China's recent education reforms are a result of selective policy borrowing from ‘the West’. Although comparativists have highlighted the importance of cultural context in policy borrowing in China, what remains relatively under-explored is the epistemological basis for cultural views that mediate policy transfer. This article argues that the dominant cultural factors (‘cultural scripts’) for teaching in China – students' respect for the teacher, student attention and discipline in class, and the importance of practice – find their genesis and justification in a Confucian worldview. Focussing on a Chinese classic text, Xueji (Record of Learning), this article elucidates the ancient Chinese views on the nature and transmission of knowledge and explains why the ‘teacher-dominated’ pedagogy is believed by many Chinese educators to be indispensable for ‘good’ teaching. An appreciation of the epistemological foundation of culture, it is argued, is salutary in enhancing our understanding of policy divergence across societies despite their apparent convergence of global/‘Western’ educational ideas and practices.
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