Discipline under china’s college entrance examination system reflected in the documentary senior year – based on foucault’s micro-power theory

Abstract

Foucault establishes the theory of microcosmic power from the postmodernist theoretical position. Based on his disciplinary power perspective, this article attempts to analyze the status of discipline within the Chinese college entrance examination system, reflected in the documentary Senior Year, considering the contents and methods of discipline. It also probes into the difficulties of reforming the “Gaokao” (college entrance examination) and the challenges of transforming education, such as the discipline which deprives the person in education of subjectivity, and the directional discipline which puts poor students at a disadvantage and creates an imbalance of power and rights within schools. Finally, this paper gives suggestions about how to address these problems in the following ways: reflecting on and reforming the college entrance examination system, reducing discipline in education and opposing people’s materialization.