Rethinking school-based curriculum development in the era of globalisation: Challenges, approaches, and implications for early childhood education

Abstract

The extent to which globalisation shapes curriculum reforms has become an important agendum to develop educational systems. Parallel to this direction, school-based curriculum development (SBCD) emerged as an international trend in the 1970s, which serves as one of the valuable modes of curriculum decision-making. However, there are limited empirical studies or investigations on the role of SBCD in the field of early childhood education (ECE). The current work briefly reviews previous research and critical literature on SBCD, with a focus on identifying its theoretical and practical value and rethinking it for the ECE enterprise under the challenges of globalisation. Several themes highly relevant to approaches of SBCD have emerged in the literature pool, with an inclusive concept map being constructed. From the knowledge base, implications for researchers to further examine the issues of SBCD in ECE, and preschool educators to develop high quality and appropriate curriculum for young children, are also suggested.