In the global world, cultural issues relating to the subject of English as Foreign Language (EFL) have become important. This is especially the case when considering the EFL curriculum for Chinese Primary Education. Many writers have addressed the nature of curriculum design as knowledge and cultural reproduction, but usually in the North American and European literature. This research takes these debates and relocates them in the context of China as it enters a new market economy, embedded in its own version of ‘internationalism’. The 2001 national curriculum marked the beginning of China’s educational reform. From a reading of this literature, two main questions emerged: 1) what cultural values are transmitted through EFL textbooks for Chinese Primary Education?; 2) how do curriculum-making processes impact upon textbook production? The findings provide an important insight into knowledge and cultural reproduction in Chinese Education, especially in the subject of EFL. Two volumes of EFL textbooks, which were used in primary schools, were selected to examine the delivery of cultural values. Based on these initial findings, the researcher conducted a series of interviews and focus groups in order to trace the process of textbook production and curriculum creation. Participants included educational administrators in the Ministry of Education in China, curriculum designers, textbook editors from both Chinese and foreign publishers as well as classroom teachers. Research findings suggest that, the production of EFL textbooks should be recognised as a part of curriculum-making processes in the context of Chinese Primary Education. The ‘textbook’ can be seen as the ‘official’ interpretation of the Chinese culture. Indeed, the EFL curriculum is recognized as a vehicle for moral education by policy makers and educators. EFL textbooks include many moral messages promoting expected behaviour in contemporary China – ‘diligence, independence, respect and obedience, patriotism and collectivism’. The processes of generating this ‘production’ have spaces for less ‘official’ and more ‘hidden’ curriculum messages. Indeed, ‘lacunae’ – hidden spaces – in EFL curriculum design and textbook production have been identified. Various key players are involved in the curriculum-making process, including the State, its agencies, and intellectuals. However, instead of being a straight top-down structure led by the political elites, the strict control of the State over curriculum policy-making is finely nuanced. In fact, it was found that the practices of curriculum-making involve a complicated State-intellectuals partnership. Further, it is mainly the culture of the intellectual group which is reproduced through the EFL subject in Chinese Primary Education. Textbook editors and censors, inherently part of the intellectual elites, and key players in the curriculum designing process, rely heavily upon their own version of ‘common sense’. This thesis therefore concludes that the ‘hidden spaces’ through which curriculum design, development and delivery take place, generate a more nuanced understanding of Chinese cultural reproduction, than has previously been thought.

Cette thèse a pour objet l'étude des modalités de transmission du savoir-être au jeune enfant inuit fréquentant les établissements préscolaires et médicaux. Dans le village de Kuujjuaq, le plus peuplé du Nunavik, plus de la moitié des enfants de moins de cinq ans sont inscrits dans les établissements préscolaires, tandis que tous les enfants fréquentent le service médical et l'anglais leur est familier. Les interactions verbales et non verbales sont décrites puis analysées en fonction de leur statut et de leurs effets sur le développement de l'enfant. Cette recherche qualitative s'appuie sur 150 heures d'observation dans les établissements préscolaires, près de 30 heures d'observation dans le milieu médical et sur la tenue de 30 entretiens. Les résultats de la recherche montrent que les interactions en milieu institutionnel, au sein duquel les langues parlées sont l'anglais et l'inuttitut, exercent une influence sur la transmission du savoir-être, aussi conditionnée par les circonstances de l'échange et les pratiques éducatives inuit. La thèse révèle également une conception de l'éducation fine et originale dans sa capacité à développer chez l'enfant l'autonomie et la solidarité. / The objective of this thesis is to study the way in which Inuit values are transmitted to young children attending to preschool and healthcare institutions. In Kuujjuaq, the most populated village in Nunavik, more than half of the children aged under five years are registered in preschool institutions, when all the children are under the care of health services and are familiar with English language. Verbal and non verbal communication practices are described and analyzed with the focus on the way they influence child development. This study is the result of a qualitative research based on 150 hours of observation in preschool institutions, about 30 hours of observation in healthcare institutions and 30 interviews. The findings of the research show that children exposure to public spaces, where English and Inuttitut languages are spoken, leads to a variety of influences on value transmission, also conditioned by interactional circumstances and Inuit childrearing practices. The thesis also reveals how Inuit concept of education contributes to the development of children sense of autonomy and solidarity.

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Gender stereotyping is a phenomenon found in all spheres of life. School children often have to bear the brunt of these prescribed roles and stereotypes. This study includes a literature review of the characteristics of a professional educator as well as the theoretical background on gender issues. It employed Participatory Action Research as a strategy with the aim to empower teachers to improve their classroom practice, and ultimately, to improve the teaching-learning dynamics for learners in the science and technology classrooms. The participants, who are science and technology teachers, are vastly different people whose one common goal it was to empower themselves and to change their classroom practice on a continuous basis. The study looks at some of the beliefs these teachers now hold after the intervention for promoting gender equality in the classroom. Science and technology are the domains of historically male-dominated fields, and by means of this study I aim to equalise the learning opportunities for both boys and girls. / Comparative Education / M. Ed. (Comparative Education)

Gender stereotyping is a phenomenon found in all spheres of life. School children often have to bear the brunt of these prescribed roles and stereotypes. This study includes a literature review of the characteristics of a professional educator as well as the theoretical background on gender issues. It employed Participatory Action Research as a strategy with the aim to empower teachers to improve their classroom practice, and ultimately, to improve the teaching-learning dynamics for learners in the science and technology classrooms. The participants, who are science and technology teachers, are vastly different people whose one common goal it was to empower themselves and to change their classroom practice on a continuous basis. The study looks at some of the beliefs these teachers now hold after the intervention for promoting gender equality in the classroom. Science and technology are the domains of historically male-dominated fields, and by means of this study I aim to equalise the learning opportunities for both boys and girls. / Comparative Education / M. Ed. (Comparative Education)