Zhang, Z. (principal applicant) & Heydon R. (2016-2018). A multiple case study of literacy curricula in Canadian transnational education programs in China, SSHRC IDG.

Canada is seeking to enhance its global competitiveness in transnational education: education delivered by an institution from one country to students located in another. Yet Canada’s attempt is coming at a time when there is scant literature about what happens to curricula when they go abroad. There is an even greater dearth of literature concerning literacy curricula, which is particularly problematic given that English literacy has been the centerpiece of transplanted Canadian curricula (e.g., Schuetze, 2008). Specifically, since the 1990s, Canadian institutions have engaged in high-profile introductions of curricula into China through fast-growing provision of Canadian transnational education programs in elementary and secondary education (from 48 programs in 2011 to 86 in 2021). Recent case studies, which are exceptions to the limited research in the area, have been steered by Dr. Zheng Zhang, at offshore Alberta and Ontario programs in South China, Macao, and Hong Kong. These studies have revealed tensions between the objectives and content of literacy curricula as instantiated in curricular documents (i.e., the intended curricula), how they were actualized in classrooms (i.e., the implemented curricula), and how they were experienced by students (i.e., the lived curricula) (e.g., Zhang & Heydon, 2015). The studies point to the need to learn more about the benefits and constraints of globalizing Canadian literacy curricula into China and the variations of literacy curricula from Canadian provinces that are the key players in transnational programming in China: British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario. Led by experienced researchers in the area of transnational literacy curriculum, the project sought to correct current knowledge gaps. It studied the literacy curricula of offshore Canadian programs in Mainland China that use curricula from the two literacy curricula majority player provinces: British Columbia and New Brunswick. The project provides the data sets necessary to complete the studies of all major Canadian transnational education players and produce knowledge of the variations of intended, implemented, and lived curricula and their effects on offshore students’ literacy and identity options (i.e., possibilities for learners to acquire receptive and expressive literacy skills and form notions of self in and through these literacies).