Guest
Zhang Min
Interview Background
Zhang Min has made her every step solid and enriched on the path of a career as a principal, which can be observed from her proposals of “learning to participate” at Wanhangdu Road Primary School, “harmonious education” at Shanghai International Studies University Jing’an Foreign Language Primary School, and “breaking new ground with innovation” at in-service the First Central Primary School of Jing’an District. She carries forward the educational concept of “all for children” introduced by educator Mr. Chen Heqin, pursuing overall consideration and systematic plans and practicing the idea of “seeking innovation based on inheritance and development in the process of reform”. Her efforts have cast new glories for time-honored schools.
Moderator:
The First Central Primary School of Jing’an District was established by educator Chen Heqin in 1930 as a base to practice his idea of “living education”. Being student-centered, the school has made remarkable achievements in curriculum development and teacher training, forming the educational concept of “cultivating modern little citizens and standouts of innovation”. In such a reputable school with a high starting point, the pressure to lead all teachers and students to create further resplendence is imaginable. Today, we have invited Principal Zhang Min from the First Central Primary School of Jing’an District to be our guest. Hello, Principal Zhang.
Zhang Min
Hello, everyone!
Zhang Min
I think it is a fresh start and a great challenge to change my work from my self-created brand of Shanghai International Studies University Jing’an Foreign Language Primary School to Shanghai the First Central Primary School of Jing’an District which boasts brilliant achievements. After starting to work as the principal there, I immediately felt the overwhelming public expectations of the school, which contrasted sharply with the school’s actual situation in management mode, teaching staff, curriculum development, and moral education activities. At that time, I made clear my responsibility and mission of leading the whole school to live up to these expectations.
Moderator:
What is the first thing you did after taking the office?
Zhang Min
I started my job by leading all the teachers to contrive new development for the school through the activity of “I offer suggestions on school development”. Suggestions were around eight aspects including curriculum development, team building, moral education activities, internal management, characteristic creation, and school safety, to design and think for the future development of the school. We collected the wisdom of teachers and students and their parents into a joint force driving us toward the goal.
Moderator:
So you are open-minded and made it with the concerted efforts of teachers.
Zhang Min
The school has excellent traditions and teachers with professional quality, so what comes first and foremost is to motivate teachers’ internal drive imperative, which can help sustain our leading position in educational reform. In daily work, we guided teachers to correct some stereotypes so that they can keep up with the times and thus consciously change the ways they think and work. In this regard, I did a lot of work, such as inviting experts at the forefront of educational reform to the school for teacher training. My purpose was to bring about fundamental changes in teachers’ ideas and help them identify with new requirements of education reform in the new era.
Moderator:
It seems to me that you listened to what teachers thought and garnered inspiration and wisdom from them to strive for consistency among future needs, school growth, and talent training.
Zhang Min
Yes. Teachers can sense the value of their efforts when seeing the school’s continuous improvement. After realizing their contributions to improved educational performance, they work with increased motivation.
Moderator:
“Little Citizen Education” is a brand and characteristic of Shanghai the First Central Primary School of Jing’an District. Your Young Pioneers’ work is very influential nationwide. Would you please explain it to us?
Zhang Min
On the basis of inheriting Mr. Chen Heqin’s educational thought, the school fully fulfills the fundamental tasks of moral education in the new era in its moral education practice, so that the students can truly know what moral behaviors are and practice them in daily life. To this end, I put forward “Modern Little Citizen Education” and developed the “Little Citizen Education 2+1” activity together with teachers. In the process of in-depth interaction, on the one hand, our teachers understood better and better the principal’s school operation philosophy; on the other hand, positive social response brought the teachers the joy of success. Rome is not built in one day. It was a slow perception and digestion process. Teachers could not apply the school’s philosophy in the teaching process until they really established awareness.
Moderator:
Shanghai the First Central Primary School of Jing’an District is an experimental base of the “living education” concept raised by its founder, Mr. Chen Heqin. For more than 90 years, the school has actively practiced the philosophy of “Modern Little Citizens” to continue and innovate Mr. Chen Heqin’s “living education” thought in a way that fits in with the needs of the times, school development, and students performance; and Mr. Chen’s education idea remains sparkling in the school education system of the new era.
Zhang Min
“Modern Little Citizen Education” is an innovation derived from the “all for children” slogan put forward by the founder and the “Little Citizen Education” efforts made by my predecessors.
Moderator:
Under your leadership, the school has built the training goal of modern little citizens based on the teleology of “living education”. One dominant component is “key competencies”, namely patriotism, scientific innovation spirit, and independent personality. The implementation indicators are “six qualities” (curiosity, dream, teamwork, gratitude, love, confidence) and “six abilities” (exercise, survive, discover, appreciate, express, cooperate). The purpose is to cultivate children with the value of shouldering the responsibility of realizing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Zhang Min
This is our new understanding and pursuit of “living education” in the new era. We derived a school-based curriculum system that supports the cultivation of modern little citizens from Mr. Chen Heqin’s “Five Fingers” courses in accordance with modern requirements for talent training. Horizontally, we have carried out “Five Fingers” courses + and formed a curriculum system covering state-stipulated courses and nearly 80 school-level courses (clubs) focused on the knowledge and skills required to be a citizen from the dimension of “Five Fingers”, namely health, society, science, art, and reading. Vertically, “Modern Little Citizens’ Ten Competencies Experiential Courses” and “Modern Little Citizens’ All-Discipline Activity” have been designed for all five graders, dedicated to developing moral awareness and values. Thus, we have established a curriculum system that supports the all-around development of students. In this way, we integrate the value of education and the curriculum system with the growth of teachers and students to the greatest extent.
Moderator:
Students of Shanghai the First Central Primary School of Jing’an District that receive “Modern Little Citizen Education” are universally found open-minded, confident, and cheerful, which has laid a solid foundation for their future all-round development in primary education.
Zhang Min
The key part of “little citizen education” is to allow students to experience the emotion and value of modern little citizens in rich practices and independent participation and develop corresponding qualities. To this end, Shanghai the First Central Primary School of Jing’an District follows the design strategy of combining children’s perception with practice, the implementation strategy of “teacher-student collaboration”, and the auxiliary strategy of “little citizen’s autonomy”. To physically support these strategies, the school reconstructed Modern Little Citizens’ Building and founded the “Little Citizens’ Autonomy Committee”, under which there are seven functional departments, such as Activity Planning Department, Excellence Evaluation Department, Civilization Observers’ Department, Post Training Department, and Volunteer Service Department. Besides, the school formulated “My Days in Shanghai the First Central Primary School of Jing’an District” based on the modern concept of educational evaluation. The evaluation manual has evolved from version 1.0 to version 3.0, embodying the wisdom of the teachers and students and highlighting the growth pathway of a modern little citizen.
Zhang Min
This manual will accompany each student through his or her five years to be spent in Shanghai the First Central Primary School of Jing’an District. It is both a growth record and an evaluation manual. It supports not only self-evaluation but also interaction with pals and mentors. Then, each student is able to clearly see their step-by-step growth in the school, and generate an objective and accurate self-evaluation
Moderator:
I have learned that in your mind, courses and activities are the most direct carriers of the practical education concept and the most important means to develop core competencies, necessary characters, and key abilities and that the professional training of teachers is a key factor to the implementation of courses and activities.
Zhang Min
Our school has created school-level courses and extracurricular service clubs while carrying out state-assigned courses. The colorful school-level courses and club activities are designed and executed by our teachers. After years of polishing, our teachers are versatile. They can totally adapt themselves to educational reform in the new era. We have created a lot of opportunities and platforms for our teachers to practice interdisciplinary teaching.
Moderator:
During the prevalence of COVID-19, your “walking classes” were affected. What did you do to deal with it?
Zhang Min
We adopted a “teachers walk” approach. The courses were developed by the whole teaching staff. For example, our popular “China Little Housekeepers” comprehensive practice series was developed by the whole faculty. These courses are divided into five categories by content: delicious traditional Chinese food, traditional Chinese crafts, traditional Chinese literary classics, etc.
Zhang Min
Each teacher is expected to design and teach one lesson of the courses to different classes of the same grade each semester. In this way, they can fully test whether the lessons they developed are popular with the children. The teachers are also “forced” to constantly learn all kinds of interdisciplinary knowledge and qualify themselves for different classes. Then, their consciousness and abilities of interdisciplinary teaching are getting stronger.
Moderator:
As far as I know, you led the teaching staff to develop a comprehensive practical course called “Good Youths of Shanghai” during the epidemic-caused blockade in 2022.
Zhang Min
In my opinion, little citizens in the new era should not only inherit excellent traditional Chinese culture, but also understand their own hometown, and become good youths of Shanghai with all-around development in moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education. Through course development and “walking class” teaching, the teachers have seen continuous improvement in their course leadership. A good teacher, for me, is both “loving” and “professional”. He or she can pass on his or her love, knowledge, and experience with professional methods to the students. I, as the principal, will undoubtedly devote all my energy and wisdom to the school and the growth of each teacher and student.
Moderator:
What’s your outlook on the future of Shanghai the First Central Primary School of Jing’an District?
Zhang Min
A modern branded school should have three obvious characteristics: The first is “quality”, not only academically, but also in various activities and work; the second is “innovative”, sustainably, smartly, and on a daily basis; the third is “distinctive”. We will polish the brand of “Modern Little Citizen Education” to make it brighter and light up the growth pathway of each modern little citizen.