Wang Chengxu; Gu Mingyuan; Zhu Bo (eds.) (1985)

An overview of the book:

This was the first classic book written by three leading figures on comparative education in Mainland China after the Cultural Revolution: Wang Chengxu from Hangzhou University, Gu Mingyuan from Beijing Normal University and Zhu Bo from South Normal University. It captures some great pioneering works of comparativists from various normal universities and institutes of education in China, after three editorial committee meetings in Beijing in May 1980, in Baoding in May 1981 and Guangzhou in Feb.1982.   

Chapter one outlines the historical development, basic characteristics, equipment, aims and methods of comparative education. Chapter two describes some single-national case studies of educational systems in the United States, former Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France, former West Germany and Japan, which are used for cross-national comparisons in later chapters. Chapter three makes a cross-national comparative study of the historical development, organizational structure, curricula content, methodology and teacher training of pre-school education. Chapters four, five and six respectively touch on the historical development, structure, reform directions, curricula content and methodology of primary, secondary and vocational-technical education in a cross-national perspective.

Chapter seven identifies the historical development, missions, organizational structure, pedagogy, research and entrance requirements of higher education in a cross-national perspective. Chapter eight discusses the historical development, organizational models, curricula and training of in-service primary and secondary teachers in the field of teacher education in a cross-national perspective. Chapter nine compares the organizational models, regulative and planning mechanisms, supervision and financing of education across countries. Chapter ten reaches a conclusion by pinpointing the trends of educational development after the Second World War, various educational challenges towards scientific revolution and briefing out the history and current missions of comparative education in Mainland China.

Introduction to the editors:

Prof. Wang Chengxu (the first editor) is a distinguished figure in the field of comparative and international education in Mainland China. Earning a bachelor degree in 1936 at the Dept. of Education,  Zhejiang University and a master degree and professional certificate of education at the Dept. of Education, London University in 1941, he once worked as a university lecturer at the University of Nottingham, a professor at Zhejiang University and Dean of Zhejiang Normal University and currently works as a tenured professor and doctoral study consultant at Hangzhou University. In 1993, he was awarded the title of honorable research fellow at London Institute of Education and has been an educational consultative UNESCO committee member in the Asia-Pacific rim and a national consultant for educational development of Mainland China. His prolific academic publications lie in the fields of history of comparative education, higher education in UK and democracy in education.

Prof. Gu Mingyuan (the second editor) is a distinguished leading figure in the field of comparative education in Mainland China and is currently working at Beijing Normal University. He is the president of Chinese Comparative Education Society (CCES), leading Chinese colleagues to carry out various types of comparative education research in cross-national, -cultural and international perspectives at the University. He is an expert in Russian education, a committee member or the chairman in some departments of the Ministry of Education at national / provincial levels, and a chief editor of several encyclopedias of education, journals and periodicals on comparative education in Mainland China and has rich experience in organizing local and international conferences on comparative and international education.

Prof. Zhu Bo (third editor) is a leading figure in the field of history of comparative education. He teaches at South China Normal University and publishes widely on the history and  methodology of comparative and international education. He is also a committee member or the chairman in some departments of the Ministry of Education at national / provincial levels.

Back to Book Reviews