Cultural Fusion for Social Change: A Case Study of School-Based Curriculum Development in Chinese Kindergartens

• In Event: Changing China, Changing Education: Cultural Clashes and Educational Inequality in School

Abstract

China implemented curriculum reform in 2001 to promote social change and deepen economic reform. School-based curriculum (SBC) development (SBCD) has been advocated to enhance the quality of early childhood learning and development. However, few studies have examined how the decentralisation and democratisation mechanisms of SBCD have changed the curriculum and culture of Chinese kindergartens. This study examined SBCD in two Shenzhen kindergartens to understand how and why the SBCD took place with what kinds of outcomes were produced in the Chinese kindergartens.
We used the cultural-historical approach (Fleer & Hedegaard, 2010; Hedegaard, 2009; Hedegaard & Fleer, 2008) to examine the dynamic and complicated mechanism of SBCD. This mechanism comprises the forces, processes and outcomes of SBCD. We used this framework to analyse and disclose all of the conflicting values and motives underpinning the curricular practices in the kindergartens to better understand why the institutional practice worked in this way. Also, we used the cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 1987, 2001) to examine the activity systems of SBCD in the kindergartens under investigation.
In terms of data collection and analyses, audiotaped interviews with principals and teachers, videotaped classroom observations, target child observations and curriculum documents were gathered for ‘methodological triangulation’ (Yin, 2013). Guideline for qualitative data analysis (Creswell, 2014) were rigorously followed to identify emerging themes. Techniques such as member checking, peer debriefing and inquiry auditing were used to ensure the trustworthiness of the qualitative findings (Creswell, 2014).
This study revealed that (1) social change, reflected by conflicting values/cultures, such as child-centredness versus teacher-directedness, individualism versus collectivism and imported approaches versus local approaches, played a decisive role in the SBCD; (2) the reconstruction of multiple imported approaches in SBCs was inevitable because of the cultural conflicts in China; and the kind of cultural collision leads to the fusion of diverse cultural values and traditions during SBCD; and (3) SBC in each of the Chinese kindergartens was an activity system that integrated and balanced different curriculum approaches.
This study successfully adopted the cultural-historical approach (Engeström, 1987; Hedegaard, 2009) to describe and interpret the dynamic and complicated mechanism of SBCD in Chinese kindergartens. Hence, it provides significant methodological implications for researchers and practitioners from other ethical or social contexts in interpreting the cultural-historical explanations for their curriculum practices. This study has also shown how cultural conflicts and cultural fusion occurred in the development of school-based curricula in Chinese kindergartens and how imported Western curricula have been localised and incorporated into SBC, a unique mixture of various curriculum models. These findings make the present study valuable for understanding the dynamic and complex relationships among social change, cultural conflicts and the development of institutional curriculum.

Authors

• Weipeng Yang, Singapore University of Social Sciences

• Hui Li, University of Hong Kong