Play in Asian preschools? Mapping a landscape of hindering factors

This article investigates the variety of factors that hinder the implementation of play (as defined by western scholars) in Asian preschools. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of policy borrowing, enactment and glocalisation, we analyse three jurisdictions that illustrate distinctive problematics: India, Mainland China and Hong Kong. The methodology involves a bibliographic review. Each jurisdiction is presented as a narrative portrait, including key sociocultural characteristics, features of early childhood education system, role of play in government policies, and teachers’ beliefs and practices pertaining to play. The findings show that the distinctive factors hindering play relate to societal mindsets in India, a lack of curriculum clarity in China, and structural factors and parental pressures in Hong Kong. Common hurdles include a high societal emphasis on academic learning, lack of information on how play should contribute to achieve curriculum outcomes, and insufficient teacher preparation. The authors show that play is neither adequately defined nor justified in some Asian policy frameworks, and argue that play might not be viable in certain preschools (especially in half-day programmes). An alternative glocal notion is proposed – child-led activities – which would be less conceptually problematic and more culturally appropriate. The study highlights the need for the glocalisation of Asian early childhood education systems.

Design Philanthropy: Challenges and Opportunities in the Evolution of Philanthropic Giving

Over the past several decades large philanthropies have adopted aggressive approaches to education reform that scholars have labeled venture philanthropy. These efforts focused on broad changes to schooling and education policy, borrowing techniques from the venture capital world. But many foundations have recently become convinced that market forces and macro-level policymaking alone cannot drive educational improvement, particularly in areas related to classroom teaching and learning. In response, foundations have begun to design their own instructional innovations and identify providers to implement them. This paper interprets these recent efforts as early evidence of a distinct adaptation in the evolving role of philanthropies, which we dub design philanthropy. Although this approach represents an attempt by foundations to simultaneously increase democratic engagement, directly influence the instructional core, and spur educational innovation, it poses new risks for coherence, scalability, and sustainability in education policymaking.

Confronting the challenge of immigrant student underachievement: A comparative analysis of education policies and programs in Canada, New Zealand and England

Immigrant students consistently demonstrate a performance disadvantage when one considers their achievement against non-immigrant peers. These disadvantages vary across international jurisdictions, suggesting that education system level policies or programs may help to ameliorate or worsen these differences. Our work provides a synthesis of trends from education policies and programs that appear to be associated with more favourable immigrant student achievement outcomes, highlighting three international jurisdictions: Canada, New Zealand, and England. This comparative analysis identifies key features of these education systems that have been associated with the success of their immigrant students. We conclude with a critical view on simple policy borrowing and call for contextually responsive adaptation of promising policies and programs within distinct education systems.

Indonesian Curriculum Reform in Policy and Local Wisdom: Perspectives from Science Education

This article summarizes the issue of Indonesian curriculum reform in policy and local wisdom. The perspectives on science education influence the analysis and discussions. This paper is part of a position paper (PP) in which the writers tailored their ideas based on their experiences and literature review. The views regarding curriculum policy, science local wisdom, and ethnoscience were developed based on theoretical and empirical literature regarding these issues. The discussion is divided into five parts: curriculum policy and policy borrowing, philosophy of Indonesian local wisdom, cultural-based learning, science local wisdom and ethnoscience, and policy borrowing versus local wisdom. The significance of the results gives a view to the government, academicians, policymakers, and educational communities.

What Might Policy Borrowing Contribute to Policy and Practice in Mathematics Education?

This article elaborates the meaning of policy borrowing and Phillips’ theoretical framework of policy borrowing. Then, it provides a background of various practices of policy borrowing in education and mathematics education specifically. Thirdly, the article argues two contributions of policy borrowing to policy in mathematics education and envision mathematics education policies in future. Finally, it takes China’s mathematics curriculum reform as a case to analyse two contribution of policy borrowing to practice in mathematics education and conclude by envisioning the future mathematics education practice.