Education in China

Private schools resurfaced in China after 1978 when the Chinese government embarked on an economic reform for modernization. This book offers a comprehensive review of the development, characteristics, issues, and problems of these private schools and examines the economic, social and educational context for private school development. It also analyzes the characteristics of various types of private schools, and critically discusses issues and problems facing them.

This is the first comprehensive look at the Sung academy movement. It explains the phenomenon not only as a product of intellectual changes, but also as part of broader social, economic, political, and cultural transformations taking place in Sung China.

The concept of "civil society" was borrowed from eighteenth-century Europe to provide a framework for understanding the transition to post-authoritarian regimes in Latin America and postcommunist regimes elsewhere. In China, the Democracy Movement forced the concept onto the intellectual agenda during the struggle to come to terms with the growth of dissent and the failure of student activism to find a secure foothold. The question that drives this book is whether this concept is useful for analyzing China, and if so, in what ways and within what limits.

In spite of the perceived differences between Eastern and Western culture and society, the education systems of Britain and China can be seen to share certain goals, priorities and challenges. Modernisation is very much a core objective for educators in both countries. Moreover, both education systems must confront the tension between promoting social inclusion and achieving competitive academic excellence. Based upon the author's extensive teaching experience and over a decade's research into inclusion and exclusion in Britain, China and Hong Kong, this book provides an original, stimulating and insightful perspective on inclusive educational reform in two different cultures. It examines a broad range of educational environments, from kindergartens to teacher training colleges, and draws upon a fascinating diversity of official and personal documentary sources. Primarily concerned with the question of inclusion, the book also addresses issues of language and communication, gender imbalances and inequalities, curricula for teacher education, critical questioning and frameworks for learning support.

In this one-of-a-kind book, both Chinese and Western scholars provide students with a clear and wide understanding of sports and Physical Education in China. Sport and Physical Education in China looks at sports from both a historical and contemporary perspective.