全球化冲击下的中国高等教育改革:
分权和自主化的趋势
摘要:本篇文章通过追溯历史上高等教育改革的背景,来探寻全球化冲击下高等教育改革的细节。随着结构的调整、人力资源的开发和利用、课程的升级和教育的普及,不仅仅是权力,还有责任的分权趋势都日益彰显。同时,面对全球化进程中遗留的一些问题和新的挑战,本文经过讨论得出的结论是,在中国现在和未来的改革中,很有必要把集权和分权有机地结合起来。
关键词:自主化,分权,全球化,高等教育改革
1978年被视为中国历史上的里程碑。这一年,中国政府宣布包括高等教育系统在内的一系列改革措施。在文革期间占支配地位的极端地方权力分散的情形彻底得到了扭转,集权式的管理形式成为八十年代初各项事务的紧急需要。
二十年的实践经验证实了西方国家的影响力要强于中国先前改革的影响力。全球化又被称作西方化,它使得国人对高等教育改革的理解重新焕发活力。就像罗伯特所说,“全球化是一个从整体上把握世界和世界意识逐步激烈的压缩体的概念(罗伯特逊,1992,引自杜,2001,P33)。”由于中国现代科技发展的背景、仿效苏联模式的失败、为了适应全球化进程,中国足够明智地选择了学习发达的西方国家。各种各样的渠道已经疏通,中国人不仅能够有条件放眼全世界,外国人也能够有条件看到改革中的中国。网络通讯成为获取“国际标准”的主要途径。为了实现社会主义现代化和改革全球化进程中的“整体道德”(斯图尔特,1996,P332),中央政府选择了高等教育作为教育改革的先锋。就像邓小平经常说的那样,中国的现代化建设仰仗于科技的发展;并且教育能够训练出一批拥有科技素养的基础人才。教育能够帮助人们丰富生活,给予他们思想,以此提升人们的精神健康(斯图尔特,1996,p338)。
中国高等教育改革的问题基于权力下放的程度。窘境来自三个方面:(1)高等教育是真的经济实体吗?(2)高考的题目应当从题库里面抽吗?(3)怎样评估教师教育的前景?
让我们来讨论一下第二个窘境,那是高考(NEE)的作用。一方面,标准考试能够帮助保证教育质量,选择精英以备后续的高等教育。争论在其合法性上展开,因为它的的确确是中学教育的评价标准。通常的指责在于这种考试的特性往往会使平常学得很好的学生考得不甚理想。但是另一方面,作为能够给予教育发达程度相异的各个省份和地区平等机会的考试,其标准一直遭到质疑。高考是标准的、独特的,对于它的理解也是多样的和多基的。那么高考的功能是什么?它是权力集中的标识吗?在开放的教育市场,它意味着通往更高教育的门票吗?市场需要投资的资金,而这个资金来自高等教育。这就使得学生通过花钱来接受高等教育变得可能甚至容易。高考成绩决定了谁能够享受高等教育,但是它更是一个参考而不是唯一的标准。
为了克服高考本身的缺陷,从1984年以来,一系列的实验项目从上海引进来(派伯,1990)。1999年,另一项新的关于改革教育注册进程的政策出台了。学生们可以在获得他们高考成绩之后自主选择学校甚至专业,所以学生们比在只能粗略地被高考成绩定性的时代有着更多的自主权。不过改革带来了新的问题。虽然政策仍然是说“给予TE很大自主权通过各种途径选择候选学生”(李,1999,p188),这个出台于1986年的政策给了TE学校很多机会来留住好的学生资源,但是现如今TE看到很多学生资源流向别的拥有更为广阔的经济前景的学校或专业中去了。
该怎样评价TE(教师教育)的地位呢?如果教育是打开通往现代科学技术进步的钥匙,TE就是抓住这把钥匙的首要责任。它使教育定型,决定了知识的质量和知识的积累。市场经济由利益驱使,它十分欢迎知识循环,但不是教学的方式方法。如果TS(师范生)准备完全与其它各项背道而驰,它一定会为了获得“教学法的自然”(谢,2001,p47)和没有任何好处的放权政策而成为一个失败者,这个结果是灾难性的,让人难以接受。当中央政府下放权力并且向地方政府和TE学校转换职责的时候,它保持了在宏观层面上管理学生注册和职业设计。问题在于,TE应当怎样在人力资源短缺、没有财政支持、国际竞争,还有全球化带来的挑战的压力下提升其专业化。TS机构已经被批准访问更加广阔的基金资源(林和荀,2001;谢,2001)。他们依据学术知识提供教学服务,组建和TE无关的企业,为了文凭而不是为了教学的长进而开设课程。他们勤奋工作,为“知识驱使和技术密集型经济”(丁,2001,p2)服务,他们想知道在这变幻莫测的市场经济中他们能笑多久,还有在追随TS专业化的道路上他们能走多远。中央政府应当关注的是TS机构什么时候能被授予同样的权力,使得在其它战线上有同样的机会;还有什么时候TE能够成长为一个有吸引力的、值得奖励的职业。
外部问题凸显的同时,中国自身的问题却远没有得到解决。全球化进程给高等教育带来了前所未有的挑战。关于挑战的描述不外乎以下三个方面:教育的质量、教育的市场、教育的法律法规。
为了使得学生-教师比率达到发达国家水平、构建更高层次的知识结构,从90年代初开始,中国开始了高等教育扩招。1993年的时候,全国共有1075所院校(钱,1996,p17)。同时,为了在世界市场中提高自身的竞争力,中国的上层开始了“211工程”(派伯,1990),力求在教育统筹委员会的掌控下建设100所核心高等院校,使它们能为国家培养主主精英。挑战还是来自于教育的质量。就像上面所提到的那样,为接受不同层次中学教育的人们提供地区平衡的教师教育被灵活地使用。许多学生能够进入高等院校学习,但是事实上,他们并不像期望的那样能担当推动学术发展的重任。另外,老教师的退休和青年教师的外流使重点大学的教师资源不断减少。甚至是在相同的职业里,尤其是在和TE相关的工作上,有限的人事管理阻碍了人才的自由交流。所以要保证一个高质量的教育水平和跻身国际先进行列,中国需要一个更有效的评价标准和更高质量的人力资源管理。
中国政府用来提升教师地位和生活水平的方式已经得到了一定收效(李,1999;潘斯,2002),但在吸引丰富的人力资源上它们还是不够有效。在低收入和危险职业的地区,人力资源主要靠行政管理来束缚。在由拥有丰富学术知识但是鲜有教学经验和技能的人组成的教师队伍里,这个现象十分普遍(谢,2001,p41)。在对中国教师专业程度质疑的今天,不管是提前的师范教育还是教师的实际教学训练变得日益重要(兰,1996;林和荀,2001)。
资料来源:石红许.全球化冲击下的中国高等教育改革:分权和自主化的趋势[J],教育政策与实践研究,2006(4):83-95.
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Chronically the year of 1978 is regarded as a milestone in Chinarsquo;s history. It was in this year that Chinarsquo;s government announced a full rang of reforms, including the high-education system. The extremely decentralized state dominating the period of the Cultural Revolution was totally reversed. Centralization in form of regulation became an urgent need of the early 1980s.
Two decades of following practice has proved that the influence of the West is stronger than it was on any of Chinarsquo;s previous reforms. The progress of globalization, which is often named Westernization, refreshed the Understanding of education reform. As Robert says, globalization as a concept refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of Consciousness of the world as a whole (Robertson, 1992, quoted in Du 2001, p.33).Because of the back ward state of Chinarsquo;s modern science the failure of the Soviet model, and the progress of globalization, China is Wise enough to learn from the advanced West. Various channel shave been opened for Chinese to look into the rest of the world, and for the outside to look into the changing China as well. International communication is taken as the way to obtain advanced international standards. To modernize the socialist society and to form a virtuous cycle (Steward,1996p.332) of globalization, the central government selected the higher education as the pioneer of education reform .As Deng Xiao ping often says Chinarsquo;s modernization hinges upon development of science and technology and the foundation to train talented personnel of science and technology is education. Education helps to enrich human lives to empower people and thereby to raise human well being (Steward,1996p. 328).
As mentioned in the above section, the problem of Chinarsquo;s higher education reform is seated in the degree of decentralization. Dilemmas come from three aspects: (1)Is higher education a real economic entity? (2)Should the national entrance examination keep on functioning in the educational market? (3)How to evaluate the prospect of teacher education?
Let us discuss The second dilemma, it is the function of the national entrance examination (NEE).On one hand, a standardized examination can help to keep The quality of the secondary education and to select elites for the tertiary education. Debates aroused on the validity of the exam, since it is actually one evaluative assessment of the secondary education. The usual critique reveals that the arbitrary nature of the exam may well turn down a student who has a good academic record but fails the exam. On the other hand, to give equal chance to different provinces and districts of unequal education qualities, the standardization of the exam has long been spoilt and distorted. The exam is standard and unique, but its interpretation is varied and multi-based. Whatrsquo;s the function of NEE? Is it the symbol of a centralized power? Does it mean a ticket to the higher education? Markets need the investment of money, so is the higher education. This makes it possible and easy for a student to buy his higher education. The scores of the exam do help to determine who can buy the educational service. But it seems a reference rather than a criterion.
To overcome the disadvantage of NEErsquo;S arbitrariness, a set of experimental projects was first introduced in Shanghai from 1984(Pepper, 1990). In1999, another new policy was announced to reform the process of higher education enrolment. Students were permitted to select their Preference of tertiary education institutions or majors after theyrsquo;ve been informed of their NEE scores. Itrsquo;s true that many students can have a more rational choice of universities and colleges than they did when the application was based on a rough estimation of the final score. But this reform brought a new problem to TE. Although still following the policy of giving priority to TE over other lines to select candidates (Li, 1999, p.188)Which was established in1986 to give more chances to TE institutions to maintain a good student resource, TE now seem any more potential students move away to other universities or majors that may have better economical prospects.
How to evaluate the position of TE? If education is the key to modern science and technology, TE is the line responsible for holding the key. It shapes education and determines the quality of knowledge and knowledge accumulation. Economic market is benefit-driven and welcomes more the circulation of knowledge, but not the method of how to teach knowledge. If TS is totally marketed to compete against other lines, it will surely be a loser for the sake of its pedagogical nature and the non-profit-dimensioned policy. The result could be disastrous and beyond bear. When the central government is decentralizing its power and shifting its responsibilities to lower levels of governments and TE institutions, it keeps its administration on student enrolment and job assignments in a macro-level. The problem is, how TE can get its professionalism improved under the pressure of human resource shortage, financial support elimination, internal competition, as well as the challenges from the progress of globalization. The TS institutions have been permitted to access to a wider fund resource. They sell teaching service in Terms of academic knowledge, set up enterprises irrelevant to TE, and open courses for diploma rather than teaching development. Whilst they are working hard to survive in a knowledge-driven and technology-intensive economy, they wonder how long they can stand still in the changing economic market, and how far they can go to pursue the professionalism of TS. What the central government should consider is when TE institutions can be granted the same power there fore the same chance as that in other lines, and when TE can be practically developed into an attractive and rewarding profession.
Problems have far from being resolved within C
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