Ofhigher Education Research Articles

Zhang Boling jiaoyu sixiang yanjiu 张伯苓教育思想硏究 (A study of Zhang Boling's educational thought) (review)

Features 355 Liang Jisheng 'Mï^fe. Zhang Bolingjiaoyu sixiangyanjiu íBHa^rifcWíSíi W[Jh (A study ofZhang Boling's educational thought). Shenyang: Liaoning Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1994. 411 pp. In recent years, in both China and the U.S., there has been a growing number of publications on higher education in Republican China. Almost all major Chinese universities have published official "school histories" (xiaoshi^l^i), and scholars in the U.S. have published important studies on Yenching (Yanjing) University (Philip West, Yenching University and Sino-Western Relations, 1916-1952 [Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1976]) and on the Christian colleges (Jessie Gregory Lutz, China and the Christian Colleges, 1850-1950 [Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1971] ). The Cambridge History ofChina includes an important review ofhigher education by ?-tu Zen Sun ("The Growth of the Academic Community , 1912-1949," in vol. 13, pt. 2), and Yeh Win-hsin has published a pathbreaking study ofstudent culture in Shanghai universities (TheAlienatedAcademy: Culture and Politics in Republican China: 1919-1937 [Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1990]). Most of these studies have understandably focused on Shanghai and Beijing, where some 80 percent ofall college students were concentrated. But with this focus , there has been an important omission from the literature. Past research has dealt with either missionary schools or national universities, and indeed the contrast between these two types ofschools has been an important theme ofthe historiography . But missing has been one ofthe most important and influential private schools ofpurely Chinese origin: Nankai University in Tianjin, where the guiding light and president for most ofthe Republican period was Zhang Boling, the subject ofthe present study. Liang Jisheng, the author ofthis study, is a member ofthe secretariat ofthe president's office ofNankai University. For manyyears, he has devoted himselfto the study ofNankai and ofZhang Boling. Aided by his access to the publications and archives ofNankai University and Middle School, and making use ofmany interviews with friends and associates of Zhang Boling, he has assembled a striking portrait ofone ofmodern China's premier educators. Because ofhis close association with Chiang Kaishek in his later years, Zhang has until recently been something ofa taboo subject for PRC historians—but the new ideology ofcontemporary China makes it possible to write positively about Zhang as a national-© 1995 by University {st educator. ofHawaiiPressZhang Bolingwasborn in 1876 to apoor teacher at aTianjin family school (sishu M3&). He attended a tuition free school (yixue mW) for his primary education , as his family could not afford a proper classical training at a sishu. The 356 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1995 free school was designed to teach poor children basic literacy, so Zhang had no chance to study the Chinese classics. According to Liang, "this later aided Zhang to accept Western knowledge more quickly" (p. 4). Zhang then spent five years, from age 13 to age 18, in Beiyang Naval Academy (Beiyang Shuishi Xuetang), one ofthe leading schools for the study of the modern sciences under its president, the famous translator and reformer Yan Fu, himself a British naval academy graduate. The emphasis on "evidence," practical learning, and especially physical science at the naval academy was fundamentally different from the usual education ofyoung men in the late Qing. Upon his graduation in the fall of 1894, Zhang was sent home. No naval career awaited him: after the disastrous losses in the Sino-Japanese war, there was not a single ship left for the students to practice on. Some twenty years later, Zhang would reflect on this fateful coincidence: While at the naval academy, I saw Lushun [Port Arthur] and Dalian taken over by the Japanese, and Qingdao by the Germans. I saw two soldiers on Liugong Island: one was British—well built, well dressed, with an expression of disdain on his face. The other one was Chinese—wearing a ragged cloth, with "brave" (yongM) on the front, his face pale, his shoulders thin. The contrast was like heaven and earth. I was ashamed and deeply grieved. The shock was so great that the image remains vivid in my mind to this day. I was determined to reform the Chinese people, but not by training the army and navy to compete...

The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary, volume 1: Hosea, Joel, and Amos (review)

Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 183 Reviews this is perhaps the most extraordinary feature of this commentary, its failure to interact with or even acknowledge views with which Levine disagrees. As a mere European, I looked in vain for any mention of modem German or British commentaries or monographs on Leviticus. But then I realized we were not the only ones deliberately ignored. The most prolific author of all on this area, Jacob Milgrom, is mentioned, I think, in only one footnote. In short, this commentary needs to be used with discretion. Caveat emptor. G.J. Wenham Cheltenham and Gloucester College ofHigher Education Cheltenham. ENGlAND THE MINOR PROPHETS: AN EXEGETICAL AND EXPOSITORY COMMENTARY, VOLUME 1: HOSEA, JOEL, AND AMOS. Thomas Edward McComiskey, ed. Pp. x + 509. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992. Cloth, $34.95. The first in a three-volume series, this commentary follows the tradition of Keil and Delitzsch, pairing close attention to the Hebrew text with Christian evangelical hermeneutics. After a brief introduction explaining format, the volume divides into discrete commentaries. Within each, the author's translation of a pericope is printed in a parallel column with the NRSV; a split page then divides exegetical from expository comments. The exegetical section contains philological, historical and other notes, giving significant words in Hebrew, and English translations in parentheses. The expository comments include further discussion and more confessional application. Here, Hebrew words are transliterated. While each commentary bears distinctive characteristics, all are informed by evangelical understandings. Each considers the Protestant canon as a unity and the character of God as unchangeable, such that the New Testament can inform the Old. Presupposing Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, the authors trace Pentateuchal quotes in the prophetic books. Their translations attempt to follow the MT as closely as possible, consulting the Versions though rarely emending in favor of them and consciously avoiding the inclusive language of the NRSV. Thomas McComiskey, Professor of Old Testament Exegesis and Biblical Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, authors the Hosea commentary . He follows a short introduction on background matters with an Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 184 Reviews outline of the book and a fairly limited bibliography. His exegetical comments offer some linguistic help, although he relies heavily on the authority of Gesenius-Kautzsch-Cowley (GKC). Infrequent references to secondary literature are usually to Andersen and Freedman. In his treatment of Hosea 1-3, McComiskey rejects a purely allegorical reading of the prophet's marriage and instead explicates Hosea's biography. Based on a literal reading of 1:2, he contends that Gomer had children previous to her marriage to Hosea, such that chap. 2 addresses both these adopted children and those born to Hosea. These marital woes resurface in chap. 3 (where Hosea redeems this same "brazen woman," p. 50) and throughout the book. The entire book of Hosea, including passages directed to Judah, is treated as a unity, since hope was an integral part of the prophetic message. For McComiskey, this hope extends into the present: the prophet announced punishment only to his own time while articulating promises that hold for all people. Consequently, Hosea's words can be seen as predicting later events: for example, 3:5 accurately describes our day in which Israel has no king, no longer practices idolatry, and no longer observes the levitical institution of sacrifices (p. 54). The book of Joel is treated by Raymond Bryan Dillard, Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at Westminster Theological Seminary. Dillard's introduction is more extensive and helpful than McComiskey's, explaining clearly various arguments for the date ofJoel, its literary structure and its unity. His bibliography also is more inclusive and more integrated into his discussions. According to Dillard, the book of Joel is a postexilic document reflecting on a devastating locust plague. For the prophet, "the locust plague as the manifestation of divine wrath is viewed as a harbinger of the yet greater and more dreadful day of Yahweh" (p. 266). Non-conventional secondary literature on crops and insects aids Dillard in translating the vocabulary and mood of this crisis. Dillard's comments on Joel contain less confessional application, though he does deal with 3:1-2's relevance to the Pentecost...

Issues for Appraisal

Explores some key issues in appraisal for staff in institutions of higher education. Considers the need to address specifically the issues of equal opportunities in appraisal, and makes a case for team appraisal. Examines the problems of unwilling appraisers chosen by post rather than person and proposes that there should be an Ombudsperson for dissatisfied appraisees. Discusses the ethics of appraisal, together with the varying appraisal agendas of different constituencies of staff. Consideration is given to the real purposes of appraisal and the policy of delegation to the lowest level. Deplores the proposals to link appraisal to performance‐related pay and argues for the retention of appraisal′s developmental focus.

How Many Graduates in the 21st Century?

“The supply of educated people is critical to the UK′s future vitality and prosperity. We are well behind our international competitors”. This article is taken from a recent report which is intended to aid the policy debate on the future development of higher education. Current trends in student demand for higher education and on the supply and demand for graduates are presented.

Curriculum and case notes

New electronic technology is rapidly changing the classroom teacher’s job. Inthis article, a professor with unusually extensive experience and a critical andreflective viewpoint describes his experiences with the new technology. Theimpact of technology is not limited to conventional classroom teaching, buthas major implications for distance learning and continuing education as well.Administratively, the new technology is rapidly changing the cost structure ofhigher education, bringing technical and support personnel closer to the stu-dent and creating opportunities to leverage academic staff in promising newways. These same technologicaladvancesalsocreateaworldof

Teaching Night and Fog: History and Historiography

Teaching Night and Fog: History and Historiography Charles Krantz Charles Krantz teaches histoiy at New Jersey Institute ofTechnology. His work on Night and Fos grew out ofa projectfor the development ofcurriculum materials funded by the New Jersey Department ofHigher Education. At a high school in Brooklyn, a teacher of literature assigns Ehe Wiesel s Night, and screens Night and Fog afterwards in order to make the nightmare "come alive. (I)A professor at a Community College employs the film as a platform from which to launch discussions ofguilt and survival. (2) A history professor shows it to his students when he fears that the enormity of the Holocaust overwhelms his capacity to form words, to "say the unsayable." Annette Insdorfin her useful study offilm and the Holocaust tells how as a graduate student at Yale she first understood what her parents had endured in Auschwitz and Belsen when she saw Night and Fog. "It occurred to me that if I, the only child of Holocaust survivors, needed a film to frame the horror and thus give it meaning, what about others? How great a role are films playing in determining contemporary awareness of the Final Solution?" (3) The idea for Alan Resnais film about the nightmare ofthe concentration camps was suggested by the Comité d Histoire de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, a group of professional historians based in Paris who specialized in the study ofWorld War II. The title comes from the Nacht und Nebel Erlass, the "Night and Fog Decree" of December 1 941 promulgated by the German armed forces to root out the burgeoning resistance in the occupied territories ofWestern Europe. (4) So called because the suspects were to be arrested in the middle of the night and whisked away in "night and fog," these prisoners—always very few in number—joined millions of others deported to the Nazi camps. Contrasting archival black-and-white footage and still photographs with color footage taken in 1955 at the time ofproduction, the film follows a loose chronological framework, starting with the rise of the Nazis, progressing through the war to the final scenes of allied liberation ofthe camps in 1945. Hanns Eisler s musical score to Night and Fog contributes significantly to the emotional impact ofmany ofits images, while also adding to certain ofthe film s ironies. Yet the music does not overwhelm. It avoids maudlin airs and melodramatic effects. Like the tone of the narration itself, the music is gentle and encourages the viewer to thoughtfully consider the film s shocking images. The film begins in 1933 as the totalitarian machine gets underway. Camps are built like any other construction projects, but to them stream Europeans ofall nationalities, deported in sealed freight trains. We are given a glimpse ofa deportee inside a box car, helping to bolt its gate shut—sometimes the victim is also an executioner—hurrying people, trains steaming on arrival after a torturous journey. We are introduced to the camps: "It is another planet." The film documents aspects ofthe camp experience in searing vignettes. Bureaucratic domination, emotionless and calculated in its efficiency, begins with numbering, letttering, tattooing, bookkeeping. Next, the hierarchy ofpower is established—from the skeletal, unclothed ciphers, through the Kapos, privileged auxiliaries, their SS bosses, to the presiding Commandant. Dehumanization is the objective: cramped like lice, overworked, mocked 1 by slogans proclaiming cleanliness while the camp routine insures filth, the prisoners come to learn that the camps are a new kind of universe, one with "normal" institutions serving perverse ends: orchestras, zoos, hospital wards, even brothels. The Commandant lives a life of sweet domesticity while he supervises the erection of crematoriums and gas chambers. At Buchenwald, the camp is built around a cultural landmark, Goethe s oak tree. Goethe is the embodiment ofthe German Enlightenment. The ironies are inescapable. As the war spreads, the pace ofkilling is accelerated. The normal corporate criteria ofprofit and productivity are enforced relentlessly. Bones, human hair, body fat, nothing is to be "wasted." When the horror is over, the question ofresponsibility is evaded by its perpetrators. But as the film ends, the narrators warns that the virus ofhate is not dead. "Who among us is on the looking tower...