A prism of the educational utopia: the East Asian Educational Model, reference society, and reciprocal learning

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the emergence of the new global educational governance characterized by 1) global educational reform movement, 2) the active participation of the international organizations in global educational policy making, and 3) the emerging performative culture. Against this background, this article contextualizes the East Asian Educational Model (Shanghai, Singapore, and Hong Kong) and its operation mechanism by appropriating the Confucian habitus and educational harmonization. Then this study compares the EAEM, the high performing educational system, and the representative global fourth-way countries by interrogating the underling binary—new orientalism vs. reciprocal learning. Finally, this paper draws some implications by learning from these different educational systems.

KEYWORDS:

• East Asian Educational Model
• reference society
• reciprocal learning
• high-performing education systems
• Confucius habitus
• new orientalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Peak Discipline Construction Project of Education at East China Normal University, China.