Foreign Education History (Volume 2) (Revised Edition)

Author: Wang Tianyi, Xia Zilian, Zhu Meiyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1993-12-01
Features: 【Basic Information】(Beijing Normal University) National Key Discipline – History of Education: The history of education is one of the oldest disciplines in normal universities in China. As early as 1904, when the Qing government issued the Modern Education System, it was listed as a compulsory course. Until the late 1950s, it remained a foundational course for all education majors. The discipline of the history of education at Beijing Normal University has strong academic strength, with renowned scholars such as Qiu Chun, Qu Junong, Shao Heting, Mao Lirui, and Chen Jingpan teaching there. In the early 1960s, our university’s China Education History program was the first to admit graduate students, cultivating a generation of experts in the history of education across the country. The current discipline leader, Professor Wang Bingzhao, a member of the National Academic Degrees Committee’s Evaluation Group for Education, also graduated from this graduate program. Professors Wang Tianyi, Xia Zilian, and Wu Shiyin of the history of foreign education are also famous experts trained in the early years of the People’s Republic of China. In the early 1980s, our university’s China Education History program became one of the first national key disciplines. Both our China Education History and foreign education history programs were among the earliest in the country to be authorized to grant master’s and doctoral degrees. A single teaching and research office holds two doctoral programs, which is rare nationwide. Professor Yu Qiding, the current director of the Institute of Educational History and Culture, was the first person in China to obtain a Ph.D. in the first-level discipline of education. The China Education History program began admitting graduate students in 1979, and the foreign education history program in 1980. The China Education History program began admitting doctoral students in 1982, and the foreign education history program in 1985. Over the past 20 years, our university’s history of education program has trained over 100 doctoral students and hundreds of master’s students, including Professor Zhang Binxian, the current president of the School of Education and discipline leader of the history of foreign education.
Research Directions: The discipline of the history of education includes two major research fields: China Education History and foreign education history (before 1996, these were two separate graduate programs). The main research directions for graduate students now include the history of China’s education system, the history of China’s educational thought, the history of foreign education systems, the history of foreign educational thought, and comparative studies on the history of education between China and other countries. Additionally, it can be divided into ancient, modern, and contemporary education history research by era; or into early childhood education history, primary school education history, secondary school education history, vocational education history, higher education history, ethnic education history, family education history, adult and social education history, etc., by category; or it can study the history of education in various countries and regions around the world. In short, historical research can be conducted on any field of educational practice or educational science theory. Educational historiography, educational local chronicles, educational source materials and literature studies are unique research fields of the history of education.
Faculty: The Institute of Educational History and Culture at our School of Education, as a specialized academic institution dedicated to teaching and researching the history of education, currently has 8 full-time teachers, including 1 over 60 years old, 4 aged 46 to 59, and 3 under 45. In addition to these, there are 16 teachers with backgrounds in the history of education, including 7 doctoral supervisors, 9 professors, 6 associate professors, and 1 lecturer. The age and title structure of the teaching staff is relatively balanced. The discipline leaders, Professor Wang Bingzhao and Professor Zhang Binxian, serve as members of the National Education Science Planning Committee’s discipline group for the history of education. Professors Wang Bingzhao, Zhang Binxian, and Yu Qiding hold leadership positions in the Education History Professional Committee of the Chinese Educational Society.
Research Projects: Since the launch of the National Education Science Research Planning project, our discipline has been awarded research projects at the provincial and ministerial level or above in each of the four Five-Year Plans. During the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" period, 2 national projects and 6 provincial and ministerial projects were approved. The goal of each professor having their owned project and others participating in collaborative projects has been largely achieved. Some important projects in the field of the history of education include:
- "History of Western Universities," led by Zhang Binxian, a national general project.
- "Research on Educational Source Materials and the Construction of the China Educational Thought Database," led by Yu Qiding, a national general project.
- "Historical Study of Western Educational Historiography Theory in the 20th Century," led by Shi Jinghuan, a key project of the Ministry of Education.
- "Historical Study of the Problems of Modernization in Chinese Education," led by Yu Shusheng, a key project of the Ministry of Education.
- "School Education in China and the United States—Education Under Different Cultures," led by Guo Faqi, a humanities and social sciences planning project of the Ministry of Education.
Research Achievements: Our discipline has established a distinctive feature of combining teaching and research, with balanced development in both Chinese and foreign education history, and has achieved a series of pioneering and highly influential academic results in the field of education history in China:
- The "History of Ancient Chinese Education" and "History of Modern Chinese Education," written by the older generation of scholars Mao Lirui, Shao Heting, Qu Junong, and Chen Jingpan, were among the earliest systematic textbooks on the history of education in New China.
- The "History of Foreign Education," written by Wang Tianyi, Xia Zilian, and Zhu Meiyu, won the First Prize of the National Excellent Teaching Material Award.
- The "General History of Chinese Education" (6 volumes), edited by Mao Lirui, is the first comprehensive history of education in China and won the First Prize of the Ministry of Education’s First Humanities and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award.
- The "General History of Chinese Educational Thought" and "General History of Chinese Educational System" (each 8 volumes), edited by Wang Bingzhao, are the largest-scale monographs on the history of education to date and won the National Book Award and the First Prize of the Ministry of Education’s Second Humanities and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award.
- The "Concise History of Chinese Education," written by Wang Bingzhao, is the textbook on the history of education used longest and most widely in China.
- The "Outline of the History of Comparative Education Between China and Other Countries," edited by Wu Shiyin as the volume editor, won the First Prize of the National Second Education Science Outstanding Achievement Award.
- Professor Yu Qiding led the development of a multimedia textbook package for the history of Chinese education, the first to combine traditional teaching content with modern educational technology, which won the First Prize of Beijing’s Higher Education Achievement Award. Its accompanying text, "A Concise History of Chinese Education," is currently the most widely printed textbook on the history of education in China.
- The multimedia online courseware for the history of Chinese education, including a database of papers, works, literature, educators, test questions, and an electronic dictionary, has been completed.
- Additionally, Wang Bingzhao’s "Research on Ancient Private Education and Modern Private Schools in China" won the First Prize of the Fifth Beijing Philosophy and Social Sciences Achievement Award. He Xiaxia and Shi Jinghuan’s "Church Schools and Modernization in China," Wu Shiyin’s "History of Modern Foreign Education," and Zhang Binxian’s "Social Transformation and Social Change—A Study of the American Progressive Education Movement" won the Second Prize of the Fifth and Sixth Beijing Philosophy and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Awards.
In the new century, our discipline will fully leverage its strengths, keep pace with the times, and actively strive to make greater contributions to the development and reform of the discipline of the history of education and the cause of education.