Change and Exchange in Global Education: Learning with Chinese Stories of Interculturality

by Mei Yuan, Fred Dervin, Sude, Ning Chen

Overview

This unique book starts from the premise that students, scholars, and educators should be given access to a form of global education that is genuinely global. Using the notion of interculturality as change and exchange as a basis, the authors examine fifty discourse instruments (e.g. idioms, neologisms, slogans) related to what they call ‘Chinese stories of interculturality’. China, like other countries, has a rich and complex history of intercultural encounters and her engagement with the notion today, which shares similarities and differences with glocal discourses of interculturality, deserves to be unpacked and familiarized with. By so doing, digging into the intricacies of the Chinese and English languages, the reader is empowered to unthink, rethink and especially reflect on their own take on the important notion of interculturality.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031127700
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	09/23/2022
Series:	Palgrave Studies on Chinese Education in a Global Perspective
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Fred Dervin is Professor of Multicultural Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland and Distinguished and Visiting Professor at different universities around the world. Dervin has written extensively about interculturality in (teacher) education, proposing to systematise the use of critical and reflexive perspectives.

Mei Yuan is Associate Professor at the School of Education, Minzu University of China. Yuan has led many research projects on Minzu and intercultural education and is recipient of many awards for her contributions to ‘minority’ education.  

Sude is Professor at the School of Education, Minzu University of China. His research interests include multicultural education, diversity in teacher education and intercultural competence in superdiverse institutions and he is considered as one of the most influential scholars in the field of Chinese Minzu education. 

Ning Chen is Lecturer at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts (China) and Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of Helsinki, Finland. Chen specialises in diversity in higher education.  

Table of Contents

Introduction. Why ‘Chinese’ stories of interculturality?.- Chapter 1. Approaching interculturality: Culture and civilization as discursive and reflexive tools.- Chapter 2. Exploring and explaining experiences of interculturality.- Chapter 3. ‘Doing’ interculturality together.- Chapter 4. Making interculturality work together, as group/community members.- Chapter 5. Learning to ‘do’ interculturality.- Chapter 6. Pondering over language and interculturality.- Chapter 7. Conclusions.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The authors have come together interculturally and interlinguistically to describe and problematize what they stamped ‘Chinese stories of interculturality’. Their goal is simple and honorable: to help us scholars and educators reconsider (and challenge) our own ways of thinking about the tangled notion of interculturality by listening to other ways of engaging with it. In the process, Yuan, Dervin, Sude and Chen manage to provide some of the most meaningful insights into interculturality as (ex)change, offering the reader opportunities to unravel and make better sense of the inter- and -ality of the notion. The book is illuminating. It will undoubtedly serve as an ultimate reference for interculturalizing global education.” (Danièle Moore, Professor, Simon Fraser University, Canada, & DILTEC, Sorbonne Nouvelle, France)

“In producing this remarkable book, Dervin, Yuan, Sude and Chen —interculturality scholars of unparalleled standing — offer their readers far more than their highly learned insights. The emergence of this work is in itself a master-class in demonstrating how Western and Chinese scholars working together can achieve authentic interculturality. Through unwrapping a Chinese approach, the authors revitalized the subject and showcased a complemented and significant way of doing interculturality. The urgently needed book comes at the very time when intercultural communications recurrently deteriorate (e.g. a waning relationship between China and the West). Dervin and his team, once again blaze a new trail. By continuing to challenge the Western-centric epistemic practices, this work offers much needed balance to the debate over the ‘imposed’ and largely one-sided construction and production of knowledge about China. This truly collegial contribution demonstrates respect for and enactment of intellectual equality of Western and non-Western knowledge thereby gifting readers access to a genuinely global form of research and education on interculturality.” (Jinghe Han, Professor, Western Sydney University, Australia)

“How can we make interculturality more intercultural? The authors of this analytically rigorous, genuinely global book give Chinese stories of interculturality a strong voice. The book challenges and further develops the field, giving readers the opportunity to witness and be inspired by alternative views on interculturality unfolding through the authors’ collaboration.” (Petra Daryai-Hansen, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

“With this book, Yuan, Dervin, Sude and Chen make a major contribution to intercultural scholarship. Investing in the power of 'Chinese stories of interculturality' they urge us to look elsewhere for inspiration while looking at ourselves. As a specialist of Chinese culture, I am touched by the authors' generosity in sharing these important storiesto the world in an honest and reflexive manner. I congratulate them on this achievement and wish the reader a rewarding experience of 'change and exchange'.” (Man Meng, Professor, Minzu University of China)

“This is a fascinating book that will make a difference in the field of global and intercultural education. The authors have done meticulous work to identify elements of the ‘Chinese stories of interculturality’ and to present them in a clear and stimulating language to international readers, who will get to learn about important aspects of China from the past and today, especially in the way the Middle Kingdom has engaged with interculturality. More importantly, readers are given the opportunity to review their own ways of thinking about this thorny but central notion of today’s world. The book itself represents an excellent example of what interculturality should be about: Scholars from China and Finland have spent quality time together, discussing and negotiating (again and again) the meanings of concepts, notions, theories, inspired by China, in order to enrich global educational scholarship. A worthy feat and an example to follow!” (Gu Mingyuan, Professor, Beijing Normal University (China) and China Education Association)