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…

This article investigates socialist China's pedagogic treatment of individuality between 1949 and 1958, with a focus on the debates concerning "all-round development" and "teaching in accordance with aptitude," two principles that clashed regarding students' individuality. It reconstructs how educational bureaucrat and theorist…

What exactly does it mean to be globally competent in a Chinese context in the early 21st century? In this article, we propose a culturally informed re-interpretation of 'global competence' rooted in Eastern and Western traditions. We draw on a longitudinal empirical action-research study of Chinese and foreign teachers working to foster global…

This article identifies the problem that an instrumentalist mode of thinking dominates China's contemporary education practice and suggests that the dichotomy between the "small self and big self," a notion that has been present throughout modern Chinese history, exacerbates this instrumentalism. It parallels the loss of China's…

This paper tackles the issue of education as the process of person-making and attempts to redefine the ideal and unique Chinese person--the Chinese soul--based on a civilizational dialogue and synthesis that would transform modern education and enable education to play a central role in "redeeming modernity" and revitalizing Chinese…

The composition of today's school classrooms is now more diverse in a world of greater global mobility and communication. For teachers, this adds further complexity to the task of ensuring each child has the most appropriate opportunity to learn. This paper posits that future teachers are more able to cater for cultural diversity by developing…

Over the last century, the development of didactics (???) in China has been profoundly influenced by Kairov's theory of pedagogics. The German Didaktik tradition, which can date back to Comenius and Herbart, remains largely unknown to educational scholars in China while they possess basic knowledge of Comenius and Herbart. This article expounds…

Uses examples from China and Iran to demonstrate that governments use education to mold people's beliefs about human development to fit rulers' political rationale. Discusses Marxist attempts to alter Confucian and Taoist notions about human nature, and the shahs' attempts to change traditional Shiite views of women. Offers seven general…

This journal consists of eight articles dealing with self-help and community education. Included in the volume are the following articles: "An Uphill Struggle--Self-Help in Bangladesh," by S. Harrison and Judy Saul; "How Not to Help a Local Community: A Case from South India," by Nora Sammut and Maria Theresa; "The High…