The Faculty of Education at Shenzhen University was established in 2018, and its origins can be traced back to the establishment of the Simple Normal School of Bao’an in the year of 1947. The Capsule Chronology of Faculty of Education includes six periods:
1947-1959, The Simple Normal School of Bao’an
1959-1984, Bao’an Normal School
1984-1994, Shenzhen Normal School for Professional Training
1994-2018, Shenzhen University Normal College
2018-2022, Shenzhen University Normal College (Faculty of Education)
Since 2022, Faculty of Education
After the reorganization of 2022, Faculty of Education has four divisions and several administrative offices. The four divisions are the School of Education, the Research Institute of Education, the School of Teacher development, and the Affiliated Education Group of Shenzhen University. The School of Education consists of the Department of Education, the Department of Educational Information and Technology, the Department of Preschool Education, the Education Experimental Center and the Teaching and Learning Ability Development Center. The Research Institute of Education consists of The GBA Institute of Educational Research, Research Institute for Family Education, the Research Center for Primary and Secondary School Education and Teacher Development, Research Institute for Higher Education, Research Institute for Curriculum and Instruction, Research Institute for Preschool Education, and Intelligent Education Research Center. The School of Teacher Development is mainly responsible for postgraduate education (taught program) and teachers’ continuing education.
There are more than fifty full-time faculty members, including 24 professors/associate professors, 23 assistant professors. 5 faculty members are doctoral student supervisors and more than 30 faculty members have a doctoral degree. The faculty members include national famous cultural experts credited by the Publicity Department of the CPC (the "Four Batches of Talents "), leading talents of philosophy and social sciences credited by the Organization Department of the CPC (the "Ten Thousand Talents Plan"), recipients of special government subsidies of the State Council of PRC, awardees of Shenzhen High-level Talents Plans (Domestic and Oversea), national-wide distinguished teachers, provincial-wide distinguished teachers, provincial and municipal level excellent teachers, and “Liyuan leading scholars” of Shenzhen University.
Faculty of Education has two undergraduate programs (preschool education and education technology) and several masters’ programs (including research programs and taught programs). Faculty of Education is now jointly training doctoral students with the City University of Macao, and it also recruits doctoral students in development and educational psychology in the doctoral program of psychology. At present, the faculty has more than 480 undergraduate students and more than 430 master students. In 2018, it was approved by Guangdong Province to establish a National Teacher Education Innovative Pilot Zone. According to the Best Chinese Subjects Rankings (2019) published by Shanghai Ranking, the education discipline of Shenzhen University was ranked among the top 24% in China.
Located in Pioneering Demonstration Zone for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, the Faculty of Education has been trying to satisfy the significant developmental needs of the nation and the Great Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and it has actively carried out scientific research and social services, undertaken projects at different levels including key projects of the National Social Science Fund. Its scientific research outputs have won various awards multiple times, including the Excellent Output Award of Scientific Research in Higher Education (Humanities and Social Sciences) awarded by the Ministry of Education, the National Excellent Output Award of Educational Science Research, the National Teaching Achievement Award (Primary and Secondary Education), and the Social Sciences Outstanding Output Award of Guangdong Province. In the meanwhile, the faculty continues to strengthen the university-school partnership, to develop a social service organization model with multiple levels, to build an educational think tank that brings together high-level experts at home and abroad, to actively carry out international education cooperation and exchanges, to actively participate in the preparation of major education reform plans of Shenzhen and the Great Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and to provide consultancy and training services for the high-quality development of primary, secondary, and higher education.
Faculty of Education is geared to the disciplinary frontiers of education, the main battlefield of educational development, the significant educational needs of the country, and the development of schools that satisfy our people. It tries to take the great opportunities during the construction of the Great Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao and the Pioneering Demonstration Zone for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, to follow the developmental ideals of “internationalization, specialization, and individualization”, to treat the disciplinary development as the fundamental prerequisite, and to keep high-quality development as the core task, and it strives to build an innovative, exemplary and high-level research faculty with good domestic and international reputation and influence.
