Agricultural extension in Subei, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China, 1979-1985, exchange of experience meetings and 'tu' (local) journalism: The persistence of indigenous educational paradigms since Rural Reconstruction, 1927

This thesis is concerned with the educational problems involved in the attempt of the Chinese to integrate research, education and agricultural extension in the context of a rural county in northern Jiangsu. The process of integration involves translation between the knowledge system of rural Chinese peasants and the knowledge systems of centralized levels of the educational and scientific bureaucracy. The focus of the thesis is on the difficulties of communicating between these different social groups with their divergent conceptual systems as they seek to improve the quality of life in rural areas.;A review of the literature on the Rural Reconstruction movement during Republican China uncovers the basic dimensions of an incommensurability between locally and centrally based epistemologies. Evidence of a potential local contribution to science is drawn from Republican period rural development programs, 1983-1984 exchange experience meeting documents, and the 1984 issues of a county xiao bao (small newspaper).;I argue that successful integration requires a higher level of respect for indigenous knowledge systems and the politics of the popularization of science. Such increased respect must be encouraged over a bias in favor of a purportedly disinterested and positivist central science.