"Every once and awhile, a book comes along that fills gaping holes in one's knowing. Such was the case with Narrative Inquiry into Reciprocal Learning Between Canada-China Sister Schools: A Chinese Perspective. The volume was so engaging that I could not put it down. I read it in one sitting. It definitely is a mustread book because it illuminates-in vivid detail-intercultural experiences from a Chinese point of view." -Cheryl J. Craig, Professor and Houston Endowment Endowed Chair of Urban Education, Texas A&M University, USA This edited volume explores how Chinese school-based educators learn from others and attain awareness in dialogue with the world in an era of increasing globalization and information exchange. Minzhu Primary School in Shanghai, China, and Bay Street School in Toronto, Canada, have been connected as sister schools of cross-cultural exchange since 2008. Together, they have explored ways to reciprocally learn in a cross-cultural partnership while remaining grounded in their home culture and language. In this book, chapter authors examine how Chinese school-based educators view themselves, understand others, and grow and develop as a consequence of a decade of cross-cultural reciprocal learning as sister schools. Further, the authors discuss prospects for future educational interactions between Canada and China. Yuhua Bu is Professor, PhD Supervisor, and Deputy Director of both the Institute of "Life Practice" Educology Research and the Institute of Schooling Reform and Development at East China Normal University, China. Her research interests include philosophy of education, teacher education, school reform, and ethics of education.

This edited volume explores how Chinese school-based educators learn from others and attain awareness in dialogue with the world in an era of increasing globalization and information exchange. Minzhu Primary School in Shanghai, China, and Bay Street School in Toronto, Canada, have been connected as sister schools of cross-cultural exchange since 2008. Together, they have explored ways to reciprocally learn in a cross-cultural partnership while remaining grounded in their home culture and language. In this book, chapter authors examine how Chinese school-based educators view themselves, understand others, and grow and develop as a consequence of a decade of cross-cultural reciprocal learning as sister schools. Further, the authors discuss prospects for future educational interactions between Canada and China.

This book enriches the discourse around Global Citizenship Education in teacher education through the example of a teacher's experience in a Canada-China Sister School reciprocal learning landscape. Instead of positioning global citizenship teaching and learning as a set of fixed goals to be attained by teachers alone, this book approaches global citizenship teaching and learning as unfinished lifework in progress and as situated curriculum problems to be inquired together by university researchers, school teachers, and students under the spirit of reciprocity and community. This reimagination of narratives, theory, and action start from collaborative and reciprocal learning partnerships among Chinese and Canadian researchers and teachers in the practicality of re-searching and re-enacting the purpose and meanings of twenty-first century education in a Canada-China Sister School setting.

This book revolves around curriculum making, reciprocal learning, and the best-loved self. It draws on extensive school-based studies conducted with teachers in the United States, China, and Canada, and weaves in experiences from other cross-national projects, keynote addresses, archival research, and editorial work. The elucidation of the ‘best-loved self’ drives home the point that teachers are more than the subject matter they teach: they are students’ role models and allies. Curriculum making and reciprocal learning relationships enrich teachers’ and students’ being and becoming as they live curriculum alongside one another—with the goal of more satisfying lives held firmly in view.

In 2000, the “Western Development” plan of the Chinese Mainland attracted attention of educators and policy makers. Around that period, the Chinese government also launched large scale and systemic curriculum reforms in basic education and secondary education in achieving quality education across the vast country. Despite significant progress that has been made in educational investments and attainments in China, issues of quality and regional disparities across China remain, especially in the less developed, western part of China where the significance of ethnic diversity, urban-rural disparity and variations in school development exists. In addition, there have been entrenched problems of teacher and teaching quality, resources inadequacy and ‘left-behind’ children. Written by a group of Chinese and international scholars, the book provides an updated analysis and discussion of educational development and related issues in the less developed part of Western China. These chapters cover broad contextual issues of educational development and reforms, issues of quality and equality in different sectors of education, as well as curriculum implementation, teaching innovations and professional development of teachers.