This book introduces findings from an international, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary study of children’s everyday experiences of growing up and going to school in the context of the three global cities of Hong Kong, Singapore and Melbourne. It takes the premise that children’s learning and orientations to educational success are shaped by everyday cultural practices at home and at school, by policy contexts that both produce and respond to educational and cultural norms, and by individual and familial desires and aspirations. Drawing on research conducted with primary school-aged children in Year 4, the book considers how day-to-day routines such as going to school, engaging in extra-curricular activities outside of school, and spending time at home with family intersect with the broader milieus of education policy ideals in a changing and interconnected world. Through a combination of visual methodologies, surveys, ethnographic observations in schools, classrooms and cityscapes, re-enactments of everyday activities with children at home, and sociological education policy analysis, this book shows both the richness of children’s everyday lives and learning in global cities, as well as exploring questions that pose challenges to educational and social norms.
Author(s): I-Fang Lee, Sue Saltmarsh, Nicola Yelland
Series: Global Childhoods in the Asia-Pacific, 1
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 159
City: Singapore
Contents
1 The Global Childhoods Project: Learning and Everyday Life in Three Global Cities
1.1 The Global Childhoods Project: Understanding Children’s Everyday Learning and Living
1.2 Lifeworlds and Policy Cultures: Theorising Education and Everyday Life in Context
1.3 Methodological Approach: From Home to School and Back Again
1.3.1 Online Survey
1.3.2 Classroom Ethnographies
1.3.3 Learning Dialogues
1.3.4 Lifeworld Re-enactments
1.4 Conclusions
References
2 Out and About in Global Cities
2.1 Childhoods, Education and Global Cities in Dialogue
2.2 Walking in Cities: Researching (In, and Out of) Place
2.3 Out and About: Spaces, Places and Times
2.4 Conclusion
References
3 Exploring the Scholarly Habitus in Children’s Lifeworlds: High-Stakes Testing and Educational Capital
3.1 Children’s Lifeworlds and the Scholarly Habitus: A Bourdieusian Approach
3.2 Overview of TIMSS and PIRLS
3.3 TIMSS 2019 and PIRLS 2016 Average Achievement Scores
3.4 Scholarly Habitus, Context Data, and Children’s Lifeworlds
3.4.1 Children Entering School with Literacy and Numeracy Skills
3.4.2 School Emphasis on Academic Success
3.5 Conclusions
References
4 Picturing Policy: Visual Representations of Curriculum Policy in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore
4.1 National Policy Texts: Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong
4.2 Policy Discourse and Neoliberal Governance
4.3 Method
4.4 Reading Images and Visual Design
4.5 Picturing Policies: Policy Images from Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore
4.6 Conclusions
References
5 Everyday Learning Looks Like This: Classroom Ethnographies in Three Global Cities
5.1 Schools and Schooling in Contemporary Education Systems
5.2 Everyday Learning in Schools: The Structures of Time and Space in Children’s Lifeworlds
5.2.1 The School Timetable: Organising Time and Schedules
5.2.2 The Built Environments in Children’s Lifeworlds: School Buildings and Classrooms
5.2.3 Connecting Time Use and Space
5.3 Some Concluding Thoughts
References
6 Everyday Out-of-School Lifeworlds Look Like This: Children’s Activities in Three Global Cities
6.1 Previous Research on Children’s Out-of-School Activities
6.1.1 Leisure Activities
6.1.2 Academic Activities
6.1.3 Non-academic Organised Activities
6.2 Methodology
6.2.1 Survey
6.2.2 Re-enactments
6.3 Survey: A Broad Overview of Children’s Out-of-School Activities
6.3.1 Reflections on Survey
6.4 Re-enactments: Children’s Thursday Afternoons in Three Global Cities
6.4.1 Madison, Melbourne
6.4.2 Mei Mei, Hong Kong
6.4.3 Ashley, Singapore
6.4.4 Reflections on Re-enactments
6.5 Discussion and Conclusions
References
7 Picturing Educational and Future Success
7.1 The Making of Success in Educational Landscapes: Theorising Visual Representations About Success
7.2 Picturing Education and Success in the Policy Domain
7.3 The Appearance of Learning in Public Domains
7.4 Children Picturing Learning and Future Success
7.5 Conclusions
References
8 Rethinking the Global Childhoods Project: Learning and Everyday Life in Three Global Cities
8.1 Understanding Children’s Everyday Learning and Living
8.2 Alternative Discourses: What Do We Know About Contemporary Childhoods?
8.3 Some Concluding Thoughts
References
