Special Music Education In China: History And Current Situation

In today's world with great cultural collision and integration, and with rapid socio-economic and technology development, various ideas, theories, doctrines, concepts have appeared. The Special Music Education (SME) gains a rare opportunity for its development. However, Chinese musicologists and educationists have paid little attention to the music education of about 15 million physically and/or mentally disabled children in China. Relevant theoretical research and education in practice lag far behind the advanced countries. Given the growing concerns on this'special'group and the equality of the society, the thesis takes the historical development and evolution of music education on the disabled in China as a topic. By utilizing a method that combines historical research with case investigations, it carries out phenomenon examination, reasoning analysis and strategic research on Chinese SME. The author attempts to reveal the history of Chinese SME objectively and systematically, to boost the development and reform in Chinese SME system.This paper is generally divided into three sections. The first four chapters are the core part of this paper. Starting from the discipline concepts and theories of the SME, the author reviews the history and current situation of Chinese SME comprehensively; Chapter V and VI analyze the worldwide trends in the SME and investigate many practical problems faced by Chinese SME. The last chapter focuses on how to promote a better environment for Chinese SME.The introduction briefly discusses the history of the SME, explaining the theoretical value and practical significance of the dissertation topics, and thus leads to research ideas. Then, it gives a comprehensive literature review on the SME, outlines the theoretical foundation, research methodology, and main contributions of this study. Meantime, it also points out the difficulties faced by the authors in the writing process and the problems and weaknesses of this study.The first chapter intends to answer three basic questions: what is the SME, why should we teach and how to teach. The author clearly defines the concept for the SME discipline, the audience of the SME, main theories and commonly-used educational modules.Moreover, he points out the relationship among the SME, ordinary music education and music therapy, emphasizing on the importance and effects of the SME.Chapter II conducts a review on the historical situation and development of Chinese SME. The chapter also analyzes the characteristics of target audience, training objectives and educational modules of the SME in ancient China. Then, it discusses the development of the SME in modern China and points out the special contributions made by the Western missionary. Last, it presents the historical situation of the SME prior to the founding of New China, including the construction of Chinese special education schools, the education system, the funding system, the course contents, folk education conditions of the SME and so forth.The third chapter elaborates the development and evolution since the founding of New China. After the liberation, the Chinese government took over and transformed all kinds of special education schools, established and refined operational policies and regulations, constructed a new administration system for special education, strengthened the training system for teachers and the discipline construction, promoted Chinese SME development enormously; during the 10 year turmoil, Chinese SME fell back for several years. The education quality collapsed. After the passage of the reform and open policy, the central government re-established education policies and guiding principles for special education system. The 9-year compulsory education system also covered the SME sector. After the rebirth of Chinese SME, it has experienced a rapid growth.The fourth chapter mainly takes five special education schools, selected from Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, as the object of study. By using methods such as attending lectures, scene inspections, interviews with teachers and students, and questionnaire surveys, the author investigates various situations in the educational facilities, training programs for teachers, the arrangement of music classes, the educational modules, the research in teaching.The fifth chapter studies the current situation of the SME in developed countries, such as the U.S.A, England and Japan, and it summarizes five worldwide trends in the SME system. Further, from the viewpoint of education system, structure and basic conditions, it compares Chinese SME with others and points out the problems and shortcomings presented in Chinese SME system.The sixth chapter, based on previous five chapters, inspects the whole SME system and problems raised from the system. It reveals a number of problems related to education system, administrative system, training system, vocational choice, academic research, teaching methods, etc. Moreover, it conducts a deep analysis from several other perspectives, such as culture, traditions, economic regime, globalization and so forth.The seventh chapter shows the intent and purpose of this research. Staring from the nature of education, it critiques the distortion of education goals and presents several thoughts to ponder. While discussing the theories on individualizing education, the paper proposes a multi-dimensional theory merging a number of thoughts together. Taking this theory as a foundation, it proposes preliminary conception for teaching organizations, the training system, curriculum projects, teaching methods and performance appraisal in Chinese SME system.The concluding part is the master line by"understanding". It analyzes emphatically the essential factors that affect Chinese SME system and discusses objectively the future development in Chinese SME from macroscopic views.