It is a bit of difficult to explain my understanding of education of New Zealand vs my context as Asian background considering I am in this teaching role for only 1 year, But I will try my best to explain it in my own way.
Convergence.
1) Both indigenous people in NZ and China are not composed by one single groups,but many different sub-groups/races. Different from normal view of Chinese, actually there are 56 different ethnics groups in China, see below.
Distribution of 56 ethnics groups in china
Different culture and dressing of 56 ethnics groups of china
As Maori are made up by family and different clans, those ethics groups lived in different part of China and have their own chief a few hundred years ago. Although Han dominant the ethics groups in china(95% +), most of the time, all those 56 ethnics live peacefully and they also learned from each other. The communication between those 56 ethnics groups made them share some common culture and resources, and they all belongs to the emperor of China, like those small Maori sub-clans listen to chief of the Maori tribe.But in term of culture of those 56 ethics groups, they are totally different, some ethics group, such as Huizu, which believe in muslim, shared similar believing of god and laws as those countries in middle east and they still kept their own language like their ancestors. Because of those reason, balancing cultures from different ethics groups in china, especially in education is even challenge job compared to bi-culture system in New Zealand.
2) Both countries are serious at education. Actually the attitude to education in china has long history. About 2000 years ago, Confucius , the founder of Confucianism, had put a lot efforts about education and learning. Later people summarized his thinking of education as theory of value/knowledge/human nature/learning/transmission/society/opportunity/consensus. Those theories had impact education in china for thousands of years and even now it is still impacting china's education. One simple example is, Chinese culture put a lot of focus on self-reflection and self-guiding, which in general discourage collaboration learning as now days. One of the reason is because Confucius think learning is a process of observation of some type of subject matter whether it be books, objects, or people, followed by reflection, that somehow changed one.He saw learning as highly personal and therefore, highly individual activity.Because of this reason, you can possible noticed that Chinese students not actively in group/collaboration discussion. which doesn't mean they are not learning. it is just because there is different thinking about learning. While in New Zealand, respect to education is also evident in every corner of the society. But different from Chinese, the respect to education here is evident by the idea of community and involvement. One example can be brought up here. Last year, in my preschool, there are around 50 big or small activities/events in my preschool, from Dawali celebration to basic safety training from social department. In all of those activities, parents gave us very strong support and they were always very active to support or participate in those activities.
3)Both countries had put efforts to help those minor/indigenous ethics groups. In china, because most of minor ethics live in rural areas , most of the time, their economic condition are not as good as people in big cities. Some of them even cant afford basic living conditions. The idea of Chinese government is bring up their economic condition by encouraging trading, education in those area. similar things were observed at indigenous people,such as Maori, at New Zealand. But it is also because of this reason, a lot of young generations from minor ethics groups give up their language and culture and converged to accept the major ethics's language, culture, which lead to dying of their own culture.
Convergence.
1) Both indigenous people in NZ and China are not composed by one single groups,but many different sub-groups/races. Different from normal view of Chinese, actually there are 56 different ethnics groups in China, see below.
Distribution of 56 ethnics groups in china
Different culture and dressing of 56 ethnics groups of china
As Maori are made up by family and different clans, those ethics groups lived in different part of China and have their own chief a few hundred years ago. Although Han dominant the ethics groups in china(95% +), most of the time, all those 56 ethnics live peacefully and they also learned from each other. The communication between those 56 ethnics groups made them share some common culture and resources, and they all belongs to the emperor of China, like those small Maori sub-clans listen to chief of the Maori tribe.But in term of culture of those 56 ethics groups, they are totally different, some ethics group, such as Huizu, which believe in muslim, shared similar believing of god and laws as those countries in middle east and they still kept their own language like their ancestors. Because of those reason, balancing cultures from different ethics groups in china, especially in education is even challenge job compared to bi-culture system in New Zealand.
2) Both countries are serious at education. Actually the attitude to education in china has long history. About 2000 years ago, Confucius , the founder of Confucianism, had put a lot efforts about education and learning. Later people summarized his thinking of education as theory of value/knowledge/human nature/learning/transmission/society/opportunity/consensus. Those theories had impact education in china for thousands of years and even now it is still impacting china's education. One simple example is, Chinese culture put a lot of focus on self-reflection and self-guiding, which in general discourage collaboration learning as now days. One of the reason is because Confucius think learning is a process of observation of some type of subject matter whether it be books, objects, or people, followed by reflection, that somehow changed one.He saw learning as highly personal and therefore, highly individual activity.Because of this reason, you can possible noticed that Chinese students not actively in group/collaboration discussion. which doesn't mean they are not learning. it is just because there is different thinking about learning. While in New Zealand, respect to education is also evident in every corner of the society. But different from Chinese, the respect to education here is evident by the idea of community and involvement. One example can be brought up here. Last year, in my preschool, there are around 50 big or small activities/events in my preschool, from Dawali celebration to basic safety training from social department. In all of those activities, parents gave us very strong support and they were always very active to support or participate in those activities.
3)Both countries had put efforts to help those minor/indigenous ethics groups. In china, because most of minor ethics live in rural areas , most of the time, their economic condition are not as good as people in big cities. Some of them even cant afford basic living conditions. The idea of Chinese government is bring up their economic condition by encouraging trading, education in those area. similar things were observed at indigenous people,such as Maori, at New Zealand. But it is also because of this reason, a lot of young generations from minor ethics groups give up their language and culture and converged to accept the major ethics's language, culture, which lead to dying of their own culture.
Divergence:
1) New Zealand and China had different understanding in term of purpose of education. Hear in New Zealand, from kindergarten to university, the purpose of education is to for the well-being of individual people by enhance their belongings by empowering them. Empowerment, holistic development are key principles in any education system at NZ. Teacher encourage children to express their own ideas and create opportunities based on each children's interest. The detail subject, such as match, science are treated as tools to realize each individual's well-being.
While in china, the aim and theory of Chinese socialist education is to provide scientific and technological knowledge so as to develop the productive forces and to meet the demands of the socialist cause. With that purpose, the education system in china take "Elite education". Students had to proof they are best by score to enroll University. Because of that reason, personality of each individuals are wiped out in china's education. You will see a lot Chinese students can have high score in test, but aimless to their life when they grow up.
Because I was educated from that system, that kind of thinking impact me also. One example can be shared here about a science experiment teaching practices in my working place at NZ.
A year ago, when i just started my career as preschool teacher, I saw the milk painting video online. Because it is safe and easy to use, I wanted to show our children how to play with this. Although our children was happy about the experiments, nobody ask me further about that after that show. Why? Isn't it fun. I didn't get answer until one year later when i rerun this experiment again under the topic of cyclone Pam, but this time the purpose of the experiment is to make a cyclone Pam after discussion, video watch and drawing. Because all of our children had experienced Pam in that night, children had deep involvement in this process and they still talked about the weather after the experiment. Same experiment, totally different results. I think the difference come from the purpose of education as I said before.
one child was describing the horrible night of Cyclone Pam
Children made the painting of Pam in their mind..dark...scrary...monster...
Children were sharing each other how to make the cyclone with milk
Children were watching the weatherman about Pam
2) There are different attitude to science and technology learning between China and NZ kids. Sci and technology topic is one of the hot after-school topics in china.Both parents and children showed strong passions to those topic. Because the learning from area can possible link to their future job, parents and children want to learn those area in the class. While here in NZ, as the survey about community engagement at NZ, both parents and children treated this topic as one of the interesting topic as other and they preferred "play", rather than "learn" in the process. Also one interesting finding is NZ children had showed much broader interested topics, such as sports, party, hiking etc. Actually, one of the excuse of "no-show" in libraries's robot activities was children were busy at rugby or soccer and they can't make it. One of the possible reason from my understanding is reason for learning: Utilitarianism is popular in learning in china, while learning in NZ will be linked to personal development.
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