Over the past 50 years, China's initial teacher education (ITE) system has undergone significant changes and improvements. To review and reflect on these experiences, we construct a multi-level, context-specific conceptualisation of ITE professionalisation. Guided by this framework, we segment the history of ITE professionalisation into three…

Western play theories and practices have had a dominant role in creating China's current discursive condition for preschool play. They are also essential to current knowledge production about play. However, this dominance tends to be transferred into rural preschools, which have recently mushroomed and demanded play activities. The authors reflect…

The problems China's rural-born migrants face in accessing urban public services, including education, are widely known. This article analyses how official discourse attributes migrant children's vulnerability to their 'problematic family background' while exhorting them to show 'gratitude' to a benevolent state. Combining documentary analysis and…

At the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, the party put forward the 14th five year plan and the long-term goal of 2035, it put forward that we should not only give priority to the development of agriculture and rural areas and comprehensively promote rural revitalization, but also strive to build an educational power, improve…

Since the restoration of the "Gaokao" (College Entrance Examination) in 1977 and the nationwide higher education expansion that started in 1998, millions of rural students have enrolled in urban universities. Though Chinese rural students' educational trajectories have received extensive attention, their subjective experiences in the…

Preparing today's children and youth to become active, responsive adults in transforming global societies requires that schools change dramatically. To work towards this goal is daunting in light of educational policies and school structures that hinder teamwork and creativity. Despite challenges due to education policies, traditional school…

This paper reports findings from a comparative study of urban vs. rural school principals in China. It is an extension and replication of an earlier study on the profiles and preparation of school leaders in the US and China. The study illustrates modern portraits--demographic characteristics of urban and rural principals in China, explores their…

Comprehensively improving the quality of education in resource-poor areas is an urgent challenge to achieve balanced development of basic education in China. In the process of educational development in resource-lacking areas, information technology has: (1) changed the traditional teaching mode and teaching environment, (2) provided high-quality…

This paper adopts an inductive analytical approach to reviewing the major state policies to reform teacher education in China. Based on the perceived impact on teachers and teacher education, 21 policy documents have been selected for this review. Five themes emerge in the analysis, which include: Expansion of teacher education by institutional…

The "county high school phenomenon" of Chinese rural high school education to pursue higher education has attracted much attention from the education field and society. Earlier studies were mostly from the perspective of education and believed that the "county high school education model" was contrary to education's essence…

In 1998, the People's Republic of China implemented an education policy, the "School Consolidation Policy", which entailed merging small rural schools with larger ones. It has had a massive effect on rural people across China, and as a result of it, over 60% of schools in outlying areas have closed. The policy's implementation and…

Superiority in developing students' listening, speaking, etc. This thesis explores how to provide a better environment for English teaching in rural junior school with the aid of multimedia and find some ways to improve teaching efficiency. In recent years, using multimedia is the direction of reform and mainstream in English teaching. Compared…

Based on research involving 177 primary and secondary schools spread over thirty-eight counties in six provinces (including one autonomous region), this article explores and analyzes four modes used in rural school consolidation in China. These four modes are: complete amalgamation, annexation, crossover, and centralization-decentralization.

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…

Rural school consolidation has significantly changed the landscape of rural education in China. Based on a study carried out in nine provinces, this article analyzes the effect of this policy initiative. It has led to increased school dropout rates in rural schools.