In Search of a Third Space: Teacher Development in Mainland China

Abstract

The system and structure of teacher education in Mainland China (hereafter referred to as China) were modeled on those of the former Soviet Union. The Soviet system was based on the commune model with an emphasis on collective effort in enhancing school-based teachers’ professional development (Yang & Wu, 1999). The Soviet model was adopted by China in the early 1950s to deal with the large number of untrained teachers who had been recruited to teach in schools due to a serious shortage of teachers (Xie, 2001). Teaching and Research Groups were set up in schools with two major tasks: to learn how to conduct a good lesson and to learn the educational theory expounded by Ivan Andreyevich Kairov, the then Deputy Minister of Education of the former Soviet Union. Every teacher was required to teach a good lesson and to demonstrate an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of good instruction. This then became the patterned practice of the teaching profession in China.