An Analysis of the High ‐ quality Integrated Development of Children's Choral Art Education in Urban and Rural Areas in The Context of Rural Revitalization

: The revitalisation of the countryside is an inevitable trend in China's historical development, and there is a complementary relationship between it and the development of rural arts education. The choral art education for children at the compulsory education level in rural art education has a unique educational value due to its unique art form. Based on the analysis of the realistic conditions for the development of children's choral education in rural areas, this article explores three paths for the integrated and high-quality development of children's choral art education in urban and rural areas, taking the integration of children's choral art education into the process of national rural revitalisation as the starting point.


Rural revitalisation is an inevitable trend in history
In October 2017, President Xi proposed the implementation of the rural revitalisation strategy in the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and in 2022, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to comprehensively promote rural revitalisation, adhere to the priority development of agriculture and rural areas and the integrated development of urban and rural areas, and promote the flow of urban and rural elements. In the new era, the revitalisation of the countryside is in line with the essence of "common prosperity" in socialism, and the implementation of the rural revitalisation strategy is an important measure to solve the problem of unbalanced development between urban and rural areas and inadequate development in rural areas.
Historically speaking, Chinese society has long been dominated by a small-holder economy and a long-standing agrarian civilisation, with agriculture always being the foundation of the national economic system. It is also the industry with the longest history of development and the most well-established business model. From a social perspective, the grassroots of Chinese society is rustic, and the development of the countryside is a matter of national destiny. Realizing the revitalization of the countryside is an effective measure to solve the imbalance and inadequacy of urban and rural development, an important step in the process of building a modern and powerful country, and an inevitable trend in the development of human society. From a cultural perspective, culture is a spiritual force that can be transformed into real power in the process of people's understanding and transformation of the world, and has a profound impact on social development. Rural culture can achieve innovative development and creative transformation only when the countryside continues to develop, transform, and upgrade.

Development of rural arts education is an important means to promote rural revitalization
Improving the quality of education in villages is an important step in promoting the revitalisation of rural areas. Education, a fundamental motivation source for continuous economic growth, is an important pillar of rural revitalisation. In the context of building an innovative socialist country, only when the quality of education in villages is improved, when rural children receive higher quality education services, and when the cultural level and education of rural people are generally improved, can the economy and cultural level of villages steadily advance. For the countryside, education not only carries the function of spreading knowledge, but also provides the human resources to support the development of the countryside, and plays an irreplaceable and fundamental role in the revitalisation of the countryside.

The context of rural revitalization is conducive to the realization of rural arts education development
Since the implementation of reform and opening up in China, rural education in China has undergone a profound change from "five years" to "fifteen years" in terms of education coverage, a strategic shift in the relationship between urban and rural education from "unbalanced development" to "integrated development", a change in the system of rural education management from "people-run" to "government-run", and the structure of rural education has undergone a major transformation from "single" to "diversified". To improve the imbalance between urban and rural education levels, the Party and the State have focused more infrastructure development, including public education, on rural areas. In addition, the development of education policies that favour rural areas has led to remarkable results in the development of rural education.

The significance of developing children's choral art education in rural areas
Choral singing is an elegant art that encompasses a variety of art forms such as collaboration and performance. It is a musical performance that requires a high degree of unity of the human voice and is the most widely participated in. The development of children's choral art education in rural areas is of great significance to rural children, rural education and rural revitalisation.

Contributes to the overall development of the minds of rural children
The art of choral singing includes a variety of musical aesthetics and musical thinking, which not only improves the musical aesthetics of rural children but also develops their thinking to a certain extent, changing their perspective of the world and the way they perceive it through music.

Positive impact on the development of positive character in rural children
As a spiritual and cultural product, art has an impact on people's personalities while satisfying their spiritual and cultural needs. When appreciating or interpreting musical works, we can find the beauty in music and form moral qualities of truth, goodness and beauty subtly.

Able to develop a sense of community among rural children
Choral singing is an art of sound, a form of expression, and an art that requires teamwork to achieve coordination. In the process of choral singing, as part of a choral group, rural children must learn to sing and cooperate in the interest of the collective.

The Real Challenges of Developing Choral
Education for Rural Children

Lack of concept of aesthetic education in rural areas
Much of the reason for the lack of aesthetic concepts in primary and secondary schools comes from the lack of attention from schools and parents. Most parents' misconceptions and deep-rooted ideas about art lead to a reduction in the input of the concept of aesthetic education right from home education. Especially in rural areas of China, such prejudices are widespread. Schools and parents want their children to get out of the countryside with excellent cultural results, and the inculcation from the arts is a waste of time and energy. They lack a proper understanding of aesthetic education, let alone recognise the importance of it.

Lack of hardware and software in rural schools
In rural areas of China, there is still a lack of hardware and facilities in the classrooms that students use for choral lessons. The weakness of teachers in rural schools and the uneven quality of teachers hinder choral education for children in rural areas. Dedicated music teachers are rarely found in rural primary schools, and many have not received basic training in music theory and skills, and lack the relevant professionalism and teaching methods.

Disengagement with curriculum reform
As China's curriculum reform continues to advance, quality-oriented education is becoming an increasingly important part of basic education. Music education is an important way to continuously promote the further implementation of quality education, but in rural China, because of historical and geographical factors, the economy and culture of the countryside are extremely different from those of the cities, and most schools have a scarcity of professional talents and a thin artistic atmosphere. Although policy guidelines continue to promote the development of arts education, it is difficult to implement and enforce them in relatively backward rural areas. Many rural schools find it difficult to implement the new curriculum standards, and there is a disconnect between the policies issued and their implementation.

The Path to Quality Development of Integrated Urban-rural Integration of Children's Choral Art Education
Nowadays, the development of rural education is gaining momentum, and music groups such as choirs in rural schools are gradually being improved. With the continuous development of quality-oriented education, the development of children's choral art education is bound to be integrated into the general process of rural revitalisation and promote new heights of rural revitalisation development.

Integrate digital resources and strengthen education informatization
Information technology can drive the modernisation of education. Building a platform where there is communication between teachers and students, between teachers, and between schools and inter-schools can share online educational resources, optimise the educational structure, narrow the gap between urban and rural education, and promote quality education. For example, strong schools in the city can be directed to help weak schools in the countryside, and quality resources can be transmitted between schools through the network engineering of interactive teaching systems to achieve interaction between urban and rural schools. Using the Internet and other means to transcend the limitations of time and space, quality and rich educational teaching resources are sent to remote areas at a lower cost, so that more students can receive quality education opportunities, promote the balanced development of urban and rural choral arts education, and improve the quality and effectiveness of rural choral arts education.

Organise training and exchange activities to learn from each other's strengths
Training for music teachers in primary and secondary schools in both urban and rural areas could be organised regularly, with academic exchanges in music. At the same time, there is also a need for exchanges between the teacher teams of different schools, in which the strengths and weaknesses of their own teaching processes can be identified. As schools have different levels of hardware and software and different school cultures, different school choir teams have different areas of expertise. In terms of singing techniques and stage performances, schools and districts can learn from each other and help each other to share musical resources on multiple levels, thus promoting the balanced development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas.

Government-led improvement of funding and management system to provide security for development
Urban schools always receive higher funding than rural schools and have exclusive access to quality educational resources, resulting in a widening gap between urban and rural schools in terms of hardware and facilities. In terms of hardware in rural schools, some schools do not even have a single piano. Insufficient funding for music education and the lack of implementation and supervision of the system are the main factors that limit the development of music education in rural areas at the compulsory education level. The government should take the lead in establishing a system to guarantee the funding of music education at the compulsory education level, such as establishing a mechanism to monitor the quality of music education, which can effectively promote the balanced development of music education in urban and rural areas.