Against the backdrop of accelerating the development of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics, this paper examines the importance, functions, and mission of original textbooks in the new era in building China’s independent knowledge system, focusing on their foundational and guiding roles. Their foundational role is explored in aspects including underpinning core values, systematically innovating the conceptual system, and building on and renewing the methodological foundation. Their guiding role is analyzed from perspectives such as playing a role in shaping national orientation, advancing academic research, building a Chinese discourse system, and transforming teaching models. Typical original textbooks include the unified textbooks for ideological and political education, Chinese language, and history used in primary and secondary schools (including secondary vocational schools). Other objects of analysis encompass ideological and political education textbooks used in higher education institutions and disciplinary textbooks of the Marxist Theory Research and Construction Project. This paper systematically explains how these original textbooks consolidate the foundation of China’s independent knowledge system in terms of knowledge, methodology, and value, and how they steer the future trajectories of academic development, cultural innovation, and talent cultivation. Additionally, it examines the challenges confronting the development of original textbooks in the new era.

The building of China’s independent knowledge system for the discipline of teacher education shoulders the mission of highlighting the Chinese characteristics of teacher education, enhancing the generation of teacher education theories, and advancing the in depth development of teacher education reform. Therefore, it represents a rational choice and scientific pathway for driving a systematic leap and innovative development in the quality of teacher education. Currently, the building of China’s independent knowledge system for the discipline of teacher education needs to follow the strategic direction guided by the Chinese path to modernization, reshape cognitive frameworks, clarify generative mechanisms, define practical pathways, and respond to developmental needs. Specifically, it is necessary to establish an independent development perspective, awaken a sense of disciplinary independence, focus on practical problem domains rooted in reform practice, forge an iconic concept cluster, and foster an inter-constructive system chain to promote the deep integration and innovative development of teacher education theory and practice.

Building China’s independent knowledge system in education has become a new mission for contemporary educational scholars. Over the past century, Chinese education, as a result of the eastward spread of Western learning, has promoted educational development. However, it has simultaneously led to intellectual ossification in building China’s independent knowledge system, diminished China’s international discourse power in education, and diluted confidence in China’s own education and culture, thereby falling into a dilemma of academic dependency. To empower the building of China’s independent knowledge system in education through educational experimentation, it is essential to take root in Chinese reality, focus on the positivist paradigm, and value practice. To build China’s independent knowledge system in education, it is necessary for the researchers to ground themselves in fine traditional Chinese culture, transitioning from bringing in by drawing on foreign theories to going global through dialogue with the world. It is necessary to be guided by the spirit of educators, enhancing awareness that equally values practical action and academic research, thereby injecting new dynamics in building independent knowledge system. Additionally, educational experimentation is advised to be utilized as the operational mechanism, sublimating reflective theories from actions to form formidable forces empowering the building of China’s independent knowledge system in education.

Indigenous iconic concepts are the basis of building China’s independent knowledge system in education, which is characterized by indigeneity, originality, iconicity, historicity, and systematicity. Life-Practice Educology is an emerging educational school in contemporary China, and it is an attempt to rebuild contemporary education. In the course of its development, it has formed two iconic concepts and their conceptual clusters, namely “life-practice” and “life consciousness,” which systematically answer such fundamental questions as “what is education?” “what is the necessity and basis of education?” “what is the internal logic and structure of education, and how can these be uncovered?” Moreover, this school responds to the major theoretical questions, including “what is educology?” “what constitutes the independence, uniqueness, and scientificity of educology, and what are their justifications?” By in-depth analysis of the two major indigenous iconic concepts of “life-practice” and “life consciousness” and the generation process of their concept clusters, we can find the basic path of indigenous iconic concept construction in Chinese education. This path involves endowing old concepts with new connotations in the critical reflection of education theory and practice, constructing new concepts with theoretical thinking in the interactive generation of theory and practice, and following the historical logic and temporal logic of the development and evolution of the disciplinary theory system.

The formation of an independent knowledge system marks a mature discipline, prosperous scholarship, and self-conscious discourse of Chinese education. Originating from the eastward spread of Western learning, Chinese education repeatedly suffered from overwhelming destruction for more than a century. However, Chinese education has consistently taken national character and historical continuity as the main threadof independent knowledge construction, contemporaneity and originality as a powerful drive for knowledge development, and systematic nature and specialized nature as a basis of social identity. Chinese education has increasingly highlighted its properties in people’s well-being, national strategy, and political arena with changing times for more than 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. China’s independent knowledge system in education consists of the disciplinary system, academic system, discourse system, textbook system, and governance system. Specifically, it is composed of iconic concepts, core knowledge, and cutting-edge knowledge in terms of content form. The knowledge production of Chinese education is achieved by academic disciplines, schools, societies, and publications. The knowledge development is propelled by the transformation and application of practice knowledge, policy knowledge, and educational thoughts. The characteristics of Chinese education stem from the traditions, practices, and problems of Chinese education and are based on disciplinary consciousness, academic autonomy, and cultural confidence. It is imperative to properly cope with the dialectics of Chinese characteristics and general knowledge, lay a solid foundation of the education discipline, and ignite originality in the academic system. Additionally, it is necessary to enhance the guiding role of the textbook system and improve the effectiveness of the governance system. These efforts all aim to promote clear articulation, regular adoption, worldwide spreading, and the powerful impact of Chinese education, thereby providing guidance for thoughts and the foundation of theories for building a leading country in education.