ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. Throughout the process of educational borrowing from the West, the book explores the central and influential role of culture in interpreting and mediating policy transfer in China. It has highlighted the agency of various educational stakeholders in interpreting, assessing and appropriating selected concepts, frameworks and measures that fit their agenda and local needs. The book examines how Chinese educators have consciously and unconsciously made references to their Confucian heritage, and capitalised on their cultural resources to confront the issues and challenges brought about by the New Curriculum Reform (NCR). Underpinning the NCR, as reiterated throughout the chapters, are the ideologies of constructivism and postmodernism that originate from the West. The concepts and practices of school-based curriculum, student/learner-centred learning, autonomy, inquiry, cooperative learning and formative assessment are also premised on Western scholarship and writings.
