2012 Columbia China Prospect Conference Education Panel

[Note: I was invited to moderate the panel on education at the Annual China Prospect Conference at Columbia University in early November 2012. The panelists, including scholars on migration education, testing and evaluation, cross-cultural adaptation and civil society participation were really informative in sharing insights from their own field/projects. Below is a quote from the organizers, Future China Initiative, on the theme of this panel and link to videos of all sessions.]

         Starting with the restoration of the college entrance examination in 1977, education in P.R China has entered a new stage of reform and development. Enormous competitive pressure of human resource market, the scarcity of high-quality education resources and the unbalanced allocation of education resources, the potential inequity of selection system, the universalization of study abroad and oversea standardized exams and the booming education industry to meet the diverse demands,all these jointly depict a unique and huge education market in China. Every movement of Chinese education reform deeply affects the development of China and even the entire world. During the past few decades, what ups and downs the educational reform and development in China has experienced, how people's ideas about education has been changed, what kinds of problems the development of China's urban and rural education system are encountering, what kinds of opportunities and challenges the increasingly large group of oversea Chinese students are now facing, how the current education system should be reformed under the overall background of globalization, these are all topics worthy for further exploration. Let’s reflect on the past and prospect to the development of education in the future.