Globalization and citizenship education in Hong Kong and Taiwan

The article focuses on goals adopted in Hong Kong and Taiwan in order to prepare citizens for the challenges of globalization. Notwithstanding the demands to create global citizens, in Hong Kong and in Taiwan, school curricula have responded to contemporary sociopolitical changes primarily in relation to the People's Republic of China. Recent reforms in both Hong Kong and Taiwan have emphasized generic and transnational skills, such as English proficiency and information technology, and developed tripartite frameworks for citizenship education at local, national, and global levels. The reconfiguration of citizenship and citizenship education in Hong Kong and Taiwan are useful counterexamples to the predictions of transnational convergence offered by some globalization theorists.published_or_final_versio

Culture, Gender, and School Leadership: School Leaders' Self-Perceptions in China

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Understanding China’s Curriculum Reform for the 21st Century

This article uses curriculum-making frameworks to analyse and reconstruct the Chinese curriculum-making model and unpack the dynamics, complexity and constraints of China's curriculum reform since the early 1990s. It argues that curriculum reform is China's main human capital development strategy for coping with the challenges of the 21st century, and that the state plays an important role in the reform of curriculum-making mechanisms and in the social distribution of knowledge, skills and dispositions through curriculum making. Data are drawn from a discourse analysis of public texts, such as official documents and curriculum standards. This study has four major findings. First, China uses curriculum reform as a key strategy to counter manpower-related global challenges and to empower the country in the 21st century. Second, to this end, China has re-oriented its curriculum making from a state-dominated model to one that is state-led, expert-assisted and evidence-based. Third, China's new curriculum reflects the increasing tension between globalization and nationalism; while preparing its students to compete globally, China also urges them to identify with and take pride in the nation's achievements and culture. Fourth, Chinese curriculum reform for the 21st century may not unfold as the state expects, as it is constrained by curricular and extra-curricular factors.postprin

The state, citizenship education, and international events in a global age: The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

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Educational leadership and culture in China: Dichotomies between Chinese and Anglo-American leadership traditions?

This article explores the extent to which Chinese school leaders espouse dichotomous or integrated Chinese and Anglo-American leadership and management preferences. Data are drawn from questionnaires completed by school leaders and from semi-structured interviews with individual school leaders from different parts of China. The exploratory study shows that Chinese school leaders perceive a coexistence of Chinese and Anglo-American leadership and management values, rather than the domination of one over the other. The findings suggest that it is important to understand the impact of national cultures on leadership and management. Differences between Chinese and Western culture and leadership and management are open to the challenge of stereotyping, and should not be over-stressed, as school leaders are working in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, and are exposed to and socialized into cultures of a multileveled polity ranging from the school to the local, national, and even global levels. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.postprin

Challenges to globalisation, localisation, and Sinophilia in music education: a comparative study of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taipei

In the past, the music curricula of Hong Kong (HK), Mainland China and Taiwan have focused on Western music, but with the advent of music technology and the new tripartite paradigm of globalisation, localisation and Sinophilia this has begun to change. Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei share a common historical culture and their populations are mainly Chinese, but their recent socio-political experiences have been diverse. This paper aims to explore the secondary school cultures of Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei by examining the similarities and differences between their musical practices and the ways in which they have delineated this tripartite paradigm. Data are drawn from questionnaires completed by 5,133 students (1,750 from HK, 1,741 from Shanghai, and 1,642 from Taipei) attending grades 7 to 9 and interviews with their 46 music teachers between March and August 2004. The survey data show that students from the three communities much prefer Western classical and popular music to their respective forms of local traditional music and to traditional Chinese styles. Though most music teachers recognise the importance of teaching traditional Chinese music, local traditional music, and other world music in schools, they believe that it is difficult to teach different types of music in the classroom. This article argues that globalisation is leading to a common cosmopolitan culture of Western musical learning in school; the emergence of traditional Chinese music, local music, and socio-political movements challenge globalisation in school music education.published_or_final_versio

Music education in China: In search of social harmony and Chinese nationalism

This article critically examines how interactions between social changes, social harmony, and historical memory shape school music education in China. As a historical review and documentary analysis, it traces the historical development of music education and examines the Chinese government's role in such interactions over time. The article argues that the Chinese government uses music and music education as an influential nation-building system to enrich the politics of memory. In particular, it adapts the nation's past for political ends, and passes on state-prescribed values to its citizens with a view to legitimising its power. The dynamics and dilemmas that challenge school education result from two divergent aims: (1) to combine the functional education of Confucianism and nationalism so as to encourage social harmony and maintain national myths; and (2) to encourage popular and other world music with traditional Chinese music by using multicultural teaching strategies in music lessons. The question remains how to balance ideas of social harmony, musical cultures and nationalism in school music education in the contexts of current Chinese education policies, teacher education and the globally oriented economics of China today. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011.published_or_final_versio

Rural Education and Urbanization: Experiences and Struggles in China since the Late 1970s

China has adopted an unbalanced development economic policy to improve its domestic economy and international competiveness for more than three decades. During this process, rural education has undergone a series of reforms. With reference to compulsory education, this article argues that rural education in China is a pragmatic instrument for the state to expand and improve the quality of urbanization. Rural education can be used to serve urbanization, is influenced by the rural-urban disparities brought about by urbanization, and receives urban aids and support in exchange for following state guidelines. Due to deep-rooted disparities and long-standing unequal institutions, rural education still faces challenges and difficulties related to effectively financing rural education, handling urban-based curricula and evaluation standards, recruiting qualified and stable teachers, and the outflow of original rural residents. This article concludes by offering an explanation of its policy implications for the functions and constraints of state-directed rural education in serving urbanization.published_or_final_versio

The cultural politics of introducing popular music into China's music education

Since embarking on its course of economic reform and opening up to the world in the late 1970s, China has moved from a planned economy to a socialist-market economy; the resulting social and cultural changes have been many, and are reflected in the country's school music curriculum. This paper first introduces the historical background of popular music in the community and in school music in China in the 20th century. Second, it explores the reformation of music education that has, from the turn of the millennium, included popular music in school music education. This is followed by a discussion of the integration of popular music into the school curriculum in terms of how music education and cultural politics are shaped by the social and political relationships between (1) contemporary cultural and social values and traditional Chinese ideologies; (2) collectivism and individualism; and (3) nationalism and globalism. It is argued that, despite the introduction of popular music and the emphasis put on it in some areas of school music education, the Chinese state still uses traditional Chinese culture and values to enhance its legitimacy and consolidate its authority. © 2012 Taylor & Francis.postprin

Social Change and Teaching and Learning Citizenship Education: An Empirical Study of Three Schools in Guangzhou, China

Since the 1980s, China has increased its openness to the world and made tremendous domestic economic and social changes. This study investigates the relationship between social change and pedagogies in citizenship education (CE) and to what extent indoctrination is prevalent in CE in schools in Guangzhou, China. Data were drawn mainly from documents, student questionnaires, observed CE lessons, and interviews with students and CE teachers. Findings revealed the coexistence of various CE pedagogies (e.g., inculcation; values clarification; inquiry-based); perceived open and free classrooms in which students expressed and respected diverse views; rote learning for examination, not political, purposes; and teachers’ tension between reluctantly teaching politically sensitive topics and promoting multiple perspectives to foster critical thinking. These findings may reflect the complex interplay among different actors in the reselection of CE elements and pedagogies, in response to China’s gradual, post-1980s social transition to a less restrictive, more accommodating society.postprin