This article will examine the development and implementation of the new geography curriculum in secondary schools in Shanghai. Analysis of the processes and mechanisms which underlie curricular change in China reveals how embedded bureaucratic, social and cultural norms have profoundly influenced the degree to which reforms to the geography curriculum have achieved the desired results. The analysis begins with a detailed examination of the wider institutional hierarchies which initiated and managed curricular reforms in Shanghai. Interviews with teachers and extensive classroom observations, and a review of the new curriculum and geography textbooks are utilised to evaluate the practical outcomes of curricular change in Shanghai. The findings reveal a deep dichotomy between the intended goals of curricular reform, the processes of curriculum development and implementation, and an examination system which compels teachers to cling to traditional teaching methods of lecturing and rote learning. These findings are discussed in the context of the established educational hierarchies, the cultural politics of curricular reforms in Shanghai and the nature of geography teaching in China. A more balanced approach which addresses the provision of adequate resources and professional development for teachers, and which recognises the need for a fundamental restructuring of the examination system, is suggested.
China’s rural enterprises were responsible for 48 per cent of the $US 151 billion in exports and absorbed nearly 20 per cent of total foreign direct investment in 1996. Clearly, the significant and increasing role of rural enterprises in China’s integration with the world economy demands attention. The penetration of global capital into the rural enterprise sector and the desire of such enterprises to benefit from expansion into international markets have important implications at the local level. The impact of international, domestic and local forces on institutional and structural reforms is reflected in particular spatial outcomes in rapidly developing non‐urban regions. Local authorities have responded to external forces in ways which do not conform to the conventional expectations. Evidence from the lower Yangtze (Yangzi) delta reveals how the supposedly universalising pressures of globalisation have been mediated and adapted at the local level, particularly in terms of enterprise location and the proliferation of special zones. Expanding on the desakota hypothesis, the notion of rural agglomeration is introduced to capture the paradox of spatial economic transformation as it was linked to local circumstances, and localised responses to external pressures of globalisation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.