Large picture questions

The reform of processes of teaching and learning take as their preimise the notion that classroom social interactions will in the long run have some effect on the macro structure. the goal is to first transform the individual and then in turn transform the larger society.

the new curriculum reforms in China have such a goal to transform the nature of the Chinese people, to raise up a generation of new Chinese people through a deliberate transformation in the nature of classroom interactions.

how will the classroom interactions be transformed?

through the institutionalization of educational ideologies.

how will this be achieved?


chapter one:
1) what the govt. seeks to achieve with respect to the new society, the new chinese people, the new classroom interaction orders.
2) an analysis of whether the focus is political control, social justice or economic development. unit of analysis--paragraphs in the policy documentation

chapter two:
1) what do teaching practices look like? are the reforms having any kind of an effect?
2) what are the differences in the types of classroom interaction orders?
unit of analysis--the lesson

can i present succinctly the characteristics of the interaction orders of traditional lessons? and progressive lessons?

traditional: conformity, one best answer, symbols, textual reproduction, systems of labeling, rituals, labeling, teacher role and power.
progressive:




chapter three:
if the transformatino of classroom interaction orders is deliberate what are the mechanisms through which this change is achieved?
a) sticks and carrots b) thought education c) cooptation of progressive ideologies that educators find attractive.

my main argument is really the institutionalization of ed. ideologies. but i need a discussion of sticks and carrots and how these are changing. i have ample information to draw upon from the qualitative in-depth interviews for both "sticks and carrots" and also the gradual spread of educational ideologies.

a story is emerging now all that needs to be done is to write it down.

Framework for Basic Education Reform (Trial Version)

There are 20 plus 1 paragraphs in this document and nine major sections which are as follows:

1. Goals fo the curriculum reform

This brief section is great for a condensed overview of the goals. Paragraph 2 may be especially useful.

"the specific goals for the basic education curriculum reforms:
1) change the tendency in teh curriculum to overemphasize the transmission of knowledge, emphasize the development of an active learning attitude where students take initiate, make the processes by which student acquire basic knowledge and skill be at the same time processes where students are learning how to learn adn are developing the correct values.
2) change the over emphasis on disciplinary segragation in the curriculum, and the situation in which subjects lack integration, take a holistic approach to the design of nyce curriculum and the ratio of the different subjects, adn also design and integrated curriculum that is suited to the different regions and to students development, bring balance into teh curricular structure adn integration and choice.
3) change teh overemphasis on passive learning, memorization and recitation, mechanical drill, emphasize instead student's active participation, their love of investigation, eagerness to use their hands, and cultivate students ability to collect adn analyze information and to obtain new knowledge, and to analyze adn solve problems and communicate and exchange with others.
4) change the situation in which the curriclum content is "too difficult, too much, too one-sided, too old" and also that emphasizes book knowledge too much, emphasize content that is relevant to the students and also that that develops ability to cooperate.
5) change the methods of evaluation that emphasize too much on distinction and selection, develop methods of evaluation that assist in the child's development adn the ability of teachers to improve their teachign practices adn functions.
6) change the fact that curriculum management is too centralized, implement the national, local adn school curricula three levels of curriculum management, increase the relevance of the curriculum to the local areas, schools and students.

2. Curriculum structure

3. Curriculum standards

4. Teaching and learning processes

"During the process of teaching, teachers must activetly interact with students, develop together, must manage the relationship between the transmission of knmnowledge and the developmetn of skills, should lay emphasis on the cultivation of students independence and ability to take initiave, and learn in the fullness of their own personality. teachers should respect students individual personalities, pay attention to individual differences, and meet the individual learning needs of each student, create a learning environment that can attract students active participation, stimulate students enthusiasm for learning, cultivate students ability and attitude to grasp knoweldge adn use knowledge, enable each student to full development.

5. Development of curriculum materials

6. Curriculum evaluation

7. Curriculum management

8. Teacher training

this is a paragraph that is relevant to theme of the "institutionalization of educational ideologies"

9. The organization and implementation of curriculum reform

this is also relevant to the institutionalization of educational ideologies...it is an example again of calling for the involvement of the wider society and for the media to engage in public awareness campaigns.

I have coded this document as follows:

Economic development: 13
Sociopolitical control: 9
Social justice: 10

i have started including progressive types of goals under social justice. this may suggest that i will need to go back over my coding to double check at a later date.

Decision of the state council regarding basic education reform and development

This document moves more into the actual practicalities of implementation and so it felt a little more challenging to assign codes to each of the paragraphs.

Nevertheless

Total number of paragraphs = 40 plus 2 introductory paragraphs

Econ dev: 22
sociopolitical control: 10
social justice: 30

alot of the language and ideas are becoming very familiar as there is much overlap among these documents.

there is teh standard phrase about the tremendous achievements in education that have been accomplished since opening and reform BUT there is still far to go.

this document cites as its inspiration the various educational laws and also "the framework for the tenth five year plan for the economic and social developmetn of the PRC"

there are five major sections in the document as follows:

1. Establish the position of basic education in the lines of action for the socialist modernizing construction, persist in maintaining the priority of basic education development

they cite the requisite dxp mantra and now also jxm sange daibiao.
the cite the important position of basic ed in the "science adn education revitalize the nation" ideal

thedocument outlines a stratified plan of action

15 percent of the poorest areas that have not yet achieved the universalization of basic education must focus on achieving that

50 percent of nations areas that are also in the rural areas must focus on consolidating and improving the quality of nine years compulsory ed., develop high school education and also preschool education

the remaining 35 percent of the nation in cities and developed regions is to focus on establishing a high quality of nyce and on the universalization of high school. the specific goal to achieve is to arrive at education at the level of education in middle income countries.

there is a list of tasks to be accomplished: diversification of textbook material production, reform of examination system, development of computer educaiton, teacher training, the call for coordinated development, plans for resizing and expanding and joining together schools.

development of preschool ed.

2. perfect teh management systems, gurantee financial investment, promote rural nyce's sustainable adn health development

nyce is the foundation of "kejiao xing guo" rural education is a crucial component of this.

specific roles and responsibilities of each level of government are laid out especially with regard to finance but all must submit to national decisions about "teaching system, curriculum design, curriculum standards, design of the textbooks."

teacher salaries, workign conditions.

solve the problem of dilapidated buildings

reform of educational financing and taxation, crack down on "luan shou fei"

give attention to education for the disabled, for migrant children and for girls

reform of educational structure from five adn three years to six and three years system

increase investmetn in development in the west adn in minority areas, tibet classes, xinjiang classes

anti illiteracy work espcially among minorities and in the poorest areas

3. deepen the reform of pedagogy, solidly promote suzhi jiaoyu

implement the "decision of the state council for the deepening of educational reform and comprehensively promote suzhi jiaoyu": change educational thought, transform educational concepts, face needs of all studetns, improve morals of studetns, place emphasis on students creative abilities and ability to apply knowledge in practice, lay a solid foundation for students all roudn development.

The following is a key paragraph:

"the implementation of suzhi jiaoyu, the promotion of students "moral, intellectual, physical, and artistic" all round development, should reflect the requirements of the age. it is necessary to imbue students with partriotism, the spirit of collectivism, the passionate love of socialism, to enable them to inherit and disseminate the excellent traditions of the Chinese people, and also revolutionary traditions; imbue them with a consciousness of the legal system of socialist democracy, respect the nation's laws and social morals; gradually develop a correct world view, view of human nature; and values; be imbued with social responsibility, work hard to serve the people; be imbued with an emerging spirit of creativity, ability to apply knowledge in practice, cultivation in the sciences and humanities, and have environmental awareness; be imbued with the basic knowledge to enable them to adapt to lifelong learning, basic skills adn methods; to possess a strong constitution adn a healthy psychological disposition, develop healthy appreciation of beauty and way of life, become a generation of new people who have ideals, have morals, have culture and have discipline."

there is a long paragraph on moral education.

paragraph 19. relevance to economic development, developmentally appropriate, renew curricular content, guide the students in active learning, increase interdisciplinary integration in primary school, english, science education, electives in high school, strengthen labor education, community service "cultivate students love of labor, feelings for the people who love labor, and grasp some skills in labor.

education should be relevant to rural areas

three levesl fo curriculum, create a system for curricum development which will organize experts, scolars, and experienced primary and middle school teachers to work on the curriculum.

health: sport ed, disease control and hygiene, food safety, milk for the students project.

work of developing arts education

diversification of curricular materials under the "basic requirements set by the country"

paragraph 23 is about teaching methods:

enthusiastically develop pedagogical reform and research in the educational sciences; continue to lay great importance on the teaching of basic knowledge, basic skills adn at the same time pay attention to teh cultivation of emotion and attitudes. make full use of various curriculum recources, cultivate studetns ability to collect, analyze and use information; implement inquiry based learning, cultivate the ability of students to ask questions, investigate problems, ans solve problems. encourage cooperative learning, promote students mutual communication, common development, promote teaching where teachers and student learn from each other. every areas must establish pedagogical reform pilot counties and schools in order to investigate and experiment as well as disseminate new curriculum materials adn advanced teachign methods. each areas must set up model high schools where suzhi jiaoyu is being implemented. in high schools that have the sufficient conditions can collaborate with universities in order to create new means for the cultivation of human talent.

all taechers shoudl enthusiastically participate in pedagogical experimentation and education research, educational institutions should fully exploit educational research. normal universities and educational research insitutes must enthusiastically participate in the reform of curriculum materials for basic education and for the reform of pedagogy.

We must be sure to draw on the advanced experience in education reform in other countries. reward and disseminate successful experiences in the reform of basic educaiton.

paragraph 24: continue to reduce burden on students

reform of examinations: should not publicize children's ranking in the classroom,
testing should both help in the selection of qualified candidates for higher ed adn high school and also help in the evaluation of the development of students overall capacities, have multiple opportunities to be evaluated, choice on both sides, comprehensive evaluation testing...for exceptional students they can enter institutes of higher education without testing.

development of educational technology

standardization of spoken and written language.

4. perfect the system of teacher education, deepend the reform of the personnel system, put great effort into the strengthening of teh construction of the teaching forces for primary and middle school teachers.

system of backbone teachers who will teach other eteachers. efficiency in personnel system

5. promote reform in the system of school establishment, promote the health development of social forces involvement in school development.

family education, stimulating excitement in the community about educational reform. get everyone involved.

final paragraph "basic education is a common cause for all of society. continue to suppor the "Hope Project" and the "spring bud plan" and the "one helps one" plan where city people help poor students in rural areas. news and media should do even more work to aid in the implemention of teh lines of action of "science and education revitalize the nation"...national bodies, commercial enterprises, social organizationsl and so on should all exploit their advantages, work together, develop an atmospher in which all society cares about and supports basic education."

Examples of economic development goals in this document are:

the reference to the need to follow the guidance in the "tenth five year plan for social adn economic development"... the stratified plan of development for different regions (i link this to economic development based on some feeling that the main goal is not really equitable but ensures that in areas that have the sufficient conditions they will be equipped to further excellence to achieve internationally competitive standards.)

the emphasis on computer education reflects the desire to raise the technical capacity of the nation.

the emphasis on rural education being relevant to the rural economy

the decentralization movement wehre local areas are now to be responsible for education finance reflects international "neoliberal" kinds of ideologies of economic accountability perhaps (i need to learn more about this kind of thinking)

efficiency in the educaitonal system

cultivation of innovation adn creativity and problem solving abilities

diversification of sources of funding for education. i am a little unsure of whether it is a reform that aims to foster economic development or foster equity. again my rationale for putting it into the econ deve category is sort of this feeling that is is in accordance with institutionalized neoliberal notions of decentralization and marketization...private enterprises that contribute to education enjoy tax benefits but i believe must be non-profit.

i don't feel satisfied with my coding of this document. it may be that i need to refine my coding scheme or my sample document selection. one consideration may be that a major goal of basic education is to achieve social justice...i suppose sociopolitical control is also important.

examples from this document of sociopolitical control

references back to the various legal documents related to education, reference to sange daibiao

teacher morals

the tibetan and xinjiang schools that are outside of tibet and xinjiang

strengthen thought and virtues education, political education marxism etc.

standardization of language

a focus on school safety

social justice

eradication of illeracy, universalization of compulsory education, raising quality of rural education, the safety of school buildings, the nutrition of students, hygienic conditiosn in the schools, education for the disabled, for migrant children and for girls, service learning, enhancement of school environment, keeping the costs of textbook materials low, national investment in educational technology for poor areas in middle and western provinces, encouraging partnerships between developed regions and poorer regions, encouraging individual donations to help poor students in rural areas, lending suppor to the hope project and the spring bud project.

Framework for the PRC 10th five year plan for econmic and social development

The link above is to the section of the document that deals specifically with education.

this section is entitled: "Technology, education and human talent"

There are 12 paragraphs in the section and I coded them according to the three themes:

economic development: 12
sociopolitical control: 1
social justice 2

the first paragraph of the section is as follows:

promote technological advancement and innovation, enhance capacity for sustainable development with a focus on economic growth and development, emphasize structural adjustment with the principle of achievement and with a clear and disciplined method. With a view of the whole economic sector but with focus in certain areas develop high technology and realize industrrialization... in major fields try to lessen the gap between reaching international standards. in those sectors where we have a comparative advantage try to reach international standards and in a few other sectors try to achieve breakthroughs. "

the document talks about technology and manpower needs in very specific sectors such as:

processing of agricultural products, agricultural methods that save water, clean fuels, transportation, textiles and dying, pollution management, broadband internet technology, high capacity computers, software, genetic engineering, pharmaceuticals, robotics, aerospace industruy.

" train talented core of human resources who have scientific attainments, and are adapted to the needs of economic and social development, especially needed are leaders at the international frontier of knowledge in various disciplines; who have a spirit of innovation and the spirit of the pathbreaker, suited to international competition core of entrepreneurs; a contingent of cadres who have a spirit of public service, honest, hardworking, good character, and professional...

Curriculum reform and moral education

Suggestions from the office of the Central Communist Party and the Office of the State Council regarding the strengthening and reform of middle and primary school moral education work in order to adapt to changing circumstances:

This document stresses the importance of moral education in order to protect the health of young people. It draws on a speech of jiang zemin for inspiration. the speech is entitled "A conversation about educational issues" and can be found at the following link.
http://www.moe.edu.cn/edoas/website18/info7450.htm

There are 16 paragraphs in the document plus one introductory paragraph. The document is divided into five main sections as follows:

1. Gain a clear understanding of current circumstances, arrive at a unified understanding, go one step further in strengthening urgency and sense of responsibility for the work of moral education in primary and middle schools

The first paragraph of this section stresses the new societal challenges that make the task of moral education urgent:

"At the turn of the century the decision of the state council to deepen education reform adn to comprehensively implement suzhi jiaoyu has brought new requirements to teh workd of moral education in primary and middle schools" at the same time our nation is in a critical period of the fortification of reform and development, complicated and deep changes have taken place in societal circumstances, these have influenced the values or young people, the contradictions and conflicts in national and international attitudes are becoming more complex, especially the tightening of international hostile forces are permeating the thought and culture of a generation our nations young people; individualism, materialism, and hedonism and other negative corrupting influences are having a negative influence on our youth.

Moral education in primary and middle schools has still not adapted to the new circumstances brought about by teh changes in national and international conditions, by the new tasks of educational reform and development adn the new situation of thought education for young people..."

2. Conscientiously raise the relevance and the effectiveness of moral education in primary and middle schools

paragraph 3 lists the content that should be covered in the area of moral education in primary schools adn then in middle schools.

Primary schools: love the motherland, love the people, love labor, love science, love socialism--these are fundamental. then added to this general knowledge about society, civilized behavior habits

Middle school: "cultivate studetns to become citizens who passionately love the socialist motherland, and who possess social virtues, consciousness of the law, civilized habits of behavior adn who are law-abiding. Guide them to gradually establish the correct world view, view of human nature, and values and continue to increase in their patritotism, collectivism, and their socialist consciousness. In middle school, and especially in high school they should study marxism, maoist thought adn deng xiaoping theory, dialectical materialism, and histotorical materialism. it is important to strengthen education about national conditions, to help students to understand the tremendous accomplishments that our nation has achieved since the start of opening and reform and to have a correct understanding of the current contradictions and difficulties and the determination and the measures that the party adn the government are undertaking to solve these problems.

3. Exert great effort to strengthen the construction of teacher professional ethics

4. All society to work hard together, and all deparments should coordinate adn communicate, to ensure the healthy growth and development of youth

5. conscientiously strengthen the leadership of the work of moral education in primary and middle schools.


I coded the document as follows
Economic development 4
Sociopolitical control 17
Social justice 8

Examples of sections that were thus coded include:

Economic development:

the recurring call to focus on the development of an innovative spirit and ability to apply knowledge in practice are still inserted into sentences about cultivating successors to teh socialist legacy with the four haves.

i find the consideration of scientific values as moral values particularly intriguing and interesting. part of the "correct world view" has to do with have a scientific outlook on life.

the overwhelmning importance of cultivating ability to apply knowledge in practice is emphasized frequently as it was in Jiang zemins speech "A conversation about educational issues" where he stated that pressure should be lessened on children to all become academically excellent, that education should also come from social experience and that society needs all kinds of people not just university graduates.

in this speech jzm also links moral education and stability to economic development. in teh final paragraph of the speech he states:

"WE cannot waver from our persistence to place economic construction at the center, at the same time we must conscientiously grasp the work of the construction of the socialist spiritual civilization, otherwise economic construction will not succeed either. in summary, taking hold of the thought work of young people, is directly related to the extent of our success in the "science and education revitalize the nation" lines of action, and is also directly related to the success of our nation's socialist modernizing construction, everyone must from this lofty perspective understand the problem and begin the work."

Sociopolitical control:

This document is about moral political education and so it is expected that this theme is going to come through the heaviest.

the first is the cry that social problems are increasing in complexity, that individualism, materialism and hedonism are increasing, that the responsibility for protecting the young people and fostering their healthy development belong with all of society.

there is the line that "school moral education work should continue to be the top priority in the implementation of suzhi jiaoyu"

there should be a balance between the inheritance of the cultural traditions of the past and the creation of new ideas...

there is a call to make approaches to moral education relevant to the development needs of children...

political overtones of moral educaiton are still very much present. they form the foundation of the "correct scientific world view" adn view of human nature.

all aspects of the school curriculum should serve the needs of moral education adn the cultivation of a love of the nation, a love of socialism, national unity etc.

propaganda activities should be organized to engage young people in patriotic activities (see pargraph 6 for examples)

teachers moral values are important if they are to be training children in these moral values so several passages are devoted to this topic. teachers are to attend moral education and thought educaiton (professional ethics) activiteis every winter and summer vacation!

a system for the monitoring of teachers morality shoudl be set up adn it is to continue to be an important component of their annual evaluation adn also of student evaluations.

with regard to the role of all of society in the protection of youth this includes the appropriate restriction of internet use for gaming and reactionary material and for access to pornography. It is illegal to produce, sell, adn brodcast violent adn unhealthy "cultural trash"

in the last section all government departments are exhorted to work together on projects to further this goal. teachers who are members of the party are called upon to rally other teachers in this work, research on effective strategies for implementation is called for, there shoudl be rewards adn commendations for techers and leaders who successfully do the work of moral education.

does this documetn provide any further evidence regarding the process of purposeful "institutionalization of ideologies"

see paragraph 12: "news promotion, culture, broadcasting and television adn publishing houses and other departments, should vigorously promote teh party's educational directives, and publicize the spirit of jzm's "conversation regarding educational issues" and promote the correct view of human talent, of how to succeed, and of educational thought, vigorously promote patritotism, collectivism, adn socialist thought, publish and broadcast more and better literary arts, and media productions that are beneficial to the healthy growth of young people."

Social justice

Under social justice i have placed the ideal of the healthy development of children and youth, the push to incorporate required community service as part of the middle and high school curriculum, the encouragement to consider the views and opinions of students, parents adn community members in the evaluation of schools and teachers, the encouragement of local governments to provide more cultural activities for the benefit of youth such as libraries, museums, sports facilities etc.

Decision of the State Council regarding the deepening of education reform and the comprehensive promotion of quality education (suzhi jiaoyu)

This document appears to be one of the strongest documents that i am aware of so far from the highest echelons of the central government encouraging brave experimentation in education reform and raising a clarion call for the need for greater creativity and innovation in all things educational. the whole document is riddled through with slogans that can now be found on school buildings around the nation.

the document follows the familiar structure of policy documents i analyze... an introductory paragraph followed by specific points (in this case 26) divided into several main sections (in this case 4) The introductory paragraph can be a key quotation used in my paper:

"in modern society, science and technology are advancing at breakneck
speed, we can already gain an inkling of the emerging knowledge economy, global
competition is increasing in ferocity every day. Education has a fundamental
position in the development of national strength. the strength of a nation
is coming to rely more and more on the quality of the labor force and on the
number and quality of various types of human talent. This makes the task of
cultivating and training our nation's 21st century generation of "new
people" all the more urgent. Our nation finds itself at a
critical moment in the work of building the system of the socialist market
economy and realizing the goals of modernizing construction. The
tremendous achievements in the cause of education reform and development since
the founding of new China 50 years ago, and especially since the start of
opening and reform, have attracted rapt attention of onlookers. However, in the face of current circumstance, due to both objective and subjective reasons, our education concepts,
education system, eductional structure, models of cultivating human talent,
stagnant educational content and educational methods, are all influencing the holistic development of children and youth and are not suited
to the needs of rasing the suzhi of the nation's people. The entire
communist party, the entire society must take the overall interests of
the prosperous development of the socialist cause and the great
renaisssance of the Chinese people as a starting point, draw on the guidance of
Deng Xiaoping theory, comprehensively implement the spirit of the 15th national
people's congress, deepen education reform, comprehensively promote suzhi
jiaoyu, and construct a vital system of socialist education with chinese
characteristics in order to implement the lines of action required by the
"revitalize the nation through science and education" movement to lay a
foundation for the development of human talent and knowledge"


The document is then divided into the following four sections:

1. Comprehensively promote suzhi jiaoyu, cultivate socialist "new people" adapted to the needs of the 21st century modernizing construction

"implementing suzhi jiaoyu is the comprehensive implementation of the
party's educational directives, with the raising of the suzhi of the national
population as its main guiding principle, and a focus on the cultivation fo
students creativity and ability to apply knowledge in practice to raise up the
successors to the project to socialist construction who "have ideals, have
morals, have culture, have disicpline" and are developed in a holistic way with
morals, intellect, physical health and artistic sensibility.

In order to comprehensively promote suzhi jiaoyu we must "face
modernization, face the world, face the future" and enable educators to continue
to learn the unity of scientific culture and cultivated thought, persist in
learning the unity of book knowledge and immersing oneself in service to
the society, and persist in the unity of the possession of high ideals and
arduous struggle."

2. Deepen educational reform, create conditions for the implementation of suzhi jiaoyu

3. Perfect structure, construct a high quality teaching force for the compreshensive promotion of suzhi jiaoyu

4. strengthen collaboration between the nation's leaders, the entire communist party, entire society, to work hard to advance the new phase of suzhi jiaoyu

I endeavored to fit the paragraphs of this document into the three categories of economic development, sociopolitical control and social justice. Again i feel that it is challenging as these goals are very conflated in this document.

there are a couple of interesting instances that hint at the implementation of global institutions and also evidence of techniques for the "purposeful institutionalization of educational ideologies" .

total pargraphs 26 plus 1

econ dev 21
sociopolitical control 6
social justice 17

progressive ideologies 5

Economic development

the introductory paragraph vividly sets up an urgent argument for educational development for national strength and international competitiveness in the emerging global knowledge economy.

again the themes of learning knowledge relevant to the economy and to production are emphasized, and the need for creativity and independent thinking, and a pathbreaking spirit.

the image of the healthy citizen may also be included in an overall vision of a strong new generation of citizens capable of high productivity in the new millenium.

in paragraph 7:

"the integration of education and productive labor is an important road to the holistic development of human talent. Each level and each type of education must start from reality, strengthen and improve the productive capacity of students and practical education, expose them to nature, make them understand society, and cultivate the habits of loving labor and the spirit of arduous struggle. ..."

the decentralization and efficiency theme appears again which is connected to globalized "neoliberal" policies?

the notion of lifelong learning also appears to target the raising of worker quality and productivity.

the encouragement of relationships between higher education and production industries and scientific research. these kinds of integrations and relationships are to take place in rural areas as well with the uniting of "liang ji" with production technology.

Paragraph 25 "transform traditional ideas about human resources, establish a culture where high quality is emphasized in the use of human resources and actual capacity is emphasized."

Sociopolitical control

the sweeping lofty vision of this new chinese person that is to be raised up is also a new chinese person who is loyal to the chinese communist party and will carry on the legacy of socialist construction.

there is the image of the person with the "four haves"
and the invocation of slogans from leaders of the past to emphasize the importance of the communist canon.

the assurance that in the midst of all this change the implementation of suzhi jiaoyu requires that all levels of education increase their emphasis on "moral education" with marxist theory, maoist thought, and dengxiaoping theory as guiding principles. the emphasis on the development of a "scientific" world view and view of human nature.

paragraph 3 "Relevant education in patriotism, collectivism, and socialism must continue along with education in the excellent classical traditions of chinese society and in revolutionary traditions, and in ideals, ethics and civilized habits, chinese contemporary history and the current situation in the nation and around the world, as well as education in democratic law. integrate the learning of chinese national excellent culture with the learning of excellent culture from around the world. higher education must go one step further in ensuring that deng xiaoping theory "enters the textbook, enters the classroom, enters the students minds". vocational education must lay emphasis on training in professional ethics."

the list continues in the next paragraph and includes items such as pscyhological health, cultivation of will power, spirit of arduous struggle, ability to adapt to the society. strenghtening of interethnic unity, awareness of national security, military training, campus spiritual civilization, avoidance of all superstitions and other ideas that might harm the students...etc.

there is a sense in which health and artisitic sensibilties are also part of this moral political education.

moral political training for teachers is an important aspect of the raising up of high suzhi teaching force.

paragraph 17 "teachers must love the party, love socialism, and be loyal to the cause of the education of the people; they must establish the correct view of education, quality and human talent

the document ends with an invocation to the high priests of the chinese communist party:

"Under Jiang Zemin who constitutes the core leadership of the central communist party, raise up the great flag of deng xiaoping theory and resolve to make an ever greater contribution to the realization of macro goals of socialist modernizing construction and the renaissance of the chinese people."

the very last sentence in the document is rather cryptic:

"Implementation fo the spirit of this document in the schools of the military system will be left to the discretion of the central military committee."

Social justice

paragraph 1 (3) "comprehensive implementation of suzhi jiaoyu requries persisting in takign care of the needs of all students, to create the conditions for the all roudn developmetn of children, and protect the fundamental right of all school-aged children to obtain an education, must respect the educational principles and characteristics of children's physical and pschological development, enable students to develop in a lively, vivid and active way."

is the concept of suzhi jiaoyu itself a kind of approach to developing children's welfare, the notion of healthy holistic development, also healthy bodies and minds?

the reduction of student's study burden.

the emphasis on the universalization of compulsory education and the elimination of illiteracy, the push to raise educational enrollments for minorities. increasing access to high school and university. removing entrance examinations to middle school.

is greater freedom for universities a kind of increasing democracy? see para 11 (3)

paragraph 13 removing accountability of testing for the evaluation of schools?

mechanisms for enticing teachers to teach in rural schools. improving teachers living conditions and salaries.

Institutionalization of progressive ideologies

there are several paragraphs of note in this document regarding the progressive ideologies and their institutionalization.

The following paragraph is key to my dissertation study of teaching methods.

paragraph 4: educational concepts must change for intellectual education work, there must be a reform in the training of human talent, we must enthusiastically begin the use of heuristic methods and discussion, in order to stimulate students independent thinking and their innovative and creative consciousness; we must earnestly improve the quality of teaching. we must make students become aware of and understand the process of knowledge production and development. we must cultivate students scientific spirit and creative habits of thought, place emphasis on students ability to collect and manage information, ability to gather new knowledge, ability to analyze and solve problems, and their ability to express themselves in spoken and written language, and their ability to cooperate in unity and to engage in social acitivity."

This next paragraph i feel is hard evidence regarding the "purposeful institutionalization of educational ideologies" through the calling up of the media and the reach to which the document calls for the ideas of suzhi jiaoyu to penetrate society.

paragraph 26: "the comprehensive implementation of suzhi jiaoyu, is a deep reform of our country's educational cause, it is a matter that concerns every department, and deeply affects and touches upon all aspects of systematic projects in the society. we must further strengthen the party work in the schools, give full expression to the role of the party members as leading models in the implementation of suzhi jiaoyu. Through the direction provided by appropriate discussion in the media we must deeply motivate all sectors of society to be concerned with, provide their support, and devote themselves to the work of suzhi jiaoyu. school, family and society must communicate with each other, enthusiastically join forces, and create a new situation for the implementation of suzhi jiaoyu"

Decision of the state council regarding the deepening of the work of rural education

there are eight major sections in this document as follows:

1. Clarify the important position of rural education in the overall project of building the "Xiaokang Society", make rural education the important work of the important work in education.

(wikipedia has an entry regarding the "xiaokang society" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaokang_society which notes that this is a classical phrase used to indicate a middle class society.

The vision of a xiaokang society is one in which most people are moderately well
off and middle class, and in which
economic prosperity is sufficient to move most of the population in mainland
China into comfortable means, but in which economic advancement is not the sole
focus of society. Explicitly incorporated into the concept of a xiaokang society
is the idea that economic growth needs to be balanced with sometimes conflicting
goals of social equality and environmental protection.

2. speed up the the promotion of the fortifcation fo the "two basics", consolidate and improve the results and quality of the universalization of compulsory education.

3. continue to work in the direction of the "three rurals", vigorously develop vocational education and adult education and deepen the reform of rural education.

4. implement the requirements of the "county level responsibility" system, increase investment, improve the financial safeguard system.

5. establish a comprehensive system for assisting students from families in need, ensure that all children have access to the right to receive compulsory education.

6. speed up the promotoin of the reform of the personnel system, vigorously raise the quality of the teaching force

7. implement the rural primary and middle school distance education project, speed up the sharing of excellent teaching resources by both city and rural areas, raise the quality and effectiveness of rural education.

8. earnestly strengthen the leadership, motivate forces from all of society to care about and support the cause of rural education.

I use my preliminary matrix to analyze the paragraphs in this document. the categories are for educational purpose: economic development, sociopolitical control, social justice.

there are a total of 35 paragraphs in the document: econ dev (12), social control (10), social justice (25)

some paragraphs are coded for more than one category.

Examples of coding for economic development include:
Raise the quality of the workforce (tigao laodongzhe suzhi), speed up the transformation fo traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, transfer the surplus labor in the rural areas into industry and urbanization, turn the problem of overpopulation into the advantage of having rich human resources. There is heavy emphasis on vocational and adult education in rural areas to meet the specific needs of the rural areas, to be relevant and to ensure that people learn knowledge that can be useful and can be applied. This fits with a more functionalist approach to education that emphasizes the cultivation of a productive workforce. For example, one goal is to encourage the development of diversified opportunities for technical and vocational training in order to adapt to the adjustments in the structure of agriculture production and to transfer labor into the "second and third industries."

As for curriculum reform it seems it is also couched in the language of economic development as in paragraph 31 of this document:

"Promote experimentation in rural education reform, work hard to discover the new road for rural educational reform. Each region must, based on the foundation of summarizing experience in reform, go to the next step in the liberation of thought, seek truth from the facts, keep abreast of the times, abolish the thinking and concepts that have fettered the development of rural education as well as the structural barriers to educational development, and implement reforms to the rural educational system, operating mechanisms, educational structure, and educational content and methods etc. The governments of each province (autonomous region, municipality) must all choose a certain number of experimental counties/districts, and each district must select a certain number of experimental townships where 1-2 schools will implement the new curriculum. They must, through experimental reform, establish effective models of new educational establishment for the "three rurals", in order to create educational experience that is relevant to the needs of the system of the socialist market economy and is in accordance with educational regulations and is infused with rural characteristics."

sociopolitical control:
improving rural education will strengthen spiritual civilizaiton in rural areas, raise the thought and moral values of the rural dwellers. we must begin with the important guiding principle of the "three represents." In the final section about leadership there is an emphasis on leadership according to the law.

Social justice:
the idea of the xiaokang society, the emphasis that working to improve rural education would benefit 800 million farmers:

Paragraph 2 "developing rural education and enabling the large rural masses and their children the opportunity to receive a good quality education is to realize educational equity and is also an important aspect of the realization of social justice and is the essential requirement of socialist education."

There is a continued effort and investment in the universalization of compulsory education for example there is the plan for the central government to invest directly in the central and western provinces. There is also an emphasis on raising quality of schooling in rural areas.
There is the call for raising up of "social forces" to contribute to rural education through the hope project, the spring bud project, and through pairing up of cities in the east with provinces in the west (e.g. from my own experience and knowledge shanghai with yunnan, tianjin with gansu etc. )

Cities and towns are enjoined to take in the children of migrant workers and be responsible for their education. there will be a strict enforcement of control over school fees (punishments for all who violate "yi fei zhi". the establishment of a student assistance program for poor rural families, the call for greater interaction between teachers in rural schools and those in city schools, the distance education system and the electronic teaching resources. The establishment of satellite system for the training of rural teachers