The terminology of "Chinese characteristics" (zhongguo tese) is ubiquitous in China's political language, but its precise definition remains elusive. This study focuses specifically on the mobilising of the idea of Chinese characteristics of China's science evaluation programme: the China Discipline Evaluation (CDE). Implemented as an…

Over the past 40 years, global tertiary expansion has been driven in part by the rise of the non-university sector. The growth of this sector, which includes vocational colleges, also contributes to increasingly diverse national higher education systems. Prior research has focused on inter-state variation in national systems, while very few…

Adult literacy and literacy education have long been a global agenda. China's literacy education has been developing amid the backdrop of international commitments and goals of adult literacy. Since the founding of new China in 1949, adult literacy policy in China has been continuously evolved within the changing political, economic and social…

Although L2W practice has been present in China for a long time, limited existing research has investigated its origin and development. My study aims at reviewing and synthesizing L2W articles published in major linguistic/foreign language journals in the People's Republic of China in the past seven decades (1949-2018). By collecting and analyzing…

Purpose: This paper traces the incorporation of western educational histories in the development of normal-school curricula during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China (1901-1944). It uses publication networks to show how the study of comparative educational history facilitated the international circulation of knowledge in the teaching…

This research aims to examine the liberal arts models of three institutions in three Chinese societies. The theoretical framework for the study is the capabilities approach. I use a qualitative method of document analysis to examine educational goals, missions, and curricula in the three institutions. The research finds that, with a focus on…

The nature of the New Policies in China (1901-1911) has been hotly debated for decades. While scholars doubt the sincerity of the Qing government in their pursuit of constitutional reform, there is a general agreement on the high quality of their educational reform. Some even consider their educational innovations as "genuine reform" but…

In this paper, I made a historical and philosophical reflection on the social scientific categorization of "rural children" (nongcun ertong) in contemporary Chinese discourses of educational equality. The empowerment discourse about them as an educationally marginalized group based on scientific inquiry into their problems reflects a new…

Policy changes are dependent on institutional logic. As they are analogies shared by a group, when metaphors for universities change, they ultimately promote changes to university governance models as well. Taking analogies into account, university reforms have proceeded while revolving around the metaphors of the university as government and the…

Yali College, a four-year institution operating under the aegis of Yale University, offered a US-style undergraduate education in China's Hunan province from 1914 to 1927. It developed a robust curriculum and an impressive physical plant but collapsed after a little more than a decade. This paper, drawing on new archival research, focuses on the…

To achieve a successful policy transfer from one country to another, knowledge is required about the framework conditions of the country to which the policy is transferred. An important framework condition to consider is cultural context. Therefore, this paper uses a combination of cultural definitions which consider culture as a driver for both…

The process of Chinese nation-building in education reveals the hegemonic strategies of the colonial power and the adaptation of indigenous forces when Hong Kong was undergoing decolonisation and the transfer of sovereignty. The return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty has been a crucial indicator for the potential re-unification of China, as it…

Comparing China's 2006 and 2015 Africa policies, this article reveals how China's political discourse has become more confident, practical, and depoliticised. In particular, this paper shows how education is allocated, promised, and embedded in China's 'shared' agenda, which is centred on development co-operation and mutual learning. It then…

Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in educational programs across the globe. The U.S. has become the most popular destination country for international students among which Chinese students comprise the biggest proportion. In analyzing and studying contemporary situations about Chinese international students in the U.S., the…

In 1932, with the help of the League of Nations, the Chinese government sent an educational mission consisting of five scholars to Europe, in order to investigate education in different countries as reference points for ongoing Chinese educational reform. This article argues that educators in the mission used foreign examples to support their…