Culture And Learning in the Early Years of School in International Contexts: A comparative appraisal of Culture and Pedagogy by R. Alexander and Three Cultures Revisited by J. Tobin.

Abstract

The intricate bond of teaching-learning within the contexts of respective cultures, which addresses teaching as an essential cultural practice, has become the focus of comparative education researchers in recent decades. It is evident that a social activity such as teaching cannot be devoid of cultural context and cannot be successful if an education system's cultural intricacies are not considered. Alexander's Culture and Pedagogy (2001) and Tobin, Hsueh, Karasawa's Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited (2009) are two contributions in comparative education literature with the buzz word 'culture' shared in the titles of both books. Alexander's work is an excellent study of five cultures started right from the educational histories, which moves from macro to micro and ends into the elementary classrooms. Tobin et al., on the other hand, contributed in the form of a sequel to an earlier book and revisited the same three cultures after nearly two decades to explore the themes of continuity and change in the preschools of these countries.