This book offers historical, philosophical and cultural perspectives on literacy in China, providing a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary look at changes in Chinese literacy education from ancient times to today. A companion volume covers English literacy.

This is one of two volumes by the same editors that explore historical, philosophical, and cultural perspectives on literacy in China. This volume focuses on Chinese literacy, while the other volume is on English literacy. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the country has witnessed a dramatic increase in its literacy rate, but not without challenges. The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary look at changes in Chinese literacy education from ancient times to the modern day. Together, the essays address a wide array of topics, including early Chinese literacy development, children’s literature, foreign translated literature, and uses of information technology to teach Chinese. This authoritative text brings clarity and precision to the field and serves as a vital core resource for those who want to expand their understanding of Chinese literacy education. Its scope is unmatched even in academic literature in the Chinese language.

This is one of two volumes by the same editors that explore historical, philosophical, and cultural perspectives on literacy in China. This volume focuses on English literacy in China, while the other volume is on Chinese literacy. In modern day China, English has enjoyed an increasingly important status in education, but not without challenges. The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary look at changes in English literacy practices and literacy instruction in China from the first English school in the 19th century to recent curriculum reform efforts to modernize English instruction from basic education through higher education. Together, the essays address a wide array of topics, including early childhood English education, uses of information technology to teach English, and teaching English to Chinese minority students. This work is essential reading for those who want to expand their understanding of English literacy education in China.

This book offers historical, philosophical, and sociocultural perspectives on Chinese language education for speakers of other languages with a special focus on Chinese language education in the United States. It provides a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary look at changes in CFL/CSL education over time in China and the U.S. and the philosophical, political and sociocultural influences that led to these changes. The essays address a wide array of topics related to Chinese language education, including: A historical overview of the field Theories that apply to CFL/CSL learning Policies and initiatives for CFL/CSL by the Chinese and U.S. governments Medium of instruction Curriculum and instruction for CFL/CSL learners at K-12 and college levels Technology for CFL/CSL education Chinese language learning for heritage learners CFL in study abroad contexts CFL teacher education and training This work is essential reading for scholars and students interested in gaining a greater understanding of Chinese language education in the two countries and around the world.

This book has been designed to add to the study and experience of early childhood ideas and experience in an international context. The focus is Australia and China with three research projects explored to provide insights into the history and development of early childhood education in each country. The work offers a consideration of the complexity of early childhood education in local and global contexts, at a time when global relationships can benefit from moving beyond better cultural understandings to greater connections and reciprocity. Each study has accompanying empirical data to support the interpretations offered. The first part of the book presents historical context and examines policy issues, the growth of the early childhood education workforce and the development of curriculum approaches in each country. The two projects that follow describe teachers’ perspectives of children’s learning and an in-depth study of a collaborative higher education program that details stakeholder experiences. By studying participant attitudes and ideas in each country we have been able to share early childhood knowledge and discuss perspectives through early childhood languages, like perspectives on the role, importance and nature of play and learning.

“The editors of this extraordinary book, Indika Liyanage and Badeng Nima, have brought together a wonderfully wide-ranging collection of chapters. The breadth and depth of the studies of education issues in China and Australia are impressive. The topics encompass important questions concerning education policies, curricula, pedagogy, equality, parental engagement, cultural heritage, and anti-drug education. The scope of the book includes Chinese and Australian settings that range from kindergartens to higher education, and from rural to urban environments. The diversity of the book strengthens rather than weakens its coherence, because the golden thread running through all the chapters is a portrayal of the complexity of education provision when global, national and local forces interact. Written by academics with hands-on experience, the chapters provide evidence-based discussions of practical conundrums, enriched by the sophisticated use of interdisciplinary approaches. As a result, this book is powerful, challenging and ground-breaking.” – Bob Adamson, UNESCO Chairholder in TVET and Lifelong Learning, Education University of Hong Kong

Multilingualism, multiculturalism, and internationalization in higher education is a contemporary reality worldwide. Because of the importance of multilingualism in learning policy, special professional and education training should be provided both to teachers and students. Multilingual education can promote linguistic and cultural diversity, inclusion, and social development. The Handbook of Research on Multilingual and Multicultural Perspectives on Higher Education and Implications for Teaching focuses on both top-down and bottom-up perspectives on multilingual and multicultural education based on conceptual and empirical studies. This book provides evidence in support of sustainable multilingualism and multiculturalism in higher education. Covering topics such as dialectic teaching, multilingual classrooms, and teacher education, this major reference work is an essential resource for pre-service teachers, educators of higher education, language policy experts, university administration, scholars, linguists, researchers, and academicians.

Despite the increasingly global implications of conversations about writing and learning, U.S. composition studies has devoted little attention to cross-national perspectives on student writing and its roles in wider cultural contexts. Caught up in our own concerns about how U.S. students make the transition as writers from secondary school to postsecondary education, we often overlook the fact that students around the world are undergoing the same evolution. How do the students in China, England, France, Germany, Kenya, or South Africa--the educational systems represented in this collection--write their way into the communities of their chosen disciplines? How, for instance, do students whose mother tongue is not the language of instruction cope with the demands of academic and discipline-specific writing? And in what ways is U.S. students' development as academic writers similar to or different from that of students in other countries? With this collection, editors David Foster and David R. Russell broaden the discussion about the role of writing in various educational systems and cultures. Students' development as academic writers raises issues of student authorship and agency, as well as larger issues of educational access, institutional power relations, system goals, and students' roles in society. The contributors to this collection discuss selected writing purposes and forms characteristic of a specific national education system, describe students' agency as writers, and identify contextual factors--social, economic, linguistic, cultural--that shape institutional responses to writing development. In discussions that bookend these studies of different educational structures, the editors compare U.S. postsecondary writing practices and pedagogies with those in other national systems, and suggest new perspectives for cross-national study of learning/writing issues important to all educational systems. Given the worldwide increase in students entering higher education and the endless need for effective writing across disciplines and nations, the insights offered here and the call for further studies are especially welcome and timely.

Based on case studies of Chinese teachers in Shanghai and their workplace learning within the context of reform, this book examines how Chinese teachers learn together when they engage in school-based learning activities. Since the New Curriculum Reform in China in 2001, school-based teaching research groups (TRGs) (Jiaoyanzu) have played an important role in changing teacher learning approaches. Informed by organizational learning frameworks and organizational knowledge theory, the author examines the processes and effects of teacher learning in school-based settings, particularly the role of school leadership in the learning and change of in-service teachers. Implications of sustainably optimizing the school-based teacher learning communities for school improvement are also discussed. The book will be helpful and valuable for policymakers, school leaders, researchers, students, teachers, and other educational practitioners in understanding the distinctive features of school-based teachers’ learning in China.

Over the past two decades, Chinese as a foreign or second language (CFL/CSL) has been increasingly taught and learnt as an important language both within and outside China. Studies in the field have attempted to address deep-seated tensions between existing educational ideologies, concepts, strategies, and approaches and student learning process and performance, and between existent teaching methods and techniques and the globalization of Chinese language education.