Implementing the Innovative 2003 English Curriculum for Senior Secondary Schools in China: Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices

Abstract

This chapter describes a study of teachers’ beliefs and practices in the process of implementing the innovative 2003 English curriculum for senior secondary schools in China. Data were collected with 4 h of in-depth interviews and 16 h of classroom observation from four teachers in two schools of different standing in the city of Guangzhou, China. The study found that these teachers’ beliefs about the English language and about teaching and learning the language are largely, albeit with individual variations, in line with the curriculum and that they are teaching according to the curriculum to different degrees, regarding teaching content, types of teaching and learning activities, and the roles that they play in these activities. This study argues that teachers are able to articulate their views about the subject that they are teaching and about how they should teach it; and they make decisions in the classroom drawing on these views in response to school and social contexts. Teachers’ beliefs, their practices, and their context of work are interactive, dynamic, and mutually constitutive. This interplay becomes more crucial in the implementation of large-scale curriculum innovations, where teacher change in both beliefs and practices is essential. Such interplay does not apply only to China; it applies in many situations where new curriculums are being implemented around the world.