Abstract
During the past 20 years, Chinese education has well developed and thrived. It not only achieved Education for All but also demonstrated outstanding systematic quality in the PISA results. However, the uneven development between rural and urban education still remains distinct, and solving this problem relates to equity and social justice. This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive review of how social justice has been conceptualized in academic research and what is the specifically multicultural context around Chinese education. Based on the further review of different ways of government and the third part of social organizations improving society, we focus a specific case of alternative teacher program (TFC) to embody our discussion about operationalization of social justice in education. An integrated framework of understanding social justice as distribution, relationship, and capacity has been applied to guide the analysis.
The chapter has identified a congruent trend of considering social justice in Chinese education, i.e., first from social justice as distribution as the easiest and the most obvious path and then from social justice as relationship and capacity as the latent route. An analysis is followed to examine why relationship and capacity are not easy to achieve in the Chinese context.
Finally the chapter draws in conclusion of what is the real potential and hard to do when we operationalize the beautiful pursuit of social justice by strength of teachers. Implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Apple, M. W. (2006). Educating the “right” way: Markets, standards, god, and inequality. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor & Francis.
Ball, D. L., & Forzani, F. M. (2009). The work of teaching and the challenge for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(5), 497–511.
Ball, S. J. (2007). Education plc: Understanding private sector participation in public sector education. London, England: Routledge.
Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. C. (1990). Reproduction in education, society and culture (Vol. 4). London, England: Sage.
Cheng, T., & Wang, H. (2014). From “going to the countryside” to “moving up and down”: The rise and fall of rural primary schools. Education Academic Journal, 8, 1–12.
Cheng, Y., & Chen, J. (2010). Experience and enlightenment: The development of civil society organizations in Hong Kong. Learning and Theory, 1, 111–118.
Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 94–120. https://doi.org/10.1086/228943
Cuervo, H. (2012). Understanding social justice in rural education. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cummings, W. K., & Williams, J. (2005). International development models for educational reform. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 25(2), 125–143.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The flat world and education: How America’s commitment to equity will determine our future. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Darling-Hammond, L., & Baratz-Snowden, J. (2007). A good teacher in every classroom: Preparing the highly qualified teachers our children deserve. Educational Horizons, 85, 111–132.
Deng, G. (2010). The relationship between government and NGO: The direction and path of reform. China Administrative Management, 4(1), 32–35.
Du, Y. (2013). Definition of rural education and its development trend. Journal of South China Normal University: Social Science Edition, 1.
Fan, X. (2005). Problems and countermeasures facing rural “left-behind children” education. Journal of National Education Institute of Administration, 7, 78–84.
Fan, X. (2008). Survey analysis and policy recommendations on education fairness in rural “left-behind children”. Journal of Education Science, Hunan Normal University, 6, 11–17.
Fan, X. (2010). County education equilibrium: The basis for the balanced development of national education. Jiangsu Education: Education Management, 6, 1–1.
Fan, X., & Zhu, S. (2010). Reform and improvement of finance system of rural compulsory education in China since the 21st century. Journal of Hebei Normal University: Education Scientific Edition, 5.
Feiman-Nemser, S. (2001). From preparation to practice: Designing a continuum to strengthen and sustain teaching. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 1013–1055.
Fraser, N. (1995). From redistribution to recognition? Dilemmas of justice in a ‘post-socialist’ age. New Left Review, 212, 68.
Fraser, N. (2009). Scales of justice: Reimagining political space in a globalizing world. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Gale, T., & Densmore, K. (2000). Just schooling: Explorations in the cultural politics of teaching. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Geertz, C. (2002). Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture. Culture: Critical Concepts in Sociology, 173.
Grossman, P., & McDonald, M. (2008). Back to the future: Directions for research in teaching and teacher education. American Educational Research Journal, 45(1), 184–205.
Hall, A. L., & Midgley, J. (2004). Social policy for development. London, England: Sage.
Hannum, E. (2003). Poverty and basic education in rural China: Villages, households, and girls’ and boys’ enrollment. Comparative Education Review, 47(2), 141–159.
Hiebert, J., & Morris, A. K. (2012). Extending ideas on improving teaching: Response to Lampert; Lewis, Perry, Friedkin, and Roth; and Zeichner. Journal of Teacher Education, 63(5), 383–385.
Hoogerwerf, A. (1990). Reconstructing policy theory. Evaluation and Program Planning, 13(3), 285–291.
Hooks, B. (1996). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Journal of Leisure Research, 28(4), 316.
Humphrey, D. C., & Wechsler, M. E. (2007). Insights into alternative certificatin: Initial findings from a national study. Teachers College Record, 109(3), 483–530.
Ian, P. R. (2015). “We want to bring them into what we love”: An investigation of desire in two alternative teacher preparation programs. [D] University of Colorado.
Labaree, D. F. (2004). The trouble with ed schools. New Haven, CT: Yale University.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2001). Crossing over to Canaan: The journey of new teachers in diverse classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lather, P. (1992). Critical frames in educational research: Feminist and post-structural perspectives. Theory Into Practice, 31(2), 87–99.
Lei, W. (2007). Empirical research on educational focus problems in rural China. Wuhan, China: Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press.
Li, K., & Li, R. (2013). The analysis of “nutrition food” in rural primary and secondary schools in the development of social policy. Youth Litterateur, 12, 200.
Li, Y. (2015). Chinese white paper on left-behind children’s spiritual condition. Education and Science Press.
Liao, W. (2011). The welfare of disabled people in the perspective of developmentally social policy. Social Work, 12, 58–60.
Luo, J., Wang, W., & Gao, W.-B. (2009). Review of research on left-behind children in China. Advances in Psychological Science, 17(5), 990–995.
Mehta, J., & Teles, S. (2012). Jurisdictional politics: A new federal role in education. In Carrots, sticks, and the bully pulpit: Lessons from a half-century of federal efforts to improve America’s schools (pp. 197–216). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Mills, C., & Ballantyne, J. (2016). Social justice and teacher education: A systematic review of empirical work in the field. Journal of Teacher Education, 67(4), 263–276.
Peske, H. G., & Haycock, K. (2006). Teaching inequality: How poor and minority are shortchanged on teacher quality. Washington, DC: The Education Trust.
Robeyns, I. (2005). The capability approach: a theoretical survey. Journal of Human Development, 6(1), 93–117.
Sen, A. (2011). The idea of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Strauss, V. (2011). How teach for America sees itself. Retrieved from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/achievement-gap/how-teach-foramerica-sees-its.html
Sykes, G., Bird, T., & Kennedy, M. (2010). Teacher education: It’s problems and some prospects. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(5), 464–476.
Tan, S. (2011). A review of research on left-behind children in rural China. Chinese Social Sciences, 1(1), 140–141.
Teng, T. (2009). The theory and practice of education anthropology: Local experience and discipline construction. Beijing: Nationality Press, 30–31.
Wang, B., Pan, G., & Liu, W. (2004). Elimination of double track system: The ethics appeal of rural education reform in China. Journal of Beijing Normal University: Social Science Edition, 5, 20–25.
Wang, J. (1998). On equality and fairness of opportunities in education – Centered on conceptual analysis. Education Policy BBS, 1(2), 118–132.
Wang, M., & Sun, W. (2010). The trend and characteristics of social organization in China. Review of Chinese Non-profit Organization, 1, 1–23.
Windschitl, M., Thompson, J., Braaten, M., & Stroupe, D. (2013). Proposing a core set of instructional practices and tools for teachers of science. Science Education, 96(5), 878–903.
Wiseman, D. L. (2012). The intersection of policy, reform, and teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 63(2), 87–91.
Wu, N., et al. (2004). Research report on left-behind children in rural areas. Educational Research, 25(10), 15–18.
Yang D. (2015). The way villages’ walking is “make school go into cities”. [EB/OL]. http://cul.qq.com/a/20151020/031562.htm
Zeichner, K. M. (2005). A research agenda for teacher education. In M. Cochran-Smith & K. Zeichner (Eds.), Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA Panelon research and teacher education (pp. 737–759). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Zeichner, K. M. (2009). Teacher education and the struggle for social justice. London, England: Routledge.
Zeichner, K. M. (2012). The turn once again to practice-based teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 63(5), 376–382.
Zhao, M. (2012). The social enterprise emerges in China. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 10(2), 30–35.
Zhou, F., & Duan, C. (2006). Overview of research on left-behind children. Journal of Population Studies, 3(60), 337.
Zhou, Z., et al. (2005). Psychological development and education problems of rural left-behind children. Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Science Edition), 1(187), 71.
Acknowledgments
This material is based upon work supported by academic programs as follows: Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2017ECNU-HLYT001); Major Projects Funding for Key Research Hubs of Shanghai Lideshuren Humanities and Social Sciences; and 2018 Yunnan Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Education Planning Project (AD18008).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Wei, W., Shuangye, C. (2020). Alternative Teacher Programs for Social Justice in Chinese Education: Distribution, Relationship, and Capacity. In: Papa, R. (eds) Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74078-2_35-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74078-2_35-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74078-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74078-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education