Constructing China’s Autonomous Pedagogical Knowledge System Must Take the “Two Integrations” as Methodology

Constructing China’s autonomous pedagogical knowledge system is an important component of realizing the modernization of Chinese education. Chinese educational modernization requires pedagogical knowledge as theoretical support, and the creation of experience in practice, combining theory and practice, mutually verifying each other, to construct China’s autonomous pedagogical knowledge system. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in the report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC: “Only by integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with the best of traditional Chinese culture, and by consistently applying dialectical materialism and historical materialism, can we correctly answer the major questions posed by the times and by practice, and can we always maintain the vigorous vitality and flourishing dynamism of Marxism.” [1]1 The 20th National Congress of the CPC was held in October 2022. The “Two Integrations” refers to integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with the best of traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, the construction of China’s autonomous pedagogical knowledge system must also take the “Two Integrations” as its methodology.

构建中国自主的教育学知识体系是实现中国教育现代化的重要组成部分。中国教育现代化需要有教育学知识为理论支撑，并在实践中创造经验，理论与实践相结合，相互验证，构建出中国自主的教育学知识体系。习近平总书记在党的二十大报告中指出：“只有把马克思主义基本原理同中国具体实际相结合、同中华优秀传统文化相结合，坚持运用辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义，才能正确回答时代和实践提出的重大问题，才能始终保持马克思主义的蓬勃生机和旺盛活力。”因此，中国自主的教育学知识体系的构建也必须以“两个结合”为方法论。

Education is a complex social phenomenon; its most fundamental purpose is to promote the individual development of human beings. But the individual development of human beings is also constrained by the environment, including natural, familial, and social environments. Therefore, pedagogy, which studies educational phenomena, has both a substantive nature that studies individual development and a social nature that studies the relationship between education and the environment. China’s educational discipline was introduced from the West via Japan, with a history of only a little over 120 years. Western pedagogy, if we start with Comenius’s *Great Didactic* and Herbart’s *General Pedagogy* (in fact, this is the Chinese translation of the name), mainly discusses individual development and rarely addresses the influence of the environment on individual development. After Western pedagogy was introduced to China, it promoted the research of Chinese scholars. The earliest to study education using the method of dialectical materialism were educators such as Yang Xianjiang and Qian Yishi. [2]2 Yang Xianjiang (1895–1931) and Qian Yishi (1889–1938) were early Chinese Marxist educators who applied dialectical materialism to the study of education. Yang Xianjiang, in his *Outline of New Education* and *ABC of Pedagogy*, both stated that “education is one of the superstructures of society, one of the labor domains of ideology, and is based on the economic structure of society,” clearly proposing the social nature of education. The Chinese Communists have always adhered to integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities, believing that education must both promote the individual development of human beings and serve the transformation of society and the struggle for revolution. During the Agrarian Revolutionary War period, [3]3 The Agrarian Revolutionary War period (1927–1937) refers to the decade of civil war between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang, during which the CPC established rural base areas and carried out land reform. Mao Zedong integrated the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and proposed the general policy of Soviet culture and education. After the founding of New China, Mao Zedong proposed in 1957: “Our educational policy should enable the educated to develop morally, intellectually, and physically, and to become cultured workers with socialist consciousness.” In 2002, the report to the 16th National Congress of the CPC stated: “Fully implement the Party’s educational policy, adhere to education serving socialist modernization and serving the people, combine it with productive labor and social practice, and cultivate socialist builders and successors who are fully developed morally, intellectually, physically, and aesthetically.” In 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping, at the National Education Conference, proposed cultivating socialist builders and successors who are fully developed morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and in labor, incorporating labor education into the requirements for cultivating socialist builders and successors. Although the expression of the educational policy has been revised several times, its basic connotation has not changed significantly, reflecting the unity of the substantive and social nature of education. The Party’s educational policy is a major concept of China’s autonomously constructed pedagogy, integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities. Derived from this major concept are concepts such as “fostering virtue through education” and “quality education.” [4]4 “Fostering virtue through education” (立德树人) is a key concept in contemporary Chinese educational policy, emphasizing moral character as the foundation of education. “Quality education” (素质教育) refers to an educational model aimed at developing students’ overall qualities, as opposed to exam-oriented education.

教育是一个复杂的社会现象，它的最基本的目的是促进人的个体发展。但人的个体发展又受到环境，包括自然、家庭、社会环境的制约。因此，研究教育现象的教育学既有研究个体发展的本体性，又有研究教育与环境关系的社会性。中国的教育学科是从西方经过日本引进过来的，只有120多年的历史。西方教育学如果从夸美纽斯《大教学论》、赫尔巴特《普通教育学》（其实这是中国翻译的名字）说起，主要是讨论个体的发展，很少涉及环境对个体发展的影响。西方教育学传入中国以后，推动了中国学人的研讨。最早运用辩证唯物主义方法研究教育的是教育家杨贤江、钱亦石等人。杨贤江在他的《新教育大纲》和《教育学ABC》中都提到“教育是社会上层建筑之一，是观念形态的劳动领域之一，是以社会的经济结构为基础的”，鲜明提出教育的社会性。中国共产党人一直坚持马克思主义基本原理与中国具体实际相结合，认为教育既要促进人个体的发展，又要为改造社会服务、为革命斗争服务。土地革命时期，毛泽东把马克思主义基本原理与中国的具体实际相结合，提出苏维埃文化教育的总方针。新中国成立后，毛泽东于1957年提出：“我们的教育方针，应该使受教育者在德育、智育、体育几方面都得到发展，成为有社会主义觉悟的有文化的劳动者。”2002年党的十六大报告提出：“全面贯彻党的教育方针，坚持教育为社会主义现代化建设服务，为人民服务，与生产劳动和社会实践相结合，培养德智体美全面发展的社会主义建设者和接班人。”2018年习近平总书记在全国教育大会上提出培养德智体美劳全面发展的社会主义建设者和接班人，将劳动教育纳入社会主义建设者和接班人的培养要求之中。教育方针表述几经修改，其基本内涵没有大的变化，体现了教育的本体性和社会性的统一性。党的教育方针，是马克思主义基本原理与中国具体实际相结合，中国自主构建的教育学的大概念。由这个大概念引申出来的有“立德树人”“素质教育”等概念。

China’s traditional educational concepts and educational culture are part of the best of traditional Chinese culture. To construct China’s autonomous pedagogical knowledge system, it is necessary to integrate the basic tenets of Marxism with the best of traditional Chinese culture. Concepts proposed in ancient China, such as Confucius’s “education without class distinction,” [5]5 “Education without class distinction” (有教无类) is a Confucian principle advocating that education should be available to all people regardless of their social status. “teaching students according to their aptitude,” “teaching benefits teachers and students alike,” and “learning does not skip steps” from the *Record on the Subject of Education*, [6]6 The *Record on the Subject of Education* (《学记》) is a classic Chinese text on education, part of the *Book of Rites*, dating from the Warring States period (c. 5th–3rd centuries BCE). and “transmitting the Way, imparting knowledge, and resolving doubts” from *On the Teacher*, [7]7 *On the Teacher* (《师说》) is an essay by the Tang dynasty scholar Han Yu (768–824 CE), which defines the role of the teacher. are still applied in educational practice today. They possess universality and principle, conform to the laws of human growth, and accord with the laws of educational development. However, these concepts are, after all, educational concepts from ancient society. Today, they need to be interpreted and transformed using the methods of dialectical materialism and historical materialism from Marxist philosophy, so that they meet the requirements of educational development in the New Era. Nevertheless, these concepts are indeed knowledge autonomously established by China’s pedagogy. Since reform and opening up, many new experiences have been created in China’s educational practice, and some educational concepts with universality and principle have been proposed, which are also new pedagogical knowledge autonomously created by China.

我国传统的教育理念与教育文化，是中华优秀传统文化的一部分。构建中国自主的教育学知识体系，必须把马克思主义基本原理与中华优秀传统文化相结合。中国古代孔子提出的“有教无类”，《学记》中提出的“因材施教”“教学相长”“学不躐等”，《师说》中提出的“传道受业解惑”等思想，今天仍是教育实践中应用的理念，具有普遍性、原则性，符合人的成长规律，符合教育发展规律。但这些概念毕竟是古代社会的教育理念，今天需要用马克思主义哲学的辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义的方法来阐释和改造，使它们符合新时代教育发展的要求。然而，这些概念确是我国自主创立的教育学知识。改革开放以来，我国教育实践中创造了许多新的经验，提出一些具有普遍性、原则性的教育概念，也是我国自主创造的教育学新知识。

Currently, how to systematize this autonomously created pedagogical knowledge to form China’s autonomous pedagogical knowledge system is worthy of research by the educational theory community. My preliminary idea is to take our Party’s educational policy as the leading principle, and below it, divide the knowledge into two parts: macro-pedagogical knowledge and micro-pedagogical knowledge. Macro-pedagogical knowledge includes concepts and knowledge such as education revitalizing the nation, education as a priority, balanced development of education, regional education, and urban-rural integration. Micro-pedagogical knowledge includes concepts and knowledge such as fostering virtue through education, quality education, simultaneous development of the “five aspects of education,” [8]8 The “five aspects of education” (五育) refers to moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education, as outlined in Xi Jinping’s 2018 National Education Conference speech. home-school-society collaborative education, student-centeredness, and teaching students according to their aptitude. Several dimensions can be constructed, from major concepts to specific minor concepts, clarifying the nature, types, levels, and interrelationships of the concepts. Then, using these concepts, some educational propositions with unique cultural and social characteristics can be formed, and using them as basic materials, China’s autonomous pedagogical knowledge system can be constructed. The above is just a very rough idea of mine, put forward for discussion.

当前，如何把这些自主创立的教育学知识系统化，构成中国自主的教育学知识体系，值得教育理论界研究。我初步的想法是，以我们党的教育方针为龙头，下面分宏观教育学知识和微观教育学知识两个部分。宏观教育学知识中有教育兴邦、教育为先、教育均衡发展、区域教育、城乡一体化等概念和知识；微观教育学知识中有立德树人、素质教育、“五育”并举、家校社协同育人、学生为本、因材施教等概念和知识。可以构建几个维度，由大概念到具体的小概念，厘清概念的性质、类型、层次和相互关系，然后再运用这些概念形成一些独具文化和社会特点的教育命题，并以它们为基本材料，构建中国自主的教育学知识体系。以上只是我一个十分粗浅的设想，提出来供大家讨论。

(Author: Gu Mingyuan, Senior Professor at Beijing Normal University)

（作者：顾明远，系北京师范大学资深教授）

Online Editor: Huihui

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