China's Curriculum History: 1922–1948

• In Event: 46.022 - Becoming Historical: Curriculum Research and Reform in China

Abstract

During the first half of the 20th century, the main social and historical mission of Chinese people was to save the nation from extinction. A group of scholars with breadth of vision looked on education as a main way to save the nation from extinction. This function of education was embodied in the national spirit of reconstruction. The core of spiritual reconstruction was democracy and science. The concrete strategies of reconstruction were twofold: one, plunging into rural areas and organizing educational activities in accordance with the semi-colonial, semi-feudal Chinese social reality; the other, drawing fully on the experience of Western educational ideas and institutions of which the U.S. was a representative, and transplanting American educational culture into China.
In early 20th century America, with the rapid growth of teacher training programs during the “progressive period,” and the increase in the curriculum development literature, curriculum studies became a professional field within the education sciences. Franklin Bobbitt’s The Curriculum, published in 1918, is generally considered as the formal inauguration of curriculum as a field. But at almost the same time, Chinese scholars had undertaken curriculum research in China. These studies included: (1) translating the U.S. curriculum literature into Chinese; (2) research concerning the general principles of curriculum development; and (3) studies of the specific school subjects. These early studies of Chinese curriculum theory and history not only emphasized theoretical construction but also addressed practical needs. They not only respected Chinese traditions, but also made use of American curriculum theoretical achievements. These studies not only explored the general principles of curriculum development, but also identiied the issues specific to the school subjects. Responding to the needs of educational reform, curriculum research was fully developed, and it expanded Chinese educational theory. Curriculum research enjoyed substantial achievements, becoming a conspicuous, relatively independent, research field during this period. It is not an exaggeration to say that curriculum research in China led the world during the first half of 20th century. At the least it was not far behind the most advanced field in the world. In 1949 this sophisticated field disappeared, replaced by Soviet preoccupations with pedagogy, but beginning in the 1978 curriculum research in China was reborn, resulting in an intellectual vibrant, historically attuned, reform-minded field that it is today. In this presentation I will detail these three developments and justify these claims, providing an intellectual history of curriculum studies in China through its disappearance in 1949.

References

Zhang, Hua. In press. Curriculum Studies and Curriculum Reform in China: 1922-2012. In Curriculum Studies in China, edited by William F. Pinar. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Zhang, Hua and Gao, Zhenyu. 2014. Curriculum Studies in China: Retrospect and Prospect. In the International Handbook of Curriculum Research (second edition), edited by William F. Pinar
(118-133). New York: Routledge.

Zhang, Hua and Zhong, Qiquan. 2003. Curriculum Studies in China. In the International Handbook of Curriculum Research, edited by William F. Pinar (253-270). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Author

• Zhen-yu Gao, Hangzhou Normal University