The diffusion of a curricular innovation in the Chinese context: A case study of Discipline-Based Art Education and the diffusion/implementation strategy of the Chinese Ministry of Education.

摘要

This study examines an emerging strategy for diffusing innovative curriculum favored by the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) into the schools of Beijing even as the stated ministerial policy is increasingly to delegate such curricular decisions to the local level. The innovation in question is Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE): a multi-disciplinary approach to teaching and learning art in the elementary and middle schools, originating in the US, that has found considerable favor in the MOE and Beijing Municipal Education Commission (BMEC). The Ministry has given evidence of a commitment to the dissemination of this approach, beginning with the Beijing municipal education system. This dissertation is a case study of this dissemination strategy, drawing on the educational diffusion literature, mainly coming out of a US context. This case study attempts to create a new theory of educational diffusion more suited to the Chinese context: specifically to a context of a once overwhelmingly powerful central ministry that has been delegating some of the curricular decisions to the local provinces, districts, and schools.; This is a case study of how an innovation (DBAE) is spread, implemented, resisted, and modified in modern China. The study focused on Beijing Municipal Educational Commission and the schools under its jurisdiction: specifically in three districts (one urban, one suburban, and one rural) and two schools in each district. The researcher interviewed school principals and art education specialists in each school, and art education supervisors at the district level. In addition, the study included curriculum and interview art education specialists—including those who favor and who oppose DBAE—at the levels of the MOE and BMEC.; Since centralization and decentralization coexist in China, there is a power-dependent relationship resulting from the different functions that central government and local school districts play. Under the decentralized system, the local governments are considered as partners who help achieve the goals of the MOE. The Ministry tends to initiate or confirm the innovation efforts as well as to define what is decentralized and to which level of government. Meanwhile, the Ministry exercises less control over the means or process of implementation and gives more autonomy, discretion, and decision-making to local government.; The study reveals that a few Chinese art teachers and education administrators in Beijing have disseminated, promoted and practiced DBAE before it became the theoretical base of Beijing's art education curriculum framework for the 21st century. The MOE is utilizing Beijing's experimentation with DBAE, as it is in the process of drafting a new national art education curriculum framework and standards.; The study also demonstrates the trend of the MOE's new approach to innovations within its decentralized system, which is the “change agents/model programs”. The study confirms that “change agents/model programs” model has been used to diffuse and infuse DBAE in China. Decentralization has given local governments and schools impetus to initiate and implement DBAE, however, the case study shows the diffusion of DBAE in the few selected schools is not part of a systematic reform, thus it is not sustainable but an artificial diffusion.