Brill’s Series on Chinese Education

This book introduces Tao Xingzhi’s ideas and thoughts on education. Tao Xingzhi, one of the very few figures in whose name a national association has been established to commemorate his life and work, has been influential in education and social reforms in contemporary China. Over twenty articles written by Tao Xingzhi have been selected for this book and these articles touch on key aspects of Tao’s ideas on education and his plans in developing China’s educational system. Influenced by John Dewey, Tao’s writings were grounded in the Chinese social and cultural context. This book provides an important angle to examine the social and historical roots of recent educational reforms in China. Tao’s unmistakable emphasis on providing equal education opportunities to people from different social groups is especially relevant for China today.

Professor Pan Maoyuan is a distinguished educationist on higher education in China. This anthology includes Pan’s representative essays at different times, which are independent from but have logical connections with one another. Some essays focus on elaborating the basic rules of education and its application, and probing the key features of the teaching principle during the teaching process of higher education. Meanwhile, some essays are mainly about the practice of higher education, including a profound exploration of the serious theoretical and practical problems during different periods in China’s higher education developments so as to find out scientific and feasible ideas as well as measures to solve the problems. Readers would get a better understanding of higher education research in China and get more acquainted with the country’s higher education development over the past few decades. Readers would also obtain valuable insight by comparing China with the development of higher education system in other countries.

Cultural Foundations of Chinese Education describes the evolution of Chinese education for more than 5,000 years, and analyzes in depth its interaction with Chinese culture. From the Imperial Civil Examinations to the Western Learning; from the transplant of Western systems of education to the New Democratic Education Movement; from the copying of the Soviet experience in education to the explorations for approaches to establish new education in China since the Economic Reforms in the late 1970s, this book provides unique analyses on conflicting elements in Chinese education, and leads to the understanding of the issues in modernizing education in China.

With condensed and concentrated analyses on the process of historical evolution and the interactions between Chinese education and Chinese cultural traditions, this book can be used as a major reference for international readers to understand education in China from the perspective of cultural evolution.