The Role of Chinese Normal Universities in the Professional

Development of Teachers

By

Jie Qi

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy
Graduate Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto

©Copyright by Jie Qi 2012

 The Role of Chinese Normal Universities in the Professional

Development of Teachers

Jie Qi

Doctor of Philosophy

Theory and Policy Studies in Education

University of Toronto

2012

Abstract

The major purpose of the study was to analyze the role of the normal universities

in China in the field of teacher professional development. In order to achieve this

purpose, the following two questions guided this research:

1) What efforts are normal universities in China making in continuing teacher

education?

2) What are the factors that support or inhibit normal universities in these endeavors?

The research includes case studies of four Chinese normal universities as well as a

comparison to the work of universities in Ontario, Canada. In-depth interviews were

utilized as the major data collecting method, and document review was used as a

supplementary method. The participants included university administrators, university

teacher educators and government administrators.

The study outlined the current state of normal universities’ work in the field of
ii
in-service teacher education by reviewing the larger policy context around teacher

development in China and how it contributes to the development of this work. In

addition, the study identified key issues and major challenges normal universities face

in taking part in in-service teacher education system.

The study found that government policy on in-service teacher education in China

is currently dominating the work of provincial governments and normal universities.

The training programs delivered by normal universities are often university-based,

intensive teacher learning and result from contracts between universities and either

central or provincial governments. Normal universities often feel poorly prepared in

terms of institutional structure, promotion standards, and the number of well-qualified

teacher training experts. Although willing to take an important position in the overall

in-service teacher training system, normal universities lack confidence that they will

be given consistent policy and financial support and are unclear about the direction of

in-service teacher education reform in the future.

Key findings of this study can be used to inform the role that Chinese Normal

Universities might play in in-service teacher education that could lead to higher

quality teaching and learning both at the university and school levels.

iii
 Acknowledgements

This work could never have been completed without the support and

encouragement of many individuals in my academic and social life. They have been

inspiring me and challenging me to do my best all along this long journey. It is my

turn to thank them.

First, of course, I must thank my supervisor Dr. Ben Levin for his careful and

critical reading and insightful feedback from proposal to the complete version. Dr.

Levin has guided, prodded, challenged, and supported my academic pursuits. Also, I

must thank my committee members Dr. Hayhoe and Dr. Evans for their insightful

suggestions and continuous support.

Gratitude must also be shared with my colleagues and friends at OISE who have

connected with me over the years to check on my progress and offer support.

Finally, I must thank my biggest supporter and pillar of strength, my parents. I

absolutely could not have accomplished this goal without their love and confidence in

me.

Thank you—I love you all !

iv
 Table of Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. ii
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... iv
Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................. v
List of Tables .................................................................................................................................viii
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................viii
Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1
Rationale of the study............................................................................................................... 5
The call for a better alignment between initial and continuing teacher education ............ 5
Ethical responsibility......................................................................................................... 6
Knowledge exploration ..................................................................................................... 6
Research questions ................................................................................................................... 6
Purposes of the study ............................................................................................................... 9
Significance of the study ........................................................................................................ 10
Definitions of terms ................................................................................................................ 13
Chapter 2: Literature Review .......................................................................................................... 16
Teacher knowledge and teacher learning .............................................................................. 16
Teacher knowledge.......................................................................................................... 16
Teacher learning .............................................................................................................. 20
Summary of teacher knowledge and teacher learning..................................................... 24
Purposes of teacher PD and effective features of teacher PD .............................................. 25
Purposes .......................................................................................................................... 25
Effective professional development ................................................................................ 26
Summary of teacher PD and effective features of teacher PD ........................................ 29
Conceptual framework ........................................................................................................... 30
The role of university ...................................................................................................... 30
Conceptual frame of the study ........................................................................................ 33
Different forms of university participation in teacher professional development ................ 35
Professional development school (PDS) ......................................................................... 36
University-school network .............................................................................................. 39
Teacher networks ............................................................................................................ 42
Collaborative research/action research............................................................................ 43
Workshops/lectures ......................................................................................................... 45
Combined models ........................................................................................................... 46
Academic structure in universities for teacher professional development ........................... 49
Barriers to universities’ involvement ................................................................................. 52
Summary of the conceptual framework ................................................................................ 54
Chapter summary ................................................................................................................... 54
Chapter 3: Methodology and Procedures ........................................................................................ 57
v
 Research Design ..................................................................................................................... 57
Sample selection ..................................................................................................................... 58
Data collection ........................................................................................................................ 65
Data analysis and interpretation ............................................................................................ 69
Establishing Validity ............................................................................................................... 70
Limitations of the research .................................................................................................... 71
Ethical Considerations ........................................................................................................... 73
Modifications to the original intent ....................................................................................... 74
Chapter summary ................................................................................................................... 79
Chapter 4: Policy context for the university’s participation in continuing teacher education ......... 81
The overall system of continuing teacher education in China and Ontario ........................ 82
The Chinese teacher education system............................................................................ 82
The Ontario teacher education system .......................................................................... 107
Major policies indirectly influencing teacher education .................................................... 114
No tuition for normal students and innovative methods of teacher training ................. 114
Curriculum reform ........................................................................................................ 117
Major policies directly influencing in-service teacher education in China ....................... 121
Degree-based in-service continuing teacher education in China .................................. 125
Non-degree-based in-service teacher training ............................................................... 129
Chapter summary ................................................................................................................. 138
Chapter 5 The current efforts of normal universities in continuing teacher education ................. 140
Introduction to the four universities .................................................................................... 142
Hebei Normal University .............................................................................................. 142
Qufu Normal University in Shandong province............................................................ 145
Shanxi Normal University............................................................................................. 147
Beijing Normal University ............................................................................................ 149
Current work of provincial governments............................................................................. 152
The role of normal universities as well as their current efforts .......................................... 159
Problems emerging from the universities’ participation ..................................................... 167
Thinking comparatively about the relevant work at OISE, University of Toronto ............ 173
Chapter summary ................................................................................................................. 182
Chapter 6: Discussion ................................................................................................................... 187
What efforts are universities in China making in continuing teacher education? ............ 187
Organizing a group of competent people who can effectively foster a new initiative .. 188
Exploring new approaches to teacher training .............................................................. 189
Reforming administrative structures ............................................................................. 190
What are the factors that support or inhibit universities in these endeavors? ................... 193
Funding ......................................................................................................................... 194
Lack of experienced teacher educators ......................................................................... 195
The Chinese educational structure ................................................................................ 199
Changing the mindset of the traditional way of working at the provincial level .......... 204
Facilitating and sharing teacher education resources .................................................... 206
What is the potential contribution of universities’ participation in in-service teacher
education to the transformation of Chinese teacher education? ........................................ 208

vi
 Better fulfillment of the responsibilities of teacher education institutions .................... 208
Potential impact on educational research ...................................................................... 211
A better alignment between pre-service and in-service teacher education.................... 212
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 214
Recommendations for further study .................................................................................... 225
References:.................................................................................................................................... 227
Appendix A: Interview questions with university administrators and teacher educators.............. 255
Appendix B: Interview questions with administrators in the Ontario Ministry of Education ....... 257
Appendix C: Interview questions with administrators at the Ontario College of Teachers .......... 258

vii
 List of Tables

Table 1 Comparison of basic information of the selected universities ......................................... 60

Table 2 : Role and institutions of all the participants in the study .................................................. 66
Table 3 : Fiscal investment in education ......................................................................................... 87
Table 4 : The development of universities’ involvement in the field of continuing teacher
education in China ........................................................................................................................ 124
Table 5 : Quota allocations (people) taking part in national-level training programs organized by
the MOE ........................................................................................................................................ 132
Table 6 : Major schools and colleges of Hebei Normal University .............................................. 145
Table 7 : Major schools and colleges of Qufu Normal University ............................................ 147
Table 8 : Major schools and colleges of Shanxi Normal University ............................................. 149
Table 9 : Major schools and colleges of Beijing Normal University ............................................ 151
Table 10 Member institutions of Chinese on-line teacher education ......................................... 171
Table 11 : Types of new established departments in normal universities ...................................... 191

viii
 List of Figures
Figure 1 Visual representation of the conceptual framework .................................................. 35
Figure 2:Geographical location of the four provinces............................................................. 60
Figure 3: Revised visual presentation of the conceptual framework ...................................... 79
Figure 4: Teacher education system in China ....................................................................... 103
Figure 5:Visual summary of formal structures of in-service teacher education relevant to
normal universities ........................................................................................................ 125
Figure 6: Location of Hebei province on the map of China .................................................. 144
Figure 7: Location of Shandong province on the map of China ........................................... 146
Figure 8: Location of Shanxi province on the map of China ................................................ 148
Figure 9: Location of Beijing on the map of China .............................................................. 150
Figure 10: Administrative structure of Hebei Normal University ......................................... 172
Figure 11: Major forms of participation identified from the data ......................................... 184

ix
 1

Chapter 1: Introduction

Teacher education has long been a centre of attention in the educational world

and serves as a major policy lever. In recent years, teacher professional development

as an important part of teacher education (Doyle, 1990) has been recognized as one of

the most effective means to enhance teachers’ professional skills and attitudes, create

better schools (Borko & Putnam, 1995) and ultimately improve the learning process

as well as student outcomes (Darling-Hammond, 1997; Guskey, 2000). France (1990)

has pointed out that effective teacher education is key to teachers’ ability to face

educational change and handle various socioeconomic conditions inside and outside

school. Furthermore, pre-service education provides an important foundation for

teachers’ professional learning but more professional learning is required throughout a

teacher’s career as different professional needs emerge and contextual circumstances

shift.

In Ontario, professional education has been viewed as one important way to

implement major educational reform since the mid 80s (Fullan & Connelly, 1987).

The report of the Teacher Education Council of Ontario task force on teacher

in-service training (1992) addressed the fact that continuing professional education “is

one of the most important elements in the response to pressures exerted on schools to

meet the new challenges facing society” (p.3). In China, the Ministry of Education has

entrusted educational institutions to draw up clearer standards for further improving

teacher professional learning (Fang & Zhu, 2007).

 2

The current formulation of policy and design of teacher preparation and

continuing professional development programs embraces the concept of life-long

learning and views teacher learning as a continuum rather than consisting of different

phases (Craig, Kraft and du Plessis, 1998; Day, 1999; Feiman-Nemser, 2001;

Villegas-Reimers, 2003).
Whatever is done in any one phase should be informed and will be influenced by
what has been learnt before and what is likely to be learnt later…In other words,
when designing opportunities to foster teacher learning and development at any
phase, one must keep long-term professional goals in sight while remaining
cognizant of what happened in the past. (Schwille, et al., 2007, p.29)
As a result, teacher education in many countries has shifted from a

degree-oriented perspective towards a development-oriented perspective (Yan, 2005).

During this transformative process, the need for a reconceptualization of the roles of

different institutions has become evident and an exploration of the role of the

university in professional development is a good starting point for this

reconceptualization. The university, as the legitimate provider of initial teacher

education today, will no doubt play a key role in this transformative process.

Leithwood, Jantzi and Steinbach (2004) have argued that universities should take on a

new role by forming close partnerships with schools and their teacher graduates and

helping them identify as well as understand different issues in education at the same

time as learning from school teachers to produce advanced programs and materials for

teacher training.

This trend of educational change has given rise to a lot of new questions. What do

universities need to alter in terms of their approaches to continuing teacher education?

What needs to be improved, what needs to be added, and what needs to be removed in
 3

order to achieve a more comprehensive role? How do universities foster a better

alignment between initial and continuing teacher education? Should universities

become more field-centered in supporting continuing teacher education? To what

extent will this conflict with the independent and theory-driven university tradition?

And to what extent can we resolve this conflict and turn it into an opportunity for

change?

In fact, thinking about the contribution that universities could make to this field is

not new. As early as the 1940s, the Commission on Teacher Education of the

American Council (Prall & Cushman, 1944) had called for teacher education

institutions, especially universities, to get involved in in-service teacher training

programs. Rogers (1945) commented that “wide awake schools of education are

finding work to do far beyond the bounds of college campuses. Their cooperation

with school staff in studying school needs and supplying consultants is a substantial

contribution to in-service education” (p.19). In Canada, Fullan (1979) pointed out 30

years ago that universities should regard “greater involvement in in-service as a

priority” (p.46).

In the 1970s, Jeffers and McDaniels brought out the idea of a consortium which

includes “one or more colleges or universities, one or more school organizations, and

one or more professional associations functioning through representatives with

authority to act within parameters for their agencies in carrying out specific

requirements” (p.26). Johnston (1971) went further to state that universities should

take responsibility for coordinating various kinds of continuing teacher education

 4

programs and activities because of their interests. In 1987, Michael Fullan and

Michael Connelly authored a paper on Ontario teacher education commissioned by

the Teacher Education Review group. The paper made several suggestions including

rethinking the role of faculties of education in continuing teacher education.

In recent years, policy makers in many countries have begun to revisit this idea

and look for new strategies to bridge the gap and align pre-service teacher education

with teacher continuing development. One of the major considerations to achieve this

policy goal is to develop and extend the role of universities in teacher education and

training. In June, 1999, the third national education conference in China stressed the

quality of teacher education and continuing development and clearly pointed out that

universities should take more responsibilities in this regard (Zhou & Reed, 2005). As

a response to this policy initiative, the principal of Beijing Normal University, Zhong

Bingli, in the book, “Study on Transformation of Teacher Education” (Zhong, 1999),

emphasized that the key reason for the disparity between our reform ideal and reality

lay in the lack of quality teaching. In the near future, the qualifications and degree

level of elementary and middle school teachers, he said, must be increased.

Universities should study the trend of the integration of initial teacher education and

continuing professional development and not limit their work only to teacher

preparation. Continuing teacher learning and development also provides a golden

opportunity for universities’ future development (Zhou & Reed, 2005). In 2006, the

first forum on teacher training in China was named as “establishing closer

connections between universities and schools” (Zhao, et al., 2007, p.37, original in
 5

Chinese).

Nevertheless, much research related to this topic so far has focused on specific

examples such as a case-based approach or reflective strategies used in teacher

professional learning in schools (Sato, 1992). Systematic discussions concerning the

role of universities in teacher development are rarely found in the literature.

Rationale of the study

The reasons for the university to extend its role and take more responsibility for

the professional training of teachers can be briefly elaborated as follows.

The call for a better alignment between initial and continuing teacher education

The situation in both China and Ontario has been that colleges and universities

are mainly responsible for initial teacher education and local authorities and

individual schools are responsible for various in-service activities (Belanger, 1976;Li,

1999; Cui, 2001). There is increasing consensus in the literature that initial teacher

education and continuing teacher education cannot be developed further without

paying attention to the connections between them. Comprehensive in-service teacher

education should include acknowledgment of teachers’ prior academic knowledge and

explicit understanding about the job while effective pre-service programs should put

more emphasis on practical experiences and benefits that students could get from

experienced teachers (Amedeker, 2005; Su et al., 2002).

 6

Ethical responsibility

Continuing teacher education falls within the range of teaching and adult learning

and research which are the ultimate goals of university education. Participating in

continuing teacher education could make university-designed teacher education

programs more responsive to the needs of local schools. Furthermore, a university has

the expertise needed to ensure the quality of the delivery. Therefore, universities have

“an ethical responsibility to assist in fulfilling the purpose of in-service education”

(Bottoms, 1975, p.40).

Knowledge exploration

The ever-accelerating generation of educational knowledge suggests that teaching

is becoming more and more complex and qualified teachers need to adjust their

pedagogical practices for different purposes, student needs and external forces

(Gambhir, et al., 2008). The university as the main knowledge producer in education

has the resources and expertise relevant to this complexity (Darling-Hammond, 1999).

Thus, the university needs to get closer to the profession it serves so as to realize the

full potential of the research knowledge base.

Research questions

A thorough investigation of universities’ capacity to provide richer professional

development for teachers is crucial to the success of educational reform in the future.
 7

Determining this capacity requires an understanding of the multiple ways in which

universities could fit into and share the responsibilities in this field, and of current

efforts being made and the factors which foster or constrain these efforts. This study

has mainly focused on China, as I had most of my education experience in China

before coming to Canada to pursue my graduate studies. Also my own interest in

teacher education and the higher education system eventually led me to choose the

topic of teacher professional education and to frame my study from this particular

perspective. Moreover, my own background made the focus on China a better way to

organize the study, and my fluency in Chinese allowed me to read materials, conduct

interviews and give feedback to Chinese participants in their first language. Of course,

the circumstance of teacher education as well as the teaching and learning strategies it

embraces has changed a lot over time. My memory of my own teachers in primary

and secondary schools might, in certain degree, become the bias I brought into my

study. In order to counteract this bias, I paid a few informal visit to some of my

previous teachers before collecting any data and listened to their stories around the

changes happened in their work, particularly around in-service teacher training.

This study explored how Chinese normal universities could contribute to teacher

professional development and addressed two research questions:

1. What efforts are normal universities in China making in continuing teacher

education?

2. What are the factors that support or inhibit normal universities in these

endeavors?
 8

Specifically, the study was organized around the following topics:

 The overall organization of teacher professional development

 The current responsibilities of universities in providing teacher professional

development;

 The limitations and barriers perceived by administrators in universities to

extending and enriching the contribution to the field of teacher professional

development;

 The potential of the university to contribute to the field of teacher

professional development in the future

This study did not discuss initial teacher education in depth unless it related to

continuing teacher education. The focus on Chinese normal universities was due to

the important historical features of Chinese normal universities. In the early 1950s,

the Chinese higher education system underwent a reorganization process which was

largely inspired by the Soviet experience of running higher education institutions. It

was not until the end of 1970s, after the introduction of the Four Modernizations

policy, that the Chinese government started gradually to move away from the Soviet

model for its higher education system (Hayhoe, 1984). In 1985, the central

government stated its strategic goal for reforming higher education and suggested the

following:

 Eliminating excessive government control over institutions of higher

education;

 Reform of enrolment planning and job assignment for graduates from

 9

colleges and universities;

 Reform of the People’s grant-in-aid system;

 Changing the ‘irrational distribution’ of disciplines in and between

institutions of higher education (Lin & Yang, 1987).

Nevertheless, to this day, the Chinese higher education system still carries some

characteristic features from the Soviet model of the 1950s. Higher education

institutions are administered by different levels of governments and through different

arrangements. Major institutions can be divided into three categories: comprehensive

universities, specialized universities and research institutes mainly concentrating on

research. Normal universities belong to the second category and are designated to

prepare students for teaching positions at different levels (Lin & Yang, 1987).

In the 1990s, as China’s higher education expanded to a mass system, many

normal universities wished to rename themselves as comprehensive universities.

Some of them did so, while most were required by national government policy to

keep the title of “normal university” (Hayhoe, et al., 2011, p.199). However, it should

be clarified that some but not all comprehensive universities also have established

faculties of education in recent years so that their mission for education overlaps with

that of normal universities.

Purposes of the study

It is the intent of this study:

1. to contribute to the thinking about the role of the university in China in the field
 10

of teacher professional development as well as major challenges and concerns in

this area;

2. to identify promising new approaches currently adopted by Chinese normal

universities to make greater contributions to continuing teacher education in the

era of education reform;

3. to shed light on the possibilities of multiple strategies and offer insights to

university administrators and faculty members, as well as policy-makers, and

develop recommendations for improvement and further research.

Significance of the study

The Chinese teacher education system is currently being transformed from a

closed, separated system to an open, integrated one. Normal universities have

extended their responsibility from educating secondary school teachers to educating

almost all levels of teachers. The job of teacher education has also been taken on by

other comprehensive universities outside the old teacher education system (Hayhoe &

Li, 2010). The continuation of normal universities in China shows that education as a

field has always been given very high status while universities in the West tend to

give higher status to specialized knowledge areas such as medicine and law.

Hayhoe (2002) summarized the main contrasts between universities and normal

colleges. The university is mainly theory-oriented, divided into specialized disciplines

of knowledge, with value neutral approaches to knowledge and a relatively

 11

impersonal environment that respects academic freedom, autonomy, deep

understanding and long-term change. On the other hand, the normal college is

primarily practice-oriented, fosters integrated learning areas, and fosters morally

directive approaches to knowledge with strong mentorship ties between teachers and

students. It puts more emphasis on action-oriented and field-based knowledge, and

usually is subject to greater state control and accountability requirements than

universities.

The reason that I believe normal universities could possibly inherit important

values from normal colleges is because those values actually embody traditional

academic values in China very well. Teachers in China have always been given a very

high and respected social status. Teaching and learning is perceived as an interactive

process with an emphasis on the integration of knowledge and practice. Teachers and

students tend to enter into strong caring relationships (Hayhoe & Li, 2010).

The call for universities, especially normal universities in China, to support

in-service teacher education is quite recent. Therefore various issues concerning this

trend of educational change are unfamiliar even to people in the field. The value of

this study lies in its effort to investigate the existing situation regarding Chinese

normal universities’ involvement in in-service teacher education and build a

knowledge base for further exploration and improvement. Despite the focus on the

Chinese normal universities, there are two levels of a comparative analysis embedded

in the study as well.

First, the study used Ontario as a comparative element to help analyze and
 12

understand the case of China. China and Canada represent two different cultural

systems, having different social and administrative educational features. Comparative

elements of the case of Ontario can provide alternative views about teacher education

in general and the participation of universities in particular. This comparison could

also reflect issues currently existing in both Western and Eastern teacher education

systems.

Chinese researchers have long been interested in developed countries’ teacher

education reforms, hoping to learn from their valuable experience and adapt it to the

Chinese context. The British concept of school-based teacher development and the

American model of the Professional Development School (PDS) were already

introduced to China early this decade (Zhu, 2001). Comparative analysis of

continuing teacher education abroad will undoubtedly be a significant factor in

shaping the future of teacher education in China.

Second, comparison between universities and schools underpins the study. The

university has been perceived as the ivory tower, having much higher status than

schools and differing in its functions. Their very different historical development

makes it hard for universities to be effective in continuing teacher development. This

somewhat conflicting situation means that the topic of this study is surrounded by

various concerns and opinions.

The study selected four Chinese normal universities for data collection and

analysis. They are Beijing Normal University, Hebei Normal University, Qufu Normal

University and Shanxi Normal University. It was hoped that comparison of the work
 13

of the four normal universities might uncover similar tendencies in their types and

choices of in-service teacher education and shed some new light on the current

practices of teacher professional education in China.

Definitions of terms

Teacher education has come to be regarded as consisting of three phases,

including initial teacher education (pre-service teacher education), induction training

and in-service education (James, 1972). Very often in the literature continuing

professional development is equated to in-service education. Edelfelt and Lawrence

(1975) defined continuing professional development “as any professional

development activity that a teacher undertakes singly or with other teachers after

receiving her or his initial teaching certificate and after beginning professional

practice” (p.1).Similarly, Lowenthal (1981) referred to continuing professional

education as “education and training beyond the basic professional degree for

license…as training undertaken after completion of that specialized study [to] help

professionals apply knowledge and skills they already had or once knew” (p. 519).

Linking to continuing professional education’s purpose, Bolam (1982) developed its

definition as:
Those education and training activities engaged in by primary and
secondary-school teachers and principals, following their initial professional
certification, and intended mainly or exclusively to improve their professional
knowledge, skills, and attitudes in order that they can educate children more
effectively ( p.3)
Professional development may take place at any time-either as full-time or as
 14

part-time study-during the professional life of the teacher. It could be systematically

planned work over a certain period of time leading to an advanced certificate, diploma,

or higher degree; it could also well be study mandated or pursued irregularly without

an organizational recognition (Johnston, 1971). It can be initiated by the teacher or the

school system, and can also be something that teachers do individually on their own

and following their own interests.

From the perspective of learning outcomes, Guskey (2002) has defined teacher

professional development as “systematic efforts to bring about change in the

classroom practices of teachers, in their attitude and beliefs, and in the learning

outcomes of students” (p. 381). Bennett and Fox (1993) took a functionalist

perspective and defined continuing professional education as “a technical process to

help professionals provide better service to clients” (p.264). Boddard (1992) described

teacher professional development as an essential aspect of quality. “It interrelates the

needs of the individual teacher with the challenges of the job. The motivation of

teachers to remain learners…throughout their career underpins professional

accountability and ensures responsibility” (pp. 80-81).

Sometimes researchers make a clear distinction between in-service education and

professional development. For instance, Orrange and Van Ryn (1975) defined

in-service education from what he called a “narrow but entirely workable”

perspective:
…in-service education is that portion of professional development that should be
publicly supported and includes a program of systematically designed activities
planned to increase the competencies—knowledge, skills, and attitudes—needed
by school personnel in the performance of their assigned responsibilities. (p.42)
 15

There are also debates and preferences among the concepts of learning,

development, and training. For instance, Hargreaves (1995) perceived professional

learning as a better expression than professional development, because it emphasizes

individual learning including informal and formal forms. In fact, research has

repeatedly proven that teachers’ involvement in deciding and even designing

professional learning places extra value on the learning process and has a better

chance to foster change (Guskey, 1986).

However, in many definitions, these terms and concepts are interchangeable (e.g.

Edelfelt & Johnson, 1975) and all cover a wide range of forms and characteristics of

provision (Ontario Ministry of Education, 1994). In this study, the term “continuing

teacher education” is synonymous with “in-service teacher education”, “staff

development” or “teacher professional development” or “training”.

 16

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter briefly synthesizes the important literature in the field of teacher

professional education including teacher knowledge and teacher learning as well as

the purposes and effective features of teacher professional education. The conceptual

framework of the study is also presented in this chapter.

Teacher knowledge and teacher learning

Teacher knowledge

Any study about teacher education in general and teacher professional

development in particular cannot avoid discussion around teacher knowledge and

teacher learning. These issues are imperative and fundamental (Rowe, 2007) for

exploring what Borko (2004) called “serious unsolved problem[s]” in current

professional development research. However, discussions related to these issues are

always problematic in the literature. Wilson and Berne (1999) maintained that what

constitutes teacher knowledge needs to be “identified, conceptualized and assessed”

(p. 203) in order to gain a background understanding for what constitutes effective

teacher learning that is most likely to bring about sustainable educational change.

Schon (1984) argued that professional knowledge includes two aspects. One
 17

aspect refers “non-problematically to instrumental problems” (p.39) while the other

aspect is related to the ability of “thinking like a [professional educator]...students will

learn relevant facts and operations but will also learn the forms of inquiry by which

competent practitioners reason their way, in problematic instance, to [a] clear

connection between general knowledge and particular cases” (p. 39). Munby (1996)

held the view that “for learning to teach, [the] important thing one needs to know

cannot be told by anyone else; only the experience of being a teacher provides this

knowledge” (p. 133). Along the same lines, many researchers have approached these

issues by distinguishing teacher tacit knowledge from teacher explicit knowledge.

Schon (1995) theorized tacit knowledge as “implicit in our pattern of action and in our

feel for the stuff with which we are dealing” (p. 29). However, to refine and

strengthen teacher tacit knowledge does not mean that only teachers’ own knowledge

counts. It requires teachers “systemically inquiring into practice, consulting outside

expertise, reflecting on what they had learned from experience, and engaging in

searching conversations with one another” (Wood, 2007, p.290).

Darling-Hammond (1999) approached the issue by discussing what kind of

knowledge teachers need. First, teachers need to learn more deeply about the subject

they teach. Second, teachers need to learn more about learning. “Teachers need to

think about what it means to learn different kinds of material for different purposes

and how to decide which kinds of learning are most necessary in different contexts”

(p.92). In addition, teachers need to learn teaching pedagogies as well as what kind of

pedagogy is suitable for what students. Also, teachers need to learn about curriculum
 18

and new technologies that are used in education in general and instruction in

particular. Lastly, teachers need to be able to reflect on and analyze their learning and

practice. Shulman (1987) emphasized the importance of teacher pedagogical content

knowledge and described it as a “special amalgam of content that is uniquely the

province of teachers” (p. 8).

Connelly and Clandinin (2000) have tended to solve this problem by

distinguishing knowledge for teachers from teacher knowledge and have explained

that knowledge for teachers refers to knowledge taught to teachers while teacher

knowledge refers to what teachers know from their previous life experience.

Fenstermacher (1994) provided a slightly different definition for teacher knowledge

that included the knowledge and skills formally taught and informal knowledge

relevant to teaching and learning. In this view, teacher knowledge refers to

“everything that a teacher brings to bear on any particular situation” (Xu & Connelly,

2008, p.219). Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) theorized teacher knowledge into three

different conceptualizations “knowledge-for-practice”, “knowledge-in-practice” and

“knowledge-of-practice”.

Knowledge-for-practice is usually viewed as formal knowledge that is produced

primarily by university researchers and educators. Research knowledge is a legitimate

knowledge source for teacher education and training. Based upon this perspective,

knowledge circulating among teachers falls under the category of “experience” or is

considered intuitive (Huberman, 1996). Even after these experiences are written into

school rules and policies, in fact, they are seldom considered to be a legitimate
 19

knowledge source for they are not promoted to a more evidence-based, or

theory-based level. Even if researchers start with practical concerns and teacher

personal experiences in mind, different ways of framing the problems, various

semantic frameworks and all the complexity involved in academic research will soon

swamp the initial intention and research will drift far away from practitioners.

Shulman (1987) questioned more than two decades ago the authenticity of teacher

personal and practical experiences after they are codified into academic literature. A

common criticism concerning this perspective is that teachers do not share the

academic researchers’ enthusiasm for rigorous research while academic researchers

are not able to provide straightforward answers to questions that are of concern to

teachers (Habermas, 1971).

The perspective of knowledge-in-practice gives more weight to what we called

personal experiences or intuitive knowledge earlier because it assumes that “teaching

is, to a great extent, an uncertain and spontaneous craft situated and constructed in

response to the particularities of everyday life in school and classrooms”

(Cochran-smith & Lytle, 1999, p. 262). This differs from the perspective of

knowledge for practice in that what a teacher needs to learn should not be primarily

decided by university researchers and educators because a large part of it is generated

by the teachers themselves.

The third perspective, knowledge-of-practice, is different from the two previous

perspectives in that it suggests that a clear distinction between knowledge and practice

in teacher learning is fundamentally problematic because knowledge production and

 20

knowledge use happen simultaneously (Cochran-smith & Lytle, 1999).Very often

researchers have tended to support one of these perspectives while negating others.

For example, Munby, Russell and Martin (2001) have argued that what teachers know

as people from their life and teaching experience matters more than what they are

taught in terms of the success of teacher development efforts or educational reform in

general.

Teacher learning

Building on the exploration around teacher knowledge, teacher learning has

become increasingly important in the discussion of effective initial teacher education

and continuing teacher education. More and more researchers favor the word

“development” over “training”, signaling this trend. Yet, there has been little progress

concerning a shared understanding about the crucial elements in effective teacher

learning, or about the relationship between effective teacher learning, school

improvement and various professional activities (Zhong, 2007).

Lange and Burroughs-Lange (1994) summarized four characteristics of

meaningful teacher learning:

 individual perception of professional challenge: resolving issues relating to the
teachers’ value in respect of the teaching/learning context affected their degree of
willingness to accept responsibility for dealing personally and professionally with
the challenging experience;
 gaining an understanding of the nature of a professional challenge: in
understanding the nature of the challenges presented by experiences in their
professional lives, the teachers created meaning through their observations of
children’s reactions to their learning, focusing on their professional behaviours,
interacting with colleagues and with management personnel, and other resources
outside the school environment;
 21

 having access to resources for resolving challenges and for extending

professional learning: including the teachers’ own experiences; elements in the
school context; and system initiatives at the regional, state, and national level;
 adopting strategies for resolving uncertainty which in many cases lead to
professional growth: those [strategies] could be considered either holding
approaches which deferred or avoided resolution or active approaches which
tackled the difficulty by reference to available sources…and thereby resulted in
professional growth. (p. 622-626)
Ball and Cohen (1999) offer suggestions for how to achieve a richer kind of

learning in professional development based on three assumptions:

 Development is centered around the critical activities of teaching and
learning-planning lessons, evaluating student work, developing curriculum-rather
than in abstractions and generalities;
 Teacher knowledge grows from investigations of practice through cases,
questions, analysis, and criticism; and
 Learning is built on substantial professional discourse that fosters analysis and
communication about practices and values in ways that build collegiality and
standards of practice. (p. 95).
Furthermore, they emphasized that effective teacher learning should have a

seamless connection between initial teacher education and continuing teacher

education. Miller and Silvernail (1994) perceived effective teacher learning as a

process of “rub between theory and practice” and argued that it cannot occur only in

university classrooms or school classrooms.

In spite of different approaches to the issue, one concept is commonly praised in

the literature: collaboration including mentoring, team teaching, and consultation

(Knezevic & Scholl, 1996; Smylie, 1995; Talbert & Mclaughlin, 1993). Welch (1998)

stated that “collaboration is one of many bandwagons in the parade of educational

reform rhetoric” (p.26). Darling-Hammond (2003) maintained that “teachers learn

best by studying, doing, and reflecting; by collaborating with other teachers; by

looking closely at students and their work; and by sharing what they see” (p. 2). The
 22

promotion of collaboration among teachers is built on the assumption that what

teachers know from their work is fundamentally different from what the outside

professional developers say. Because of its immediate relevance to teacher knowledge,

collaboration could foster more effective up-take of new information (Hargreaves,

1997; Head & Taylor, 1997: King & Newmann, 2000; Kwakman, 2003). It could

further form a shared culture in the school and a tightly connected learning

community (Borko & Putman, 2000) which offers continuous support and

communication (Mclaughlin, 1993). Collaboration is not only beneficial for new

teachers who learn from experienced teachers but also for the experienced teachers

who can change their teaching norms and accept new information.

However, collaboration among teachers also has limitations. For example, a

group of teachers may form an isolated unit in the school and result in a “balkanized

workplace” (Hargreaves, 1993, p. 69). This is also why teacher collegiality may lead

to little or no challenge to existing practices (Katz, Earl, & Jaafar, 2009).

Research on teacher collaboration has explored different forms of collaborative

work (Little, 1990). Each form represents different potentials to improve teacher

learning. Although the benefits of teacher collaboration have been repeatedly verified

in the literature (Borko & Putnam, 1995), organizing and supporting this collaboration

remains challenging. Effective teaching and learning will not happen if we only rely

on schools and teachers themselves. King and Newmann (2000) argued that “[if]

professional development focuses only on the individual learning of teachers, we

should not expect substantial achievement gains in the student body as a whole” (p.
 23

578). Similarly, Timperley (2008) pointed out:

In fact, without a thorough understanding of the theory, teachers, are apt to
believe they are teaching in ways consistent with the promoted practice when in
fact the relationship between theory and practice is actually very superficial.
(p.11)
Therefore, the role of external expertise in the process becomes important. Many

relevant issues need to be taken into consideration. For example, what is the role of

the university in promoting ongoing teacher learning at school? Does the

collaboration among teachers necessarily have to exclude outside experts and

researchers? According to Welch (1998), effective teacher collaboration must have the

support of theoretical constructs and explanations of various communication and

problem solving abilities which require more than simply the help teachers get from

each other. Support from external expertise could provide theoretical guidance so as

to help teachers better analyze and reflect on what they learn from their work and

grasp a more comprehensive understanding of educational issues. As Timperley (2008)

asserted:
expertise external to the group of participating teachers is necessary to challenge
existing assumptions and develop the kinds of new knowledge and skills
associated with positive outcomes for students…substantive new learning
requires teachers to understand new content, learn new skills, and think about
their existing practice in new ways. (p.20)
In the literature, in-service teacher training activities provided by outside experts

such as university professors are usually considered to be unattached to classroom

teaching (Lieberman, 1996) while school-based teacher collaboration is believed to be

more relevant and context-specific (Sprinthall, Reiman, & Thies-Sprinthall, 1996).

The promotion of teacher professionalization and a research knowledge base requires

rethinking the way to transform, balance and take advantage of both sides so as to
 24

meet the demands of teacher learning in this rapidly changing time. External expertise

will be effective only when it involves teachers’ discussion and understanding about

what is meaningful in their particular working contexts (Timperley, 2008).

Summary of teacher knowledge and teacher learning

The discussion about what constitutes teacher knowledge and how to foster high

quality teacher learning is fundamental to any type of teacher professional

development. Most of the tension seems to center around the dichotomy between

theory and practice. As a matter of fact, this tension started when teacher education

was first moved into universities, since the university by its very nature privileges

theoretical knowledge.

Schwille, et al. (2007) has commented that teacher education research consists

mostly of studies of “making sense of connections” (p.120), among which the

theory-practice connection is of particular importance. There is no question that the

teacher professionalization process requires a broad acquisition of theoretical

knowledge (Korthagen & Kessels, 1999). Yet, to perceive teacher education as being

only theory application leads to a disconnection between theory and practice. On the

other hand, simple adoption of practices without attending to the questions of the

inter-relationship between knowledge of teaching and practice, and between the

university and the teaching profession, is more likely to run the risk of formalism and

fail to foster the educational change we desire in the long term (Wang, 2008).

Belanger (1976) summarized some fundamental debates in teacher education

 25

related to practice and theory as follows:

First, there continues to be a question in the minds of many university academics
if “education” is a discipline, in the sense of the existence of a well-defined object
open to scholarly inquiry. A second classical problem of teacher education
concerns the normal school framework which emphasizes predominantly
pedagogical skills. The third great problem of university-based teacher education
also concerns a division, but this time a division in faculty structure. There
continues to exist, as already pointed out, a division between professors of
education and the rest of the academic community (p. 17).

Purposes of teacher PD and effective features of teacher PD

Purposes

Elmore (2002) asserted that the major purpose of any professional development

activities should not only concentrate on individual enhancement, but more

importantly on the improvement of schools and the whole education system. More

specifically, an OECD (1982) report summarized five major purposes of continuing

professional development:

1. improving the job performance skills of the whole school staff or of groups of

staff (e.g. a school-focused INSET program);

2. improving the job performance skills of an individual teacher (e.g. an induction

program for a beginning teacher);

3. extending the experience of an individual teacher for career development or

promotion purposes (e.g. a leadership training course);

4. developing the professional knowledge and understanding of an individual teacher

(e.g. a master’s degree in educational studies);

 26

5. extending the personal or general education of an individual (e.g. a master’s

degree course not in education or a subject related to teaching);

Furthermore, the report discussed these five purposes in relation to the tension

between “meeting the requirements and goals of the organizational system and of

satisfying the needs for self-fulfillment of the individual member of an organization”

(p.11). The first purpose listed is considered to be most likely to fulfill the needs of

the system as a whole and at the same time least likely to represent individual needs.

Of course, any kind of continuing professional development could have multiple

purposes. Personal education is generally viewed as an incidental outcome of

continuing teacher education in a general sense. Organizers are usually more

concerned with the purpose of improving the teaching skills of individual teachers and

the school as a whole. In terms of individual teachers, seeking promotion and more

knowledge are often the top priorities.

Effective professional development

A large number of studies have shown that effective professional development

enhances the quality of education (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Hixson & Tinzmann,

1990; Sander & Rivers, 1997). The characteristics of effective professional learning

programs for teachers are clearly identified and widely discussed in the literature.

Generally speaking, they are job-embedded, on-going, in-depth, content-focused,

collaborative and encourage reflective thinking (Guskey & Huberman, 1995;

Loucks-Horsley, Hewson, Love, & Stiles, 1998).

One of the best-known models, the Eisenhower model (Garet et al. 2001),
 27

identified three core features of effective professional development including: focus

on content, active learning, and coherence, and three structural features of effective

professional development including: collective participation, form of the activity and

duration of the activity. According to Darling-Hammond (1999), features shared by

successful professional development strategies are:

 Experiential, engaging teachers in concrete tasks of teaching, assessment, and
observation that illuminate the process of learning and development;
 Grounded in participants’ questions, inquiry, and experimentation as well as
profession-wide research;
 Collaborative, involving a sharing of knowledge among educators;
 Connected to and derived from teachers’ work with their students as well as to
examinations of subject matter and teaching methods;
 Sustained and intensive, supported by modeling, coaching, and problem solving
around specific problems of practice; and connected to other aspects of school
change (p.99 )
Newmann, King, and Youngs (2000) outlined the conditions for effective

professional development, which they suggested should:

 Concentrate on instruction and student outcomes in teachers’ specific schools;
 Provide opportunities for collegial inquiry, help, and feedback;
 Connect teachers to external expertise while also respecting teachers’ discretion
and creativity; and
 Be sustained and continuous rather than short-term and episodic. (p.232)
Current professional education programs and activities for teachers seldom

embody all of these features in practice, because “there is less disagreement about

what constitutes a good professional development program than there is about how to

actually implement one” (MacNeil, 2004, p.4). Criticism about the current situation of

professional development is ongoing. One major criticism is that current programs

usually treat teachers as technicians who can master a new set of skills and implement

them afterwards. These programs are in conflict with the current assumption about

teaching that it is complex and should be responsive to various student needs.

 28

Teachers cannot be expected to implement directly what the program developers have

said. Effective teaching is built on teachers’ individual values, beliefs and knowledge

(Timperley, 2008). Therefore, professional learning organizers should consider

teachers’ personal experience and their working contexts so as to enhance their

understanding about new research-based professional knowledge.

The concept of school-based in-service teacher education initiated in England in

the late 1970s has gained popularity in many countries including China (Tang &

Absalom, 1989) and Canada (Fullan, 1980). Researchers naturally have combined it

with the call for more teacher participation in curriculum development and

decision-making processes (Bolam, 1976). Research in many countries embracing this

concept has begun emerge. Craig (2006), through working with teachers, has

documented a nuanced picture of school-based teacher development. Wu (2006) in

Zhejiang University in China has illustrated his philosophical interpretation of

practitioner research based on a teacher-initiated project from the perspective of Tao.

However, to carry out school-based programs and activities requires external

support because the range of resources available inside schools is quite limited.

Pauline Perry, in her keynote speech at the International Workshop on Strategies for

School-focused In-service in the US in 1977, emphasized that “ all school-focused

training need not be, indeed should not be, school-based” and suggested that “all

strategies employed by trainers and teachers in partnership to direct training programs

in such a way as to meet the identified needs of schools and which raise the standards

of teaching and learning in schools can be construed as school-focused” (Tang &

 29

Alsalom, 1989, p.7). Therefore, while we should acknowledge that the local school is

an ideal environment for teacher education, we should not ignore the fact that

programs carried on outside of school sites also have the same potential. For example,

universities may offer a series of workshops and lectures to different groups of

teachers from different schools. University educators visiting the teachers in schools

afterwards would add a school-based component to their support. Similarly, teachers

from the same school who participate as a cohort in university courses would to some

extent make the program school-based because the issues they discussed in class

would mostly likely come from the school (Tang & Alsalom, 1989).

Another response to the criticism about overemphasizing technical skills and

knowledge is changes in hiring in universities. For instance, there are already

complementary recruitment models in Canadian universities to hire program leaders

and experienced school teachers to emphasize the practical concerns of teacher

education. Research (Gambhir, et al., 2008) shows there is a fast-growing number of

this kind of instructor. It should be no surprise that at the same time, this gives rise to

concerns about research findings being effectively disseminated through the

university programs and worries that such changes in graduate programs may lead to

very local, narrow and even unscholarly programs.

Summary of teacher PD and effective features of teacher PD

“Effectiveness” is a problematic concept itself in the literature. As Day and Letich

(2007) stated, “effectiveness is not easy to assess” (p. 714). In theory, the purpose of
 30

teacher learning, and the relationship between teacher learning, student outcome and

school improvement, as well as specific contextual issues (Borko, 2004) all require

serious consideration when deciding the range of evaluation criteria (Viczko, 2009).

In other words, the purpose of professional development directly determines our

expectations of different professional development programs and activities, which in

turn serve as operational criteria for judging effectiveness.

Furthermore, one way to think of the potential role of the university in providing

effective professional education for teachers is to ask whether there are some kinds of

teacher development that are best suited to the nature and role of the university. What

are the types of activities for which universities’ support is crucial to enhance the

effectiveness of the system as a whole? More importantly, what changes do these

purposes require universities to make and to what extent are these changes practical?

Conceptual framework

The role of university

The discussion about the role of the university in education is based on the

fundamental assumptions that:

 The university is ideally placed for providing teachers with the latest advances in
research;
 A career in a complex professional field can be divided into a period of
preparation, followed by application of what is learned in the practice of the
profession;
 Not only are teacher preparation and practice separated in time, but they are only
very weakly linked in space; that is, it is assumed one learns about teaching in the
 31

university, and then one applies what one has learned in a very different
institution-the school (Belanger, 1976, p. 17).
With the fast generation of new knowledge, the principal functions of universities

have also changed accordingly from “preservation, transmission, knowledge

advancement” (Millet, 1962, p.54) to “the up-bringing of human power or human

resources having professional knowledge and scientific skill for the enhancement of

the life quality of an individual and for the establishment of a welfare society and

nation” (Lee, 2008, p.6). Related studies “consistently…indicate the extent to which

the environment of higher education is changing and how such changes are redefining

the character and role of institutions of higher education (Nesbit, et al., 2007, p.38).

These changes offer “great opportunities to reassess the academic and professional

beliefs, values, attitudes, and practices that have traditionally been embodied in

institutions of higher education” (Nesbit, et al., 2007 p.38)

These changes require universities to extend their role in many ways. At the same

time, many countries have begun to connect universities with the promotion of

economic competitiveness. Haughey (1998) and Einsiedel (1998) have argued that the

field of continuing professional education and career development will become a new

focus of the service of universities. In fact, universities today are already considered

the most important venue for promoting life-long learning and face more pressure to

extend their role in the area of continuing education (Einsiedel, 1998).

Universities vary greatly in terms of size, purpose, structure and location as much

as schools do. Therefore, to generalize and compare the role of universities related to

continuing professional development is challenging (Howey, 1980). Nevertheless, it is

 32

reasonable to believe that there are many potential roles that universities could play in

advancing continuing professional development as a whole. The literature has

identified at least three ways for universities to provide assistance.

First of all, since universities are the main providers of initial teacher education,

this education’s curriculum and focus have great implications for what is needed later

in continuing professional development (Howey, 1980). Thus, universities have an

advantage in continuing professional development and the responsibility to assist in it

by establishing a closer link between initial teacher education and continuing teacher

education. McNally has proposed five potential roles for universities after initial

teacher education:
 research and development relating to induction,
 contributions to induction programs,
 as expert contributors to local versions of induction programs,
 providing support and training for those who support new teachers,
 involvement in the assessment of new teachers (O’Brien & Christie, 2008, p.151).
Secondly, there are many roles of a cooperative nature an institution of higher

education can assume. Fullan (1979) offered a Canadian example. A central university

faculty of education established a partnership with a school district to set up an

in-service master’s program in curriculum management and implementation. The

format and activities in the program were highly flexible and individualized and had

school-based workshops and lectures to integrate research knowledge with technical

teaching skills. In cases like this, the university not only cooperates with schools but

more importantly cooperates with teachers over what they consider to be important

issues.

Thirdly, as a one-to-one university-school partnership is not realistic for all

 33

schools, universities could use their resources and expertise to prepare teacher leaders

in school-based professional development relating to various aspects of educational

change including curriculum, instructional design, assessment process, school

organizational change, etc. Graduate programs could be an appropriate candidate for

this purpose.

However, in order to achieve all the potential roles they could play, universities

need to make some major changes. Zeichner (2006) has argued that higher education

institutions need to “take teacher education seriously as an institutional responsibility

or do not do it” (p.326).

In the discussion of relevant roles for various providers, one of the biggest

challenges is the coherence between different institutions providing continuing

professional education including the government, teacher organizations, universities,

school districts, and also the school itself. To what extent do we need coherence and

to what extent do we need a clear differentiation in terms of roles and responsibilities

for continuing training and how can we balance these two concerns while extending

the potential of the university in this field? We need coherence and integration to

address broad and collective goals. We also need differentiation to allow flexible

options for individualized teacher learning.

Conceptual frame of the study

The conceptual framework I developed for this study includes three major aspects:

forms of university participation, formal structures, and barriers. These three aspects
 34

of the university role in professional learning provided guidance for the data

collection, but more importantly, interact in a systemic way to offer a fuller picture of

the issue of continuing professional development for teachers in the chosen

universities.

The conceptual design is based on the understanding that faculty members may

get involved in teacher professional education to various degrees while the university

as an institution may change programs for in-service teachers depending on

government policy and financial concerns. Moreover, the fact that at present

universities play a minor role in teacher professional education in China means that

the incentives and barriers are necessary elements that explain why or how well a

relevant activity can be carried out. In approaching the study based on this

conceptualization, my intent was to gain insight into university efforts in terms of

whether there is an overarching design and plan for providing teacher professional

education.

In addition, this framework also provides a way to examine the differences and

similarities between universities within one country and draw a final comparison

between those in the two countries examined by this study.

The importance of these areas for understanding the topic of teacher professional

development is discussed in detail in the following literature review section.

 35
Figure 1 Visual representation of the conceptual framework

 Teacher professional school

 University-school network
Major forms of
 Teacher network
participation
 Collaborative research
 Workshops
University in  Combined models
teacher
Formal
professional  Courses for certain certificates
structures
education  Graduate programs

Barriers to  Resources
participation  University promotion system
 Organizational structure

Different forms of university participation in teacher professional development

Over the last twenty years, we have witnessed increasing diversity in the format

and structure of teacher development in many countries (Sorensen, et al., 2005). For

the purpose of this study, it is important to know what the possibilities are for

universities’ participation. There have been many efforts in the literature to offer ideas

on this issue (Joyce & Showers, 1980). For instance, Villegas-Reimers (2003)

provided a comprehensive review of teacher professional development in which he

identified organizational partnership models and small group or individual models.

Wang (2008) in China researched teacher development in the rural school areas of

Beijing and came up with four main models: the teacher-individual model, the

partnership between schools and universities model, the school-based educational

research model and the co-operation with urban schools model (p.50). The list
 36

provided here is developed based on a review of seminal works in university

education and teacher education. It centers on the role of universities in either

providing or supporting teacher professional learning. It is worth noting the forms are

not mutually exclusive and in fact, overlap in a lot of ways as discussed below. The

term “form” is used to emphasize that these are various means of provision rather than

fixed structures.

 Professional development school

 University-school network

 Teacher network

 Action/collaborative research

 Workshops/seminars

Professional development school (PDS)

A professional development school approach originated in the US during the first

part of the twentieth century when teacher preparation institutions began to show

increased interest in working with schools to bring about educational change

(Stallings, et al., 1995). It was first proposed by the Holmes Group—“a national

consortium of nearly 100 research universities across the United States” (Fullan, et.

al.1998, p. 9). In its report on Tomorrow’s Teachers (Holmes Group, 1986), the

Holmes Group clearly pointed out one of the goals of teacher education reform is to

“connect our own institutions to schools” (p.4). The report emphasized that

“Universities must join with schools to make schools better places for teachers and
 37

students” (Fullan, et. al., 1998, p.13).

Villegas-Reimers (2003) added emphasis on collaboration and stated that “PDSs

are partnerships between teachers, administrators and university faculty members

created in order to improve teaching and learning on the part of their respective

students, and also in order to unite educational theory and practice” (p.71).

PDS can cover a wide range of activities and projects related to professional

learning. The Holmes Group (1990) outlined six principles for designing PDSs in its

report “Tomorrow’s schools” as follows:

1. Teaching and learning for understanding;

2. Creating a learning community;

3. Teaching and learning for understanding for everybody’s children;

4. Continuing learning by teachers, teacher educators, and administrators;

5. Thoughtful, long-term inquiry into teaching and learning;

6. Inventing a new institution (p.7).

Research (Nihlen, 1992; Wimsatt, 1996) has shown that PDSs have a very

positive impact on teacher professional development. Because of their strong

connections with universities, they can keep teachers informed of new research and

theories in teaching and learning. In addition, teacher professional development is

also supported by the chances to become a mentor teachers or clinical faculty member

in a university (Nihlen, 1992; Wimsatt, 1996). Meantime, university faculty also can

benefit from this design (Larkin, 2000).

Universities play a significant role in the PDS model. In order for universities to
 38

take up this model successfully, they also need further “restructuring and reculturing”

(Fullan, et. al 1998, p. 24) and this is often neglected in the literature “largely because

universities are used to studying others, not themselves” (p. 25).

Although the concept of the teacher development school started in the U.S,

Chinese researchers have also devoted great attention to adapting it to the Chinese

context. For instance, Zhu (2008) elaborated that teacher development schools in

China would play an important role in building university-elementary and secondary

school communities. They “could adopt a beneficial external strategy for [their]

improvement and enrich the school values” (original in Chinese, p. 24).

In sum, the PDS is an important approach for all university-school collaboration

in general (Darling-Hammond, 1994; O’Hair & Odell, 1994), but there has not been a

widespread adoption of this approach (Teitel, 1999). Teitel (1999) pointed out one

reason for “the absence of widespread consideration or discussion of the ideas

associated with the PDS has been the lack of many mechanisms or forums for serious

exchange to take place” (p.315).

To sustain an active PDS requires stable financial support and shared

commitment from both the university and school sides which makes it a challenge to

do on a large scale. However, even with a small number of specific cases, because the

nature of partners, projects, and other details vary greatly from place to place, it is

hard to generalize the characteristics of the PDS implementation process. As White et

al. (1997) pointed out, “we know little of the needs, initial effort, capacities and

demands influencing changing roles and relationships…Research on the changing

 39

roles and relationships of partners is still in the formative stages” (p.54). In other

words, neither school nor university organizational structures are supportive of the

PDS approach. Usually it is the individual faculty member who puts in extra time and

energy for its development (Teitel, 1999). There also have been concerns that a PDS

may divert energy and resource from the mission of participating schools

(Kirschenbaum & Reagan, 2001). So, “in some ways,…it is harder to maintain a PDS

than to start one up” (Teitel, 1999 , p. 430).

University-school network

This form of participation refers to other types of partnerships existing between

universities and schools in addition to the PDS model. These partnerships are network

relations which “connect practitioners who share common interests and concerns

about education” (Miller, 2001, p.102). Miller (2001) addressed four key objectives of

this approach:

1. To establish firm bases in two distinct cultures, school and university;

2. To cross institutional boundaries in order to respond to needs in the field;

3. To ensure inclusive decision-making;

4. To create new venues for educator development (p.105).

Similar to the PDS, many studies have shown the positive impact of these

networks on teacher professional development. The networks include partnerships

between schools and universities in one area, in different areas or even across national

boundaries (Villegas-Reimers, 2003). Yet, more research is needed in terms of the key
 40

features involved in these partnerships (Gengarelly & Abrams, 2009).

As an example, the University of New Hampshire worked with local schools in

the form of a partnership to increase scientific literacy. In this project, university

researchers collaborated with school science teachers and served as knowledge

resources. Studies have shown that school teachers were greatly influenced by their

university partners and improved their attitudes toward new practices in the classroom

(Gengarelly & Abrams, 2009).

In Canada, the ‘Learning Consortium’ was established in 1988 between four

school districts in Toronto and the faculty of education at the University of Toronto

and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). The goal of this partnership

was to “improve the quality of education in schools and universities by focusing on

teacher development, school improvement and the restructuring of local school

districts” (Watson & Fullan, 1992, p. 222). The Faculty of Education at the University

of Toronto offers regular support to the Consortium. Institutions involved contributed

resources and appointed representatives to make decisions (Watson & Fullan, 1992).

In 2003, the Chinese Ministry of Education established the Union of National

Teacher Education Network involving major national universities (Fang & Zhu, 2007).

In 2004, the Ministry of Education initiated a National Project to train more than 12

million teachers (including primary and secondary teachers) through Teachers

Educational Technology Competence Development (Chinese Ministry of Education,

2005). The learning activities are delivered through a satellite TV network and the

Internet and include online courses, online tutorial sessions, and online learning
 41

material for individualized and cooperative learning (McCracken, 2005; Manlove et al.

2006; Oh & Jonassen, 2007). University researchers and teacher educators included in

the university-school network play a key role in designing and organizing the

materials.

As many other examples have shown in the literature, universities can be major

players in collaborative efforts both pre-service and in-service teacher learning as well

as in efforts to align these two aspects (Rouk, 1999; Stallings & Kowalski, 1990). Yet,

there are also disagreements about and serious problems with university-school

collaborations. Watkins (1989) quoted Ann Liebermans’ to description of this

approach as “little projects that do little things—maybe even important things—but

they are not part of the institutional fabric” (p. A1). Stephens & Boldt (2004) believe,
[I]t is difficult because, until the collaboration has begun and problems arise,
partners cannot know what particular challenges each partnership will face. We
cannot know ahead of time how best to address those challenges, nor can we
know what kinds of solutions will be practically and politically possible. (p. 703)
The reality is most of these partnerships are motivated and planned by individual

faculty members (e.g. Christensen et al., 1996; Matczynski, Lasley, & Williams,

1997). They need to take more time to develop deeper relationships with school

members in order for any meaningful initiatives to happen (Teitel, 1999).Teitel (1999)

stated that “each partnership has developed its own agreements, customized to meet

the needs of the school and the situation” (p. 317).

In addition, compared to graduate programs or other credit-based courses, it

seems more difficult for researchers to form an effective evaluation framework for

this type of effort. Some faculty members expressed that “ after operating their
 42

[collaborating] programs for some years and generally feeling positive about the

results, they desired a more objective method of measuring outcomes” (Kirschenbaum,

& Reagan, 2001, p.494 ).

Teacher networks

Teacher networks are considered an alternative approach compared to formal

partnerships between universities and schools. They include an “independent

university role that focuses on extending and enhancing pre-service teacher

preparation” (Hines, et al, 2003, p.300). They are usually free from institutional

control and yet are intensive and continuous. They are able to respond to different

situations and therefore provide space for a more realistic approach to teacher learning

(Korthagen & Kessels, 1999). Moreover, teacher networks can select a clear focus of

professional activity and establish a sense of professional identity for teachers. They

also provide more opportunities for teacher cooperation and teacher leadership. They

can successfully blend all the different needs of teachers rather than separate them

(Lieberman & McLaughlin, 1999).

The New Teachers’ Network (NTN), a university-based teacher network at

Hofstra University, is an excellent example of this model. It was formed on the basis

of relationships developed during pre-service education and extended into in-service

teacher training. The network built a safe platform for teachers to engage in

discussions and offered university support for beginning teachers in urban and

suburban minority communities through interconnections between the university and

 43

classrooms, regular support meetings, conferences, and mentoring, as well as other

professional activities (Hines, et al, 2003).

In spite all the support and flexibility teacher networks offer, they are not without

problems. Lieberman and McLaughlin (1999) have talked about several challenging

issues. The autonomy of teacher networks poses challenges for continuously

evaluating their performance and improvement. “Without procedures for ongoing

outside review, networks can fall prey to the myopia of familiar practices and the

misdirection of unchallenged assumptions” (p. 675). This may also lead to vague

responsibilities for the various members involved and unclear ownership of the

network as it grows. Second, the power of networks may divert teachers’ time and

energy from their own schools to the networks themselves and even create a sense of

otherness for in their workplaces. Another challenge concerns the stability of the

networks. “How can the resources be sustained? Who will pay for them? Whose

priorities do they represent? If teachers learn new ways of working with students, how

can their efforts continue to be supported” (p. 676)?

Collaborative research/action research

Collaborative research is receiving great attention because there is a consensus in

the literature that teachers as researchers represent a great step for moving teaching

toward a research-based profession (Hargreaves, 1996).

It is an alternative professional development strategy that “actively involves

teachers in professional reflection, validates educators as producers of knowledge, and

 44

recognizes their role in professional development and decision making” (Burbank &

Kauchak, 2003, p.499). In collaborative research groups of teachers and researchers

work together on a research study. This gives the teachers an opportunity to improve

their understanding about teaching and practice in a more systematic and consistent

manner (Clif and Say, 1988). In this form of professional development, researchers

should go beyond strict methodological parameters, attend to the concerns and

questions of practitioners in education and use their concerns in the research

knowledge development (Richardson, 2001). O’Hanlon (1996) outlined three reasons

why collaborative research could be a very effective PD strategy: “it is inquiry-based,

and allows teachers to investigate their own worlds; it is aimed at the improvement of

teaching and learning in schools; and it leads to deliberate and planned action to

improve conditions for teaching and learning (Villegas-Reimers, 2003, p.108).

Davies (1993) studied action research from the teachers’ perspective and
concluded:
There was a lot of value. It widened my experience and gave me deeper insights-a
greater knowledge of my colleagues and what makes things tick. It was
psychologically useful…It made me reassess myself-I had to come to terms with
myself. I had to go from being a qualified teacher who knew it all to someone
plunged into a new situation in an environment I usually thought of as safe. I had
to reorganize myself and change my thinking. (p.148)
In order to creating lasting change within the classroom, this strategy needs to

rest upon a foundation of co-dependence rather than research teams that direct

teachers to change. Yet, the related key features of collaborative research require

further study (Gengarelly & Abrams, 2009).

This form of participation has been criticized in that it happens predominantly at

the individual level and does not address the curriculum of learning to teach; therefore
 45

is difficult to implement an institutional level and carry out on a large scale (Clif &

Say, 1988). Finding time for research in a busy school day is another challenge facing

teachers (McGee, 1998). Another one of its weaknesses is that the research knowledge

that stems from this collaboration is likely to be regarded as the work of researchers,

and so not be easily accessible to other teachers. In addition, with the current reward

system in universities and academic hierarchies of knowledge, carrying out research

with teachers usually is a relatively low priority (Timperley & Alton-Lee, 2008). Also,

in most cases, this approach depends greatly on already-established connections

between individual schools and universities. In other words, schools that are already

frequently involved in university programs either through training or recruitment have

better access to this type of opportunity.

Workshops/lectures

Workshops are one-time or short-term intensive learning opportunities that help

teachers to acquire specific knowledge or skills (Richards & Farrell, 2005). Single

lectures or workshops may be organized as a self-contained program or they may also

be part of a larger program. Usually a workshop as a complete activity is used in

training different groups of people who may or may not be interested. This is perhaps

the most traditional way of providing professional development for teachers

(Villegas-Reimers, 2003). In this form, universities provide knowledge and expertise

to teachers (Silber, 1985). This form has been heavily criticized by teachers because

the workshops are usually “‘one-shot’ experiences, completely unrelated to the needs
 46

of teachers and providing no follow-up” (Villegas-Reimers, 2003, p.93). A large body

of research in teacher education views this approach as unsuccessful because of its

distance from the school culture in which teaching happens (Baron, 2008). Sparks

(2004) believes that workshops are ineffective because they usually deliver the

wisdom of the experts or address the interests of school administrators instead of

addressing the questions that are most relevant to teachers. In spite of all the harsh

criticisms about the workshop approach in the literature (Sandholtz, 2002), workshops

are still the most common form of teacher professional development at present

(Richard, et al., 2001). Eun (2008) has pointed out that in workshops there could be

“abundant opportunities for teachers to share their experiences, knowledge and skills,

as well as problems, difficulties, and possible solutions” (p.142).

In addition, workshops or similar events can have the advantage of being held on

a regular basis during a school year. If they are carefully designed based on effective

professional development ideas, these type of programs can be as effective as other

means for improving teacher learning (Fishman, et al., 2004; Schneider et al.,

2005;Tilleman & Imants, 1995) when integrated into different models and combined

with other PD strategies ( e.g. Zeegers, 1995; Ball, 2000). Eun (2008) summarized

both the advantages and disadvantages of this type of professional training:

The most noteworthy benefit of this type of professional development is that it is
highly cost-effective, efficient, and is capable of reaching a large number of
participants in a single session. The most obvious disadvantage is that they offer
little opportunities for choice or individualization. (p.140)

Combined models

Most of the literature focuses on one form of participation (such as mentoring), so

 47

there is no convincing evidence pertaining to which forms are more effective or

cost-efficient. Universities could adopt the forms in various combinations and the

nature of these combinations might change across contexts which in turn would

influence how different approaches could relate to each other for better effectiveness

(Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Guskey, 1985; Stein, Simith, & Silver, 1999). For

examples, a master’s program designed based on a partnership between a university

and a school in central Florida reported successfully contributing to teacher learning

over a three-year period (Crawford, et al, 2008). A teacher network could also employ

workshops, seminars, and collective teaching activities (Hines, et al, 2003).

To say that universities should redesign the service they deliver is not to negate

the importance of formal graduate studies. Rather it is to propose a more balanced and

comprehensive approach in terms of the job-related needs of practicing teachers,

convenience and accessibility of support, etc. Various partnerships and collaborative

efforts could help universities to relate advanced research knowledge to the needs of

teachers in local schools and therefore generate a greater likelihood that their research

findings are disseminated in a more effective manner. This approach could frame

graduate programs in ways that are more congruent with the direction of education

improvement.

Of course, the geographical proximity of universities will also to a large degree

decide which approach is appropriate (O’Brien & Christie, 2008). Fortunately, the

online technology-based distance education today provides significant assistance to

this effort. Both developed and developing countries have invested in

 48

distance-education programs to support teacher professional development

(Villegas-Reimers, 2003). Distance education is cost-effective for implementing a

large-scale standard teacher training activity. In particular, it is considered an ideal

approach for delivering teacher training to remote or isolated areas. China, for

instance, has already implemented distance education for teachers in western rural

areas with the intent of improving “access, equity, and quality in professional

development” (Robinson, 2008, p. 1). In Uganda, a distance B.Ed. program for

teacher education is based on the materials developed by the University of Nairobi

(Villegas-Reimers, 2003). In the UK, more than half of the universities offer

postgraduate courses through distance education (Weinberger, 2000). For quite a long

time, Chinese education researchers focused primarily on broad conceptual elements

in distance learning (Zhou, 2002; Zhou, 2005; Zhang; 2006; Feng, 2007). Only

recently have there been more efforts committed to exploring how to support distance

learning in different school contexts (Liu, 2007; Zhang & Su, 2007).

Moreover, these forms of participation could also be adapted in both formal and

informal ways. For instance, a formally designed university program could be well

supported by an informal network in which teacher mentors in schools and university

educators or researchers in addition to the teacher participants themselves

communicate and discuss a variety of relevant issues. Bonk and Graham (2006) called

this kind of combination “blended learning”. The previous example of a

university-based program sponsored by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation in England

is one of these combinations, in which beginner teachers first took part in a series of
 49

well-designed professional courses and workshops focusing on motivation and

well-being that was accompanied by an informal support network among mentors and

teachers in different schools and university faculty.

There is a lot of overlap between the different approaches. Formal approaches

such as graduate programs, and short-term or long-term certified courses have the

support of and are recognized by the authorities but lack flexibility. In contrast, more

personalized approaches like teacher research and networks are favored for their

quick and potentially frequent connections with teachers’ practical concerns but

usually do not have enough funding and reorganization support. As in some of the

examples shown earlier, formal graduate programs and accredited courses could

embrace an element of action research to address practical concerns within current

academic structures. Short-term workshops and seminars could be part of informal,

individualized teacher network efforts. Schools could try to fit their local professional

learning into a broader university program so that it could lead to an advanced degree

or certificate while universities could seek to align their teacher learning programs

with the objectives set up by governments for teacher qualification or promotion

standards.

Academic structure in universities for teacher professional development

It is clear from the examples above that various forms of participation adopted by

universities are often imbedded into a formal academic structure such as a graduate
 50

program. Among many choices offered to teachers for professional development,

formal university programs and courses that may lead to various teacher qualifications,

certificates or diplomas take great importance. Because formal courses vary

significantly among universities, the following will focus only on graduate programs

which are a more organized structure in universities for teacher professional

education.

Graduate studies offered by universities to teachers provide formal degrees and

credentials, including the master’s degree, the doctorate of education and the

doctorate of philosophy as well as various teaching credentials (Katsinas & Kempner,

2005). Providing graduate studies is the most common way that universities

contribute to teacher professional development, presumably because to provide

credentials is a core function of the university, not just to offer learning, but to

organize that learning in ways that carry formal recognition such as degrees.

Within graduate programs, the role of university faculty members becomes one of

community members who bring their expertise in order to facilitate teachers’

engagement in the programs. Research findings indicate that this approach has some

key elements of effective PD programs as follows (Crawford, et al., 2008, p.92):

 Long-term framework: effective models have ongoing components that can be
measured in years of involvement. Long-term frameworks allow time for learning,
implementation, reflection, and modifications in content and pedagogy.
 Research-based strategies: teachers judge the effectiveness of professional
development on the learning of their students in response to implemented changes
in pedagogy. Therefore, the inclusion of a wide repertoire of research-based
strategies is an important element in programs.
 Professional community: participants benefit both professionally and affectively
from having the support of like-minded colleagues. Professional communities
provide not only a safe haven, but also a forum in which teachers can engage in
 51

inquiry and seek informed opinions about the challenges that arise in the
classroom.
 Personal engagement: reflective practitioners need to be actively involved in the
learning process. Therefore, effective programs invite engaged reflection,
personal and collective inquiry, and opportunities for hands-on application of the
concepts presented.
The difficulty here is that participants usually come from different subject areas

and various levels of experience. It is quite challenging to determine how to make

thoughtful and informed choices about the best ways for university faculty to invest

their time and energy in graduate programs so as to best address concerns in teacher

professional development (Crawford, et al., 2008). Moreover, graduate programs are

university-governed and university-based and their admission requirements generally

reflect “the traditional academic expectation of the university” (Sorensen et. al 2006,

p.375) so these programs inevitably run the risk of privileging theoretical knowledge

over professional knowledge (Pring, 1996). One can even say that graduate programs

are not intended or designed by universities or individual faculty members as

professional development programs.

In addition, issues such as admission criteria can also be barriers in this regard.

For example, in Japan the Ministry of Education has encouraged the establishment of

more graduate programs in universities for in-service teachers. Yet, research has

revealed that these new programs often require full-time status so are actually not

accessible to many teachers (Shimahara, 1998). Another criticism of certification or

graduate programs in universities is their role in helping individuals achieve higher

salary levels and degrees which may be divorced from concerns about the teacher’s

job in school so the payoff in terms of changes in the teacher’s work may be small.
 52

There are already calls for efforts in the field to overcome these limitations by

intentionally absorbing more input from other stakeholders and creating more

opportunities for teachers to collaborate with colleagues on issues that are relevant to

school improvement. There have also been responses to these calls. York University,

for example, set up a Masters in Education program in partnership with the North

York Board of Education in Ontario, focusing only on urban education (Ontario

Ministry of Education, 1994). In 1994, the Government of Alberta granted permission

to the University of Calgary to set up a Master of Continuing Education degree

program. The program uses computer-mediated communication and is “the first

part-time, professional graduate program in Canada specializing in organizational

learning and being offered by a faculty of continuing education” (Garrison & Kirby,

2006, p.8). Moreover, in some countries such as Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg,

graduate programs to some extent have already been integrated with pre-service

teacher education where student teachers are required to take graduate programs in

specific subjects on top of undergraduate degrees for student teachers

(Darling-Hammond, 1999). In France, all education students now need to complete a

graduate program connected to local schools through the University Institutes for the

Preparation of Teachers (Darling-Hammond, 1999).

Barriers to universities’ involvement

There are some major barriers at present that prevent universities from further
 53

realizing their potential roles. For example, the culture gap between universities and

schools and the way the incentive system in the university is structured have a big

impact on how well universities can achieve their expected roles. Ross et al. (1999)

commented on the school reward system:

The rewards for P-12 faculty are different from rewards for university faculty. For
P-12 rewards include time to do the work and clear evidence that their efforts are
benefiting children. P-12 faculty derives satisfaction from positive experiences
with children and from a sense of independence in creating a positive experience
for children. (p.210)
In contrast, in terms of university reward system, Ross et al. (1999) stated:
For the university faculty, the reward structure communicates the priorities of the
university. Unfortunately, the reward structure of most universities emphasizes
productivity defined largely as “self-determined scholarly work.” Scholars are
those whose work looks like that of their colleagues in liberal arts and sciences.
This definition of research rewards individual initiative, hardly a match with
collaborative work. (p.3)
Therefore, the reward system in universities does not encourage faculty involvement

in professional development.

The complex organizational nature of universities makes it tough to align different

disciplines and people from different units around particular needs of professional

learning delivery because “universities are places where excellence has been strongly

connected to specialization…research and graduate programs flourish by focusing on

very specialized issues, and rewards within the institution reinforce these tendencies”

(Selman, 2005, p.25).

There are also operational difficulties in terms of time, personnel and resources if

we are determined to realize some form of participation favored in the literature. For

instance, to getting experienced teachers in schools involved in the training process

and establishing partnerships between them and university professors is considered to

 54

be a very promising and effective approach to both teacher education and teacher

professional development. Yet, to implement this strategy on a large scale, universities

would need to train a large number of mentors for this collaboration to take place.

Also, it would be crucial to update the supervisory skills and knowledge of university

lecturers. In order to guarantee the quality of the program, there would be a need to

set up certain standards for supervisors, mentors and teacher-trainees. These new tasks

would mean not only extra workload for teacher mentors and university supervisors,

but also more financial pressure for university administration.

Summary of the conceptual framework

As we can see, there are serious tensions and gaps between what universities are

expected to achieve in teacher professional education and what universities are

currently equipped to do. To promote the role of universities in teacher professional

education will inevitably “mitigate the bureaucratic impulses of institutions” (Selman,

2005, p.26) so as to distribute institutional resources in a fairer way.

Chapter summary

As the literature shows, the field of teacher professional development is filled

with tensions between dichotomous notions such as: tacit teacher knowledge vs.

explicit teacher knowledge, teacher’ autonomy of PD vs. expert-driven PD,

 55

school-based PD vs. university-based PD, teacher personal learning needs vs. the goal

of system wide educational changes, etc. The call for universities to play a bigger role

in the field of teacher continuing education is accompanied by complex issues

regarding the degree of authority given to the university. This reflects a dynamic

relationship between the academy and the profession, revolving around the struggles

surrounding the perception of knowledge that impacts the role of the universities that

provide and construct such training.

To this day the university, to a large degree, builds and maintains its high status in

relation to the teaching profession on its authority as a producer of knowledge,

particularly research knowledge about teaching and learning. The relationships

between the knowledge teachers need to learn through training and the knowledge

they learn through teaching practice, and between the university and the teaching

profession are explicit and distinctive. However, professional training should not be

designed to provide teachers with knowledge that is produced solely by university

researchers or solely by teachers themselves. While acknowledging the necessity and

legitimacy of both of external expertise and teachers’ ownership and autonomy, future

training activities and programs should emphasize the idea that “through inquiry,

teachers across the professional life span—from very new to very experienced—make

problematic their own knowledge and practice as well as the knowledge and practice

of others and thus stand in a different relationship to knowledge” (O’Brien & Christie,

2008, p.273).

The discussion about various forms of university participation currently in the

 56

literature should not be seen as arguments about which model is better or best, as they

are not mutually exclusive and often work in various combinations. Currently there is

abundant uncertainty about shaping the authority of universities as knowledge

producers and about the relationships between universities and the teaching profession.

A new vision of the role of universities in the field of teacher professional learning

should be shared and supported by all these perspectives. In a deeper sense, Clifton

and Long (1984) argued that:

…excellent academic work requires, to a very high degree, the same activities as
excellent teaching. That is, both require the ability to express and communicate
ideas, the ability to logically organize ideas, and a certain degree of playfulness
and flexibility with ideas. (p.15)
After all, the desire for more university participation in continuing professional

development is by no means just an attempt to close the gap between theoretical

knowledge and teaching practice. More importantly, is how we use this thinking to

help us answer questions related to changing the university itself, such as: how do we

adjust the current scholarship in universities? What kinds of changes do universities

need in order for this adjustment to happen? Otherwise, efforts to change the status

quo may simply reflect Seixas and Brandes’ (1997) suggestion that, ironically, many

innovative approaches espoused by educational researchers which embody the

concepts of egalitarianism, representation and the voice of teachers implicitly

undercut the authority of the university-based scholars who are delivering these

messages.
 57

Chapter 3: Methodology and Procedures

This chapter outlines the methodology used to conduct this study. An overall

research design is followed by the description of a revised conceptual framework

including: sample selection, document review, interviews, data validation and analysis.

Limitations are also discussed. In reality, the study process was not carried out in a

straightforward manner; some of the steps described ran in parallel or overlapped each

other at times.

Research Design

This project is qualitative in nature. Krathwohl (1998) has written that

“qualitative procedures are ideal for complex phenomenon…[and] are extremely

useful for exploration-to find out how to understand a phenomenon” (p.229). Creswell

addressed when it is appropriate to use this research approach:

We conduct qualitative research because we want to understand the contexts or
settings in which participants in a study address a problem or issue…. We also
use qualitative research because quantitative methods and the statistical analyses
simply do not fit the problem. (2007, p. 40)
The study employed a multiple descriptive case study design (Merriam, 1998).

Merriam (1998) explained that case study design is different from other research

designs because it comprises “intensive descriptions and analyses of a single unit or

 58

bounded system” (p.19). Conrad & Serlin (2006) further explained:

[In case studies] researchers draw on multiple sources-documents, interviews,
observations, artifacts and the like-focusing sharply on context to describe the
case, generate themes, and make assertions. Case studies may be either unique
(intrinsic) or representative from a broad issue (instrumental) and can be selected
based on purposeful sampling-choosing cases because they are interesting…as
opposed to drawing a random sample. (p.45)
Similarly, Yin (2003) emphasized the importance of case studies as a means to

investigate multifaceted relationships that cannot be explored by quantitative methods.

Multiple case studies allow for cross-case analyses categorized by common themes.

Nevertheless, a case study does not necessarily need a large number of cases.

Using multiple case studies is the most appropriate way to develop the level of

understanding necessary to determine the extent to which and the manner by which

normal universities engage in in-service teacher education and what elements

influence their choice of participation and degree of engagement in the field of

in-service teacher education in China. Internal and external forces that shape the

working efforts of the institutions were explored in this study.

Sample selection

Four Chinese normal universities—Beijing Normal University, Shanxi Normal

University, Hebei Normal University and Qufu Normal University-and one Ontario

universities – OISE - were selected for the study. Purposefulness and convenience are

both reflected in the choice of these institutions based on their reputation in teacher

education and their accessibility to the researcher. Of the four universities in China,
 59

Beijing Normal University is a national normal university which operates directly

under the Ministry of Education and is a key-point teacher education institution in

China. Institutions under the MOE administration are expected to assume the role of

exemplary teaching and research institutions. Other provincial-or local-level

institutions are generally viewed basically as teaching institutions (Lin & Yang, 1987).

Shanxi Normal University, Qufu Normal University and Hebei Normal University

belong to this second tier and are all administered and supported by provincial

governments. This parallel feature of teacher education institutions adds another layer

of comparison when we explore issues related to Chinese normal universities. The

similarities and differences between the four studied institutions could provide

beneficial insights for current in-service teacher education in China. Moreover, the

three normal universities are key ones in the three provinces in which they are located.

The travel distance and accessibility of the four universities also contributed to the

sample selection.

Education in Canada is a decentralized system and is the full responsibility of the

provincial governments. Therefore, the study’s use of one province as a comparative

component is appropriate. The choice of Ontario was made because my graduate

study experience has taken place in this province and therefore I have a better sense of

its education system overall compared to other provinces in Canada. I believe this

helped me greatly in thinking about and exploring deeply the comparative component

of the study. OISE in the province of Ontario is a good comparative case because it is
 60

the largest faculty of education in Canada and is well renowned for the high quality of

its teacher education graduate and continuing education programs.

Figure 2: Geographical location of the four provinces

Table 1 Comparison of basic information of the selected universities

Province Programs Faculty Student
Beijing Beijing 57 bachelor programs; 1734 21,000
Normal 162 master’s programs; full-time full-time
100 Ph.D. programs; faculty students
18 rotating members
post-doctoral posts.
Hebei Hebei 81 bachelor degree 1492 54,315
Normal programs; 91 master’s teaching undergraduate
programs; 24 doctoral faculty students; 2788
programs; 4 graduate
 61

post-doctoral-research students
stations.
Qufu Normal Shandong 61 bachelor degree 1393 24983
programs; 77 master’s teaching undergraduate
programs; 6 doctoral faculty students; 2037
programs; 1 graduate
post-doctoral program. students
Shanxi Shanxi 47 bachelor degree 900 15,000
Normal programs; 32 maste’s full-time undergraduate
programs; 4 doctoral teaching students; 900
programs. faculty graduate
students

Within each university, a purposive and nonprobabilistic sample was chosen for

interview, since a random sample would not provide a group of people who were

convenient, available, and suited to the intent of the study (Patton, 1990). Besides, a

random sample from all the university administrators in China and Ontario could not

guarantee that those selected would be willing to participate in this study and that they

would have enough experience and knowledge concerning the university’s

participation in teacher continuing education. The continuing education department is

the key unit in Chinese normal universities that has taken on most of the professional

education work historically. Therefore, administrators from these units of selected

institutions were the most appropriate people to speak to regarding their institution’s

involvement in continuing teacher education. Faculty members were only included

when they were recommended or identified as key people who were heavily involved
 62

in teacher professional education work. The third group of participants (people from

the governments) was added after the revision of the conceptual framework.

One of the biggest challenges of collecting data for this study was to find

appropriate respondents and programs in the selected universities. I did on average

two interviews in each institution. My original intent was to do more than two, as I

spent weeks on university campuses, collecting relevant information and talking to

different people. Normal universities contain units that are strongly connected to

teacher education and other units that have little or no connection to teacher education.

The latter are usually new programs developed as these universities become more

comprehensive in character. Schools and colleges carrying out teacher education work

mainly provide pre-service teacher education. Historically, it is the continuing

education department in the institution that takes responsibility for continuing teacher

education.

Therefore, to find people who are familiar with this work, including university

administrators and teacher educators, was quite challenging. Take what happened in

Shanxi normal university. After I introduced my study, the first response I got from

people usually was “that is a quite interesting topic” or “ tell me again what you want

to do, because we don’t do much in-service training here”.

A better situation was when I was able to obtain information about different

projects such as a principal training class which the Physical Education Department of

Qufu Normal University did for the Qufu municipal government. However I found

this kind of information less interesting, as one-time projects here and there did not
 63

contribute much to the information I already had.

The continuing education department was the first unit I contacted for each

institution, because they were the people who were most likely to offer me a better

discussion. If the administrators in those departments were not aware of this work, I

considered that as part of the findings of the study, which meant the information I

could get about that institution was really limited. At the same time, I tried to locate

people who were academically involved. Usually these were experts in the field and

were willing to participate in my project. The problem is, within one institution, a

training program could potentially be the responsibility of different units including the

continuing education department, the school of education, the graduate school of

education, etc. Because the pool of experts in this field is very small, the same group

of people would get contacted and asked to participate in the training no matter which

part of the university sponsored it.

This was also true across institutions. I started my study from Hebei Normal

University. In order to locate more participants, I contacted two different people and

asked whether they could recommend potential participants for me. Surprisingly, I got

the same names. This is also why the group of educators who are currently involved

in in-service teacher education are often overwhelmed by the training work coming

from different places.

In the recruitment process, I used two methods to locate participants. First, I sent

an e-mail version of an invitation to participate in the study to the potential

participants. I also asked these participants to help identify other potential participants.
 64

The final selection process was based upon three basic criteria. First, the participants

had to be willing to take a certain amount of time to participate in this study during

the data collection period. Second, they had to be willing to share their experience

about working with in-service teachers, local schools or continuing teacher education

programs. Most importantly, they needed to possess a certain amount of experience in

teaching and administering teacher continuing education at the university to ensure

that they were familiar enough with this concept to respond at a deeper level.

Participants could be divided into two categories. One was administrators, mainly

directors or vice-directors of continuing education departments in the selected

universities and people in governmental organizations. The second was university

teacher educators who were heavily involved in the work of continuing teacher

education in one way or another. This selection ensured that the data reflected issues

in the administrative arena as well as in the actual teaching process.

Besides university faculty, more participants were also identified from the Hebei

Education Department and the Shandong Education Department in China and the

Ontario Ministry of Education, and the Ontario College of Teachers in Canada so as to

include more information about the overall teacher professional education systems in

which universities were situated and in order to make the discussion more

comprehensive and complete. The identification of appropriate people in the above

organizations was done based on recommendations by my supervisor and some

participants from the normal universities.

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Data collection

Creswell (2003) has listed four types of data that researchers use for qualitative

data collection: observations, interviews, documents and audiovisual materials. Yin

(1994) identified six sources of qualitative data for case study including

documentation, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant

observation and physical artifacts. This study drew heavily upon interviews with

people from the five universities and people in the governments, complemented by

available document data from various sources. Data collection began by finding

documentary evidence from institutional websites and other documents to construct a

picture of what each university does in the field (specific programs or activities

related to my conceptual framework). Documents such as policy documents about

recent national teacher education reforms, brochures, and application packages were

reviewed for information concerning the institutions’ engagement and focus.

Audio-visual materials such as institutional websites were reviewed to glean the same

information. This was supplemented by interviews. Fifteen semi-structured interviews

were conducted between August 16, 2010 and May 3, 2011. This type of interview

design allows the participants to talk about their viewpoints and experience in their

own institutions while giving flexibility to the researcher to pursue themes or issues

that emerge in the interviews. The conceptual framework was shown to the

participants prior to interviewing, so they could comment specifically on whether they

found the framework helpful and complete. This also helped them answer the

questions in ways that spoke to the framework. Twelve interviews were conducted in
 66

China including eight in Chinese normal universities (Hebei Normal University, Qufu

Normal University, Shanxi Normal University and Beijing Normal University), three

in provincial education departments (Hebei Education Department, Shanxi Education

Department, Shandong Education Department) and one in the Chinese Ministry of

Education. Three interviews were conducted in Ontario, Canada with people at OISE,

the Ontario College of Teachers and the Ministry of Education of Ontario. Eleven

interviews were conducted in-person and audio-recorded by the researcher while 4

were telephone interviews recorded only by note-taking as required by the

participants. All participants were administrators of or people heavily involved in

continuing teacher education in China or Ontario. The following table listed all the

participants by role and institutions.

Table 2: Role and institutions of all the participants in the study

Role Institution
Interviews in China (all the names of the participants listed are pseudonyms)
Zhang Director of school Hebei Normal University
education and continuing
education

Li Professor of School of Hebei Normal University

Education Study
Wang Professor of School of Hebei Normal University
Education Study
Li Deputy Director of Basic Hebei Education
Education office Department
Wei Deputy Director of School Beijing Normal University
of continuing education
 67

and teacher training

Jia College of Chemistry Beijing Normal University
Lu Deputy director Teacher Ministry of Education
Education Department

Liu Director of School of Qufu Normal University

Adult Education and
Continuing Education
Zhao Professor of School of Qufu Normal University
Education Study
Mei Director of Basic Shandong Education
Education Office Department
Lu Professor of School of Shanxi Normal University
Teacher Education
Wen Deputy director of Basic Shanxi Education
Education Office Department
Interviews in Ontario (all the names of the participants listed are pseudonyms)

Mike Director of Teaching Ministry of Education

Policy and Standards
Branch
John Registrar and Chief Ontario College of
Executive Officer Teachers
Alice Director of Continuing Ontario Institute for
Education Studies in Education

Each interview lasted from 40 to 60 minutes. A detailed report on each interview

was produced after the interview and shared with each respondent for their comments

or edits. Data recording included reflective and descriptive notes kept by the

researcher, audio-taped interview information and transcription (Creswell, 2003).

 68

The research journal is a very important source of data and a good way to record

the thinking process during the entire study (Rossman & Ralis, 1998). It is a

document that represents doubts, progress, and surprises, as well as all other sorts of

feelings on the part of the researcher when conducting a study. This helps sharpen the

researcher’s ideas into a more organized framework which is easier to analyze later

(Creswell, 2005). In regard to the format of the research journal, it is very flexible. It

can be long or short; it can be specific or abstract. The content of my research journal

included my reflection upon the books I read, the connections between the courses I

have taken and the research, thoughts inspired by conversations with other people

which were related to the topic, and discussion with my supervisor. Generally

speaking, I used a research journal to document all of my activities and important

thoughts during this study.

All the interviews in China were conducted in Chinese and translated by myself

afterwards. The translation process was divided into three steps. First, the interviews

were transcribed in Chinese and major ideas were highlighted on the transcription.

Second, those ideas emerging from each interview were translated into English. The

rest of the conversation was then translated. In this process, the order of some issues

might be rearranged so as to present a better flow of ideas in English. Some key

terminology involved was first left blank and added to the translation later. I tried to

find whether there were already well-established translations in Chinese academic

journals or other publications to ensure the accuracy of the translation. Finally, useful

quotes from each conversation were highlighted in colour.

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Data analysis and interpretation

Qualitative data analysis is mainly an inductive process (Porter, 1996). As

Creswell (2005) noted, an inductive interpretation and analysis of data beginning with

small details and then connecting them into larger themes, is the principle process.

But the opposite can also occur when researchers look for the details to support a

potential theme. Also, in a qualitative study, data collection and analysis are closely

linked with each other. Merriam (1998) noted:

Data collection and analysis is a simultaneous activity in qualitative research.
Analysis begins with the first interview, the first observation, the first document
read. Emerging insights, hunches, and tentative hypotheses direct the next phase
of data collection, which in turn leads to the refinement or reformulation of
questions, and so on. It is an interactive process throughout that allows the
investigator to produce believable and trustworthy results. (p. 151)
Therefore, data collection and analysis should not be separated. The transcription

process itself is a significant element of data analysis.

In qualitative research, most data analysis is done using the words of the

participants (Miles and Huberman, 1994). Those words “can be assembled,

subclustered, broken into semiotic segments” and “organized to permit the researcher

to contrast, compare, analyze, and bestow patterns upon them” (p. 7). Data analysis in

qualitative research is an ongoing process. Also coding is an organizational process

that sorts collected data into categories or themes.

In this study, the researcher adopted the coding process to develop categories and

themes for further analysis. Codes identifying units of meaning and themes were

analyzed across the four cases. In addition, visual presentations were also adopted to
 70

convey descriptive information about each case. Data interpretation covered both the

understanding of the words of the participants and the personal interpretation of the

researcher.

Establishing Validity

Creswell (2003) has stated that “reliability and generalizability play a minor role

in qualitative inquiry” (p.195). In qualitative research, the validation of the findings

indicates the “accuracy of the findings” (p.196). Creswell (2003) has proposed eight

practices to ensure the validity of quantitative research findings:

1. triangulate different data sources of information;
2. use member-checking to determine the accuracy of the qualitative findings;
3. use rich, thick description to convey the meanings;
4. clarify the bias the researcher brings to the study;
5. include negative or discrepant information that runs counter to the themes;
6. spend prolonged time in the field;
7. use peer debriefing to enhance the accuracy of the account;
8. use an external auditor to review the entire project (p.196).
Yin (1994) provided four criteria to ensure the quality of case study research.

They are construct validity, internal validity, external validity and reliability.

Construct validity can be achieved when evidence from multiple sources is used and

analyzed in the study (Yin, 1994). Internal validity can be achieved through rich and

thick descriptions which add more credibility to the narrative (Creswell, 2003).

External validity can be established by forming certain generalizability of the findings

in case studies (Yin, 1994). Also the conceptual framework of the study should have a

certain transferability. As well, developing a case study database to deal with

 71

documentation can be used to establish the reliability of a study (Yin, 1994). Data

triangulation was implemented in this study to establish the trustworthiness and

dependability of the data. Different sources were used for collecting the data, and “to

the extent that the various sources provide similar information, the data can be said to

be corroborated through data triangulation” (Pan, 2008, p.187).

Limitations of the research

The limitations of a multiple case study include the need to be cautious when

extrapolating lessons beyond the cases researched. The generalizability of findings is

decreased by the procedure of purposeful sampling.

First, China is a large country with great diversity. Provinces vary in their

regulation making and implementation. And imbalance of economic development

exists among regions. Four institutions in this study are all located in the northeast of

China, so the study needs to be cautious in drawing general conclusions about

in-service teacher education in China.

Second, the selection of the four institutions took into account travel distance and

accessibility to researcher, while also considering the status and reputation of the

institutions in the current system. With one national institution and three provincial

institutions, the selection is limited in number yet manageable and sufficient for one

study.

Third, the participants may not be able to represent an accurate picture of every
 72

aspect of the work done by different schools or colleges within the selected

institutions, as there are no well-established communication channels for in-service

work done by different colleges and schools within institutions. In addition, the

possibility of participants withholding information due to its sensitivity at present also

needs to be taken into consideration.

Fourth, the focus on programs set up especially for in-service teachers in primary

and secondary schools itself has limitations as teachers also enroll in other kinds of

programs that may contribute considerably to their professional growth.

In addition, teacher educators in normal universities can participate in the work of

continuing teacher education in many ways but the study only focused on institutional

practices and individual behavior is included only when it is part of an institutional

initiative. The enormous size of the Chinese teacher education and training system

makes it difficult to grasp the full dimensions of the challenges facing teacher

education reform.

Nevertheless, due to the centralized feature of the Chinese education system and

the similar situations of provincial normal universities and national normal

universities, the findings of this study, to a large extent, could have implications for

the system as a whole.

Right now, the administration of teacher education in China takes place at four

levels: the MOE, the Provincial Education Departments, the Municipal and County

level education offices, and the Urban and Commune Education Committees. Since

the universities selected for this study are at the national and provincial levels, the
 73

relevant policy analysis and data collection are concentrated only at these levels.

Another important limitation of the study is the possibility that participants withheld

information and opinions from the researcher due to the sensitivity of the topic.

Regardless of the limitations of its research, this study represents the first known

attempt to examine from an institutional perspective how and why Chinese normal

universities are engaged in the field of continuing teacher education. It is the

researcher’s hope that the study will stimulate more thinking and interest in promoting

the role of higher education institutions in the work of continuing teacher education.

Ethical Considerations

I planned and conducted all research activities according to the guidelines set out

by the University of Toronto Research Ethics Committee. In order to make sure that

all the participants were properly informed, they were asked to provide before the

interview a signed Letter of Invitation and Informed Consent Form. These written

disclosures protect the welfare and dignity of the research participants. The

disclosures included the nature of the research, the purpose of the research, the

methods of data collection and data analysis, and assurances of confidentiality, as well

as details of the use of the participants’ responses and comments as data for the study.

These documents were signed by the participants and the researcher before the

interviews took place. Both the researcher and the participants retained copies of each

document for future reference.

 74

To ensure the confidentiality of the data, all paper data, audiotapes, and

electronic data were stored in a secure location known only to myself. In terms of the

final disposal, all data will be destroyed 3 years after the completion of the study. In

order to prevent any physical or emotional harm to the participants, they were made

aware of their right to withdraw from the research at any time without explanation. To

ensure the trustworthiness of the data and to provide knowledge of the findings to

participants, I supplied them with detailed reports about their interviews as well as the

interpretation and summary of the data analysis. The participants were provided with

opportunities not only to correct or clarify any information regarding the report itself,

but also to comment on my initial analysis. A final summary report of the study was

mailed or e-mailed to interested participants. The study only mentioned the names of

the institutions and preserved participant anonymity when directly quoting from the

interview conversations.

Modifications to the original intent

The conceptual framework for the study was developed from a review of relevant

literature on teacher professional education and institutions of higher education. The

literature reviewed important aspects of the major types of teacher professional

education that universities could offer, and elements impacting institutional reform.

The framework was an attempt to capture the current state of the work and build up a

firm knowledge base for further exploration of this kind. The data collection process

was intended to cover three aspects highlighted in the conceptual framework: major
 75

forms of participation, formal structures, and barriers to participation. This framework

was built on the expectation that universities might have a range of initiatives in this

area, as the North American literature discusses.

The topic of the study is in many ways unexplored. In my review I mostly found

studies that focused on one particular project which involves a university and a group

of teachers, or a university and school boards, or a university and a particular school.

The discussion of these studies was often on how the project design helps teacher

learning, or on to what degree teachers changed after participation, or on how the

project or cooperation influenced the school culture in which meaningful teacher

learning takes place. In those cases, the literature of teacher learning and teacher

knowledge could be well connected to the purpose of the discussion.

For this study, there is not much literature that directly addresses the topic. In fact,

one of the challenges I faced at the very beginning was how to put together a literature

review for this project. Should I devote part of the space to the literature of teacher

learning and other aspects related to teacher education in general? I decided to do so

because this knowledge is fundamental to any topic concerning teacher education and

training.

I framed the study from the perspective of universities. I wanted to find out is not

how the participation of universities influences schools or teachers’ learning, but

rather the ways in which universities need to change and how they might possibly

change under the current situation. It may therefore appear that the knowledge about

teacher learning and education in general doesn’t well inform the research questions
 76

and was not directly reflected in the conceptual framework.

However, this literature contributes to our thinking about the core issues

underlying this study. If we favour and encourage university participation in

in-service teacher education, ultimately we will have to go back to the discussion

around teacher learning and the nature of teacher knowledge, which is already a very

contested field. The promotion of teacher action research through establishing close

cooperation between universities and schools will ultimately influence the focus of

researchers involved in this work. As teacher education in university becomes more

field-centered in the future, it will change the dynamic relation between universities

and the teaching profession and contribute to the discussion about research and

practice in rich and meaningful ways. For example, how should we view the value of

the knowledge in teacher education generated by different stakeholders? How could

we explain the process of development in universities from promoting the delivery of

different kinds of in-service training to the impact on the knowledge the university

produces? And how does the change of the nature of this knowledge in turn influence

the institution delivering training programs?

These are important issues to be addressed in the future. They are relevant to this

study but cannot be taken up fully because of the formative nature of this study.

The purpose of this study is to draw a big picture from the perspective of Chinese

normal universities and find out what the current situation is regarding this work as

well as the rationale behind it. Thus, elements of structure and participation, also

barriers, are the key points to draw this picture.

 77

Accordingly, the conceptual framework has three major sections. The first and the

second parts of the framework are all about the actual programs that universities

operate at present. The reason why I added the discussion of policy context after early

data collection was mainly for the reasons explained in what follows.

First, the early conversations I had with the university administrators had much to

do with policy. The later data collection also proved the point that current work

carried out as institutional practices correspond with the government policy very well.

Detailed information about particular programs did not come out often in the

interviews with the participants, as this kind of description will not tell us much about

the big picture: what normal universities did and why they did it. Moreover, some of

the “to-be-implemented” policy initiatives will also have a great impact on normal

universities’ involvement in in-service teacher education in China. For example, the

MED programs enrolling teachers who graduated from state sponsored tuition free

programs will be implemented by six national normal universities in the year 2012,

which will further change the discussions about funding patterns, enrollment planning,

the percentage of on-campus teaching, etc. Therefore, the study was shifted more

towards a policy study. Only if we have a clear grasp of major policy initiatives

behind the current programs can we have a better understanding about the purpose of

different programs, the connections and incentives behind them as well as where they

were situated in the overall transformation of the teacher education system in China.

In fact, the early data collection revealed there is not much data available in China

on the major forms of universities’ participation in in-service teacher education.

 78

Mostly because the universities’ participation is still at an early stage, there is not yet

a systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of particular kinds of training programs

hosted by the universities. Moreover, university-initiated programs constitute a very

small percentage of the total. Among the current programs most are funded by the

government. The form of the training programs including the length of the programs

and the training locations are predetermined by the government, leaving very limited

space for universities to improvise.

Furthermore, it is not apparent based only on the framework how the factors

relating to universities’ in-service teacher training programs align with each other as

well as what are the key influences that drive an institution to commit to in-service

teacher education in China. The centralization of the Chinese education system

determines the power of government policies over every aspect of educational change

and institutional reform. The work of normal universities in in-service teacher

education is no exception. Differing from what I originally expected, each

conversation I had yielded information concerning relevant policy change as well as

system evolution rather than a lot of information about specific in-service teacher

training programs, which proves that the national policy context serves as deciding

driver and at the same time the background to in-service teacher education in China.

Therefore, building on my previous intent, the element of the policy context was

added to this study’s conceptual framework. The visual representation below shows

the revised conceptual framework.

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Figure 3: Revised visual representation of the conceptual framework

Major forms of participation

 Teacher professional school
 University-school network
 Teacher network
 Collaborative research
 Workshops
 Combined models

University in
Formal structures Education policy
teacher
 Courses for certain certificates context
professional
 Graduate programs
education

Barriers for participation

 Resources
 University promotion system
 Organizational structure

In order to set up the policy context for the normal universities selected for this

study, evidence about relevant documents and policies is first organized and presented

in the following chapter.

Chapter summary

This chapter introduced the overall design of the study and the revised conceptual

framework for the data collection and the resulting analysis. In reality, the study

progressed not on a linear way as presented in this chapter but rather in a parallel and

interactive manner. Usually, interview questions were reviewed after the analysis of
 80

previous interviews and available documents. Necessary changes were then made for

the following interviews so that the conversation could be more specific and

informative. The decision to revise the original conceptual framework also manifested

this feature.
 81

Chapter 4: Policy context for the university’s participation in

continuing teacher education

The data collected and presented in chapters four and five only includes degree

and non-degree education programs set up especially for in-service teachers in

primary and secondary schools. This standard itself has limitations as the vice-director

of the Continuing Education Department of Beijing Normal University pointed out,

“With the establishment of the open teacher education system, graduates from

non-teaching majors have entered into the teaching profession and are well received

by many schools. More and more in-service teachers are taking master’s programs in

other fields such as computer science” (Interview conducted in November, 2010).

Also, teacher educators in normal universities can participate in the work of

continuing teacher education in many varied ways but the study only focused on

institutional practices and individual behavior is included only when it is part of an

institutional initiative.

An important feature of the interview findings is that the work of normal

universities in in-service teacher education is embedded in as well as deeply

influenced by a series of educational policies set out by the government and by the

overall transformation of the teacher training system. These must be described first in

order to form a better foundation for the later discussions about what these normal

universities do in terms of teacher continuing education-where this work is today, and

where it could (or should) be in the future.

The data are organized into three parts: the overall system of continuing teacher
 82

education in China and Ontario, major policies indirectly influencing teacher

education, and policies directly influencing in-service teacher education. The first

section presents findings regarding the contextual background of the Chinese and

Ontario teacher education systems so that the current place of universities can be

properly located. It is comprised of four elements: system overview, historical

background, the governance and structure of the continuing education system and the

role of the university in the current system. The second section presents findings

about major policy initiatives and actions taken by normal universities in China

indirectly influencing teacher education. This part introduces some examples from the

wave of exploration of alternative means of teacher education and training that

occurred after the implementation of the policy of charging no tuition for normal

students in 2007. Then, the policy concerning the national curriculum in China as well

as its influence on universities’ role in continuing teacher education is briefly

addressed. The third part of this chapter elaborates on policy initiatives particularly

referring to in-service teacher education in China. The organization of the third part is

set up for clarifying the formal structures of current in-service teacher education in

Chinese normal universities. This part is further divided into degree-based teacher

training policies and non-degree based teacher training policies.

The overall system of continuing teacher education in China and Ontario

The Chinese teacher education system

System overview
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At present, China has the largest teaching force in the world. 16.92 million

teachers were employed in 2008 in 580 thousand schools with 320.99 million

registered students (2010, MOE website). The number of students admitted to

universities has multiplied several times since the implementation of the mass higher

education policy in China and has reached 20 million. At present, there are 2,305

universities in China, among which there are 656 private universities

(http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s4960/201012/113595.ht

ml). All normal universities including national ones and provincial ones are publicly

funded. Generally speaking, they enjoy priority for public funding from the central

and local governments and have a better reputation and administration than private

universities. Many national education policies are either delivered directly from the

Ministry of Education to major universities or through provincial departments of

education to provincial or local universities. 75 universities including 5 normal

universities are under the direct management of the Ministry. Other universities are

under the administration of the provinces or municipalities where they are located

(2010, MOE website).

Education in China is a centralized system controlled by the national government

through various educational laws, policies, and teaching requirement for schools,

colleges and universities in general. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Education

of the central government, the provinces use a prescribed national curriculum and the

national competitive examination system has a huge impact on teaching and learning

in schools (Tang & Absalom, 1998, p.125). Starting in the mid-1980s, the central
 84

government began a process of decentralization, giving more decision-making power

to local governments and more autonomy to higher education institutions. Also

teacher education institutions were given special attention in this regard. As Gao Yi

pointed out in the 1980 national conference on teacher education:

Training institutions should be localized. They should be oriented to their own
provinces and their own regions. They should train teachers for their local use,
forming a network of teacher training suitable for educational development in
their own areas (Lo, 1984, p. 88).
The system of decentralization was first confirmed in 1987. The key issue of the

decentralization decision was the division of responsibilities between the central

government and the provincial governments as well as the provincial governments

and the lower level education departments. Different levels of government assumed

much more responsibility for financing and administering basic education affairs. The

responsibilities of the national-level government for education include teacher

training, recruitment and assessment, and developing guidance and research regarding

teaching matters (Lewin, et al., 1994). Of course, although the pattern of

decentralization across China followed the same policy guidance of the central

government, its implementation differed based on local conditions (Lewin, et al.,

1994).

As a result, the Chinese education system has increasingly favored regional

autonomy. Decentralization in textbooks, school management, and the entrance

examination system is being implemented across the country. In 1993, the State

Council issued the “Program for China’s educational reform and development” (State

Education Commission, 1994; Cui, 1993). This document identified the overly
 85

centralized administrative and financial structure as one of the major problems in the

education system and clearly stated that:

The system to run schools will also witness great changes with the government
monopoly to be broken… At present basic education must be achieved mainly
through local government schools (Cui, 1993, p.16).
Since then, the provincial governments have been given enough space for

gradually taking more responsibility for basic education and teacher education and

training, and they have also become the primary providers of education funding and

support. The 1993document specified six funding channels for precollegiate

education:

1) Urban and rural educational surcharges levied by local governments;

2) Contributions from industry and social organizations;

3) Donated funds from community organizations and individuals;

4) Tuition fees from students;

5) Income from school-run enterprises;

6) Central authorities (State Education Commission, 1994, p.11).

This financial and management power shift was actually first evident in higher

education, and then extended into the precollegiate level (Hawkins et al., 1999). This

change was a direct result of the broader economic reform and the central

government’s transformation away from its role as sole provider of social services

including education (Mok, 1997), which directly determined the fiscal nature of this

decentralization process (Bray, 1999). Tao and Zou (1998) found that “a higher degree

of fiscal decentralization of government spending is associated with lower provincial

economic growth over the past 15 years” (p. 221).

 86

The provincial governments were entrusted more power over higher education

affairs. One of the most prominent education issues is resource allocation and

investment patterns. These have fundamentally changed since 1985 from a single

narrow source to more diversified sources. This financial reform has included two

strategies: financial decentralization and financial diversification. A main shift in this

reform was the transfer of responsibility for educational affairs from the central

government to different levels of government. To be more specific, different levels of

education are administered by different levels of governments. As a result, each

provincial government is responsible for the provision of higher education within the

province and basic education matters. The central government only directly finances

and manages some national-level higher education institutions.

This funding reform was embedded in the larger financial system reform that

occurred at the end of the 1970s. Before that, the lower-level governments submitted

all their tax revenue to the higher-level government and the higher-level government

would distribute money to the lower level governments. This practice was called tong

shou tong zhi (complete collection and complete distribution). After the reform, the

practice of feng zhou chi fan (eating from separate pots) took place. Accordingly, each

level of government takes responsibility for its own finances. This change to a large

degree successfully mobilized additional resources in the developed provinces for

education development. However, this led to much larger disparities in education

investment between provinces and inevitably left the less-developed areas in even

more difficult because “variation in provincial resources has a strong effect on the
 87

benefits of fiscal decentralization” (Cheng, 1997,p. 450).

To summarize, to this day, five different educational finance systems have been put in

place:

 Central government control of the financial system with management at three

levels (1949-1955)

 Central government-controlled financial system with management by provincial

and central governments (1956-1957)

 Dependence on provincial governments (1958-1971)

 Central government provision of earmarked special funds for education

(1972-1979)

 Local budget allocation by usage and special grants from the central government

(1980-) (Lewin, et al., 1994, p.22)

The following table gathers the currently available statistics (2007-2008)

regarding the fiscal investment in education.

Table 3: Fiscal investment in education
Percentage of the overall provincial
Education budget（billion yuan）
budget（%）
Region/province
Percentage Percentage
Year 2007 Year 2008 Year 2007 Year 2008
of growth% of growth %
Total 8094.34 10212.97 26.17 16.26 16.32 0.06
City of Beijing 315.97 381.28 20.67 19.16 19.46 0.3
City of Tianjin 113.88 147.17 29.23 16.89 16.96 0.07
Hebei province 302.68 406.33 34.24 20.09 21.59 1.5
Shanxi province 189.21 251.4 32.87 18.02 19.12 1.1
Mongolia
autonomous 159.59 215.81 35.23 14.75 14.84 0.09
region
Liaoning
295.04 360.68 22.25 16.72 16.75 0.03
province
Jinlin province 154.68 208.23 34.62 17.5 17.64 0.14
 88

Heilongjiang
196.48 255.4 29.99 16.55 16.56 0.01
province
City of Shanghai 318.21 358.86 12.77 14.59 13.83 -0.76
Jiangsu
507.43 618.94 21.98 19.87 19.06 -0.81
province
Zhejiang
411.73 471.55 14.53 22.79 21.35 -1.44
province
Anhui province 239.53 312.31 30.38 19.26 18.96 -0.3
Fujian province 216.72 269.41 24.31 23.8 23.68 -0.12
Jiangxi
183.76 220.23 19.85 20.3 18.2 -2.1
province
Shandong
458.21 555.84 21.31 20.26 20.55 0.29
province
Henan province 406.47 496.01 22.03 21.73 21.74 0.01
Hubei province 223.59 272.5 21.87 17.5 16.51 -0.99
Hunan province 260.93 338.99 29.92 19.23 19.2 -0.03
Guangdong
659.75 797.98 20.95 20.88 21.12 0.24
province
Guangxi
autonomous 200.65 258.72 28.94 20.35 19.95 -0.4
region
Henan province 50.3 62.07 23.4 20.51 17.34 -3.17
City of
146.72 180.07 22.73 19.1 17.72 -1.38
Chongqing
Sichuan
340.83 476.45 39.79 19.37 16.16 -3.21
province
Guizhou
163.31 226.19 38.5 20.53 21.46 0.93
province
Yunnan province 217.5 279.7 28.6 19.16 19.02 -0.14
Tibet
autonomous 40.6 47.83 17.81 14.74 12.57 -2.17
region
Shanxi province 180.55 264.58 46.54 17.13 18.52 1.39
Gansu province 133.19 194.23 45.83 19.72 20.06 0.34
Qinghai
40.13 54.48 35.76 14.22 14.98 0.76
province
Ningxia
autonomous 52.43 56.65 8.05 21.68 17.45 -4.23
region
Xinjiang
autonomous 151.57 210.44 38.84 19.06 19.86 0.8
region

(source: http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s4958/list.html)
 89

Using the year 2008 as an example, the fiscal investment of Shandong province

was higher than that of the other three provinces (or regions). Yet, because of the

much larger population of Shandong, the average educational budget was lower than

the national average and it ranked 23rd in the year 2008. Among the three provinces

and the national capital, Hebei province took first place in terms of the overall

percentage of its yearly educational budget as a portion of its total budget. Under the

guidance of the Hebei Education Department, the work done by Hebei Normal

University really has stepped ahead in many aspects to promote in-service teacher

education work. For example, the university was among the first group of universities

exploring alternative ways to connect in-service teacher education and student teacher

internships and it established new offices particularly for arranging work of this kind.

(We will return to this in detail later.)

The impact of the inequality that exists in teacher training investment is reflected

in various indicators in education. One study points out that there are clear disparities

in the quality of teachers among provinces (World Bank, 1999). Cheng and Zhang

(2000) studied higher education institutions and stressed that there are huge disparities

in higher education institutions between national level universities (key universities)

and other universities as well as between the Eastern provinces and Western provinces

in the country. In order to lessen the downside of the financial reform on education

development in less developed provinces, the central government has often turned to

technical solutions such as grant funding to the provincial government or targeted

assistance to rural areas (Tsang, 1983).

 90

Although there are no exact statistics available for this study, we need to be clear

that investment in education does not necessarily mean investment in teacher

continuing education. As a matter of fact, for quite a long time, in-service teacher

education has not been listed among the top priorities of many provincial

governments. This was further confirmed by the interviews with people in Hebei

Normal University and Hebei Education Department, and could also to a large degree

explain why the central government has pushed this work so hard in recent years.

The most recent national education development guidelines (2010-2020) stated

that the central government should further transfer authority over educational issues to

lower level governments, and foster a regional approach and multiple methods of

educational funding. The central government needs to continue monitoring the reform

process, provide guidelines and suggestions and offer funding directly to the rural and

less developed regions.

Historical background of the Chinese teacher education system

At the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the

number of elementary and middle school teachers was seriously insufficient and the

teaching quality was extremely low. A large number of short-term teacher education

classes were organized to train new teachers. At that time, in-service teacher training

was almost non-existent. Teachers usually taught themselves to improve their teaching

knowledge and skills (Cui, 2001). The situation of the Chinese teaching force did not

improve at all for quite some time due to the unstable political environment. In
 91

particular, during the period of the Cultural Revolution, most forms of teacher

education and training completely stopped. It was predicted that by the end of the

1980s, China would need more than two million elementary and secondary teachers

(Paine, 1992, p. 185).

The Chinese government has highlighted the status of education in its overall

national development since Deng’s opening up policy in the 1970s. Educational

reform, to a large degree, has been aligned with the emerging trend of modernization

ever since (China Education Yearbook Editorial Dept, 1987). Educational

development since 1978 has been guided by a series of national policies including the

1985 policy for systemic education reform, the Outline of Educational Reform and

Development in 1993 and the Action Plan for Educational Development in 1999.

Since the 1980s, the Chinese education system has been undergoing major

transformation including the universalization of nine-year compulsory education by

the year of 2000; reform in secondary education and vocational education; and

admission and management reform of the higher education sector and the

development of 100 key universities across the country (Tsang, 2000). In the mid

1990s, the central government started to lay more emphasis on education development

in poor areas with increased government funding.

Teacher education is the area that will be most affected by national education

objectives in the forseeable future and it is being organized to fulfill the major

purposes of modern education in China (Meyer, Nagel, &Snyder, 1993). By the late

1980s and early 1990s, China had formed a relatively stable network for pre-service
 92

teacher education. This includes six types of normal institutions which can be divided

into three levels offering pre-service teacher education. The first level is normal

universities and vocational normal universities. They deliver a four-year program with

an undergraduate degree. The graduates from this level are assigned to high school

teaching positions. The second level includes normal colleges. They usually provide

teaching diplomas, and in some cases undergraduate degrees, and are responsible for

training middle school teachers. The length of the programs offered varies from 2-3

years. The last level is made up of normal schools, special education normal schools

and preschool normal schools that offer 1-2 year programs. The students graduating

from this level have only teaching certificates and can only teach in primary schools

or preschools (Li, 1999).

In 1994, the total number of normal institutions for pre-service teacher education

was 1202, out of which around 200 were universities (Yearbook of Chinese Education

Statistics, 1994). After years of concerted effort, the problem of the shortage of

teachers has been greatly reduced. According to Chinese educational statistics, the

number of elementary and secondary school teachers has increased significantly.

At the same time, in-service teacher professional development has also witnessed

tremendous improvement since 1978. Because of the impact of the Cultural

Revolution, the graduates of normal institutions often spent most of their time in

school attending political activities. As a result, the actual quality of the graduates was

greatly compromised. Thus, providing continuing education for in-service teachers

was another major task that the government needed to tackle (Li, 1999). Starting in
 93

the 1980s, teacher educators in China adopted the name “teacher continuing

education”. At the same time, the goal of a nationwide formal teacher in-service

education system was established. In 1985, the government issued “the central

government decision on educational system reform” and clearly stated that “[the state]

must carry on earnest training and the inspection of in-service teachers, take the

development of normal education and in-service teacher training and advancement as

a strategic measure in educational change”. Due to the strong push from the

government, large-scale teacher training took place. To summarize, two important

interlocking measures were adopted: establishing a network for in-service teacher

training and upgrading the qualification level of teachers.

The network of in-service teacher education is also a three-level system including

provincial teacher training colleges, regional and municipal teacher training colleges,

and county-level teacher training schools (Li, 1999). Because of the shortage of

teachers and the low quality of practicing teachers after the war, in-service education

focused only on basic training. Different levels of in-service teacher education were

organized corresponding to the type or level of school teachers and types of

qualification awarded on graduation. For instance, rural primary school teachers

attended training courses at town teacher training centres and secondary school

teachers attended provincial level teacher colleges. At the 1978 National Education

Conference, Deng Xiaoping marked a new direction for educational reform and

change. He called attention to four areas;

 Raising the quality of education;

 94

 Restoring order and discipline in schools;

 Reforming education to meet the needs of national economic development;

 Raising the quality and status of teachers (Lo, 1984).

As the recognition of the key position of teachers in the success of educational

reform increased, the Chinese government issued relevant policies and regulations to

improve the status of teaching as a profession (Li et la., 1998).The Education Laws of

the People’s Republic of China aimed to protect the legal rights of teachers, and

increase the salary and benefits of the teaching profession. A more recent Law for

Teachers in the People’s Republic of China (Ministry of Education in China, 1993a)

clearly stipulates that teachers’ salaries should be the same as or higher than the

average salary of other government employees and the local governments should

make providing better housing and benefits to teachers a high priority (Shao, 1995).

Later in the same year, the “Outline for Education Reform and Development in

China” (Ministry of Education of China, 1993b) was issued. The document

emphasized that “[teachers] hold the 21st century international competition…a strong

nation lies in its education, and a strong education system lies in its teachers” (p.8). It

was this document that set out the goal that by the end of the 1990s, the vast majority

of primary and secondary school teachers should have appropriate academic degree

standards. In response, many local governments organized some major degree

enhancement programs. For example, in the mid 1990s, the Shandong Education

Department organized two major degree enhancement programs in the form of

correspondence education. The continuing education department of Qufu Normal

 95

University was heavily involved in the material preparation and hosted some key

lectures. Director Liu of Qufu Normal University continued, “after these two major

programs, the degree enhancement activities were coming to an end” (Interview in

October, 2010).

As the open teacher education system develops, the routes into teaching will

certainly become more diverse. As a result, there is an urgent need for more

comprehensive and systematic specification and reinforcement of the standards for

entering the teaching profession. A teacher certification system was initiated in 1995

and started to be implemented around 2000. In 1995, the system of teacher

certification and licensure was proposed in the Stipulations of Teacher Qualification

Certification (Ministry of Education of China, 1995). According to this system, the

central government is responsible for making national teacher certification policies

and monitoring their implementation in different provinces. Different levels of local

governments including county-level governments look after detailed organization and

implementation. Governments hold the power to issue teacher certification and make

relevant regulations and procedures. Higher teacher education institutions also have

been entrusted by the governments with the licensing power of teacher certification.

Higher institutions must set up teacher certification evaluation committees evaluating

applications based on the requirements set up by provincial governments. In 2000,

detailed guidelines with procedures were issued to guide different levels of

government in implementing the teacher certification system. The current types of

teacher certifications include kindergarten teacher certification, primary school

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teacher certification, junior high school teacher certification, senior high school

teacher certification, vocational school teacher certification and higher education

teacher certification. The management of teacher certification is still changing, and

how or whether it will relate to in-service teacher training is not yet clear.

In-service teacher education not only updates teachers with the new knowledge

and skills required by the new reform initiatives, but also for less developed provinces

and especially for rural areas, in-service teacher training serves a remedial function as

teachers there often have fewer years of formal training. The new era of teacher

education in China needs clearer regulations and power allocation among

governments and higher education institutions. Governments at different levels are

taking various measures to enhance the social and economic status of teachers such as

praising and rewarding model teachers annually at the provincial or national level

(Dan & Zhang, 1991).

In 2004 the Ministry of Education launched the 2003-2007 New Action Plan to

“Revitalize Education in which drafting standards for accreditation of teacher

education institutions, curriculum of teacher education and quality of teacher

education were outlined” (Zhu and Han, 2006, p. 70). A five-year training plan has

been issued for the last two decades to guide the overall teacher training for the whole

nation. During the last Five-Year training plan (2003-2007), 1000 rural backbone

teachers were trained together with one million K-12 school teachers. 2000 school

teachers upgraded their educational degree level. Right now, the fifth round of the

Five-Year teacher training plan is in progress (2008-2013). In this training round,

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there are four major priorities: first, the selection of 100 universities including

comprehensive universities and normal universities to set up national-level teacher

training bases; second, the development of post-graduate teacher training; third, the

launch of a national primary and secondary school teacher project with an emphasis

on the middle and western parts of China; fourth, the improvement of the e-teacher

training network.

Governance and structure of continuing teacher education

Generally speaking, for a very long time, pre-service education and in-service

training in China have been carried by two independent systems. Normal universities

and colleges as introduced earlier are mainly for pre-service teacher education. The

structure of in-service teacher education comprises three levels, including: provincial

teacher training schools, regional and municipal teacher training schools, and

county-level teacher training schools governed by provincial and local governments

(Li, 1999). They are included in adult education institutions (Gu & Shan, 2004) and

not connected to universities. In recent years, it appears that some provincial teacher

training schools were merged into universities such as the Shanghai teacher training

school which was absorbed into East China Normal University. Based on numbers

provided by Chinese Educational Statistics, in 1994, there were a total of 231

in-service teacher training institutions from the county level to the municipal level and

the provincial level.

There is a diversity of teacher development approaches that currently exists in

 98

local schools. Some approaches are traditional while others are designed according to

the needs of individual schools. A few common approaches are partnerships between

experienced teachers and new teachers; collective lesson preparation with grade teams

or teaching teams; teaching competitions among schools; and short-term workshops,

academic lectures and so on (Clark, 1999). Before the 1990s, in-service teacher

training predominantly consisted of qualification-upgrading training for those teachers

who had not met the national qualification standards (Fang &Zhu, 2007). Accordingly,

the key responsibility for all the in-service teacher training institutions is to provide

supplementary normal education and upgrade the qualifications of in-service teachers

(Guan, 2003) to meet the benchmark set up by the government as follows.

China has established requirements and standards for primary and high school
teachers:
1) primary school teachers should have normal school certification;
2) junior high school teachers should be graduates of normal colleges;
3) senior high school teachers should have an educational background that
includes normal universities (State Education Commission, 1995, p.58).
As a result of all the policy encouragement from the government, the

qualification level of regular Chinese teachers has been greatly improved (Li, 1999).

“Within 14 years-from 1978 to 1992, the qualification rate of primary school teachers

increased from 43 percent to 82.7 percent, and for junior high school teachers

increased from 9.8 percent to 55.6 percent” (State Education Commission, 1994, p.

58). Based on the Chinese statistics of 1989 and 2006, the qualification rate for high

school teachers with undergraduate degrees increased from 43.3% to 85.08%.

In the late 1990s, the Chinese government gradually realized that the problems in

teacher qualification were not limited to ensuring teachers had appropriate degrees.
 99

Using degrees as a standard for judging whether a teacher is qualified or not is

problematic (Paine, 1991). As Paine (1992) has pointed out the problem is how can

we build a teaching profession sustainable in numbers as well as teaching expertise.

Acquiring an academic degree is only a starting point for a successful teaching career.

The quality of teachers and their teaching needs continuous development as the needs

of students are changing fast. This is a real problem not only for teachers themselves

but more importantly, for the Chinese education enterprise as a whole. Paine (1992)

argued that:
the shortage of qualified teachers is not the greatest or most important challenge
facing the modernization effort in education. That shortage is a resource problem,
solvable with technical solutions, many of which China has already undertaken. A
more fundamental obstacle to educational modernization is the practice of
teaching in China today (p. 28)
Thus, gradually the policy emphasis shifted from upgrading teacher qualifications in

the 1980s to creating mechanisms for assuring the quality of teacher learning in the

late 1990s (Paine & Fang, 2007). In-service training for degree supplementation

purposes is diminishing while the concepts of life-long learning and teacher

professional development increasingly have gained popularity. In 1998, the Ministry

issued guidelines for the Development for Continuing Education for Primary and

Secondary School Teachers. All teachers (including those in primary and secondary

schools) are required to participate in teacher professional learning every five years

for at least 240 hours (Fang & Zhu, 2007). Yet, the training bears no direct

relationship with teacher salaries or benefits.

The role of universities in the current system

 100

The higher education system in China followed the Soviet higher education

system in the early 1950s. The MOE was responsible for making standard teaching

plans and curriculum. The central government required that all higher education

institutions implement the centrally-made policies regarding curriculum, teaching

plans, finances, and personnel matters as well as construction. The grouping of

institutions was based on a division of knowledge fields. Major types of institutions

included universities of science and technology, agricultural universities, medical

universities, normal universities, etc. There were also comprehensive universities

which brought art and science majors together, which were conceived as institutions

devoted to pure science and arts disciplines only (Zhao, 1986). Within every group,

there were national-level universities and provincial-level universities. The central

government directly administered 14 comprehensive universities of which there were

one or two in each major region. The Ministry also directly administered six major

normal universities which were responsible for higher teacher training in six major

administrative regions. The rest of the teacher training universities were led by

provincial governments with the expectation that they would lead provincial teacher

education efforts. After the decentralization efforts that began in the late 1970s, while

the general features of the system have remained in place, there has been more

freedom for each province to develop its own method of teacher training based on the

support received from its provincial government (Hayhoe, 1989).

National-level universities enjoy much higher prestige than provincial-level ones.

 101

Faculty members dominate various teaching and learning committees that set

standards and guidelines for the country. This multi-level system means that

universities in different categories and at different levels face different challenges in

educational reform. Major criticisms of the educational system have concentration on

the issues of overspecialization and the limited research activities of universities

(Hayhoe, 1989).

The division of pre-service and in-service teacher education creates the problem

of a lack of transition and continuity in teacher education. For teachers, learning and

teaching are clearly separated which becomes a serious barrier for enhancing teacher

quality (Cui, 2001). As the negative side of the separated teacher education system

has emerged, the government has started a process of redesigning the system

including the role of the universities in general.

Meanwhile, because of the impact of market economy globalization, the Chinese

government has also determined to move Chinese teaching toward becoming an

all-graduate profession (The MOE, 2002). In 1999, the Ministry of Education initiated

a project entitled “Project Gardener Crossing the New Century”. The project proposed

to improve teachers’ credentials. Its goal was that by 2010, all primary school teachers

should have diplomas from professional teachers colleges, while high school teachers

should have degrees from four-year normal universities or a master’s degree. As a

result, starting in the late 1990s, normal universities and comprehensive universities

began to offer M.Ed programs for in-service teachers. However, the numbers involved

are still relatively small. By the end of 2003, there were 6,970 teacher students
 102

enrolled in these programs (Feng, 2003).

The changing nature of the economy has put the concept of the market into the

preparing and training of teachers. This reform is not only changing the dynamics

between previously relatively independent teacher preparation and training systems,

but also serves as a large motivation for universities to develop new degrees,

programs and training ideas. At the same time, the government intends to grant more

decision-making power to individual universities in terms of their delivery of teacher

learning programs. Structural change of in-service teacher education in China would

be an excellent national experiment in the ways by which the centralized

administration system can work with individual institution initiatives.

The following diagram shows the pre-service and in-service teacher education

systems in China and the changing relationships between them.

 103

Figure 4: Teacher education system in China

4:

Pre-service system In-service system

MOE

Department of Teacher Department of Basic

Education Education

Provincial & local Education

Departments

Office of Teacher Education Office of Basic Education

Normal universities & Provincial teacher training

vocational normal universities college

Regional & municipal

Normal colleges teacher training colleges

County-level teacher
Normal schools
training school

The left side of the diagram shows the system of pre-service teacher education in

China. The right side shows the structure of in-service teacher education.

Pre-service teacher education has been under significant restructuring since the

mid-1990s.The Fifth National Meeting on Teacher Education in 1996 envisioned a

new teacher education system with normal universities and colleges as the main
 104

providers and also the diverse participation of comprehensive universities (The State

Commission of Education, 1994). This change itself revealed an emerging trend

towards viewing the field as a potential market. The meeting encouraged

comprehensive universities to establish teacher education departments and also

suggested restructuring the three-level teacher institution system into a two-level

system through expanding the number of higher institutions and gradually reducing

the number of normal schools (Zhou & Reed, 2005). It suggested that all elementary

and secondary school teachers would receive their degrees from higher education

institutions. As a result of these suggestions, in many regions, normal schools and

colleges have either been upgraded or absorbed by higher level institutions (Hayhoe,

2002). As this transition goes on, while these three levels of teacher education

institutions still coexist today in many provinces of China, more and more elementary

teachers and middle school teachers will be prepared by normal or comprehensive

universities.

At the same time, in-service teacher education system had also increasingly

expanded in recent years with the three levels remaining relatively stable.

Yet, it needs to be pointed out that the concept of “establishing an open teacher

education system” in this reform context does not refer to including comprehensive

universities in the work of training new teacher candidates, as comprehensive

universities do not participate in pre-service teacher education as many of us expected

would happen at the beginning of this reform process. Rather, the word “open”, as

used by many participants in this study, actually indicates that teacher candidates in
 105

China are not constrained within normal universities anymore. Students at

comprehensive universities and in non-teaching majors at normal universities can also

become teachers after taking required courses in education and passing the teacher

certification examination which is currently designed by provincial governments.

Ideally, the government would encourage comprehensive universities also to

contribute to pre-service teacher education. In reality, the only comprehensive

universities offering pre-service teacher education are those formed through merging

with or absorbing nearby normal colleges or schools. Comprehensive universities,

especially national-level comprehensive universities with newly-formed Faculties of

Education only provide graduate programs which have no connection with pre-service

teacher education. Take Peking University for example. The university established its

Graduate School of Education in 2000. The school offers three master’s programs

including higher education, economics and administration of education, and

educational technology. It also offers three doctoral programs, which are higher

education, economics and administration of education, and education theory. The

school does not provide undergraduate degrees or graduate degrees associated with

pre-service teacher education. Therefore, within the pre-service teacher education

system, the top level still, to a large degree, only comprises normal universities.

Meanwhile, the old system itself needs a major structural reform. The expectation

of this structural reform is that the two subsystems (pre-service and in-service) are

gradually being integrated with each other (Li, 2006). Indeed, more and more

universities have started to get involved in the integration process and begun to
 106

provide continuing teacher education. For example, in 2003, the Ministry of

Education launched a project called “National Teacher Education Networking

Consortium” (Ministry of Education, 2003b). This project is an internet-based

national education project designed to take advantage of the resources of higher

normal institutions through collaboration between the distance education system and

regular universities to create national, regional and local teacher education networking

(Ministry of Education, 2005). It is expected to provide both pre-service and

in-service teacher education, thus allowing plenty of space for structural integration

(The MOE, 2003a).

Nevertheless, the pre-service teacher education system and the teacher continuing

education system still to a large degree remain independent because they are under

different administrative branches of the Ministry. The pre-service system is under the

Office of Teacher Education while the in-service system is administered by the Office

of Basic Education. A general feature of the continuing education work done by the

universities at present is that they only take part in non-regular teacher continuing

education programs. (The training carried out by the in-service teacher education

system is usually called ‘regular teacher training programs; training outside this frame

is usually called ‘non-regular teacher training programs’). As for regular in-service

training, the requirements set by the MOE in 1998 concerning hours of professional

learning for primary and secondary schools remains a major policy guide for the

provincial governments. Following this general guidance, provincial and local

governments are responsible for making detailed regulations and work arrangements.
 107

The local policies related to regular teacher continuing education work are very much

diversified and thus the quality of the work varies from place to place. Teacher

continuing education under this umbrella is usually called ‘regular in-service teacher

education’ because it requires teachers to accumulate learning credits. This regular

in-service teacher education work is carried out within the in-service teacher

education system displayed in the right-hand part of the diagram above. Technically,

its head office is the Department of Basic Education in the MOE. Yet, because the

relevant decision-making power in fact belongs to the provincial and local education

departments and the funding of this work also comes from the provincial and local

governments, the MOE does not lead this work in a real sense at present.

The Ontario teacher education system

System overview (Canada)

The overall features of the Canadian education system contrast sharply with the

centralized system in China. Canada has no federal system of education. Each

province in Canada takes full responsibility for its education. Teacher education has

different structures and practices in different provinces. Provincial authorities develop

and supervise school curriculum. Teachers in Canada are organized into provincial

associations (Connelly & Clandinin, 2001)

Compared to China, Canada avoids “establishing a hierarchy of institutions in

terms of quality or according favored treatment to the front runners” (Leslie, 1980,

p.61). Therefore, unlike the distinctive stratification of universities in China (national

universities vs. provincial universities; normal universities vs. comprehensive

 108

universities and other specialized universities), universities in Canada do not have the

same diversified feature (Skolnik, 1986).

System overview (Ontario)

Ontario is a geographically and demographically diverse province with a school

population of 12 million. It has 72 school boards. It has a diverse post-secondary

education system. There are 18 universities and 25 colleges in total. Public

universities receive most of their funding from the Ontario government but they also

get significant funds from tuition fees and from research grants. District school boards

administer specific programs and activities under the Ontario Ministry of Education.

Teachers are considered to have a critical impact on student learning and are central to

the success of the government’s educational policies.

Historical background of the teacher education system in Ontario

Before the Second World War, the teacher education system in Ontario, and in

Canada in general, had a similar structure to what China has now and what it had

before 1949. Elementary school teachers were usually trained in normal schools while

secondary school teachers were trained in either a university, a training college or a

superior normal school. Differing from China, the institutional structure in Ontario is

divided based on religious affiliation (Protestant or Catholic) and language (English

or French). While the elementary teacher training program at this time emphasized
 109

mainly professional courses, the secondary teacher training paid more attention to

knowledge of academic subjects. After 1945, there were also policies to up-grade the

education level of school teachers. Consequently, normal schools and colleges were

absorbed into universities. 12 universities offer teacher education in Ontario (Belanger,

1976).

Professional education has been viewed as one important way to implement

major educational reform since 1997. For instance, the report of the Teacher

Education Council of Ontario task force on teacher in-service training (1992) stated

that continuing professional education “is one of the most important elements in the

response to pressures exerted on schools to meet the new challenges facing society”

(p.3). Also, the Ontario College of Teachers (1999) has stated that professional

education is an essential component of professional behavior in Ontario.

Governance and structure of teacher continuing education

At present, professional activities or learning are intended to be located within a

“professional growth” paradigm instead of the traditional “deficit” paradigm (Broad

& Evans, 2006). Continuing professional development is still largely done quite

independently by various stakeholders (Howey, 1980). There is no mandatory PD

requirement for teachers in Ontario from the Ministry of Education (though there was

one briefly from 2000 until 2004). Local school boards are the major providers of

continuing teacher education. The provision varies according to the different sizes of

the boards and the resources available to them. The boards set aside time during the
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week for workshops, inviting outside speakers, etc. (Belanger, 1976). PD days are

specified by Ministry regulations and collective agreements. Local schools and school

boards may create their mandatory PD sessions based on their priorities.

The Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) establishes standards for teaching and

teacher learning in relation to student outcomes and works collaboratively with

different providers including district school boards, faculties of education and

professional associations to carry out a continuum of professional education for

teachers (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2004).The OCT was established in 1997 and

is responsible for setting standards and regulations, managing teaching certificates,

accrediting teacher education courses and programs, and monitoring the provision of

professional education for teachers. The OCT operates independently under the

Ontario College of Teachers Act of the legislature. It has had significant impact on

building a standard-based professional learning system in Ontario (The Ontario

College of Teachers, 2004).

Subject councils (such as provincial associations of teachers of history) also

provide member teachers with a variety of professional development opportunities

(Ontario Ministry of Education, 1994). As well, TVOntario also contributes to

professional development through its programs. Regional offices of the Ministry of

Education and Training also deliver PD support particularly for small and isolated

areas (Ontario Ministry of Education, 1994).

The Ministry of Education structures training programs concerning new

curriculum, new teaching skills, and experimental programs and provides

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job-embedded professional learning supports for Ontario teachers. The Ministry

regulates a different provincial professional support system from the period of

induction onwards. New teacher induction programs are provided for all beginning

teachers. The school boards are responsible for providing orientation and mentoring

support during this period. At the same time, a professional appraisal process has been

started to complement the induction experience, which comprises an annual learning

plan that teachers draw up for themselves. As a next stage, the province offers what is

called a “teacher learning and leadership program” which is a funding opportunity for

advanced self-directed, job-embedded professional learning. The induction and the

later professional appraisal process are mandatory while the last stage is intended for

more experienced teachers. The Ministry funds about 80 projects a year involving

about 500 teachers a year.

There are a number of training opportunities such as symposia, colloquia and

workshops, and lectures offered by professional teacher organizations. There are also

teacher exchange opportunities between Canada and the U.S., Europe and other places.

Moreover, there is also a wide range of informal activities which is difficult to study

in a systematic way but which may have a huge impact on an individual teachers’

career. Belanger (1976) concluded that “in Canada there is an astonishing amount of

internal [professional education] activity through a variety of mechanisms. Due to the

complexity of this whole area, and the lack of research attempting somehow to assess

its influence on teachers, it is perhaps best to pass on immediately to the more

‘formal’ types of University related [activities]” (p.12). Livingstone (1999) conducted

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a large-scale survey about informal learning activities in Canada and He believes that

there are a huge number of informal learning activities that exist in adult life and that

they are hard to recognize sometimes because of their embedded tacit nature.

The role of the university in the current system

Universities in Ontario participate in teacher continuing education through

providing graduate programs, Additional Qualification courses, and informal learning

opportunities.

OISE and other faculties of education are the providers of graduate programs

including the M.A and M.Ed. degrees which are also an important form of continuing

teacher education in Ontario. Ph.D programs are available at OISE, York, the

University of Ottawa and the University of Western Ontario. There is also a joint Ph.D.

program between Brock, Windsor and Lakehead (Ontario Ministry of Education,

1994).

Additional Qualification (AQ) courses are unique to Ontario and also are the

most popular type of continuing education for teachers in the province. The

completion of any AQ course will be added to a teacher’s certificate of qualification

in registration. In some cases, AQ courses allow teachers to teach new subjects or

teach in a new division. Some courses are formal requirements for teachers’ salary

increases and promotion. The Ontario College of Teachers is responsible for

accrediting and approving all of these courses, which probably number over 300 in

different groups. The OCT develops course guidelines detailing the courses’content.
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Then if institutions (mainly universities with faculties of education) are interested in

offering a course, they have to submit to the OCT a course outline that matches the

relevant guidelines and receive approval from the OCT. The approval stays in effect

for a period of years before the accreditation must be renewed.

In addition to formal courses and programs, universities in Ontario are also

involved in in-service teacher education throughout various school-based projects. For

example, “Inquiry into Practice Series” initiated by the Initial Teacher Education at

OISE has been carrying out research projects that addresses various issues in teacher

development and school reform. Also, over the past five years, Comparative,

International & Development Education Centre hosted various lectures and collected

useful resources from OISE faculty members for pre-service and in-service teachers.

A very obvious difference in the structure of universities between China and

Canada is that China still retains its normal universities in the higher educational

system, even though many of the normal universities have restructured themselves

into virtual comprehensive universities by the addition of diverse professional and

academic programs that are not related to teacher education.

A further marked contrast between China and Ontario lies in the institutional

context in which continuing teacher development is delivered. In China, the

Education Department has operated a relatively centralized system. The centralized

nature of the higher education system means that new policies can be relatively

rapidly implemented through professional education with the support of universities.

At the same time, however, the providers may be too concentrated in a few
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institutions and to a certain degree lack diversity in approaches and the flexibility to

vary according to different local needs. In Canada, the independence of different

institutions sometimes makes changing the teacher education process more difficult.

In sum, the current provision of teacher professional development in Ontario is

much richer compared to that of China. However, there seems to be no firm control or

systematic organization in Ontario. Ontario and China are both seeking a systemic

framework for continuing teacher education but are doing so in different ways. The

Chinese government is reviewing its teacher education system to rethink and

reallocate responsibilities, and to give more decision-making power to higher

education institutions. Canada, on the other hand, largely avoids major bureaucratic

rules while looking for ways to coordinate among providers to counterbalance the

flexibility of the system.

Major policies indirectly influencing teacher education

No tuition for normal students and innovative methods of teacher training

The policy of waiving tuition fees for teacher education students started in 2007.

The Chinese government has given various kinds of special treatment to teacher

education from the very beginning. Since the higher education reform in 1997, normal

universities had been gradually transferring tuition fees to the student. This new

policy of waiving tuition was intended particularly to encourage qualified students to

enroll in teacher education programs so as to enhance the quality of the teaching force

beginning with the pre-service period. Six normal universities directly under the
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Ministry of Education, including Beijing Normal University, East China Normal

University, Northeast Normal University, Central China Normal University, Shanxi

Normal University, and Southwest University (previously Southwest Normal

University) were chosen to experiment with this new policy and admit students

funded by the central government. These students are required to sign a contract with

local governments before entering the program and promise to remain in the teaching

profession for at least ten years after graduation. As well, they are usually not allowed

to apply for full-time graduate programs during this period.

Since this policy was implemented, a wave of exploration and innovation in

alternative means of teacher education and training has emerged across China. In

particular, the issue of how better to combine the free normal teacher education

program with the purpose of serving basic education in a mutually beneficial way has

drawn considerable attention from university administrators and teacher educators.

Beijing Normal University has set up the “Beijing region teacher education

experimenting base”, the “Western region teacher education innovating base”, the

“Northeast teacher education experimenting base” and the “University cooperative

experimenting base”, etc. These teacher education bases are intended to facilitate the

connection of free normal students with local schools and embed more practical

elements in the programs as well as provide in-service training for local school

teachers. Huazhong Normal University also has built similar teacher education bases

with the aim of effectively integrating pre-service and in-service teacher education.

Huazhong Normal University has built a multifunctional education base called a

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“teacher education and service experimenting base” and has signed similar contracts

with up to 30 education bases. Within the bases, two-way online communicative

channels for improving classroom teaching are supported by the university. Shaanxi

Normal University has formed partnerships with Tibet, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Xinjiang

and Gansu provincial governments to establish similar education bases. Southwest

University also has formed working relationships with Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan

and Tibet provincial (regional) governments regarding education service in general

and teacher education in particular.

In December 2007, building upon previous experience, Northeast Normal

University signed contacts with three northeast provincial governments (Heilongjiang

province, Jilin province and Liaoning province) to launch the “excellent teachers and

educators training project”. A number of counties were chosen for the “creative

teacher education labs”. Those labs serve as locations for experimentation while

offering better services to local schools. Within this framework, provincial and local

governments are responsible for finalizing the participating schools in their

administrative areas, helping Northeast normal university set up connections and the

describing the scope of future work including coordinating student practicum, etc.

Northeast normal university plays the key role in all the arrangements. Its

responsibilities include five aspects. First, the university provides free academic

seminars and open lessons during the practicum period. Second, it organizes

one-week teacher training programs for the teachers whose places are taken by

student candidates. Third, it absorbs local school teachers into basic education
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research projects. Fourth, it organizes free on-campus training programs for a number

of teachers every year from participating schools. Fifth and finally, it recommends

excellent teacher candidates to the participating schools. Up to this point, the

university has signed similar contracts with 105 schools in 23 cities (or counties) in

the northeast region.

Curriculum reform

Quite often approaches to teacher education and especially the content of

continuing teacher education are justified by the changing nature of curriculum and

instruction. For the past decade, educational reform in general has aimed at promoting

a conceptual shift in the minds of teachers, moving teaching practice from traditional

to innovative classroom strategies. The curriculum embracing this concept supports

the development of students’ own learning and thinking capabilities (Mohammed,

Harlechn-Jones & Khan, 2007).

A lot of training took place when the new Ontario curriculum came out around

2000. Every number of years, curriculum policy documents are reviewed, changed

and updated. This edition introduced many new initiatives pertaining to the

environment, inclusiveness, special education and finally technology education. When

new initiatives are introduced all teachers have to be retrained (Interview with staff of

the Ministry of Education of Ontario, April, 2011).

In the past, the Chinese curriculum, in keeping with the national examination

system, laid most emphasis on academic or subject discipline knowledge

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accompanied by a direct mode of teaching. The overall design of the curriculum was

very rigid with little space for teachers and students to develop their own ways of

teaching and learning. The Ministry of Education issued an Outline of Basic

Education Curriculum Reform in 1997 and a new round of curriculum reform came

into full application in 2005. In an era of revolutionized teaching and learning in the

classroom through encouraging communication, reflection and individual thinking,

the new curriculum reform emphasizes holistic teaching and learning design. It

requires a fundamental change in teaching style that helps develop a student’s ability

to learn and think. It promotes interdisciplinary study and innovative teaching

methods and emphasizes the students’ holistic development. This change posed a

serious challenge to in-service teachers who were trained for the traditional

curriculum.

Traditionally, in China, it is believed that “if a teacher knows more, he or she will

teach better and this view still persists among teacher trainers as well as teachers

themselves” (p.220). Burnaby and Sun (1999) studied teacher training in China and

revealed that teacher learning focused more on content knowledge than methodology

knowledge.

In response to this new round of curriculum reform, teacher continuing education

policy has made it a rule for in-service teachers to “receive training before teaching

the new curriculum” (Ministry of Education of China, 2001a). In 2003, a total

investment of 17 million yuan was devoted to the training of “backbone teachers”

with the intent that they could play the role of teacher trainers afterwards (Su, 2003,
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p.1). Given the unevenly developed enormous teaching force in China and

considering the economic disparity across the country, in the same year, the central

government also allocates 500 million yuan for teacher training in 382 poor counties

in 15 provinces and autonomous regions (Paine & Fang, 2006). During the process of

implementing these new training activities, the perception that teaching itself is

problematic has made the job of teacher education extremely challenging, as

Professor Li from Hebei Normal University explained:

This curriculum reform not only requires us (teacher educators and teachers) to
review the actual content, but more importantly, to change our expectations for
teacher education (including pre-service and in-service), as we can no longer
focus on helping teachers ensure certainty and predictability in their daily
teaching, but must foster teachers’ ability to handle the opposite, uncertainty and
unpredictability in their work. Accordingly, teacher training and research is a
central element of the curriculum implementation process. Usually, the lower
level training is conducted by teacher training schools or colleges. In order to
improve the training quality, a new teacher training system is required and normal
universities are called upon in this daunting task. (Interview in Hebei Normal
University in October, 2010)
The implementation of the new curriculum requires a significant amount of new

knowledge and teaching skills. Compared to the regular teacher training institutes

normal universities are much more up-to-date with advanced knowledge in the field

of education. In addition, normal universities, especially national level normal

universities were heavily involved in the curriculum design and writing. Local schools

would no doubt need their help during the initial implementation period. Therefore,

the Ministry of Education in China encouraged universities which provide pre-service

teacher education also to participate in teacher continuing education and make the

new curriculum their central concern in pre and in-service program design and
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delivery (MOE, 2001).

The overall teacher education system is inevitably geared towards the

reform-oriented direction in China, influenced by the implementation of the new

curriculum. An excellent example of this change is the Keli (Exemplary Lesson

Development), a new approach of in-service teacher education explored by a group of

senior teacher educators in China in 2003. (Gu & Wong, 2003). This model was

initially developed due to the release of the new National Mathematics Curriculum

Standards (NMCS) which constituted part of the overall basic curriculum reform. The

model acknowledges the fact that not only does adopting the new curriculum present

a formidable task for teachers to implement, but also allows for mathematics

educators to help teachers accomplish the desired task.

The Keli approach includes lesson planning, lesson delivery, post-lesson

reflection, and lesson-re-delivery (Huang & Bao, 2006). First, a group consisting of

teachers from local schools and researchers from universities is established. Through

discussion, relevant content relating to a research question in the new curriculum is

selected for developing an exemplary lesson. After the lesson delivery, a feedback

meeting is held with the same group to comment on the lesson and provide

suggestions for revision, during which a major purpose is to “find the gap between the

teacher’s existing experiences and the innovative design” (p. 281) suggested by the

new curriculum standards. Third, the revised lesson is delivered to different classes

within the same school. This process will be observed by the group members followed

by a second reflection meeting. Last, a further revised model focusing on how to

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promote student learning under the new curriculum design is introduced to teachers in

different schools (Huang & Bao, 2006). However, to organize and maintain a practice

community consisting of teachers, teacher educators and researchers is not easy to

accomplish. The study of the project confirmed that teacher experts and educational

researchers take an important role in and have huge potential for fostering teachers’

professional learning and changes in classroom practice (Huang & Bao, 2006).

This approach promotes school-based in-service training in China, while at the

same time it proves that university educators and researchers play a key role in

supporting a process for training mentor teachers and designing learning materials.

However, how universities play their role in making school-based education work

remains an intensely debated subject in the current Chinese literature (Xu, 2009) as

the insensitivity of the approach poses great challenges when applied in a large

number of schools across the country.

Major policies directly influencing in-service teacher education in China

In January 2011, the MOE issued “working suggestions on strengthening basic

education in-service teacher training”. The overall objective of continuing teacher

education is, through the national teacher training program, gradually to form a

diversified training web, and provide training programs of different levels, different

types, and different working positions. The above-mentioned document highlighted

two proposals.

First, in the next five years, the MOE seeks to provide in-service teacher training
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for more than 10 million teachers. The average training time is to be no less than 360

hours per person over the five year period. The MOE also proposes to support 1

million backbone teachers to participate in national-level teacher training programs;

send 10 thousand teachers overseas for advanced studies; and organize 2 million

teachers to enroll in degree enhancement studies.

Second, new teachers need to receive no less than 120 hours’ training before

formally taking a teaching position. By 2012, in-service teachers should reach the

degree requirements set up by the MOE and the percentage of teachers who have

master’s degrees needs to be greatly increased.

This most recent policy initiative predicts a huge demand in the field of in-service

teacher education which presents unprecedented opportunities for normal universities

in China. Tracing backwards, Chinese normal universities started to get involved in

the field of continuing teacher education in the early 1980s. Throughout the years, the

intensity and role they played in this work changed according to policy calls from the

central government. In general, I have summarized the process into three phases as

shown in the following chart.

If degree supplementation education could be seen as the first phase involving

normal universities in continuing teacher education, the second phase started when

normal universities were required to offer in-service Master of Education programs

for teachers in the mid 90s as mentioned previously. Zhou and Reed (2005) have held

that policies related to teachers in the 1980s were focused on repairing teacher

education. The second wave in the 1990s and the third wave that has come afterwards
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have addressed the issue of the quality of teachers and student learning outcomes. The

third phase of normal universities’ participation in in-service teacher education began

with the implementation of the new basic curriculum in 2002. Teacher professional

training in this phase has consisted of short-term, non-degree training programs,

mostly focusing on the implementation of the new basic curriculum. The most

important symbol of this third phase is the ‘National Teacher Training Program’

launched by the MOE in 2010.

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Table 4: The development of universities’ involvement in the field of continuing teacher education in China
Timeline Nature of the policy Role of the university
First phase Degree-supplementation education Normal universities provide undergraduate
(early 1980s—around 2000) education programs through the means of
correspondence education; the work is usually
carried out by the continuing education
departments within the universities
Second phase Master of Education programs for in-service Normal universities approved by the MOE can
(1996—present) teachers open M.Ed. programs enrolling in-service
teachers
Third phase Short-term teacher training programs formally Participating universities, mostly normal
(2010-present) organized by the Ministry of Education universities, form a contract-based
(MOE) relationship with either the provincial
education department or the MOE to provide
short-term in-service training programs. The
form of delivery and content of programs are
based on the requirement of the government.
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Figure 5: Visual summary of formal structures of in-service teacher education relevant to

normal universities

Policy initiatives
 degree-supplementary
education
Formal Degree-based  In-service Master programs
Structures of teacher training  Free in-service Master
current programs
in-service
teacher
education in
Chinese Policy initiatives
normal  training programs initiated by
universities local governments or schools
Non-degree  training programs under the
based teacher National Teacher Training
training Program 2010

Figure 5 summarized the identified teacher training by the study, the following two
sections will introduce degree-based teacher training and non-degree based teacher
training in detail.

Degree-based in-service continuing teacher education in China

As Paine (1984) noted, after the effort of universalizing basic education, China

faced the challenge of providing a large number of qualified teachers. About half of

active teachers were not able to meet the benchmark set up by the central government

regarding degree levels in the early 1980s. Thus, upgrading the degree level of

in-service teachers while training more teacher candidates were the major tasks falling

on the shoulders of different levels of governments. In 1983, for example, the Chinese

State of Education Committee launched a “Senior Middle School Teachers Training

Program” with the aim of improving teacher quality in remote areas. This two-year

program was delivered by normal institutes and graduates were awarded B.A. degrees

at the end of their studies (Hu & Ou, 2000). The work of teacher degree

supplementation education was more likely to be prioritized by the provincial

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governments for two reasons. First, for individual teachers, their education degree

level was closely associated with their salary and they were willing to pay their own

way. Second, the provincial education departments also benefited financially as well

as politically from this work, as they collected fees from participating teachers based

on the course credits. In other words, not only did the number of teachers who were

able to meet the required benchmarks set up by the MOE increase, but the provincial

governments could also collect tuition fees from participating teachers.

Normal universities as teacher education institutions in China served as the main

providers of degree supplementation education organized by the provincial

governments. For instance, as I learned in an interview with Director Liu of Qufu

Normal University, in the years 1995 and 1998, the Shandong Education Department

organized two major degree supplementation programs and entrusted Shandong

Normal University and Qufu Normal University with the curriculum design and

delivery. The university trained more than 5000 school teachers for undergraduate

degrees during this time.

However, this degree supplementation education period came to an end around

the year 2000. This reality in the Chinese education system created various problems

as well as opportunities for Chinese normal universities. Director Liu elaborated on

some of the problems he has encountered in the past ten years:

Although we still took on some work of degree-supplementation education

occasionally, it is obvious that the major attention of the government is moving
away from this work. As a result, our workload is decreasing dramatically in the
past few years. This directly influences our status (continuing education
department) in the university. (Interview in October, 2010)

In contrast, Director Wei of Beijing Normal University talked about this impact

on his department in a more optimistic way:

It is well agreed among educators in China that the work of

degree-supplementation education almost finished its course around the year
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2000. As a normal university directly administered under the MOE, we carried

out degree-supplementary work through setting up correspondence education
stations nationwide. This work was usually organized specifically for high school
teachers who did not hold an undergraduate degree. Even though this work is no
longer on our job list today, the experience of building an educational highway
across the country remains extremely valuable to us. One round of teacher
professional education ends, a new round of professional training will arrive due
to the requirements of contemporary education system. When it comes, our
experience will come in handy and we will be more competitive compared to
other teacher education institutions. (Interview in November, 2010)

What is worth pointing out is the degree supplementation work was done by the

continuing education departments of normal universities and the other schools within

those universities were not involved. When considering this work in the broader scope

of normal universities’ involvement in continuing teacher education, it is often seen

only as a start by many university educators. In April 1996, the national government

decided to start Master of Education Programs especially for in-service teachers. This

move represented the first step in building degree-based in-service teacher education

in normal universities and symbolized normal universities’ formal involvement in the

field of continuing teacher education. In 1997, the MOE approved 16 Chinese normal

universities as experimental institutions for in-service MED programs. In 1998, the

MOE added another 13 normal universities to the list including three of the provincial

normal universities studied in this project -Shanxi Normal University, Hebei Normal

University and Qufu Normal University. In 2003, another 12 normal universities

received approval from the MOE. Now there are 41 Chinese normal universities

offering Master of Education programs for in-service teachers. These programs

usually combine on-campus and distance education and take place during winter or

summer vacation time.

During this period, many normal universities have increased the number of

disciplines which can offer the programs. In 2010, 22 normal universities in China

were slated to offer Master of Education programs in new disciplines

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(http://www.edm.edu.cn/ ).

In 2004, the MOE launched a free Master of Education program for teachers in

rural areas. The program required participating teachers to serve in rural schools for at

least three years before applying to the program. The study mostly took a distance

learning approach so that teachers could remain in their teaching posts. After

experimenting with the program for 6 years, the MOE decided to further extend it to

include rural schools in the eastern part of China.

In 2010, the MOE issued another policy initiative offering free Master of

Education Programs for teachers who graduated as tuition-free normal students.

Starting in 2012, Beijing Normal University, Northeast Normal University, Shaanxi

Normal University, Huazhong Normal University, and Southwest University

(previously Southwest Normal University) will start to enroll students of this kind

from schools. After completing a year of teaching, free normal graduates can apply to

this program. The degree will take two to three years and the learning will take place

during summer and winter holidays. The program will adopt mainly a face-to-face

approach and requires national normal universities to cooperate with local

governments and schools to finish the learning process. The program design is

intended to reflect the practical needs of teachers and to have different training plans

for teachers from different regions.

There are three main differences between degree supplementation education and

in-service Master of Education programs. First, the main responsibility for degree

supplementation education lies with the provincial governments. Normal universities

are the implementing institutions, although local governments can choose to use other

institutions or platforms to complete the job. If local governments assign this task to

normal universities, it is their continuing education departments (or adult education

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departments) that are the hosting institutes. Second, degree supplementation education

programs are undergraduate-level programs and do not require entrance examinations.

Moreover, degree supplementation education takes the form of correspondence

education which is not as formal as in-service Master of Education programs provided

by normal universities.

Non-degree-based in-service teacher training

Non-degree teacher training was, for quite a long time, a low priority for

provincial education departments. Their major task for the last 20 years or so has been

degree supplementation education. Due to economic constraints for in-service teacher

training, to guarantee a consistent and on-going training system is an extremely

demanding task. Professor Lu of Shanxi Normal University expressed this in the

following way:

Teacher education reform is very expensive including in-service teacher training.

And even when you invest a large amount of money, it is unlikely to see
immediate results. When you cut the investments, it probably won’t show any
impact right away either. Therefore, if the job is not put as a high priority on the
agenda, provinces with limited budgets are unlikely to spend the money on
something that takes a long time to see any positive results. Right now, a
considerable number of teachers in rural areas have very little formal education,
and school-based approaches are not quite suited when it is hard to find
experienced and well trained teachers. External help from normal universities
seems more crucial. (Interview in Shanxi Normal University on March, 2011)

With the significant increase of in-service teachers’ degree levels and various

teaching challenges caused by the recent curriculum reform, continuing teacher

education (especially non-degree teacher education) is gaining more attention from

the national policy-makers. In 1999, the Ministry of Education launched a teacher

training project called the “Trans-Century Gardener Project” which aimed to improve

the quality of all school teachers in China (Li, 1999). In the same year, the MOE also

issued the Rules for K-12 Teachers’ Continuing Education, in which teacher lifelong
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learning was stated as a right and an obligation. Despite various training initiatives,

the research (Liu & Teddlie, 2003) on teacher training after the implementation of the

new curriculum has shown that in general teachers in both rural and urban areas did

not receive adequate professional training regarding the new curriculum.

As a response to this problem, starting in 2010, the Chinese government launched

a “National Teacher Training Program” and made a special fiscal commitment to

enhancing the quality of teachers in China, particularly in rural areas. The central

government is planning to allocate 50 million for basic education teacher professional

training and 0.5 billion for teacher professional training in Western rural areas

annually. From 2010 to 2012, 30 thousand backbone teacher nationwide will receive

university-based teacher training and 900 thousand teacher will receive distance

training under the national teacher training framework. It is expected that the

significant increase in fiscal commitments starting in this year will greatly promote

the actual activities of non-degree teacher continuing education. The MOE intends to

establish a coherent and effective approach through the implementation of this policy

initiative.

Under this policy framework, training projects can be generally divided into two

groups: national training programs which are organized by the Ministry of Education

and provincial level training programs organized by provincial governments (Zhang,

2005), both of which are funded by the central government. Universities carrying out

the national-level projects get funding directly from the central government.

Universities responsible for the provincial projects also get their funding from the

central government. However, money flows first to the provincial Ministry of

Education and then to the university, as it is up to the provincial government to decide

what kind of projects they want to deliver.

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Despite the lack of accurate data on current investments in major training

programs, we can still get a sense of the areas in which money is spent on

national-level teacher training programs using the following table found on the MOE

website. This table only constitutes part of the whole training schedule. Yet, it reflects

two major features of national-level training programs. First, the MOE determines the

training priorities. Second, the number of teachers who can participate is very limited.

Due to these very limited opportunities, most of the national training opportunities

have been given to “backbone” teachers in specific subject areas in different provinces,

with the hope that they could serve as change agents and teacher trainers in their

schools.

The “backbone teacher” is a unique concept in Chinese education and is most

frequently found in Chinese research and policy documents. In Chinese elementary

and secondary schools, there are many teacher groups including lesson planning

groups, teacher research groups, grade-level teacher groups, etc. Usually these groups

have a “head”. The backbone teacher is not a formal title like the group head and

therefore cannot be found on any organizational chart. Nevertheless, every teacher in

a group knows very well who the backbone teachers are. The literal translation of

“backbone teacher” is “gugan jiaoshi”. It is an informal yet widely-used way of

categorizing teachers (Paine, 1990).

Implicit in the naming of this type is a broader conception of schools as being

places where teachers are connected. Also implicit is an ideal of expertise. A
backbone teacher represents the ideal of the good teacher-good in their classroom
teaching, but also good in that their teaching helps to foster good teaching among
other teachers and affects the overall quality of the school. The idea of backbone
teachers implies a collective orientation to teachers, one that is relational. At the
same time, the term implies another dimension on which teachers can be
differentiated. (Paine, 1990, p.52)

Backbone teachers are those who contribute greatly to their teacher groups and

decide how their teacher group as a whole could improve its teaching and learning.
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They are the resource people for the group and also the first people in the group

whenever a new program or research idea is initiated. Therefore, it is quite easy for us

to understand why training the backbone teachers is the goal of the most

national-level programs in the “National Teacher Training Programs”.

Table 5: Quota allocations (people) taking part in national-level training programs

organized by the MOE

Project 1
(Primary Middle school High school
Chinese Chinese Chinese
Province literature) literature literature In total
Beijing 2 3 4 9
Tianjing 2 3 4 9
Hebei 3 3
Shanxi 2 2
Neimenggu 2 2
liaoning 2 3 4 9
Jilin 2 2
Heilongjiang 2 2
Shanghai 3 2 4 9
Jiangsu 3 3 8 14
Zhejiang 3 3 6 12
Anhui 2 2
Fujian 3 3 4 10
Jiangxi 2 2
Shandong 3 3 8 14
Henan 3 3
Hubei 2 2
Hunan 3 3
Guangdong 3 3 8 14
Guangxi 2 2
Hainan 2 2
Chongqing 2 2
Sichuan 3 3
Guizhou 2 2
Yunnan 2 2
Xizang 2 2
 133

Shanxi 2 2
Gansu 2 2
Qinghai 2 2
Ningxia 2 2
Xinjiang 2 2
Xinjiang
Regional 2 2
formation
In total 50 50 50 150

(Source: http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s4644/index.html)

In addition, the MOE selects the education institutions for national level programs.

The institutions mainly consist of national-level universities mixed with provincial

universities. Secondary schools serve as hosting institutions only in very rare cases.

The provincial education department is in charge of decision-making regarding

provincial and local-level training programs including selecting education institutions

and deciding the subject of the training, the length of the programs, who participates

and the procedures for recommendations, evaluation and feedback standards, etc. The

MOE recommends training subjects and hosting institutions to provincial

governments for provincial-level training programs. As for the initial stage of this

work, how the training program is carried out and the degree of implementation varies

from province to province. The MOE is collecting and sharing information

nationwide as well as reflecting on current methods through a website especially set

up for the National Teacher Training Program.

The power each university has under this national policy framework is actually

very limited. Take the institution selection process as an example. Both Shanxi and

Shandong provinces are taking the old job assignment approach. The continuing

education departments of Shanxi Normal University and Qufu Normal University

have been waiting for the recommendation of the university administrators or the
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education department before taking any action. Hebei Education Department takes a

different approach, which is like a bidding procedure. The government will inform

qualified educational institutions within a province first of the project opportunities

available that year. Then it is up to the institutions to take the initiative and bid for

different projects. For Hebei Normal University, this job rests with the continuing

education department. As I was informed by the department director, they have been

practicing this bidding approach for three years so far, long before the National

Teacher Training Program was instituted. Only higher education institutions or

training colleges within the provinces are allowed to apply. The applying institution

needs to submit a project plan including training courses. In principal, both national-

and provincial-level universities could carry out national-level programs. In the

application process, the provincial universities are inevitably less competitive than

national normal universities as well as some national comprehensive universities such

as Peking university when applying for national training programs organized by the

Ministry of Education. As a result, provincial universities, mainly normal universities,

usually host provincial-level programs.

The national teacher training program is a huge umbrella which covers a wide

variety of training programs carried out in different forms. The department of teacher

education in the MOE is taking charge of this large national initiative. Within the

national-level training projects, some projects follow a certain application procedure.

It requires a university to apply as an institution. In other words, various subject

colleges in the universities are not qualified to apply directly for programs in this

category. In the cases selected for this study, the university will ask its continuing

education department (or a similar department) to take on this job on behalf of the

university. This occurs at Beijing Normal University and Hebei Normal University,
 135

while Qufu Normal University and Shanxi Normal University are slightly different.

Parts of the national-level programs are assigned directly to certain institutes, either

independent institutions or institutes within universities. The programs of this type are

considered either new or challenging and in need of the most experienced experts in

the field to take the lead in the initial experiment phase.

The programs which allow universities to apply in a competitive manner are

programs which the government believes many education institutions are potentially

capable of delivering.

The Chemistry Education Research Institute at Beijing Normal University, which

I visited, received funding for a chemistry distance education program from the MOE

last year. The institute is taking a leading position in the field of chemistry education

in China and distance chemistry education is just beginning. Thus, this assignment has

been given to this particular institute as it is undoubtedly the best qualified. However,

it is worth pointing out that the MOE contracted the institute not because of its name

or its reputation. Rather, this occurred because of the name of the leading educators in

the institute. Often, a program is entrusted to a particular expert and the expert holds

the power to select his/her own research team. A similar requirement is attached to

most of the other programs under the umbrella of “the National Teacher Training

Program”. For regular programs, the hosting institution still needs to invite the leading

experts in the field.

The central government is determined to develop and adopt distance education as

an important form of in-service teacher education in the future, mostly because

distance education could potentially train a large number of in-service teachers at the

same time at a relatively low cost. As Professor Jia of Beijing Normal University told

me, Shandong Education Department asked the Chemistry Education Institute to

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design and deliver a 10-day online training program which included the entire

teaching force of Shandong province. Even though the government has started to use

online platforms to organize and facilitate learning material and resources, this field is

yet to be explored when it comes to in-service teacher training. At least, according to

the university representatives interviewed, provincial universities have not really

gotten involved yet in this developing process. National universities such as Beijing

Normal University are currently taking the lead in the early stage of design because of

their strong teams of subject experts.

Regarding the way “The National Teacher Training Program” is organized,

educators in normal universities have expressed both their concerns and expectations.

Professor Jia of Beijing Normal University expressed this in the following way, as the

professor expressed,

For non-degree and contract-based in-service teacher education, it is hard for

universities to deliver systematic follow-up support after the training.
Government grants signal a large attempt to prioritize this work, yet the evidence
for the effectiveness of this investment is far from conclusive. Although the work
of in-service teacher training is greatly extended due to the large amount of
funding from the central government, the overall offering of professional
education is still fragmentary rather than coherent. Nevertheless, it can be
expected that new types of regulatory procedures will be developed for noncredit
and non-degree based in-service teacher education.

As early as 1960s, Asher (1967) had grouped in-service programs into three broad

categories: a) the centralized approach, b) the decentralized approach, and c) the

centrally coordinated approach. Asher suggested that in “the centralized approach, the

central office dominates the in-service activities and gives little attention to the

psychology of change, thereby ignoring a body of research which suggests that

individuals are more likely to change when they work on problems significant to them

and when they share in the problem-solving decision” (Asher, 1967, p.13). In contrast,

the decentralized approach is likely to receive more positive results in student

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achievement. The 2010 National Teacher Training Program reflects the general

features of centralization and decentralization in China’s educational system today. On

the one hand, it continues to stress the guiding role of the MOE, and provides

somewhat specific requirements for many training programs. On the other hand, the

policy emphasizes the diversification of training approaches and encourages

innovations in content design. The provincial-level programs are left to the discretion

of the provincial education departments. Whether the provincial administrators and

policy-makers perceive this as a priority determines the actual intensity and quality of

the delivery.

In sum, through offering in-service teacher education programs and participating

in non-degree training programs after the implementation of the new curriculum,

normal universities have gradually deepened their involvement in the field of

in-service teacher education. Since a lot of non-degree training programs are

contract-based and could potentially be funded by different stakeholders, normal

colleges within the pre-service teacher education system and comprehensive

universities also have opportunities to participate and benefit from this work.

Therefore, pre-service teacher education providers and in-service teacher education

providers are gradually overlapping with each other. Yet, to say that the pre-service

teacher education system is increasingly integrated with in-service teacher education

system is not entirely accurate. As we will explain later, the overlapping of these two

systems only happens in very rare cases.

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Chapter summary

This chapter introduced major policy initiatives which have exerted significant

impact directly or indirectly on the current situation of in-service teacher education in

China. These policy developments provide a better understanding of the involvement

of normal universities in this work as well as a glimpse of how it is becoming

increasingly important.

The MOE hopes to make the national teacher training program a policy incentive

for provincial governments. It is expected that the overarching organization of the

“national teacher training program” will serve as an exemplary teacher training

framework to help provincial as well as local governments explore new training

methods, training curriculum and, to the greatest degree possible personalize

in-service teacher training in the future. At the same time, the Ministry hopes to

continue to encourage universities, especially normal universities, to get involved in

the work of in-service teacher training and to establish interactive connections with

local schools to promote teacher professional education. The “Working Suggestions

on Strengthening Basic Education In-Service Teacher Training” (2011, MOE website)

clearly point out that normal universities should be the major players in the field of

continuing teacher education; more county-level teacher training organizations need

to be built to serve as bridges between universities and local schools. The policy

further emphasizes the need for further regulating continuing teacher training at the

provincial level and exploring possible ways of bridging non-degree and degree

teacher training programs. In-service teacher training credits should be recognized by

and therefore transferable to other training institutions in the system. A market for

in-service teacher training under the guidance of the government should be gradually

established to foster fair competition among teacher training institution including

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universities.
 140

Chapter 5 The current efforts of normal universities in continuing

teacher education

This chapter conveys most of the finding of the study. First of all, the four normal

universities and their respective provinces or region are introduced. Second, data

related to the work of provincial Education Departments are presented so that a

comparison can be made in terms of provincial policies for continuing teacher

education and opportunities that could possibly be offered to normal universities in

the field. Third, findings about the current efforts and problems of the four normal

universities are presented. Last, data collected from Ontario Institute for Studies in

Education (OISE), Ministry of Education in Ontario and Ontario College of Teachers

are presented for purposes of comparison.

The relationship between universities and the government in China ensures that

universities do not possess any control over the important decisions made about

in-service teacher training but they act as cooperative and advisory associates of

various levels of government. The involvement of universities unavoidably

complicates the connections and relationships within the training system. Normal

universities have been working closely with both national and provincial governments

to explore different ways of promoting teacher training. This coordination is only

possible when both sides-university and governments-place a high priority on the job.

Take Zhejiang province for example. In 2005, the provincial government

launched a “Rural Teachers Ability Improvement Project”. By the end of 2007, the

project provided 820 thousand training courses for over 210 thousand rural teachers

including 1000 provincial backbone teachers and 10,000 municipal backbone teachers.

To continue the training in rural areas, in 2008, the government initiated the “Leading

Goose Project” and planned to train 35 thousand rural backbone teachers and school
 141

principals in 4862 rural schools over 3 years. In 2006, Zhejiang province decided to

organize one hundred teacher education experts and experienced school teachers to go

to the rural schools, offering guidance and follow-up help regarding the teachers’

questions and concerns. From 2008 to 2010, the Zhejiang provincial government

relied on higher teacher education institutions to set up 10 provincial teacher

education bases, out of which 3 were key bases. The purpose of these bases is to form

a sustainable communication channel between universities and local schools.

Cooperation on the training of teacher candidate will gradually extend to in-service

teacher training using various means such as action research, subject-based

consultancy, etc (MOE, 2006). The experiment of establishing education bases enjoys

several features which are not always found elsewhere, as this concept is intended to

tie universities with schools into a stable partnership. Thus, the length of time is one

of the advantages education bases have compared to others. Another is that schools

could enjoy longer relationships with university educators. The second is to be likely

to be more effective in understanding the need of in-service teacher training as

perceived by school teachers who have grass-roots teaching experience. Under the

supervision of a normal university, teacher education bases will serve as channels for

information exchange and retrieval. And there will be a better chance of jointly

deciding the training programs based on teachers’ preferences and the development

trend of the subject discipline. The Zhejiang provincial government invested 72

million yuan (about 11 million US dollars) in total in the year 2010. The funding was

connected with the number of teacher candidates and the type of education base.

Institutions with more than 5000 pre-service teacher students could get funding of 2

million yuan (about 300 thousand US dollars). Institutions with less than 3000

students could get funding of 1.5 million yuan (about 230,000 US dollars). A regular
 142

base could receive funding of 1.5 million yuan (about 230,000 US dollars) and a key

base could receive funding of 3.5 million yuan (about 530,000 US dollars). Other

funding was provided on the basis of various projects including international

communication, educational technology, continuing teacher training, etc. The

Zhejiang provincial government organized an evaluation committee to conduct a

two-phase educational base assessment. Funding is provided based on the evaluation

results. Each participating university needs to provide a written report on its activities

every year.

The data presented in this chapter illustrates the work of the four selected normal

universities for the study: Beijing Normal University (in the national capital), Hebei

Normal University (in Hebei province), Qufu Normal University (in Shandong

province) and Shanxi Normal University (in Shanxi province). The four universities

selected for the study vary greatly in their work in the field of continuing teacher

education. Nevertheless, there are still certain similarities shared by the work of

normal universities in the field of in-service teacher education. In this chapter, I

outline the structure and situation of these four normal universities as well as the

provinces and regions in which they are situated as a way to illustrate the unique

features of Chinese in-service teacher education and the difficulties faced by Chinese

teacher educators.

Introduction to the four universities

Hebei Normal University

Hebei Normal University is located in the capital city of Hebei province,

Shijiazhuang. Hebei province, which surrounds both the capital, Beijing, and Tianjin

municipality, and embraces the Bohai Sea, is an important coastal province in North
 143

China with a total area of 187.7 thousand square kilometers and a population of 67.69

million. Culturally and economically, Hebei is the most advanced province in northern

China. There are 11 municipalities directly under the jurisdiction of the provincial

government including 136 counties or county-level cities. Shijiazhuang City is its

provincial capital. Hebei Province has carried out the strategy of "Opening Up the

Two Rings to Drive the Economy"(Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Economic Zone and Bohai

Sea Economic Zone), made great efforts to improve its investment environment, and

actively developed economic and technological cooperation and trade exchanges.

Since the 1990s, its economic growth rate has exceeded the national average growth

rate for 14 consecutive years. Hebei has actively been carrying out the strategy of

"Rejuvenating Education with Science and Technology", constantly improving the

status of science and technology education in its economy and social development. A

more complete education system has come into being, characterized by diploma

education for basic education, ordinary higher education, vocational & technological

education, higher education for adults. The system includes various kinds of training

as well. A number of the education system’s science and research results have been

made at an advanced level when compared to others throughout China, and their

contribution ratio to the economy has improved continuously. There are three normal

institutions under the provincial government: Hebei Normal University, Langfang

Teacher’s College and Tangshan Teacher’s College.

 144

Figure 6: Location of Hebei province on the map of China

Hebei Normal University has a history of more than a hundred years and is one of

the key universities in the province. The university originated from the Shuntian

School established in Beijing in 1902 and the Beiyang Women’s Normal School

established in Tianjin in 1906. Under the approval of the Hebei provincial government,

the former Hebei Teachers University, Hebei Teachers College, the Hebei Education

Institute (established in 1952) and the Hebei Vocational and Technological College

merged into one institution, which was named Hebei Normal University, on June 18th,

1996. The new Hebei Normal University is thus an early-established, large-scale

university in China. There are 2957 staff members in the Hebei Normal University

including 304 professors and 550 associate professors. It has 22 schools and

departments covering 81 areas of study. Major schools and colleges are listed in the

following table.
 145

Table 6: Major schools and colleges of Hebei Normal University

School of law
School of history
School of literature
School of foreign language studies
School of information technology
School of tourism
School of music
School of mass media
School of art and design
School of education study
School of physics and engineering
School of chemistry
School of life science
School of environmental resources studies
School of adult education and continuing education
School of software study
School of economics
(Source: http://www.hebtu.edu.cn/)

Qufu Normal University in Shandong province

Shandong is a province located on the eastern coast of China. It borders the Bohai

Sea to the north, Hebei to the northwest, Henan to the west, Jiangsu to the south, and

the Yellow Sea to the southeast; it also shares a very short border with Anhui, between

Henan and Jiangsu. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the

beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and has

served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese Buddhism, and

Confucianism. The city of Qufu is the birthplace of Confucius, and was later

established as the center of Confucianism. Shandong's location at the intersection of

ancient as well as modern north-south and east-west trading routes has helped to

establish it as an economic center. After a period of political instability and economic

hardship that began in the late 19th century, Shandong has emerged as one of the most

populous (94 million in 2008) and most affluent provinces in China. Qufu Normal

University and Yantai Normal College operate under its provincial government.
 146

Figure 7: Location of Shandong province on the map of China

Qufu Normal University is one of the key universities in Shandong Province and

has a history of more than 52 years. It is located in Qufu, the hometown of

Confucius-the great philosopher, educator and the creator of Confucianism. The

university uses Confucius’ words in its motto: “To retain curiosity in learning, to teach

and never become weary”.

The university has 61 four-year specialties covering ten branches of learning

including liberal arts, science, industry, law etc. It has one independent college (Xing

Tan Independent College), 29 schools and departments, 28 research institutes, 14

provincial key programs, three provincial key laboratories and one social science

research base. The Ministry of Education Basic Education Curriculum Research

Center, the Shandong Confucius Research Base and the Shandong Physical

Educational Social Science Research Base are also set up on its campus. There are

1393 faculty members of whom 219 are professors and 267 are associate professors.

The following table (Table 7) lists the major subject-based schools or colleges at Qufu
 147

Normal University.

Table 7: Major schools and colleges of Qufu Normal University

School of arts
School of history and literature
School of Marxism studies
School of foreign language
School of education studies
School of science
School of physics
School of chemistry
School of life science
School of geography and tourism
School of physics education
School of adult education and continuing education
School of public management
School of economics
Law school
School of translation
School of capital science
School of management
School of technology and communication
School of arts
School of music
Institute of foreign language research
(source: http://www.qfnu.edu.cn/)

Shanxi Normal University

Shanxi is located in the northern part of China, west of the Haihang Mountains.

It borders Hebei to the east, Henan to the south, Shaanxi to the west, and Inner

Mongolia to the north. The province spans more than 150,000 square km and has a

population of 33 million. Shanxi Province jurisdiction includes 11 prefecture-level

cities; 23 city areas, 11 county-level cities, and 85 counties. The capital of the

province is Taiyuan City. For centuries Shanxi served as a center of trade and banking.

Shanxi is the richest province in Zhongyuan or Central China. Coal mining is

 148

important in Shanxi’s economy. Its normal universities include Shanxi Normal

University, Taiyuan Normal University and Xinzhou Teachers’ University.

Figure 8: Location of Shanxi province on the map of China

Shanxi Normal University is one of the five oldest universities in Shanxi

Province, located in the ancient city of Linfen, one of the birthplaces of the Chinese

race and the home of the legendary monarch King Yao. In 1958, Shanxi Normal

University started as a teacher training school, which was responsible for training

teachers in the south of Shanxi province. In 1964, it officially became Shanxi

Teachers College by merging with various departments of Shanxi University. In 1984,

it was upgraded to a provincial normal university through the endorsement of the

State Education Commission of China. In 1999, the Shanxi Normal University Sports

College and the Shanxi Vocational Teachers College also became part of Shanxi

Normal University. Altogether it offers forty-seven undergraduate majors, forty-one

master’s programs, and four doctoral programs. The university is striving to become

one of the best normal universities in China by strengthening its specialization in

 149

teacher education and training with an added local flavor.

Major schools and colleges in Shanxi Normal University are listed in the

following table (Table 8).

Table 8: Major schools and colleges of Shanxi Normal University

The institute of literature
Policy and law institute
The institute of history and tourist culture
School of foreign languages
Institute of economic management
Institute of management
Institute of education and psychology
Research institute of traditional opera and historical relics
Institute of music
Institute of art
Institute of math and computer science
Physics and information engineering institute
Life and science institute
City and environmental science institute
Biology technology and engineering institute
Physical education institute
School of teacher education
Adult education department
(Source: http://www.sxnu.edu.cn/)

Beijing Normal University

Beijing is located at the northern end of the North China Plain. Its southeast local

regions are connected with Tianjin. The rest of it is surrounded by Hebei province.

The city area is 16,411 square kilometers. The city’s permanent population is 16.95

million people.
 150

Figure 9: Location of Beijing on the map of China

Beijing Normal University has a history almost as long as the history of Chinese

modern education. The university has grown out of the Faculty of Education of

Capital Metropolitan University, established in 1902, which was the first teacher

training institution in Chinese higher education. The status of Beijing Normal

University is different from the other three provincial-level normal universities

examined in this study. Six national-level normal universities, including Beijing

Normal University, are directly affiliated with the MOE. To a large degree, they serve

the same function as the MOE in the field of teacher education. They are leaders in

major national programs and set standards through educational experiments as well as

offer policy consultancy to the MOE. In the 1980s, Beijing Normal University mainly

focused on training staff members for other teacher education institutions rather than

purely on pre-service teacher education. For example, in 1985, only 36 out of 1000

graduates were assigned to secondary schools.

The work of continuing teacher education currently takes place in various

 151

departments. The following table shows major schools and colleges in Beijing Normal

University.

Table 9: Major schools and colleges of Beijing Normal University

College of chemistry
College of Chinese language and culture
College of education administration
College of information science and technology
College of life sciences
College of resource science & technology
College of water science
School of arts and communication
School of Chinese language and literature
School of continuing education and teacher training
School of economics and business administration
School of education
School of educational technology
School of environment
School of foreign languages and literature
School of geography
School of global change and earth system science
School of history
School of law
School of management
School of mathematical sciences
School of philosophy and sociology
School of physical education and sports science
School of political science and international studies
School of psychology
Department of astronomy
Department of material science and engineering
Department of physics
Capital institute of basic education research
Capital institute of education economy
Institute of ancient books studies
Institute of Beijing cultural development research
Institute of Chinese Information processing
Institute of cognitive neuroscience and learning
College for criminal law science
Institute of Economics and research management
Institute of higher education
Institute of low energy nuclear science
Institute of Marxism studies
Institute of medicine
Institute of social development and public policy
Universities’ institute for proteomics, Ministry of Education
(Source: http://www.bnu.edu.cn/yxsz/index.htm)
 152

The organizational structure is quite complicated in these four normal universities,

but in terms of in-service teacher training work, only a few units are involved. The

majority of schools and colleges have their own training offices, and have the

authority to organize contract-based training programs. They don’t necessarily have to

inform the university or continuing education unit. Schools and colleges with a

mission for teacher education have started to offer contract-based teacher training

programs to different stakeholders. Yet the number of such programs is quite small, as

the main job of normal universities is pre-service teacher education. The continuing

education units are where the work of teacher continuing education has been carried

out historically. They usually do not have teaching personnel themselves and are

parallel with other colleges and schools in the institution on the organizational map.

Current work of provincial governments

The following section presents the data collected concerning Hebei and Shandong

and Shanxi provinces so as to better understand and analyze the work of normal

universities in these areas.

Based on 2010 statistics, Hebei province has a teaching force of around 800

thousand. The provincial education department regulates regular in-service teacher

training and is responsible for funding. Every teacher is supposed to participate in no

less than 360 hours of in-service training every five years. This training is organized

by local governments and carried out mainly by teacher training schools at different

levels. Yet, provincial teacher training centers are mostly affiliated with provincial

universities and colleges. Municipal-level teacher training is administered by

municipal education offices. Most of the county-level teacher training in 2010 failed

to be adequately supplied due to a lack of funding (Interview in the Hebei Education

 153

Department in May, 2011).

In recent years, with more attention being paid to in-service teacher education by

the MOE and with the launch of the “National Teacher Training Program” in 2010,

the central government has allocated special funds to support formal teacher training

programs. The provincial education departments are in charge of making specific

training plans for provincial-level training programs within each province. Normal

universities are the main hosting institutions for programs within this funding

framework.

In order to ensure the quality of the MOE-funded programs, the Hebei Education

Department had adopted a bidding procedure for program applications sent by teacher

education institutions which includes:

 make the training programs available to qualified teacher education institutions

within the province;

 providing guidance for specific programs;

 asking qualified teacher education institutions to make detailed program plans

and send in an application package;

 organizing a team of experts to evaluate application packages and make

selections;

 asking selected institutions to sign a contract with the Provincial Education

Department regarding the programs;

 carrying out program evaluation for future reference.

Only teacher education institutions in the province are allowed to compete for

teacher training projects. As explained by the director of continuing education

department of Hebei Normal University and confirmed by interviews conducted later

at other universities, this situation differs from province to province, as the provincial
 154

governments may also allow institutions outside the province to organize and deliver

training programs for them. Even though the contract signing is, to some extent,

symbolic in nature, the process itself still carries an important message signaling the

changes in government-university relationships. This shows that the governments

have begun to adopt more selective measures, and to view themselves as buying

training services from the universities for in-service teachers.

In Shandong province, there are around 700 thousand primary and secondary

school teachers in the teaching force. Regular teacher training is delivered through a

three-level system. Provincial teacher training institutes are now mostly affiliated with

provincial universities or colleges. Municipal-level teacher training institutions vary

from city to city. Some have already been absorbed or integrated into nearby colleges

or universities, while some are part of the municipal research institute or research

office under the Municipal Education Office. In Weifang City in Shandong province, a

market mechanism has been introduced into the field. The Municipal Education

Office set up 6 teacher training institutes with menus for training services. At the

county level, there were previously 117 teacher training schools. Yet, there are only

around 40 left now due to a lack of funding support and poor management (Interview

in the Shandong Education Department in March, 2011).

At the time of my study, Shandong province was in the midst of soliciting

information from the public and drafting its 12th educational development plan. I was

very fortunate to be able to interview one of the key designers and writers in the

province, Professor Zhao from the School of Education of Qufu Normal University.

Starting next year, one of the central tasks planned by the provincial government is to

establish about 20 educational bases which could combine the function of pre-service

and in-service teacher education in the province. One of the major features of this
 155

work is that it will rely on the current higher education institutions, especially

provincial normal universities. Among these educational bases, 3 to 5 key bases will

be the centres of teacher training, educational research, advanced educational

information, and educational communication. Under these bases, the plan is to

establish about 100 county-level teacher training institutes. Those institutes will be

designed to share some major tasks of the educational bases, and better bridge the gap

between higher institutions and local schools.

Higher education institutions (especially provincial normal universities) will play

a key role in this design. Yet, these efforts will require major structural change within

the universities. First, this plan requires each normal university to establish a teacher

education department. This department would be responsible for various jobs relevant

to teacher education and training including pedagogical research, promotion,

evaluation, and teacher management. It would absorb teacher educators who are in the

field of subject pedagogical teaching from different subject departments. The

department chairship would be taken on by the vice-president of the university. The

main advantage of this change is believed to be the ability to combine and share

teacher education and training resources within the institutions and avoid dispersing

resources and overlapping management work.

Second, teacher education universities with sound foundations and teaching

forces could apply to become teacher education research centres and offer

research-based suggestions for major educational policies to provincial

decision-makers in the future. The plan is to form 5 research centres of this kind in the

province in the following 5 years to take on the responsibilities of connecting school

teaching with teacher research, and basic education with teacher education, and

extending the impact of education research in the field of basic education.

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The third part of the plan is to establish a teacher training lab in the universities

and further equip the universities with advanced education technology in order for

them to serve as information platforms where information and innovative teaching

methods could be tested and shared with numerous school teachers.

Fourth, universities in the province will also be asked to devote energy to the

training of teacher educators. Participating universities need to organize a strong team

made up of subject experts, pedagogical teaching experts and researchers. Their work

needs to go beyond the university campus and go into the local schools. Through

listening and discussing lessons with teachers, lesson demonstration, etc. they will

offer teacher training and at the same time improve the ability of teacher educators in

this regard.

The last aspect of the plan is to form 20 backbone teacher development centers

which will rely on institutional resources. Through both long-term and short-term

training programs (combining both degree-based and non-degree-based approaches),

these platforms are intended to train a group of model teachers who could act as role

models in their schools and coordinate teachers in future training work.

Based upon the draft of the 12th educational development plan of Shandong

province, normal universities are required to make their own work plans along with

suggestions for the 12th plan and submit them to the Shandong Provincial Education

Department by the end of June 2011. The provincial government will organize experts

to evaluate institutional plans, solicit feedback from the public and then provide the

final version. The overall financial investment in the proposed efforts is expected to

be 9 million yuan (around 1.4 million US dollars).

In the 12th development plan of Shandong province, promoting continuing

teacher education is one of the key tasks. In total, Shandong province plans to provide
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training to 32 thousand rural teachers and 100 thousand high school teachers in the

next 5 years with a training time of no less than 300 hours per person. The annual

fiscal investment is estimated to be 50 million yuan (around 7.6 million US dollars).

The Provincial Education Department intends to take bids with the intent of

encouraging institutions to improve the quality of their delivery further in a

competitive environment.

In Shanxi, there are about 350 thousand primary and secondary school teachers in

the teaching force. In 1998, the provincial education department issued the “Shanxi

Teacher Continuing Education Regulations”, which formally require every teacher to

receive 360 hours of in-service training over a five year period. The provincial

government intends to add up to 720 hours in the next 12th year plan. Regular

in-service teacher training is funded by the provincial department, schools and

teachers themselves. The provincial department provides funding of 100 yuan (about

18 US dollars) for every teacher per training session. Schools pay for transportation,

training fees and accommodations. The rest is paid by individual teachers. The

previous three levels of in-service teacher training system have merged into two levels.

The provincial and municipal teacher training schools are mostly integrated into

provincial universities. There is only one municipal teacher training school left as well

as three provincial teacher training centers: a secondary school teacher training center,

a primary school teacher training center and an early childhood teacher training center.

County-level teacher training schools continue to operate independently so far. The

provincial secondary teacher training center is now affiliated with normal colleges and

universities. Therefore, normal universities will certainly be involved one way or

another. However, it is still too early to tell whether it would be possible to formally

institutionalize normal universities’ work in the field of in-service teacher education.

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Hebei and Shandong provinces differ in their processes of thinking and planning

the future work of teacher continuing education. Yet, there were three similarities that

were found in the interviews. First, special attention has been given to how to offer

in-service teacher training to rural teachers and this was mentioned by the study

participants from governments. Hebei province is actively encouraging teacher

education institutions to provide more support to the training of rural teachers through

innovative means. The current approach, called “Replacing the Teaching Post for

Short-Term Training” (which I will introduce in detail later), which was pioneered by

Hebei Normal University, is considered a successful example. Shandong province has

clearly made it one of its goals to train a certain number of rural teachers in the next

five years through setting up teacher education and training bases within the province.

Second, normal universities in these three provinces are located in the centre of

the future development of in-service education. It seems that the Hebei Education

Department is taking better advantage of the National Teacher Training Program

compared to the other two provinces. Much more energy is being devoted to making

sure that institutions delivering the national teacher training programs become more

accountable to the government about their use of funding. Starting at the beginning of

this year, the provincial government of Hebei decided to divide the funding for every

program into two parts. The first part will be transferred to the institutions at the

beginning of the training programs. The rest of the funding will be withheld until an

evaluation is conducted among the participating teachers through an online platform

and approved by the province. “The results of the evaluation will be taken into

consideration in the future applications,” said Mr Lin of the Hebei education

department:

This is only a preliminary measure for a comprehensive quality assurance system,

but it could put some pressure on the universities side so that they will take more
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initiatives in research and communication with teachers when making detailed

plans in the application and the delivery process. (Interview in May, 2011)

In Shandong, the role normal universities are expected to play seems more

obvious in the government draft plan for the next five years. Key consultation will

taking place between universities and the government. It will be extremely demanding

for normal universities, as there is no sign of active preparation found at Qufu Normal

University. This provincial requirement is quite abrupt for the universities. Professor

Zhao illustrated this point:

This whole plan does not only require normal universities to come up with an
working plan, we need to realize that our faculty members need to be fully
informed of this change and there are also some significant institutional changes
that need to be considered for this work in the future. To be frank, our universities
are not well prepared. (Interview in October, 2010)

Third, there is no clear connection between continuing teacher education and

teacher certification as well as benefits. In the previous in-service teacher training

system, there was a considerable complexity and confusion even on the part of the

provincial administrators. It seems that the integration of pre-service and in-service

teacher education institutions is the path the provinces are taking right now. However,

no clear guidelines or regulations have been put forward.

The role of normal universities as well as their current efforts

The continuing education department of Hebei Normal University is in charge of

the application process on behalf of the university. The department is led by a team of

administrators in the university. Before applying, the department will organize a team

of experts to provide academic suggestions for the application package based on the

requirements of the provincial education department. Upon receiving the job, the

department is responsible for communications with various other departments

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according to the training subjects and levels, and also for the negotiations in terms of

how much is paid to various departments and participating professors, etc. The current

programs hosted by the university are all contract-based short-term residency

programs of one to two months. The programs usually take place in the summer or

winter vacation period, mostly because it is much easier for universities to

accommodate incoming teachers and university educators are more available during

this time. According to an interview with Director Zhang of Hebei Normal University,

I drew up the following chart (Figure 10) which summarizes the current

administrative structure of Hebei Normal University for continuing teacher education.

Within this administrative and operational structure, the relationship between the

Provincial Education Department and higher education institutions is a determining

factor, as the provincial government has a major role in shaping polices and practices

in the area of teacher education. The university has a special role as mediator between

the provincial government and local schools. The university president, the director of

the continuing education department and chairs from various departments work as a

team when allocating the tasks for the different training programs. Various experts

from relevant departments form an expert group providing suggestions about the

content of the training curriculum.

Non-degree teacher professional training at Hebei Normal University has

followed this administrative framework for a few years. With the help of the director,

I was able to get a copy of the training plans for the years 2008 and 2009. The writing

of the training plans for both years was led by the continuing education department

and they took relatively the same format. Each plan includes the subject, grade level,

and targeted teachers. Each program’s training plan was made up of specific content,

materials, implementation methods, a description of the teacher educators, training

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objectives, schedule, requirements for completing the training, etc. In 2008, the

university hosted 17 in-service teacher training programs, among which 9 were

backbone teacher training programs and 8 were rural teacher training programs. In

2009, the university hosted 27 training program in total. In addition to the training for

backbone teachers and rural teachers, the university organized 12 high school teacher

training programs and 1 high school principal training program. The make-up of the

team of teacher educators remained relatively the same. Training programs usually

lasted one month and took place on the university campus during the summer vacation.

The accommodations were arranged by the university based on the funding standards

of the province.

In addition to the contract-based program introduced above, there has been

another important initiative explored by Hebei Normal University called “Replacing

the Teaching Posts for Short-Term Training”. In order to respond to the call of the

government for the integration of pre-service and in-service teacher education as well

as to provide more support to rural schools in China. Hebei Normal University started

a new approach which combines student internship and continuing education for rural

teachers. The university has encouraged students to fulfill their teaching internship at

the end of their study by taking a full teaching position in rural schools for a period of

six months. Meanwhile, the rural teachers replaced by the students are invited to the

campus of the university to receive professional training. This idea has been used for

four years, has received positive feedback from students and teachers in rural schools

and has gradually become a new working policy not only at Hebei Normal University

but also in other provinces of China.

Since 2006, the university has organized 1941 teacher candidates from 18 majors

to carry out three-to six-month practicum. Students have been assigned to 19 counties
 162

in 11 cities. The number of students has been increasing each year. This effort

received praise and support from the Hebei Education Department, and the

government has helped the university build connections with local schools and has

provided financial support. A new administrative office has been set up especially for

relevant arrangements including organizing a team of teacher educators to follow up

on the internship, answering questions and providing suggestions for local teachers.

The university is very proud of this initiative, said the director:

On one hand, students get a better understanding about the meaning and the
importance of education development. The harsh conditions in rural schools and
the passion of school teachers for teaching deeply influence their perspectives on
many issues they learned in university classrooms. And many of them have
already decided to take a teaching job in rural schools after graduation. On the
other hand, because of the lack of teachers and funding in rural areas, teachers
seldom have the chance to engage in their own professional learning. This new
experiment not only provides rural teachers with these opportunities, moreover,
they can have face-to-face interactions with university teacher educators and
more communication among themselves.

Outside the formal structure in the chart, the university also launched an

Experimental School Project as a university initiative. A group of teacher educators

work on a volunteer basis. Each professor is responsible for several schools in one

area, mostly in rural areas. These schools are called “Professor A’ Experimental

Schools”. The university is responsible for making the initial connections. The

subsequent work is completely up to individual professors in terms of how often and

in what way they carry out which kind of teacher training. Two professors interviewed

were recommended by the director and they are both heavily involved in this work.

They impressed me first and foremost with their passion for teaching and in-service

teacher education and a firmly held belief that education is a public affair so the

fundamental goal of normal universities is to serve the public education enterprise in

the best possible way. Just this kind of passion, to a large degree, makes up for the

lack of funding and resources. Similarly, what impressed the participating professors
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most is the passion school teachers have for their work.

In spite of the information about the policy planning of Shandong Provincial

Department, the actual work of Qufu Normal University providing in-service teacher

education has not yet formally started, probably because the provincial work plan has

not been finalized yet. Regarding the possible changes in the university, Professor

Zhao said:

Shandong Education Department intends to establish teacher education

departments in all provincial normal universities in the following five years. And
one of the central tasks of this department is to take charge of or facilitate
continuing teacher education work hosted by the university, which is currently
carried out by the continuing education department at our university. Therefore,
the fate of the continuing education department is a big question mark.

Currently, three types of institutes at Beijing Normal University are involved in

in-service teacher education. They are the School of Education, the Chemistry

Education Research Institute under the College of Chemistry and similar subject

education research institutes in other colleges or schools, as well as the School of

Continuing Education and Teacher Training.

The School of Education is composed of four departments, eight institutes and

two centers, namely:

 Department of education

 Department of education economics and management

 Department of early childhood education

 Department of special education

 Institute of international and comparative education

 Institute of education sciences

 Institute of education history and culture

 Institute of education laws and policies

 Institute of higher education

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 Institute of teacher’s education

 Institute of school counseling

 Institute of school improvement

 Center for education survey and data analysis

 Center for special education research

The School of Education is mainly responsible for pre-service teacher education.

It offers courses concerning educational research and theory, etc. For non-degree

teacher training programs funded by different stakeholders, the School of Education is

also qualified to apply as an institute.

The School of Continuing Education and Training is a joint administrative and

educational institute. Under the school are five major offices:

 Office of training

 Office of research

 Office of student work

 Office of teaching

 Office of Party work

The school naturally has focused their work on teacher training. The aim from the

beginning was to provide superior professional courses for teacher qualifications

through the means of night schools and setting up correspondence education centres

across the country. The school itself does not have any teaching personnel. Its

responsibilities cover a wide range of continuing education work and have diversified

educational forms including correspondence education, Night College, networked

education, traditional face-to-face learning, and academic education at the bachelor’s

level. The major supporting institutes in the School of Continuing Education are

 College faculty development and exchange center (Beijing)

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 Directory center of the state teachers qualification accreditation

 Secretariat of young core teachers from universities

 Secretariat of the Confederation of National Teacher Education Network

 Key construction base of the national vocational education teachers training

The main responsibilities of the school have changed over time. Regarding teacher

continuing education, until 2000 a considerable amount of energy was devoted to

degree supplementation programs in the form of correspondence education.

National-level normal universities like Beijing Normal University operate directly

under the Ministry of Education. Therefore, the school needs to get approval from the

MOE regarding the number of teachers it plans to train every year.

In implementing the 2010 national teacher training program, national-level

normal universities received most of the national-level training projects either through

the form of assignment or application. Many researchers and professors were heavily

involved in the writing of the new basic education curriculum and are among the

strongest advocates for moral education or technology education. Therefore, they

have a very clear sense of what teachers lack if not exactly how to help them. In

comparison, in provincial-level normal universities, except for a few well-established

professors, very few faculty members have opportunities to participate in major

educational policy making. In order to do the job well, teacher educators in provincial

normal universities need first to familiarize themselves with new policies and

guidelines.

After the year 2000, the continuing education department of Beijing Normal

University devoted most of its energy to running night colleges. The night colleges

offer various undergraduate degree programs and are open to everyone. This still

remains one of the main jobs for the department. As for their work concerning teacher
 166

training, the school also receives training tasks from different levels of government

nationwide. The school is the only unit of the university which is qualified to apply

for national-level training programs under the 2010 National Teacher Training

Program. Director Wei sees the school’s work as building up an educational highway

with different exits representing different subject departments and other associates.

The department retains the decision-making power in terms of which assignment

should go through which exit based on the nature and purpose of training program.

Compared to other subject departments, multiple communication channels and the

flexibility of its working approach are its advantages.

Colleges and institutes in the university which include normal education usually

have the same organizational structure and function. Take the College of Chemistry

for example. Under the college, there is the Chemistry Education Research Institute.

One of the major tasks of this institute is to prepare normal students who are

specializing in chemistry education. It offers pre-service and in-service teacher

education. Right now, many disciplinary schools or colleges have their own Master of

Education programs which can enroll in-service teachers and these kinds of Master of

Education programs are growing every year. The institute has received different

contract-based teacher training projects including national-level teacher training

projects through the MOE, training programs from provincial-or local-level

governments, and training initiatives in cooperation with local schools. For example,

Shandong Provincial Education Department signed a contract with the institute

regarding an intensive in-service distance education program in 1999. According to

the contract, the institute is responsible for the content design and related issues rather

than the building of the online platform.

Because of their expertise, the institute also received an in-service training

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program of an exploratory nature directly from the MOE regarding the topic of

distance teacher training in the subject of chemistry in China.

In addition, the institute also initiated a school-based in-service teacher training

program that has lasted for three years so far. More than 20 schools have signed

contracts with the institute. Because the program is contract-based, the length, content

and actual form of training depends on the needs of different schools. Professor Jia

commented on this initiative:

Different from other school-based training program, in our case, it is the school
which reaches out to us with their own concern in mind. As far as I know, other
institutes or schools in our university, which have connections with local schools,
are usually based on their need for research. (Interview in November, 2010)

Problems emerging from the universities’ participation

In the framework of Hebei province, it seems that each university can choose

whether or not to apply for certain projects. The projects can bring financial benefits

to the institution and teacher educators, but the government investment is still far from

sufficient and the financial benefits the university can get from hosting are actually

very limited. The director of Hebei Normal University said:

The provincial government has specific requirements in terms of how the money
should be spent, how much is for each teacher, how much is for accommodations,
how much is for learning materials, etc. It is very unlikely for us to spend the
money doing something different from what the government requires, so the
financial benefit of this work is very limited. (Interview in October, 2010)

From a financial perspective, the participation in these kinds of projects seems to

be a burden to the universities. As the major teacher education institution in the

province, Hebei Normal University is obligated to apply whenever this kind of job is

available. Especially when this job is prioritized by the government, the university

needs to show its support and cooperation. Yet, it is inaccurate to say that the

university is forced to apply for the job because teacher education institutions do want
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the job with the hope that their status in the system could be further promoted. As the

market for in-service teacher education matures, they could harvest more rewards.

The director explained the complicated feeling they have towards this job at present:

On one hand, the university administrators view this job as a priority because the
provincial government is pushing this job higher on the agenda. The university
itself is investing a lot of money for the job, as the money our participating
professors get is very much symbolic in my opinion. Some departments and
educators would rather do something else if they are only in this for the money.
The university is making a lot of efforts to do the job for the sake of supporting
the policy initiative and better serving the field of basic education in the province.
Of course, we do the job also with the hope of getting a strong reputation in the
field and laying a good foundation for future opportunities. (Interview in October,
2010)

More contradictory feelings were found in the case of Shanxi Normal University.

Before visiting the university, I contacted the director of its Adult Education

Department and got a response a week later saying they are not engaged in the work

of continuing teacher education: most of the work they do is adult education with the

public. However, the university has newly established a teacher education department

and the director helped me contact the vice-chair of the new department. When I met

with this department’s vice-chair, he recommended a young professor for me to talk to

because he was not fully aware of specific teacher training jobs in which the

department was currently involved and the department chair who was responsible for

this job had quit two months before.

I started the interview with Professor Lu (a young female professor) with much

anticipation, as establishing a teacher education department is the future plan for

many normal universities, including Qufu Normal University which I had just visited.

Their work may well be more organized and integrated with the current institutional

resources. Yet, what I learned from the interview struck me as a huge disappointment.

According to Professor Lu, the new department has experienced a lot of difficulties

since its creation. To realize the purpose of a teacher education department,

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experienced teacher educators in different subject fields of teaching pedagogy need

first to be brought together. However, senior pedagogical teaching professors in

various subject departments refused to come because they are unsure of the future of

this new department and are already well-positioned in their current departments.

Only a group of young educators like Professor Lu were willing to come.

The teacher education department was formed to take on three jobs. One was to

provide various pedagogical teaching courses to students from different subject

departments. The second was to organize and facilitate internship training for the

students. The third was to be responsible for in-service teacher training programs

hosted by the university. However, in reality, without a strong team of teacher

educators, the other departments were reluctant to send their students to the new entity

and neither would they hand over the power of managing the internships. For

in-service teacher education, the work of the department has not followed the initial

plan either.

Under the heavy influence of the 2010 National Teacher Training Program and

the exemplary efforts of Hebei Normal University, Shanxi Normal University set up a

teacher training office (an administrative office, an independent office outside the new

department introduced previously) to manage all the relevant work from the National

Teacher Training Program including the “Replacing Teaching Posts for Short-Term

Training” projects.

With the first two tasks unfulfilled, the previous vice-chair of the new

department took initiative himself, through personal relationships, and received

several teacher training projects from the provincial ministry. However, due to

conflicts about the work arrangement between the department and the new

administrative office, the university later decided to let the teacher training office take
 170

over the training projects and assign tasks to the teacher education department. As a

result, the power of the department was further decreased and became even more

passive. The chair quit his job in anger.

During the interview, a teacher from a rural school came into the office to ask

for a favor. Somehow, he joined our talk. To my surprise, he was not a subject teacher

but the safety guard at his school. The school sent him to the training program hosted

by Shanxi Normal University because there would be not enough teachers to teach if

they came for the training. Although opportunities are precious for rural teachers at

his school, they were unable to come to the university campus and stay there for a

month.

Professor Lu of Shanxi Normal University nodded with understanding, and

explained:

This kind of situation does exist in the current programs. The university, as a
hosting institution, does not have relevant regulations to follow when dealing
with the problem. The problems could be eased by distance training programs, yet
our university hasn’t built up a distance training platform. (Interview in March,
2011)

The MOE has a list of institutions recommended for distance training programs

(see below). Shanxi Provincial Department entrusted the continuing education

department of Peking University to deliver its distance training programs among the

2010 national training programs. Originally, Peking University contracted Shanxi

Normal University for the training of local online teacher educators to share some of

the work of the training program. However, this cooperation was stopped due to some

financial complexities and Peking University decided to take the whole job on its

own.
 171

Table 10 Member institutions of Chinese on-line teacher education

Hosting
Name of the organization Website
instituion
Teacher continuing www.sne.bnu.edu.cn Beijing Normal
education school www.bnude.cn University
East China
Jsjy.dec.ecnu.edu.cn；
Distance education school Normal
Jsjy.ecnudec.com
University
Shanxi Normal
Distance education school www.sne.snnu.edu.cn
University
jspx6.fjtu.com.cn Fujian Normal
Distance education school
Jspx.fjtu.com.cn University
South China
Distance education school www.gdou.com Normal
teacher.gdou.com University
National
National center for Center For
www.51elearning.org.cn
educational technology Educational
Technology
Peking
Internet Education school train.pkudl.cn
University
(Source: http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s4644/index.html)

In addition to the recommended institutions, some provinces with relatively

advanced online education platforms were also recommended including the teacher

education networks in Shanghai, Anhui, Hunan, etc. They are either supported by a

provincial technology centre or by an education institution.

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Figure 10: Administrative structure of Hebei Normal University

Ministry of Education (MOE)

The fifth national training plan

National level training projects Hebei Education Department

Local training projects in the plan

Hebei Normal University

Administrators team Continuing education department Department chairs

Experts team Experts team in every department

 173

Thinking comparatively about the relevant work at OISE, University of Toronto

Provinces in Canada take full responsibility for their education matters. Ontario

has a strong teacher education and training system. The AQ system, government

funded teacher training initiatives and other aspects of in-service teacher education

could well serve as a comparative element and provide an alternative perspective for

understanding issues embedded in Chinese in-service teacher education. Therefore,

the following section presents teacher training work in Ontario with data collected

from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), the Ministry of Education

in Ontario and the Ontario College of Teachers.

The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of

Toronto is located in Toronto, Ontario. OISE was originally an independent graduate

study and research institution but merged with the University of Toronto in 1996.

There had been a Faculty of Education in various forms at the University of Toronto

(FEUT) carrying the responsibilities of pre-and in-service teacher education long

before the merger. Continuing Education was also an active component in FEUT. The

continuing education unit now at OISE evolved out of the Continuing Education Unit

at FEUT and was created by the founding dean after the merger. OISE is a leading

institution in teaching, educational research and other relevant issues. OISE offers

extensive graduate programs in education, pre-service teacher education programs and

advanced continuing education programs in Ontario for teachers, educators and

administrators. Teacher education including in-service teacher education is the priority

and mandate of OISE.

The Continuing Education Unit offers a variety of teacher professional training

programs, all of which are non-degree programs. The most significant part is the

offering of Additional Qualification (AQ) courses. AQ courses can qualify teachers in

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Ontario to teach in other subjects. There are two kinds: Additional Basic

Qualifications and Additional Qualifications. Additional Basic Qualifications allow

participating teachers to add to what they are already qualified to teach; Additional

Qualifications help participating teachers to further expand their skills within the

subjects that they already qualified to teach. ABQs are further organized into different

divisions, for example, primary, junior, intermediate and senior. AQ courses are

offered as one session, three sessions, principal qualification courses, or honours

specialist courses (general or tech studies). More specifically, one-session AQ courses

add an additional qualification to the Certificate of Qualification. Three-session AQ

courses lead to a three-part Specialist notion on the Certificate of Qualification.

Honours specialist AQ courses qualify participating teachers to be specialist teachers

in their field.

In addition, the continuing education department also has tried to form

collaborative programs. One of the most recent projects is called “Rethinking

Education for the 21st century”. In partnership with the Conference of Independent

Schools and OISE, this is a collaborative action research project which will last from

2010-2012.

Moreover, the department also offers a series of short-term customized programs.

For instance, there are currently programs in higher education and educational

leadership. These programs are offered by means of online modules organized into

specific learning paths, designed for specific groups of potential learners and are not

necessarily connected to a formal credential.

Last, the department also provides a variety of learning institutes and symposia

which focus on different topics in education. Educators choose to attend the sessions

which interest them the most.

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A similar feature between Chinese normal universities and the case of OISE is

that the majority of in-service teacher education work is carried out by the continuing

education department, although the situation is slightly different between provincial

normal universities and national normal universities in China. Nevertheless, there are

obvious differences in several aspects of in the comparison between Chinese normal

universities and OISE.

First of all, China runs a centralized in-service teacher education system. As

mentioned in the previous chapter, the current in-service teacher education system in

China can be divided into two subsystems: regular in-service teacher education and

the non-regular in-service teacher education system. Normal universities only

participate in non-regular in-service teacher training programs and so far continue to

be the major providers in this subsystem. The hierarchical administrative relationship

between normal universities and the governments (both at the central and provincial

levels) leaves very little autonomy on the part of the university. The tight relationship

between the government and the university does not make the intention of forming the

alignment any easier. On the contrary, the administrative control the government has

over the university makes the participation task-oriented and there is no valid space

for teachers to express their intentions. The separate institutions for both pre-and

in-service system as well as the complicated hierarchical administrative relationships

within each system makes the job of elimination of ill-functioned in-service training

institutions and the responsibility reallocation extremely challenging.

In Ontario, the alignment of the pre-service and in-service teacher education

systems is made through the Ontario College of Teachers, an accrediting body of

pre-service and in-service teacher education.

John from the Ontario College of Teachers stated:

 176

Because we are responsible for accrediting both the initial teacher education and
the ongoing teacher education, there is good alignment. We have the accreditation
regulation that says what are the requirements for initial teacher education and
what are the requirements for additional courses. and I think there is good
consistency because we are the same group that is looking at it. you know, when
you look at the content of courses, the qualification of those teaching them, we
are looking for background, blend of research, classroom experience and bring
them to the courses.

He continued:

And I think the other alignment feature is that many faculties that offer initial
teacher education are the same ones offering ongoing teacher education so they
understand what teachers are seeing in the initial program and how to extend that
in the ongoing teacher education. (Interview in April, 2011)

In addition, the OCT is responsible for running the teacher certification system

and every AQ course teachers take is documented and added to their certificate.

Therefore, there are strong ties between the OCT, universities and school teachers.

Universities are made accountable to the OCT through the accreditation procedure,

and also to individual teachers. Currently there is no mandatory requirement for

teachers to take AQ courses. Teachers are choosing courses and institutions on their

own and for their own benefits. Some school districts also support teachers in taking

AQ courses.

John elaborated:

Because AQ courses are teacher choice, teachers pay the course themselves. It is
incoming-generating work for universities, if a university comes up and offer…if
it doesn’t fit in what teachers want to do, they won’t do it. So there is a fit with
what’s marketable or not. (Interview in April, 2011)

The revenue sources of the continuing education department at OISE are diverse and

include two components:

1. AQ courses provide a very stable revenue stream for the department. Staff in the

department mostly manage these programs, which are accredited by the Ontario

College of Teachers.

2. The department looks for other opportunities to be involved in teacher education

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and creates networks and partnerships on a variety of different levels.

The ties between the Ministry of Education, the OCT and the universities are not

as strong. These bodies run quite independently. However, this is not to say that there

is no connection between the AQ system and the professional education support the

Ministry offers. Mike from the Ministry of Education in Ontario touched upon this

point:

I would say teachers probably do [make individual PD plans] in collaboration with

their school principals during the development of their annual growth plan. So as
teachers are evaluated, they would have to develop objectives, and a growth plan
and sometimes part of that would be what kind of courses they would take, and
some of them are AQ courses. (Interview in April, 2011)

The advanced leadership training offered by the Ministry is also believed to be an

extension of AQ system, said John from the OCT:

We are trying to get at is once you done your AQs, got on the top of the salary
grid, what is incentive? What kind of support can we give for other more
experienced teachers? Who are the ones who can tell us what is meaningful for
them. So it might not be doing an academic course. It might be looking into a
specific area of practice. They want to improve and you just cannot get that
course, so it is more self-directed. (Interview in April, 2011)

The Ontario approach of alignment on one hand has lessened the burden of

degree-based continuing teacher education. Mike from the Ministry explained:

In Ontario, we don’t have a lot of Masters of Education graduates in our teachers,

because we have our AQ system. It is not competing between master’s programs
and AQ courses and it is another way of continuing on. And it has got plenty of
incentives behind it. (Interview in April, 2011)

On the other hand, the alignment offers all teachers equal opportunities to have a

comparable breadth of education exposure with the same outcomes. John from the

OCT pointed out with delight:

We currently do not have a mandatory requirement. There isn’t a requirement that

they have certain number of courses, a number of hours each year. That said, we
looked at this statistic each year, we know teachers are doing it on their own. It is
about 40,000courses that we add to certificates every year. (Interview in April,
2011)
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The Ontario experience tells us that coherent and consistent teacher policies are a

must for developing coherent and consistent programs and practices. Of course, there

is no education system without problems. Like the present Chinese situation, an

effective evaluation model is a serious concern expressed by Mike from the Education

Ministry of Ontario:

One of the main issues we are facing is that we have a system where we provide
professional development for teachers in all kinds of different ways. But we don’t
actually measure their performance, so we do have a learning model, but we don’t
really have an evaluation model. We do give teachers all kinds of opportunities to
develop themselves and learn, we recognize them as a profession, they are a
professional body. One of the questions today we are considering…what can we
do that would actually look at teachers in terms of performance, how effective
they are as teachers, how good they are and we can help them improve as teachers,
to help struggling teachers. (Interview in April, 2011)

Furthermore, Mike from the Ministry added:

It [in-service teacher education] is a potential market. There is not necessarily

competition among institutions, because our faculties are spread around the
province. There are also some weaknesses of the system. Certain courses are
oversupplied while some courses are hard to find anywhere… some of the AQ
courses are more expensive to run, like the technology ones. You will get teachers
saying I am trying to find a course but no one is offering it. It just isn’t worth
everyone’s while. It is too expensive to run and there is not enough interest.
(Interview in April, 2011)

The Chinese teaching force is not fully regulated yet. Teacher certification and

accreditation has not been formed into a systematic procedure. The open teacher

education system allows students from non-teaching majors to enter the teaching

profession through short courses and exams. There is no common standard for all

graduates who want to become teachers in different subject areas. Also, there is no

formal way of recognizing non-degree-based learning.

A unique feature of the current field of in-service teacher education that has

opened up for normal universities in China is that the government is the opportunity

provider and the consumer at the same time. The National Teacher Training Program
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that started in 2010 is a powerful policy push from the central government for the

work of in-service teacher education in China. However, all the relevant regulations

so far are temporary. Also, there is no clear guarantee about the continuity of this

national investment itself.

Among the four normal universities in this study, there are no self-financed

programs, except for the “experimental school project” in Hebei Normal University.

Universities wait for the funding opportunities provided by either the central

government or provincial governments. In contrast, most of the programs in the

continuing education department at OISE are self-financed. They are user-paid and

the program consumers include associations, government, teachers, and administrators.

The department has its own e-payment and e-registration system.

Meanwhile, there are no policy measures in China that are equivalent to the

Additional Qualifications in Ontario. As the certification system develops in the future,

normal universities could potentially be stable participants in this work. However,

there is no organization which is independent from the government like the Ontario

College of Teachers in China, so the degree and form of participation seem once again

to lie in the hands of the different levels of government.

Also, the way continuing education departments are related to the university is

different in the two places. Continuing education departments in Chinese normal

universities are directly led and monitored by the university authority. The

departments have no independent financial accounts. There is no pressure for

profit-making, either. Major initiatives need to be approved by the university before

any action takes place. The continuing education department at OISE is relatively

independent from the university authority. An important policy mandate for the

department is revenue generation. As the director explained:

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My unit is cost recovery, and needs to generate revenue first of all to pay all our
expenses, and additional revenue for the institution. So that is a very practical part
of our mandate and we do so by creating networks and partnerships on a variety of
different levels. (Interview in August, 2010)

Therefore, there is greater motivation for the department to take action and seek

various opportunities itself. The director continued:

We work in Chile, China, Jordon, anywhere where we can find a network, find a
partner and look through the five departments here and forge partnerships
internally and externally. So sometimes it is international, or other times national
or provincial work. We have done projects that involved the independent schools,
accessing and evaluating how teachers change their classroom practice, we have
done projects that are Ministry of Education projects involving leadership
development, literacy development and that kind of thing. (Interview in August,
2010)

In both countries the continuing education departments themselves do not have

much content expertise, which makes the job of communication especially important.

The tight administrative relationship within Chinese normal universities makes the

work of forming a relatively formal communication channel easier than it is at OISE.

Communication is the key area that could be improved, as identified by the OISE

director:

One area where I think the improvement could be made would be in

communication. But we do by using my own professional networks in the
building to figure out who is specializing, who is doing work, or who has graduate
students doing work in certain area. (Interview in August, 2010)

Nevertheless, due to its independent operational and financial status, the

continuing education department at OISE has much more motivation and autonomy to

negotiate with other departments within the university. At present, the continuing

education department is trying to cooperate with the Department of Theory and Policy

Studies regarding forming a connection between non-degree training and

degree-based programs. As the director explained:

Some can take for instance, our principal’s courses, and then apply to do a
master’s degree in Educational Administration. You can get credit for about two
courses for the work you have done. That is new for the university. It is
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groundbreaking. It has taken three years to come about… We are confident that
we will move in that direction. We already worked out the agreement with the
department, which is the TPS. Once the final decision is made, how to work
together to satisfy theory and policy studies requirements. (Interview in August,
2010)

The customized training program is powerful evidence of this motivation, too. In

addition, other stakeholders, including third party organizations in Ontario, are also

allowed to participate and also are very active in the field, which forms a competitive

environment for the department. As the director stated:

Universities are not the only place in Ontario where teachers receive professional
development, if they are attached, employed in school district, the district either
independently provides teacher professional development or receives money from
provincial government… Sometimes they come through the teacher federations.
The Ministry has chosen to fund organizations. Or other organizations receive
membership dues like teacher associations, the principals associations. They don’t
have as much worry as we do about cost recovery and revenue generation. So we
are in constant competition. We are always on our toes. We are constantly looking
for new networks. With our Additional Qualification courses, we have to lower
our prices, because we are not the only institution offering the courses. (Interview
in August, 2010)

There is a much wider variety of consumers in the Ontario education system than

in China. Individual teachers and schools have a considerable amount of

decision-making power in the choice of training programs and training organizations.

The AQ system in Ontario offers some valuable possibilities for those issues in China.

A credit-transfer system could be a possibility to promote both diploma and

non-diploma education. Of course, there is no absolute formula, as there are always

interesting and unexpected changes. As John from the OCT stated:

Our teacher education programs continue to be university-based. We are seeing

interesting things. For some faculty, they are offering a set of AQ courses that
could be counted towards advanced degrees. (Interview in April, 2011)

In sum, the existence of OCT offered more balance to the power allocation of the

system. And the independence of higher education institutions in the province gives

more flexibility to the work of universities in terms of the means and intensity of
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participating or exploring the market of in-service teacher training. Further, the

financial independence of the continuing education office in OISE encourages more

working enthusiasm and exerts more pressure and accountability at the same time.

Stable teacher customers of in-service teacher training is the key to the continuous

quality enhancement of training programs.

Chapter summary

Responsible planning should take into account changes in organizational structure

and its impact on the actual policy implementers (e.g. teacher educators in

universities). The organizational structure has a long-term effect on the goals and the

improvement of instruction of in-service training programs. The work of teacher

educators is driven and at the same time constrained by administrative structure,

organizational culture, and financial incentives as well as personal ambitions etc. This

chapter demonstrated the major institutional aspects relevant to the participation of the

four studied normal universities in in-service teacher education.

A major difference between the three provincial normal universities and Beijing

Normal University is the degree of participation of the institution in non-degree based

teacher training work. Because of its reputation and national normal university

identity, Beijing Normal University is more likely to get training programs and

relevant work directly from the MOE, and also has many opportunities to receive

training programs from provincial- and local-level governments nationwide. Besides

the School of Continuing Education and Teacher Training, other departments as well

as research units are also quite active in the field in various degrees. The participants

in the university are well aware of different types of training programs sponsored by

the National Teacher Training Program as well as where they could fit into the overall
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design. Yet, among the programs they are hosting, the ones sponsored by the National

Teacher Training Program only constitute part of their workload.

By contrast, the influence of the National Teacher Training Program seems much

stronger at Hebei Normal University and Shanxi Normal University. At present, most

of the work they do centers around the provincial training programs sponsored by the

MOE. The continuing education department at Hebei Normal University is currently

the only unit in the university which is active in the field of non-degree teacher

training. The university started its exploration of various possibilities well before the

National Teacher Training Programs. Its experiences have been well acknowledged

and influential for other provincial normal universities including Shanxi Normal

University. At Shanxi Normal University, the newly-established teacher training office

is entrusted by the university to handle relevant work. Other units are not directly

involved. Among the four normal universities visited, Qufu Normal University is on

the low end in terms of work intensity. Surprisingly, given the on-going efforts of the

Shandong Education Department, both participants I interviewed at Qufu Normal

University were not aware of the National Teacher Training Program that started in

2010 and the university is not hosting related programs either.

Government-funded programs in the framework of the “National Teacher

Training Programs” take two major forms of delivery. One is short-term

university-based training programs, the other is the creation of university-school

networks. Major programs initiated by the four universities include experimental

school projects pioneered by Hebei Normal University and the contract-based training

programs started by the Chemistry Institute of Beijing Normal University. These two

kinds of projects may include various other forms of participation such as workshops

or collaborative research. These identifiable forms of participation are summarized in

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the following paradigm. University-based short-term training will be a major form of

universities’ participation in the foreseeable future, as Professor Jia explains:

This form of delivery won’t disappear despite the criticism in the literature about
university-based short-term training. First, the teaching resources available in the
university are very limited and won’t be able to sustain other forms of
participation on a large scale at present. Moreover, this form has its advantages.
Teachers can enjoy the learning resources on the university campus and have
more time to concentrate on reflective thinking and more direct communication
opportunities with various teacher educators.
Figure 11: Major forms of participation identified from the data

Short-term  One or two months time

university-based  Funded by the central
training government
 University-based

University-school  Combined with pre-service

partnership training
(replacing the  Funded by the central
teaching posts for government
Major forms short-term training  Short-term university-based
of teacher training
participation

Experimental  Initiated by the university

school projects  Running on volunteer basis
(Hebei Normal  Potentially containing various
University ) other forms

University-school  Initiated by the Chemistry

partnership (Beijing institute of the university
Normal University)  Contract-based

Nevertheless, the balance between the impact of the real situation in schools and

the more luxurious learning environment on the university campuses needs to be born

in mind as the work progresses in the future.

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In-service teacher training work in Ontario has been running for many years and is

well-established. AQ courses are one of the important features in Ontario teacher

continuing education and are the most important work carried out by the continuing

education office of OISE. The comparative part of the study has helped me in thinking

about the features of the Ontario system and how the work of OISE in continuing

teacher education that could potentially benefit the reform in China.

First, there is in China no accreditation body such as the Ontario College of

Teachers. On one hand, the national government in China gets the guidelines, while

the provincial government has supervision power. With limited funding, it is unlikely

that much effort will be made to ensure the quality of the training, especially when it

is not considered as a priority by provincial governments. Normal universities as

delivering institutions are only responsible to the government and do not have any

authority over the selection of the participants, the subject of the training programs

and how the funding is allocated. The tight administrative relationship between

universities and the government in China means that universities do not have any

control over the important decisions made about in-service teacher training. Rather,

they act as cooperative and advisory associates of various levels of governments. The

centralized administrative structure ensures that government policy receives support

from the universities and will very quickly get to the bottom of the system. On the

other hand, this tight relationship leaves universities limited room to maneuver and

does not necessarily contribute to the quality of the training programs. It is

understandable that administrators in Chinese universities feel uncertain about this

work and hesitate to give any predictions. In the future, a policy emphasis on

encouraging higher education institutions needs to be further regulated by law in order

to ensure the continuity of the work ,and to specify the rights and responsibilities of
 186

participating universities in the field.

There are no obvious incentives for teachers in China to continuously pursue

in-service training. Unlike the AQ system in Ontario, teachers in China seem to be left

outside of the major national teacher training initiatives. The connection between

universities and governments are far more important than the connection between

universities and teachers or schools. On one hand, the fact that governments are

consumers of this service shows that there is not yet a market in the real sense for

universities to explore. The need will disappear as soon as the government funding

stops. On the other hand, under the current situation, universities are less likely to

make efforts to communicate with teachers and less interested in knowing how the

participating teachers feel rather than how to satisfy the requirements of the

government.
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Chapter 6: Discussion

The preceding chapters provided a description and preliminary explanations of

the national policies and universities’ commitment to the work of in-service teacher

education.

In this chapter, I will provide cross-case analysis as well as attempt to answer the

two research questions as outlined in Chapter 3. The multiple case study approach of

inquiry employed by the study allowed me to “study two or more subjects, settings, or

depositories of data” (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003, p.62). Hebei Normal University, Qufu

Normal University, Shanxi Normal University and Beijing Normal University were

purposefully selected for the study in order to give a better chance to understand the

problems and answer the research questions. The two sections of the discussion were

organized according to the two research questions. Major themes emerging from the

data were grouped together under each question including organizing a group of

competent people who can effectively foster a new initiative, exploring new

approaches for teacher training, and reforming administrative structures, funding, lack

of experienced teacher educators, Chinese educational structure. The third part of the

discussion summarized major points emerging from the data concerning the potential

contribution normal universities could make by participating in continuing teacher

education including better fulfillment of the responsibilities of teacher education

institutions, potential impacts on educational research, a better alignment between

pre-service and in-service teacher education.

What efforts are universities in China making in continuing teacher education?

Normal universities face strategic choices and institutional reorientation with the

changing of the overall teacher education system. Attention to three major issues
 188

emerging from the interviews would help to integrate the work of in-service teacher

education into the overall work of these institutions. These are: organizing a group of

competent people who can effectively foster new initiatives, exploring new

approaches to teacher training, and reforming administrative structures.

Organizing a group of competent people who can effectively foster a new initiative

Organizing a strong team of teacher educators for the work of continuing teacher

education is a most effective strategy. The Experimental School Project launched by

Hebei Normal University gathered the most experienced and dedicated teacher

educators to promote the work of in-service training in formal as well as informal

ways. The initiative was formally brought out by the university as an institutional

program while most of the actual delivery was done by individual educators as

personal behaviors. This project helped university educators build communication

channels with local schools and teachers through which they developed a more

comprehensive understanding about the needs and feelings of school teachers.

Professor Wang of Hebei Normal University expressed it the following words:

Although I have been in the field of academic research for more than 30 years, I
feel I started from the beginning in learning together with the teachers. I felt their
pain and passion during this transition. They need help from people like us to
overcome the pain with them. I harvested more than I expected. Teachers gave me
their trust, they acknowledged my work and called me for advice when they
needed. And this work has greatly influenced my research interests and
perceptions. Sometimes, principals from other schools also contacted me and
invited me to visit their school. This work took up almost my entire free time in
the past two years, but when you feel their enthusiasm and sincerity, it is really
hard to say no. (Interview in October, 2010)

Nevertheless, teacher educators who are actively involved in this work need

adequate time and resources to ensure the quality of their work in the future. Their

work needs to be formally recognized by the internal reward and promotion system.

Working on a volunteer basis makes it hard to guarantee the continuity of the work.
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Exploring new approaches to teacher training

The approach of “Replacing Teaching Posts for Short-Term Training” explored

by Hebei Normal University could potentially better engage student teachers in the

practical environment of teaching. More importantly, it provides valuable

opportunities for teachers in rural schools with a period of time during which they can

enjoy more learning resources, communicate with university educators and engage in

reflective thinking. This approach could avoid the situation encountered at Shanxi

Normal University in which the school safeguard was sent to a professional training

program instead of teachers.

However, this practice is still in the early stages of development. There are many

issues that need to be considered if it continues to be implemented and becomes a

regular project of the university. First of all, because school teachers can only be

released from their jobs when the school permits, receptive schools need to be

reassured that the temporary change of teachers will not influence the teaching quality,

and on the contrary, would be likely to increase teaching quality in schools. This

challenges the way in which student internships usually work.

A second implication is that teacher educators from the university need to take

more responsibility and better think through their role of supervising student teachers.

As well to ensuring of the quality of the professional training rural teachers receive

during this period, there needs to be an effective method to find out what the teachers’

professional needs are and to design the training programs accordingly. This task also

seriously challenges the university to better mobilize and organize its teaching

resources.

Third, it is unlikely that universities alone could implement this idea on a large
 190

scale. It requires a lot of resources including teaching resources and accommodations

for teachers in training on university campuses. Currently, Hebei Normal University is

delivering the training programs and provides accommodation free of charge. There

needs to be funding provided by the government. In 2010, this innovative approach

received appraisal from the MOE and has been introduced as a special pattern for

in-service teacher training to other provinces with allocated funding.

Reforming administrative structures

Devore (1974) pointed out years ago that

If it is desirable to change traditional in-service teacher education programs, the

organizational structures must be altered to promote the proposed changes.
Introducing new programs into old organizational structures interjects the element
of failure from the beginning. (p. 140)

This study shows that participating in in-service teacher training work requires

changes in the internal administration of normal universities. At present, their internal

organization still reflects the Soviet influence. Departments are organized under

university authority. Usually, a department has several specializations. Faculty

members belong to specific teaching and research units.

To fully participate in and benefit from the work of in-service teacher training,

normal universities need to go through far-reaching and difficult changes in their

institutional arrangement and in the practice of teaching. Yet, it is hard to disentangle

cause and effect in this process, as institutional change is a must in the current teacher

education system reform and the work of continuing teacher education is an

inseparable part of the system reform itself.

Many normal universities have already committed to the establishment of teacher

education departments to be responsible for facilitating and consolidating teacher

education resources within the institution for both pre-service and in-service teacher
 191

education work. This department is usually led by university administrators. The

specific job range varies from university to university and can be divided into two

categories in general. One is to establish an actual new department which combines

the function of education and management. Education usually refers to the teaching

and training of teacher candidates. Management usually includes the relationship with

other departments, course design and practicum arrangements, etc. Universities

including Nanjing Normal University, Shenyang Normal University, and Zhejiang

Normal University have all adopted this approach. A second strategy is to form a

management institute such as Beijing Normal University, Northeast Normal

University, and Hangzhou Normal University have done. For example, at Beijing

Normal University, the Teacher Education School is led by a vice-president of the

university, and the vice-chairs of the school are the deans of major faculties in the

university. This design maintains the original institutional structure, through it

changes the resource management and allocation path to improve the efficiency and

appropriateness of resource use.

The detailed functions of the newly-established departments in normal

universities are listed in the following table.

Table 11: Types of new established departments in normal universities

University Department name Function
Beijing Teacher education The school is a management department and in charge of all
Normal school teacher education resources in the institution, overall
University teacher education plan, courses design and practicum
management, etc.
① in charge of teacher education resources in the
Northeast Teacher education institution；②pedagogical research and project application；
normal research institute ③management of teacher educators who are in the field of
university subject teaching pedagogy and relevant research grant
application；④development of a strong team of educators of
subject teaching pedagogy.
Hangzhou Teacher education ① in charge of teacher education resources in the
normal management institution ； ② teacher education course design ； ③
university department practicum arrangement and management ； ④ project
（与教务处并列） application ； ⑤ establishment, facilitation and
strengthening of the relationships with local schools.
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①teacher candidate education and management；②starting in

Nanjing Teacher education 2010, the school is in charge of the enrollment and fostering
normal school of all teacher candidates in 13 departments；③responsible
university for designing and regulating teacher education courses and
arrangement and facilitation of the relationship between
various departments and the teacher education school.
Shenyang Teacher ①education of teacher candidates；②drafting the overall
normal professional teacher education plan in the institution
university development school
Zhejiang Teacher education ①education of teacher candidate；② drafting the overall
normal school teacher education plan in the institution
university
(Source: interview with professor Lu of Qufu Normal University)

As part of this structural reform, the rearrangement of the relationship between

schools of education and other schools is not an easy task to accomplish. On the one

hand, if every potentially interested agency in the universities is tightly organized and

has a review of the function of every training job, the process will definitely be

slowed down. On the other hand, it is a necessity to involve those who are in power in

any educational task and institutional change.

From the visits made to each institution and interviews with faculty members and

department heads, it is clear that institutions vary in the plan and responsibility for

institutional internal reform responding to teacher education reform. Beijing Normal

University and Hebei Normal University have trusted their continuing education

departments to be responsible for the work related to the “national teacher training

program”. Shanxi Normal University has assigned this job to its teaching affairs office.

It is certain that institutions are seeking to create their own model of internal

administration in order to facilitate and utilize teaching and learning resources.

However, there are no strong indicators showing that institutions are committed to and

fully confident about this change. For one thing, as Professor Jia of Beijing Normal

University put it:

Although in-service teacher training is being emphasized by the MOE in the

recent years and National Teacher Training Program has been providing funding
to provinces to promote this work, the policy mostly serves as a non-regular type
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of teacher training and doesn’t connect to the current in-service teacher training
system.(Interview in November, 2010)

In order words, there is no guarantee that this funding chain will continue. From the

universities’ perspective, all this work is temporary. They are unlikely to make

significant institutional changes until they are better assured that there will be a steady

flow of funding. In addition, provincial normal universities are directly administered

by the provincial governments. The interviews and later discussions revealed that the

provincial governments are also waiting for signals from the MOE. Mostly because

“in-service teacher training was the least emphasized area for quite some time, we

want to make sure that every step forward is consistent with the direction of national

policy call” (quoted from an interview with Mr. Mei of the Shandong Provincial

Education Department).

Director Zhang of Hebei Normal University said:

To appropriately rearrange the power relationships between teacher education

departments and other subject departments is key to the success of this change.
Otherwise, the reform will remain superficial and the actual work will stay
unchanged. Yet, for administrators and university faculties to abandon longheld
conventions about how the work was supposed to be done is not easy, also for our
faculty members to see the job of in-service teacher education as an integral part
of universities’ work needs more time. (Interview in October, 2010)

Universities consist of complex patterns of interaction, coordination and ordered

behavior (Mayhew, 1974).The rights and responsibilities of different units in the

administrative structure need to be clearly regulated. Otherwise, some units may find

themselves trapped by the complex interactions of institutional administration. What

happened with the newly formed teacher education school in Shanxi province serves

as an example in this regard.

What are the factors that support or inhibit universities in these endeavors?

Regarding this question, three major themes stand out from the data: the issue of
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funding, training for university teacher educators and the impact of decentralization

on teacher education. It is hard to distinguish the element of support from the

obstacles. Their impact on the ultimate success of the work is dependent on how and

to what degree they will change in the future.

Funding

The study shows that when the government puts more emphasis on this work and

really sees this as one of its priorities, normal universities will organize and deliver

more training programs. Director Zhang from Hebei Normal University said:

The current changes of funding channels for continuing teacher education at the
provincial level has a significant impact on normal universities. Previous work
concerning in-service teacher education was primarily funded by the provincial
government on regular in-service teacher education and the involvement of
universities was very limited. With the implementation of the National Teacher
Training Program, a new funding channel. MOE-Hebei Education
Department-teacher training institutions is formed. Normal universities are
becoming very important participants in the work. So it is reasonable to believe
that the continuity and improvement of this work very much depends on whether
the funding will last and how the funding channel evolves in the future.
(Interview in October, 2010)

In addition, at present, the government also exerts a powerful impact over how

the universities run their business of in-service teacher training programs. Even

though it was commonly agreed among the interviewees that the field of continuing

teacher education is an alternative path for normal universities to gain more operating

resources, the operating autonomy of normal universities is constrained by the

conditions attached to the government training grants. The financial benefits normal

universities can get from this work are actually very small. As Director Zhang

continued:

The funding we receive from the government comes with very specific
requirements. For examples, how much goes to the campus accommodation for
coming teachers; how much needs to be spent on inviting external experts on the
topic of training and so on. The space left for the university to maneuver is very
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small. (Interview in October, 2010)

Professor Jia commented on the influence of funding on the quality of the

program delivery:

The training will for sure increase this year when MOE funded training programs
are available, but the quality of implementation is hard to guarantee.
Administrators in the central office in the MOE can design and initiate a
system-wide change, but since it has to rely on the provincial level to implement
the change, there either have to be laws and regulations ensuring the
implementation or a general acceptance by provincial decision-makers, school
leaders as well as teachers. To enhance the overall quality of teachers needs to be
a planned and system-wide educational effort which involves all teachers in the
classrooms. The funding source could be further diversified, for instance, by
requiring a small percentage from teachers so they would pay more attention to
what they really want from various training program which in turn enhances the
quality of the programs. (Interview in November, 2010)

The changing nature of Chinese normal universities under the overall

market-driven higher education system reform makes the relationship between

government funding and university autonomy quite complicated as well as confusing.

In particular, the normal universities’ efforts to diversify their funding bases by means

of stepping into the field of in-service teacher education may not necessarily in turn

increase the autonomy of normal universities in the field of teacher education under

the current system in China. The in-service teacher education programs currently

offered by Chinese normal universities, including degree-based and non-degree-based

programs, are all initiated and tightly controlled by the government. The government

is the sole provider for this market. Further, funding from government comes with

very clear and specific conditions in terms of the training content, length of time,

number of teachers, etc. Thus, until the universities are willing to become more active,

the funding from the government has a decisive power over how far normal

universities will get in the field of in-service teacher education.

Lack of experienced teacher educators

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The success of universities’ provision of high quality training programs depends

on having well-qualified teacher educators. The work requires working knowledge of

elements such as classroom teaching and at the same time requires university teacher

educators to better attend to educational policies themselves. They need to be

informed of why school teachers are coming to the university in the first place and

what kind of new knowledge they need to master. In other words, the teacher

educators need a better understanding of the changing direction advocated in the

national policies. This poses a challenge to many educators in the universities.

Especially for educators who specialize in subject content areas, careful policy

analysis is not part of the work they usually do. Professor Zhao of Qufu Normal

University explained:

To fully meet these new expectations the reform policy has for normal
universities, teacher educators need more time to work with their colleagues at
local schools, and critically examine their own teaching methods and reflect on
how their expertise can better help school teachers solve their problems in
teaching and learning. Yet, at present, we are lacking this knowledge and
skills.(Interview in October, 2010)

Professor Lu from Shanxi Normal University elaborated on his feelings about this

issue:

I can feel the frustration that teachers have during this transformation including
how to create situations for more communication, or appropriately arrange the
content of the textbook. Teachers need practical suggestions for lesson design and
managing learning opportunities. It won’t be hard for our teacher educators to
give a lecture or write a report, but it will be very challenging for us to give
immediate feedback concerning everyday teaching in school. We also need to
start a new learning process, acquire relevant skills to communicate with teachers
and even students; it is also a formidable task for us to help teachers to do so.
(Interview in March, 2011)

The majority of teacher educators have very few experiences of working with

in-service teachers. They feel quite distant from the environment in which teachers

actually have to work and from various classroom-level questions about implementing

the curriculum. Therefore, for teacher educators in universities to develop a passion

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for helping in-service teachers update their knowledge and solve practical problems,

the teacher educators also need to go through a deep and comprehensive journey of

learning as well as a new round of knowledge management.

Professor Li reflected on the difficulties involved in this work:

Our major task in the work of teacher continuing education is to help teachers
learn how to play their roles in their daily teaching practice according to the new
curriculum requirement. However, in the meantime, the whole process is also a
professional development process for teacher educators too. I used to spend a
whole day with teachers in one school figuring out their problems in teaching
new curriculum. Schools varied greatly from one to another, especially schools in
rural and urban areas. Therefore, teachers will face different questions. Even with
similar problems, I cannot simply copy my methods used from one school to
another. After summarizing and reflecting on my experience in the past few years,
now I have my own way of working in schools. I usually position myself as a
student and listen to one or two lessons in a school, the lesson could be in any
subject. If it is a subject I am not familiar with, I would think whether I
understand the content, in what way does the teacher help me understand, or why
I couldn’t understand. Then, I will sit down with school teachers to talk about the
lessons. Last, usually I will give a lecture which combines the issues discovered
in the previous conversation with my own research, new educational theories or
current educational policies. I often surprised myself with the connections I was
able to make between what I learned at the school site and the knowledge I
specialize in. This connection would never happen if I only stay within the
campus of the university. (Interview in October, 2010)

Professor Jia expressed his views in relation to a comparison between Beijing

Normal University and the provincial normal universities. The quality of the team of

teacher educators is the key to the success of the work. Beijing Normal University has

advantages compared to many provincial normal universities. Many professors are

heavily involved in the initial discussion of many educational policies and the actual

writing of the new curriculum. Therefore, their participation in the in-service teacher

training would be more likely to help teachers understand their questions on a deeper

level. Yet, the average teacher educator in many provincial normal universities has not

worked in the field of basic education in a real sense for a long time. The first

challenge facing them is how to manage self-improvement for the purpose of

providing better service to teachers. Moreover, there is a serious lack of experienced

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teacher educators for further promoting the work of in-service teacher education. No

matter what the nature of the training programs, it is actually the same group of

teacher educators doing the work.

Professor Jia of Beijing Normal University elaborated:

Take myself for example; I am the leading expert for programs directly assigned
by the MOE, while at the same time, if the continuing education department
receives training programs they will still contact me if the subject of chemistry is
included. It is the same for many experienced teacher educators in other
disciplines. (Interview in November, 2010)

She paused and added:

We are doing all the work on top of our regular daily work. Therefore our
workload is doubled or even tripled compared with previously. For the leading
educators in provincial normal universities, it is the same situation. (Interview in
November, 2010)

It seems that the work of providing the training needed for preparing teacher

educators in this aspect has not been adequately emphasized. In fact, training has

seldom been carried out for university teacher educators in China since the formation

of the teacher education system. Professor Zhao stressed:

At present, the field of training for teacher educators is almost empty. And if we
want to realize our future plan and effectively extend the work of normal
universities into the local schools, even school classrooms, making sure our
teacher educators are fully prepared is the most fundamental challenge facing us
right now. Now, our faculty members can do well in giving lectures, conducting
research, but to be able to respond to what teachers really need, we still have a
long way to go. (Interview in October, 2010)

During my data collection, the people with whom I spoke who were familiar with

this work could easily identify the key names within and outside their own institutions,

as the number of “the university experts” is very small. To fulfill the expectation of

normal universities’ contribution to the field of in-service teacher education, the key

and foundational issue is to have a large group of highly qualified and competent

teacher educators who are able to take on the job. How to expand this team of teacher

educators and provide the training and help they need requires further consideration.
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The Chinese educational structure

The current system of in-service teacher education in China is still largely a

vertical structure. This structure allows policy mandates from the higher-level

government to reach school teachers in an efficient manner at the same time as it

facilitates the introduction of any urgent educational issues (e.g. new curriculum). In

the four provinces included in this study, the form adopted for the training programs is

more or less the same. This follows the model in which the national government

maintains the power to decide the general norms for the overall system. This power

includes approval of national and regional curricula, appraisal of the whole system,

and direct funding to less-developed areas.

Professor Jia of Beijing Normal University commented:

A vertical educational structure can gather a sufficient amount of resources for the
most urgent educational issues in a relatively short period of time. It can help
better facilitate exemplary efforts and the sharing of experiences among provinces
about the potential ways in which normal universities could contribute to
in-service teacher education. Without the strong push from the central government,
normal universities would not be convinced to do this work. (Interview in
November, 2010)

Efforts towards education decentralization in China actually date back to the late

1970s when provincial governments were granted the power of running primary and

middle schools and hiring teachers (Xin, 1984). However, this initial effort does not

compare with the complexity of the decentralization policy today. Hanson (1998,

p.112) has provided a decentralization definition especially for the case of China:

“Decentralization is defined as the transfer of decision-making authority,

responsibility, and tasks from higher to lower organizational levels or between

organizations”.

The decentralization in China adopts no extreme position. The work of continuing

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teacher education is closely connected with the pattern of decentralization China has

adopted in its centralized education system. In spite of the importance and necessity

of the work to be done by normal universities, the study revealed that the progress

these four universities are making varies greatly. This is mostly due to the

administrative power that provincial governments hold over this work. Compared

with the three provincial universities, Beijing Normal University is directly under the

MOE. It has more opportunities to get first-hand information about new national

policy initiatives as well as to receive more resources from the central government.

Hebei Normal University is among the first normal universities in China to start the

work of in-service teacher education due to the early exploration of the Hebei

Education Department on this issue. This is shown by the relatively well-developed

application procedure the provincial government set up for various training programs

and the innovative approach of “Replacing the Teaching Posts for Short-Term

Training” introduced earlier. Qufu Normal University has barely started this work in

any real sense, and Shandong Education Department is currently in the process of

collecting information and drafting its overall working plan. The amount of work

Shanxi Normal University is doing lies somewhere in the middle between Hebei

Normal University and Qufu Normal University. The provincial governments have the

administrative power over how the work is carried out.

Financially, the universities have the power to create business to make profits and

allocate state funds, etc. However, the fiscal situation and the importance attached by

different provincial governments to various initiatives mostly determine the quantity

as well as quality of the efforts normal universities are making. There is no great sense

of actively seeking opportunities in the four normal universities. First, there is no

“product” for them to advertise. Second, there is no guaranteed “market” to encourage

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normal universities to devote considerable efforts to this work. Third, for the

continuing education departments, there is no financial pressure since all the money

goes to the collective account of the university. This unique phenomenon could be

viewed from the perspective of the Chinese concept of university autonomy. The idea

of university autonomy became one of the central issues in Chinese educational

reform after 1985. In 1993, the central government issued “The Program of

Educational Reform and Development in China”. This document further confirmed

the importance of leaving considerable space for universities to take their own actions

to fulfill their own needs.

The Chinese concept of university autonomy reflects the intention of combining

the experience of Western universities with Chinese traditional values. Academically,

Chinese universities have come to realize their independent role of pursuing

knowledge. However, the long intellectual tradition in China, embedded in a close

relationship between higher education and government, kept universities consistently

and habitually aware of their social and political responsibilities. Therefore, in China

universities could be described as relatively independent educational entities. Higher

education institutions are meant to have the same status as state-owned enterprises

(Gu, 1985 p.73). In other words, the independence of universities does not mean that

universities are independent of the government completely. There still remains an

administrative bond between the government and the universities. We can also sense

these differences through the language used to describe autonomy. There are two

terms that are usually used. One is “zizhiquan”, which is “autonomy as independence”.

The other is “zizhuquan”, which is “autonomy as self-mastery”. Autonomy as

independence has the connotation of political sovereignty and is the Western idea of

autonomy (Wang & Xue, 1994). However, in the Chinese education context,
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autonomy as a self-mastery is more appropriate for understanding the situation found

by this study. Universities are allowed to “act upon their own and respond to social

needs within the framework of government policies” (quoted from an interview with

Mr Wen of the Shanxi Provincial Education Department in May, 2011).

Additionally, even though school-based approaches and the voices of teachers are

gaining more attention from policy makers and Chinese researchers, local schools and

teachers remain untouched by the decentralization in the Chinese education system, at

least from the perspective of in-service teacher education. This reality will likely

inhibit normal universities from further participation in the future and put normal

universities in a very difficult position.

These difficulties are illustrated by the call for forming closer relationships

between normal universities and local schools. With the recognition being placed on

teacher education today, collaborative efforts between normal universities and local

schools have often been viewed as a crucial strategy to improve the quality of the

programs. It is believed that closer cooperation between these two is not only

important in pre-service teacher education, but in in-service teacher education as well.

The possibilities for remaking the world of the career teacher through in-service

programs are slim without truly cooperative work on the part of both schools and

colleges (Peeler & Shapiro, 1974). Director Zhang of Hebei Normal University

highlighted the importance of connecting with local schools:

We cannot blindly offer training courses without knowing more from the school,
because the courses won’t be able to meet the needs of teachers for implementing
the new syllabus. We need a master plan to coordinate different kinds of training
activities systematically to accommodate teachers as well as teacher educators in
the process of change while establishing both formal and informal networks for
teachers who want to seek support and to discuss their concerns in the transitional
period. (Interview in October, 2010)

Nevertheless, this study found very few cases in which normal universities
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reached out to local schools or were being reached out to by local schools directly.

This is mainly because in regard to in-service teacher education, local schools, like

normal universities, rely on funding from the provincial governments. The funding

invested by different levels of government usually flows directly from the

governments to the program hosting institutions. Although local schools and their

teachers are the ultimate consumers of all this effort, they do not have much to say in

terms of the choices of training institutions. Understandably, normal universities find

no incentives to form these relationships either, which explain why the only project of

“Experimental Schools” devoted to forming this connection organized by Hebei

Normal University, is running on a volunteer basis. This project also evidences the

culture gap between schools and universities in terms of reward systems (Ross et al.,

1999).

Professor Jia suggested that:

Regarding the decisions made on in-service teacher education, the power needs to
be further decentralized to the lower level of the system especially adequate
funding directly to schools, because with little power at hand, schools are unlikely
to maintain a strong relationship with normal universities. (Interview in November,
2010)

There are two different views in the literature concerning educational structures in

general. One is concerned with the vertical structure of authority, believing it to be

most effective when handling large populations and allowing little opportunity for

creativity and diversification (Dove, 1986). By contrast, a horizontal structure of

authority favors more authentic participation. The constructivist approach as well as

the horizontal structure of authority it recommends is gaining popularity among

researchers and policy makers. There is little evidence, however, that a horizontal

structure of authority is doing any better than a vertical structure in implementing

education initiatives successfully (Cohen & Spillane, 1992). How to allow more

horizontal arrangement in the vertical structure of an education system such as

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China’s is worth more thought. How to encourage more local innovations for

continuing teacher training in this decentralizing process in China remains

unanswered. Hawkins (2000) summarized “[W]hile the current leadership appears to

be committed to decentralization, they remain conflicted over the need to maintain

control while at the same time respond creatively to the needs of the new market

economy” (p. 442). Tatto (1999) stressed that the levels and degrees of

decentralization always run against the centralized political system and are often

followed by some recentralization to protect the control of the central office. This is

an inherent paradoxical feature of state-led decentralization efforts. Hanson (1998)

and Bray (1999) asserted that there is no completely decentralized education system,

but that all systems have mixed features of decentralization and centralization.

In sum, it is apparent that the work of in-service teacher education has already

started for normal universities. Yet, after enumerating these three aspects emerging

from this study, it can be concluded that normal universities are far from ready and

there is still a considerable amount of thinking to do to further facilitate this job in the

near future. This is what often happens in educational reform. “The bigger the

problem, the greater the urgency with which it is regarded, and therefore the faster the

pace of implementation” (Allix, 2003, p.42). On the one hand, the urgency of policy

initiatives will make the administrators prioritize the work. On the other hand, the big

hurry of the implementation work has the danger of increasing “the number and

seriousness of the problems” (p. 42).

Changing the mindset of the traditional way of working at the provincial level

The current ill-functioning regular in-service teacher education system, from a

certain angle, reflects the firmly rooted mind-set of some present administrators and
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teacher educators. Although the provincial government is enjoying more power over

teacher training, the old hierarchy somehow remains in place. Traditionally, formal

continuing teacher education was only focused on teachers who lacked the necessary

academic qualifications. Although now all provinces have specified the official

training hours for all the teachers in their provincial documents, the

institutionalization of this requirement is not well achieved. Resource limitations have

been viewed as the key barrier. In addition, Professor Li of Hebei Normal University

stated:

The change of teacher training practices is closely linked with the new image of
teaching practices. The concept of lifelong learning is also behind this idea of a
regular teacher training system. Yet the traditional and excessive focus on degrees
and diplomas still misleads how teachers and even teacher administrators see this
work. That’s why the lack of attention devoted to this work is another barrier to
the smooth implementation, I think. (Interview in October, 2010)

Mr Li of Hebei Education Department explained his view on the issue:

For quite a long time, this (in-service teacher training) has been listed at the
bottom of the work list. Previously, prefecture teacher training schools were
responsible for offering degree supplementation courses. There was a political call
embedded. At the end of the 1990s, especially after the mass higher education
policy, teacher candidates with qualified academic degrees in the province had
gone to the state of over supply. Therefore, the major workload of prefecture
teacher training schools has gone. Technologically, regular in-service teacher
training hours should be the responsibilities of teacher training schools. However,
because of the lack of funding, for quite some time, in-service teacher training has
been an empty slogan. (Interview in May, 2011)

Professor Wang of Hebei Normal University expressed a similar concern:

To lead in-service teacher training on the right track, changing the mind state of
provincial policy makers and administers is the most crucial step to take.
In-service teacher training should build on the perception of lifelong learning.
The themes should be designed around teaching and learning. There seems to be a
mismatch between the focus of the work of in-service teacher training and the
focus of the training content. (Interview in October, 2010)

Professor Wang used to research Shanghai teacher professional development and

gave a brief introduction to it during the interview. In 1989, Shanghai officially

promulgated the document “Shanghai Education Commission’s Regulations for

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Further Training of Elementary and Secondary Teachers in Shanghai”. This document

enacted 240 course hours of professional training over a period of 5 years. There was

a parallel standard of 540 hours aimed at high-ranking teachers or promising teachers.

In these 540 hours, there needed to be 300 hours for teachers to get involved in

research and publications. Completion of this program was a prerequisite for teachers

who sought promotion. The document also offered definitions concerning both the

receivers and providers of these two professional development programs, the former

Shanghai College of Education (previously autonomous and now part of East China

Normal University) and the district-level College and county Teacher Refresher

Schools. As part of the contractual obligations, all teachers had to provide yearly

reports of their participation, which influenced their evaluation, salary raises, and

promotion, etc. This document also specified the responsibilities for running the

in-service teacher professional system. The provincial government took charge of the

planning and coordination work. The Shanghai Teacher Training Center worked on

the specific implementation, and the district-and county-level governments were

responsible for arranging training timetables and specific activities as well as

evaluation.

In spite of the clear regulations, Professor Wang concluded,

In Shanghai where the entire situation has been viewed as the most favorable,
study found that teachers were also rather dismissive of the regular teacher
training requirements. So we could see that the failure of current regular
in-service teacher education is not unique to our province. (Interview in October,
2010)

Facilitating and sharing teacher education resources

Given the enormous teaching force and very limited teacher training institutions,

appropriately utilizing and sharing teacher education resources across provinces and

even across the nation is the only path for China to take in the future. According to
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this study, there are two trends of development at present. The first is to establish

teacher education and training bases. The second is to develop distance teacher

professional education centres.

Higher teacher training institutions, under the guidance of provincial governments,

work with different levels of local governments to choose a group of primary and

secondary schools in the same area as teacher education bases. Northeast Normal

University signed contracts with Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces in 2007

to establish three teacher education and training bases. Zhejiang province cooperated

with major teacher education institutions in the province to set up 10 bases of the

same kind from 2008 to 2010. Shandong province has also included this as one part of

its 12th development plan.

However, it remains to be seen how effective this experiment in multifunctional

bases for teacher education is, particularly in-service teacher education, will be. To

develop distance teacher training, the role of provincial normal universities and

national normal universities will need to be continuously explored due to the situation

found by this study. First, national normal universities are heavily involved in various

education reform committees organized by the MOE, and therefore have the expertise

and academic authority to develop and optimize online courses for on-the-job training.

From course design to making the online courses really online and effective, there is

still a long way to go. There already are some interesting initiatives around this issue.

For example, the continuing education college of East China Normal University

established a Xuzhou Teachers’ Education Online Association to help the college to

supervise the training centers in Xuzhou City. Moreover, the college also adopted the

open-source platform model for teacher training (Ye, et. Al., 2009). Based on the

information provided by the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO 2004,

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“[S]chool networks of different scales and remote satellite signals have been

established in over 10,000 rural elementary and secondary schools” (Zhu, 2004, p.17).

Therefore, how to build on and make full use of what we already have needs more

serious thought.

At the same time, certain issues have to be taken into thorough consideration. For

example, can resources of various kinds be shared free of charge? Universities may

not want to share self-funded training materials with other potential competitors. If

there are not clear rules on issues such as this, associations such as online consortia

will not be effective.

What is the potential contribution of universities’ participation in in-service

teacher education to the transformation of Chinese teacher education?

Better fulfillment of the responsibilities of teacher education institutions

Based on the interview data, both university administrators and teacher educators

agree that universities especially normal universities, have the responsibility to

contribute to continuing teacher education. Professor Wang of Hebei Normal

University explained:

The ultimate goal of any educational institutions is to better serve the needs of our
students. For normal universities, which are primarily teacher training institutions,
the ultimate goal is to better serve their students-teachers. Not only when they are
at school but also, maybe more importantly, after they graduate.(Interview in
October, 2010)

Professor Lu of Shanxi Normal University commented from the perspective of

lifelong learning:

I completely agree that normal universities should extend their responsibility

further into the field of continuing teacher education. As we praise the concept of
lifelong learning in our initial teacher education curriculum, it would be
contradictory if we only limit our work to pre-service teacher education.
(Interview in March, 2011)
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Professor Jia of Beijing Normal University elaborated on her thoughts from the

perspective of educational reform:

Many of our teacher educators are heavily involved in the initial discussion of
major policy design. Many of us are the actual writers for the new basic education
curriculum. Therefore, to a certain degree, we are in the best position to explain
to teachers what the expectations or connotations involved and this work needs to
happen in the period of teacher continuing education. (Interview in November,
2010)

The department administrators interviewed also agree on further promoting this

work in universities but from a different angle. Director Zhang of Hebei Normal

University believes that:

The university will devote more energy and resources into teacher continuing
education, because it is now a policy priority of the central government and the
Hebei Education Department. It will certainly become a major responsibility as
we invest more in the future. (Interview in October, 2010)

Director Liu of Qufu Normal University commented that:

This work will take an important position in the university’s agenda as it could
diversify the financial resources of the university. It will become a major
responsibility of the normal university if the funding of such training programs
becomes systematic and stable. (Interview in October, 2010)

Director Wei of Beijing Normal University commented that:

The continuing education work of normal universities includes a lot more than
just teacher continuing education. In other words, continuing teacher education is
only part of our entire work arrangements. Our job priority changes as the
national policy changes. At present, the central government as well as many
provincial governments are investing heavily in teacher continuing education. For
normal universities, this is more than just taking a new responsibility. Rather, it
provides a new opportunity. Of course, it will eventually be a responsibility if the
current work is successfully integrated into the university structure in the future.
(Interview in November, 2010)

It seems that educators who are heavily involved in teaching hold the belief that it is

an ethical responsibility for them to do so. This is evidenced by the passion some of

the participants exhibited during the interviews. As Professor Li from Hebei Normal

University reflected and summarized her work:

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It is very hard and time-consuming work for me. So far, I did most of the work on
voluntary basis. But I have to admit, I quite enjoy it emotionally. (Interview in
October, 2010)

When transcribing and analyzing the interview data, it was quite easy to notice

sharp differences in the type of language teacher educators, universities administrators

and government people used in their discussion. While teacher educators often

connected this work with the actual training content (e.g. the new basic curriculum),

the administrators tended to tie this work more closely to external elements such as

policy and funding.

We need to ask, then, if continuing teacher education itself needs to be reformed

to match the future reorganized in-service teacher education structure? What kind of

new provisions could the Chinese normal universities offer in the future? To answer

these questions, we must look beyond the teacher training institutions themselves and

analyze the general education system with which the teacher training system is most

tightly connected. Problems emerge as the push for higher education institutions

participating in in-service teacher education continues. First, only including

universities in occasional teacher training projects cannot guarantee the continuity and

the quality of the programs in the long run. The involvement of normal universities in

in-service teacher education needs to be reflected in the structural aspects of teacher

education. This change will not only require structural and administrative change

inside universities. More importantly, it is directly linked with other aspects in the

development of the teaching profession including the teacher certification system,

how to relate regular teacher training with incentive mechanisms, etc. Without the

structural assurance, universities will be unlikely to devote considerable energy into

the field. Relying on temporary job assignments to certain departments or individuals

will disrupt the normal working state and cause great confusion among higher
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education institutions.

Potential impact on educational research

Experienced educators and researchers have long criticized the weakness of

educational research in universities (Allix, 2003) and called for fundamental changes

including “greater emphasis on a merging of theory and practice” and “qualitative

changes in the cognitive content of university course offering in education” (Mayhew,

1974, p. 24). An important theme emerging from the interview data is the potential

impact of this work on current research in education and teacher education in

particular. Enhancing the quality of teachers cannot be separated from research on

teachers. The present state of research on teaching in China is far from sufficient. In

the past ten years, Chinese teacher educators have introduced research done in

developed countries about teachers’ knowledge structures, effective professional

development programs, professional development schools, etc. Especially in recent

years, teachers’ reflective thinking and teacher researchers are among the most

frequently discussed topics in educational journals in China. Yet, the majority of

articles are theory-based. A lack of empirical evidence makes it hard to address the

real problems in Chinese schools. Teacher educators’ participation in various

continuing education activities offers an opportunity to fill this gap. Professor Wang

of Hebei Normal University reflected on his work and said:

My participation in this work changed my research interest. Now that I have more
opportunities to work with school teachers, through my own observation and the
questions asked by school teachers, I am able to find out what issues concern
them the most and which problem is more urgent. Therefore, I design my research
based on these aspects. This makes my research more practice-oriented and I get
more recognition from school teachers than before. I feel that my work in teacher
education is more meaningful. (Interview in October, 2010)

Professor Li of Hebei Normal University pointed out the connection between

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educational research and teacher professional training:

After I got involved in the work of in-service teacher training, I realized that the
current theoretical knowledge we, as university professors, hold as a privilege is
far more adequate when providing guidance and help to our teachers at school. In
other words, there are many aspects in which teachers desperately need help yet
we hardly did any research before. And this work changed my research direction.
This could be seen from my recent publications which are mostly based on work
with in-service teachers. (Interview in October, 2010)

Professor Zhao of Qufu Normal University suggested that:

As university teacher educators, when we sit in the local school classrooms, we

should also position ourselves as students, trying to figure out why I understand
part A but not B. What can help me understand part B? Believe me, this is a very
tiring but rewarding learning process. This new thinking path will provide a fresh
insight into our academic work. (Interview in October, 2010)

Professor Jia of Beijing Normal University talked about different types of research

work:

As normal universities form more connections with local schools, new types of
academic research work may emerge. For example, school-based research or
action research is believed to hold great potential in the future educational
knowledge base. (Interview in November, 2010)

These remarks reveal the powerful impact this work potentially has on university

research and teaching. This body of new knowledge could well fulfill what is missing

in the academic knowledge map. Also “Direct involvement becomes an important

methodological principle for those most affected by problems for which solutions are

sought” (Allix, 2003, p.14). However, this issue was raised mostly by teacher

educators while the administrators barely talked about research.

A better alignment between pre-service and in-service teacher education

One of the advantages of universities’ participation is it allows better alignment

between pre-service and in-service teacher education so that they can be more

consistent and avoid duplications. How to realize this alignment is a question that

puzzles Chinese teacher educators. Based on this study, the alignment could be

realized in two ways: the merging of the pre-service and in-service teacher education
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systems and more consistent curriculum, teaching methods and so on.

As discussed in the previous chapter, pre-service teacher education and in-service

teacher education are two independent systems in China. They both comprise three

levels. The pre-service system includes normal universities and vocational normal

universities, normal colleges and normal schools. The in-service system includes

provincial teacher training colleges, regional and municipal teacher training colleges,

and country-level teacher training schools governed by provincial and local

governments (Li, 1999).

The question is to what degree the integration between pre-service teacher

education and in-service teacher education requires the integration of these two

systems. Some cases in the data show the possibility of merging pre-service

institutions and in-service institutions. For example, Shanghai Teacher Training

School was merged into East China Normal University in 1998. The provincial

teacher training school of Liaoning was also merged into Liaoning Normal University.

As to whether this kind of integration is a success or not, people in the field hold quite

different views. Professor Zhao of Qufu Normal University commented on the case of

East China Normal University and said:

In my opinion, this is a quite extreme way of realizing the alignment between

pre-service and in-service teacher education. Normal universities tend to believe
we are more advanced than teacher training schools in many aspects; therefore it
is unreasonable for teacher training schools to provide further training for
teachers who have graduated from normal universities. That is the logic behind
the case like this. Technically, it could be a success. But in reality, they also have
a lot of problems. The biggest barrier is that teacher educators in normal
universities were not familiar with teacher training and many problems that could
happen during the teacher training. (Interview in October, 2010)

Professional Jia of Beijing Normal University elaborated on her understanding of

concerning this issue from a different angle:

Some may think the best way to integration is to start from the very top: the
Office of Teacher education and the Office of Basic Education under the MOE.
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Yet, it is not that simple, as the relationship between the two systems is
complicated more by the changes between central government and provincial
government in the decentralization reform since the mid 80s. Instead, the
integration could happen, and I believe it will happen in terms of curriculum
design, teaching pedagogy as well as the delivery approaches, as normal
universities get further involved in the work of in-service teacher education
through different means and thereby obtain a better understanding of teachers,
classrooms and local schools. Also, the responsibility of establishing a better
alignment between pre-service and in-service teacher education could mainly be
assumed by Chinese normal universities. (Interview in November, 2010)

While a more consistent curriculum, and teaching methods might be the goal of a

successful alignment, an effective integrated system would provide its fundamental

guarantee.

Conclusion

The study addressed two research questions. What efforts are normal universities

in China making in continuing teacher education? What are the factors that support or

inhibit normal universities in these endeavors? The whole study covered four major

aspects in different chapters: the overall organization of teacher professional

development; the current responsibilities of universities in providing teacher

professional development; the limitations and barriers perceived by administrators in

universities to extending and enriching the contribution to the field of teacher

professional development; and the potential of the university to contribute to the field

of teacher professional development in the future. 15 interviews were conducted for

the study. Participants include people from universities and governments. Documents

collected include recent teacher education reform brochures, application packages, etc.

The revised conceptual framework highlighted the importance of the policy context

for the current teacher continuing education work as well as for the participation of

normal universities. Although Chinese teacher education is moving from a closed,

separated system to an open and integrated one, normal universities remain the only
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higher education institutions that specialize in teacher education. Normal universities

are also the focus of the current reform policy calls for in-service teacher education.

The issue of how to better combine the tuition-free normal teacher education

programs with the purpose of serving basic education in a mutually beneficial way has

drawn considerable attention from normal university administrators and teacher

educators, and has been included in the institutional vision of many normal

universities. We have entered a new phase of development of in-service teacher

education in China. In this process, different forms of in-service professional

programs have been born, including the new in-service ME.D program for teachers

who graduated from tuition-free normal programs which will be implemented in the

near future. With the significant impact of national curriculum initiated in 1997,

normal universities are currently delivering many intensive and contract-based

training programs funded by the government. Yet, the issues concerning how to

systematize and stabilize this work remain critical and challenging for Chinese

researchers today.

The key task of universities is degree education. Non-degree training has been

included historically in the field of adult education and is in a marginal position in

Chinese universities. In recent years, the concept of non-degree training has become

increasingly important with the notion that universities need to provide life-long

learning opportunities for the whole society. Many Chinese universities have taken

this as a great opportunity for future development. Tsinghua university, Peking

university and People’s university all used their brands and teaching resources to

cooperate with a lot of organizations in various fields. Compared to comprehensive

universities, non-degree teacher training will be one of the most important types of

non-degree adult training normal universities need to carry out. At present, relevant
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policies are the main driver behind normal universities’ participation in the field of

in-service teacher education. The policy concerning waiving tuition fees for students

in teacher education, that started in 2007, is one of the most important policies for

starting this educational trend in China, as it is the beginning of many major teacher

education experiments in both pre-service and in-service teacher education. It was

particularly intended to encourage qualified students to enroll in these programs. Six

national normal universities were the implementers of this policy.

Curriculum reform is another important policy that has a great impact on

in-service teacher education. The recent curriculum reform was initiated in 1997 and

came into full implementation in 2005. Ever since, the central government has made it

a rule for in-service teachers to receive training before teaching the new curriculum.

In addition, policies concerning establishing M.Ed. programs for in-service teachers

started in the mid 90s. These programs usually combine on-campus and distance

education and take place during winter or summer vacation time. The “national

teacher training program” starting in 2010 made a special fiscal commitment to

enhancing the quality of teachers in China, particularly in rural areas. The purpose is

to send a clear policy signal, explore a direction for future in-service work and hold

exemplary teacher training programs for local government to follow. The“National

teacher training programs” could be seen as the first policy framework that put

different kinds of programs together.

Identifying barriers as well as enhancers for Chinese normal universities to

support in-service teacher education is another key purpose of this project. Funding as

a very important point came out in every conversation I had with the participants. The

current work of provincial governments and normal universities is largely due to the

great amount of funding that central government injected into this work over the last
 217

year. Yet, at the same time, insufficient funding overall still remains the major barrier

to delivering high quality in-service training for teachers in many places. Also, the

insufficient resources within the institutions prevent this work from further

developing. The programs normal universities offer including in-service MED

programs and non-regular teaching are all hosted during the summer or winter

vacation time. On one hand, this arrangement could ease the conflicts between work

and training. On the other hand, from the university’s perspective, only during this

time do normal universities could have classrooms, teachers and accommodations

available for the training.

Moreover, as shown by many examples discussed in the study, university experts

who have the experience, knowledge and passion are the key people behind this work.

In fact, involving key experts is one of the requirements for government funded

programs. Yet, the number of the experts is very small compared to the large teaching

force in China. Experts often feel overloaded with work coming from different places.

Also there are no effective incentives for educators in universities to commit to this

work, as participation in in-service teacher training program is not yet formally

included as part of the working responsibilities of university professors, and is not

connected to their salary and the other benefits. Take the “experimental school

project” in Hebei Normal University as an example. The project started formally as an

institutional practice, but is running in a very informal manner. This work is running

on a volunteer basis. University educators are participating in a variety of school

activities and offering help. The frequency of the work is negotiated between the

educators and the schools they are responsible for. They get no pay from the

university for this work, and work during their spare time. So the university won’t

even notice if they stop working. The only way for the institution to take account of
 218

their work is any publications they did produce during this process. This example

reflects very well the inadequacy of the reward system in Chinese universities.

What the study did not include but inspired me to ask is: Given the barriers is it

fair to ask the institutions to make the adjustments at present? Is the environment

mature enough for this work to happen? What are the problems that universities could

solve? What are the issues that need government action to make the major policy

connections? The comparative element with Ontario offered valuable experience for

the case of China. There is a tight connection between teacher certification,

continuing education courses and teacher benefits in the Ontario system. Teachers are

given a great amount of autonomy in selecting different courses from different

universities based on their own needs, which positions teachers as the ultimate

consumers in this market. At present, the major supporting policies of this kind do not

exist in China, therefore there is not a “market” yet for universities to respond to.

Other questions this study raised is whether it is practical for universities to offer

service for many schools, and whether the present university teacher educators are the

most suitable candidates for this job since it is highly unlikely that we could change

the reward system in a short time to accommodate this work. Is it possible to offer

one-to-one help? To what extent, could strategies of distance education and teacher

education bases be part of the solution to this question? In order to answer these

questions, we need to continue exploring approaches identified by this project when

they become more established.

The fact is that we cannot simply regulate in-service teacher education without

paying attention to various other aspects of teacher education reform. High quality

in-service teacher education needs to be successfully embedded in the overall teacher

education system, so that different parts can reinforce each other and form a virtuous
 219

cycle. The structure and organization of in-service teacher training in China needs to

and will go through significant changes. However, many specific questions need to be

given considerable thought before pushing the reform forward. The integration of

in-service teacher training into qualified normal universities has a long way to go.

Simply asking normal universities to participate in the field without systematically

reforming other aspects of teaching will certainly fail in the end. Sorting out the

relationship between the MOE and provincial education departments is fundamental

for the success of the reform.

At present, it seems that the decentralization efforts allow the central government

to cut off their responsibility for in-service teacher training, but the provincial

governments have not really taken over. This study’s interviews with people in the

government show that the old hierarchical working style still deeply influences the

provincial administrators. This explains all the actions the three provincial

governments have taken since the implementation of the “National Teacher Training

Program” and the temporary working state that the participants in normal universities

are currently going through. Also in the present situation, the normal universities are

less likely to take initiative to actively build networks with local schools. Compared to

the teaching force of 16 million in China, the benefits of the National Teacher

Training program are very limited. In fact, it is expected by the MOE that the National

Teacher Training Program will be a model for provincial governments to push

forward in-service teacher training (interview with MOE). Still, the responsibility of

funding in-service teacher training rests with the provincial level and large scale

centrally-funded in-service teacher training is unlikely to continue for years.

Systematic regulations concerning university-based continuing teacher education need

to be established before this program is ended by the MOE so as to achieve the hoped
 220

for impact. Otherwise, the influence of the program will likely fade away as soon as

the funding stops. Several suggestions could be considered.

First, further development of the teacher certification system and reform of

in-service teacher training should be considered together to reinforce each other.

Policy-driven in-service teacher training needs to be developed into part of the regular

teacher training system and regulated by a teacher certification system. Power to issue

advanced teacher training certification could be granted to normal universities as well

as other authorized teacher training institutions.

Second, normal universities could explore different ways of linking non-degree

teacher training with degree-based teacher training. For example, credits acquired in

intensive university-based teacher training programs could be used as credits for

part-time ME.D programs.

In addition, channels need to be formed to promote communication and resource

sharing regarding teacher professional development across the country. Research

work in teacher training materials and exemplary courses needs to be promoted and

shared. MOE and provincial governments should form nationwide and provincial data

bases to encourage high quality resource use and sharing. The selection of higher

teacher training institutions needs to be regulated and authorization procedure needs

to be set up in order to build in-service teacher training into the regular work of

universities.

Moreover, training for teacher educators needs to be strengthened at provincial

normal universities. A teacher educator database needs to be set up at both national

and provincial levels to encourage communication between different provinces and

communication between national and provincial level normal universities.

Despite many unexplored and unsolved issues in the current reform, the
 221

increasingly diverse methods and approaches of training programs signal a strong

desire for regulating, standardizing and monitoring the field and will certainly lead to

a growing trend of policy action in the near future.

Currently, in spite of the large investment, the actual beneficiaries of these

training programs constitute only a small percentage of the teaching force. Professor

Jia of Beijing Normal University predicts this type of special funding will continue at

least for another 10 years, if the government wants to extend the percentage of the

teaching force which participates in training and cover a decent number of in-service

teachers. She also supports the view that this problem could be eased as and if

distance in-service teacher education make progress. Yet, university-based in-service

teacher training programs will not be replaced by other means of delivery. She

continued to explain:

University-based face-to-face teacher training is a necessary training means, as

more reflective and systematic learning is more likely to happen on the university
campus and the university provides more resources, time and a much quieter
learning atmosphere. (Interview in November, 2010)

Many educational policy analysts have contended that “policy mandates are

rarely implemented the way they were intended and that this often results in the

failure of education policy” (Krainer, 1999, p.215). The first year implementation of

the National Teacher Training Program already poses more questions than answers for

Chinese educators and policy makers. It needs to be made clear at the beginning that

the purpose of this policy should be to set a standard for teacher training which

provincial governments should strive to attain in the future. The program itself is a

policy strategy adopted by the central government with the hope to make a policy call

and provide guidance for in-service teacher training. In the long run, provincial and

local governments at all levels still need to raise educational expenditure by various

means.
 222

Moreover, the national-level teacher training programs which are organized

differently by the MOE are only a small percentage of all programs. Provincial

educational authorities retain a considerable amount of power in the provision of

teacher training. This could potentially encourage variations among different

provinces, which at the same time also means the quality and the procedures under

this national program vary greatly from province to province.

Ms. Lan in the MOE explained:

Usually, official documents from the MOE are often advisory in nature. Local
governments could interpret them in different ways. Very often, we could find the
phrase ‘if local situation allows’ (Interview in December, 2010)

This means local variations are tolerated. The provincial government holds the power

of reviewing the program applications handed in by various institutions. There is no

systematic needs assessment or program evaluation. The provincial governments

decide which group of teachers will receive which in-service training program at

which institutions at what time. The evaluations after the training programs are

loosely organized from the perspective of the institutions; the training programs they

receive from the government are different every time. Feedback from teacher

candidates does not really mean a lot, as the chances are institutions will organize

their training for a completely different group of teachers on a completely different

topic next year. What the evaluation means to normal universities is probably building

up their reputation with the government so that they can receive more training

opportunities. Interestingly enough, from the perspective of the provincial

governments, on the one hand, they hold the power of selection. On the other hand,

there are limited institutions in each province from which they can choose. Therefore,

competition within a province does not necessarily exert much pressure on the

institutions to improve the quality of their programs. Whether the impact of a bidding
 223

procedure promoted by the central government will remain the same at the provincial

level also deserves further thought.

In conclusion, better implementation of teacher professional education in the

future requires more relevant legislation, greater awareness and expectations of

teachers and school administrators for continuing education work, provision of

guidance for school leaders and provincial administrators, an adherence to time

frames in local schools, increased funding available not only at the MOE level but

also at the provincial level, a standardized operational system in schools, greater

transparency in the operating procedures, and linkage between continuing education

and teacher career advancement, reward and future teacher recertification processes.

Professor Lu of Shanxi Normal University put it in the following words:

I guess to say this current national approach to teacher continuing education in

China is a laissez-faire approach is not fair, because the government did a huge
amount of work to ensure its implementation. It’s just still in a very very early
stage of the whole process. There is no doubt that this change is going to be an
evolutionary one, but we have to wait and see whether it is going to be a success
or not. (Interview in March, 2011)

Also, the current situation of in-service teacher education in China brings to mind

the question of whether we can continue to expand and use a relatively standardized

model to think about the work in different provinces. Krainer (1999) suggested that

the overall improvement of teaching quality is not only a function of the individual

teacher’s professional growth, but a function of the structure and administration of the

whole region. However, because of the tentative nature of the administrative

structures normal universities are trying to build up, it is challenging to provide a clear

and accurate picture concerning the paths normal universities are taking and the

degree to which they are involved in this work. As Professor Jia of Beijing Normal

University commented:

The ways normal universities participate in in-service teacher education,

 224

especially non-degree teacher training funded by the central government, vary

from university to university due to many complicated reasons. Normal
universities do not have a clear mind concerning where this work is going.
Everything is in a process of changing at present. (Interview in November, 2010)

There is little sign of collaboration between different providers because most of

the training programs are initiated by the government, not the various providers, and

the government plays the role of soliciting information to determine priorities when

planning teacher training. Normal universities will bear more competitive pressure as

teacher education in China gradually evolves into an open system and they play a

major role in the formation of a teacher continuing training system formally and

informally. They can take on the job of integrating pre-service and in-service teacher

education in China because they are more sensitive in terms of the consistency of

material used in the in-service teacher training, problems addressed in pre-service

programs, etc. The universities also have great potential to address the concerns of

teachers given the same training subject through fresh content and ways of delivery.

The work of normal universities is characterized by their nature, structure,

decision-making processes, and ability to adapt to change. Initiatives in reforming

their organizational structure along with engaging in the work of in-service teacher

education are in their early stages of design, and much work is still to be done. More

attention needs to be given to issues such as the nature of evaluation and reward for

professors, whether or not the training content is mandatory, and the role of schools as

well as the interaction between schools and universities. These issues are not only

crucial for large-scale teacher change, but also have important effects on teacher

educators and university researchers who promote this change.

As the need to give teachers basic qualifications is being met and the new basic

education curriculum is being implemented, a huge demand for in-service teacher

training is already emerging. The 2010 national teacher training program is an

 225

unprecedented move taken by the central government signaling the importance of this

work in the future. A large amount of investment clashing with a huge demand is

bound to trigger a big reaction. This reaction is hardly in a stable or regular state

currently. Whether China will harvest success or cultivate a more efficient in-service

teacher education system and whether the concerted efforts made by normal

universities and the governments will have a positive impact on classroom practices

remains to be seen.

Recommendations for further study

The call for normal universities to play a strong and major role in continuing

teacher education in China is growing stronger. And the exploration of how to achieve

this goal is gaining great importance. As an early effort to investigate the role of

normal universities in in-service teacher education in China, based upon data

collected from four normal universities in four provinces and regions in China, the

study presents an overall picture of in-service teacher education work in relation to

normal universities, identifies major issues regarding this educational change

phenomenon in China and lays a foundation for further research. Future studies could

be designed to expand different aspects including:

 Internal administrative and institutional reform of Chinese normal universities at

present;

 The relationship between teacher certification system and in-service teacher

training;

 Case studies concerning integration between teacher training institutions of

different levels and how it influences the work of universities in effectively

participating in teacher professional development;

 226

 Effective online resource sharing strategies for in-service teacher education as

well as the power allocation between governments and normal universities in

running the databases;

 How to build up effective evaluation procedures for in-service teacher training.

Although the impact of the new curriculum reform was identified, what

challenges the new curriculum poses to teacher educators in normal universities

requires further exploring.

In addition, as most of the university-based teacher training programs are

designed for backbone teachers in China, future investigators could research in depth

the view and understanding of backbone teachers in Chinese primary and secondary

schools.

Moreover, the enthusiasm showed by some of the participants in this study for the

work of better serving basic education and their willingness to volunteer their time

and energy reflect the traditional cultural spirit of Chinese teachers. Although the

discussion of this point is beyond the focus of this study, it is definitely worth further

research.
 227

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Appendix A: Interview questions with university administrators and teacher

educators

The study in which you are participating is focused on understanding the multiple
ways in which universities could fit into and share the responsibilities in teacher
professional education including potential roles, current efforts, incentives or barriers.
The concept of teacher professional education in this study is used synonymously
with teacher professional development, continuing teacher education, in-service
teacher education, staff development or training which covers a wide range of forms
and characteristics of provision after initial teacher education.
1. Is teacher professional education a priority in your institution right now?
2. Does your institution have an overall strategy or framework for engaging in
teacher professional education? Or are the various activities largely independent?
Are they coordinated? Or prioritized? If so, how?
3. Are there any policy mandates/ encouragements/specific funding for your
institution to participate in teacher professional education? For example from
various levels of government…
4. The literature suggests several possible practices universities can do to provide
teacher professional education including teacher professional schools,
university-school partnerships, collaborative research, workshops, providing
courses for certain certificates or graduate programs.
a) Is your institution involved in any type of teacher professional education at present?
b) What are the major programs or activities?
c) How many teachers are involved?
d) How is it organized and financed?
5. What is the purpose of different programs or activities?
6. For formal programs, what are the specific changes made to make them more
relevant to in-service teachers? (e.g. specific measure taken to understand
teacher’s PD needs?; short courses?; making them more accessible for teachers?)
7. Besides formal programs, what are the major projects going on in your institution?
How are these projects funded? Who is in charge of them?
8. Are there any personnel or departments especially responsible for organizing or
reforming teacher professional education in your institution?
9. Is there a continuing education department in your institution? What are its main
 256

responsibilities? What kind of PD work does it offer?

10. What are the connection between the continuing education department and other
education departments regarding organizing and delivering PD work?
11. What is the major funding source for teacher professional education work at your
institution?
12. Do you feel a lack of resources is a major barrier for your university to promote
teacher professional education? How about the promotion system in your
institution? What is the institutional structure in terms of how different disciplines
are organized? Are there any other main difficulties your institution is facing right
now in the work of teacher professional education?
13. What is the future plan/direction for your institution in the field of teacher
professional education?
14. If you could get additional support from other agencies in education, what do you
think that should happen?
15. What are the major changes for your institution in the field of teacher
professional education in the past ten years? What are the key drivers for these
changes? (Are there any measures taken to align pre-service and in-service
teacher education?)
16. What are your major concerns for the university’s participation in teacher
professional education in the future?
End of interview
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Appendix B: Interview questions with administrators in the Ontario Ministry of

Education

My study looks at universities’ participation in teacher professional development

and related issues. The study mainly focuses on China but I want to incorporate
Ontario as a comparative element. So I want to collect more information about the
Ontario system for in-service teacher education.
1. Is there a formally existing provincial system for continuing teacher education?
What are the major stakeholders in the system? (Ministry of Education, faculties of
education, professional organizations, federations, and subject associations) What are
the relationships among them? (How do they relate to the Ministry?) What is the role
of the Ministry in this system?
2. What are the major policy initiatives directly or indirectly influencing in-service
teacher education in Ontario in the past decade?
3. Is there any support provided for teacher professional development during a time of
strong provincial pressure for an increased focus upon literacy, numeracy, and
improvements in standardized test scores in elementary schools in Ontario?
4. To what extent, can school teachers choose continuing teacher education based
upon their professional needs? What benefits can teachers in Ontario get from
participating in-service teacher education activities?
5. What place does the university take in the system of continuing teacher education?
How does it relate to the provincial Ministry of Education?
6. Are there any alignments between pre-service and in-service teacher education in
Ontario? What, in your opinion, is the role of universities in forming the alignment?
7. What are the major dilemmas or conflicts in promoting teacher professional
education in Ontario from a policy perspective?
8. Are there any market mechanisms used in the field of continuing teacher education?
(Could you give me an example of a recent PD project funded by the Ministry? And
also when it comes to project-based funding, are there any formal evaluation
procedures for institutions which want to apply?
9. How could universities better contribute to in-service teacher education? What are
your expectations for universities’ involvement in continuing teacher education in the
future?
End of interview
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Appendix C: Interview questions with administrators at the Ontario College of

Teachers

My study looks at universities’ participation in teacher professional development

and related issues. The study mainly focuses on China but I want to incorporate
Ontario as a comparative element. So I want to collect more information about the
Ontario system for in-service teacher education.

1. Is there a formally existing system for in-service teacher education in Ontario?

What is the role of the Ontario College of Teachers in the system of in-service teacher
education? How does it relate to the Ministry of Education?
2. What are the major efforts by the College to promote in-service teacher education
in Ontario in the past ten years? What are the ongoing learning opportunities that it
provides to teachers?
3. Where does the funding come from for the work promoted by the Ontario College
of Teachers? Does the Ministry make money available to the College?
4. To what extent can school teachers choose continuing teacher education based upon
their professional needs? What benefits can teachers in Ontario get from pursuing
in-service teacher education?
5. Is there any alignment between pre-service and in-service teacher education in
Ontario? What is the role of the College in building this alignment? Is in-service
teacher education mandatory for renewing teacher certificate in Ontario?
6. In your opinion, what are the major problems in the field of in-service teacher
education in Ontario? Do you feel that maybe there is too much emphasis on
conventional degrees and diplomas in the current system?
7. How could universities better contribute to in-service teacher education? What are
your expectations for universities’ involvement in continuing teacher education in the
future?
End of interview