Abstract
A narrative inquiry was performed with high school teachers to learn about their experiences in the ongoing curriculum reform in China. Teachers were found to live within tensions between the expectations of the curriculum reform and their personal practical knowledge (Tension I), as well as the demands of curriculum reform and the high-stakes testing plotline (Tension II). Teachers’ personal practical knowledge rather than knowledge for teachers should become the starting point of teacher education. Moreover, cooperation could be a powerful method for teachers to work together to make curriculum and to deal with the interrelated tensions.
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Notes
- 1.
For ethical consideration, all the names of the participants in this paper are pseudonymous.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my appreciation to professor Jean Clandinin and Sandra Jack-Malik, Ph.D., candidate at the Centre for Research for Teacher Education and Development, University of Alberta. They helped me bring this paper to fruition. I would also like to express appreciation to all of the participants and the staff at Z school as well as to all who have helped me.
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Ju, Y. (2013). Living Within the Tensions: A Narrative Inquiry into Teachers’ Personal Practical Knowledge in the Midst of Chinese Curriculum Reform. In: Zhu, X., Zeichner, K. (eds) Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century. New Frontiers of Educational Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36970-4_21
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