Dewey Experiment in Chinese Education: Critical Evaluation and Comparative Perspectives

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Chair: Dr. Justine Zhixin Su, California State University, Northridge (zsu@csun.edu )

Introduction to the panel :
This formal group panel presentation will share critical reflections and comparative perspectives from several Chinese scholars on John Dewey’s historical visit to China from 1919 to 1921, which has been recognized as one of the most significant encounters in US-China relations and intellectual history in the past century. Dewey is the most controversial Western philosopher in China, as his education theories have been sincerely admired, widely studied, eagerly experimented, and at times heavily criticized by the Chinese in their efforts to seek Western lessons for China’s educational development and reform. All of Dewey’s works were translated into Chinese and published in China over the years and several Dewey study centers have been created and maintained in major Chinese universities. The Chinese education reformers have also attempted to create Dewey-style schools and teacher training institutions to experiment Dewey’s ideas in educational practices. They believe that Dewey’s theories were highly useful for China’s new education development in earlier decades and are still relevant today. It is expected that Dewey’s ideas will remain as important resources for Chinese educational reformers, even more than one hundred years after his visit to China in 1919.

In this panel, the scholars will reflect on the influence of Dewey’s educational theories on Chinese educational practices from both historical and comparative perspectives. In the first presentation, Dr. James Zhixiang Yang will illustrate Dewey’s influence on Chinese society through the Chinese Literary Revolution. He will illuminate the cross-cultural philosophical dynamics that took place during the May Fourth period by exploring the ways in which Hu Shih, one of Dewey’s devoted disciples in China and a key leader of the Chinese literary revolution, synthesizes his Confucian educational experience with Dewey’s pragmatism. In the second presentation, Dr. Shuguang Huang will examine how Dewey’s spirit of innovation and role model in educational experiments influenced Chinese educators in their localized development of educational experiments in childhood education, as represented by Chen Heqin and his “living education” theory and practice. Dr. Huang observes that in many ways, the “living education” theory creatively inherited, transformed, and transcended Dewey’s educational thought and Chen’s experiments have laid a solid foundation for the formation of the “Shanghai Basic Education Reform and Development Model” in the new era. In the 3rd presentation, Prof. Shan Zhonghui and Dr. Huirong Gao will explain why Dewey is regarded as a Western scholar who has had the most extensive, deepest and longest influence on modern Chinese education. They will highlight the characteristics of Dewey’s educational lectures in China, which can help us recognize and understand a special aspect of Dewey, one that is quite different from a quick reading of his educational writings. In the fourth presentation, Dr. Xing Liu will examine the transformation of John Dewey’s roles during his Chinese visit. He observes that Dewey's influence on Chinese education is defined by April 1920: before then, he was a theoretical leader, involved in the student movement; afterwards, he clearly shifted to teaching at the academy, focusing upon the discipline of Pedagogy. Dr. Liu argues convincingly that it is the complementarity of these two contradictory orientations that is the key reason for Dewey's lasting influence on Chinese education.

In presenting this panel at the CIES 2023 annual meeting, we introduce some of the most important scholarship and the most recent papers on Dewey and China, which are being prepared as chapters for a collection of essays under consideration of publication in the near future. The book intends to highlight the extraordinary contributions made by Dewey to Chinese education and U.S.-China relations, and to encourage more educators to work together across national borders to achieve the ideal goals for education and democracy, even though they may demonstrate different forms in different national and local contexts. It is hoped that Dewey scholars and comparative education researchers, both in China and in the US, will serve as ambassadors of friendship for exchange and collaboration in education and beyond, which are especially valuable in troubled times in US-China relations.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Zhixin Su, California State University, Northridge

Individual Presentations

• The Experimental Spirit of Dewey's Education Theory and Local Exploration of Chen Heqin's Living Education - Shuguang Huang, East China Normal University

• Between the Radical and the Conservative：On the Transformation of John Dewey’s Roles during his Chinese Visit - xing liu, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University

• Dewey Experiment in Chinese Education: Critical Evaluation and Comparative Perspectives - James ZHIXIANG YANG, BNU-HKBU United International College

Discussant

• Henan Cheng, Columbia University Teachers College