Education Reform in China Changing concepts, contexts and practices Routledge Contemporary China Series

Over the past decade there has been radical reform at all levels of China?s education system as it attempts to meet changing economic and social needs and aspirations. Changes have been made to pedagogy and teacher professional learning and also to the curriculum - both at the basic education level, from kindergarten to year 12, and at the higher education level. This book focuses on reform at the early childhood, primary and secondary levels, and is the companion book to China?s Higher Education Reform and Internationalisation, which covers reform at the higher education level.

Education Reform in China outlines the systematic transformation that has occurred of school curriculum goals, structure and content, teaching and learning approaches, and assessment and administrative structures, including the increasing devolvement of control from the centre to provincial, district and school levels. As well as illustrating the changes that are occurring within classrooms, it demonstrates the continuity of cultural and educational ideas and values in the midst of these changes, showing that reform does not just involve the adoption of foreign ideas, but builds on and even resurrects traditional Chinese educational values. Importantly, it considers how exchanges of people and ideas can contribute to new ways of working between Western and Chinese educational systems.

Part I: Curriculum policy and practice 1. Reflection in action: Ongoing K-12 curriculum reform in China 2. Constructing a cross-cultural teacher Professional Learning Community in the context of China’s basic education curriculum 3. Collaborative narration: Our story in a cross-cultural professional learning community Part II: Educational quality and access 4. Methods to evaluate educational quality and improvement in China 5. Education in the Tibetan Autonomous Region: Policies and Practices in Rural and Nomadic Communities Part III: Educational values and beliefs 6. The changing landscapes of a journey: Educational metaphors in China 7. English language teachers as moral guides in Vietnam and China: Maintaining and re-traditionalising morality 8. English language teachers as moral guides in Vietnam and China: Maintaining and re-traditionalising morality Part IV: Reform and internationalisation in the disciplines 8. Ten years of curriculum reform in China: A soft knowledge perspective 9. Multi-dimensional citizenship education reform: Is this the future trajectory for schools in China and Australia? Part V: Mutual learning and adaptation 10. Mutual learning and adaptation between China and the West through learning each other’s language 11. Bridging the East and West dichotomy: Harmonising Eastern learning with Western knowledge

Janette Ryan is Director of the UK Higher Education Academy’s Teaching International Students project and a Research Associate at the China Centre, University of Oxford, UK.   Her publications include China’s Higher Education Reform and Internationalisation (also published by Routledge).