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…

This Forum article addresses some of the issues raised in the article by Ying-Syuan Huang and Anila Asghar's paper entitled: "Science education reform in Confucian learning cultures: teachers' perspectives on policy and practice in Taiwan." An attempt is made to highlight the need for a more nuanced approach in considering the Confucian…

In response to an essay by Prof Wu Zongjie that was published in the "Journal of Curriculum Studies" [43(5), (2011), 569-590], I argue that, despite dramatic changes that have taken place in the language of Chinese academic discourse and pedagogy, evidence derived from the fields of psychology and the history of Chinese educational…

This is a response to the commentaries on my essay, "Interpretation, autonomy, and transformation". However, the response is reoriented to further interpretation of Chinese pedagogic discourse in the late-19th century, which is often blamed for hampering China's educational advance. Instead of considering Classical Confucian pedagogy as…

This commentary reflects upon Lazar Stankov's thesis which regards "unforgiving nature of Confucian Asian societies" as the driving force underpinning academic success of students from these societies. The commentary considers theoretical perspectives put forward by Jian Wang and Emily Lin (2008), and by Chiu and Klassen (2010) as two alternative…

Stankov (2010) has offered an original and provoking theory to account for higher achievement, anxiety, and self-doubt among Asians. Unfortunately, several empirical and conceptual gaps must be closed before the author can make a convincing argument on the relationship between "unforgiving" Confucian culture and high achievement/test…

This is a critical response to the papers by Shusterman, Sartwell, and Stroud. I claim that Shusterman has missed the inter-human moral aesthetics of Confucianism, that Sartwell has misunderstood Taoism's idea of "receptivity," confusing it with anarchist "passivity," and Stroud has not overcome the "Gita's" injunction to sacrifice the self,…

In view of the limitations of mainstream Western psychology, the necessity of indigenous psychology for the development of global community psychology is discussed in the context of multiculturalism. In addition to this general introduction, four articles underlying a common theme were designed to discuss (a) various types of value conflicts…

The author identifies limitations in various approaches that Westerners have taken to non-Western rhetorical traditions. Focusing on excerpts from the Analects of Confucius, he demonstrates his own proposed approach to ancient Chinese rhetoric, emphasizing that Westerners studying it should seek to identify its discursive fields while also…

This article suggests that attempts to date to unravel the paradox of the Chinese learner are incomplete and inadequately modeled, and that the complexities of the paradox have not yet been fittingly operationalized or alternative explanations of research data investigated. It contends that attempts either to state or to unravel the paradox are…