Early childhood curriculum policies and practices in Singapore: The case of glocalisation

Abstract

Globalisation has been transforming early childhood care and education worldwide since the turn of this millennium. The early childhood sector in Singapore is no exception. Its early childhood curriculum has inevitably been influenced by Eastern and Western cultures and has developed into a unique hybrid over the years. This special issue collects six articles covering topics on inclusive education, curriculum frameworks, infant–toddler care, curriculum-based teacher research, social-emotional learning, and bilingual language and literacy. A book review about early childhood curriculum in Chinese societies is also included. All these articles have jointly presented a snapshot of the ‘glocal’ situation of early childhood curriculum in Singapore, with a focus on the challenges and suggestions for policy and practical improvements.

Curriculum Hybridization and Cultural Glocalization: A Scoping Review of International Research on Early Childhood Curriculum in China and Singapore

“…The second author audited the search and selection processes to ensure that the inclusion of papers was non-biased and comprehensive. The inclusion criteria are: Included articles are peer-reviewed full texts; The articles should report on ECC-related issues (with reference to the framework developed by Goodlad et al, 1979) in China and/or Singapore; and The articles should report findings or make arguments based on evidence-based research. We excluded those articles that merely reported on Hong Kong SAR's ECC-related issues (e.g., Hui et al, 2015; Wu & Rao, 2011) since this review is interested in ECC in the Chinese mainland, which has a different political system from Hong Kong SAR's (Yang et al, 2017). In addition, articles with a focus that was not covered in Goodlad et al’s (1979) curriculum framework were also excluded, such as studies reporting on the building of digital resources (Zhou et al, 2009) and external interventions (e.g., Bai et al, 2020; Sullivan & Bers, 2018).…”

“…First, both countries have launched their recent ECC reforms since the turn of the new millennium to upgrade the provision of ECE services (Yang & Li, 2019b;Yang, Li et al, 2021, Yang, Peh et al, 2021. Second, although being a multiethnic and multicultural society, Singapore shares the Chinese Confucian culture due to Chinese Singaporeans constituting over 70% of the Singaporean population (Mah et al, 2021).…”

“…The rigid schedule, teacher-student ratio, and classroom environment are the constraints that have restricted teachers from fully implementing the formal curriculum (Bautista et al, 2018;Yang, Li et al, 2021, Yang, Peh et al, 2021). In the most child-initiated section of the OC, learning center time, Bautista et al's (2019) observational evidence indicated that children had very little freedom of choice when playing with the materials and were usually required to complete assignments such as worksheets.…”

A conceptual framework for developing a glocalized school-based curriculum

“…This process can be understood as glocalization. More specifically, for this paper, to integrate globally accepted ECE principles with local values and beliefs, to create third spaces of curriculum hybridity that are contextually and culturally appropriate, conceptually consistent, and pedagogically viable on the ground can be considered as curricular glocalization (Gupta, 2015(Gupta, , 2018Yang et al, 2021).…”

“…As argued by Li (2010), long-held Western assumptions about processes, efficacy, and effectiveness of learning cannot be readily applied to the study of learners from non-Western cultures since these assumptions were developed by Western researchers to study Western people based on Western cultural norms and values. Many latest papers (Bautista et al, 2021; Chen et al, 2017; Hairon et al, 2018; Yang & Li, 2018, 2019, 2020; Yang et al, 2021) also reveal the significance of integrating and balancing “the imported curricula” and “the domestic curricula” for SBCD under the consideration of the global and local contexts. For example, Bautista et al (2021, p. 161) propose alternative “glocal” notions aims to find the balance between progressive versus traditional that is needed in Singapore and Hong Kong.…”