Neoliberalism and neocolonialism in the mix: Evidence of glocalization in the globalization–localization dynamics of early childhood practices in Hong Kong
{"title":"Neoliberalism and neocolonialism in the mix: Evidence of glocalization in the globalization–localization dynamics of early childhood practices in Hong Kong","authors":"Jennifer J. Chen","doi":"10.1177/14782103231171977","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Since the 1990s, Hong Kong has been promoting globally-endorsed, Western-derived early childhood ideologies and approaches, such as the Project Approach ( *Chen et al., 2017 ). This orientation appears to be influenced by policies and practices linked to global neoliberalism and neocolonialism. To shed light on the state of knowledge concerning the implementability of the imported “foreign” practices by Hong Kong kindergarten teachers (teaching children ages 3–6), I conducted a research synthesis analyzing the 10 empirical articles that met the inclusion criteria. The analysis was guided by the two existing theoretical frameworks: (1) Tian Shi (timing/temporal), Di Li (context/spatial), Ren He (human capital) ( Chen and Li, 2023 ) and (2) the foreground-middle ground-background ( Chen, 2022 ) as well as the newly proposed globalization– localization interaction dynamics model. A content analysis revealed three salient findings. First, due to the lack of Tian Shi, Di Li, Ren He, Hong Kong kindergarten teachers’ implementation of the imported early childhood approaches with fidelity has been largely unsuccessful. Second, the evidence corroborates the foreground-middle ground-background theory, suggesting that a hybrid approach (combining both the local and global practices) represents the “best” implementable one. Third, the manner in which the teachers implemented the imported practices seemingly reflects a glocalization-dominant pattern. This pattern constitutes one of the four quadrants within my proposed globalization– localization interaction dynamics model. The four quadrants represent the specific degree of interactive dominance: (1) grobalization-dominant (high in globalization and low in localization); (2) glocalization-dominant (high in both localization and globalization); (3) non-committal (low in both globalization and localization); and (4) localization-dominant (low in globalization and high in localization).","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Policy Futures in Education","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231171977","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Since the 1990s, Hong Kong has been promoting globally-endorsed, Western-derived early childhood ideologies and approaches, such as the Project Approach ( *Chen et al., 2017 ). This orientation appears to be influenced by policies and practices linked to global neoliberalism and neocolonialism. To shed light on the state of knowledge concerning the implementability of the imported “foreign” practices by Hong Kong kindergarten teachers (teaching children ages 3–6), I conducted a research synthesis analyzing the 10 empirical articles that met the inclusion criteria. The analysis was guided by the two existing theoretical frameworks: (1) Tian Shi (timing/temporal), Di Li (context/spatial), Ren He (human capital) ( Chen and Li, 2023 ) and (2) the foreground-middle ground-background ( Chen, 2022 ) as well as the newly proposed globalization– localization interaction dynamics model. A content analysis revealed three salient findings. First, due to the lack of Tian Shi, Di Li, Ren He, Hong Kong kindergarten teachers’ implementation of the imported early childhood approaches with fidelity has been largely unsuccessful. Second, the evidence corroborates the foreground-middle ground-background theory, suggesting that a hybrid approach (combining both the local and global practices) represents the “best” implementable one. Third, the manner in which the teachers implemented the imported practices seemingly reflects a glocalization-dominant pattern. This pattern constitutes one of the four quadrants within my proposed globalization– localization interaction dynamics model. The four quadrants represent the specific degree of interactive dominance: (1) grobalization-dominant (high in globalization and low in localization); (2) glocalization-dominant (high in both localization and globalization); (3) non-committal (low in both globalization and localization); and (4) localization-dominant (low in globalization and high in localization).
自20世纪90年代以来,香港一直在推广全球认可的、源自西方的早期儿童意识形态和方法,如项目方法(*Chen et al., 2017)。这种倾向似乎受到与全球新自由主义和新殖民主义有关的政策和做法的影响。为了阐明香港幼儿园教师(教3-6岁儿童)实施引进的“外国”实践的知识状况,我对符合纳入标准的10篇实证文章进行了研究综合分析。该分析以两个现有的理论框架为指导:(1)田仕(时间/时间)、迪丽(语境/空间)、任和(人力资本)(Chen and Li, 2023)和(2)前景-中间-背景(Chen, 2022)以及新提出的全球化-本土化互动动力学模型。内容分析揭示了三个突出的发现。首先,由于缺乏田石、迪丽、任赫等人,香港幼儿园教师在忠实地实施引进的幼儿教育方法方面基本上是不成功的。其次,证据证实了前景-中间-背景理论,表明混合方法(结合本地和全球实践)代表了“最佳”可实施的方法。第三,教师实施引进实践的方式似乎反映了一种全球本土化主导的模式。这种模式构成了我提出的全球化-本地化交互动力学模型中的四个象限之一。这四个象限代表了互动主导的具体程度:(1)全球化主导(全球化程度高,本地化程度低);(2)全球本地化主导型(本地化和全球化都很高);(3)不明确(全球化和本土化程度较低);(4)本地化主导型(全球化程度低、本地化程度高)。