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Shanghai window to international education
East China Normal University (ECNU) represents the “Shanghai-style Education.” It is not only a port for China to learn from international education but also a window for other countries to observe Chinese education. As one of the member units of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) teacher education, we have been appointed in 2014, by the Ministry of Education of People’s Republic of China, as one of the 12 units that organize national state foreign aid project. In 2015, we established the China-ASEAN Education Training Center (ECNU) with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education of People’s Republic of China. We also publish the Chinese version of Global education outlook. We established the first M.Ed. degree in China with the courses fully delivered in English. This is our goal to introduce experiences from international reforms of teacher education for globally equipped teacher educators.
Global Partnership
Only with the cooperation of prestigious institutions can it be possible to build an institution with internationally acknowledged reputation. So far, the Faculty of Education has facilitated extensive cooperation with faculties, colleges, and schools around the world. Through a variety of initiatives, including academic collaboration, student exchange programs, visiting scholars, and so forth, we are leading international education and research. We have gained extraordinary achievements through collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, the ENS group and other world-class universities.
Internationalized Faculty
The Faculty of Education attracts excellent scholars through a variety of flexible employments, such as short-term contract, joint employment, and so forth. Almost every early career faculty member has studied in or visited well-known universities or research institutes abroad for more than one year. Increasing numbers of young faculty have started to work with international education institutes and international journals. We are becoming an internationalized world-class faculty team.
Unit of High Peak Discipline Project in Shanghai
It is a shared mission and responsibility of Chinese universities to build up to a word-class level. It is the mission of the Faculty of Education to make educational studies excellent and to help ECNU become a world-class university. As a result, the Faculty of Education has successfully joined the High Peak Discipline Project of Shanghai government, which brings a 5-year financial support of nearly 200 million Yuan. This support will significantly advance the quality of our faculty, research and training, as well as our service to the society.
Leader of Educational Research in China
Educational research at ECNU is within the first-class in China. We have the most comprehensive second-level disciplines in education, and stand a leading position in terms of the quality and scope of educational research. In recent five years, the Faculty of Education outnumbers other institutions in research projects funded in the National Education Science Project and in publications on major scholarly journals in China. The Faculty of Education works with Beijing Normal University and other peer institutions to promote the empirical turn of educational research in China. We also encourage the field to speak to colleagues around the world. The Faculty of Education is committed to enhancing the quality of educational research.
Think Tank for Education Development in China
The most effective way to lead education development in China is constantly providing intellectual support for national decision-making. This has always been a mission of the Faculty of Education. Being part of Chinese education reform, we participate in developing important policies, such as National Curriculum Reform of Basic Education, Curriculum Standards of Teachers Education, Professional Standards of High School Principals, and so forth. In 2015, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the Shanghai government co-signed an agreement on a joint and cooperative establishment of the National Institute of Educational Policy Research located in the Faculty of Education, which further promotes our service for national and local education development. After having two key research bases for Humanities and Social Science of the Ministry of Education, we are proud that “Education Fairness Research to the construction of a powerful country in education” has been identified as an innovation research base for Social Science by the Shanghai Planning Office for Philosophy and Social Science. More remarkably, the Faculty of Education is designing the new curriculum reform of Shanghai. We will be more deeply involved in the process of the comprehensive education reform in Shanghai.
Cultivation of Excellent Educational Researchers
With the comprehensive transformation towards a research-oriented institution, the Faculty of Education put emphasis on training educational researchers. Since the establishment of “Fo Nian Plan of Educational Innovative Talents Cultivation” in 2015, we are devoted to exploring innovative ways of education and training that are interdisciplinary, international and cohesive. During the period of “twelfth five-year planning,” the Faculty of Education received 5 state-level and 16 Shanghai municipal awards for teaching achievements, 4 state-level excellent courses, and 4 shanghai-level excellent courses. The Faculty of Education has signed student exchange agreements with 14 overseas universities. In 2015, 90 undergraduate and 96 postgraduate students had the experience of studying abroad. In 2016, 16 doctoral students had been admitted into the government-sponsored graduate visiting student program; 10 master students and 1 doctoral student have entered the “Sino-French joint graduate program.” According to our 13th Five-year Plan, the number of exchange students will be increased in order to further internationalize our programs.
Cradle of National High-Level Talents
In China, nearly all the principals from well-known secondary schools obtain further education at ECNU as it is home to the National Training Center for Secondary School Principals. More than 30,000 leaders in educational systems, including secondary school principals (especially almost thousands of school principals as great educators), have studied in the Center. In addition, the Faculty of Education is also known for training school teachers. Each year, 30,000 primary and secondary school teachers from all over the country study here. We are committed to creating a “cradle” for national high-level talents.
Incubator of Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Once there are innovative teachers, there are innovative students with them. As always, the Faculty of Education focuses on the development of students’ innovative awareness and competence. We carry out the educational practical activities of “Five One-hundred,” which helps students participate in educational practices, and promotes their research. In the nationwide college students’ innovative practice competition, students from the Faculty of Education have been rewarded the outstanding prize and first-place prize for years, which strongly proves the innovative awareness and entrepreneurship of our students.
Source of Chinese Educational Practice Reform
Both the Institute of Curriculum & Instruction and the Institute of Schooling Reform and Development are the key research bases for Humanities and Social Science of the Ministry of Education, PRC. The Institute of Curriculum & Instruction has guided the curriculum reform in China for more than ten years and is a pioneer and key participant of China’s newest curriculum reform. The Institute of Schooling Reform and Development focuses on school reform through a comprehensive lens and is of great impact in China’s school reform and in the transformation of classroom instruction. In addition, in order to promote collaboration between the University and schools, and to achieve a win-win situation for educational research and schooling, researchers from the Faculty of Education intensively go to China’s primary and secondary schools to guide the functioning of schools, collaborate with principals and teachers, establish “base schools,” and so forth.