Review and Reflection on the Curriculum Reform of Early Childhood Education in China

Abstract

Under the background of rapid socioeconomic changes, early childhood education in China has made great progress during the kindergarten curriculum reform from the 1980s to the present. This paper reviews the curriculum reform and explicates the strong influence of Western early childhood education theories and thoughts on the reform. Although Chinese early childhood curriculum has learned a lot from the Western educational ideas, Chinese people found a lot of challenges in the curriculum reform because there are conflicts between Chinese traditional culture, political system and Western educational ideas. While rethinking the influences of Western theories and thoughts on the reforms, the paper proposes to ponder over several issues, such as value-universal vs. value related, grand theory vs. local knowledge, quality of education vs. equity in education, academic research vs. practical feasibility, and so on. The paper points out that discussion about the future of kindergarten curriculum reform in China should be based on not only an overview of curriculum reform history but also derive from observation on the development of Chinese economy, politics, society, and culture. Now we are excited to find that the government, researchers, and educators have realized some problems and begun to change their action.