Early childhood curriculum as cultural practice : a comparative study of school-based curriculum development in Hong Kong and Shenzhen

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weipeng Yang
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Curriculum Development ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Early Childhood Curriculum ◽  
School Based

The role of culture in early childhood curriculum development: A case study of curriculum innovations in Hong Kong kindergartens

2020 ◽  
pp. 146394911990035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weipeng Yang ◽  
Hui Li
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Curriculum Development ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Early Childhood Curriculum ◽  
Curricular Practices ◽  
Early Childhood Professionals ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

This study employed an inductive qualitative approach to understanding the effects of local culture on early childhood curriculum development in two Hong Kong kindergartens. A triangulation of interviews, observations and documents was established, and cultural-historical activity theory was employed as the theoretical framework. The results indicated that local culture played an important role in early childhood curriculum development. First, the two cases learned from diverse models and approaches during the transformation of their curricula, resulting in contradictory demands and motives. Then, these contradictions were, in turn, resolved by the local culture to achieve curriculum hybridisation and innovation, as well as inherit the culture. Such findings provide valuable implications for early childhood professionals to integrate social and cultural diversity into curriculum development and to localise imported curricular practices so as to ensure a good fit between the curriculum and the local context.

scholarly journals Collective Teacher-Researcher Inquiry: Localizing School-Based Curriculum Development in Diversified Hong Kong Schooling Contexts

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Zhang ◽  
Sally Wai-Yan WAN ◽  
Lai Ha Chan ◽  
Pui-Ying Lorelei Kwan ◽  
Lai-Ling Sandy Tam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Curriculum Development ◽  
Linguistic Imperialism ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
School Based ◽  
Teacher Researcher ◽  
Hybrid Spaces ◽  
Accountability Mechanism ◽  
Curriculum Decision Making ◽  
Collective Memory Work

Responding to a recent call for turning a focus on advancing practices in curriculum studies, this paper reports collective memory work that disrupted academics’ hegemonic voices in School-Based Curriculum Development (SBCD) studies and elicited teachers’ stories about their school-based curriculum development (SBCD) practices. With post-colonialism as the theoretical underpinning, we explored how the Western-centric construct of SBCD was recontextualized in various Hong Kong school contexts. Findings revealed teachers’ struggles with hegemonic discourses that constrained their autonomy in SBCD projects to benefit diverse learners, such as the accountability mechanism, linguistic imperialism, Western-centrism, and top-down curriculum decision-making. Situated in the local realities of Hong Kong schooling, teachers’ SBCD projects also illuminate productive, hybrid spaces where new forms of knowledge, identity, and culture come into being.

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