Inefficiencies and Tensions - Northwestern University

Inefficiencies and Tensions:

Explaining the Slow Expansion of the Modern Primary Education System in Jiangsu during late 1920s and early1930s

Hanqiao Lin

Senior Honors Thesis Presented to the Department of History and the MMSS Program

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Northwestern University

May 17, 2015 Advisors: Peter Carroll & Diane Schanzenbach Seminar Directors: Michael Allen & Joseph Ferrie

Table of Contents

Abstract ..........................................................................................................................................................I Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................................... II List Of Graphs............................................................................................................................................. III List Of Tables ............................................................................................................................................. IV

Introduction................................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 Shortage In Primary Education Finance................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2 Tensions In Primary School Teachers' Work .......................................................................... 32 Chapter 3 The Jiangning Experiment......................................................................................................... 55 Chapter 4 Education And Society--An Analysis Of Variance ................................................................. 75 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 98

Appendix: Regression Tables ................................................................................................................... 102 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................. 130

Abstract Since the end of 18th Century, generations of Chinese reformers had sought to strengthen the nation against foreign imperial invasion by reforming its education system. They argued that the tradition education focusing on Confucian classics was one source of China's weakness and that Chinese youth should learn other subjects, like math and science, to prepare for future international competition. When the Nationalist Government took over the control of Jiangsu Province in 1927, it initiated a new round of education reform, aiming to establish a primary education system that could educate all the school age children based on a modern standard. However, in the mid-1930s, the scale of traditional private academies still exceeded that of modern primary schools. This raises a key question: what factors explain the slow expansion of modern primary schools in Jiangsu during 1930s? Through the analysis on education finance and primary school teachers' work experience, this thesis argues that the provincial and county governments' failure to muster abundant financial resources and to attract and retain high quality candidates for teaching positions were important factor that had limited the expansion of the modern primary education in Jiangsu. When reformers began to realize these problems, they made an effort to break the limits in financial and human resources. Mei Siping, the magistrate of Jiangning Experimental Autonomous County, developed a series of successful policies to improve the efficiency of the primary education system. However, the outbreak of Sino-Japanese War in 1937 put a halt to Mei's experiment and the general reform efforts in Jiangsu.

Keywords: China, Republic Era, Modernization, Education Reform, Primary Education

i

Acknowledgements I would not be able to finish this thesis project without the kind support from many people. Firstly, I am indebted to my thesis advisors, Peter Carroll and Diane Schanzenbach, both of whom have spent hours reading my drafts and offering me intellectual guidance through the entire research and writing process. In addition to the support for my thesis project, Professor Carroll has encouraged me to follow my interests and offered me countless advice in writing since my very first history class in college. He has also offered me the valuable research opportunity in my junior year as a Leopold Fellow, which had inspired me to begin this thesis project. I am also grateful for Professor Schanzenbach, who has encouraged me to use statistical tools to analyze historical data, a direction that has initially seemed very challenging due to the lack of accurate and well-organized data source. I owe thanks to my seminar advisors, Michael Allen and Joseph Ferrie, both of whom have offered essential feedback to my research strategy and my thesis drafts. I am also appreciative of Germ?n Bet, who has given me substantial technical support as I was learning to use the software, Stata, to analyze data. I am also deeply indebted to the supports from my friends. Thanks to my friends who have shared my amazement at some incidental discoveries in historical materials, no matter whether it was a funny advertisement I came across in a magazine or a nicely designed statistical graph I found in a data book. Special thanks to Houren and Leon, who have always reminded me to enjoy other parts of my life while I was working on the thesis. I am also grateful for Cecilia, who has given me warm and constant support. Finally, thanks to my family who have given me understanding and support across the Pacific Ocean: to Mom and Dad for encouraging me to be myself, to my grandma and grandpa for always reminding me to get enough sleep.

ii

List of Graphs

Graph 1 Correlation between Primary School Budget and the Number of Primary School Grade Levels in 1929 __14 Graph 2 Correlation between Lower Primary School Budget and the Number of Primary School Grade Levels in

1931 _______________________________________________________________________________14 Graph 3 Correlation between Lower Primary School Budget and Lower Primary School Enrollment in 1933 ____15 Graph 4 Comparison between Education Expenditures in Jiangsu Counties (1919 vs. 1929) __________________19 Graph 5 Comparison between Education Expenditures in Jiangsu Counties (1919 vs. 1929) (Adjusted for Inflation)

___________________________________________________________________________________ 20 Graph 6 Comparison between Education Expenditures of Jiangsu Counties (1929 vs. 1933) __________________21

iii

List of Tables

Table 1 Regression Table for Percentage of Total Coutny Budget Designated for Educational Affairs in 1933____83 Table 2 Regression Table for Per Capita Lower Primary School Budget in 1933 ___________________________85 Table 3 Regression Table for Per Student Lower Primary School Budget in 1933 __________________________87 Table 4 Regression Table for Changes in Lower Primary School Budget between 1931 and 1933______________88 Table 5 Regression Table for Lower Primary School Teacher Medium Salary in 1933 ______________________90 Table 6 Regression Table for Per Teacher Lower Primary School Budget in 1931 __________________________92 Table 7 Regression Table for Lower Primary School Number of Student Per Teacher in 1931 ________________94

iv

Introduction In January 1932, Jin Zonghua, one of the provincial school inspectors in Jiangsu visited Taixing County and inspected twenty-one primary schools in the county. He wrote in the inspection report submitted to Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education: The facilities in lower primary schools are crude and simple. The number of students in these schools rarely reaches the standard amount stipulated in provincial policy. Local education administration should improve the quality of these schools and increase the number of students...in local towns and villages, there are many traditional private academies (sishu). Local education administration should register these academies and help them reform. Those academies that are located close to primary schools should be closed down.1 The situation Jin described in his report was by no means unique to Taixing. Many reports on other Jiangsu counties submitted by school inspectors in the first half of 1930s also contained similar descriptions about the poor condition of primary schools and the continued popularity of traditional private academies. The competition between primary schools and traditional private academies can be traced back to late Qing, when the Qing court faced pressure from both foreign imperialistic invasion and domestic demand for reform. In the spring of 1898, Kang Youwei, one of the leading reformers in late 19th century, proposed to the Qing court to build a new education system similar to that in Germany. According to Kang, this school system should include district-level primary schools offering courses in a broad range of disciplines, including natural science, social science, and art, and county middle schools teaching foreign language and leading to technical programs in agriculture, engineering, mining, mechanics, and so on. Graduates of middle and technical schools could proceed to college to do some further study and research.2

1 , " (Education in Taixing County)," (Jiangsu Education) 1, no. 2 (1932): 17. 2 Thomas Curran, Education Reform in Republican China (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2005).

1

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download