Deweyan Student-Centered Pedagogy and Confucian Epistemology: Dilemmatic Pragmatism and Neo-Patriotism?

Drawing on empirical data collected for three separate studies in secondary school contexts in Canada, U.S., and Northwestern P.R.C, this chapter discusses how Deweyan student-centered pedagogy transpires in Confucian epistemological contexts. It illustrates the experiences and perceptions of secondary school immigrant students from Hong Kong, P.R.C., and Taiwan studying in Canada and their Canadian teachers; American high school students and their Chinese teachers; and northwestern P.R.C teachers. The chapter extends the traditional comparative education work further by showing the complexity of shifting practice and mixed philosophies that require consciousness raising, negotiation, and practical support. Through the examination of the clash and conflicts between Chinese Confucian teacher-centered pedagogical belief and American/Canadian Deweyan student-centered pedagogical belief, it speculates a new Chinese educational model that could be identified as dilemmatic pragmatism and neo-patriotism that stretches neoliberal global competition to include exertion of intellectual knowledge influence maybe emerging in this global era.