Through the medium of the main educational journal of the decade
'People's Education' or 'Renmin Jiaoyu', this thesis attempts to
analyse developments in Chinese education in the 1950s from a Chinese
perspective. It is written in the full realisation that educational
developments in this period have had a bad press from the limited
number of works which have appeared, works which have all to frequently
paid scant attention to the views of those most intimately concerned
with the system itself, ie the students, teachers and administrators.
It is written with the intention of placing the main
participants centre stage and relegating, to the wings, those
translated sources which hitherto have provided the overwhelming
bulk of the information used by research workers.
All the key areas of their activity are considered in the text which
follows. Quite naturally, the political campaigns and the full time
primary, middle and higher systems are examined but their study is
not allowed to dominate the work. The nature and extent of the persisting
influence of the bourgeois educationalists is assessed and
an analysis is made of the only instance of open debate between conflicting
educational methodologies which appeared in the magazine ie
the controversy over 'all round development' which took place in the
mid 1950s. The nature of the Soviet input is set against an assessment
of the Chinese response and substantial attention is given both to
mass educational provision and to the effectiveness of the legacy of
the Old Liberated Areas.
Indicative of the central role played by the participants are the
sections devoted to the discussion of problems, readers' letters
and questions and answers.
All these main areas are presented within a structure and in a context
ordained by the Chinese themselves. By examining the main objectives
of the magazine and in trying to assess the nature of its contributions
as prescribed by the authorities, the process of conflict and
change is thematically studied
