Ed School Delegation to Visit China

When Paul N. Ylvisaker, dean of the Graduate School of Education, lost track of an old school friend who had gone home to China after receiving his degree, no one thought the two would ever see each other again.

But Ylisaker did see Xia Chuzhang again when its Littauer School of Government classmate visited the Ed School last April with a delegation of other Chinese educators. Almost a year after that "grand reunion," Ylvisaker and Ed School doctoral candidate Abigail Housen will repay the courtesy when they go to the People's Republic of China Thursday.

The group will tour four universities, including Zhongshan (Sun Yat Sen) University, where Chuzhang is an administrative dean. They plan to give talks and conduct workshops at each stop.

"The Chinese are particularly interested in modern educational technology, such as television," Ylvisaker says, adding that "their universities were really devastated by the Cultural Revolution and they are very anxious to catch up in all areas."

Gerald S. Lesser, Bigelow Professor of Education and Developmental Psychology, also has a personal interest in the excursion. Three months ago, a team of Chinese broadcasters visited Lesser and his co-workers at the Children's Television Workshop (the organization that created Sesame Street) to learn about American educational television. Eager to maintain the relationship, Lesser set up meetings with members of the Chinese Central Broadcasting Administration in addition to giving formal lectures.

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He says the Chinese already use television "a fair amount in day care centers and the early grades." Lesser adds that the Chinese Ministry of Education has "great difficulty preparing enough teachers and sees television as one possibility" for alleviating the problem.

"Because education is much more centralized in China you might think studies would be easier to do, but their research is still at a very simple level," Richard J. Light, another Ed School professor who will accompany Ylvisaker, says.

Light, who specializes in evaluating social and educational programs, will discuss with his Chinese hosts various ways to use surveys to improve school curricula.

The trip is the latest chapter in the 35-year-old story of the Ylvisaker-Chuzhang friendship. The two deans reestablished contact in 1972, when former President Richard M. Nixon's trip to China initiated the current rapprochement between Washington and Beijing (Peking).

Communication between the two men remained very formal until 1976 when the downfall of the Gang of Four allowed more cultural exchange. When Ylvisaker invited Chuzhang to cross the Pacific to talk shop, the Chinese educator accepted enthusiastically.

"They were fascinated by things like McDonald's and supermarkets, in addition to our methods of education," Ylvisaker says.

"Harvard has become quite a 'thing' over in China," the Ed School dean says, but he adds that "there had been a feeling that Harvard was unapproachable" before the Chinese visited last year.

Ylvisaker and his colleagues now have the opportunity to bring the Harvard "thing" to China in person