Abstract
<p><em>Since 2001, there is a hot debate on Curriculum Reform of Elementary Education (CRED) in China which is called a debate between Child-centered and Rationalism. The policies of CRED adovates play-based model and since 2017 focuses on Chinese traditional culture learning. However, some people believe play is opposed to linguistic education and the moon in the west is more round than in China. Operating in the paradoxes, Chinese kindergarten teachers always are faced with dilemmas: should the teacher obey the government’s guidance, or satisfy parents’ English learning preference and literacy readiness oriented requirements? Few studies have examined how Chinese kindergarten teachers struggled for early literacy and linguistic education. In this article we examined twenty teachers’ understandings on play-based curriculum and play-literacy relationships. Comparing with the two popular positions toward Chinese play-based linguistic curriculum reforms, Chinese kindergarten teachers tend to hold a golden means. With the professional development of the kindergarten teacher, education approaches in Chinese kindergarten education based on play and local cultures will be used more often and more extensively. Under such circumstances, the English teaching and learning at the kindergarten level is also believed very important to cultivate global citizens and Chinese national citizens.</em></p>
Highlights
With the rapid pace of globalization and modernization, China has launched a large-scale curriculum reform in basic education (K-9) since 2001, aiming at correcting the conceived shortcomings of traditional education, mainly from the constructivist and progressive perspectives, advocating play-based and child-centered curriculum
Chinese educational reform policies have moved forward to focus on early linguistic education in recent years just because there were large debates about the problems: what level should young children develop in the area of linguistic education? Could play-based program models be used in early literacy development? Should Chinese kindergarten education be play-based or academic oriented? What kind of relationships should be between play and linguistic education? It is the emergences of large supplies of bilingual kindergartens, which spend the majority of time learning English other than learning kids’ mother language with the demand of young-age trend of English teaching and learning
Specific research questions are as follows: a) Do kindergarten teachers accept the viewpoints of the linguistic education reform policy? b) What positions may kindergarten teachers hold among the three popular attitudes toward the literacy education and curriculum reform? c) How should kindergarten teachers show their perceptions of linguistic education in their pedagogical practices? 3.2 Participants and Procedures In this study, we explored the early childhood linguistic education reform in China by looking closely at specific examples
Summary
With the rapid pace of globalization and modernization, China has launched a large-scale curriculum reform in basic education (K-9) since 2001 (called “Basic Education Reform of 2001”), aiming at correcting the conceived shortcomings of traditional education, mainly from the constructivist and progressive perspectives, advocating play-based and child-centered curriculum. Chinese educational reform policies have moved forward to focus on early linguistic education in recent years just because there were large debates about the problems: what level should young children develop in the area of linguistic education? An authoritative answer to these questions in Chinese educational policies in recent years is that native language learning based on play activities has its advantages. There are still different perspectives on play-literacy relationship, play-based linguistic learning has been accepted by some countries’ early childhood policies, and curriculum theories and practices. This paper will explain the dilemmas and different assumptions that Chinese kindergarten teachers are faced, by examining the assumption of child-centered, culture-related and market-catered approaches, which have important impacts on the curriculum reform, and practices of Chinese Kindergarten education. I argue that it is important for Chinese early childhood education reforms to balance different educational approaches to benefit children’s development. Play based on local/native cultures will be caught more attention in educating young children’s culture identity
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