Understanding the Professional Agency of Female Language Teachers in a Chinese University

Understanding the Professional Agency of Female Language Teachers in a Chinese University

Author: Xiaolei Ruan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-30

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1000523675

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Centering on a qualitative study of three female English teachers in Shanghai, China, the book explores female language teachers' perceived discrepancies and agency exercised in their teaching, research and teacher learning practices. By adopting multiple research methods, such as narrative questionnaire, metaphor, timeline, interview and classroom observation, this study reveals that female language teachers’ agency is a dynamic entity manifested in the ongoing negotiation of agency belief, agency practice, and agency inclination, as well as the interaction of individual and the environment. Though there are certain limitations concerning representativeness and generalizability, the author provides a thick description of how female language teachers in China are exercising agency to fulfill their career development, which offers insightful suggestions to language education in both China and broader areas globally. The book will appeal to researchers studying teacher education and foreign (English) language teaching, university teachers, especially female foreign language teachers, PhD students and graduate students, as well as career women.


Children’s Museums as a New Informal Learning Environment in China

Children’s Museums as a New Informal Learning Environment in China

Author: Xin Gong

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-03-16

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1000545814

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Based on solid theoretical and empirical analyses, this book provides a first and fresh introduction to the recent development of children’s museums in China, along with their educational and social impacts as an informal learning environment for children, families, and society in general. To understand the benefits of children’s museums and in providing stimulating, informal education to children, the book looks into the origin and historical development of these institutions and how they have been influenced by informal learning theory, museum education, and early childhood education while providing case studies of children’s museums in China and the learning that takes place in them. This research analyses the process of informal learning and provides guidance on ways of elevating children’s cognitive and noncognitive development in the informal space. Different stakeholders of children's museums, including parents and educators, practitioners and designers, researchers of informal education, early childhood education, and policy makers will benefit from the insights provided in this book.


Embracing the New Two-Child Policy Era

Embracing the New Two-Child Policy Era

Author: Xiumin Hong

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-05-04

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 100056973X

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Crafted from a research project that lasted for three years, this book examines the impacts of China’s universal two-child policy under the lens of education and focuses specifically on early childhood. This book not only provides number projection, but also the prediction and judgment of the supply and demand of service resources in early childhood education. It attempts to reveal the attitudes and views of families and stakeholders on the universal two-child policy and present the public's policy requirements for the quality of early childhood education. In addition, it analyses possible problems and challenges in current kindergarten layouts and resources allocation. Lastly, it aims to provide references and bases for formulating the plan that adapts to changes of Chinese preschoolers, supply guarantee of future early childhood education and the construction of public service system. Offering rich insights into the current and future status of education in China, this text will be of interest to students, scholars, and researchers of sociology, early childhood education, contemporary China studies, East Asian educational practices and policy.


Migration and Educational Policymaking in China

Migration and Educational Policymaking in China

Author: Hui Yu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-07-21

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1000606805

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By concentrating on the topic of school enrolment policy for rural-to-urban migrant children in China, this book analyses the unequal power relations and structural inequalities that can appear in the context of education. The author complements current knowledge by applying theoretical resources of policy sociology, in particular the thinking of Pierre Bourdieu, into analysis of educational policymaking in the Chinese context. He takes a policy trajectory approach to trace the (unequal) power relations and structural inequalities invested and realised in the school enrolment policy. Rooted in rich qualitative data from five metropolises, he examines both external influences of politics, economy and public policy on educational policy agenda setting and discursive practices within the educational policy cycle, inherent in the post-2013 restrictive school enrolment policy. Structural constraints and agency in the local context are also explored, indicating that the intersectional effects of political, economic, and civic logic can result in differentiated modes of policy enactment. The study will be of interest to scholars, students, policymakers and practitioners in helping address policymaking and social justice in education for migrants and other marginalised groups.


Deeper Learning

Deeper Learning

Author: Hang Hu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-04-19

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 1000567893

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Integrating brain science, cognitive psychology, education and information technology, the books studies how technology has promoted deeper learning on mathematics in Chinese primary schools. After introducing the theoretical basis, connotation and mechanism of deeper learning, the author fully explains its practice, including the composition of deeper learning teaching content, the development of digital resources, classroom teaching technology and teachers' professional development of deeper learning. He especially adopts multiple and interdisciplinary research methods, such as deeper learning "triangle evidence" paradigm, learning brain observation, education big data analysis, artificial intelligence education analysis, education action, and qualitative and quantitative research. On one hand, the book will give researchers of learning theory and pedagogy an in-depth understanding of what deeper learning is and why it provides a systematic theoretical system; on the other hand, it will also provide school practitioners with operational methods and cases to learn from.


Research on Investment Scale and Allocation Structure of Chinese Higher Education Finance

Research on Investment Scale and Allocation Structure of Chinese Higher Education Finance

Author: Yongmei Hu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-31

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 100053362X

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Based on a systematic literature review, the book aims to forecast the investment scale of Chinese higher education and the allocation structure of different types of higher education institutions in the next decade. The authors first introduce the complex setting of Chinese higher education finance, including the background and theoretical foundation, as well as an in-depth literature review. Via international comparative data, they explore the adequacy and equity of the financial resources. By applying quantitative methods, such as panel data analysis and time series analysis, they forecast the public investment scale in higher education and the allocation structure and proportion among different types of higher education institutions. In addition, the book investigates the standards of teaching funding and teacher research funding, which are considered the main funding resources of Chinese universities and individual teachers. As China has become the world’s largest country of higher education, "how to provide adequate and equal funds to meet the increasing demand" is of great interest to scholars and policymakers both from China and abroad. The book will also appeal to postgraduate students who would like to know the overall status of Chinese higher education finance.


Elasticity and Toughness

Elasticity and Toughness

Author: Feng Wei

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2021-12-30

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 100052079X

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This book examines minban teacher policies and their implementation in China between 1949 and 2000, when rural areas were in severe shortage of qualified teachers. During this period of time, minban teachers made great contributions to education, doing the same work as state-employed school teachers while receiving much lower salaries due to non-official status. With solid fieldwork on oral history of minban teachers and policy actors and deep examination of a wealth of policy documents in private and governmental archives, the author records the life history of minban teachers, the process of minban teacher policies, and the interaction between policies and individual strategies in M county (pseudonym), located in northern Jiangsu province of China. The book reveals many interesting and sometimes surprising findings about the characteristics of educational policy implementation in China. While China’s minban teacher policies have come to an end, rural education continues to be a major concern of policymakers and researchers alike. The book is an important piece of scholarship for the readers interested in rural education in China, and in how state, society, and culture interact to influence teacher policies and management in the Chinese context.


Investment and Interventions to Improve the Quality of Education Systems

Investment and Interventions to Improve the Quality of Education Systems

Author: Jin Chi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-28

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 1000514498

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Quality improvement is a major current goal of Education in China and this will be achieved through overall quality improvement of the education system as a whole, a situation that is also the case across the world. Deploying a cost-benefit analysis and multidisciplinary perspectives from education, economics, neurocognition, gender studies, child development, and international development, this book presents a range of critical interventions in education development and investment that have proven to be effective in many countries around the world. The book draws on theoretical and practical experience in the field of education investment and analyses key issues in China's early childhood education, early reading, girls' education, brain science application in international education, small-scale schools in low income areas and teacher education. Students and scholars of education and development and Chinese education will benefit from this title.


Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign or Second Language: The Educational Psychology Perspective

Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign or Second Language: The Educational Psychology Perspective

Author: Yang Frank Gong

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2024-02-21

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 2832545084

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Over the past two decades, Chinese as a foreign or second language (CFL/CSL) has been increasingly taught and learnt as an important language both within and outside China. Studies in the field have attempted to address deep-seated tensions between existing educational ideologies, concepts, strategies, and approaches and student learning process and performance, and between existent teaching methods and techniques and the globalization of Chinese language education.


Language Teacher Agency

Language Teacher Agency

Author: Jian Tao

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-11-18

Total Pages: 115

ISBN-13: 1108912575

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This Element aims to elucidate the concept of language teacher agency by exploring the 'what' question, offering major conceptualisations of agency and explaining how they shape the way we approach teacher agency. The authors then continue with the 'why' question, and elaborate on the reasons that language teacher agency matters, based on a discussion of the varied purposes of teacher agency at multiple levels. They also acknowledge that teacher agency does not operate alone, and discuss how it intersects with such concepts as teacher identity, emotion, belief and knowledge. Based on this, they identify ways to promote teacher agency through making changes to contexts and/or actors. They then introduce the concept of collective agency and propose a multi-layered model based on an illustrative study. The Element ends with a call for a trans-perspective on understanding language teacher agency so as to facilitate the professional development of language teachers.