Addressing a research gap on the relationship between mindfulness and morality, this paper draws insights from Confucius' notion of "jing." I explain how "jing" essentially refers to maintaining a full, respectful and humanity-centred attention towards others. To illustrate the application of Confucius' conception of…

This article challenges the dominant notion of the 'high-performing education system' and offers an alternative interpretation from a Daoist perspective. The paper highlights two salient characteristics of such a system: its ability to outperform other education systems in international large-scale assessments; and its status as a positive or…

This article seeks to clarify the purpose of high-stakes exam and its relationship with teaching and learning by elucidating the educational thought of the eminent neo-Confucian thinker Zhu Xi. The paper contends that Zhu Xi views standardised testing as an essential means to evaluate the learning outcomes, honour exemplary scholars and select…

Mainland China has been embarking on a nation-wide education reform as part of its modernisation project for the past few decades. A relatively under-researched topic is teacher agency in non-elite schools where educators critically shape their reactions to new situations brought about by the reform. Focussing on the introduction of school-based…

This article focuses on a major reform goal to advance a student-centric education in South Korea and the associated issues and challenges. This research study draws upon Wittgenstein's concept of world-picture that brings to the fore the cultural influences on policy enactment. Interview data with teachers and students in Korea revealed two main…

This article examines a Confucian conception of competence and its corresponding response to the competencies agenda that underpins international large-scale assessments such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It is argued that standardised transnational assessments are undergirded by a technical rationality that…

This article analyses the public responses in China to Shanghai's performance in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Based on data obtained from media accounts and other materials published between 2013 and 2016, the research findings show that the responses in China are generally reflective, measured and self-critical.…

This article critically discusses the Singapore state's endeavor to balance social cohesion and cultural sustainability through the Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum. This article points out that underpinning the CCE syllabus are the state ideologies of communitarianism and multiracialism. It is argued that the ideology of…

China's recent education reforms are a result of selective policy borrowing from "the West". Although comparativists have highlighted the importance of cultural context in policy borrowing in China, what remains relatively under-explored is the epistemological basis for cultural views that mediate policy transfer. This article argues…

Recent education reform in China reflects the global trend of education policy borrowing from Anglophone countries such as the USA. The reform in China essentially advocates shifting from knowledge reproduction and didacticism to knowledge construction by students through a learner-centredness approach. Aware of the trend of borrowing policy from…

Values education in Asian societies is commonly underpinned by an ideology of communitarianism that seeks to promote the needs and interests of "others" over the "self." An example of an Asian country that promotes communitarian values through its values education curriculum is Singapore. By reviewing the moral and citizenship…

In this essay Charlene Tan offers a philosophical analysis of the Singapore state's vision of shared citizenship by examining it from a Confucian perspective. The state's vision, known formally as "Our Shared Values," consists of communitarian values that reflect the official ideology of multiculturalism. This initiative included a White…