Li-fang Zhang
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9789888208135
- eISBN:
- 9789888268283
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208135.003.0014
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
In her chapter, Zhang Li-fang asks what intellectual styles are the most conducive for good educational outcomes in a multi-ethnic environment like China. She argues that intellectual styles ...
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In her chapter, Zhang Li-fang asks what intellectual styles are the most conducive for good educational outcomes in a multi-ethnic environment like China. She argues that intellectual styles complicate multicultural education, and stresses the importance of balancing group preferences for learning with individual cognitive styles. Furthermore, rapidly developing multiethnic societies like China, must navigate the desire to cultivate “the adaptive values of Type I styles,” which are more propitious to the “creativity-generating” activities of the global economy, with the more conservative style exhibited by some Chinese minorities like Tibetan and Uyghur students. This is made all the more difficult by the PRC’s unique ethnic policies, and the inflexibility they offer at the curriculum level, and, one might add, the institutional scale.Less
In her chapter, Zhang Li-fang asks what intellectual styles are the most conducive for good educational outcomes in a multi-ethnic environment like China. She argues that intellectual styles complicate multicultural education, and stresses the importance of balancing group preferences for learning with individual cognitive styles. Furthermore, rapidly developing multiethnic societies like China, must navigate the desire to cultivate “the adaptive values of Type I styles,” which are more propitious to the “creativity-generating” activities of the global economy, with the more conservative style exhibited by some Chinese minorities like Tibetan and Uyghur students. This is made all the more difficult by the PRC’s unique ethnic policies, and the inflexibility they offer at the curriculum level, and, one might add, the institutional scale.
Peter Kraftl
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781447300496
- eISBN:
- 9781447310914
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447300496.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Education
This chapter provides a systematic overview of the case studies discussed in this book. It is divided into rough ‘types’, focusing, in turn, on: Care Farms; Forest Schools; Homeschooling; Democratic ...
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This chapter provides a systematic overview of the case studies discussed in this book. It is divided into rough ‘types’, focusing, in turn, on: Care Farms; Forest Schools; Homeschooling; Democratic and Human-Scale Schooling; Steiner Schooling; Montessori Schooling. The chapter is a touchstone for the later, thematic chapters. Each section includes an outline of the following with regard to each type: history, development and key proponents (where appropriate); main pedagogical principles and practices; academic research concerning that approach; significant ‘moments’ where that approach appears in this book. Each section ends with a note on the distribution of each type of alternative education in the UK (and elsewhere, where appropriate) and a note on the kinds of examples visited in the course of the research for this book. There is relatively little academic research regarding some educational types (e.g. Care Farms) whilst there exist significant bodies of research on others (e.g. Homeschooling). The conclusion highlights some significant areas for further research on alternative learning spaces, making the case for more comparative, multi-site studies.Less
This chapter provides a systematic overview of the case studies discussed in this book. It is divided into rough ‘types’, focusing, in turn, on: Care Farms; Forest Schools; Homeschooling; Democratic and Human-Scale Schooling; Steiner Schooling; Montessori Schooling. The chapter is a touchstone for the later, thematic chapters. Each section includes an outline of the following with regard to each type: history, development and key proponents (where appropriate); main pedagogical principles and practices; academic research concerning that approach; significant ‘moments’ where that approach appears in this book. Each section ends with a note on the distribution of each type of alternative education in the UK (and elsewhere, where appropriate) and a note on the kinds of examples visited in the course of the research for this book. There is relatively little academic research regarding some educational types (e.g. Care Farms) whilst there exist significant bodies of research on others (e.g. Homeschooling). The conclusion highlights some significant areas for further research on alternative learning spaces, making the case for more comparative, multi-site studies.
