In this conceptual paper, we propose a new three-pronged theoretical framework derived from Chinese philosophy: (1) Tian Shi (timing), (2) Di Li (context), and (3) Ren He (human capital). Specifically, we delineate the nature of Tian Shi, Di Li, Ren He required for the successful translation of top-down education policy into practice using Hong Kong as a case example. Applying this new conceptual framework, we conducted secondary data analysis of two cases examining the implementability of U.S.-originated and popular child-centered early childhood models by Hong Kong kindergarten teachers (serving children ages 3–6), with one case focusing on the Project Approach in one kindergarten, and the other on the HighScope Curriculum in another kindergarten. The findings revealed that Hong Kong had not yet attained favorable Tian Shi, Di Li, Ren He to render success in these kindergarten teachers’ adoption of imported early childhood approaches with fidelity due to incompatibility in sociocultural and educational realities as well as professional competence. Instead, the teachers’ implementation behaviors made a case for a hybrid model as a viable and potentially sustainable solution to reconcile these contextual incompatibilities by weaving local and global practices into a conflation. © 2022 Childhood Education International.

Infants and toddlers (birth to age 3) learn what it means to be members of, and to belong to and be accepted by, their societies by adopting behaviors, attitudes, manners, and ways of thinking that are deeply rooted in what is valued in their culture. Infant and toddler teachers play a pivotal role as transmitters and maintainers of culture when they make decisions about the curriculum, engage in caregiving interactions, make pedagogical decisions, and use language. Cultural meanings ascribed to teachers’ practices in 1-year-old care in the United States and Hong Kong were examined using video data and transcripts of video-elicited focus group discussions. Three important areas in which cultural transmission differed between the United States and Hong Kong relate to: egalitarian versus hierarchical societal structure; individualism versus collectivism; and different goals for independence. Social learning theory and ecological systems theory framed this study and informed interpretation of results. Copyright © 2021 Taylor & Francis Inc.

The Project Approach has been promoted in Hong Kong kindergartens since the 1990s. However, the dynamic processes and underlying mechanisms involved in the teachers' implementation of this pedagogical method there have not yet been fully investigated. This case study of one typical kindergarten in Hong Kong documented how and why eight teachers implemented the Project Approach the way they did. Methodological triangulation was established through (1) videotaped classroom observations, (2) audiotaped interviews with the teachers and school principal, and (3) document analysis. The study revealed that instead of uncritically adopting the Project Approach, the teachers responsively adapted it into hybrid pedagogy between traditional Chinese pedagogy and contemporary early childhood pedagogy. Such a paradigm shift reflected the teachers' (1) practical considerations of contextual realities (e.g., time limitation, curriculum demands, parental expectations, professional and emotional comfortability) and (2) cultural hybridity in pedagogical beliefs. The findings suggest that, considering cultural incompatibilities, when implementing pedagogies cross-culturally, a sensible, viable, and potentially sustainable solution is not a radical, direct transformation from a traditional pedagogy to an imported one, but rather an alternative, hybrid pedagogy that infuses unique characteristics of the two. Similarly, when promoting pedagogical change, policymakers should consider sociocultural and other contextual influences.