Abstract
As introduced in Chap. 5, the sociopolitical and cultural confluence in a given institution comes to play key roles in the success or failure of the implementation of a policy (Van Meter & Van Horn, 1975, p. 474). To fully assemble the implementation jigsaw of China’s policy of teacher education reform, this chapter investigates such other complex pieces as YNU’s major institutional barriers, including unfavorable factors, most of which are embedded in the Chinese sociopolitical and cultural context, represented by Confucianism, and studies their confluence with other national policy actions which have profoundly affected the outcomes of YNU’s implementation of the national policy of teacher education reform.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
Literally, Zhong means central, proper, right, or just and Yong carries the meaning of ordinary, mediocre, pragmatic, or universal (See: Ku, 1906, p. 7). Please also refer to “Final Remarks: A Chinese Zhong-Yong Model of Policy Implementation” in the last chapter.
- 4.
The income of professors in China usually includes fixed, monthly paid salaries solely from government budgets and performance-based subsidies mainly generated from various training programs by individual universities. The latter often accounts for up to 50 % of staff’s individual income (please also refer to Footnote 2 in Chap. 8, p. 163).
- 5.
Yamen was an administration building in ancient China and typically refers to the office or residence of a county magistrate. The term is still commonly used nowadays as a symbolic connotation referring to the officials’ or administrators’ dominant political and economic power in Chinese sociopolitical life.
- 6.
In addition to regular salaries from government budget, Gangwei Jintie is commonly an additional regular income in most public HEIs in China. Gangwei Jintie is generally extra subsidies earned through various self-funded programs by an institution and is allocated to its contributors according to their corresponding positions. Most HEIs in China have provided Gangwei Jintie to both administrators and professors, except for those like YNU, which only provides Gangwei Jintie to its leaders and administrators, instead of its faculty members. YNU’s professors have to earn their bonus by teaching additional courses or receiving research grants.
- 7.
Since 1994, the nationwide NEBPP has been compulsory and its results are publicized on the MOE’s official website every time an evaluation is completed. Each university has to make every effort possible in order to earn and maintain a decent standing. Please refer to the third section in this chapter.
- 8.
In China teachers used to be recruited from graduates of TEIs such as normal universities, but now teaching jobs are opened to graduates from all types of HEIs, as long as they are able to earn their teaching certificates.
- 9.
Under the central planning system in the 1980s, China’s schools and universities were hierarchically categorized into different groups to recruit new students from the pool of qualified high school graduates, based on students’ different academic achievements as measured by the NCEE. The first recruitment category usually meant that key schools and universities had the priority to recruit new students with the highest academic NCEE achievement. The second recruitment category meant that ordinary or non-key schools and universities recruited their new students after the most qualified high school graduates were taken by the first group. To guarantee the quality of teacher education, normal schools and universities have generally been given the privilege of the first recruitment category to recruit new students. About the key school system in China, please refer to Footnote 8 in Chap. 2 (pp. 31–32).
- 10.
For more information about the NEBPP, please refer to the Higher Education Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Education: http://www.heec.edu.cn/en/index.jsp
- 11.
- 12.
It was used as a measure by the central government to expand parents’ investment in higher education during a time of economic deflation in the late 1990s. For more details, please refer to Li and Lin (2008). China’s move to mass higher education: A policy analysis of policy making from a rational framework. In D. P. Baker, & A. W. Wiseman (Eds.), International perspectives on education and society: The worldwide transformation of higher education (269–295). Bingley: Emerald Publishing; and Hayhoe et al. (2011). Portraits of 21st century Chinese universities: In the move to mass higher education. Dordrecht & HK: Springer/CERC.
- 13.
Since 2014, the Chinese government has decided to fundamentally reform the NCEE, but its claimed positive outcomes still need time to be examined.
- 14.
The “model of county high schools,” termed by Prof. Ouying, referred to schools that have limited financial and teaching resources than key schools. With limited funds and teaching support, county high schools generally have to heavily rely on harder efforts of teachers and students to catch up similar or higher promotion rates of graduates with key high schools. Mostly often, these harder efforts include many more learning and teaching hours, more rigid disciplines, and more intense test-skill training, by sacrificing students’ social studies, group activities, and community involvements. About the key school system in China, please refer to Footnote 8 in Chap. 2 (pp. 31–32).
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Li, J. (2016). The Sociopolitical and Cultural Confluence: A Complex Jigsaw. In: Quest for World-Class Teacher Education?. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 34. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0837-5_9
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