{"title":"Free Choice and Institutional Selection: Cultivation of the Elite in the Era of Mass Higher Education, Based on a Case Study of Peking University","authors":"Yunshan Liu","doi":"10.1080/10611932.2019.1667677","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract On the basis of reforms to undergraduate education at Peking University, this article sets out from students’ free choice and strict institutional selection, focusing on the process of the cultivation of the elite in mass higher education. The article analyzes the systems for student recruitment, talent training, educational programs, testing and assessment, and so on, revealing the plural logic behind the selection of the elite, the expansion of the number of courses under the trend of generalism, competitiveness under the power of rigorous testing and assessment, and rational management and skill-based performance by the individual. Going a step further, this article examines the fracturing of campuses due to erosion by instrumental rationality and consumerism, alienation in teacher-student relationships, and the essential hollowness of education. Finally, the article discusses students’ dispositional characteristics as shaped by trial and error through free choice.","PeriodicalId":39911,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Education and Society","volume":"12 1","pages":"113 - 161"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2019-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Chinese Education and Society","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611932.2019.1667677","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Abstract On the basis of reforms to undergraduate education at Peking University, this article sets out from students’ free choice and strict institutional selection, focusing on the process of the cultivation of the elite in mass higher education. The article analyzes the systems for student recruitment, talent training, educational programs, testing and assessment, and so on, revealing the plural logic behind the selection of the elite, the expansion of the number of courses under the trend of generalism, competitiveness under the power of rigorous testing and assessment, and rational management and skill-based performance by the individual. Going a step further, this article examines the fracturing of campuses due to erosion by instrumental rationality and consumerism, alienation in teacher-student relationships, and the essential hollowness of education. Finally, the article discusses students’ dispositional characteristics as shaped by trial and error through free choice.
期刊介绍:
How is China"s vast population being educated in the home, the school, and the workplace? Chinese Education and Society is essential for insight into the latest Chinese thinking on educational policy and practice, educational reform and development, pedagogical theory and methods, colleges and universities, schools and families, as well as the education for diverse social groups across gender and youth, urban and rural, mainstream and minorities. It features unabridged translations of the most important articles in the field from Chinese sources, including scholarly journals and collections of articles published in book form. It also provides refereed research on specific themes.