Premium
Philosophy of Vocational Education in C hina: A Historical Overview
Author(s) -
Schmidtke Carsten,
Chen Peng
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9752.2012.00859.x
Subject(s) - vocational education , chen , china , library science , sociology , philosophy of education , workforce , higher education , social science , media studies , pedagogy , political science , law , paleontology , computer science , biology
Historically, C hinese educational philosophy has been dominated by C onfucianism and, since 1949, by M arxism. However, rapid industrialization, ideological demands, and loyalty to traditions have now led to a situation where various W estern philosophies have been adopted into vocational education in hopes of moving the country forward without challenging the status quo too vigorously. The result is that C hina presently has no clear philosophical foundation that can help the country make solid decisions on how vocational education shall contribute to economic growth and social improvements. Awareness of one's philosophy, however, is important for vocational educators so that they can make well‐founded decisions about their teaching. The authors hope that by presenting an overview of which philosophies have been adopted in the past and the influence they have had on practitioners and policymakers, scholars can engage in a debate on which vocational education philosophy can help train C hina's workforce most effectively and support continued economic growth.