From Play to Drama: Practices, Challenges and Prospections of Preschool Children’s Drama Education in Mainland China｜DaTEAsia Vol.12

APA Citation

Wang, H. (2023). From Play to Drama: Practices, Challenges and Prospections of Preschool Children’s Drama Education in Mainland China. The Journal of Drama and Theatre Education in Asia, 12, 65-85.

Since the launch of the third wave of early childhood curriculum reform in the 1980s in Mainland China, significant changes have occurred in China’s early childhood education, pedagogies and teaching ideologies. With the import of early education pedagogies and curriculums from the West, Western drama
education models have been introduced, practiced and developed in Mainland China. This paper, adopting secondary data analysis, begins by the role of games in China’s early childhood education. It then provides an overview of the reform in China’s early childhood education, with a focus on pedagogies, children’s play, as well as aesthetic education. Meanwhile, this paper explores the trajectory of Western drama education in China’s early childhood education, aiming to outline its transformation from “children’s play” to “drama education” since 2000. The opportunities, trends and challenges of adopting drama education in China’s early childhood education are also discussed.