Li, X.W., Xu S., Marsico., G., (2020). Dialogues on basic educational needs : East and West. In S., Xu and G. Marsico (Eds.), (2020). Where Culture Grows: Social Ecology of a Chinese Kindergarten, Cultural Psychology of Education, 12, (pp. 9-15), Cham, CH: Springer;

This book comes from a long-lasting concern in constructing a cultural psychology of education by integrating international research efforts from a large variety of social and cultural background (Marsico, 2017; Valsiner, 2009). In the last years, the IBEF-Center of Ideas for the Basic Education of the Future (International Network on Innovative Learning, Teaching Environments and Practices) has been established. It is based in Shanghai and has universities and scholars from Luxembourg, Italy, Brazil, Denmark, Noeway and China in the network. This book, as the first book publication born in the network, is mainly contributed by young scholars and master students from East China Normal University and University of Luxembourg’s joint work in a Chinese kindergarten in Shanghai for one and half months in the summer of 2018. In that summer, one Chinese student and one Luxembourg student pair with each other as a research tandem to conduct a research internship together. Research tandem in one specific Shanghai kindergarten is the biggest characteristic of this project. The research tandem, as innovative reaserch device, is simple. The idea is to form a couple of one insider (a Chinese student) with a foreigner (the Luxembourg psychology student) on the basis of common, previously explored, reaserch interests. In this process, both sides are exposed to the experience of “defamiliarization”: Luxembourg students are faced with totally different cultural and educational context, while Chinese students need to respond to their doubts and curiosity. Discussion and negotiation between students from the two backgrounds has continued throughout the whole research period. Both sides need to re-examine their cultural beliefs and premises, which have been taken for granted in their daily practice. This encountering has provided an opportunity for the “epoche” of phenomenology, which makes it possible to analyze deeply the conscious states of young children.