The Value Orientation Of School Reform During The Period Of Social Transformation

Social transition is a profound and all-round reform, during that time the school system has changed, and is still changing. A strong trend from external management to school-based management is increasingly becoming one of the value orientations in school reform. Hence, it is practically and theoretically important, to a certain extent, to study the value orientation in school reform during the social transition.In this study, the value orientation of school reform is set on the background of the current social transition in China. Social transition serves as the background for the school management system reform, and the change in social formation raises new direct or indirect requirements and challenges for the school development. From the perspective of the external factors, social transition is the seedbed for the school management system reform and provides it with both environmental factors and inducements; and new informational management ideas are swarming in, providing ideological support for the reform. Meanwhile, from the perspective of internal factors, the ideological and behavioral unrest of the behavioral agents of school themselves are pushing the reform from potential to reality; the traditional school management system is featured with stagnation, which becomes contradictions and problem in practice to be solved in the reform. Based on the expounding of the concepts, operational systems, shortcomings and improvements of the external management and of the school-based management, following three conclusions are drawn in the study after taking into serious consideration the realistic conditions in current Chinese school management systems:The school-based management is the inevitable choice in school management reform. The characteristics of school management systems in current China are as follows: from the aspect of systematic environment, the school management systems are running under the influence of executive restriction emphasizing role of the government as their basis; from the point of systematic characteristics, the management systems are featured with the concentrated control of the departments in charge and the passive obedience of the subordinates; from the perspective of the management characteristics, the management systems attach importance to external control, yet, the"self"management is ignored. The school-based management, which should be emphasized particularly in the management innovation, is greatly complementary to the external management.There is still room for the external management. The school-based management by no means excludes the external management from the government. In practice, there is necessity and reasonability for government control, which requires our correct understanding and definition of the role of our government.The school-based management under the indirect control of the government is advised. Three suggestions are proposed on how to establish the school-based management system under the indirect control of the government: first of all, the reform consensus between the school and the government should be reached; secondly, several relations in the school-based management should be taken into consideration; thirdly, such a frame of school reform should be constructed as from conservation to opening-up, from control to development, from independence to cooperation and from anti-dialogues to democratic conversations.In conclusion, I sun up the characteristics of the running mechanism of British higher education institution from the angle of the system of the running mechanism. Then I point out some points for attention in the enlightenment.