Ancient Chinese civilisation developed two ideas about the ordering of large human spaces. The first was tianxia or 'all under heaven', the inclusive and cosmopolitan world as a whole, with no exterior, and governance on the basis of shared values and benefits, which first shaped statecraft in the Western Zhou dynasty (1047-1771 BCE). Second, the…

There is an increasing awareness of the significance of intellectual pluriversality worldwide in response to Western epistemic dominance in higher education. Yet, such a call has not been met by research that identifies concrete actions and structured efforts to promote diversity and the inclusion of knowledge. This article focuses on how to…

There has been little real progress in finding feasible approaches to addressing global knowledge asymmetries, especially in the social sciences and humanities. With China's new global role, how Chinese experiences could contribute to global theoretical construction in the human and social sciences becomes the order of the day? As the most valued…

Purpose: Internationalization has been a paramount objective for higher education institutions (HEIs) for decades. However, the landscape of education underwent significant transformation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to altered contexts, challenges and opportunities for HEI internationalization. This paper aims to critically evaluate the…

Since the end of the twentieth century, there have been a large number of Africans in Guangzhou occupying multiple emplacements and engaging in diverse activities so that a whole zone of the urban area is designated 'Little Africa.' The article investigates the linguistic landscape in the African living areas of Guangzhou from a multimodality…

Over the past two decades, efforts have been made to enrich curriculum studies internationally. Among the field's new theories which have emerged in recent years is "itinerant curriculum theory" (ICT), proposed and developed by João Paraskeva. Its aim is to free curriculum from the dominance of Western discourses and make room for…

In the globalized age, Chinese kindergartens are exposed to numerous western curriculum perspectives and practices. To construct a kindergarten-based curriculum (KBC), Chinese kindergartens tend to borrow western ideas. Using the Reggio Emilia approach (REA) as an example, this focused ethnographic study conducts an empirical investigation into…

The discourse regarding globalisation and particularly 'global competition' has appeared in a range of socio-economic areas and higher education is no exception. Global competition has been the policy context in which a range of national excellence initiatives have been developed. These have often involved competitive processes with significant…

Despite the ongoing 'globalization' of higher education, the curricula of most contemporary universities continue to be based upon epistemological assumptions deeply rooted in the Western philosophical tradition. Critiques of this lingering hegemony are evident in the growing calls for the decolonization of knowledge to make way for indigenous and…

This article responds to the work by Marginson and Yang in this special issue from an epistemological lens. It focuses on how to observe China and Chinese education. After offering an overall review of contemporary social sciences, it then reminds us of the need for overcoming dichotomous mode of thinking in social research in the context of…

This paper responds to the special issue's call for educators to examine the epistemological and ontological changes that happen to themselves after long-term working abroad and how this experience helps challenge theoretical and pedagogical norms in education. Employing collaborative autoethnography as our research method, we use our life stories…

This study interrogates the colonial and Western epistemology underlying mainstream curricula and proposes a decolonial approach that can build an "epistemically insurgent curriculum" that takes into account non-Western epistemologies. We begin with an analysis of coloniality in Western culture and knowledge systems, including in…

This dissertation examines how Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and Traditional Knowledge (TK) systems interact with Western Scientific Knowledge (WSK) in contemporary efforts to reintroduce traditional agro ecosystems and build transnational collaborations among Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). I focus on the role of education, broadly…

The internationalization of United States higher education has been described as a "two-way street" where students arrive at knowledge transfer. That transfer occurs through a curriculum deemed "unidirectional" with no relevance to local issues or needs and results in limited application and educational colonialism perceptions.…

This paper focuses on an emerging group in Chinese higher education -- students in transnational higher education (TNHE). Recent research has documented much about students' motivations for attending TNHE institutions. However, the impact of such institutions on student outputs remains under-researched. This study conducted interviews with 78…