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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This is a 4 page paper that provides an overview of the Cultural Revolution. Education in the CR is analyzed through the lens of Durkheim's theories. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KW60_KFhis090.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Cultural Revolution and its pursuit of "Mao Zedong Thought" had a profound impact upon many aspects of Chinese society throughout the 1950s and 1960s, especially in areas such as industry,
agriculture, and perhaps most significantly of all, education. For years, many have asserted that the Cultural Revolution performed a dramatic disservice to the educational system of China, because of the
degree to which educated urban youths were sent to rural areas to participate in agrarian labor, and the extent to which educational centers were forced to adopt agrarian programs of
study in order to fulfill the states concerns in regards to becoming an agricultural superpower. However, this reorientation of education can be examined through a sociological lens which mediates some
of the more extreme impressions and offers a viewpoint of a China which may have benefitted in some respects from pedagogy during the Cultural Revolution. These insights are reinforced in
particular by some of the writings of Emile Durkheim, the father of sociological study. Durkheim and Mao, it must be noted, had many similarities in their philosophical and sociological beliefs.
For instance, in Durkheims 1922 text, Education and Sociology, he writes that "society can survive only if there exists among its members a sufficient degree of homogeneity" (Durkheim, 1956). As
is obvious, such an ethos was the entire justification behind Maos Cultural Revolution in the first place; Mao felt that a lack of homogeneity in society in regards to socialist
thought and practice would eventually lead to a resurgence of bourgeoisie sentiments and that capitalism would follow close behind. Based on Maos emphasis on restructuring the educational system in China
at the time, it seems plain that he would have agreed also with Durkheims sentiment that "education perpetuates and reinforces this homogeneity" that is required for a functional society (Durkheim
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