Childhood, Learning and Everyday Life in Three Asia-Pacific Cities: Experiences from Melbourne, Hong Kong and Singapore

"This book introduces findings from an international, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary study of childrens 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 childrens 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 childrens everyday lives and learning in global cities, as well as exploring questions that pose challenges to educational and social norms."-- Provided by publisher Contents 6 1 The Global Childhoods Project: Learning and Everyday Life in Three Global Cities 7 1.1 The Global Childhoods Project: Understanding Children’s Everyday Learning and Living 10 1.2 Lifeworlds and Policy Cultures: Theorising Education and Everyday Life in Context 11 1.3 Methodological Approach: From Home to School and Back Again 14 1.3.1 Online Survey 14 1.3.2 Classroom Ethnographies 14 1.3.3 Learning Dialogues 15 1.3.4 Lifeworld Re-enactments 16 1.4 Conclusions 17 References 20 2 Out and About in Global Cities 24 2.1 Childhoods, Education and Global Cities in Dialogue 26 2.2 Walking in Cities: Researching (In, and Out of) Place 27 2.3 Out and About: Spaces, Places and Times 30 2.4 Conclusion 38 References 39 3 Exploring the Scholarly Habitus in Children’s Lifeworlds: High-Stakes Testing and Educational Capital 41 3.1 Children’s Lifeworlds and the Scholarly Habitus: A Bourdieusian Approach 44 3.2 Overview of TIMSS and PIRLS 45 3.3 TIMSS 2019 and PIRLS 2016 Average Achievement Scores 47 3.4 Scholarly Habitus, Context Data, and Children’s Lifeworlds 48 3.4.1 Children Entering School with Literacy and Numeracy Skills 48 3.4.2 School Emphasis on Academic Success 54 3.5 Conclusions 60 References 60 4 Picturing Policy: Visual Representations of Curriculum Policy in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore 64 4.1 National Policy Texts: Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong 65 4.2 Policy Discourse and Neoliberal Governance 67 4.3 Method 69 4.4 Reading Images and Visual Design 70 4.5 Picturing Policies: Policy Images from Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore 71 4.6 Conclusions 76 References 78 5 Everyday Learning Looks Like This: Classroom Ethnographies in Three Global Cities 83 5.1 Schools and Schooling in Contemporary Education Systems 85 5.2 Everyday Learning in Schools: The Structures of Time and Space in Children’s Lifeworlds 88 5.2.1 The School Timetable: Organising Time and Schedules 89 5.2.2 The Built Environments in Children’s Lifeworlds: School Buildings and Classrooms 97 5.2.3 Connecting Time Use and Space 102 5.3 Some Concluding Thoughts 103 References 104 6 Everyday Out-of-School Lifeworlds Look Like This: Children’s Activities in Three Global Cities 108 6.1 Previous Research on Children’s Out-of-School Activities 109 6.1.1 Leisure Activities 110 6.1.2 Academic Activities 111 6.1.3 Non-academic Organised Activities 112 6.2 Methodology 112 6.2.1 Survey 113 6.2.2 Re-enactments 113 6.3 Survey: A Broad Overview of Children’s Out-of-School Activities 115 6.3.1 Reflections on Survey 119 6.4 Re-enactments: Children’s Thursday Afternoons in Three Global Cities 120 6.4.1 Madison, Melbourne 120 6.4.2 Mei Mei, Hong Kong 121 6.4.3 Ashley, Singapore 125 6.4.4 Reflections on Re-enactments 127 6.5 Discussion and Conclusions 128 References 131 7 Picturing Educational and Future Success 135 7.1 The Making of Success in Educational Landscapes: Theorising Visual Representations About Success 137 7.2 Picturing Education and Success in the Policy Domain 140 7.3 The Appearance of Learning in Public Domains 143 7.4 Children Picturing Learning and Future Success 145 7.5 Conclusions 151 References 152 8 Rethinking the Global Childhoods Project: Learning and Everyday Life in Three Global Cities 154 8.1 Understanding Children’s Everyday Learning and Living 155 8.2 Alternative Discourses: What Do We Know About Contemporary Childhoods? 157 8.3 Some Concluding Thoughts 158 References 160