An Empirical Study On The Value Orientation Of The National College Entrance Exam Preferential Policies Towards Ethnic Minorities In Xinjiang

Since the proposal of “bonus points” policy for ethnic candidates of the National CollegeEntrance Exam for the first time in1950during the period of university admission, thepreferential policies have endured for more than60years. These policies also have beencontinuously improved due to the political, economic and other reasons during this period. Thisthesis takes the National College Entrance Exam preferential policies towards ethnic minoritiesin Xinjiang (NCEEPPEMXJ) as the research subject, selects policy texts since1950, deeplyanalyzes the evolution of Xinjiang ethnic minorities preferential policies of college admission.The paper also explores the evolution of and reasons for value selection and orientation hiddenbehind the adjustment of these policies under contemporaneous social background. Besides, thisarticle analyzes the value orientation of present policy through different views from the public.Finally, the value orientation of present preferential policies in the future is explored and futurevalue orientation of NCEEPPEMXJ is proposed.Judging from the combing of policy texts, the introductions of NCEEPPEMXJ in differentperiods are intended to ensure then cultivation of ethnic minorities talents to satisfy the socialand economic development, so they have very strong brands of historical background. From thedevelopment and historical background of NCEEPPEMXJ, we can divide the evolution of thepolicies into four stages: early years of new China (1949-1965), the Great Cultural Revolution(1966-1976), restoration of the National College Entrance Examination (1977-1998), furtherdevelopment period (1999-now). By combing and analyzing policies texts we discover that thevalue orientation of these polies always focuses on compensating for vulnerable groups andguaranteeing the right to higher education for Xinjiang ethnic minorities. The results of this studyshow that the value orientation of NCEEPPEMXJ mainly turns from social-needs-oriented toindividual-needs-oriented, and from giving priority to efficiency to focusing on educationalequality. However, considerations of NCEEPPEMXJ value orientation are not unilateral butmultilateral.The country’s political, economic needs were often given top priority in previous study andanalysis of education policy, but people’s needs and value orientation are lack of attention andresearch, which leads to the unidirectional educational policy studies mode neglecting publicparticipation. In the multi-interests nowadays, faced with a growing number of new problems,people’s value pursuits are bound to be diverse. By analyzing NCEEPPEMXJ with the AdvocacyCoalition Framework Theory, the writer finds that both coalitions own the same deep corebeliefs; they are the issue of receiving higher education while the direct belief is the issue ofeducational equality and efficiency. The study conducts interviews with supporters andopponents of NCEEPPEMXJ and finds that supporters showed a positive, encouraging attitude towards the value orientation of NCEEPPEMXJ with the idea that these preferential policiesshould be continuously conducted. They give a high affirmation on rationality of the valueorientation, the improvement of the National College Entrance Exam (NCEE) scores of ethniccandidates, the achievement of preferential policies towards farming&stockbreeding areas infrontier and the minimum points of individual subject. While opponents’ views mainly focus onuntidiscrimination, NCEE migrant, fake national identity and psychological inertia and so on.By combing historical texts of NCEEPPEMXJ and analyzing changes of value orientationof them and nowadays people’s value appeals to these policies, the writer reflectsNCEEPPEMXJ and finds that the problem that should be attached the most importance is thatthe value orientation of these policies is ambiguous. Thus in the future, NCEEPPEMXJ’simprovements should give their priority to the value orientation and the most basic valueorientation of NCEEPPEMXJ is to meet the needs of ethnic minorities students. So in the futurethe value orientation of NCEEPPEMXJ should gradually get close to the concept of “commonbut different”, try to reach the standard of “diversity”, create the “response mechanisms” andperfect the “safeguard mechanism” so that we can promote the harmonious, orderly and faredevelopment of higher education for Xinjiang ethnic minority students.