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). Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications

In the global world, globalization influences education worldwide; therefore, the dynamics between local and global, termed “glocalization,” is crucial to curriculum guidelines that officially represent an ideal education. The latest Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) curriculum was announced during the 2012–2017 period in China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Following Bereday’s four-step comparison method, this article systematically compares four guidelines and, referring to their socio-historical backgrounds, examines how global trends, Chinese culture, and local context interactively influence their ECEC guidelines. Within the Chinese context, this study coins a new concept of “glo-re-calization “ based on glocalization and regionalization by which we examine how global trends, regional culture, and local forces co-contribute to the sameness and differences in four curriculum guidelines. Based on the four guidelines analysis, we propose the Glorecal Power Model with four patterns. A “logloblization” is a model that overwhelmingly weighs a local force, seen as a regional force, as in the case of China pursuing loglobalization towards regionalization. A “GloRecalization” model weighs global and regional forces much more than the local ones, as in the case of Hong Kong, which is rushing towards globalization and regionalization. A “gloreCalization” model considers mainly local force, as in the case of Macau, which calls for localization. A “Glorecalization” model takes place where global trends are the most significant feature among the three powers as in the case of Taiwan walking on global trends. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

Globalisation has significantly influenced preschool education around the world, including Hong Kong, where the official curriculum framework has recently integrated the Western notion of creativity as part of arts education, forming a new learning area: Arts and Creativity. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Hong Kong preschool stakeholders perceived Arts and Creativity and its viability in practice. We interviewed 20 teachers, 10 principals, and 20 teacher educators specialising in arts education (N = 50). Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used. Findings showed that Hong Kong preschool stakeholders: (1) perceived most Western pedagogical characteristics as important but not fully viable in the local context; (2) expressed that children’s arts creativity is fostered from a low/null to a moderate extent, due to constraints such as parental demands, time, and resources; (3) suggested strategies to maximise children’s arts creativity focusing on curricular amendments, parental education, teacher preparation, and societal changes at large. We conclude that Arts and Creativity is not perceived to be implemented in accordance to the official curriculum framework. The study reveals the need to ‘glocalize’ this learning area in the Hong Kong context. Implications for moving forward in arts creativity preschool education are discussed. Copyright © 2023 Pedagogy, Culture & Society.

As a result of globalization, kindergarten curriculum frameworks in Asia have been strongly influenced by Western theories, pedagogies, and values. In this article, we argue that Singapore's Nurturing Early Learners and Hong Kong's Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide present key notions that are inconsistent with cultural values that are deeply rooted in these two societies. To overcome the challenges these inconsistencies trigger for teachers, principals, teacher educators, and parents, we advocate for the design of 'glocal' (global/local, explicitly hybrid) curriculum frameworks, based on principles that are culturally appropriate and socially situated. Drawing on recent research studies, we analyze current curriculum/practice gaps in relation to the notions of Child-Centeredness, Quality Interactions, Creativity and Self-Expression, and Play. In seeking the global/local balance that is needed in Singapore and Hong Kong, four alternative glocal notions are proposed: Child-Appropriateness, Pedagogical Quality, Arts Engagement, and Child-Led Activities. We conclude there is an urgent need for generating a solid corpus of local research in both jurisdictions, which should guide subsequent curriculum reforms and teacher preparation models. Our final aim is to contribute to early childhood education policy discussions in Asia, against the background of internationalization. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

戲劇教育自1980到1990年代輸入臺灣和香港的幼兒教育，作為一個課程改革的方法，過去多數研究集中在教學的實踐，很少以社會文化對照的角度分析這個來自西方的教育模式在地化過程。本文以「全球在地化」的理論，運用視像人種誌的研究方法，透過臺港兩地教學案例，探索與描述兩地幼兒機構進行戲劇教育全球在地化的實踐。研究結果發現，在戲劇教育模式、課程定位及教學方法等面向，臺灣具有調和、主軸及兒童本位的特點，而香港則是單一、邊陲與劇藝的特性。究其因多半和社會文化背景、教育體制、教師培訓和戲劇教育推動方式等方面的差異有關。另外，兩地戲劇教育研究員也從對話中找到可互相參考的全球在地化策略，做為未來亞洲國家發展戲劇教育在地化的借鏡。As a pedagogy for curriculum innovation, drama education was introduced to Taiwan and Hong Kong early childhood education in the period between 1980 and 1990. Previous studies have mostly focused on the use of drama education, but rarely looked into the localization of this western teaching mode from a socio-cultural perspective. Based on the theories of glocalization, this paper examined lesson samples from Taiwan and Hong Kong by visual ethnography to explore and describe the processes and modes of glocalization of drama education in the two regions. The results showed that with respect to the drama education approaches, curriculum positions and teaching methods, Taiwan implements drama education with a mixture of various approaches and views it as a child-centered, core practice, while Hong Kong uses it in a relatively homogeneous, peripheral and theatrical manner. This discrepancy mostly resulted from different colonization backgrounds, education policies, teacher trainings and ways of promoting drama education. In addition, through dialogues the researchers of drama education from these two regions have made reference to each other's strategies of glocalizing drama education, with which they may provide suggestions for the attempt to localize drama education in other Asian countries. Copyright © 2018 中華民國課程與教學學會.