Private Educational Institutions in Future Community Education Scenarios

1. Introduction

1.1 Future Community Education Scenarios

Is it possible to plan a future community? （Johnson,1997）. The future is never an isolated concept, a utopian imagination detached from reality, or a paranoid orientation with a strong technological focus and a lack of humanistic care. The future community concept's innate mission is to incorporate communities, residents, organizations, and local infrastructures into a broader context to achieve sustainable development. The future community is not a limited vision, but an open thinking, an exploration and reflection on urbanization (Urban China & Cui, 2021). Future community intertwines with the global concept of urban renewal, but it is not limited to defining the best sample, as each has its advantages. Characteristic future communities include Chinese style 15-minute living circle community, Japanese cypress leaf smart community, Singapore urban iterative composite new community, Dutch youth autonomous community, Future community office sharing space, and Canada's smart community that focuses on the health and well-being of urban residents. However, they are not limited to these (Urban China & Cui, 2021). 

1.2 The functions of private educational institutions

The Regulations of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of Private Education（《中华人民共和国民办教育促进法实施条例》）explicitly stipulates in Article 3 of Chapter 1 of the General Provisions that governments at all levels shall support and regulate social forces in organizing private education by the law, ensure that private schools operate and manage independently by the law, encourage and guide private schools to improve quality, develop characteristics, and meet diverse educational needs. Compared to public education institutions, private education institutions refer to institutions that use non-state fiscal funds to organize schools and other educational activities for society. (The State Council of the People's Republic of China,2021, April 7) According to the 2022 National Education Development Statistical Bulletin（《2022年中国教育事业发展统计公报》）, there are a total of 178300 private schools at all levels and types in China, accounting for 34.37% of the total number of schools at all levels and types in the country. There are 52.827 million students enrolled, accounting for 18.05% year-on-year (Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China,2023, July 5). After the reform and opening, private education institutions have experienced more than 40 years of development, occupying a place in academic education and becoming the main force of non-academic education. According to The Implementation Regulations of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of Private Education, private education has risen from a supplement to public education. It has become an important component of socialist education. In the setting of future community education scenarios, private education institutions are innovators of educational concepts, providers of educational services, expanders of educational resources, optimizers of educational ecology, creators of lifelong learning environments, practitioner of public participation and collaboration theory, promoters of modern educational governance, operators of accurate educational evaluation, demonstrators of new urbanization, and solvers of the supply-demand contradiction of community education resources.

In the new era, Zhejiang Province has proposed vigorously promoting the two pioneers (两个先行) of shared prosperity and provincial modernization in high-quality development. Future community construction is committed to funding future education as one of the nine scenarios. The community is set as an urban development unit and a micro demonstration zone for shared prosperity. The Implementation Plan for High-Quality Development and Construction of a Demonstration Zone for Common Prosperity in Zhejiang Province (2021-2025) (《浙江省高质量发展建设共同富裕示范区实施方案（2021-2025年）》) focuses on building a modern unit for prosperity sharing, focusing both on future urban communities and new rural communities. New requirements are proposed for future community education scenarios (Liu & Shi, 2019; Yang & Wu, 2020; Rao, 2022).

1.3 High-quality development of private educational institutions



The concept of "high-quality development of private education institutions" is comprehensive. Especially the word "high-quality" has become a high-frequency vocabulary in policies, outlines, plans, and opinions. In recent years, there have been various arguments on the definition, implementation path, evaluation system, and implementation path of high-quality development of private education, hardly to summarize. Furtherly, continuous attention to private education development was interpreted in the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China report (The State Council of the People's Republic of China, 2022, October 25).

 

2. Literature Review

2.1 Discussion of Future Community

In 2011, Todd L. Goodsell, Matthew Colling, Ralph B. Brown, and J Lynn England (2011, December) co-authored "On Past and Future of Community: A Pragmatic Analysis," which argues that Charles Sanders Peirce proposed a semiotic approach to examine the society within a "community," thereby directing external attention towards those who provide explanations. Jenny Pickerill et al (2023, September26) sought possible and feasible alternatives to the dominant neoliberal development model, proposing the development of eco-communities in green cities to address environmental degradation and various development crises. Beyond the strategies of neoliberalism and technological urbanization, re-examining the benign relationship between social development and ecological environment and building sustainable and socially equitable urban communities in ecological transformation. Lilac community in the UK, Spreefeld community in Germany, Andelssam fund I Hjortsh ø j community in Denmark, Kailash Eco Village in Los Angeles Eco Village in Los Angeles Eco Village, Peninsula Park Commons in the US, and Wohnprojekt Wien community in Austria are among the best (Dunn, Boyko & Pollastri, 2019).

In 2020, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), together with the United Nations Environment Programme, the New Economic Structure Institute of Peking University, Tsinghua University, UK Research and Innovation, released the "Future Cities: New Economy And Shared City Property Driven By New Economy And Technological Innovations - Discussion Papers" (科技创新驱动未来城市：新经济与共享城市繁荣), focusing on 4 aspects: a. Tradition to Modernity: Technological Transformation for Cities, b. Digital Twin Cities and Advancing Urban Infrastructure, c. Advances in Application Scripts, d. Urban commerce and sustainable finance (Keith, et al. ,2020) .

The World Cities Report 2022: Envisaging the Future of Cities confirms that after the COVID-19 pandemic, "health", "education", "economy", "technology," and "productivity" are listed as keywords as always to cultivate resilient, inclusive, sustainable, fair and greener future urban communities (United Nations Human Settlements Programme,2022).

Paul Grogan, President and CEO of The Boston Foundation, once looked forward to the future of community development at the "Open Forum: Voices and Opinions from Leaders in Policy, the Field, and Academia," stating the urgent need to develop effective methods to promote human development (Urban China & Cui, 2021).

The OECD report "Future of Education and Skills 2030 Conceptual Learning Framework Transformative Competencies For 2030" emphasizes encouraging students to participate in volunteer activities, service learning, and problem-solving practices in communities and cultivates transformative capabilities in schools, families, and communities (Taguma, Feron & Lim, 2019).

Nick Dunn, Christopher Boyko, and Serena Pollastri (2019) examined the future communities and values in 2050 based on three levels: "possible trends," "possible futures," and "possible outcomes." The authors evaluated the current emerging community models, particularly the trend towards more personalized transformation, the use of digital technology to promote or inhibit broader social participation, exacerbating social-spatial inequality, and strategies to enhance empowerment.

2.2 Chinese dialogue of education scenarios in future community

What would the future community education scenarios be like? Chinese scholars refer to public participation, classification management of private education institutions, living environment construction, modernization of community governance, textual hermeneutics, collaborative governance, new urbanism, new public service theory (Lv, 2022), learning theory, Chinese education modernization, and lifelong learning theory. Schools, families, governments, institutions, and communities would closely unite and collaborate to provide education services, achieving a panoramic, entire life cycle and imaginative education scenario that everyone can learn anywhere, at any time. Private educational institutions are essential participators, practitioner, and pioneers in realizing future community education scenarios. 

2.3 Research Focus

This study analyzes the needs of future community education as a starting point, responding to the value orientation of "humanization", "ecology," and "digitalization". Undoubtedly, scenario education has attracted private educational institutions to participate and empower the renewal of community education concepts. As a major community education provider, adding private education institutions and emerging technologies such as big data will significantly update community education resources and elements. Under strong policy guidance, social capital and social forces will focus on creating smart learning spaces and activating diverse stakeholders to participate in change. As multiple entities are involved, private educational institutions are bound to enhance community education's modern governance capacity and promote precise evaluation implementation. In the future community education scenario, private education institutions can play at least four functions: multiple providers and resource coordinators of community education services, pioneers of modern governance of community education, innovators of community education concepts and educational ecology, and optimizers of community education ecology (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Research contents and main points

3. Research design

3.1 Research hypothesis

Research hypothesis: Private educational institutions are important participants, builders, and practitioners of future community education. Multi-type and multi-level private education institutions are indispensable participants and innovators in the high-quality development of future community education. They are the guaranteed force for improving the quality and increment of future smart community education services and the driving force for achieving lifelong ubiquitous learning throughout the entire life cycle. Therefore, exploring how to leverage the multiple functions of private education institutions with clear value demands has profound significance.

Validate hypothesis: If the hypothesis makes sense, how can it be more effective?

Response: What roles do private educational institutions play? How would private educational institutions

Research Logic: Background→Preliminary research→Logical route→Research Findings (Figure 2)

Figure 2. Research design

3.2 Definition of Concept

Future Community Education Scenarios in the Chinese context focus on a. mission/goal achievement, b. background fitting, and c. scenario setting. Expectations of private educational institutions are implanted in those contexts while discussed. The preliminary research sorts out a literature review, comparing definitions of core concepts and related international comparative studies. This research sets on future community education cases, and the selection database is based on the excellent instances of future community (rural) education scenarios in Zhejiang Province in 2022.

3.3 Research progress

Research progress follows step by step as: Contexts→ Subject→Method→Steps→Conclusions. Close logical loop and highlight coherence between points, findings, and solutions.

Discuss future education scenarios and respond to the value of "humanization", "ecology", "smart", and "digitalization" achieved in future education scenarios. Future education scenarios welcome private education institutions to participate as major providers of education products. Emerging technologies such as big data and AI have extensively updated community education resources. Social capital is permitted by national laws and regulations to be involved in the recombination and innovation of education in future communities, such as adding shared learning spaces and activating multiple subjects to participate in the transformation, introducing modern government theories (performance focus, humanistic concern, differentiated competition, classification management, amplification advantage effect, product upgrade, service improvement, agglomeration effect of advantageous resources, introduction to modern governance theory, and optimizing community education ecology). 

Based on previous literature research, this article supports that future community education scenarios have already attracted private education institutions to participate in construction, focusing on how to attract private education institutions to participate in future community education development.

What functional roles are private education institutions expected to play, and how can they leverage the multiple roles of private education? Whether certain sub-scenes of future community education scenarios can be drawn through many case studies, true knowledge comes from practice. The attention to private educational institutions will also be tested, discussed, and upgraded through these real-life examples.



Whether certain sub-scenes of future community education scenarios can be drawn through many case studies, proper knowledge comes from practice. Private educational institutions’ functions would be examed, discussed, and upgraded through these real cases.

4. Findings

In future communities established by the government and managed by private educational institutions, there will be mandatory nursery centers for children under three. These centers will offer not only traditional nursery school and kindergarten education services but also newly introduced full-time, part-time, holiday, and nighttime daycare options. The staff at these centers must hold professional childcare certifications. The community's innovative platform will maintain a database of retired teachers, retired child protection personnel, full-time parents, and professional social workers who can serve as part-time assistants. Comprehensive security monitoring, with no blind spots, will cover all childcare facilities. Community platforms will allow parents to monitor their children's conditions through smart terminals after completing identity authentication, enhancing parental peace of mind (the Pilot Work Plan for Future Community Construction in Zhejiang Province, 2020). Based on the estimated number of students applying for admission, kindergartens will be rebuilt or expanded. Branches of top kindergartens will be established, and video security monitoring systems will be installed to facilitate remote class observations by guardians and researchers. Principals and teachers will share meals with the children and sit beside them during dining sessions, fostering a nurturing and inclusive environment (the Pilot Work Plan for Future Community Construction in Zhejiang Province, 2020).

4.1 Pluralistic collaboration among educational entities

Future community education no longer follows the traditional single mode dominated by the government and public institutions. Instead, it will transform into a multi-subject mode and engage governments' governance, enterprises' collaboration, social organizations' joint (private schools are contained), and community residents' participation. Multi-subject collaborative governance integrates resources through diversified channels (Lu, 2020).



Private educational institutions can participate in community education projects to supplement public services. Besides learning resources and knowledge services and mentor assignments,  Private educational institutions are expected to make more efforts in areas such as Community education service, adult education and training, cultural and recreational activities, partnerships with Non-Profit Organizations, 0-6 year-old kids' care and nursey, k-12 extracurricular activities, after-school programs, mentorship programs, camps, study tours,  so as disaster response and relief (the Pilot Work Plan for Future Community Construction in Zhejiang Province, 2020).

4.2 Equitable and inclusive education service supply

Composite the design for future educational space (Rao, 2022), private education institutions collaborate to integrate resources that would benefit a more equitable and inclusive education supply. Online and offline learning platforms enable education services open to all age resident groups, covering childcare, youth quality development, adult vocational training, and elderly entertainment, meeting the lifelong learning needs of the entire population.

4.3 Digitalization empowers community governance and education evaluation

Recent tech advancements, like big data and AI, have transformed community education into a modern governance model. Visual data helps monitor interactions among entities and offers real-time responses and precise evaluations. IT has introduced intelligent management models (Rao, 2022).

Humanistic tech upgrades focus on equity, diversity, and inclusivity, aiming for sustainable community education (Lu, 2020). Multi-subject collaboration integrates resources and fosters a co-construction, co-governance paradigm supported by government, NGOs, industries, and residents (Rao, 2022).

Advanced tech, individual initiative, and collective consensus drive this change. Private institutions contribute by developing smart education platforms, evaluating sessions, analyzing learning behaviors, and accelerating digital transformation (Bao, 2020).

4.4 Future Community Education Industry

Educational resources are open to the future community as private educational institutions are encouraged to share resources at a lower cost for individuals and provide paid knowledge services. At the same time, recent community facilities and resources are open to the education industry, such as community college welcome course registering. Responding to a green knowledge recycling trend, industry mentors' efforts release intra training resources to the community. A sound knowledge circulation system achieves resource reuse. Adhere to the idea of openness, cooperation, sharing, and win-win (Rao, 2022), the future community education industry aims to integrate various resources, collaborate with private education institutions and social organizations, and establish a cross-department, cross-regional, cross-industry, and cross-platform integrated operation model which take responsibility for industry investment, construction, management, and operation (Wu, 2023).

4.5 Logic for the modular curriculum system construction

Support private education institutions (PEIs) in creating diversified educational scenes and conducting inclusive education through multiple cooperation. Future community education scenarios challenge the current lifelong learning curriculum paradigm. Curriculum design is required to break traditional courses' fixed structure, establish a hierarchical core, and maintain the ability to adjust dynamically. Respect private institutions' intellectual property protection and operational sustainability (Xu, 2021). Private education institutions should work with communities, honored schools, libraries, stadiums and venues, youth palaces, etc., and deliver high-quality courses through smart classes. The online system monitors residents' learning needs and links to learning resources such as primary and secondary online course platforms, vocational qualifications and skills training databases, and community college online platforms. Individual's various learning needs call for a flexible combination of micro courses, phased contents, and unit packages. Users can customize personalized learning lists and select courses freely. Courses cover early childhood care and education, vocational qualification, primary and secondary discipline, elderly education, continuing education, culture, entertainment and finance. Realize mutual recognition of credits through credit banks (Jiang, 2020). Private education institutions can access the learning points system through the community wisdom platform and link their courses with the points exchange mechanism (such as receiving cultural performance tickets or facility rental subsidies as praise for credits). Encourage blockchain technology to fully confirm intellectual assets, token incentives, etc., and enhance private education institutions' intellectual property protection and operation sustainability (Xu, 2021).

4.6 The humanistic revival in the technology-driven field

The core goal of building future communities is to enhance residents' quality of life through cooperation, leveraging technology. Personalized learning is emphasized (Wang, 2022; Zhou, 2022), with smart platforms offering diverse resources and vocational training to help residents switch careers. Regular cultural activities and lectures enrich community life. Design focuses on comfort, learning, travel, and essential services. The community organizes events, fosters online connections, and meets regularly to encourage social interaction, self-realization, autonomy, and mutual aid (Lv & Jin, 2021). Residents engage in collective activities, building a sense of belonging and valuing individuality, civic consciousness, and public morality (Lv & Jin, 2021; Nie &Zhang, 2021; Wang, 2022; Zhou, 2022; Yang, 2023). Balancing individual and collective actions, technology aims to better residents' lives.

4.7 Potential advantages of future community education

The explicit characteristics of future community education include the diversity of educational subjects, fairness in educational supply, wisdom in educational services, and comfort in learning experience (Bao, 2020), while potential advantages include optimizing the configuration of basic education infrastructure (Sun, 2022). Provide vocational skills training scenariosto enhance talent skills through the integration of industry and academia; Upgrading the industrial education service system drives industrial iteration. Promote the composite design of educational spaces and cultural scenes for all age groups (Feng &Yuan, 2023). Respect the values centered on people, drive the upgrading of the education industry with technology, deeply integrate fairness, diversity, and digitization, and achieve sustainable development of community education (Rao, 2022). Establish the concept of lifelong learning, low-carbon living, and green environmental protection (Zheng &Yu, 2023); Building a harmonious community.

5. Discussion

Future communities are constructed based on the traditional concept of gathering resources and accomplishing a better living. This kind of governance guarantees private education institutions participate in future community education scenarios construction, which is also the Chinese dialogue of education scenarios in future community advocates (Pilot Work Plan for Future Community Construction in Zhejiang Province, 2020):

Govern Models‌: Governments, management departments, social agencies, and pertinent public institutions have fostered long-standing and close cooperation. This governance framework ensures that private educational institutions are actively involved in shaping the education scenarios of future communities.

‌Unified Approach‌: Adopting a cohesive strategy minimizes communication barriers among administrative departments, preventing disconnects between various industries and fields.

‌Professional Autonomy: While the Chinese government respects the relative independence of professional domains, it relies on current close and unified teamwork when tackling details.

5.1   Achieving Universal Coverage of Nursery Care for Children Under 3 Years Old‌

To ensure comprehensive care for infants under the age of three, the following measures will be implemented (Pilot Work Plan for Future Community Construction in Zhejiang Province, 2020), including allocation of high-quality childcare facilities, expansion of inclusive childcare services and models, development of the iCloud Nursery and Supervision Platform, releasing high-quality educational resources and programs, as well as establishing quality assurance mechanisms.

5.2   Honored teachers and outstanding schools nearby –Adolescent Education Platform

Develop an integrated 3-15 years education platform, combining online & offline resources. Partner with top teachers & schools, attracting institutions to share high-quality content. Integrate extracurricular services and ensure fair admission. Renowned teachers will offer interactive online courses. Strengthen community education support and set 16:30 classrooms after school. Explore learning assessment & remediation. Connect with Zhijianghui Education Square, deploy 5G+VR classrooms, and use learner data for tailored video delivery (Pilot Work Plan for Future Community Construction in Zhejiang Province, 2020).

5.3 Shared learning platform-- Everyone could be a mentor

Establish a community-wide mentoring and knowledge-sharing mechanism. Enable every community member to serve as either a learner or a mentor, fostering a culture of continuous growth and mutual support (Pilot Work Plan for Future Community Construction in Zhejiang Province, 2020).

5.3   Future education scenarios for lifelong learning

Collaborate with education institutions to assign instructors based on residents' needs, offering trial teaching rewards and free study incentives. Future communities verify smart learning spaces using social capital, public welfare orgs, and resident mutual aid teams. Governments fund projects annually. Future communities offer education and working chances for all residents.

Within future community hubs, establish bookstores, libraries, study rooms, children's reading areas, shared book bars, cafes, salons, reception rooms, and meeting spaces (Pilot Work Plan for Future Community Construction in Zhejiang Province, 2020). Lifelong learning is a conscious demand and self-disciplined behavior, driving personal growth. Create a collective environment and mobilize individual initiative (Huang, 2020).

5.6 Consider Children's life experience

Promote children's engagement in the community and encourage private educational institutions to establish well-being classrooms. Qualified social workers and volunteers can provide for after-school tutoring and care for teenager students. Public welfare organizations may set up children's sites and consider their interests (Pilot Work Plan for Future Community Construction in Zhejiang Province, 2020).

Author Contributions: All authors contributed to this research.

Funding: This essay was funded by the Research on the Role of Private Education Institutions in the Construction of Future Community Education Scenarios, which was awarded as a key project by the Zhejiang Private Education Association in 2024. The grant number is ZMX2024A003.

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent Statement/Ethics Approval: Not applicable.