Problems of formation and development of the system of vocational education in China in their coverage in Russian pedagogical encyclopedias

the article considers the features of coverage of the problems of formation and development of vocational education in China in Soviet and Russian pedagogical encyclopedias. The purpose of the article: to determine the boundaries of the problem-thematic coverage of materials presented in pedagogical encyclopedias on the problems of formation and development of vocational education in China; to identify trends characteristic of the presentation of the problems of vocational education in China in popular encyclopedic publications available to the mass readers. The empirical array of the study consisted of thematic articles posted in five encyclopedias of the second third of the twentieth – early XXI centuries, published in the period from 1929 to 2009. Based on the content-analytical study, it was established that the specialized encyclopedia of vocational education (1999) does not contain sufficient information on the topic. The encyclopedia of 1929 release characterizes the system of vocational education in China based on the criterion of "educational qualification"; The Pedagogical Encyclopedia (1965) provides an analysis of the consequences of the activities of the People's Communes in creating local systems of vocational education. The Pedagogical Encyclopedic Dictionary (2003) is limited to presenting the contents of the Confucian treatise "Liji". The most complete and systematic history of the development of vocational education in China is presented in the 2009 edition, which characterizes the development of vocational education based on an analysis of the concepts of "self-strengthening", "westernization", "self-reliance" and "new democratic pedagogy". The authors of the articles formulate the conclusion that compilers who focus on presenting the features of the manifestation of the spiritual culture of society through the training of personnel in various historical periods manage to overcome the fragmentary presentation of the problem while meeting the requirement of information saturation.

education, “full circle education”, conceptual and terminological apparatus, vocational education, vocational training, China, encyclopedia, unity of the education system, spiritual culture