Teaching In Primary Schools In China And India

This book compares primary education in urban and rural China and India. It focuses on how the sociocultural context including educational policy, educators and parents’ beliefs, and the conditions under which teaching and learning occur shape classroom pedagogy and determine children’s attainment. This in-depth, authentic, comparative analysis of the two largest educational systems in the world is a must-read for scholars interested in the teaching and learning in these two rapidly developing Asian cultures. A common set of questions has been addressed in diverse contexts. The empirical work on which this book is based is most impressive – videotaping of mathematics and language lessons, interviews with parents and educators questionnaires with parents, teachers and children and tests of children’s mathematics attainment – and this done in 3 locations in China, 3 in India and 12 schools in total.

In Asia, English is no longer a foreign language but a key resource for education, government, business and the general public. Whereas thirty years ago, British and American experts believed that the best way to improve the quality of English teaching was to cancel any programs below the secondary level, Asian nations as well as European are now introducing English in primary school. But there are major obstacles to overcome: the training of enough local teachers or the hiring of English speakers, the preparation of suitable teaching materials, the development of useful tests, and the design of workable curriculums. The chapters in this book, written by leading English-teaching professionals in seven Asian countries and originally delivered at the 2010 annual conference of Asia TEFL which took place in Hanoi, Vietnam, describe and analyze national policies and how they are implemented. The coverage is wide: China with its huge number of students learning English, Japan working to make the transition from elementary to secondary school seamless, Singapore continuing to use English as medium of instruction for its multilingual population, Korea developing English education policies to recognize the increased role of English alongside the national language, India building on its colonial past to make English an economic resource, Vietnam fitting English into a program of national rebuilding, and Taiwan spreading its English teaching outside the national capital. This is not a report of the views of outside experts, but of local experiences understood by local scholars of international standing. Policy makers, educators, researchers and scholars will be able to gain valuable insights from Asian experts.

This book is one of the first fully-fledged studies to examine the next world-class industrial leaders emerging from China and India; exploring the domestic and international factors that have led to their rise, and comparing their experiences with other East Asian late-comers such as Japan.

This book presents perspectives on the changes that have taken place within the field of comparative education, while noting various continuing traditions. Its contributors come from a wide range of countries and contexts, and present their work within a framework set by the 11th congress of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES). The book makes a valuable methodological as well as a conceptual contribution to the field.

Immigrants from China started settling in Calcutta, the British capital of colonial India, from the late eighteenth century. Initially, the immigrant community comprised of male workers, many of whom sojourned between China and India. Only in the early twentieth century was there a large influx of women and children from China. To address the educational needs of the children - both immigrant and locally-born - several Chinese-medium primary and middle schools were established in Calcutta by the community in the 1920s and 1930s. Using many hitherto unexplored textual sources and interviews in India, China, and Canada, this detailed and unprecedented study examines the history and significance of these Chinese-medium schools. It focuses on the role they played in preserving Chinese cultural identity not only through the use of educational curricula and textbooks imported from China, but also with the emphasis on the need to return to the ancestral homeland for higher education. This study also breaks new ground by examining the impact of political and other factionalism within the community as well as the India-China conflict of 1962 that resulted in the closure of most of the Chinese-medium schools in Calcutta by the 1980s.

This book presents the principles of quality teaching in Chinese, as exemplified in case studies of primary and secondary school classrooms. Drawing on data from five Australian schools, the authors identify the key practices necessary to produce a quality learning experience for students. The book offers a thorough grounding in the issues involved in teaching different age groups, and many practical strategies, including a comprehensive overview of digital technologies for teaching and learning Chinese. It will provide a valuable resource for students and scholars of applied linguistics, in addition to supporting teacher training and professional development.