ERIC Number: EJ1427132
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0046-760X
EISSN: EISSN-1464-5130
Enter the Pragmatic Engineer: Ling Hongxun at Jiaotong University, 1920-1927
History of Education, v53 n2 p256-280 2024
In the early 1920s, the Chinese Ministry of Communications reformed the technical colleges under its control. The era constituted a dogmatic vacuum: Confucian elements had largely been abandoned, and Nationalist Party propaganda had not yet been instated. At Shanghai Jiaotong University, the US-educated civil engineer Ling Hongxun (1894-1981) oversaw this period as the school's principal. This article argues that Ling, more a practitioner than an educator, promoted a form of pragmatism that aimed at utilising solution-oriented learning to benefit the nation. In his speeches and essays, he propagated a training that prepared engineers to "save the country through transport and communications." Accordingly, the curriculum at Shanghai Jiaotong stressed the importance of practical experience, discipline and physical exercise. Despite remaining a short-lived era in education, pragmatism became the work ethos for a new generation of engineers.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Educational History, Institutional Research, Principals, Engineering Education, Nationalism, Teaching Methods
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China (Shanghai)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A