A comparative report between China’s International Understanding and Global Competencies and similar foci in specific curricula in England. British Council.

This report compares national policy approaches to competency-based education in China and England in relation to the following overarching themes:
• global education development goals and competencies
• underpinning ideological, societal and cultural influences
From this, the report focuses on how, from a set of core competencies (CC) one of 18 sub-components, International Understanding (IU) is developed within English tuition in China. It compares explicit IU development in China with implicit Global Competency (GC) in the English curriculum, focusing on the following drivers of implementation:
• teacher understanding and implementation of the competencies
• curricula and textbooks
This report therefore compares espoused values and implementation approaches within IU in China and GC in England as well as their links to global citizenship education worldwide. In England, the spirit of these competencies is, in the most part, embedded into the primary school curriculum, rather than explicitly taught, as each primary school can follow its own curriculum, usually within the framework of the national curriculum.
Whilst there have been previous comparative reports on the Chinese and English education systems, this report provides further understanding of the extent to which language teaching adheres to, and promotes, the values of each system. Strengths, limitations and future challenges of both systems will be identified, from which recommendations for practice development will be made in relation to IU/GC teacher training and development.