Analysis of Value Orientation Framework of Junior High Chinese Textbooks

Abstract

This paper analyzes the value orientation framework of junior high school Chinese Language textbooks. The value orientation framework is designed to examine three major dimensions of human relationships, namely, "man and himself", "man and society", and "man and nature". The aim of the framework is to evaluate the themes in junior high Chinese textbooks. The classification of moral value orientation reveals that China's national guidelines paid significant attention to the cultivation of students' morality, aesthetics, and appreciation of nature. Nonetheless, the researcher noticed that but there was a lack of themes such as the virtue of thriftiness, emphasis on innovation, and the concept of ecological sustainability. Moreover, the interpretation of the value orientation in these textbooks lacks contemporaneity. Furthermore, hot topics such as the inequality between men and women, which is prevalent in certain provincial and rural areas of China were also not listed in the national guidelines on junior high textbooks The discussion, which is stemmed from an analysis of the framework derived from "The Compulsory Education Chinese Curriculum Standards (2011 edition)", and the "Core Competence in Chinese Student Development (revised in 2016)" is believed to be good references to all educational stakeholders, especially the curriculum panels of China's junior high textbooks.