Addressing Curriculum Challenges for International Schools in China

About This Event

In recent years, there has been a significant shift in the international school market in China, from educating predominantly the children of expatriates to educating Chinese nationals. Based on an article Simon has recently published, this conversation will examine the problems such schools face in terms of putting together an international curriculum, not least in terms of the complex web of stakeholders often involved in such schools and also the need to comply with local curriculum standards. Examining the notion of the ‘glocal’ and intercultural communicative competence as a means of bridging the divide between local and global curriculum themes, this conversation will consider ways of reducing the impact of these issues on curriculum planning and examine models for curriculum planning in this new wave of schools. This is of direct relevance to the AISL HILA schools, which were the basis on which Simon wrote the article.

About the Speakers

Dr. Ahmed Hussain

Chief Education Officer, AISL Harrow Schools

Dr. Ahmed Hussain is the Chief Education Officer with AISL. This position involves leading on educational strategy and operations across the Harrow group of schools in Asia. He is also an Associate Professor at the school of education at Durham University, a member of the editorial board of Research Journal: International Education Theory and Practice, a member of the expert panel for Pudong Education Bureau, Shanghai, and a Fellow of the Charter College for Teaching, UK.

Simon Probert

Deputy Head, Harrow Shanghai

Simon has worked with the AISL Harrow Group for the past six years, formerly at Harrow Beijing and now at Harrow Shanghai. He is in the final year of his doctoral studies with the University of Bath and has published papers on the Uk China Maths exchange and, more recently, curriculum planning in International Schools teaching local and national students. He is particularly interested in curriculum planning and ways in which schools foster student identity. The focus of his thesis is examining student perspectives on internationalism in international schools in China, and he is currently conducting research across the Harrow group.