ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impacts of Michael Young’s curriculum theories on Chinese educational research and practices. Young’s work was first introduced in China in the 2000s; the constructivist approach he brought to the discussion of the curriculum and knowledge provides the theoretical reference for the curriculum reform conducted in China since the late 1990s. With the aim of the 8th curriculum reform being to set up a child-centered and progressive educational system, constructivism soon became the dominant discourse in the reform since the early 2000s. However, constructivism has gone a bit too far in China and led to a trend of devaluing knowledge/indirect experience while over-emphasising everyday/direct experience. While the Chinese academia was reflecting the problems and challenges of taking a constructivist approach towards its curriculum reform, Young’s thinking in his latest book Bringing Knowledge Back In echoes many domestic reflections on the curriculum reform. In that book he broadened the horizon of curriculum studies once again as he had done previously, by bringing in the theory of social realism. It is believed that the recognition of the objectivity of knowledge in education and the curriculum will reshape the dynamics of China’s curriculum reform.
