Educational transfer of liberal arts education into China: A case study from Chongqing

Abstract

This qualitative study focuses on the experiential perceptions of stakeholders during the process of borrowing liberal arts educational programs from the Netherlands to China, in a recently founded undergraduate college in Chongqing, Southwest China. The study's main purpose is (1) to discover local actors' (teachers, students and other stakeholders) efforts in interpreting liberal arts education with particular attention to meanings, curriculum and pedagogy and (2) to explore whether and in what ways these individual claims conflict with the current institutional strategies. Some of the key findings reveal modified, 'culturallyabsorbed' meanings of liberal arts education, unstable curriculum-structure and conflicting educational concepts. Based on these findings, we argue that the implementation strategies should be improved with respect to the stakeholders' standpoints and local realities instead of pursuing the requirements of a foreign educational model.