ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the trends and challenges of early childhood curriculum (ECC) reforms in Chinese societies. First, against the global context analysed in Chapter 1, this chapter briefly summarises the lessons and challenges of Chinese ECC reforms to (1) respect Chinese culture and traditions, (2) consider social contexts and local needs, and (3) encourage diversity and appropriateness. Second, guided by the sociocultural mechanism model of ECC in Chinese societies presented in Chapter 7, this chapter uncovers the trends and our major concerns in terms of developing ECC and promoting quality practices: (1) cultural consciousness and intercultural understanding and (2) cultural explanation and curriculum meaning-making. Moreover, based on Chapter 7, a new concept in addition to ‘quality’ – appropriateness – is introduced to shed light on the future development of ECC in Chinese societies and other parts of the world. It is concluded that excellent ECC should balance the interaction between teachers and children, make the interaction between them more democratic, give a more equal and orderly power distribution, and give way to teachers’ guidance and children’s autonomy.
