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《神州交流》Chinese Cross Currents
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” (1) This sad reflection by Herbert George Wells has more than one meaning. If catastrophes, like wars, get poor remedies from contemporary education, is it not because education never catches up with the needs of societies? What are these needs? Nowadays, not a few nations struggle with dilemmas confronting education. One can discern various tensions between the needs to be satisfied and the goals to be achieved. Should education systems only transmit what past ages have learned, or stimulate inquiry skills without which nothing is learned? How to convey what traditions have been preserved without missing new values present in today's society? Should humanities proper to each culture be neglected to devote more time and energy to techno-scientific formation and specialisations? Should education policy-making processes stifle all local or regional initiatives? Are education systems primarily conceived for economic and social development, so that vocational schools and universities are evaluated only by their graduation performance? Conversely, how to appreciate the professionalism of the “educators”? These are the main tensions existing in many countries in the educational world of today. States also are confronted with dilemmas affecting their own policies, such as: how to increase the financial resources to be invested in education in proportion with the always-growing numbers of students? How to distribute these funds with equity and equality among regions, be it in the countryside or in the cities, or between the various stages of primary, secondary and tertiary education and their institutions? Confronted with these dilemmas, China has not found easy solutions. That is why Chinese Cross Currents in this issue has invited educationalists and scholars, from China and abroad, to share the fruit of their research, observations and reflections. In the opening article, Michel Grenié and Agnès Belotel-Grenié sum up twenty years of “Educational Reforms in China”. From a planned economy to an imperfect market economy, these reforms have been marked by decentralisation of responsibilities and mergers of institutions, aiming at promoting excellence in development and research. New initiatives appeared later on, particularly in the private sector. In his contribution, Ji Zhe underlines the cultural debates generated by the “Children's Classical Reading Movement” between liberals and conservative educationalists, and suggests the promises and challenges for official “moral education” that are present in this humanistic return to tradition. In scope, if not in value, these moves cannot compare with “the Reforms of Secondary Education in China” of which Chen Yangbin presents a general overview of quantitative and qualitative developments. The same has proven true at the university level. David Chen Yunchao explains what reasons have been behind “China's Large Scale University Mergers”, and sums up the disputes generated by them: are the universities to be run by their administrations, for the state's specific needs, or by the academics who lead them in development and research? Does not present day China need more “comprehensive universities” (which is a tautology) than “specialised universities” (which in terms is a contradiction)? In this context of large scale reforms, and as China comprises various “nationalities of lesser numbers”, Zhao Zhenzhou and Gerard A. Postiglione present an interesting study of “Ethnic Identity at University: Mongolian Students in Beijing.” This is also the merit of Keith Morrison's contribution. In the East as in the West, “Teaching and Learning in the University” meet with “counter currents”: these will not be overcome unless true “pedagogy” is lived at all levels of the universities. To conclude, and to widen the horizon, Stephen L. Webber summarises educational reforms in Russia after the dismantling of the Soviet Union. On a different note, Henry A. Giroux pleads vigorously in favour of a “Critical Pedagogy” as a “Challenge of Neo-liberalism” in the United States . In the “globalised” world of today, such a plea might also carry a warning and a lesson. The warning: education dilemmas are society's challenges. Unless families are aware of the values at stake, reforms will not catch up with the needs of the nation. The race against catastrophe will once again be lost. Information through mass media cannot be a panacea. The lesson: The race was lost again with the Second World War. Before crashing into the sea with his plane on a secret mission, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had already written in The Little Prince: “Only through the heart can one clearly see, the essential is invisible to the eyes.” Two features are offered in memory of the late Pope John Paul II. Adam Michnik, former advisor to “Solidarnosc,” expresses his high admiration for this figurehead of the last century. And—with some contrapuntal reading of Church history—Leonardo Boff, a silenced liberation theologian, reflects on the tasks left over by this “Great Restorer”: the liberation of the poor and the oppressed. Without doubt, one of the goals of education. (1) Herbert George Wells, The Outline of History, Garden City, N.Y.,
Garden City publishing co., inc., 1921, vol. 2, chapter 41, p. 594 . |
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Updated Date:2010-06-02 |
