The ‘new Orientalism’: education policy borrowing and representations of East Asia

Policy Transfer and Isomorphism: A Case Study of the England-China Maths Teacher Exchange

“…Bendix's notion of a 'reference society' has been used to describe ways in which Shanghai's appearance at the top of the PISA rankings has led to other countries attempting to replicate its success via policy borrowing, in the same way that the US had turned to Japan in the 1980s, whilst Australia turned to England, which in turn had based its policies on US schools (Tan and Reyes, 2017;You, 2020). Certainly, in the context of the PISA tests, and the implicit link with economic prosperity, high-performing countries in the tests have come to represent a reference point for other countries, which in turn have sought to replicate the same level of success.…”

“…Further to this, You has argued Western policy borrowing from Asia represents 'a new Orientalism', with the notion that if they borrow educational policies from high performing Asian countries, their education system and in turn economy will overtake those of these countries (You, 2020). As You argues Shanghai is seen as an appropriate 'reference society', not only due to PISA scores, but also its fast-growing economy.…”

“…This paper aims to critically evaluate the policy, with a focus on its significance in the field of English mathematics education, as well as questioning the validity of the use of PISA data to directly influence English education policy, and for that matter the broader context of English policy borrowing from abroad. From a critical perspective, the policy would appear to fit a broader shift to East Asia as a global reference point for success in education (Sellar and Lingard, 2013a;Tan and Reyes, 2017;You, 2020;Zhao, 2018), as well as being introduced at a time when high-level relations between the UK and China were being stressed by both governments (Le Corre, 2015). It will focus around the question of why the MTE ultimately has had a low impact on maths education in England.…”

Learning Experience: An Alternative Understanding Inspired by Thinking Through Confucius

“…For example, based on the evidence from East Asia, whole-class teaching has been advocated in Western classrooms (e.g., Reynolds & Farrell, 1996; Stevenson & Lee, 1995). However, it was deemed to be “borrowed” by China in the late 19th century as part of the educational modernization movement (You, 2019a). More recently, the Western-generated idea of learner-centered education has dominated the national discourse of educational reforms in China, and Chinese scholars have especially identified constructivism as a pivotal underlying theory (Liu, 2005).…”

“…It specifically reflects on the dominance of constructivism in China’s New Curriculum Reform ( xinkegai ) over the past two decades. Embedded in this dominance are (1) a dichotomy between Chinese/traditional (mainly Confucian)/teacher-centered/exam-oriented education and Western/modern/learner-centered/quality-oriented education (Tan, 2016); and (2) a prevalent assumption that the “flawed” former should be replaced with, or at least amended by, the “advanced” latter, based on a range of perpetuated orientalized and self-orientalized stereotypes of Chinese education (You, 2019a). In this context, this article concentrates on “experience”—a key but under-examined concept of constructivist pedagogy.…”