Rural adult schools, implemented by Community Learning Centers (CLCs) as part of the Capacity Building Project, face inadequate and irregular funding in China. Moreover, these schools lack technical guidelines for project implementation, posing additional challenges. This study employed the "entrepreneurship-impact" matrix conceptual…

This article reflects on the meanings of comparing and contrasting in international and comparative education, using two education utopias as case studies. It is inspired by our visits to schools in rural China and Finland and by our interest in issues of social justice, equality/equity. The article also discusses the meanings of the fashionable…

The research literature indicates that self-regulated learning can strengthen teacher agency in taking charge of their own learning and teaching, which is important when teachers encounter difficulties or challenges due to the requirements of educational and curriculum reform. This study explores how professional teacher development training…

This paper reports on an emerging type of international school, which we refer to as the Chinese internationalized school. This school caters to Chinese citizens and aspires to offer a fusion of national and international curricula. The majority of internationalized schools in China are to be found in large metropolitan centers. Accordingly, the…

This study examined if and how the learning-centred leadership of rural school principals in China impacted teachers' trust and agency, as well as their engagement in professional learning. In contrast to prior research, however, this mixed methods study sought to illuminate the impact of ineffective leadership on teachers and school improvement.…

With Shaanxi province as an example, this study presents empirical evidence on the effect of primary school consolidation in rural areas on student achievement, using the difference-in-differences method. The results show no significant differences in student achievement between consolidated schools and nonconsolidated schools. If student…

This case study contributes to counterpoints made to world culture theory and underscores that at the micro, classroom-level, rural Chinese teachers in a reform-oriented professional development course, and reform-oriented U.S. teacher trainers, understand educational reform, and the realities of education in these two cultures, very differently.…

The promotion of educational equity and improvement of educational quality in China are contextualised in tenets of Confucianism and policy directives, inspiring educational research and practice. In this paper, we first explore the historical and cultural roots of educational equity and quality through Confucianism and elaborate on the current…

Much educational effectiveness research has been conducted over the past 40 years in developed countries, whereas few studies have focused on developing or newly industrialized countries such as the People's Republic of China. The case studies discussed in this article are part of a larger multiple-case, mixed-methods study that investigated 6…

This case study consisted of an examination of the perspectives of students, teachers, and administrators at the Shuangling Primary School, a rural Chinese school in Shaanxi Province, as they relate to themes of China's most recent curricular reform efforts. The intent was to understand these perspectives and determine how to best assist teachers…

This study looks at how teachers are prepared for rural contexts in China with a focus on the representation of the countryside in teacher preparation. Drawing upon the concept of the rural as social representations of space, an ecological approach to learning to teach, and the notion of curriculum as value-laden and political in terms of both…

Mother tongue education in separate schools has been in the norm for several of China's large minorities since 1949. In recent years, however, the shift in minority parental demand, media focus on low educational outcomes of mother tongue education combined with government concerns about separatism have led to the development of mixed schools for…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, it provides an overview of the demand, capacity and challenges of teacher education in China. Second, it highlights the significant contributions of China Central Radio and TV University (CCRTVU) to teacher education in the last three decades. Finally, it discusses challenges and issues for…

Early childhood education has developed greatly in rural areas in China since the 1980s. Recognising the status of early childhood education as "the foundation of basic education", the authorities in China have set up challenging objectives for rural areas. However, the development of early childhood education in these areas has been…

Mainland China has a highly centralised curriculum development system. A study of two schools in northeast China, one in a rural area and the other in an urban area, indicates that the primary mathematics curriculum has been widely adopted by teachers at the classroom level. Feeling the intense pressure generated by the national mathematics…