Please note: this event has passed
To be a part of this online event, please email Dr Maren Elfert to receive the link.
Anca Crowe presents her paper which uses the theoretical framework of spatiality and Foucauldian state-society power dynamics to analyse the dissemination of western liberal culture and values and citizenship education in the case of two private kindergartens in Shanghai during the academic year 2017-2018.
She constructs private bilingual English-Mandarin kindergartens as spaces on the periphery of the homogenising dominant discourse on early childhood education, becoming privileged spaces where parents and Chinese and foreign teachers negotiate with the Centre-Beijing and its reaching arm, local education bureaus, and have the agency to influence educational content.
The case studies used for assessing values and citizenship education are China’s National Day and the Spring Festival, while for expressions of western liberal values she observed Christmas and Halloween-related activities. Through observations, parent questionnaires and semi-structured interviews the research shows that private kindergartens still have a lot of freedom in choosing their curricula and teaching patterns, mostly because of the parents’ preference for western cultural immersion programmes and the agency of native English speakers. However, since the 19th National Congress of the CCP, the state has increased its efforts to ensure that kindergarten curricula contain a moral education core to aid in the cultivation of patriotic citizens.
About the speaker
Anca Crowe is a writing-up PhD candidate at the Lau China Institute at King’s. Her research interests are early childhood education and nationalism in China. Her thesis is entitled: Early Childhood Education in China: a comparative approach to values and citizenship education in public and private kindergartens in Shanghai. It uses the dissemination of moral education to capture state-society power relations in China and is based on fieldwork conducted in Shanghai in 2017-2018 at five kindergartens.
To be a part of this online event, please email Dr Maren Elfert to receive the link.