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2025, Issue 3

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The Role and Limit of Teachers in Moral Education: From the Perspective of Kantian Pedagogy
LIU Zuo
2025, (3): 5-15.
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There exists a dilemma between freedom as a goal and coercion as a means in Moral education, and there is a dispute about whether moral education is necessary. Examining the role of teachers in Moral education provides a solution to this dilemma. On the one hand, teachers provide moral examples for students by improving their own moral cultivation; On the other hand, students are guided to understand moral purity and develop their firm character. The teacher functions like "a ladder", facilitating the student's moral development yet incapable of substituting for the student in achieving moral perfection. Moral education constitutes a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for students to perfect their autonomous moral personality. Consequently, teachers bear the obligation of quasi-perfecting the student's freedom. Therefore, the role of the teacher in moral education should be neither underestimated nor overestimated.
On How Social Events Can Be Developed as Educational Resources
ZHOU Min, MA Zaoming
2025, (3): 16-25.
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School education needs to be closely integrated with actual social situations. Social events, as potential educational resources, face many practical challenges in their concrete development. Specifically, social resources are often excluded from schools when it comes to the attention and selection of events; the world of public opinion is a world of weak communication when it comes to the dissemination and commenting on events; and the capacity and level of educators vary when it comes to the development and use of resources. For this reason, from the perspective of social constructivism, the development of social events as educational resources should be based on the position of students' life, and its educational value should be explored in the selection and development of social events; it should be based on the position of problem solving, and students' understanding of the society should be enhanced in the commentary and reflection; and it should also be established as the position of professional development, and the professional competence of teachers should be promoted in the development and application of social events.
Learning by Teaching: Embodied Adaptations of a Qualitative Research Methods Teacher
CHEN Xiangming
2025, (3): 26-34.
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This article consists of two reflective memos written by a qualitative research methods teacher in the process of her teaching. The first memo discusses the challenges and strategies (such as immersion-reflection) of the teacher in her teaching of case study approach, which, unlike grounded theory, is more difficult to teach for lack of prescribed methods and procedures. The second memo examines how the teacher can keep a mentality as an "empty cup", keeping a balance between presuppositions and generative happenings in teaching case study method, and change the teaching plan according to the needs of the students. By sharing these experiences and reflections, the author hopes to help teachers and students of case study method to understand the complexity and uncertainty of the issues concerned, so as to make adequate adaptations and improvements according to their own specific contexts.
Knowing the New by Reviewing the Old: Retrospection of and Prospection for the Qualitative Research Methods Course
CHEN Xiangming
2025, (3): 35-43.
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This article consists of the last two reflective memos of the author in her teaching of the one-year qualitative research methods course. The first memo examines the process of the last class of the course and the general design and implementation of the whole course. The purpose is to summarize the experiences and strengths as well as areas to be improved in the course. The second memo discusses some of the issues left over from the course, such as whether qualitative research needs a theoretical framework, how the researcher can dialogue between his/her own theory and the existing theories, and if there is a specific format for the writing of qualitative research papers. By discussing these issues, the author hopes to provide some ideas for the improvement of similar courses in the future.
Escaping the Trap of Infinite Possession: Unraveling the Roots of the Dilemma of Educational Introversion and Strategies for Overcoming it
SUN Wenxiang
2025, (3): 44-54.
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The involution of education is rooted in the logic of subjective construction based on infinite possession of objects, which origin lies in modernization. Such logic leads to a self backlash in the development of human subjectivity. The involution of education is the co-effect of both educators' and learners' tendency of infinite possession. From this perspective, the specific mechanism of the involution of education is manifested as the excessive investment of simple capital, which features low cognitive threshold, easy mass manipulation, and no cognitive cost, and in turn excludes complex capital. The essence of human subjectivity lies in conscious creative practice through the objective relationship with the object. To overcome the involution of education, it is necessary to clarify the essence of human subjectivity, reconstruct the educational purpose and, from such ideological base, adopt practical strategies to promote the formation of complex capital, strengthen the professionalism of subject teaching, broaden the diversity of individual development paths, and respect the long-term and implicit nature of educational practice.
Manifestations of Issues, Value Pursuits, and Practical Pathways in Constructing China's K-12 Student Assignment System
LI Jingwei
2025, (3): 55-62.
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The "Double Reduction" policy is to put forward higher requirements for the construction of the homework system, rather than negating its value entirely. Establishing a high-quality assignment system holds significant importance for promoting students' holistic development. Currently, various challenges persist in this construction process: At the cognitive level, the dominance of exam-oriented and standardized approaches leads to the exclusion of imagination from the assignment system.At the behavioral level, practices involving disciplining and alienation result in the marginalization of ethics within the system's construction. At the affective level, abstraction and limitations cause the absence of aesthetic considerations in the assignment system's design. Imagination stimulation, ethical awakening and aesthetic experience emerge as the three value pursuits of high quality assignmen system construction under the background of the "Double Reduction" framework.. Therefore, the construction of high quality operation system needs to be promoted from three main areas: 1) igniting imaginative vitality within assignments, 2) enhancing ethical care embedded in assignments, and 3) uncovering the intrinsic aesthetic dimensions of assignments.
White Space in Textbook Illustrations in the Late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China: Ideological Origins, Basic Features and Value Implications: A Case Study of Newest Chinese Textbook (Lower Primary Grades)
XIAO Jumei, YANG Shuping
2025, (3): 63-74.
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An analysis of the art of white space in the illustrations of the Newest Chinese Textbook (Lower Primary Grades) reveals that this technique during the Late Qing and Early Republican period originated from the dual classical Chinese philosophical traditions of Confucianism and Taoism. And the two lines of education and culture were intertwined to show the characteristics of rhythmic beauty, mood, and harmony in the unification of motion and stillness, reality and emptiness, and sensibility and rationality. On this basis, exploring this white space artistry holds significant value as follows. 1) to improve the availability of teaching resources and enhance students' higher-order thinking. 2) to highlight the aesthetic nature of textbook illustrations and enhance students' aesthetic literacy. 3) to give full play to the value of cultural symbols and shape the national ego of the students.
Learning from International Experience: Building University Think Tanks in the Greater Bay Area
CAO Keyan, LIN Zhenqun
2025, (3): 75-89.
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The successful development of the three major bay areas in the world has been significantly shaped by the contributions of university think tanks. This paper takes the representative university think tanks in the three-bay areas as research objects, analyzing their organizational nature and operation mechanism through comparative analysis. Hoover Institution, characterized as relatively independent, operates with a project-based organizational structure, targeted capital funding model, policy advisory functional positioning, and an ideologically driven research approach. The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, categorized as weakly dependent, operates with a departmental organizational structure, an alumni-funded funding source, a platform-type function of positioning itself in public affairs, and a research orientation driven by public issues. The Division of University Corporate Relations, identified as strongly dependent, employs a functional organizational structure, an autonomous revenue-generating source of funding, a function of industrial-academic cooperation and innovation, and a problem-driven research approach. The analysis reveals five significant commonalities among these prominent university think tanks: 1)They fundamentally define the organizational relationship between university think tanks and universities. 2) They define a functional positioning aligned with national development strategies. 3) They establish business content adapted to localized development services. 4) They adopt innovative measures for talent recruitment and support. 5) They develop sustainable operation models and open, close-knit university think tank networks. These common characteristics provide valuable insights for constructing university think tanks in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
How Can Universities Build Distinctive Discipline Clusters While Serving Industrial Development? An empirical study based on configuration theory
ZHENG Hui, WANG Zhe, SUN Chang
2025, (3): 90-102.
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In order to study how universities can build distinctive discipline clusters in the development of service industry, this study analyzes the influencing factors of the construction of distinctive discipline clusters by using Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) methods on data from universities and light industries across 20 Chinese provinces. The study finds that the policy orientation and the level of integration of industry and education are the core elements to promote the construction of high-quality distinctive discipline clusters in the development of the service industry in universities. Further more, key findings of this study reveal that the five configurations of high-quality construction of distinctive discipline clusters, from which three equivalent paths can be obtained, namely, the government-industry-environment-driven type, the political-academic factor aggregation type, and the government-industry-academia multi-source linkage type. The Research conclusion provides a theoretical basis for the construction of distinctive discipline clusters in the process of service industry in universities.
How to Develop the Distinctive Features of the Specialized Ed.D. Programs in Regional Universities? Insights from a Comparative Study of Two Types of U.S. Research Universities
WANG Fei
2025, (3): 103-112.
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At present, the number of authorized Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) programs in China's regional universities has surpassed that in ministry-affiliated universities. To avoid becoming perceived as mere "watered-down versions" of their counterparts in ministry-affiliated universities, regional universities must forge their own distinctive developmental path for Ed.D. programs. In the process of cultivating education PhDs, ordinary research universities in the United States have gone through a development path from simple imitation to independent innovation. Initial imitation helped establish a foundational training system, yet limitations in resources (both hard and soft) and a failure to align with regional educational needs resulted in subpart graduate quality. Following profound reflection, these universities embarked on a path of specialized development. By proactively addressing local educational needs, establishing a practice-oriented talent cultivation orientation, and enhancing faculty practical expertise, they earned societal recognition and built strong reputations. This enlightens that the education doctoral training in local universities in China should focus on creating a distinctive development path, emphasizing the utilization of comparative advantages, actively approaching regional education realities, and establishing a positioning for education doctoral training distinct from ministry-affiliated universitie on the basis of ensuring the quality of training. The training objectives should be to cultivate high-end applied education talents for the region, and efforts should be made to enhance the practical rationality of education doctoral students.