chatting with my inhome China consultant

1. gender issues in curriculum design--femininity in curriculum content?
2. obedience and loyalty to the nation vs. creativity and innovation and independent thinking.
3. anti-japanese education, anti-foreign, fighting against american imperialism--nationalist education
4. degree of emphasis on ancient chinese literature, classical texts
5. percentage fo pictures, color, quailty of textbooks, pedagogical changes, from methodology point of view form the way they present things--perhaps in old book very rigid set up--new vocabulary
6. classical communist literature--chairman mao's poems, pro-communist literature, the landlords taking away the land, lu xun's work
7. room for teacher autonomy and teacher choice. (optional chapters)
8. english curriculum... changes in yuwen and english...any link between change between these two?--look at junior high english books--still concentrate on grammar or introduce cultures--the fact that english is so emphasized is a sign that the country is western facing. this was in the 1980s when they switched here.
9. what do students read in their spare time? what is given vs. what they choose.
10. comparison of american language arts and yuwen text books... cross-country analysis.
11. content related to religion.

12. junior high school history text books--in terms of reform--first the english book changes, then the yuwen and then the history books.?? you cannot change event but you can change comments on what is going on. history curriculum in junior high is also very good place to study nationalism. proportions of pages devoted to modern era, ancient era...etc.
13. china changing from internal looking country to external looking. economy already more outside than domestic...how about education?

curriculum in social sciences are supposed to reflect what people think and where they want to go? views of history are the most difficult to change.