Study On Modernization Of Higher Agricultural Education In China (1897-1937)

With the internal disorder and foreign invasions, Chinese economy based on the agriculture was at the edge of the collapse in the last years of Qing Dynasty. Under the voice "agriculture is the foundation of enriching the country" and the impetus of ideological trend of attaching importance to agriculture, the agricultural school, one type of industry school, was started. Since the first agricultural school in China was established in 1897, the higher agricultural education has gone through three different stages - starting, reforming and developing- and basically completed its modernizing process in 1937.Based on the relatively weak study on the history of agricultural education, through widely searching for the material related to the last years of Qing dynasty, the Republic of China, drawing lessons from the research results of the history of Chinese agriculture, agricultural science and technology, applying the method of unifying the history and logic, combining history with theory and comprehensive study with case study, this dissertation demonstrates comprehensively the skeleton of the development of higher agricultural education in modern times, analyzes the factors of the rise of higher agricultural education in modern times, divides the higher agricultural education in modern times into three historical stages, summarizes the affecting factors and their inner relations, studies especially the influences of educational thoughts and system in modern agriculture, the overseas students to the modernization of higher agricultural education. The dissertation takes as the center the social functions that the higher agricultural education serves "agriculture, countryside and farmers", and also makes the case study to the Zhili Agricultural School set up earliest and had the clearest characteristics. With the case study, the dissertation demonstrates a complete picture of the development of a higher agricultural school.Through the study, we come to the conclusion that the foreign invasions, the deterioration of agricultural economy and urgent needs of agricultural science and technology is the inner motive of the development of Chinese higher agricultural education. Studying agriculture abroad prepares high level teachers and the knowledge of Western agricultural science for the Chinese higher agricultural education. The introduction of the Western educational thoughts and the instant development of the Chinese modern agricultural educational thoughts impel and guide the reforming direction of the higher agricultural education. Three reforms of educational system are important driving forces to the modernization of higher agricultural education. At the same time, they become the remarkable symbols in different stages of Chinese higher agricultural education. The wide expansion of the agriculture and the upsurge of the rural education make the social service function of higher agricultural education established and applied to practice. The expansion of agricultural education and agricultural science and technology impels the transformation of the traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, and make the modernization of agricultural education the precondition of the agricultural modernization. The process of the modernization of Chinese higher agricultural education is also the course of studying and learning from the agricultural education experience in advanced countries and making it Chinese. This process has the brand of imitating the West and becomes a distinctive feature of the modernization of Chinese higher agricultural education. The modernization of Chinese higher agricultural education is also a process of exploring the way to serve Chinese agricultural improvement. From making the agricultural expansion and establishing of the social service function to carrying on the campaign of rural education and development, the higher agricultural education plays a more and more remarkable role in the development of Chinese economy and society in modern times.Although the process of the modernization of higher agricultural education is winding and slow, it has simultaneously obtained many remarkable achievements. For example, the scale and quantity of modern higher agricultural colleges and universities obtain a quicker development. The higher agricultural education discipline system gets constant perfection, and is qualified to carry out scientific research and raise the higher level talented persons. A large quantity of outstanding modern agriculture educationalist and the agriculture scientists and technicians have been produced and rich modern agricultural educational thoughts have been formed. The application of modern agricultural scientific achievements to the agricultural reform has stimulated the transformation of the agricultural modernization, and also promoted the role and status of higher agricultural education. All these have laid the foundation for the modernization of Chinese higher agricultural education.Study on the modernization of Chinese higher agricultural education can not only enrich the research accomplishments of educational history, but it can also get the practical inspirations which instruct our present agricultural education practice. First, agricultural education should be given more attention and investment. Second, higher agricultural education should be used in the countryside, and strengthen its combination with "Agriculture, countryside, farmer" and increase its vitality through serving them. Third, the agricultural education and the agricultural science and technology should be unceasingly innovated, so that they can push the agriculture to make constant progress. Forth, we should carry on all-round agricultural education and strengthen the raising of grass-roots practical talents. Fifth, absorbing and learning positively from the agricultural education mode in advanced countries and combing them with china's reality is an effective way of developing our agricultural education.