Table Of ContentINTERCULTURAL RECIPROCAL LEARNING IN
CHINESE AND WESTERN EDUCATION
Reciprocal Learning
for Cross-Cultural
Mathematics Education
A Partnership Project Between
Canada and China
Edited by Sijia Cynthia Zhu · Shu Xie
Yunpeng Ma · Douglas McDougall
Intercultural Reciprocal Learning in Chinese and
Western Education
Series Editors
Michael Connelly
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON, Canada
Shijing Xu
Faculty of Education
University of Windsor
Windsor, ON, Canada
This book series grows out of the current global interest and turmoil
over comparative education and its role in international competi-
tion. The specific series grows out of two ongoing educational
programs which are integrated in the partnership, the University of
Windsor-Southwest University Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning
ProgramandtheShanghai-Toronto-BeijingSisterSchoolNetwork.These
programs provide a comprehensive educational approach ranging from
preschool to teacher education programs. This framework provides a
structure for a set of ongoing Canada-China research teams in school
curriculum and teacher education areas. The overall aim of the Partner-
ship program, and therefore of the proposed book series, is to draw on
school and university educational programs to create a comprehensive
cross-cultural knowledge base and understanding of school education,
teacher education and the cultural contexts for education in China and
the West.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15114
· · ·
Sijia Cynthia Zhu Shu Xie Yunpeng Ma
Douglas McDougall
Editors
Reciprocal Learning
for Cross-Cultural
Mathematics
Education
A Partnership Project Between Canada and China
Editors
Sijia Cynthia Zhu Shu Xie
Ontario Institute for Studies in Faculty of Education
Education Northeast Normal University
University of Toronto Changchun City, China
Toronto, ON, Canada
Douglas McDougall
Yunpeng Ma Ontario Institute for Studies in
Faculty of Education Education
Northeast Normal University University of Toronto
Changchun City, China Toronto, ON, Canada
Intercultural Reciprocal Learning in Chinese and Western Education
ISBN 978-3-030-56837-5 ISBN 978-3-030-56838-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56838-2
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Series Editors Foreword:
’
Intercultural Reciprocal Learning in
Chinese and Western Education
The Series and East-West
Contrasting Educational Narratives
This book series focuses on Chinese and Western education for the
purpose of mutual understanding and reciprocal learning between the
East and the West. The East has been a puzzle for the West, romanti-
cized or demonized depending on the times. East–West relations have a
long history of inquiry, and action has often been framed in competi-
tive, ideological, and colonialist terms. In 1926, Dewey complained that
“As far as we have gone at all, we have gone in loco parentis, with
advice, with instruction, with example and precept. Like a good parent
we would have brought up China in the way in which she should go”
(p.188).This“paternal”attitude,asDeweycalledit,hasnotalwaysbeen
sobenign.Economic,cultural,andintellectualmattershaveoftenbeenin
the forefront since the Opium Wars of the nineteenth century.
Intellectually, the East–West dynamic is equally dramatic as found in
works by authors such as Said (1978), Tu Wei-ming (1993), Hall and
Ames (1999), Hayhoe and Pan (2001), and many others. These writers
are part of a rich conceptual knowledge across cultures literature on the
historical, philosophical, cultural, and educational differences of the East
and West.
Education is a vital topic of international discussion and essential
component part of our global consciousness. Global discussions of
v
vi SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD: INTERCULTURAL RECIPROCAL …
economics, national and regional competition, and national and regional
futures often turn to education. Meanwhile, local educational discussions
take place in social environments discourse of international awareness.
“How are our international neighbours doing?” “How do they teach
values?” “We have to catch up.” These matters are vitally important. But
they are not new.
Higher education in universities and other forms of postsecondary
education has occupied most of the attention. What is new, and what,
in our view, is likely to have far-reaching impact, is the focus on school
education and early childhood education as well as pre-service teacher
education. For several reasons, not the least of which is national compe-
tition, the focus on school education has been driven by comparative
achievement studies. When Shanghai school students topped the chart
in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies, the
informationwasbroadcastworldwideandgeneratedferociousdiscussion.
One of the positive outcomes of this discussion is comparative research
interest, the process of comparing educational similarities and differences
in school practices, official policies, and social cultural influences. This
comparative interest is all to the good and should help frame potential
positive comparative futures.
But comparative research on similarity and difference is not enough.
We believe we need to reach beyond the study of similarities and differ-
ences and to explore life filled school practices of people in different
cultures coming together and learning from one another. In this post-
modern world of instant worldwide communication, we need to go
beyond comparative premises. Ideas, thoughts, images, research, knowl-
edge, plans, and policies are in constant interaction. This book series
hopes to move our international educational research onto this collab-
orativeandinteractiveeducationallandscapeofschools,parents,commu-
nities, policy, and international trends and forces.
Series Objectives and Contribution to Knowledge
The book series grew out of our seven-year Canada–China partnership
study on reciprocal educational learning between Canada and China
(Xu & Connelly, 2013–2020). The partnership developed from the
current global interest and turmoil over comparative education and its
role in international competition. The specific series grows out of two
ongoing educational programs which are integrated in the partnership,
SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD: INTERCULTURAL RECIPROCAL … vii
the University of Windsor-Southwest University Teacher Education Recip-
rocal Learning Program and the Shanghai-Toronto-Beijing Sister School
Network. These programs provide a comprehensive educational approach
ranging from preschool to teacher education programs.
ThisframeworkprovidesastructureforasetofongoingCanada–China
research teams in school curriculum and teacher education areas. The
overall aim of the Partnership program, and therefore of the proposed
book series, is to draw on school and university educational programs to
create a comprehensive cross-cultural knowledge base and understanding
of school education, teacher education, and the cultural contexts for
education in China and the West.
The first few books in the series are direct outgrowths of our partner-
shipstudy.But,becauseofcurrentglobalconditions,thereisagreatdeal
ofimportantrelatedworkunderwaythroughouttheworld.Weencourage
submissions to the series and expect the series to become a home for
collaborative reciprocal learning educational work between the East and
the West. The starting point in our Canada–China Reciprocal Learning
Partnership’s is the idea of a global community in which ideas, things,
and people flow between countries and cultures (Xu & Connelly, 2013).
There is intense public discussion in Canada over international rela-
tions with China. The publication of international student achievement
scores that rank China at the top has resulted in growing scholarly and
public discussion on the differences in our educational systems. The
discussion tends to focus on economic and trade relations while educa-
tional reciprocity and reciprocal learning are often absent from educa-
tional discourse. Given that the Chinese are Canada’s and Ontario’s
largestimmigrantgroupandthatChinesestudentshavestatisticallyshown
academic excellence, it is critical to explore what we can learn from
Chinese philosophies of education and its educational system, and what
Canada can offer China in return.
The Partnership’s overall goal is to compare and contrast Canadian
and Chinese education in such a way that the cultural narratives of each
provide frameworks for understanding and appreciating educational simi-
laritiesanddifferences.Weexpectotherworkgeneratedoutsideourpart-
nership grant to have different starting points and socially relevant argu-
ments.Butwedoexpectallseriesworkstosharethetwingoalsofmutual
understanding and reciprocal learning.
viii SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD: INTERCULTURAL RECIPROCAL …
Built on these twin goals, the purpose of the book series is to create
andassemblethedefinitivecollectionofeducationalwritingsonthesimi-
larities,differences,andreciprocallearningsbetweeneducationintheEast
and the West. Drawing on the work of partnership-oriented researchers
throughout the world, the series is designed to:
(cid:129) Build educational knowledge and understanding from a cross-
cultural perspective;
(cid:129) Support new approaches to research on curriculum, teaching and
learning in schools and teacher education programs in response to
change brought on by heightened global awareness;
(cid:129) Provideacompellingtheoreticalframeforconceptualizingthephilo-
sophical and narrative historical trajectories of these two compelling
worldviews on education, society, and culture;
(cid:129) Provide state of the art reviews of the comparative Chinese and
Englishlanguageliteratureonschoolcurriculumandteachereduca-
tion;
(cid:129) Model, sustainable, school to school structures and methods of
communication and educational sharing between Canada, other
English-speaking countries and China;
(cid:129) Model,sustainable,structuresandmethodsofinitialteachertraining
in cross-cultural understanding;
(cid:129) Contribute to a documented knowledge base of similarities, differ-
ences, comparisons, and reciprocal learnings in elementary and
secondary school teaching and learning curricula.
Michael Connelly
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON, Canada
SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD: INTERCULTURAL RECIPROCAL … ix
Shijing Xu
Faculty of Education
University of Windsor
Windsor, Canada
References
Dewey, J. (1926). America and the Far East. Survey, 1 May, 1926, 188. Later
published in: John Dewey, The later works, 1925–1953, (1984). Volume 2:
1925–1927, pp. 1173–1175.
Hayhoe,R.,&Pan,J.(Eds.).(2001).Knowledgeacrosscultures:Acontributionto
dialogue among civilizations. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research
Centre, The University of Hong Kong.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
Tu, W. (1993). Way, learning, and politics: Essays on the Confucian intellectual.
Albany: State University of New York Press.
Xu, S., & Connelly, F. M. (Project Directors). (2013). Reciprocal learning in
teacher education and school education between Canada and China. Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) 2013–2020
[Grant 895-2012-1011].
