Understanding educational policy transfer: an analysis of the Japanese influence on China’s vocational education

ABSTRACT

This article examines the process of China’s borrowing of the Japanese vocational education model from 1895 to 1922 from the perspective of educational policy transfer. This study serves as a unique example in educational policy transfer research where historical sources offer the possibility of testing the applicability of the Contextual Map of Cross-national Attraction model. It elucidates some of the analytical limitations discovered by this study while applying the model to this study. It implies that more theory, particularly on the issue of the complex interaction between structure and agency, about the nature of educational policy transfer is needed to comprehensively and sophisticatedly analyse the complex process of educational transfer.

KEYWORDS:

• Comparative education
• vocational education
• educational policy transfer
• history method
• late Qing dynasty
• early Republican China

Introduction

This article examines the process of China’s borrowing of vocational education¹ from Japan through the lens of educational policy transfer from 1895 to 1922. For over a thousand years, the neglect of vocational education in traditional Chinese education had been a feature of China’s history. It was not until the end of the Second Opium War in 1860 that Western technology and science were introduced by the colonial powers. Some educators believed that traditional education was no longer adequate for defending the country from colonisation, while benefiting from industrialisation and modernisation. Intellectuals and reformers like Kang Youwei criticised traditional education and advocated for vocational education in the Western model. The defeat of China in the First Sino-Japanese War by Japan called seriously for a fundamental restructuring of the entire education system. Because of these reformers’ effort, a national education system, including primary, secondary, and higher vocational schools, based on Japanese models, was established.

Researchers have explored the history of modern Chinese vocational education from various perspectives, including local vocational education (Huang 2016; Xie 2017), vocational education schools (Gao and Zhou 2020 L. Wang and Yang 2019), important figures (Zhang and Guang 2012; Xiong 2016), and vocational education systems (Xia 2016; Wang 2017). However, very few scholars have examined Chinese vocational education from the late 19th century to the early 20th century from the perspective of educational policy transfer. To the best of our knowledge, Schulte (2012a, 2012b, 2013) is the only researcher who explored China’s modern vocational education from the perspective of educational transfer. However, an analysis regarding the complete period of borrowing the Japanese vocational education model is not available. This study investigates a long period in China’s vocational education history from 1895 to 1922 when the Japanese vocational education model was adopted and uses an explicit theoretical framework of educational policy transfer. By filling this gap, this can help scholars understand the history of Chinese vocational education and provide insights into current and future issues of vocational education policy borrowing in China.

This case serves as a unique example in educational transfer research, where historical sources offer the possibility of testing the applicability of the Contextual Map of Cross-national Attraction proposed by Rappleye (2006, 2007). This is in line with researchers of educational policy transfer that frameworks on educational policy transfer need to be tested in various contexts and critiqued where necessary (Phillips and Ochs 2004; Rappleye 2006; Steiner-Khamsi 2014). Rappleye (2006) regards his framework as preliminary, as it will be further developed as a result of future attempts to employing it in various contexts. Although educational transfer scholarship has acknowledged Rappleye’s contribution to educational transfer (Barmeier 2012; Webb 2014; Thu 2021), there is still potential to enhance the framework proposed by Rappleye (2006). No studies, to the best of our knowledge, have attempted to test and challenge Rappleye’s Contextual Map by investigating China’s borrowing of Japanese vocational education from the perspective of educational policy transfer. Published historical primary sources, including government documents, journals, newspapers, diaries, letters, speeches, and demographic records of participation were extensively collected and critically reviewed to analyse China’s borrowing of Japanese vocational education historically.

This study reveals three limitations of the Contextual Map (Rappleye 2006, 2007): 1) the lack of a clear definition of structure and human agency; 2) the weaknesses in dealing with the complex interaction between structure and agency; 3) attraction, decision-making and implementation stages are not only independent stages but also separate processes and cycles rooted in recursive interactions between social structure and human agency.

Theoretical framework

Inspired by the heated debate on globalisation and the emergence of new forms of transfer, scholars in recent decades have attempted to frame several insightful theoretical advances on educational transfer, such as neo-institutionalist theory (Meyer et al. 1997), educational diffusion theory (Karakhanyan, van Veen, and Bergen 2011), dependency theory (Frank 1975), externalisation theory (Schriewer 1989), policy borrowing and lending (Steiner-Khamsi 2012) among others. Although all these models are undoubtedly insightful, in attempting to investigate China’s borrowing of Japanese vocational education from 1895 to 1922, we found more resonance with the Four Stages of Educational Policy Borrowing framework conducted by Phillips and Ochs (2004) as very few of above frameworks were developed by examining educational policy transfer over a modern historical period. In trying to understand the policy transfer phenomenon in education, ‘historical inquiry plays an important role’ (Phillips 2006, 288). Based on the primary sources we collected, the Four Stages framework helps the study to devise ways of analysing the borrowing process.

The Four Stages framework is derived from the historical study exploring British interest in educational reform in Germany spanning 200 years. The four stages include cross-national attraction, decision-making, implementation, and internalisation (Phillips and Ochs 2004, 776). The first stage provides a guideline to analyse the preconditions and motives for educational transfer. The decision-making stage comprises types of measures taken by the agencies to launch policy change. The third stage is implementation, where borrowed policy is re-contextualised in the borrower system. The final stage, internalisation, identifies factors that should be considered when the borrowed policy is fully contextualised. This framework provides a series of common keywords for transfer researchers working on a particular stage of the transfer process. Given that this study is a historical study and China explicitly announced its intent to borrow the vocational education model from Japan, it appears to qualify as a relatively ‘rare’ (Phillips, Johnson, and Schweisfurth 2006, 53) case of ‘clearly enunciated intention to adopt a way of doing things observed elsewhere (Phillips and Ochs 2004, 776).’

Although the Four Stages framework provides the study with a heuristic tool to assist educational transfer analysis, it also has limitations. Rappleye (2007, 19–21) identifies two critical weaknesses of the Four Stages model in his study of Chinese and American attraction to Japanese education. The first is the limitation of dealing with the issue of context. For one thing, he argues that although the cross-national attraction stage includes several contextual variables and forces for analysing, it is still difficult for researchers and readers to conceptualise everything altogether (Rappleye 2007, 19–21). For another, the model fails to recognise the complex ‘linkages and interplay of impulses and externalising potential (Rappleye 2007, 20).’ Second, Rappleye (2007, 20) argues that Phillips and Ochs’ framework leaves no place for human agency at the cross-national attraction stage. The phenomenon of cross-national attraction is not enough to just take the nation as the agent, but also essential to involve individuals working on behalf of nations. In other words, dealing with the issues of structure and agency together in the transfer process is imperative for educational transfer research.

Based on the work of Phillips and Ochs (2004), Rappleye (2006, 2007) proposed the Contextual Map of Cross-national Attraction, which was designed to revise the further develop the Four Stages Framework. Rappleye (2006, 224) considers the Contextual Map as ‘both complementing existing models and standing alone as an independent research tool’. In the Contextual Map, structure and agency are highly connected in the following ways: 1) under the influence of certain structural impulses, reform actors used these impulses to ‘package’ their case for reform; 2) under the influence of certain structural obstacles, resistance actors used these impulses to resist reform; 3) reform actors and resistance actors are connected especially in a confrontation in the reform debates; 4) structural impulses and structural obstacles are connected to show shifts in the ‘wider world’; 5) if there is an imbalance between reform actors and resistance actors, in other words, when reform actors could ‘package’ their case with several numbers of impulses, while resistance actors had little on which base their case for against reform, attraction occurs; 6) as Rappleye (2006) argues that the Contextual Map can be plotted at each of the four stages, which means the interaction between agency and structure is quite the same at each stage. In this way, the transfer process becomes much more fluid and complex because it involves both structure and agency in the whole stages of educational transfer.

The Contextual Map provides a valuable tool for educational transfer analysis focusing particularly on the complex interaction of structure and agency. However, it still has room for improvement. Rappleye clearly expressed that the Contextual Map ‘is provisional and will naturally evolve and improve the more it is used to analyse attraction and transfer in various settings (Rappleye 2006, 238)’. To the best of our knowledge, very little research has tested the applicability of the Contextual Map (see e.g. Rappleye 2007; Rappleye, Imoto, and Horiguchi 2011). By examining China’s borrowing of Japanese vocational education, this study serves as a unique example in testing its applicability.

‘Borrowing’ Japanese vocational education: some background

Vocational education in Japan

The idea of developing vocational education was gradually formed after 1854 when Japan was forced to open to the West (Tsui 1987, 55–56). Faced with the threat of foreign colonisation, the Meiji reformers recognised the importance of a robust state apparatus in achieving the goal of a ‘rich nation, strong army’ (Kokubun et al. 2017, 4). From 1868 to 1902, with a series of regulations on vocational education promulgated, the vocational education system in Japan came to be consolidated, and vocational education development was accelerated. In just over thirty years, Japanese vocational education evolved from a backward apprenticeship system into a modernised vocational education system that trained tens of thousands of skilled personnel of various levels. It made a significant contribution to Japan’s modernisation. A model for Chinese vocational education development since the First Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese vocational education is a system that sets out philosophy, goals, strategy, and process that significantly contributed to Japan’s modernisation. Its potentials for externalising in terms of Phillips and Ochs’ framework (Phillips and Ochs 2003) can be summarised as follows:

1. The idea of considering education as the foundation for establishing a powerful country was posited by the Japanese as a philosophy and goal of developing modern education.

2. The establishment of the Ministry of Education and vocational education system was the key strategy of the Japanese government to manage and supervise vocational education development.

3. The degree system, curriculum, and teaching materials that have been established along with the vocational education system can be seen as a process.

Thus, the Japanese vocational education system contains a unified policy package, providing us with a rare example to examine how and why the resulting ‘import’ was selectively adopted and ‘shape-shifted’ as it travels from the Japanese context to the Chinese setting.

Impulses for borrowing vocational education from Japan

The impulses for China’s attraction to Japanese vocational education primarily including China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, intensified China’s internal dissatisfaction with traditional education, Japanese willingness to support Chinese education, and the demand for talent for modern industry development.

China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War

The official interest in the Japanese vocational education system began after the First Sino-Japanese war. China took pride in the superiority of its civilisation, which had lasted for over two millennia. The defeat in the Sino-Japanese War made China realise it has already lost its superiority in civilisation. The devastating Chinese defeat in the Sino-Japanese war gave the Japanese the power and confidence to impose a treaty that humiliated China greatly. During the Sino-Japanese war, the Chinese had tried several times to negotiate with Japan for a peace treaty (Vogel 2019, 123). However, all attempts ended with the signing of the Shimonoseki Treaty in 1895. The Qing government was surprised not by the reparations and land concessions but by the fact that the Sino-Japanese War had been lost to Japan, a tiny eastern neighbouring nation (Manqian and Linxiang 1996, 52).

Internal dissatisfaction with traditional education

China’s rapid and catastrophic defeat, not by a powerful Western force but by a small Asian neighbour, stimulated Chinese leaders to explore the causes of their failure. Several intellectuals and officials reflected deeply on the problems and weaknesses of Chinese traditional education, particularly the imperial examination, in light of the success of Japanese education. In 1898, Kang Youwei submitted several memorials pointing out the defects of the imperial examination. As he pointed out in one memorial, the most significant shortcomings of the imperial examination system were its formalistic principles, rigidity, and its failure to consider the practical issues officials had to deal with (Zhu 1986, 78). According to him, if Chinese educated people focused on solving China’s problems rather than competing for literary degrees, China would have more than enough talented men to handle its problems (Zhu 1986, 78).

Considering the formalistic principles, rigidity, and impracticality of Chinese traditional education, several intellectuals stressed the importance of vocational education and proposed establishing vocational schools to strengthen the country. Kang Youwei proposed building agricultural schools to develop agriculture (Qu and Tong 2007, 155). Zhang Zhidong proposed establishing agricultural schools to train farmers, building industry schools to train workers, and founding commerce schools to establish enterprises (Zhu 1986, 928–930).

Zhang clearly articulated his thoughts of learning from Japan in a series of essays entitled Exhortation to Study. The reason Zhang explained for this choice of Japan over Western countries as the location for a government-sponsored study abroad program were all eminently practical:

geographical proximity would enable the supervision of a low-cost program; language similarity would enable students to absorb new materials more easily and quickly, and the relative compatibility between Chinese and Japanese culture would enable students to gain twice as much knowledge in half the time as it would take them to learn in Western countries (Qu and Tong 2007, 103).

It is clear that the reason Zhang explained for this choice of Japan over Western countries as the location for a government-sponsored study abroad program was practical.

Japanese support for developing Chinese education

Not only Chinese officials and intellectuals called for learning from Japanese education, but the Japanese government was also willing to support developing Chinese education. In the late 1897, when Kamio Mitsuomi was sent by the Japanese Army General Staff to China, he went to Hubei to discuss Sino-Japanese cooperation with Zhang Zhidong. As Zhang Zhidong believed that China needed to strengthen herself, he welcomed the Japanese proposal to cooperate with Japan on the governmental level (Kwan 1974). With the cooperation between Japan and China, Japanese influence in education in China increased rapidly. In the early stages of development, China’s modern vocational education was plagued with many problems, including a lack of funds and a shortage of teachers. Japan played an important role in solving these issues, mainly by supporting the Chinese government in sending students to Japan and sending Japanese teachers to teach in China.

The demand for talent for the development of modern industry

China’s rapid growth in industrialisation significantly increased the demand for a workforce. One study estimates that around 1870, there were less than 10,000 modern Chinese industrial workers, and by 1894, there were about 90,000 in total (Sun 2016a, 60). As the use of machinery in industrial production simplified the process and reduced the skill level required of workers, the vast majority of industrial workers came from peasants and artisans who went bankrupt during the dismantling of the natural economy. However, as industrialisation proceeded, these peasants and artisans who lacked systematic technical expertise hindered modern industry development (Sun 2016a, 62). For example, Huang Zuoqing (1839-1902), a well-known silk merchant and buyer, established the Gonghe Yong Silk Factory in Shanghai in 1881. However, because the factory lacked the necessary talents to operate the reeling machines and the female workers hired were insufficiently trained, Huang eventually depleted his capital and failed in his business (Sun 2016b, 971–72) Therefore, in the plight of the lack of skilled personnel, it becomes necessary to train technicians locally for industrialisation.

Due to the above impulses, China conducted several programs to learn Japanese vocational education, including dispatching officials to Japan for study tours, sending students to study in Japan, and translating Japanese texts. Through these activities, China gained a deeper understanding of the Japanese vocational education model and laid the foundation for the development of a local Chinese vocational education system that borrowed from Japan.

Decision to ‘borrow’: the birth and development of China’s vocational education system

In the late Qing and early Republican periods, the Chinese government made three decisions to learn from the Japanese vocational education model and establish three different vocational education systems. The first decision was made in 1902, with the 1902 school system established. The second decision was made in 1904, with the 1904 school system established. The third decision was made in 1913, with the 1913 school system established.

The 1902 school system

The formulation of the first school system, the 1902 school system, was closely related to Zhang Baixi, the leading official in the drafting process. In 1902, the Qing court ordered Zhang Baixi to be the minister in charge of education. Not long after his appointment, Zhang Baixi shifted his primary focus from the management of the Jingshi daxuetang to formulating various regulations for modern schools nationwide (Zhu 1987, 832).

The decision-making process for modelling the Japanese school system was by no means a simple one. The appointments made by Zhang Baixi were too radical and met with strong resentment from the conservatives (Zhu 1987, 957). For example, in the process of making curriculum, two courses, Intellectual Studies and International Studies, were forced to be deleted as the conservatives feared these courses were variations on civil rights and freedom (Xinmin congbao 1902, 117).

On 15 August 1902, the 1902 Decrees, more fully instituting a Japanese-style education system, were promulgated. The school system envisaged by the 1902 Decrees was the first modern legal school system enacted by the government in China. Although there was vocational education as a side system in the 1902 school system, it was affiliated to the higher elementary school, secondary school, and higher school.

However, the 1902 Decrees were abolished in May 1903 with no explanation concerning the abolishment. Researchers consider that there are four main reasons for failing to implement the academic system: its weaker leadership, political-factional struggles, the defects and structural dysfunctions in the educational system envisaged by the 1902 Decrees, and its de-emphasis on the imperial orthodoxy (Zhou 2021, 2).

The 1904 school system

Although the Qing court ordered Zhang Baixi, Rong Qing, and Zhang Zhidong to work together on the 1904 Decrees, Zhang Zhidong performed the most significant role in the decision-making stage (Abe 1987, 61). After nearly three months of drafting, the first draft of the 1904 Decrees was completed. Different from the process of making the 1902 Decrees, Zhang Zhidong referred the 1904 draft Decrees to several officials to hear their suggestions, particularly to those who stood in the conservative party. In response to their suggestions, Zhang Zhidong explained them all and made corresponding changes in the regulations.

The biggest issue during the process of making the 1904 school system was concerning the reduction of the imperial examinations. This was initially strongly disagreed by the conservatives such as Wang Wenshao. At this time, Cixi was already urging for a quick submission. Zhang Zhidong communicated with Zhang Baixi, pointing out that if there was no more unity of opinion on this issue, it could only be marked as the end of the submission as ‘discussed with other officials of the Office of Government Affairs, except for Wang Wenshao, the opinions of others are the same’. (Zhang 1998, 10309)

In this way, after over two months of deliberations and ‘over ten revisions,’ the 1904 Decrees were finally finished at the end of November (Zhang 1998, 10302, 10306). On 13 January 1904, the 1904 Decrees were promulgated by the Qing government. In this school system, vocational education became a separate system instead of affiliated with general education as in the 1902 school system.

The 1913 school system

The key actor involved in making 1913 Decrees was Cai Yuanpei, the chief of education in the early Republic. Cai Yuanpei’s tenure began during the war when most schools in the country were closed, some were converted into barracks, and students were dispersed. Cai Yuanpei took office just as the school year was coming to an end. Questions such as whether schools should be closed or kept open arose in his mind, and if so, what regulations should be followed. At the time, the governors and agreed that schools should be restored, but there were no uniform guidelines to follow. As a result, each province was subject to its own rules. Considering this, Cai Yuanpei was deeply convinced that ‘as the 1904 school system promulgated during the Qing Dynasty were in line with the imperial system but not with the republic, it could not meet the national context (Tao 1976, 227)’. Therefore, Cai Yuanpei decided to issue a new decree to replace the old regulations to address the country’s lack of uniformity in education.

Initially, the proposed school system was open to considering models worldwide. As the new school system was being developed, Japan was strongly emphasised. The students who had returned from study abroad programs in different countries were invited to draft the rules of elementary, secondary, and university schools during the early stages of creating the new school system. They attempted to combine the strengths of European and American countries with those of their nation to develop a complete educational system (Tao 1976, 290). However, at that time, there were very few people from Europe and the United States who were specialised in education, so they could not see the spirit of European and American legislation. Besides, most of the translated documents were not applicable. Moreover, the European and American systems were unsuitable for China’s context.

Therefore, the Japanese model was finally adopted (Qu and Tang 1991, 638). The draft of the 1913 school system was completed within three months of the existence of the provisional government. The draft was shared publicly immediately after they were completed to collect ideas for educators to study.

On 3 September 1912, the 1913 School System Order was announced by the Ministry of Education. In this decree, vocational education was divided into two types: A vocational school (equivalent to secondary education) and B vocational school (equivalent to higher primary education). Instead of higher vocational schools, specialised schools were established.

Implementation

Once the borrowed vocational education systems were promulgated, several actors were involved in the implementation and internalisation stage directly or indirectly. At the same time, tensions and contradictions can arise in the local context. The text below analyses the role of major actors in localisation and explores how actors implemented and localised the borrowed Japanese model in practice in the new and complex Chinese context.

Key actors in the implementation

The key actors in the implementation phase included governors², local gentry³, merchants, local educational associations, teachers, and students. Because of the limitation of historical sources, there is a distinct lack of historical information on teachers’ and students’ perceptions and motivations for vocational education. Although a few historical sources can be found in diaries and letters, they are too scattered to obtain sufficient historical information. Therefore, this section focuses primarily on introducing and analysing governors, local gentry, merchants, and local education associations.

With the continuous decline and deterioration of central power, governors played an essential role in implementing vocational education reforms. Governors adopted various measures to support implementing vocational education borrowed from Japan, such as sending officials to investigate Japanese education, sending students to study in Japan, inviting Japanese officials and teachers to instruct Chinese vocational education development, and establishing vocational schools. Governors were mainly motivated by three factors to develop vocational education. First, developing vocational education was one of the governor’s responsibilities (Zhu 1958, 4164). Second, faced with a deteriorating national crisis, some governors recognised the industry’s critical role in saving the country and closely linked industrial development with vocational education (Dongfang zazhi 1904, 253). Third, developing vocational education is also, to a certain extent, a need for governors to defend their own interests. Their creation of industrial schools could be used as a political accomplishment to gain notoriety and political capital (Wu 2006, 53).

The local gentry was another critical interest group among elites who played a vital role in local educational development. Local gentry shared similar motivations for implementing and developing vocational education with governors. For one thing, the government encouraged the local gentry to work with officials to manage and supervise vocational schools (Zhu 1987, 81). For another, in implementing vocational education, they can also upgrade their official positions and titles by receiving vocational education, as the imperial examination was linked with vocational schools for a long period. Many of the local gentries had been to Japan to investigate the Japanese vocational education development and returned home to establish vocational schools. For example, in September 1904, Xiong Xiling, a prominent gentry in Hunan Province, went to Japan to investigate the causes of industrial revitalisation in Japan. After returning to Hunan, Xiong Xiling made great efforts to overcome difficulties in setting up two vocational schools, one in Yuanzhou, and one in Liling (Xiong 1996).

Merchants also had an important part to play in the implementation stage. Merchants’ motivations for supporting vocational education were mainly in three aspects: 1) regarding developing vocational education as their responsibility (Xu 1991, 7), 2) the demand for technical talents to develop industry; 3) the rewards from the government (Zhu 1989, 3). Several of the merchants had visited Japan at their own expense to investigate Japanese vocational education and industrial development. One good example is Zhou Xuexi, who was sent by Yuan Shikai to Japan in 1903 to investigate Japanese industrial development and the training of Japanese technical personnel. Zhou Xuexi attributed Japan’s wealth and strength to the revitalisation of industry, arguing that a country cannot be rich without industrial development, and industry is hard to be developed without school development (Liu 2004). After his return to China, Zhou Xuexi established the Higher Industrial College and employed Japanese as school administrators and teachers to teach students practical skills with high expenses (Li 2000).

The local education association’s effort in the implementation process cannot be ignored. The membership of local education associations is mainly made up of governors, local gentry, and merchants. In May 1906, the Ministry of Education officially issued the Statutes of the Provincial Education Associations, and local education associations gained legal status. By 1909, the number of education associations nationwide had reached 723 (Bastid 1988, 63). Among these local education associations, the Jiangsu Provincial Education Association and the Chinese Vocational Education Association were the most influential and concerned about industrial education.

Complexities in implementation

As previously stated, the significant actors converged on certain levels of motivations during the implementation process and took specific initiatives to advance vocational education reform implementation. However, there were also challenges and contradictions during the implementation stage.

Once the vocational education system borrowed from Japan was launched in the first few years, the imperial examination was the biggest barrier to its implementation. For one thing, it understood that such reforms threatened the interests of the conservative literati, who were unlikely to be receptive to attempts to undermine the monarchy or who would cooperate solely if they knew their interests would be protected (Curran 2005, 116). In addition, since the imperial examinations were still the focus of the selection of scholar-officials, candidates had a wait-and-see attitude towards the establishment of vocational schools and were still expected to gain degrees through the imperial examination (Qu and Tang 1991, 541).

Reformers made significant efforts to reduce and abolish the imperial examination gradually. On 2 September 1905, the Qing government finally issued an imperial edict, ordering the abolishment of the imperial examination system at all levels beginning in 1906 (Zhu 1958, 5127–5129). Despite the abolish of the imperial examination, the degrees remained unchanged. Students who graduated from vocational schools were awarded with a corresponding degree and rank (Qu and Tong 2007, 10). This was quite different from vocational education in Japan, where vocational school students were never awarded any official position after graduating from a stage. Only those students who complete the higher education level receive a bachelor’s degree (Zhu 1987; Qu and Tang 1991). It was not until 1911 when the Motion to Stop Graduation Awards was issued that all related titles and degrees of the imperial examination were abolished (Jiaoyu zazhi 1911, 95).

Another tension in the implementation stage was between the huge demand for funding and insufficient financial support. The cost of establishing an industrial school was much higher than that of its counterparts since it required not only classrooms, and instructional aids but also much machinery and equipment and a training site for practice. In Japan, the Japanese government enacted the Law for Subsidising Vocational Education Expenses from the National Treasury in 1899 and allocate sufficient funds every year to support vocational education development (Zhu 1999). However, compared to Japan, the Chinese government did not have sufficient funding to support vocational education. The Chinese government’s finances were already in deficit after the Opium War (Zhou 2000, 67). In the following decades, a series of internal chaos and external conflicts have significantly increased the Chinese government’s financial burden. In 1903, the Chinese government’s revenues and expenditures totalled 104,920,000 taels and 139,420,000 taels, respectively, resulting in a total deficit of over 30 million taels, more than twice the deficit during the Sino-Japanese War (Zhou 2000, 316, 384).

Faced with a central financial crisis, the central government could only ask local governments to raise finances independently. However, despite the efforts of the local government to increase funding for developing schools, several issues have arisen in the running of vocational schools. Some schools were not sufficiently equipped. For example, to ensure teaching, Hubei Railway Academy had to borrow chemical and physical instruments from other institutes (Xuebu guanbao 1911, 53).

Contradictions in the implementation stage were also found at the teacher level. It was natural that the old curriculum and teaching methods of the old teachers were maintained at the very beginning years of transferring vocational education models from Japan. However, the vocational education system, as a new system imported from Japan, was an educational reform encompassing several new aspects, including curricula, teaching methods, instructional objectives, and duration of courses. All these aspects require teachers’ participation. Nevertheless, the number of vocational teachers was very limited. For instance, in 1907, there were 137 vocational schools across the country, with a total of 8,693 vocational school students but only 599 vocational school teachers (Pan and Liu 1993, 367; Qu 2007, 57). Among these limited teachers, very few of them had a vocational education background, most of them were non-graduates, graduates who returned from abroad, and foreign teachers (Pan and Liu 1993, 366–367). The Chinese government attempted to follow the Japanese approach in the early stages of vocational education development by hiring foreign instructors to alleviate the teacher shortage (Xuebu Guanbao 1906). However, although foreign teachers could, to some extent, alleviate the problem of an insufficient number of teachers, it was not a long-term solution because of its high hiring cost.

Internalisation

This article has so far elaborated on the challenges, conflicts, and problems at different stages of China’s vocational education borrowing process. In this final stage of internalisation, this study analyses the impact of the transfer and localisation of the borrowed Japanese model in the complex context of China on multiple levels.

Influences on structural level

At the structural level, the most direct influence of borrowing the Japanese vocational education model was the improvement of the structure of the national vocational education system. China’s vocational education has grown from a handful of vocational schools with no unified national management to a preliminary national vocational education system.

Another impact at the structural level was to promote a shift in educational philosophy from Confucianism to pragmatism. Throughout China’s long history, Confucianism has played a dominant role in the institutionalisation and development of education, and its impact on education was reinforced and perpetuated by the imperial examination. As the Japanese vocational education model was adopted in the Chinese context in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, changes in Chinese educational philosophy began to appear. Initially, on the one hand, vocational schools were linked with the imperial examination: graduates of vocational schools could gain corresponding degrees and titles. On the other hand, vocational education curriculum was closely related to industrial production, instead of the Confucian classics as the primary teaching content. Soon after the abolition of all titles and degrees from the imperial examinations in the 1910s, the purpose of vocational education became: to develop the ability of individuals to earn a living, to instil in people a desire to serve society, and to promote productivity (Qu and Tong 2007, 803).

The change in educational philosophy has also been accompanied by a change in the social hierarchy. Traditionally, the Confucian social hierarchy defined four occupational groups of commoners (also known as ‘four people’ 四民): scholar-officials (shi 士), farmers (nong 农), artisans (gong 工),⁴ and merchants (shang 商). Being a scholar-official was the students’ ultimate goal, while artisans had been widely discriminated against. Very few artisans could attend the imperial examination and hold government official positions unless they were wealthy enough. However, with the adoption and re-contextualisation of Japanese vocational education, the traditional Confucian theory of social hierarchy became blurred. The establishment of a vocational education system increased the possibilities for artisans to receive an education. According to historical data, the number of vocational school students increased from 8,693 in 1907 to 16,649 in 1909 (Qu 2007, 63). After graduation, students could get an official title or a degree related to the imperial examination. In addition, they could work in vocational schools as a teacher, establish vocational schools, or set up their own factories.

Influences on agency’s level

The influences that China’s borrowing vocational education not only left on the structural level but also on the agent’s level. The transfer process of borrowing Japanese vocational education created new participants, increased connections, generated new ideas and discussions. Initially, transferring Japanese vocational education was advocated by very few officials and intellectuals, such as Kang Youwei and Yan Fu. As the program proceeded, a heterogeneous group of politicians, Confucian-educated intellectuals, merchants, manufacturers, modern scientists, artisans, journalists engaged in the transfer process directly or indirectly to promote and develop vocational education. The connections between these agencies were strengthened through various educational associations. For example, one of the most influential associations in promoting vocational education, the Chinese Association of Vocational Education, included all the agencies mentioned above (Zhu 1993, 450–452). Their ties were also deepened through many projects designed to investigate and research Japanese vocational education, such as dispatching officials to Japan and sending students to study there. The discussion and communicating process strengthened the understanding not only of the vocational education model in Japan but also in other countries, such as the United States.

Towards conclusion: revisions of the theoretical frameworks

This article has attempted to examine the Contextual Map of Cross-national Attraction by the case of China’s borrowing vocational education from Japan. The combination of such an approach applied to this historical case of transfer provided a unique insight to understand educational transfer and suggests a list of tentative revisions and conclusions. These include:

Lack of clear definition of structure and human agency

Based on Phillips and Ochs’ work, which left no place for human agency except the implementation stage, Rappleye proposes a more sophisticated framework of Contextual Map to fill this gap, attempting to explicitly explain the interaction between ‘structure’ and ‘human’ actors catalysing educational policy borrowing. This is a significant contribution to the field of comparative education. However, what is a pity is that Rappleye leaves the terms of structure and human agency relatively unexamined. Ladi (2005, 7) argues that defining the terms structure and agency within any study would lead to a more conscious use of these concepts. Therefore, ‘the theoretical attempt to define what structure and agent mean followed by an identification of the particular structures and agents involved in a specific area under study offers a research project greater clarity’ (Ladi 2005, 7). Due to the unclear definition of the structure and agency, in the case of China’s borrowing Japanese vocational education, from the point of view of local officials and intellectuals, the government could be described as a structure, but from the point of view of Japan, the Chinese government could also be seen as an agent. Similarly, at the implementation stage, teachers can be regarded as either an agency to get the reform on the ground or a structure that facilitates or restrains the localisation of vocational education reform. Therefore, without a clear definition of structure and agency in Rappleye’s framework, whether we are dealing with an agent or with a structure, to some extent, depends on the position from with we are looking.

The weakness in dealing with the complex interaction between structure and agency

Another weakness of Rappleye’s framework is the inadequacy of dealing with the complex interplay between structure and agency. Rappleye does realise the importance of framing a model dealing with the interplay between structure and agency. However, from the analysis of China’s borrowing of Japanese vocational education, the way in which structure and agency interact in the educational transfer process is more dynamic than Rappleye suggests. This can be explained at least on two accounts. First, the roles and positions of potential actors, whether supporting or resisting reform, may change throughout the process of borrowing policy, even at each stage. Specifically, as several factors, such as actors’ perceptions of reform, vested interests in the reform, and ability to change the status quo, may change over time, former resistance actors may change their attitudes and become reform actors supporting reform. Similarly, former reform actors may change their attitudes and resist reform. In other words, resistance actors, supporters, and neutrals can all re-grouping in the process of transfer. In the case of China’s borrowing vocational education, some actors such as Cai Yuanpei were initially inclined to adopt the European and American models instead of the Japanese model, but as they gained a better understanding of educational models from different countries, their attitudes and perceptions began to change and eventually supporting the borrowing of the Japanese model. Second, while Rappleye is aware that agency could ‘package’ impulses or obstacles to support or resist reform under the impact of certain structural factors, he fails to realise that agency could also exert influences on structure. In the case of China’s borrowing Japanese vocational education, the imperial examination was initially a significant obstacle for reform. However, with the several measures conducted by reform actors, the imperial examination went through changes in three stages: first the number of places in the imperial examination was reduced, then the titles and degrees corresponding to the imperial examination were attached to vocational institutions, and then the imperial examination was finally abolished. All of these changes, to some extent, contributed to the rapid growth of vocational schools. That is to say, both structural impulses and obstacles can be changed with potential actors’ act. And the change, or the newly structured environment conditions agents’ act at the next stage.

Attraction, decision-making and implementation stages are not only separate stages but also separate processes and cycles

Recall that Phillips and Ochs, as well as Rappleye, all treat the four stages, namely the cross-national attraction stage, the decision-making stage, the implementation stage and the internalisation stage, as individual stages. They fail to recognise that all of these separate stages are also separate processes in themselves. Taking the implementation stage for an example, the case of China’s borrowing of Japanese vocational education shows that the implementation stage is an institutionalised process rooted in a recursive interaction between social structure and human agency. On the one hand, the promulgation of the different decrees at different times caused changes in social rules, positions, and connections that were institutionalised as part of the social structure of the vocational education system and thus constrained or facilitated certain agency activities. On the other hand, agency acts can also serve to change those social structures. The 1904 school system introduced vocational education as a distinct component of the national educational system. With the government’s help, reformers were able to more effectively implement vocational education reforms. Throughout the reform process, the reformers discovered various issues with the curriculum, administrative organisation, and teacher preparation. In response to these problems, the reformers urged that the government enact relevant legislation to solve these issues. In turn, these new regulations influence agency actions by changing the social context. By focusing on the recursive interaction between structure and agency, this study reminds us that implementation can be an independent process and cycle rather than just a separate stage of educational transfer. Similarly, from this vantage point, stages including attraction and decision-making can also be viewed as a separate process and cycles of educational transfer.

Rappleye (2006, 238) clearly expressed that the Contextual Map is ‘open to criticism and amendment’ and ‘is provisional and will naturally evolve and improve the more it is used to analyse attraction and transfer in various settings’. This acknowledgement implies that Rappleye is still dissatisfied with prior work on the interactions between human agency and structure in educational policy transfer and is still seeking additional theories that can adequately account for the complex interactions between transfer context and human agency.

Hence, while the Contextual Map of Cross-national Attraction has contributed significantly to the analysis of the structural and agential interactions in educational transfer, additional theory in this framework appears both possible and necessary.

Ethical statement

This study does not contain any research involving animals and human participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In this study, the terms, “vocational education”, and “industrial education” are used interchangeably. The term “industrial education” (shiye jiaoyu 实业教育) was used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to refer to the training of technical experts as the heart of vocational education. Around the year 1915, the term “vocational education” (zhiye jiaoyu 职业教育) gradually replaced “industrial education”, showing a shift of in focus away from expert training and toward issues of “livelihood.”

2. The governor (xunfu 巡抚) administers the largest administrative unit, the province, and has the main administrative powers within its borders.

3. The term ’gentry’ (shishen 士绅) has no exact English counterpart. It has a specific connotation that is not found in a European setting. In Europe, the gentry is typically connected with large land ownership and aristocracy, both of which are inheritable. In China, the term has a broader definition. It refers to those who have obtained certain official position and title through their achievement in the imperial examination, but this position and title cannot be inherited.

4. A artisan is the equivalent of what we call a skilled worker today. A wide variety of occupational groups fell under the artisan’s class such as manufactures, craftsmen and transport workers.