Ren-de agency in international faculty professional development: a China case study of glocal identity integration

ABSTRACT

Global experiences are a significant form of professional development for teacher education faculty preparing teachers to support twenty-first-century diverse classrooms. This case study examined the international professional development (IPD) experiences of teacher education faculty at a Chinese university as involving personal-professional, researcher-practitioner, and aesthetic-pragmatic development. Faculty interviews, courses, and publications evidence challenges met and strategies for integrating global and local (glocal) identities, values, and practices – abroad and upon returning home. A Confucian ren as social benevolence and de as virtuous introspection served as a form of faculty agency in bridging the global and the local to bring new perspectives to home institutions, while maintaining an integrated sense of glocal identity. Implications for teacher education practice, policy, and research encourage IPD cultivating a ren-de agency via glocal collaborations.

KEYWORDS:

• International professional development
• globalization
• Confucian philosophy
• teacher education faculty
• glocal

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura Blythe Liu

Laura Blythe Liu, EdD, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Education at Indiana University-Purdue University in Columbus. Laura’s research includes cultural and ecological diversity, glocalization, and teacher/faculty international professional development. Laura integrates arts-based approaches in her teaching and research, and has developed a children’s book series on environmental sustainability: Turtle’s Treasure, Turtle’s Tug, Turtle’s Turn, Turtle’s Triumph.

Juyan Ye

Juyan Ye is an Associate Professor in the Center for Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. Her teaching and research focuses on teacher identity, teacher education, sociology of teacher, policy studies in education and foundation of education.