The Predicament of "Labor" and "Leisure" for Chinese Postgraduates: Reflections Based on Dewey's Educational Philosophy

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Interrogating Democracy and Pragmatism: Race, Identity, Curriculum, and Public Education (Table 9)

Abstract

In Democracy and Education, Dewey discussed the relationship between "labor" and "leisure" under the three forms of education, and proposed that the implementation of democratic education is a practical way to break the opposition between the two. In the context of the popularization of higher education, there is a "stage misalignment" between the development speed and the quality of postgraduate education in China, and the opposition between "labor" and "leisure" is an important manifestation of "misalignment". The study life of graduate students is "separated" by "inevitable labor" and "inevitable leisure", and pressure and anxiety accumulate layer by layer. Based on this, the integration of "labor" and "leisure" should be promoted, so as to promote the innovative development of graduate education.

Authors

• Mengting Qian, East China Normal University

• Yan Chunshun, East China Normal University

• Jianfeng Fang, East China Normal University