Endeavor of Nonprofit Organizations for Improving Educational Quality in a Rural Area of China

• In Event: Studying Curriculum Reform: China Comes to America While America Leaves

Abstract

In the economic-social transformation in China, educational quality is considered as a key, especially education quality in rural area. Many measures are being taken by the central government to improve the education quality in remote areas, with an emerging force as Non-profit organizations (NPO). The non-profit agencies have received little attention from both Chinese and foreign educational scholars. The paper is to address some key issues of the role of Chinese NPOs in improving rural educational quality as it relates to current reforms.
The perspectives is of the political sociology, theoretically concerned with related the work of NPO to the social transformations, and state society relationship, such as developed by Karl Polanyi, Antonio Gramsci, and leading Chinese political sociologists as they relate to issues of social progress; The other key question is to address the institutional status and expanding role of the educational NPOs in the state led educational reform.
The case is officially called Cherished Dream Foundation（CDF）. Founded in 2008 and s one of the most successful educational foundation NPO, CDF has been widely praised and supported by the community of NPOs, and by the media. Its strength makes possible to examine the changing relationships among the state, the society, and the educational reform. During the past 3 or 4 years, the author has worked within CDF, interviewed its workers, has access to institutional data and its task groups, and participated in field work related the educational services in remote areas.
The three arguments related to how Chinese NPO has become one of most influential social forces or civic mechanisms to promoting educational quality in rural China; the endeavor of NPOs and their effects on the state-social relationship in the field of education, and their influence on the development of a civil society in China since the policy of Reforming and Opening were implemented; Although the NPO and their holders have attained considerable space in participating educational and social reform, but there is no possibility for them to become western like civic society or authentic NGO, their roles are still strictly limited by the negotiations with the state.
In the scholarly field of comparative or international education, the educational policy and practice of Chinese governments and marketing sectors has been widely examined. This paper will not provide the educational scholars with valuable lens to see Chinese educational developments, but also to discuss some important political social issues resulted from Chinese educational reform with reliable and meaningful data.

Author

• Shanyun He, Zhejiang University