Contextual influences on Chinese kindergarten teachers’ understandings of the theory of multiple intelligences

ABSTRACT

Educational reform in China has brought about many Western educational approaches for teachers to consider as part of their pedagogy. An example of this is the theory of multiple intelligences (MI theory). This paper presents how a theory grounded in a Western context is locally reconceptualised by kindergarten teachers who grew up in a different context. A qualitative case study was selected to investigate seven kindergarten teachers’ understandings of MI theory in China. Three methods were employed to gather data; semi-structured interviews, field observations and documentation. Evidence from the three sources were analysed using a thematic approach. This paper reports contextual factors that had an influence on the teachers’ understandings of MI theory and thus its implementation, and argues that the introduction of new educational theories or approaches should be grounded in the local context in which the teaching will be embedded.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher understanding
• MI theory
• contextual influences
• China

Acknowledgments

The authors also gratefully thank the teachers and children involved in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics

The work was approved by the University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee (Ref. 015530).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Years of teaching was roughly calculated according to the date of data collection.