks to analyze and interpret the endangerment of culture from an educational perspective, based on an analysis of the interaction between the cultural transmission mechanism of Dongba dance and the…

Shimenkan is a remote and mountainous village in Weining county, Guizhou province, an area traditionally populated by Miao ethnic minority. The arrival of Christian missionaries just over 100 years ago began Shimenkan's transformation from an illiterate school-less place, to a "revered site of Miao education." Today, Shimenkan has returned to…

In the last three decades, along with rapid economic and social changes in China, dramatic changes have taken place in Chinese higher education, where Chinese universities have been experiencing a variety of systematic reforms. Chinese universities are also facing some new issues yet they have largely neglected the task of establishing their own…

In this paper, the authors explore the implementation of the government mandate in Hong Kong to move from three-year to four-year undergraduate degree programs which include studies in general education (GE), through an analysis of policies and activities related to the curriculum reform. While the authors are interested in the substance of these…

The balanced development of compulsory education has been given due and lengthy coverage in the "Outline of China's National Plan for Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020)" which, to some extent, reflects the needs of our time and the demands of the general public. However, detailed analyses reveal that many aspects…