China's quest for world-class teachers: a rational model of national initiatives and institutional transformations

Abstract

Teacher education has been undergoing significant transformations worldwide in recent decades, and China has made continuous efforts in its quest for world-class teachers. This paper aims at a comprehensive investigation of the complex policy process in China's national initiatives to nurture a world-class teaching force, with qualitative findings from a case study. It focuses on policy initiatives in China's unique sociocultural context, system transformations and developmental challenges from a rational prospective. Meanwhile, the challenges of institutional change and the limitations to change are examined within two frames – the contextually less amenable to change and the institutionally remediable. Policy implications for teacher education reform in the future are illustrated within these two frames. Lastly, this paper concludes that, along with its rising status, in terms of excellence in educational performance and students' academic achievement as shown in PISA 2009, China provides an alternative model for building a world-class teaching force and this may have multiple implications for the international community in an age of globalisation.

Keywords:

• China
• implementation
• institutional transformation
• rational model
• teacher education reform

Acknowledgements

This study was sponsored by the Harold Benjamin National Memorial Fund of the University of Maryland and the University Grants Committee Block Fund of Hong Kong Institute of Education. The author thanks Qing Gu, Ruth hayhoe, Steven Klees, Jing Lin, Betty Malen, Hanne Mawhinney, Carol Ann Spreen, Linda Valli, and Xudong Zhu for their help, and the anonymous reviewers for their help with further revision of the manuscript. The author bears sole responsibility for its contents, however.

Notes

1. Pseudonyms have been used for all participants throughout this paper.