Confucian revival and the hybrid educational narratives in contemporary China: a critical rethinking of scale in globalisation and education. (8th August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wu, Jinting
• Is Part Of: Globalisation, societies and education. Volume 17:Number 4(2019)
• Page Start: 474
• Page End: 488
• Publication Date: 2019-08-08
• Subjects: Confucian revival -- globalisation -- hybridity -- urban China -- scale -- comparative education; Globalization -- Periodicals; Globalization -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Education -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Education -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; Education and state -- Periodicals; Educational sociology -- Periodicals; International education -- Periodicals; 379
• DOI: 10.1080/14767724.2018.1558048
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1476-7724

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Today China witnesses a renaissance of classical studies and Confucian Academies across the nation. With an estimated 10 million children attending Confucian kindergartens, classes, and schools, cultural heritage has increasingly become a new marker of social distinction. At the same time, Confucian tradition is often associated with excessive testing, competition, and academic burdens that continue to hinder China's educational innovation. Disenchanted with state-run schools, many urban middle-class families turn to alternative schools that use imported pedagogies such as the Waldorf, Montessori, and Reggio to cultivate a better future for their children. In reform-era China, Westernisation coexists with a return to tradition to produce a fascinatingly complex cultural-pedagogical terrain. This paper examines such curiously hybrid educational narratives to understand the idiosyncratic features of Chinese educational globalisation and offer a critical perspective to rethink the concept of scale in comparative education research.