This commentary centers on one of the insightful articles in this Special Issue: "Curriculum Hybridization and Cultural Glocalization: A Scoping Review of International Research on Early Childhood Curriculum in China and Singapore" [EJ1342945], authored by Yang and Li (2022). The commented article provides insights and directions…

Chenchen Zeng's article of 'An overview of current trends in drama education in the People's Republic of China' provided a lucid presentation of the current development of drama education in China, paying particular attention to schools and the role of private education companies. This article is intended to complement her paper by attending to…

Chinese culture is widely regarded as being dominated by Confucian thought, which is characterized as focusing on morality, relationalism and collectivism. Also, Chinese culture has been deemed to be very hierarchical and lacking in a sense of autonomy. However, there has been little attention paid to other diverse elements in Chinese culture and…

The seven papers in this issue address a variety of challenges that parents in several different cultural places encounter as they do their best to ensure their children's safe, happy, and successful development from infancy through middle childhood: infant sleep, developmental agendas, temperament, preschools, academic success, and learning to be…

In this commentary, we build on Xinying Yin and Gayle Buck's discussion by exploring the cultural practices which are integral to formative assessment, when it is viewed as a sociocultural practice. First we discuss the role of assessment and in particular oral and written formative assessments in both western and Samoan cultures, building on the…

This article presents four stories of personal experiences of China. In "A Journey Between China's Past and Present," Peter Hessler, a former Peace Corps volunteer and author, highlights misconceptions between Chinese and Americans and the desire both peoples share for knowledge about one another. In "Life on Liberation…

In the past 20 years, China has seen an influx of foreign pedagogies that emphasize Western concepts such as dualistic opposition and linear development. As educational studies have become localized to China's environment, there has been a tendency to substitute transplanted ideas for methods based on local research. As such Chinese educational…

The works of contemporary artists Xu Bing, Ed Pien and Gu Xiong are involved in bringing to light some of the factors inherent in social, cultural and linguistic translation. In doing so, each artist is also engaged in the nuanced activity of moving between historical and contemporary aesthetic strategies in order to interrogate the way meaning is…

Purpose: For 40 years, it has been widely believed in the West that learning organisations would be healthier, flexible and more competitive than other organisations. By now, one might expect them to be widespread. However, fully developed learning organisations are rare in the West. In contrast, Chinese organisations seem naturally to be learning…

English has become the dominant global language of communication, business, aviation, entertainment, diplomacy and the internet. Governments as well as some scholars appear to be accepting such a spread of English uncritically. However, we argue that the increasing dominance of the English language is contributing to neocolonialism by empowering…

Looks at English literature as a cultural formation and a academic discipline in China at three different historical periods. Shows that the relocation of English literature in China is not just an intellectual or academic operation that is dependent of or free from political and ideological engagement and that the development of English literary…

Highlights the underlying themes of Mao Zedong's views on national development and reviews his major arguments on the synthesis of foreign and Chinese ideas, methods of development, and key issues of the modernization process. The guiding principles that Mao advocated for education are discussed in the larger context of societal development. (GEA)

Presents a conversation among a teacher from Shanghai, China, and two professors from the University of Victoria, Canada, on the topic of life in China. Subjects discussed include the importance of traditional values and food in Chinese life and of maintaining them in the face of overcrowded cities, pollution, and other problems of the modern…

Suggests that adult education and training policy intended to help China modernize may be potentially threatening to the nation's stability. Questions whether China can retain its cultural and political identity while engaging in global trade. (SK)

Keeping in mind the Chinese character-combination "yuyan," with its multiple meanings of language, parts of language, the processes of language, and the products of those processes, the author depicts English as kept alive by many people and by many different ways of using it in a wide range of personal, social, and historical contexts.…