Teachers and the new curriculum: An ethnographic study in a Chinese school

Abstract

In 2004, the Ministry of Education of China disseminated a communicative language teaching (CLT) oriented new English curriculum for secondary schools across the entire country. In the official discourse, the NEC is advertised as a ‘radical’ change; in the literature, CLT is argued to be contradictory to the Chinese culture of learning (e.g. Hu 2002). Challenges for implementing CLT in East Asian classrooms are also frequently reported (e.g. Carless 2007; Littlewood 2007). So, what are Chinese teachers’ perceptions of the NEC? What are their experiences of teaching the NEC? Any there changes and challenges in their practices? Based on findings of a 15-month ethnographic study, this paper aims to answer these questions.

Keywords:

• Teacher beliefs
• new curriculum reform
• CLT implementation
• ethnography