School of Education and Management

1.  Historical development

School of Education and Management at Yunnan Normal University, established in 1999, is the most prestigious Education school in the university with a long history and good traditions.

Its predecessor was the Department of Education at Southwest Associated University, which was set up in 1938 during the Anti-Japanese war by consolidating the Department of Education and the Department of Philosophy at Peking University, the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Psychology at Tsinghua University, the Department of Philosophy and Education at Nankai University, and the Department of Education at Yunnan University. The Department of Education at Southwest Associated University produced 168 students during a span of 8 years from 1938 to 1946, most of whom furthered their study abroad and became eminent experts and scholars in the fields of education and psychology in our country.

In 1946, Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University moved back to the north, leaving the Teachers’ College, and later renamed Kunming Teachers’ College, in Yunnan as a token of gratitude to people in Yunnan for their support of the Southwest Associated University in the eight-year-long War. The Department of Education at the original Southwest Associated University, a key element of Kunming Teachers’ College, continued its excellent traditions and teaching with a well-organized system and some highly-acclaimed professors and scholars.

After 1949, the Department of Education went through vicissitudes and halted several times due to various reasons. It was not until 1983 that it resumed enrolling students, coming back to its regular track. In 1984, Kunming Teachers’ College was renamed Yunnan Normal University. In August, 1998, the Department of Education at Yunnan Normal University merged with the Branch of Education and Management at Yunnan Education College in order to meet the needs for the reform and development of institutions of higher learning. In December 1999, the present School of Education and Management at Yunnan Normal University came into being by combining Yunnan Institute of Education.

2. Current situation

The school consists of five departments, namely, the Department of Education, the Department of Psychology, the Department of Pre-school Education, the Department of Public Services Management, and the Department of Curriculum Design and Pedagogy. Its research institutes include Yunnan Provincial Institute of Education, Yunnan Research Center of Basic Education, and Research Institute of Applied Psychology. Its supporting institutions comprise Comprehensive Psychological Experimental Center, Laboratory of Modern Instruction Technology Training, and Reference Center. Besides, our school boasts a characteristic major of Education at national level, a key major of Education at provincial level, a selected course of Teaching Principles at provincial level, a selected course of Psychology at university level, key characteristic disciplines of education and psychology in the Eleventh-Five-Year Plan at provincial level, and first-class and second-class key disciplines of education and psychology in the Eleventh-Five-Year Plan at university level.

The school has a teaching staff of 65, of whom, 51 are full-time teachers. There are 14 professors, 1 research fellow and 23 associate professors. Among the teachers, one is doctorate supervisor, and 27 are master’s supervisors. In addition, we have two young and middle-aged academic pacesetters at provincial level, one academic pacesetter at the level of institutions of higher learning, four academic pacesetters at university level; three key teachers at university level. Among the teachers of our school 31 have masters, 11 doctors and post-doctor degrees, 4 doctorate candidates. The proportion of teachers to those with master’s degrees is 60.78%.

Now, the school has three levels of students, postgraduates, undergraduates, and diploma students offering synchronized modes of teaching: full-time, correspondence, and self-study. To date, the school has 1,037 undergraduates, the majority of students, majoring in education, pre-school education, management of public services and applied psychology. Over the years, the school has made its contributions to education, basic education in particular in the province, by producing a large number of well-received graduates, who are solid in foundation, high in quality, and good in teaching and research. Many of them become key teachers in disciplines, leaders of different schools at different levels, teaching administrators, and academic pacesetters of teaching and research. The school has made great achievements in various targets of undergraduates’ training quality ranging from English proficiency tests, computer proficiency examinations, the number of master candidates, and final employment rates.

Postgraduates’ teaching is the direction we are heading. The school has psychology as first-level master’s program and 7 second-level postgraduate programs, i.e. teaching principles, curriculum design, pre-school education, comparative education, development and education psychology, basic psychology, and applied psychology. Also, the school supports 3 second-level programs of instruction technology, higher education, and adult educations which are oriented to other schools within the university. It is the experimental unit of masters in education approved by the Academic Degree’s Office of the State Council, offering master’s programs in curriculum design, education and rural education. From September 2009, the school has been enrolling full-time masters in psychological health education, and will enroll a program of education management in 2010. As of September, 2009, master candidates of various types in the school totaled 560.

On the basis of undergraduate and postgraduate education, the school actively develops other modes of teaching, including correspondence for undergraduates and diploma students majoring in education, primary school education, pre-school education, applied psychology; together with self-study examination for undergraduates and diploma students majoring in education, education management, primary school education, pre-school education. Apart from the reform and exploration of double-degree programs of undergraduates in education (teacher training) of the university, the school also undertakes the reform and teaching oriented to teacher training of the whole province.

The school commits to basic education in Yunnan Province, attaches importance to both teaching and research, and promotes teaching through academic research and development. Recently, the school has made its unique achievements in the development of basic education, education in different areas, education in rural minority areas, teacher education, cross-cultural psychological research, research in psychology and education of special groups, psychological education of students and teachers in primary and high schools across the province. Up to now, the school has undertaken over 60 research projects at national and provincial levels funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science, National Office for Education Science Planning, and Yunnan Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science; 20 research projects funded by the UNESCO, United Nations Development Programme and the Ford Foundation. The school has published over 800 articles with more than 200 in high-level journals, 50 monographs and textbooks. We are honored with 2 first prizes, 5 second prizes, and 10 third prizes in the Award for Outstanding Achievements in Yunnan Philosophy and Social Science, and many other prizes at provincial level.

The school is well-equipped with state-of-the art facility for teaching and research in the province. Its reference center has over 30,000 volumes of books in Chinese and foreign languages, 20 kinds of academic periodicals in foreign languages, and more than 1,000 audio-visual packages. The school has created good conditions for training key teachers and administrators for various schools at all levels, and those who engage in full-time and part-time education training and management.

3. Development goals

In the future, the school aims to focus on professional teacher education and strength its own restructuring and development by adjusting to the transition to teacher education in an active and positive manner, to continue to enhance academic development of such characteristic majors as education, psychology and pre-school education by catering to the social needs; to build the school into a teaching-research structure within the next five to ten years by attaching importance to both teaching and research; to continue to upgrade the levels of postgraduate programs by consolidating and improving the present programs, and initiating doctorate programs; to establish and improve multi-level and multi-form teaching system within the school by taking into consideration of various adult follow-up education on the basis of teaching of undergraduates and diploma students; to train capability-based students who have solid foundation, wide interest, high quality, and practical skills;  to serve the local and national socialist modernization drive by integrating Yunnan Province with the wider contexts of the whole country and Southeast Asia at large.

Efforts will be made to take the lead in the competition with its counterparts within the province as well as in teaching, research, public service and levels of academic staff by giving full play to regional superiority and prominence to academic strength; to rank among the top in the evaluation of teaching and research targets among the humanities; to consolidate the leading position of the school within the province by playing a bigger role in the transition from normal education to teacher education in the university; to build the school into one combining teaching, research and social services with its own feature by upgrading its influence in its counterparts at provincial normal universities within the country. Thus, the school will transform into a center for training high-level personnel, pedagogy and research, educational decision and counseling, teacher education and life-long learning.