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Education Reform in Shanghai in the Era of Globalisation: Towards a Balanced and Innovative System?

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Equity in Excellence

Part of the book series: Education Innovation Series ((EDIN))

Abstract

Over the past three decades, the international community has witnessed China’s increasing integration into the global economy and dramatic changes to every aspect of its social life (Postiglione GA (ed). Education and social change in China: inequality in a market economy. M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, 2006). Shanghai, as the largest metropolis and economic centre in China, has been widely expected to play a leading role in the modernisation process of the national economy and technological innovation. As early as the 1990s, the Shanghai government set the goal of establishing itself as a global city and in its 10th Five-Year Plan (2001–2005), declared its aim to become a centre of international commerce, finance, trade and shipping by 2020 (Leman, China Bus Rev 29(5): 7–15, 2002). The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, a dominant force in the governance of China, encouraged Shanghai to play a prominent role “leading to change the mode of economic growth, leading to improve the capability of independent innovation, leading to promote reform and opening to the world, and leading to building a harmonious socialist society” (Xinhua News, ‘Four centers’ and ‘four leaders’ (in Chinese). Retrieved from http://www.sh.xinhuanet.com/misc/2007-05/23/content_10097532.htm, 2007). To realise these goals, the Shanghai Municipal Government (The outline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan of Shanghai for national economic and social development (in Chinese). Retrieved from http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/shanghai/node2314/node2315/node4411/userobject21ai141039.html, 2006) advocated development of innovation to enhance the international competitiveness of the city and the use of science and education as the major strategy to achieve development of the city.

This chapter analyses Shanghai’s reforms against the backdrop of Chinese social changes and discusses the underlying tensions that Shanghai encounters in defining the role of local education in an increasingly globalised Chinese society. We identify two orientations of the reform measures: promoting balanced educational provisions and seeking innovations to enhance educational quality. The paper concludes that educational reformers in Shanghai must strike a balance between manifold understandings of education in international and Chinese society, mediating between cultural values as well as political and economic benefits.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There are altogether 2553 regular colleges and universities in Mainland China in 2015, not including 292 adult higher education institutions (retrieved from www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A03/moe_634/201505/t20150521_189479.html). Since the beginning of twenty-first century, the central government has initiated the programme of 211-project and 985-project universities, the former including 114 universities (retrieved from www.eol.cn/html/g/gxmd/211.shtml) and the latter 39 ones which are selected from the former ones (retrieved from www.eol.cn/html/g/gxmd/985.shtml) (also cited from Han & Zhu, 2015, forthcoming).

  2. 2.

    The educational opening strategies include the opening to the Yangtze River Delta region, which aims to be linked with the regional economic and social development and to strengthen the regional educational collaboration and to advance mutual development; the opening to society, which means to break through the school campus and absorb more social resources, to enhance service function and to cultivate more talents fit with the social development and requirement; and the opening to the world, which heightens to improve international educational cooperation, to share developmental experiences and to facilitate educational change and innovation (SEPAC & SAES, 2014, pp. 3–19).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Zhiyong Zhu & Meng Deng

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  1. Zhiyong Zhu
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  2. Meng Deng
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Correspondence to Zhiyong Zhu .

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  1. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

    Siao See Teng  & Kenneth K. Poon  & 

  2. Department of International Education and Lifelong Learning, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Maria Manzon

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Zhu, Z., Deng, M. (2019). Education Reform in Shanghai in the Era of Globalisation: Towards a Balanced and Innovative System?. In: Teng, S.S., Manzon, M., Poon, K.K. (eds) Equity in Excellence. Education Innovation Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2975-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2975-3_3

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