The recession has concealed from many commentators in the West the overwhelming economic force of the last decade, the inexorable rise of China. Commensurate with this has been the economic and political decline of Europe and especially of the European Union. The European normative strategy in education was always an unrealised ideal. But, if the…

This article analyzes the current status and problems of vocational education for China's ethnic minorities. It concludes that these problems have both universal areas in common with China's overall education situation and individual characteristics; they also have both extrinsic and intrinsic qualities. The universal areas include the extrinsic…

This article uses curriculum-making frameworks to analyse and reconstruct the Chinese curriculum-making model and unpack the dynamics, complexity and constraints of China's curriculum reform since the early 1990s. It argues that curriculum reform is China's main human capital development strategy for coping with the challenges of the 21st century,…

Big changes are ahead for China, probably abrupt ones. The economy has grown so rapidly for many years, over 30 years at an average of nine percent a year, that its size makes it a major player in trade and finance and increasingly in political and military matters. This growth is not only of great importance internationally, it is already having…

Without adult education, there would have been no Communist government in China. Once the Long March arrived in Yan'an, Mao and Communist leaders used adult education in informal and nonformal settings to build momentum for revolution. This article analyzes the theory and practice of adult education during the Yan'an "golden years"…

Initiated in September 1994, "New Basic Education" first underwent a five-year Exploratory Research phase from September 1994 to May 1999, which was followed by a second five-year Developmental Research phase from September 1999 to May 2004. Thus during the past ten years, "New Basic Education" has undergone a complete research…

China has attracted a huge amount of interest from around the world over the last two decades because of its rapid and vigorous development. Rapid economic growth has brought with it significant structural reforms in all trades and professions across China. Within this context of rapid social change, the Chinese basic education system has been…

Contemporary globalization is marked by rapidly and dramatically increasing interdependence, which operates both within and among countries. Increasing global interdependence has profound influence on education at all levels, such as how to deal with a world with more permeable boundaries in which people are on the move more frequently (migration)…

The Chinese society of the 21st century is at a critical period of transformation. The emergence of globalization and informationalization are the most striking changes of the current Chinese society. The profound change in the social transformation and its penetrating influence on people's lives has revealed the disadvantages of the present…

To advance an emerging frontier in human resource development (HRD) research, national HRD (NHRD), this study explored the subject by focusing on a key area of HRD, management development (MD) in the China context. Taking a system and holistic perspective, the study identified three critical challenges facing Chinese managers and China MD in the…

China's national leadership is committed to a vast upgrading of education, and the pervasive spirit of reform in economics and politics is leading to higher expectations of higher education. Reforms are targeted in the system's structure, deemphasis on specialization, new emphasis on applied science, and faculty qualifications and productivity.…

A discussion of higher education in Hong Kong looks at the current economic context, government and public support, rapid expansion and its effect on academic and faculty hiring standards, and issues related to Hong Kong's change in political status in 1997, including emigration patterns, faculty morale, and finance and censorship concerns.…

How does a country undergo the extremely rapid change necessary to go from an emerging country to a major world power in a few short years? The answer is through education. While the world reads about the many economic changes taking place in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), an equally fundamental change is occurring in its educational…

One hundred years of rural development in India is surveyed, tracing the impact of colonial administration up to and including the decades of independence--an administration built on elitism, centralism, and paternalism. Four major rural problems of famine, abuses of land tenure, peasant indebtedness, and rural disaffection and how political…

This report was based on the author's study in China in 1980-81 and on the findings of other observers, Chinese data, and analyses of the post-Mao adult education system (1977-1982). It focuses particularly on the shifts in adult education priorities and programs and on the political and pedagogical debates. (SSH)