Destruction And Reconstruction Of Adult Education In China

In accordance with the objectives and requirements of "State plans for medium and long-term reform and development of education", China must basically realize education modernization, basically form a learning society and stride into a row of human resources powers by 2020. On adult education, a mechanism of continuous education, a flexible and open system of lifelong education and an "overpass" of life-long learning should be built in the next 10 years. Therefore, it is of much theoretical and practical significance to reflect and study the current adult education institution in China.Several researchers did give some attention to this issue, and made some achievements. These studies focus on:review of the history of adult education, description of the existing defects and deficiencies of adult education institution, discussion of adult education institution innovation, exploration of adult education institution at the micro level or on the specific issues, and so on, which are the basis of continuous study on adult education institution. But, since 1979, the total number of published papers on adult education institution is only 20 (CNKI 1979-2010), and that of monographs is only one. Furthermore, the scopes of these studies are limited to the description of historical facts, imagination of institutional principles, or discussion of low-level institutional function of adult education. Even if the overall consideration on adult education institution is taken into, or some specific issues on adult education institution are concerned, unfortunately, they are only scratched the surface.In order to explore a way of China’s adult education development at the institutional level, with the guidance of Marxism, Mao Zedong thought, Deng Xiaoping theory and scientific concept of development, and applying the methods of Marxism presentlogy, Derrida’s deconstruction strategy and jurisprudence, a set of self-contained theory and analysis framework which base on western philosophy, post-modern theory, anthropology, politics, sociology, institutional economics, institutional politics, psychology, pedagogy, jurisprudence, logic and game theory are put forward in the thesis. Moreover, theoretical analysis, detailed investigation and in-depth discussion on China’s contemporary adult education institution including legal, rules and habits are also carried out. Especially, two local laws and regulations for adult education, which are Adult Education Regulations of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Lifelong Education Regulations of Fujian Province, are deconstructed. Be good at destroying the old and establishing the new. The thesis does not content itself with destroying, and it wishes to build. Therefore, for the purpose of institutional innovation, the thesis designs a set of adult education institutions based on other studies.The theoretical value of this study is its analysis, deconstruction and reconstruction of adult education institution in the perspective of multi-disciplinary, cross-border and interaction between economic, political, cultural and social, and the systematic exploration and preview of institutional innovation of adult education from a macro to micro levels. Its guidance meaning for practice is not only to raise one’s awareness of the theoretical capacity to grasp reality, but also to see the materialization of specific theory into reality, thus, to provide a possible template and benchmarking for the construction of adult education institution.Based on Marxism presentlogy, according to the laws of things evolution and the logic of thinking, this study explores the appearance, presence, absence and exit process of adult education institution at the dimension of time, and then designs a new set of adult education institution adapt to learning society. The research hypothesis is the theory of balanced development of modern education institution. That is to say, the modern education institution should be composed of basic education, higher education, adult education and vocational education, whose development should be balanced and harmonious. The main methods used in the thesis are documentation method, deconstruction and reconstruction method, philosophical speculation method, case study, etc.This study attempts to weave a theory network covering adult education institution combining "four-dimensional space", "four pillars" and "three Horizons". That is, based on "four pillars" including Marxism presentlogy, deconstruction strategy, institution jurisprudence and scientific concept of development, in "three Horizons" involving philosophy, sociology, jurisprudence and "four-dimensional space" covering thinking, action, institution and time, the thesis scans and examines adult education institution in a full range. Therefore, in the extension between external social, political, economic and legal environment that adult education institution relies on and the internal ideas, actions and institution, the study promotes and completes the construction of adult education institution in both theoretical and practical logic system. In the introduction, the thesis firstly introduces the origin of this study, defines the main categories and concepts, analyzes the theoretical basis, and clarifies the ideas and research methods. Then, following the appearance of the concept of adult education, the presence of adult education institution and its value, and the absence, deconstruction, reconstruction and innovation of adult education institution, the thesis seeks an effective way to protect education rights and promote educational equity and social progress in the form of institutional innovation and institutional progress.In the context of building learning society, adult, adult education, adult education institution and other core concepts are reviewed and clarified in the thesis. The thesis offers a concept of "jointly promoting", which means the criterion of adults should be determined by law, and society should promote adults with the uniform of personal development and social needs. Meanwhile, in the process of reviewing the history of human development and with the deepening understanding of learning objects, the concept of "double subjectivity" is also proposed on the basis of four leaps. That is to say, adult education and children education should be on an equal footing in an advanced political community. As we all know, children are the future of society, and adults are the presence. Future is on the basis of present. No present, No future. So, both children and adults are the main body of society. Adults are not only representatives of the advanced productive forces and cornerstone of building harmonious society, but also objective criteria of considering the values of "people-oriented" society.There is not uniform adult education law in China, and several specific provisions sporadically appear in some documents at various levels that are drawn up by various departments, thus, this study conducts a systematic collection and inventory, In the view of the latest institutional jurisprudence, with Derrida’s "strategy of deconstruction", semantic and pragmatic, that is to say, in the different perspectives of meaning and implication, deep analysis of the presence of current adult education institution is applied. The absence of adult education act which is the most critical standard document in adult education institution results in the serious imbalances and deficiencies of modern education institution. So, it is the right breakthrough for adult education institution to reconstruct and re-present.In the context of the development of human society, on the basis of the general consensus that "adult education is an inalienable basic human right" in the Sixth International Conference on adult education convened by UNESCO, the thesis designs a set of adult education institution and drafts Adult Education Act of People’s Republic of China which may resolve the problems in the process of legislation, operation and support, in order to protect and develop the rights, personality and freedom of adults. At the education levels, the law divides adult education into adult academic education and adult non-academic education. Moreover, adult academic education divides into adult primary education, adult secondary education and adult higher education. Adult non-academic education also divides into government-led adult education and market regulation adult education, etc. On the legislative technology, based on the principle of logical and structural integrity, the law attempts to make the provisions interact with each other and step by step to eliminate the drawbacks of not implementing in the past. On the legislative concepts and practice, the law attempts to make adult education institution reform and transform, that is to say, from "restriction" to "freedom", from "duty" to "rights", from "punishment" to "reward and punishment simultaneousness", and from "softness" to "both softness and hardness". Thus, a basic institutional framework is set up to explore a standardized way of adult education growing and development in China.