Actively Constructing China’s Autonomous Knowledge System of Pedagogy

On April 25, 2022, when inspecting Renmin University of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed that “accelerating the construction of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics ultimately means constructing China’s autonomous knowledge system”; subsequently, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC put forward the clear requirement of “constructing an autonomous knowledge system of Chinese philosophy and social sciences.” [1]1 The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC refers to the third plenary meeting of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, held in July 2024, which focused on further deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization. In recent years, Chinese philosophy and social science scholars have carried out fruitful theoretical explorations around constructing China’s autonomous knowledge system, achieving a series of important results.

2022年4月25日，习近平总书记在中国人民大学考察时提出，“加快构建中国特色哲学社会科学，归根结底是建构中国自主的知识体系”；此后，党的二十届三中全会提出了“构建中国哲学社会科学自主知识体系”的明确要求。近年来，我国哲学社会科学工作者围绕建构中国自主的知识体系进行了卓有成效的理论探索，取得了一系列重要成果。

Pedagogy is an important component of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics. Pedagogy theorists have engaged in in-depth discussions around the connotation, value, and practical pathways of the autonomous knowledge system of Chinese pedagogy, forming a certain consensus. However, there are still some perplexities in the current academic community regarding how China’s autonomous knowledge system of pedagogy should be constructed. The formation of these perplexities has internal reasons related to the disciplinary development of pedagogy. First, the establishment of China’s modern pedagogical discipline has only a history of just over one hundred years; some core concepts, such as education, science, classroom teaching system, curriculum, normal education, and liberal education, are mostly translated and introduced from abroad, facing the problem of indigenization development. Second, the degree of specialization in the knowledge production of the pedagogical discipline is not high, prominently manifested in the insufficiency of independent research methods and research paradigms in pedagogy, with its knowledge production mostly borrowing research methods from other disciplines. Third, pedagogy faces the urgent problem of handling the relationship between history and the future—that is, in the face of current educational problems, how to inherit, develop, and recreate excellent traditional educational thought, and how to carry out educational theoretical innovation based on history and the present. These problems have, to a certain extent, hindered the construction of China’s autonomous knowledge system of pedagogy.

教育学是中国特色哲学社会科学的重要组成部分，教育学理论工作者围绕中国教育学自主知识体系的内涵、价值和实践路径展开了深入讨论，形成了一定共识。但当前学界在中国自主的教育学知识体系应如何构建的问题上，仍存在一些困惑。这些困惑的形成有教育学学科发展的内在原因。一是中国现代教育学科建立仅有百余年历史，一些核心概念，如教育、科学、班级授课制、课程、师范、博雅教育等多为译介而来，面临本土化发展问题。二是教育学学科知识生产的专业化程度不高，突出表现在教育学科独立的研究方法和研究范式不足，其知识生产多是借鉴其他学科的研究方法。三是教育学面临处理历史和未来关系的紧迫问题，即面对当下的教育问题，如何传承、发扬和再造优秀传统教育思想，又该如何基于历史和当下进行教育理论创新。这些问题一定程度上阻碍了中国自主的教育学知识体系的构建。

To answer “what is China’s autonomous knowledge system of pedagogy,” one must first correctly understand the meaning of “autonomy”; and to answer what “autonomy” is, one must correctly handle the relationship between the “self” and the “other.” The author believes that the “self” can be regarded as the current knowledge production of Chinese pedagogy, while the “other” is the knowledge generation of pedagogy in other countries, the knowledge production of other disciplines, and the knowledge production of pedagogy in history and the future. To accelerate the construction of China’s autonomous knowledge system of pedagogy, fundamentally, it is a process from proposing iconic pedagogical concepts, to forming a “recognized pedagogical theory,” and then to developing China’s autonomous knowledge system of pedagogy. Whether it is iconic pedagogical concepts or “recognized pedagogical theory,” they both have an essential characteristic—strong explanatory power for educational phenomena, problems, and practices. Starting from this, we attempt to explore the realistic pathways for constructing China’s autonomous knowledge system of pedagogy.

要回答“什么是中国自主的教育学知识体系”，首先要正确理解“自主”的含义；而要回答什么是“自主”，就必须正确处理“自我”与“他者”的关系问题。笔者认为，“自我”可视为当下的中国教育学知识生产，而“他者”是其他国家的教育学知识生成、其他学科的知识生产以及历史和未来的教育学知识生产。要加快构建中国自主的教育学知识体系，从根本上说是一个从提出标识性教育学概念，到形成“承认的教育学理论”，再到发展中国自主的教育学知识体系的过程。而无论是标识性的教育学概念还是“承认的教育学理论”，它们都有一个本质特征——对教育现象、问题和实践有很强的解释力。由此出发，我们尝试探寻构建中国自主的教育学知识体系的现实路径。

First, propose iconic pedagogical concepts. Understanding and explaining educational phenomena, educational problems, and educational practices cannot be separated from pedagogical concepts. Compared with ordinary concepts, iconic pedagogical concepts have the following characteristics: First, iconic pedagogical concepts have originality; they are concepts that have never been proposed before and are original innovations. For example, educators throughout history, both ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, generally believe that education should conform to children’s nature; how to explain this principle becomes an important issue. The concept of “following-nature education” proposed by Chinese scholars well explains the ideas of protecting nature, respecting individuality, and cultivating sociality, and could potentially become an iconic pedagogical concept. [2]2 “Following-nature education” (率性教育) is a concept derived from classical Chinese educational thought, emphasizing education that aligns with and nurtures the innate nature of children. Second, iconic pedagogical concepts have better explanatory power. For example, people often refer to the phenomena of educational development blindly pursuing quantitative indicators, schools excessively pursuing rankings, and students blindly pursuing high academic degrees as “educational utilitarianism,” but this is a factual description of the phenomenon. The concept of “educational meritocracy” reveals the deep-seated rule of “allocating resources according to merit” behind educational utilitarianism, and could potentially serve as an iconic pedagogical concept. Finally, iconic pedagogical concepts have generalizability. For example, in educational and teaching activities, emphasizing student initiative has become a consensus, but it is often easier said than done. The concept of “arousing and initiating teaching” proposed by Chinese scholars not only well explains the subject position of students but also provides an implementation pathway for giving play to student subjectivity in specific educational and teaching processes, and could potentially become an iconic pedagogical concept. Of course, the proposal of iconic pedagogical concepts is not without foundation; it requires fully digesting and absorbing some important pedagogical concepts, theories, and wisdom that already exist from ancient and modern times, both Chinese and foreign, and on this basis, proposing concepts with innovativeness, explanatory power, and generalizability.

首先，提出标识性教育学概念。理解和解释教育现象、教育问题、教育实践离不开教育学概念。和普通概念相比，标识性教育学概念具有以下特征：第一，标识性教育学概念具有原创性，是以前没有人提出过的、原始创新的概念。例如，古今中外的教育家普遍认为教育应顺应儿童天性，如何阐释这一道理成为一个重要问题。我国学者提出的“率性教育”概念就很好地阐释了保护天性、尊重个性、培养社会性的理念，或可成为一个标识性教育学概念。第二，标识性教育学概念具有更好的解释力。例如，人们经常将教育发展一味追求量化指标、学校过度追求排名、学生盲目追求高学历的现象，称为“教育功利化”，但这是对现象的事实性描述。而“教育优绩主义”这一概念揭示了教育功利化背后“依功绩来分配资源”的深层规则，或可作为一个标识性教育学概念。最后，标识性教育学概念具有推广性。例如，在教育教学活动中，重视学生主动性已成为共识，但往往知易行难，我国学者提出的“兴发教学”概念不仅很好地阐释了学生的主体性地位，也为具体教育教学过程中发挥学生主体性提供了实施路径，或可成为一个标识性教育学概念。当然，标识性教育学概念的提出并非毫无根据，需要充分消化吸收古今中外已经存在的一些重要教育学概念、理论和智慧，在此基础上提出具有创新性、解释力和推广性的概念。

Second, form a “recognized pedagogical theory.” Any theory is an explanation of some concepts and their relationships, an analytical framework with explanatory power for phenomena, problems, and practices. The contemporary academic community often forms different educational theories regarding the same or the same type of educational problem. To become a recognized analytical framework that is competitively adopted by peers both domestically and internationally among numerous educational theories, the key is to have strong realistic explanatory power. For example, in the face of the critical role of science and technology in international competition, the iconic concept of “new quality productive forces” was timely proposed in China, and the relationship between educational development and new quality productive forces has become a highly concerned educational theoretical issue. It is worth noting that whether an educational theory is recognized depends not only on its own explanatory power but also on the educational phenomena, educational problems, and educational practices it focuses on. Currently, China’s educational undertakings are developing rapidly, Chinese educational practices are receiving global attention, and at the same time, we actively participate in global governance, facing global educational problems together with scholars from various countries, and promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. All these provide strong support for Chinese scholars to propose iconic pedagogical concepts and, on this basis, form pedagogical theories recognized by the world.

其次，形成“承认的教育学理论”。任何理论都是对一些概念及其关系的解释，是针对现象、问题和实践的具有解释力的分析框架。当代学界对同一个或同一类教育问题往往会形成不同的教育理论，要想在众多教育理论中成为公认的、国内外同行竞相采用的分析框架，关键是要具有强大的现实解释力。比如，面对科学技术在国际竞争中的关键性作用，“新质生产力”这一标识性概念在我国被适时提出，教育发展与新质生产力的关系成为备受关注的教育理论问题。值得注意的是，一个教育理论能否被承认，既取决于其自身的解释力，也与其关注的教育现象、教育问题和教育实践密切相关。当前中国教育事业飞速发展，中国教育实践受到全球关注，同时我们积极参与全球治理，和世界各国学者共同面对全球性教育问题，推动构建人类命运共同体，这些都为中国学者提出标识性教育学概念并在此基础上形成被世界所承认的教育学理论提供了有力支持。

Finally, develop a high-quality theoretical system of pedagogy. China’s autonomous knowledge system of pedagogy is a high-quality theoretical system of pedagogy. Developing a high-quality theoretical system of pedagogy means forming many recognized pedagogical theories. For example, in terms of pedagogical disciplinary construction, it is necessary to form pedagogical theories widely recognized by fields such as preschool education, basic education, higher education, vocational education, continuing education, and teacher education, thereby forming a theoretical system of the pedagogical discipline; in terms of pedagogical research fields, it is necessary to form pedagogical theories in areas such as student development, student learning, teacher teaching, teaching content and media, teaching methods and means, teaching environment, and artificial intelligence education, thereby forming an academic theoretical system of pedagogy, etc.

最后，发展高质量教育学理论体系。中国自主的教育学知识体系是高质量的教育学理论体系，发展高质量教育学理论体系就是要形成众多被承认的教育学理论。例如，在教育学科建设方面，要形成被学前教育、基础教育、高等教育、职业教育、继续教育、教师教育等领域广泛认可的教育学理论，进而形成教育学学科理论体系；在教育学研究领域方面，要形成学生发展、学生学习、教师教学、教学内容和媒介、教学方法和手段、教学环境以及人工智能教育等领域的教育学理论，进而形成教育学学术理论体系等。

In summary, to tell China’s educational stories well and contribute Chinese educational wisdom to global educational development, it is necessary to form Chinese educational discourse; to form Chinese educational discourse, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of China’s autonomous knowledge system of pedagogy. The autonomy of China’s autonomous knowledge system of pedagogy is reflected not only in its attention to Chinese educational problems, its embodiment of Chinese educational positions, and its display of Chinese educational characteristics, but also in its ability to be recognized by domestic and international academic circles and become a popular analytical paradigm in education. In this sense, from iconic pedagogical concepts to “recognized pedagogical theory,” it can be regarded as an explanation of the construction pathway of China’s autonomous knowledge system of pedagogy.

总之，要讲好中国教育故事、为全球教育发展贡献中国教育智慧，就要形成中国教育话语；要形成中国教育话语，就要加快构建中国自主的教育学知识体系。中国自主的教育学知识体系的自主性，既体现在它关注中国教育问题、体现中国教育立场、展现中国教育特色，也体现在它能够被国内外学界承认，成为一种流行的教育分析范式。在这个意义上讲，从标识性教育学概念到“承认的教育学理论”，可以视为对中国自主的教育学知识体系构建路径的一种解释。

(Author: Jia Yuchao, Professor at the Open University of China, Editor-in-Chief of *China Distance Education*)

（作者：贾玉超，系国家开放大学教授，《中国远程教育》总编辑）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧