200 pages
234 x 156mm
ISBN-13: 978 1 85856 404 3
October 2008
Keang Vong's thoughtful book offers provocative food for reflection to practitioners, researchers and policy makers, whatever their own national context, in developing young children's learning and creativity. - Anna Craft, Professor of Education, University of Exeter and The Open University
This book challenges the assumption that creativity is culture-free. Fostering creativity in the young has gained unprecedented attention in China, one of the most vigorous world economies today. This book examines Chinese kindergarten teachers' interpretations of creativity in relation to their ideas of children's learning and cognition, using grounded data. It discusses how their practice is influenced by their social and cultural environment, schooling experiences and professional training and how these determine their interpretations of creativity and children's learning.
The case studies presented here exemplify the ways in which Western pedagogy that is believed to be effective in fostering creativity in children is being implemented in parts of China. They show how the pedagogy is not merely transplanted but is interpreted and transformed according to Chinese social and cultural values.
The relationship is explored between different pedagogical strategies and the development of cognition, abilities and skills in the next Chinese generation. The lessons for Early Years educators everywhere are clear.
At a time when Early Years education in the UK is in danger of losing its autonomy to the edicts of politicians, we need to look to china to realize that our colleagues there are fighting to gain what we may well lose. - Professor Eve Gregory, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Dr Keang-leng (Peggy) Vong earned her degrees in the US and the UK. The consultant for a kindergarten in China for seven years, she now teaches and researches at the Faculty of Education, University of Macau, with a special interest in Child Development and Early Childhood Education.
