“On the Centre–Periphery Borderline”: Educational Studies on/in Mainland China in the Global Context

Abstract

<p>In the context of China's rising global role, the question of where its academia is moving to becomes a matter of concern. Embedded in the literature on academic (de)colonization and intellectual pluralism, research was conducted by Chinese educational scholars on the status quo of educational studies on and in mainland China within the world system of knowledge production. We report its major findings in order to respond to continuing struggles within the contemporary Chinese academic society and between global “centres” and “peripheries.” Drawing on semi-structured interviews conducted with both overseas ethnic Chinese and non-Chinese education researchers, as well as bibliographic and content analyses among relevant academic publications, its findings indicate the growing but still limited global impact of educational studies on/in China especially theoretically and epistemologically, tensions between “centres” and “peripheries” within the world knowledge system, as well as tensions between internationalization and local knowledge. Suggestions for future directions have been concluded based on empirical data.</p>

有鉴于中国日益显著的全球角色，其学术界正在走向何方成为值得关注的议题。基于学术（非）殖民化和知识多元主义的理论视角，中国教育学者团队开展了研究，旨在探究针对中国大陆以及由中国大陆学者开展的教育研究在世界知识生产体系中处于何种现状。本文基于该研究成果，回应当代中国学术界之中以及全球“中心”与“边缘”之间持续存在的紧张与冲突。通过对海外华裔及非华裔教育研究者的半结构式访谈，以及对相关学术论文的文献计量分析和内容分析，研究揭示了与中国相关的教育研究日益增长但仍然有限的全球影响力，尤其是在理论与知识论方面贡献不足；世界知识体系中“中心”与“边缘”以及国际化与本土知识间的张力仍然存在。研究基于经验数据就未来的发展方向提出了建议。