
260 pages, 6 x 9
3 colour illustrations, 3 tables
Paperback
Release Date:01 Mar 1998
ISBN:9780774806121
Hardcover
Release Date:20 Jun 1997
ISBN:9780774806114
PDF
Release Date:01 Oct 2007
ISBN:9780774854535
The Power of Words
Literacy and Revolution in South China, 1949-95
SERIES:
Contemporary Chinese Studies
UBC Press
Awards
- 1997, Winner - K.D. Srivastava Award, UBC Press
It is to the author's credit that he is able to weave his discussion of different issues ... into a coherent narrative that reinforces the importance of adding historical context to contemporary policy discussions. Furthermore, the primary source documentation that he has gathered from within Guangdong province is both significant and impressive. For all of these reasons, this volume is an important contribution to the field of Chinese education and should be of interest to historians, social scientists and comparative educators who work in this area.
... fine work ... this is a carefully researched and lucidly written discussion of an important topic in PRC history, It deserves to be read not only by students of education, but by anyone interested in the post-1949 social and mental transformation of the Chinese countryside.
... until now, [China's post-1949 literacy programs] have escaped the wide-ranging analysis which Peterson provides... Peterson offers a nuanced analysis of elite and vocational literacy in a social and political context... This book offers a readable, succinct, and broadly informed perspective ... . an important contribution to anyone interested in Chinese or Third World development.
1. Introduction: Literacy and Society in South China
2. Minban Schools and the Reaffirmation of Voluntarism in VillageEducation
3. The Contested Priorities of Early Post-Revolutionary MassEducation
4. The Problem of the Teachers
5. Collectivization and the Increased Importance of Literacy
6. The National Literacy Campaigns of 1956 and 1958
7. Beijing's Language Reform and Guangdong's Opposition
8. Literacy Expansion and Social Contraction: The AgriculturalMiddle School Experiment 1958-65
9. The Cultural Revolution
10. Literacy and Economic Development in the Post-Mao Era
11. The Struggle for Literacy in Guagndong Appendix: EducationalLevels in Guagndong by District, City, and County 1982
Bibliography
Notes
Index