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Chinese education
Goldstick 1

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

China 's Modern Educational System and its Disparities
Can we close this gap?

William Goldstick

Goldstick 2

Abstract

In this thesis, I examine the evolution of China 's system of education, from 1911 and the establishment of the Republic of China to Present-day China. Throughout the 20th century,
China 's educational system has evolved through three different political systems. First, during the era of the Republic of China, with the nation under the control of the Guomindang, education was limited to the intellectuals and wealthy until May 4th, 1919, with a movement creating a new system of education based on democratic republican ideals. After the Chinese Civil War during the Communist era, China 's government, under Mao Zedong 's leadership, from 1949 to
1978, worked to unify China under one single social class. Finally, from 1978 to the present, a movement opening China to the world and international markets has provoked a new educational policy preparing the Chinese students to the modern world the complexity of Chinese society in
2012.

Despite the reforms implemented by the Chinese government during the past decades,

there is a lack of equality across China and its regions, in terms of access to education and academic resources in relation to social status and location.

Comparing China to the United

States, despite its differences in structural and ideological educational philosophy, the two countries ' educational systems are beginning, through baby steps, to influence each other.

Goldstick 3

I. Introduction
The Chinese cultural schema of education is the abstract knowledge of the nature of education that is distributed among Chinese cultural members. This cultural knowledge emerges from thousands of years of interaction between the Chinese social need for developing harmony in a collective and stratified society, the Confucian philosophy of education and



Bibliography: Badour, William. "Éducation Et Développement Politique En Chine." Études Internationales 4.3 (1973): 286- 96 Butterfield, Fox. China, Alive in the Bitter Sea. New York, NY: Times, 1982. Print. "China 's Education System." 中国教育和科研计算机网 CERNET. 2000. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. 13 May 2003. Web. 08 Mar. 2012. . "Education Reform in China: What the Educators think." OECD Insights Blog. 19 Mar. 2010. Web. 24 Mar. 2012. . Fengzhen, Yang. "Education in China." Educational Philosophy and Theory 34.2 (2002): 135-44. Fu, Jiang. "Urban-rural Income Gap Widest since Reform." China Daily. 02 Mar. 2010. Web. 22 Mar 2010. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. . HRIC. China: Minority Exclusion, Marginalization and Rising Tensions. Publication no. 282305. Minority Rights Group International, 2007. Web. 21 Mar. 2012 . Keenan, Barry C. "Educational Reform and Politics in Early Republican China." Journal of Asian Studies XXXIII.2 (1974) Chinese Students and Australian Educators." Issues in Educational Research 15.1 (2007): 17-36 Roberts, J. A. G. A Concise History of China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1999. Print. Tan, Guanyu. "Under the Same Blue Sky? Inequity in Migrant Children 's Education in China." Current Issues in Comparative Education 12.2 (2010): 31-40 Wang, Xiufang. Education in China since 1976. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &, 2003. Print.

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