ABSTRACT
Public education systems that developed through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the West are changing as national governments implement lifelong learning reforms to address imperatives associated with globalisation. There is a substantial education literature on the trajectory of public education reform, which documents the way modes of governing are shifting from bureaucracies to markets and networks. The character of public education reform in China is less well known and often associated with strongly centralised bureaucratic government. Yet since 1949 there has been significant reform in Chinese education and the role of hierarchy and market governance in enabling education reform in China is well documented in the education literature. However, the significance of network governance in Chinese education has been, to date, less well documented. This introductory chapter outlines the overall framework of the book by addressing the foci of study, and defines the terms and overall structure of the book.
