Research On Construction Of The Local Curriculum In The Period Of The Republic Of China(1912-1937)

During the process of historical transformation from the tradition to the modernity,the social system and the cultural order of China have been changed and reconstructed.In the period of the Republic of China,a plenty of problems,like the collapse of social economy,cultural disorder,imbalance between urban and rural education and so on,caused widespread concerns of the intellectual elites and local educators who tried to develop local curriculum to enlighten the public and transform the rural society through changing academic and cultural education.As for the building of local curriculum,the scholars in history,sociology,anthropology,folklore and many other fields have already taken part in the relevant research;while in curriculum study,since the beginning of the 21 st century,the scholars have also actively developed curriculum history research,but the building of local curriculum in the Republic of China has not been paid enough attention.Therefore,this paper attempts to concentrate on the local curriculum construction efforts of intellectual elites and the local education circles from the early Republic of China to the Comprehensive Anti-Japanese War,so as to make up for the lack of attention on the curriculum history research in the construction of local curriculum in the Republic of China,and also provide a historical reference for the current educational researchers.The main contents and academic findings of this study include:firstly,the local curriculum constrcution in the period of the Republic of China has its historical backgrounds,there were three main factors for the trend of local curriculum construction:(1)at the social level,China had faced severe national survival crisis and overall rural social crisis since the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China;(2)at the knowledge level,the trend of thoughts of western local culture had a profound impact on the Chinese intellectual community,and the local community had a long tradition of folk academic culture and local knowledge education;(3)at the student level,the subjects of local curriculum included children and ordinary people.At the beginning of the Republic of China,children's research began to rise in China,and the concepts of "children's discovery" and " children's orientation" were formed and widely spread;At the same time,in the rural construction movement,ordinary people had received due attention,and they actively participated in the construction of local curriculum.secondly,the main body of promoting the development of local curriculum in the period of the Republic of China included two types of the intellectuals.One was the intellectual elites in the center of the cultural and educational field,the other was the local cultural and educational personages in a relatively “marginal” position.The former took the lead in turning their attentions to the life of the people at the bottom,builded local curriculum according to their own understanding of folk culture(especially refered to the farmer group)such as folksongs and dramas,that was,indigenous knowledge,and integrated them into the higher academic research and teaching system,trying to bridge the conceptual world of the upper intellectual elitess with the normal life experience of the ordinary people at the bottom.The purpose of the elites' local curriculum constrcution was not only to understand the lower-class people and the rural society,but also to create a new culture with social enlightenment and to promote the progress of the rural society.The latter was represented by the local educators in the regions south of the Yangtze River,who absorbed the western educational thoughts,actively explored the local curriculum theory in accordance with the national conditions and the people's conditions,and constrcuted the school educational and the social educational curriculum practice path to transform the local society relying on their own indigenous knowledge.In the teaching of local courses,all subjects were taught according to the local natural resources and industries.In the local curriculum teaching,in addition to the promotion of literacy movement,local education circles had also paid special attention to the indigenous knowledge represented as folksongs and agricultural proverbs.In addition,local social educational institutions such as the public education center had also explored local courses rooted in the tradition of agricultural civilization,with "cattle race" as a typical example.They paid attention to the intimate interaction between farmers and other activity subjects,including animals and the natural ecological environment in daily production and life.In order to solve the problems of rural social transformation,these two kinds of reformers had developed local curriculum from different directions.thirdly,the analysis of the historical significance of local curriculum development in the Republic of China and the summary of the achievements and shortcomings were necessary.The main achievements were as follows: at the conceptual level,it was connected with the ideological trend of rural social transformation since the May 4th movement,which had not only promoted the spread of the idea of social reform in the education field,but also had an impact on the pedagogical thoughts,making the "personality liberation pedagogy" initially based on the "individual enlightenment" turned to the "social transformation pedagogy " committed to the "social transformation",and promoted the rise of "rural transformation pedagogy".At the practical level,the constrcution of local curriculum was also helpful to innovate the cultural and educational life of rural society.The shortcoming was: because it did not involve the reform of the rural social system,it was difficult to solve fundamentally the rural social crisis and transform thoroughly the rural society only through developing local curriculum based on indigenous knowledge.finally,the constrcution of local curriculum led by the intellectuals in the period of the Republic of China could provide the following historical references:(1)the current urban and rural education is facing a big problem,that is the separation of the elites' "universal knowledge" and the publics' " indigenous knowledge".Only when the educational and social values of folk indigenous knowledge are attached importance to,the curriculum content can be developed that children and adults actively absorb and internalize.(2)In order to obtain sufficient and reliable indigenous knowledge,it is necessary to establish the academic research and teaching mechanism of local culture in higher education institutions,actively to activate the regional radiation power of cultural center,and to encourage the primary and secondary education circles and social education circles to take root in local fields to consolidate the knowledge base of local curriculum.(3)The types of local curriculum in the period of the Republic of China are diverse,so the contemporary educators can carry out various forms of school curriculum and social curriculum,enrich the curriculum content of folksongs,agricultural proverbs,drama,myths and legends,stories,customs and so on.(4)Guide the diversified development of curriculum construction subject.The mastery of indigenous knowledge is not limited to school teachers,so it is necessary to respect the subjectivity of children,adults(especially workers and peasants)and social education institutions and people(such as local museums,local chronicles compilers,etc.)who are rich in indigenous knowledge as an important part of the main body of local curriculum constrcution.(5)Effective policy implementation is the key condition to ensure the orderly construction of local curriculum.Limited by the turmoil and social system,the construction of local curriculum in this period had encountered many difficulties,which is of great significance for the current development of local curriculum and the promotion of local culture.