Contemporary Curriculum History in China: 1978–2014

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

Abstract

Curriculum research in China today is a process of seeking curriculum wisdom embodied in the true, the good, and the beautiful, and of understanding curriculum history, reality and process. To be in search of curriculum wisdom and curriculum exploration constitutes our vocation as Chinese curriculum scholars. In this paper I will review the development of curriculum studies in the late 20th and early 21st century, concluding with a look ahead into the prospect of curriculum theory in contemporary China. What are my conclusions?
First, the study of curriculum development as the dominant paradigm of Chinese curriculum research will last for a long time. Now engaged in an unprecedented curriculum reform, how to develop curriculum effectively becomes urgent. Due to the Soviet influence, the Chinese curriculum field has lost touch with the principles of curriculum development which need to be rethought so they are appropriate to the Chinese situation. Chinese curriculum reform is confronted with many questions: How to develop Chinese curriculum standards? How to develop Chinese subject matter? How to define Chinese curriculum objectives? How to organize contents? How to evaluate curriculum? How to adjust curriculum policy in order to adapt the need of new curriculum? So for the foreseeable future the study of curriculum development will dominate Chinese curriculum field or at least co-exist with the efforts of theoretical (such as cultural, social, political, aesthetical, spiritual) explorations of curriculum.
Second, the paradigm of understanding curriculum is, I argue, the future direction of Chinese curriculum field. In China, the traditional study of education and instruction that served mainstream ideology has come to a close. The curriculum field has become a new and vigorous research area. This area has assembled many researchers and nearly every university or college has established departments of curriculum and instruction or centers for curriculum research. All these expansions and transitions provide a infrastructure for possible new theoretical explorations in an increasingly interdependent and changing global society. To understand curriculum at a deeper level must be accompanied by the difficult task of transcending the direct and instant needs of curriculum practice so that the critical and creative potential of theory can be released. The Chinese curriculum field will keep up with its impressive tradition of historical studies, attempt to inform curriculum research by traditional curriculum wisdom, participate and contribute to worldwide curriculum discourses, reflect on the reality of curriculum practice, and construct its own distinctive curriculum theories.

References

Chen, Aimin and Liu, Ningning (2010). Understanding the curriculum theory of post-modernity.
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Zhong, Qiquan (2002). Understanding post-modernism from the perspective of post-structuralism. Global Education, 31(10), pp. 53-58.

Author

• Xuyang Qian, Hangzhou Normal University