Multidisciplinary research perspectives in education;shared experiences from australia and china 9789463006132, 9789463006149, 9789463006156, 946300615X

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Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education

Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education Shared Experiences from Australia and China

Edited by Indika Liyanage Deakin University, Australia and Badeng Nima Sichuan Normal University, China

A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-94-6300-613-2 (paperback) ISBN: 978-94-6300-614-9 (hardback) ISBN: 978-94-6300-615-6 (e-book)

Published by: Sense Publishers, P.O. Box 21858, 3001 AW Rotterdam, The Netherlands https://www.sensepublishers.com/

Printed on acid-free paper

All Rights Reserved © 2016 Sense Publishers No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

Dedicated to Behind-the-Scenes Personnel

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prefacexi 1. Internationalisation of Australia-China Higher Education in Times of Globalisation Indika Liyanage and Badeng Nima

1

2. Challenges for Developing EAP Practice in Anglophone Contexts Laura Gurney

7

3. Accounting for Classroom Curriculum: Test Driven EFL Practices Minglin Li and Parlo Singh

17

4. Reorienting Tibetan High School Students’ English Language Learning: A Multicultural Education Perspective Huang Yun

27

5. Perceptions of Becoming a Legitimate EFL Teacher: A Case Study of an Asian Teacher-Trainee Yijun Hu and Minglin Li

37

6. Putting Grammar in Its Place: Interactions and Identity in a Master of TESOL Course Roderick Neilsen

45

7. Rethinking Pedagogy and Practice in TESOL and Languages Ruth Arber

53

8. Chinese Learners of English and Sino-Australian Programs in China Yingmei Luo

61

9. Motivation in Language Learning and Dornyei’s L2 Motivational Self System67 Nhung Nguyen 10. Redefinition of International Classes in Public High Schools in China: The Case of Chengdu Li Rui and Zheng Fuxing 11. Kindergarten Teachers’ Beliefs about Outdoor Learning Activities Yan Chaoyun, Wei Ting and He Xiaoqiong

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73 83

TABLE OF CONTENTS

12. Parental Engagement in Music with Young Children: A Cross-Cultural Study93 Hoi Yin Bonnie Yim and Marjory Ebbeck 13. Internationalization of Higher Education in China and Australia Lanxi Huang 14. Moving towards the Equality of Quality in Higher Education: China’s Institutional Construction of Higher Education Since 1949 Zhang Ye

105

115

15. A Case Study on Critical Reflection: A Chinese Postgraduate in Australia123 Hossein Shokouhi 16. Visual Ethics in Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Penelope Pitt

131

17. Inheriting Traditional Folk Performance in Modern Society: A Case Study of the Practice of an Rgyal Rong-Tibetan Da-Erga Huang Lihui and Sanglangwengmu

139

18. Gender Issues in Elementary Mathematics Teaching Materials: A Comparative Study between China and Australia Yang Wu, Wanty Widjaja and Jun Li

149

19. Universal Education in Liangshan, China: The Story of a Yi Village Aga Rehamo

161

20. Introducing Ethnic Culture into Campus in Chinese Primary Schools: Taking Kenre Debating for a Case Gu Erhuo

169

21. Anti-Drug Education in Local Minority Culture: An Example from Liangshan Yi Jiazhi Culture Li Jian

177

22. Protecting Traditional Cultures in China: Significance and Ways of Protecting the Qiang Culture by Schools Zhu Sheng-Li

187

23. China’s Expansion in Africa and Its Implications for African Language Education Policy Ibrahima Diallo

195

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

24. Indigenous Languages Education in Victoria: Innovations, Opportunities and Challenges for Non-Indigenous Languages Teacher Educators Michiko Weinmann

203

Index213

ix

PREFACE

‘Education’, as a field of study, is multidisciplinary. This volume contains educational research studies and perspectives from Australia and China. The topics addressed in this volume include: Languages education (the English language, indigenous Australian aboriginal languages & local languages of Sichuan China), early childhood education, arts and music education, cross-cultural issues in education, and higher education. As such, the volume intends to provide a forum for contemplation of and insights into current multidisciplinary educational research and research perspectives in Australia and China, particularly Sichuan Province. Therefore, the volume acts specifically as a forum for the dissemination of localised, yet rigorous, interesting, and noteworthy research which would have otherwise been denied to non-Chinese literate audiences. Dissemination of research from international locations, or the need to do so, has been a politically popular catch-cry; many international conferences, symposia and refereed academic journals welcome submissions from various geographic locations for these research outlets to look more ‘international’. Nevertheless, a true and meaningful sharing of research from these different locations – research, especially, of academics who find expression in languages other than English challenging – has always been problematic. Whilst now is not the opportunity to discuss this aspect in detail, academics and academic institutions in English-speaking contexts bear a greater responsibility towards facilitating a more equitable distribution of such research. This volume is the result of contributions from many individuals – individuals who mostly operated behind-the-scenes, but were crucial to the project. In a climate where research collaboration and student and staff exchanges are becoming priorities of universities in the Asia Pacific region, many chapters in this volume originated from an international research symposium organised by the Faculties of Education Deakin University, Australia and Sichuan Normal University, China. This symposium and the volume would not have been possible if not for the strong leadership of Professors Brenda Cherednichenko, Christine Ure and Badeng Nima. Dr Tony Walker has been extremely instrumental in guiding and shaping the work of academic colleagues who found it difficult to disseminate what is uniquely theirs and were in a similar situation referred to earlier in this preface. I am sure these colleagues are deeply grateful to him. So are we. Dr Laura Gurney, Mr Michael Knopp, Ms Anne Roubin, Dr Michiko Weinmann, Dr Ruth Arber, and Ms Ping Huang from the two Faculties also deserve a hearty mention. Additionally, we extend our gratitude for the support of Sense Publishers including Michel Lokhorst and Mrs Jolanda Karada.

xi

PREFACE

We thank, whole-heartedly, all these individuals who have done a mammoth amount of work behind-the-scenes. Indika Liyanag & Badeng Nima April 2016

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INDIKA LIYANAGE AND BADENG NIMA

1. INTERNATIONALISATION OF AUSTRALIA-CHINA HIGHER EDUCATION IN TIMES OF GLOBALISATION

INTRODUCTION

A view of internationalization of higher education as merely a response to globalization fails to acknowledge that universities have been amongst the most international of institutions for a very long time (Teichler, 2004). Globalization has certainly impacted, in some shape or form, the activities of all educational institutions and educators, and of education researchers, and in the higher education sector in particular, with its core activities of teaching and research, internationalization and international education have been, for more than two decades, catchcries for a critical role for education in the new dynamics in global relations (Universities Australia, 2012) and practices (Jones & Killick, 2013). But, a careful distinction must be made between the phenomenon of globalization and the internationalization of higher education. Internationalization has been a feature of higher education, at least in the West, since the inception of universities when medieval scholars and students moved between institutions and countries and shared Latin as a common language of learning and scholarship (Altbach, 2002). Movement of knowledge and innovative ideas across national boundaries has in fact been at the core of views of knowledge as universal, and international recognition and validation of research and of scholarship has, as Teichler (2004) points out, long been fundamental to another high profile value of contemporary higher education, quality. What is making contemporary higher education internationalization different is the impact of unprecedented global flows of the currencies of globalization – people, technology, knowledge, ideas, and values (Knight, 2015b) – that pay, increasingly, less heed to borders. As the global landscape changes and political, social and economic forces leave higher education with little choice but greater international involvement (Altbach & Knight, 2007), the actual practices that exemplify internationalization in higher education continue to evolve as universities face ground-shifting change, experiencing imperatives both internal and external to simultaneously shape and respond to rapidly emerging circumstances, to operate as both sites and instruments of change.

I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 1–6. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

LIYANAGE & BADENG

INTERNATIONALISATION & GLOBALISATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Universities occupy a strategic position in a global knowledge-based economy (Stiglitz, 2006) as generators and purveyors of the globally sought after commodities of ideas and education. Globalization is impacting on internationalization of higher education as teaching focuses increasingly on preparing graduates for a global employment marketplace (Jones & Killick, 2013) and research is expected to be responsive to market-driven external factors, and funding opportunities, rather than reflecting the priorities of the professional research community (Hall, 1996; Jarvis, 2000; Lyotard, 1985). Trade in the commodities of knowledge and education takes place against a powerful geo-political discourse that acknowledges a disparity between the economic prosperity and success of industrialised and highly educated Western nations and what Ferguson (2011) identifies as the aspirational rest. The quality and standard of education and educational institutions is seen as integral to the origin and continued development of Western living standards and quality of life, and because of this perception, a Western education has become synonymous with opportunities to achieve aspirations of prosperity (Gray, 2010), a prized globally traded commodity in high demand in the education market (Liyanage & Walker, 2014; Tilak, 2008). Historically, this has positioned Western universities as exporters of education, education materials, and research, and with an additional layer of regulation imposed by the gatekeeper to participation in Western education, the international medium of instruction and research, the English language. The nature of internationalization, however – and in globalization terms, the balance of market power – continues to shift, and we now focus here more specifically on the Asian region to map out the international higher education relations between the two nations that have collaborated in production of this volume of education research, Australia and China. Despite new ideas such as borderless and transnational education , national borders retain their importance as universities respond to global forces and geo-political re-alignments constrained by local regulatory frameworks central to the critical features of higher education quality, course accreditation, and funding (Knight, 2015b). As Knight (2015b) stresses, the impact of globalization on the processes of internationalization differs from country to country “due to a nation’s individual history, traditions, culture and priorities” (p. 3). While international cooperation and collaboration between universities is foregrounded by national government policies (see, e.g., Australia in the Asian Century: White Paper, Australian Government, 2012), the internationalization initiative rests with individual institutions, and this volume of research from Chinese and Australian researchers is an example of the developing higher education relations between two countries. AUSTRALIA & CHINA

From the Australian perspective, internationalization has progressed from an initial government funded aid-based model in the middle of last century, to a trade-based 2

Internationalisation of Australia-China higher Education

export model of education as an important source of university revenue in the later decades of that century (Universities Australia, 2012). Currently international students constitute around 23% of students enrolled in Australian universities (Australian Government: Department of Education and Training, 2015), and China continues to provide by far the largest group of international students. Australian universities now consider themselves to be engaged in what is referred to as a third phase of internationalization in which the focus has moved from revenue to achievement of more deeply integrated interaction with the international higher education community and the global knowledge economy of both staff – through academic and research links – and students – through doctoral studies, expanded disciplinary engagement, and greater numbers of Australian students studying abroad: “Australian universities are now focused on quality, outcomes and meaningful collaboration and this will manifest in an increasing capacity for transnational education and greater emphasis on attracting international PhD students and research collaboration” (Universities Australia, 2012, p. 2). As a key provider of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region, the focus of this re-alignment of Australian higher education internationalization is directed at development of new and existing links with universities in the region. In many respects, this reflects a globalization discourse that positions the region as the new centre of global economic power (Ferguson, 2011) in an Asian century (Kohli, Sharma, & Sood, 2011). Australian government policy-makers have embraced this discourse, and the calls of stakeholders for development of collaborative research links (Australian Research Council, 2011), and made a commitment to support relationships with regional institutions to facilitate growth in the numbers of Australian students studying overseas in Asia for at least part of their degree program (Australian Government, 2012). Notwithstanding the intention to move beyond the aid or trade models, export of education to nations such as China remains a vital structural element of higher education in Australia (Marginson, 2015); the “vast” (Universities Australia, 2012, p. 5) opportunities identified by Australian universities are undeniably also about revenue generated through a market shortfall in availability of high-quality higher education in Asia, and continuing demand for English-medium courses (Marginson, 2015), that has seen outbound student numbers continue to rise sharply during the last decade. As Marginson (2015) points out, this is in many respects a precarious set of circumstances exposing the vulnerability of Australian universities to the implications, in globalization terms, of shifts in market conditions. CHANGING LANDSCAPES

As nations such as China invest heavily in higher education and enter the market for international students, the so-called third phase of Australian higher education internationalisation is timely realization of the need to engage with Asian higher education on a more equal footing of mutual recognition, exchange and collaboration rather than a view of the West as the hegemonic producer, and the rest as grateful 3

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consumers, of education and knowledge. These circumstances are as much as issue for internationalization of higher education in nations such as China as in the West as forces of globalization, most evident in the phenomenon of global university rankings schemes, threaten to overwhelm Chinese desires for self-determination (Turin, 2010) and impose Western models and quality frameworks on indgenous systems. Certainly, China seeks to emulate the prosperity of the West through both large-scale expansion of particiption in education at all levels and the pursuit of quality (Altbach, 2010). In terms of scale alone, Chinese higher education dwarfs that of Australia, with the world’s largest number of enrolled students, and more scientific journals and funding for research than any counrty other than the USA (Postiglione, 2015). Expansion of education, including the flow and return of students to foreign universities, has resulted in a “broad intellectual renaissance” (Vogel, 2004, p. 48) that is reshaping the nation and positioning it as a world education power. In the special zone of Shanghai, for example, the general education system is already ranked among the world’s top five (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010), and thanks to “a combination of significant infusions of funds to universities identified as top performers, mergers to create institutions with both high quality and economy of scale, and efforts to create an academic environment that rewards productivity” (Altbach, 2010, p. 4), several Chinese universities are regarded as among the world’s best (Postiglione, 2015). This impetus has produced some redress of the flow of Chinese students to universities in other countries; around 380,000 students from outside China were studying at Chinese higher education institutions in 2014 (Australian Government: Department of Education and Training, 2016). Following, perhaps, Western models, the first campus of a Chinese university outside China has been established in Thailand by Jinan University (Knight, 2015a, p. 2). Yet quality remains the critical factor for Chinese higher education, characterized as “big but not strong” (Min, 2015, p. 11), in its efforts to develop international standing and to compete in the globalized education market. It is revealing that more than half the foreign students studying at Chinese universities were enrolled in non-award courses, suggesting issues related to certification and recognition of study completed at Chinese universities. For the higher education sector as whole, quality improvements depend upon a complex suite of reforms or changes but ultimately are judged by teaching and research and it is here that the interests of Australia’s universities, engaged in a third phase of internationalism, and those of China’s universities can coincide productively for both, as they have in this volume. Recent analysis by the International Association of Universities (Egron-Polak & Hudson, 2014) found the focus of priorities of internationalization processes in universities of the Asia-Pacific region to be research collaboration, followed closely staff mobility. Mobility of staff and of graduate students through international relationships can be one strategy to establish and develop research collaboration networks, and to simultaneously disrupt some of the methodological and topical constraints of local hierarchical networks that have been identified 4

Internationalisation of Australia-China higher Education

(Altbach, 2010) as one of the impediments along the path to quality in Chinese higher education. For any contemporary university, internationalization and quality go hand in hand, in “an academic culture that is based on meritocratic values, free inquiry, and competition—combined with elements of collaboration and at least some mobility” (Altbach, 2010, p. 4). It is something of a conundrum that the capacity for mobility rests to a very significant degree upon quality and the competitiveness and processes of international publication, as an indicator of quality, are complicated for many Chinese academics and researchers by the use of English as the international language of research and scholarship. The challenge for many Chinese academics, researchers, and post-graduate students becomes access to opportunities to learn from participation in these processes, and the collaborative relationships that are a priority for Australian universities provide a productive avenue for nurturing of these aspects of quality development. A MEANINGFUL INTERACTION

International collaboration across distinct academic, research and education cultures demands commitment from both parties. Authentic internationalization demands more than the adoption of Western epistemologies and practices by higher education in other parts of the world. Imperatives to embed intercultural knowledge understanding and attitudes in the coursework of higher education programs for student learning must be applied more deeply to academic and research cultures of higher education. The risk for higher education is that internationalization simply as globalization threatens cultural heritages, language diversity, variety of academic cultures and structures, not to mention quality (Teichler, 2004). Internationalization is an opportunity for creative and reflective disruption of paradigms, of “being confronted with different theories, methodologies and field knowledge in order to reflect and relativise one’s own past conceptual frameworks, to broaden one’s horizon, to think comparatively and eventually to develop more complex perspectives” (Teichler, 2004, p. 11). That English remains the medium in this volume of research does not indicate capitulation to Western practices and priorities. Rather, it has in this case provided opportunities for researchers and practitioners to focus on quality and to work with and learn from colleagues whose methods, interests and conventions exhibit characteristics distinct from their own, and for readers to become familiar with the priorities and approaches of researchers in education in a region of China with its own distinct identity. REFERENCES Altbach, P. (2002). Knowledge and education as international commodities. International Higher Education, 28, 2–5. Altbach, P. (2010). The Asian higher education century? International Higher Education, 59, 3–5. Altbach, P., & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher education: Motivations and realities. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(3–4), 290–305.

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LIYANAGE & BADENG Australian Government. (2012). Australia in the Asian century: White paper. Retrieved from http://asiancentury.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/white-paper/australia-in-the-asian-century-whitepaper.pdf Australian Government: Department of Education and Training. (2015). 2015 First half year student summary infographic. Retrieved from https://docs.education.gov.au/node/39321 Australian Government: Department of Education and Training. (2016). China – Outbound and inbound international students. Retrieved from https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/researchsnapshots/pages/default.aspx Australian Research Council. (2011). Australia in the Asian century: Issues paper. Retrieved from www.arc.gov.au Egron-Polak, E., & Hudson, R. (2014). Internationalization of higher education: Growing expectations, fundamental values: IAU 4th Global Survey. Retrieved from http://cdigital.uv.mx/ handle/123456789/38552 Ferguson, N. (2011). Civilization: The West and the rest. London: Allen Lane. Gray, J. (2010). The branding of English and the culture of the new capitalism: Representations of the world of work in English language textbooks. Applied Linguistics, 31(5), 714–733. doi:10.1093/ applin/amq034 Jones, E., & Killick, D. (2013). Graduate attributes and the internationalized curriculum: Embedding a global outlook in disciplinary learning outcomes. Journal of Studies in International Education, 17(2), 165–182. Knight, J. (2015a). Cross-border education: Not just students. International Higher Education, 41, 2–3. Knight, J. (2015b). Updated definition of internationalization. International Higher Education, 33, 2–3. Kohli, H. S., Sharma, A., & Sood, A. (2011). Asia 2050: Realizing the Asian century. Singapore: Asian Development Bank. Liyanage, I., & Walker, T. (2014). English for academic purposes: A Trojan horse bearing the advance forces of linguistic domination? In P. W. Orelus (Ed.), Affirming language diversity in schools and society: Beyond linguistic apartheid (pp. 165–175). New York, NY: Routledge. Marginson, S. (2015). Is Australia overdependent on international students? International Higher Education, 54, 10–12. Min, W. (2015). The challenge facing Chinese higher education in the next two decades. International Higher Education, 80, 11–12. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2010). PISA 2009 results: What students know and can do (Vol. 1). Paris: OECD. Postiglione, G. A. (2015). Chinese higher education: Future challenges. International Higher Education, 80, 14. Teichler, U. (2004). The changing debate on internationalisation of higher education. Higher Education, 48(1), 5–26. doi:10.1023/B:HIGH.0000033771.69078.41 Tilak, J. (2008). Higher education: A public good or a commodity for trade? Prospects, 38(4), 449–466. Turin, D. R. (2010). The Beijing consensus: China’s alternative development model. Student Pulse, 2(1). Retrieved from http://www.studentpulse.com/a?id=134 Universities Australia. (2012). Australia in the Asian century. Retrieved from http://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/resources/687/1332 Vogel, E. (2004). The rise of China and the changing face of East Asia. Asia-Pacific Review, 11(1), 46–57.

Indika Liyanage School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia Badeng Nima Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China 6

LAURA GURNEY

2. CHALLENGES FOR DEVELOPING EAP PRACTICE IN ANGLOPHONE CONTEXTS

EAP AND ENGLISH IN HIGHER EDUCATION

English for academic purposes (EAP), the academically-focused branch of English for specific purposes (Johns & Dudley-Evans, 1991), aims to facilitate learners’ participation in the English language academic community (Hyland & Hamp-Lyons, 2002; Prosser, 1994). The EAP sector has expanded rapidly in recent years (Liyanage & Walker, 2014b) and now plays a significant role within Anglophone and non-Anglophone higher education contexts (Ashraf, Hakim, & Zulfiqar, 2014; Basturkmen, 2012; Kafle, 2014). Global trends which associate English and the West with educational prestige (Kubota & Lehner, 2004), assigning them a “perceived superiority” (Liyanage & Walker, 2014b, p. 165) over other languages and educational paradigms, have led considerable numbers of students to undertake English-medium higher education (Brown, 2014; Doiz, Lasagabaster, & Sierra, 2013; Kim, Tatar, & Choi, 2014). These developments have cemented the international status of the language, which has also has become the global medium for academic communication and a lingua franca in general (Hyland & Hamp-Lyons, 2002; Jenkins, 2011; Seidlhofer, 2005). Increased student mobility and preferences for English-medium education have been of particular economic significance to Britain, Australasia and North America, referred to as the BANA nations, which have experienced a boost in overseas enrolments (Andrade, 2006; Saw, Abbott, Donaghey, & McDonald, 2013; Terraschke & Wahid, 2011). Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are amongst the countries with the highest proportion of international tertiary enrolments globally (OECD, 2014), and the United States and Canada also host a significant number of overseas students (Choudaha & Chang, 2012; Siddiq, Nethercote, Lye, & Baroni, 2012). While the BANA nations continue to be popular destinations, they are not the only providers of English-medium instruction (EMI) tertiary education. EMI policies are on the rise in non-Anglophone higher education contexts (Dearden, 2014; Hu & McKay, 2012; Kirkpatrick, 2014). Policy efforts to internationalise and expand higher education via EMI have been implemented at governmental and international levels (Doiz, Lasagabaster, & Sierra, 2011) – examples include the Bologna Process in Europe (Smit & Dafouz, 2012) and the promulgation of EMI as a key approach to improving tertiary education by the Chinese Ministry of Education (Lei & Hu, 2014). Institutions have also responded with ground level policies to I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 7–16. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

GURNEY

implement EMI, typically in response to the desire to rise in university ranking systems (Kirkpatrick, 2014), compete with other institutions (Brown, 2014), and attract domestic and international students (Dearden, 2014; Pan, 2007). As a result, English is now used around the world in higher education by students and educators, many of whom are non-native speakers of the language. Although entry level requirements typically govern student enrolment in EMI programs in both Anglophone and non-Anglophone contexts (Kirkpatrick, 2014; Terraschke & Wahid, 2011), widespread concerns regarding the language skills of students for whom English is an additional language (EAL) have been raised by researchers, institutions and the wider public (Andrade, 2006; Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2015; Fenton-Smith, Humphreys, Walkinshaw, Michael, & Lobo, 2015). Language difficulties are not by any means unique to EAL students, as the development of academic language proficiency is recognised to also involve prolonged dedication on behalf of native speakers (Taylor & Geranpayeh, 2011). Nonetheless, within Anglophone contexts, particular efforts to facilitate EAL students’ successful participation in higher education have been made. These include reports from government and regulatory bodies acknowledging the need to address language issues and standards (Brown, 2010; Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009; Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, 2012), as well as institutional responses in the form of assessment and diagnostic tools, and EAP programs (Fenton-Smith et al., 2015; Harris, 2013; von Randow, 2010). Contemporarily, EAP is offered in the BANA nations in pre-sessional and degree-integrated forms within universities and language teaching institutions, and may be either general or discipline-specific (Jarvis & Stakounis, 2010; Lobo & Gurney, 2014; Terraschke & Wahid, 2011).1 PROBLEMATISING EAP PRACTICE WITHIN AN INTERNATIONALISED SECTOR

EAP courses focus on developing students’ cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). CALP encapsulates the various aspects of academic discourse (Cummins, 2008) which, in Anglophone contexts particularly, is shaped in accordance with the norms of academic communities operating in the West (Phan, 2011). Culturally specific content, including conventions concerning the formation and structure of arguments and text types, relevance and clarity of information presented, and concepts such as plagiarism and critical thinking (Fox, 1994; Lan, 2015; Phan, 2011; Thompson, 2002) are typically built into EAP courses, which subsequently present “Western ways of learning and … organising and generating knowledge” as neutral (Liyanage & Walker, 2014b, p. 2). This is symptomatic of wider trends affecting English language instruction and testing, which remain largely deferential toward native speaker models (Sewell, 2013). As Jenkins (2012) posits, despite the increasingly widespread use of English globally, “the prevailing orientation in English language teaching and testing, and ELT materials remains undoubtedly 8

CHALLENGES FOR DEVELOPING EAP PRACTICE IN ANGLOPHONE CONTEXTS

towards [English as a native language], with correctness and appropriateness still widely driven by [native speakers’] use regardless of learners’ current or potential communication contexts” (p. 487). Subsequently, learners who transfer from other language communities into English must deal with sociocultural as well as lexical aspects of language use, and may resist new and unfamiliar expectations regarding speaking and writing (Fox, 1994; Zappa-Hollman, 2007). However, due to increased student mobility, widespread implementation of EMI and the lingua franca status of the language, it is unlikely that students will use English, academically and professionally, only in Anglophone contexts. Many students return home to work following completion of their studies (Gu & Schweisfurth, 2015; Hu, 2007; Xu, 2009), while others may opt to move between countries and regions for undergraduate and postgraduate education (Lan, 2015; Liyanage, Díaz, & Gurney, 2016). For the large numbers of international students who plan to transition between academic and professional communities, many of their future interactions in English are likely to be undertaken with non-native speakers (Nickerson, 2015). Students may also treat overseas education as an opportunity to develop an “international identity” and to become “mobile and comfortable in a range of environments” (Pyvis & Chapman, 2007, p. 241), premised on their varied educational and cultural experiences. In light of these points, and considering that English tends to be used “more as a language of communicational necessity than as a symbol of cultural identity” (Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 539) by EAL speakers, restricting EAP instruction to native speaker models and subjugating students’ prior knowledge and skills are therefore counterproductive to the goal of facilitating their development as flexible and international communicators. As Phan (2011) argues, students’ existing knowledge and practices … need to be recognised and acknowledged as … enriching their English writing rather than ‘polluting’ it. Importantly, students themselves need to … be encouraged to make full use of their prior knowledge and ways of doing in performing in English, given the internationalising status of the English language itself. (p. 38) In order to prevent EAP and higher education in Anglophone contexts from functioning as an avenue for disseminating Western values, and becoming “another instance of Western colonialism and imperialism” (Singh, 2009, p. 199), the appropriacy of adhering to traditional instructional aims is increasingly subject to scrutiny. Responsively, debates have begun to arise which concern the growth of different academic Englishes (Canagarajah, 2006) and their accommodation within EAP classrooms and academic environments generally (Flowerdew, 2008). Traditional privileging of an idealised Western paradigm over a more pluralised approach, acknowledging the heterogeneity and global nature of academic communication, has become an issue of importance within the sector (Canagarajah, 2014). Proponents of a flexible approach to EAP instruction argue that the promotion 9

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of accommodative pedagogies, which entail “a reassessment of what constitutes English-language proficiency” on behalf of teachers (Liyanage & Walker, 2014a, p. 9), may be of benefit for the development of EAP in alignment with processes of internationalisation and globalisation in tertiary education and beyond (Jenkins, 2011). Nonetheless, despite widespread support for these goals based in consideration of students’ communicational needs, several impediments operate within higher education in English-speaking countries and complicate change in EAP practice. These include the lack of teacher education and training options available for EAP instructors, employment affordances and restrictions, issues of status and collaboration between staff within institutions, and the expectations of academic staff concerning students’ use of academic language. These issues are discussed in the ensuing sections. CHALLENGES TO DEVELOPING EAP PRACTICE

Overall, very few EAP-specific teacher education and training opportunities are available to practitioners prior to commencing their work (Hamp-Lyons, 2011). As Hamp-Lyons (2011) argues, despite considerable growth in EAP over the past few decades, the persistent lack of professional education and training opportunities has remained a “cause for concern” (p. 100). Whilst TESOL pre-service teacher education and training courses are accessible throughout the BANA nations, these courses prepare teachers broadly to work as teachers of general English (Liyanage, Walker, & Singh, 2014). However, given that teaching any branch of English for specific purposes, including EAP, necessitates its own pedagogical approach (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Rajabi, Kiany, & Maftoon, 2012) as well as an expanded knowledge base, preparation for teachers to work in EAP is a critical but unaddressed issue. EAP teachers are resultantly obliged to replace education and training opportunities with processes of experimentation and translation of theory into practice (Ghanbari & Rasekh, 2012), supplemented by in-service professional development where possible. To further complicate negotiation of practice, many EAP practitioners enjoy little employment security and inhabit peripheral roles within institutions (Evans & Green, 2007; Fenton-Smith & Gurney, 2015; Hyland & Hamp-Lyons, 2002). Notwithstanding relatively recent efforts to embed credit-bearing EAP courses within degree programs (see, for example, Lobo & Gurney, 2014), widespread implementation of EAP courses as non-credit-bearing still prevails. This assigns EAP little apparent academic importance and reinforces the perceived remedial status with which it has dealt for some time (Evans & Green, 2007; Hyland, 2006). As Allison (1992) argued over twenty years ago, positioning language courses as remedial stigmatises the students who undertake them, lowers students’ motivation, and contributes to dismissive views concerning teachers’ expertise and the importance of their roles. More recently, Hyland (2006) echoed these sentiments that EAP is 10

CHALLENGES FOR DEVELOPING EAP PRACTICE IN ANGLOPHONE CONTEXTS

“generally regarded as a hand-maiden to those ‘proper’ disciplines which are more directly engaged in the serious business of constructing knowledge or discovering truth” (p. 34). As a result, the expertise of language specialists is not typically recognised by academics working in other disciplines, compromising collaboration and communication within institutions (Fenton-Smith & Gurney, 2015; Lee, 1997). Collaboration and communication between EAP teachers and discipline academics open up yet further complications for developing EAP practice. Even if EAP teachers were afforded greater employment security and more opportunities for education and training, and were equipped with the necessary skill set to negotiate academic communication more pluralistically with learners, they would nonetheless be caught in the dilemma of reconciling best EAP practice with the expectations of academics working in undergraduate and postgraduate higher education programs. Proponents of a pragmatic approach to teaching EAP (Allison, 1996) have long argued that some degree of conformity with the expectations of the academy is a necessary part of EAP instruction. The pragmatic approach, which has been subject to criticism for endorsing “power relations in academia and in society” (Benesch, 1993, p. 711), is a “skills-based, instrumental approach that attempts to make students aware of the dominant conventions … and then successfully appropriate these same conventions” (Harwood & Hadley, 2004, p. 356). In practice, most EAP courses orient around these goals (Helmer, 2013), in order to ensure that students are prepared for the demands of higher education. This is a practical move, as research suggests that discipline academics working in Anglophone contexts have long expressed dissatisfaction with EAL students’ work and non-native features in their writing (Casanave & Hubbard, 1992), to the extent that EAL students’ work tends to be marked at a lower level than that of native speakers (O’Hagan & Wigglesworth, 2015). Other research suggests that perceptions of EAL students as less competent may prevail within institutions, and that faculty may hold them to a different standard from native speaking students (Barron, Gourlay, & Gannon-Leary, 2010; Janopoulos, 1992; Jenkins, Jordan, & Weiland, 1993; Liyanage & Walker, 2014b). These practices and perceptions serve to maintain boundaries between students, subsequently excluding and marginalising the knowledge traditions brought by EAL students in favour of those of the Anglophone West (Singh, 2009). Nonetheless, from the perspective of EAP practitioners, understanding expectations for students’ work at university is fraught with ambiguities and inconsistencies, which may also derive in part from more serious problems with assessment practices in higher education such as inconsistency in marking and unclear criteria (O’Donovan, Price, & Rust, 2004; O’Hagan & Wigglesworth, 2015). Lamentably, as language development is not typically prioritised within students’ degree programs, and discipline academics are generally ill-equipped to deal with such issues (Barron et al., 2010), Lack of communication between EAP teachers and academics working in other disciplines will only serve to cement existing problems. A reconfiguration of institutional priorities to more critically consider the ways in which English is used internationally and within institutions represents a necessary 11

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step towards reconciling these issues. Factors such as teaching resources, the use of English within classrooms, and expectations regarding students’ use of English for classroom interactions and assessment purposes should be carefully considered in the interest of establishing coordinated and clearly communicated norms throughout institutions. In terms of EAP teacher practice, while issues of their employment, status, roles and responsibilities problematise the potential for EAP teachers to develop their practice in collaboration with discipline academics, processes of reflection on their own practice are also arguably limited in their potential to develop practice-based objectives congruent with students’ needs. In order to collaborate and communicate effectively with discipline academics and refine their practice in line with students’ communicational needs, and in light of the internationalising status of English, it is of critical importance that EAP teachers are able to negotiate professional identities outside the role of a support service and that they are able to access resources for training, education and professional development. Education and professional development for these teachers should be embedded within calls for rejection of the idealised native-speaker model, accompanied by consideration of students’ ways of constructing and communicating knowledge (Singh, 2009), in order to erode the expectation that EAP instructors must adhere to a singular model of academic English and open up the possibility for a greater, recognised plurality of students’ cultural identities and the uses of English internationally. CONCLUSION

Within Anglophone tertiary environments, students’ success as academic communicators has traditionally been established vis-à-vis their ability to adapt to and apply Western conventions. However, as English has become a lingua franca and global medium for academic communication (Flowerdew, 2008), new modes of communicating in English are emerging which diverge somewhat from native-speaker models (Jenkins, 2011; Kirkpatrick, 2011, 2014). Contemporarily, difficulties characterise the intersection of traditional EAP instructional objectives and the uses of English in the internationalised higher education sector. These issues create dilemmas for EAP teacher practice, particularly in Anglophone contexts. However, the resolution of these issues is complicated by the lack of education and training opportunities for practitioners, the perceived remedial status of EAP which persists in many institutions, barriers to communication and collaboration between EAP teachers and discipline academics, and unclear and inconsistent expectations for students’ work at university. These issues will not be simple to resolve in the short term, as they involve the collaboration of multiple groups of actors. Nonetheless, as the internationalisation of higher education shows no signs of abating, institutional responses to these issues will be necessary to ensure ongoing viability of higher education programs offered in Anglophone contexts, the adaptability of institutions in the sector and accommodation of students’ needs. 12

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NOTE 1

As mentioned previously, EAP is also offered outside the BANA nations (see for example Atai & Dashtestani, 2013; Brown & Adamson, 2012; Li, 2013; Martínez, 2011). However, as this chapter focuses on EAP in Anglophone contexts, these programs will not be discussed here.

REFERENCES Allison, D. (1992). From “remedial English” to “English enhancement” (So, what else is new?). Hong Kong Papers in Linguistics and Language Teaching, 15, 15–29. Allison, D. (1996). Pragmatist discourse and English for academic purposes. English for Specific Purposes, 15(2), 85–103. Andrade, M. S. (2006). International students in English-speaking universities: Adjustment factors. Journal of Research in International Education, 5(2), 131–154. Ashraf, H., Hakim, L., & Zulfiqar, I. (2014). English for academic purposes in plurilingual Pakistan. In I. Liyanage & T. Walker (Eds.), English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in Asia: Negotiating appropriate practices in a global context (pp. 33–50). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers. Atai, M. R., & Dashtestani, R. (2013). Iranian English for academic purposes (EAP) stakeholders’ attitudes toward using the Internet in EAP courses for civil engineering students: Promises and challenges. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 26(1), 21–38. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (2015). Degrees of deception. Retrieved September 2, 2015, from http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2015/04/20/4217741.htm Barron, P., Gourlay, L. J., & Gannon-Leary, P. (2010). International students in the higher education classroom: Initial findings from staff at two post-92 universities in the UK. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 34(4), 475–489. Basturkmen, H. (2012). Languages for specific purposes curriculum creation and implementation in Australasia and Europe. The Modern Language Journal, 96(1), 59–70. Benesch, S. (1993). ESL, ideology, and the politics of pragmatism. TESOL Quarterly, 27(4), 705–717. Brown, H. (2014). Contextual factors driving the growth of undergraduate English-medium instruction programmes at universities in Japan. The Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 50–63. Brown, H., & Adamson, J. (2012). Localizing EAP in light of the rise of English-medium instruction at Japanese universities. On Cue, 6(3), 5–20. Brown, R. (2010). The current brouhaha about standards in England. Quality in Higher Education, 16(2), 129–137. Canagarajah, S. (2006). The place of world Englishes in composition: Pluralization continued. College Composition and Communication, 586–619. Canagarajah, S. (2014). EAP in Asia: Challenges and possibilities. In I. Liyanage & T. Walker (Eds.), English for academic purposes (EAP) in Asia: Negotiating appropriate practices in a global context (pp. 93–102). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers. Casanave, C. P., & Hubbard, P. (1992). The writing assignments and writing problems of doctoral students: Faculty perceptions, pedagogical issues, and needed research. English for Specific Purposes, 11(1), 33–49. Choudaha, R., & Chang, L. (2012). Trends in international student mobility. New York, NY: World Education Services. Retrieved from http://cdigital.uv.mx/bitstream/123456789/38553/1/Mobility.pdf Cummins, J. (2008). BICS and CALP: Empirical and theoretical status of the distinction. In B. Street & N. H. Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education (Vol. 2, pp. 71–83). New York, NY: Springer. Dearden, J. (2014). English as a medium of instruction: A growing global phenomenon. Retrieved from http://www.britishcouncil.org/education/ihe/knowledge-centre/english-language-higher-education/ report-english-medium-instruction Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. (2009). Good practice principles for English language proficiency for international students in Australian universities. Canberra, Australia: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

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GURNEY Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. (2012). English language standards for higher education. Retrieved October 13, 2014, from http://www.aall.org.au/sites/ default/files/FinalEnglishLanguageStandardsMay2012.pdf Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D., & Sierra, J. M. (2011). Internationalisation, multilingualism and Englishmedium instruction. World Englishes, 30(3), 345–359. Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D., & Sierra, J. M. (Eds.). (2013). English-medium instruction at universities: Global challenges. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Dudley-Evans, T., & St John, M. J. (1998). Developments in English for specific purposes: A multidisciplinary approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Evans, S., & Green, C. (2007). Why EAP is necessary: A survey of Hong Kong tertiary students. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 6(1), 3–17. Fenton-Smith, B., & Gurney, L. J. (2015). Actors and agency in academic language policy and planning. Current Issues in Language Planning, 17(1), 72–87. doi: 10.1080/14664208.2016.1115323 Fenton-Smith, B., Humphreys, P., Walkinshaw, I., Michael, R., & Lobo, A. (2015). Implementing a university-wide credit-bearing English language enhancement program: Issues emerging from practice. Studies in Higher Education, Ahead of print. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2015.1052736 Flowerdew, J. (2008). Scholarly writers who use English as an additional language: What can Goffman’s “Stigma” tell us? Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 7(2), 77–86. Fox, H. (1994). Listening to the world: Cultural issues in academic writing. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Ghanbari, B., & Rasekh, A. E. (2012). ESP practitioner professionalization through apprenticeship of practice: The case of two Iranian ESP practitioners. English Language Teaching, 5(2), 112–122. Gu, Q., & Schweisfurth, M. (2015). Transnational connections, competences and identities: Experiences of Chinese international students after their return ‘home’. British Educational Research Journal, 41(6), 947–970. Hamp-Lyons, L. (2011). English for academic purposes. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (Vol. 2, pp. 89–105). New York, NY: Routledge. Harris, A. (2013). Identifying students requiring English language support: What role can a PELA play? Journal of Academic Language & Learning, 7(2), A62–A78. Harwood, N., & Hadley, G. (2004). Demystifying institutional practices: Critical pragmatism and the teaching of academic writing. English for Specific Purposes, 23(4), 355–377. Helmer, K. A. (2013). Critical English for academic purposes: Building on learner, teacher, and program strengths. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 12(4), 273–287. Hu, G. (2007). The juggernaut of Chinese–English bilingual education. In A. W. Feng (Ed.), Bilingual education in China: Practices, policies and concepts (pp. 94–126). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Hu, G., & McKay, S. L. (2012). English language education in East Asia: Some recent developments. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(4), 345–362. Hyland, K. (2006). The ‘other’ English: Thoughts on EAP and academic writing. The European English Messenger, 15(2), 34–38. Hyland, K., & Hamp-Lyons, L. (2002). EAP: Issues and directions. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 1(1), 1–12. Janopoulos, M. (1992). University faculty tolerance of NS and NNS writing errors: A comparison. Journal of Second Language Writing, 1(2), 109–121. Jarvis, H., & Stakounis, H. (2010). Speaking in social contexts: Issues for pre-sessional EAP students. TESL-EJ, 14(3), 1–14. Jenkins, J. (2011). Accommodating (to) ELF in the international university. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(4), 926–936. Jenkins, J. (2012). English as a Lingua Franca from the classroom to the classroom. ELT Journal, 66(4), 486–494. Jenkins, S., Jordan, M. K., & Weiland, P. O. (1993). The role of writing in graduate engineering education: A survey of faculty beliefs and practices. English for Specific Purposes, 12(1), 51–67.

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CHALLENGES FOR DEVELOPING EAP PRACTICE IN ANGLOPHONE CONTEXTS Johns, A. M., & Dudley-Evans, T. (1991). English for specific purposes: International in scope, specific in purpose. TESOL Quarterly, 25(2), 297–314. Kafle, M. (2014). EAP in Nepal. In I. Liyanage & T. Walker (Eds.), English for academic purposes (EAP) in Asia: Negotiating appropriate practices in a global context (pp. 51–64). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers. Kim, J., Tatar, B., & Choi, J. (2014). Emerging culture of English-medium instruction in Korea: Experiences of Korean and international students. Language and Intercultural Communication, 14(4), 441–459. Kirkpatrick, A. (2011). English as an Asian lingua franca and the multilingual model of ELT. Language Teaching, 44(02), 212–224. Kirkpatrick, A. (2014). The language(s) of HE: EMI and/or ELF and/or multilingualism? The Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 4–15. Kubota, R., & Lehner, A. (2004). Toward critical contrastive rhetoric. Journal of Second Language Writing, 13(1), 7–27. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). A postmethod perspective on English language teaching. World Englishes, 22(4), 539–550. Lan, F. (2015). A case study into the writing of Chinese postgraduate students in a UK academic environment. English Language Teaching, 8(9), 86–95. Lee, A. (1997). Working together? Academic literacies, co-production and professional partnerships. Literacy and Numeracy Studies, 7(2), 65–82. Lei, J., & Hu, G. (2014). Is English-medium instruction effective in improving Chinese undergraduate students’ English competence? International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 52(2), 99–126. Li, C. (2013). Understanding EAP learners’ beliefs, motivation and strategies from a socio-cultural perspective: A longitudinal study at an English-medium university in mainland China (Unpublished Doctoral dissertation). University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. Liyanage, I., Díaz, A., & Gurney, L. J. (2016). Re-envisioning Teacher Education Programs (TEPs) for international students: Towards an emancipatory and transformative educational stance. In C.-M. Lam & J. Park (Eds.), Sociological and philosophical perspectives on education in the Asia-Pacific region (pp. 165–178). Singapore: Springer. Liyanage, I., & Walker, T. (2014a). Accommodating Asian EAP practices within postgraduate teacher education. In I. Liyanage & T. Walker (Eds.), English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in Asia: Negotiating appropriate practices in a global context (pp. 1–12). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers. Liyanage, I., & Walker, T. (2014b). English for academic purposes: A Trojan horse bearing the advance forces of linguistic domination? In P. W. Orelus (Ed.), Affirming language diversity in schools and society: Beyond linguistic apartheid (pp. 165–175). New York, NY: Routledge. Liyanage, I., Walker, T., & Singh, P. (2014). TESOL professional standards in the “Asian century”: Dilemmas facing Australian TESOL teacher education. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 35(4), 485–497. Lobo, A., & Gurney, L. J. (2014). What did they expect? Exploring a link between students’ expectations, attendance and attrition on English language enhancement courses. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 38(5), 730–754. Martínez, I. A. (2011). Capitalizing on the advantages of the Latin American EAP situation: Using authentic and specific materials in EAP writing instruction. Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos (AELFE), 21, 31–48. Nickerson, C. (2015). The death of the non-native speaker? English as a Lingua Franca in business communication: A research agenda. Language Teaching, 48(03), 390–404. O’Donovan, B., Price, M., & Rust, C. (2004). Know what I mean? Enhancing student understanding of assessment standards and criteria. Teaching in Higher Education, 9(3), 325–335. O’Hagan, S. R., & Wigglesworth, G. (2015). Who’s marking my essay? The assessment of non-nativespeaker and native-speaker undergraduate essays in an Australian higher education context. Studies in Higher Education, 40(9), 1729–1747.

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GURNEY OECD. (2014). Education at a glance: OECD indicators. Retrieved from http:// www.oecd.org/edu/ Education-at-a-Glance-2014.pdf Pan, J. Z. (2007). Facts and considerations about bilingual education in Chinese universities. In A. W. Feng (Ed.), Bilingual education in China: Practices, policies and concepts (pp. 200–215). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Phan, L. H. (2011). The writing and culture nexus: Writers’ comparisons of Vietnamese and English academic writing. In L. H. Phan & B. Baurain (Eds.), Voices, identities, negotiations, and conflicts: Writing academic English across cultures (pp. 23–40). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group. Prosser, M. (1994). A phenomenographic study of students’ intuitive and conceptual understanding of certain electrical phenomena. Instructional Science, 22(3), 189–205. Pyvis, D., & Chapman, A. (2007). Why university students choose an international education: A case study in Malaysia. International Journal of Educational Development, 27(2), 235–246. Rajabi, P., Kiany, G. R., & Maftoon, P. (2012). ESP in-service teacher training programs: Do they change Iranian teachers’ beliefs, classroom practices and students’ achievements? Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos (AELFE), 24, 261–282. Saw, G., Abbott, W., Donaghey, J., & McDonald, C. (2013). Social media for international students – It’s not all about Facebook. Library Management, 34(3), 156–174. Seidlhofer, B. (2005). English as a lingua franca. ELT Journal, 59(4), 339–341. Sewell, A. (2013). English as a lingua franca: Ontology and ideology. ELT Journal, 67(1), 3–10. Siddiq, F., Nethercote, W., Lye, J., & Baroni, J. (2012). The economic impact of international students in Atlantic Canada. International Advances in Economic Research, 18(2), 239–240. Singh, M. (2009). Using Chinese knowledge in internationalising research education: Jacques Rancière, an ignorant supervisor and doctoral students from China. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 7(2), 185–201. Smit, U., & Dafouz, E. (2012). Integrating content and language in higher education: An introduction to English-medium policies, conceptual issues and research practices across Europe. AILA Review, 25(1), 1–12. Taylor, L., & Geranpayeh, A. (2011). Assessing listening for academic purposes: Defining and operationalising the test construct. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 10(2), 89–101. Terraschke, A., & Wahid, R. (2011). The impact of EAP study on the academic experiences of international postgraduate students in Australia. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 10(3), 173–182. Thompson, C. (2002). Teaching critical thinking in EAP courses in Australia. TESOL Journal, 11(4), 15–20. von Randow, J. (2010). How much language do they need? The dilemma English-medium universities face when enrolling English as an additional language students. Collected Essays on Learning and Teaching, 3, 172–176. Xu, D. (2009). Opportunities and challenges for academic returnees in China. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 26(1), 27–35. Zappa-Hollman, S. (2007). Academic presentations across post-secondary contexts: The discourse socialization of non-native speakers. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 63(4), 455–485.

Laura Gurney School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

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MINGLIN LI AND PARLO SINGH

3. ACCOUNTING FOR CLASSROOM CURRICULUM Test Driven EFL Practices

INTRODUCTION

Literature in the recent decade shows that test-driven teaching in Chinese schools, among other reasons, has led to unsuccessful implementation of the national English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum (see, e.g., Li & Baldauf, 2011; Zhang & Liu, 2014). EFL teachers in studies of Li (2010) and Li and Baldauf (2011) agreed that the curriculum itself was well designed on the theoretical side and was in line with the international trends in its standards and norms. However, teachers regarded it as a document for reading but not for implementation. Therefore, while teachers were expressing their negative opinions on the impracticability of the suggested teaching methods and the various series of new teaching materials, they were teaching in the traditional way without even trying to change. In other words, the testing regimes have regulated EFL teachers’ classroom practices (see Singh, Märtsin, & Glasswell, 2014 for information about the impact of testing regimes on student learning), resulting in a well-intended EFL curriculum turning into an ineffectively enacted curriculum (see Choy, Li, & Singh, 2015, for intended and enacted curriculum). Given the examination pressure suggested in the literature, it is understandable that classroom EFL teachers have students’ scores as their priority and thus teach to the test (Li, 2010). However, successful curriculum implementation involves a change in teachers’ beliefs – teachers are more likely to support and follow the principles in the intended curriculum when they perceive the suggestions are beneficial (Brindley & Hood, 1990). To explore whether it is feasible for teachers to change their beliefs, and therefore engage themselves in enacting the EFL curriculum so that it is more closely aligned to the intended curriculum, this chapter will examine how EFL teachers account for classroom practices through semi-structured focus group interviews with practitioner EFL teachers in secondary schools in China. LITERATURE REVIEW

All teachers construct accounts about themselves, their teaching and their responsibilities, as well as about their students and learning. We use the term account I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 17–25. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

Li & Singh

to refer to the ways in which teachers, based on what they know and think, talk about educational matters, including theories of curriculum (intended, enacted, engaged), models/theories of teaching and learning, and models of teacher professional identity and learner identities. We contrast our use of the term account with the term beliefs, which seems to have dominated the field of language teaching. For example, in the existing literature in the recent two decades (see, e.g., Andrews, 2003; Barcelos & Kalaja, 2011; Basturkmen, 2012; Borg, 2003; Farrell & Lim, 2005; Freeman, 2002; Pajares, 1992; Phipps & Borg, 2009), teachers’ beliefs concern “what teachers know, believe, and think” (Borg, 2003, p. 81), reflecting personal values and ideologies (Verloop, Van Driel, & Meijer, 2001) and individual philosophies of teaching (Richards, 1996). Teachers’ beliefs are context-dependent, dynamic, complex and dialectical (Barcelos & Kalaja, 2011); they are fluctuating – influenced by significant others, and by micro- and macro-political contexts (Peng, 2011); and they interact bidirectionally with experience but they are not always reflected in what teachers do in the classroom (Phipps & Borg, 2009). Some researchers (e.g., Calderhead & Robson, 1991; Goodman, 1988; Nespor, 1987) have observed the episodic nature of beliefs, stating that some guiding images from past events and experiences stored in teachers’ memories will influence their interpretation of new knowledge and the translation of the knowledge into their classroom practice. It is believed that individual teacher’s beliefs can strongly impact, either positively or negatively, on their pedagogical decisions and instructional practices (Andrews, 2003). In recent studies that situate teachers’ beliefs in the context of curriculum innovation (e.g., Goh, Zhang, Ng, & Goh, 2005; Li & Baldauf, 2011; Orafi & Borg, 2009; Tam, 2012; Underwood, 2012; Waters & Vilches, 2008), the incongruence between teachers’ beliefs and the goals of curriculum reforms has been reported. Even when using curricula based on Western theories, teachers are still constrained by contextual factors, predisposing them to adherence to traditional beliefs when determining classroom teaching. With regard to EFL teachers’ practice in Chinese schools, Zhang and Liu (2014) found that high-stakes testing exerts a huge impact on how teachers conceptualize and approach EFL teaching (see also Li & Balduaf, 2011). Teachers’ attitudes can change on the condition that they use a new technique in teaching and find it successful in improving student achievement; yet the change does not materialize when teachers do not use the technique (Guskey, 1986). Borg (2003) adds that beliefs established early on in life are resistant to change even in the face of contradictory evidence. According to Pajares (1992, p. 321), “beliefs are unlikely to be replaced unless they prove unsatisfactory, and they are unlikely to prove unsatisfactory unless they are challenged and one is unable to assimilate them into existing conceptions.” By using the term account, we suggest that teachers’ accounts, that is the way that they talk about teaching and learning, can shift and change and that this change may lead to different curriculum enactments. In the sections that follow, EFL teachers’ 18

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accounts are to be analysed to explore the possibilities of such change given the testdriven regimes regulating practices in Chinese schools. METHOD

For the purpose of this research, semi-structured focus group interviews were used to collect data from practitioner EFL teachers. Interviews can explore and probe participants’ responses and can be used to gather in-depth data about their experiences and feelings, examine people’s attitudes, interests, feelings, concerns and values, and allow good interpretive validity (Gay & Airasian, 2003; Johnson & Turner, 2003), while focus group interviewing can be used to create a comfortable, permissive environment for participants to disclose what they really think and feel (Krueger & Casey, 2000). Two groups of EFL teachers participated in the present study. One group of the teachers were from a key secondary school in a city of Shandong province (which is coded as TC for the analysis), and the other group was comprised of teachers from several secondary schools in suburban and rural areas in various districts of this province (coded TSR). The participants were informed of the consent process and that their participation in the research was voluntary, and were assured that all data collected would remain confidential. Qualitative content analysis was conducted to analyse the data through thematic analysis (Wilkinson, 2004). The results of the qualitative content analysis for this study will be presented as illustrative quotations under certain themes, emphasizing the content of a text, (Riessman, 2004), as shown in the section that follows. FINDINGS

All participating EFL teachers agreed that the curriculum itself was well designed on the theoretical basis but not practical in their teaching in local contexts. They were also unanimous about the importance of teaching students English for testing purposes. However, the accounts provided in relation to curriculum enactment were rather different, particularly between EFL teachers from the key school and those from suburban and rural areas. Yes, the Priority is Students’ High Scores! Both groups of EFL teachers talked about the ways in which Gaokao (the entrance examination for tertiary education) regulated classroom practices. Specifically, their accounts indicated that the enacted curriculum was designed around ensuring high student scores. TC: Gaokao is a just like a ridge in front of the students which is not so easy to climb over. It is just too crucial. What can you do when it is in your way?

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Students study for the purpose of the test, but not for learning the English language! TSR: The fact is that the curriculum changed or the textbook changed, but not all others. The teachers are the same teachers, there are still too many students in one class. Most importantly, the entrance examination has not been changed. The purpose of learning (for the examination) determines our teaching approaches. We’ll teach those that are the usual key points in the tests. Principles in Language Learning Should Be Taken into Account! Both groups of EFL teachers expressed their disappointment at how English has been tested in the high-stakes exams, which prevented language learning and teaching principles from being followed in their classrooms. TC: The items in the testing paper have become very rigid in the form like close test, reading comprehension and composition etc., focusing on grammar and vocabulary. This current situation has restricted students to learn English for testing but not the language itself in use. That’s why there are in students’ test papers too many such expressions as “knowledge’s face” and “English water level”.2 If the English test is not like this as an obstacle, we teachers then can be flexible in teaching and follow the principles in language learning and teaching, students will also be able to learn in a relaxed environment but not regard English learning as a burden. Both groups of teachers reported that they were trying as much as they could to teach students correct English though they knew it might not be useful in the test. EFL teachers in the TSR groups provided an example of phonemic knowledge in the current textbooks. TSR: There used to be phoneme sections in the old textbooks which are very useful, but not in the current textbooks. Many teachers are still teaching how to pronounce which sound … and link them to spelling. There are rules in pronunciation and spelling, and the rules are very important. It’s very important (for the students to know) the shape of your mouth and where your tongue should be when pronounce a certain sound. If teachers are weak in this or do not teach, students may get them wrong. For example, “thank you very much” became “san kuai rou wei le mao chi” (three pieces of

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meat were fed to the cat), “doctor” was pronounced as “dao ke che” (reverse the coach – bus). So Why Not Two Types of Englishes? The EFL teachers provided some examples of what they taught in order to meet students’ various needs. TSR: We’ve tried to create an English environment by showing students English cartoons once a week. The first three weeks each semester, we would teach phonemes and pronunciation rules, then gradually words and sentences. Of course, we’d be behind of schedule compared with other schools in our county. But we don’t worry much. We’d catch up in the end semester exams. We are the best (students’ English results) in our county. It’s mainly about the viewpoint. Everything should be ok if we all can change our perspectives on the exams and the purpose of learning English. It can be seen here that the main concern of the EFL teachers in the suburban and rural areas is still the students’ scores. However, the teachers from the key school, who had more access to teacher training programs, thought and taught slightly differently. TC: I would say there are two types of Englishes: English for test and English for use. I tell my students we should distinguish them from each other. Something we learned might be regarded as wrong in the test but it might be right when you use it in everyday life. I would encourage my students who have talent in writing to write whatever they are interested in. Write something every week. You should have a look how good they are! The textbook I used when I was a student was really good. The text of “How Marx learned foreign languages” was really good. I remember the teacher would come over with a stick in her hand: “Can you recite?” Book One and Book Two, all the texts, we have memorized them all. We could even use them in our writing. There is nothing in the current textbooks worth reciting. … At the beginning of each semester I’d give my students the speeches by the presidents of the USA so they could recite. The classical ones, like Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address”, several by Roosevelt. I asked students to present “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King. They used gestures, they performed so excitedly, red-faced … Wow! 21

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We can propose that students should have two English tests: one for practical use and the other for Gaokao. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Phipps and Borg (2009) note that teachers’ beliefs exist as a system where certain beliefs are core and others peripheral. Core beliefs are stable and exert a more powerful influence on behaviour than peripheral beliefs. In this chapter, we have used the notion of accounts and written about the accounts provided by teachers around the intended, enacted and engaged curriculum. The study found that while tensions and contradictions existed within and between the accounts provided by the teachers, the dominant account related to the vital role that high-stakes testing played in the teachers’ (and their students’) lives. In such a context, high-stakes testing has regulated modes of pedagogy and negatively impacted on student learning (Singh, Märtsin, & Glasswell, 2014), and therefore teachers’ enacted curriculum. The two groups of teachers participating in the study seemed to provide different accounts of EFL teaching. The teachers employed in the key school in the capital city talked about the major drawbacks of teaching to the test without taking into account the principles in language teaching and learning. Despite the fact that they had students’ scores as their priority, they had developed certain strategies in trying to balance their teaching, for testing as well as for language learning. However, one main goal guided the practice of teachers in suburban and rural areas: students’ high test scores. Three possible reasons for this are identified here. Firstly, as in some Western countries, standardised high-stakes tests have gained “ascendancy as a valid and reliable tool for assessing student learning, as well as individual teacher and school performance” (Singh et al., 2014, p. 4). Teachers have to account to parents and education authorities if their students do not perform well in the tests (Li & Baldauf, 2011). Secondly, a great number of teachers in suburban and rural areas were not able to understand fully the new concepts in EFL teaching due to the lack of sufficient and effective teacher training and resources (Li & Baldauf, 2011; see Notes No. 1 for the advantage of key schools). Lastly, one of the macro-cultural factors – the notion of test – may have played a major role in influencing the formation of Chinese people’s beliefs. In the year of 606 (Sui Dynasty), people started to compete in the Keju test (see e.g., Suen & Yu, 2006 for detailed information) in order to secure high-power positions such as those equivalent to the current prime minister, provincial governors, department ministers, and so forth. “Within the hierarchical Confucian society, overall class, power, status, and prestige were generally reflected by such officialdom and by successes in these exams” (Suen & Yu, 2006, p. 48). Keju is no longer a term currently in use, but knowledge acquisition for higher social status has long been planted in people’s belief system. Higher scores reflect students’ academic achievement and are more likely to lead to acceptance to high-ranking Chinese universities, thus possibly changing their future. This is particularly the case 22

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for students in rural areas. To help students realise their dreams and control their fate, EFL teachers have students’ concerns in mind and teach to meet their needs. This, undoubtedly, is noble and respectful practice. Phipps and Borg (2009) claim that language teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning can be deep-rooted and resistant to change. The teachers interviewed for the research project reported in this study were supportive of changing classroom practices because they had seen the consequences of teaching and learning to the test, which had been bothering them greatly. Shanghai’s recent success in implementing a Westernised curriculum (Tan, 2013) proves that it is possible in Chinese schools to follow the guidelines in the intended curriculum. In explaining Shanghai’s recent success in international standardized tests administered by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, Tan (2013) suggested that “Shanghai combines the Chinese virtue of hard work and other cultural values with ‘Westernised’ curriculum theories and practices” (p. 2). Shanghai can do this because it has “been given a relatively high degree of autonomy to formulate, implement and experiment with curriculum reforms” (p. 3). Shanghai’s educational success “is due partly to the curriculum reforms in Shanghai schools” (p. 4). The interviewees in Tan’s study argued that Shanghai is different from the rest of China. It is at the forefront of educational reforms and ensures that students have rich learning experiences. It is not an easy task to translate curriculum reforms from one province across the whole of China. However, Shanghai’s success could be an example for policy makers, teacher educators, test-paper designers, and teachers. NOTES Key school: Key schools (“selected” schools) were called on to be established by the government in the late 1950s for training specialized good quality personnel. They were shut down during the Cultural Revolution, but reappeared in the late 1970s and in the early 1980s, becoming one part of the effort to reform the educational structure. Key schools enjoy greater educational priorities in the recruitment of the best students, the assignment of teachers and the allocation of financial support for equipment and resources. Selection is based on entrance scores and the best students can attend key schools successively from junior secondary schools to universities. After the launch of the educational structure reform emphasizing quality-oriented education in 1985 and the promulgation of the NineYear Compulsory Education Law, key schools began to be abolished in some cities but still exist in some other cities. 2 These are word for word translations from students’ first language. “Knowledge’s face” (scope of knowledge) is for zhishi mian, and “English water level” (English proficiency level) for yingyu shuiping. 1

REFERENCES Andrews, S. (2003). ‘Just like instant noodles’: L2 teachers and their beliefs about grammar pedagogy. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 9(4), 351–375. Barcelos, A. M. F., & Kalaja, P. (2011). Introduction to beliefs about SLA revisited. System, 39(3), 281–289. Basturkmen, H. (2012). Review of research into the correspondence between language teachers’ stated beliefs and practices. System, 40(2), 282–295.

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Li & Singh Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36(2), 81–109. Brindley, G., & Hood S. (1990). Curriculum innovation in adult ESL. In G. Brindley (Ed.), The second language curriculum in action (pp. 232–248). Sydney, Australia: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Macquarie University. Calderhead, J., & Robson, M. (1991). Images of teaching: Student teachers’ early conceptions of classroom practice. Teaching & Teacher Education, 7(1), 1–8. Choy, S., Li, M., & Singh, P. (2015). The Australian doctorate curriculum: Responding to the needs of Asian candidates. International Journal for Researchers Development, 6(2), 165–182. Farrell, T. S. C., & Lim, P. C. P. (2005). Conceptions of grammar teaching: A case study of teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices. TESL-EJ, 9(2), 1–13. Freeman, D. (2002). The hidden side of the work: Teacher knowledge and learning to teach. Language Teaching, 35(1), 1–13. Gay, L. R., & Airasian, P. (2003). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and applications (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill-Prentice Hall. Goh, C., Zhang, L., Ng, C. H., & Goh, G. H. (2005). Knowledge, beliefs and syllabus implementation: A study of English language teachers in Singapore. Singapore: Nanyang Technological University. Retrieved September, 2013, from http://hdl.handle.net/10497/3696 Goodman, J. (1988). Constructing a practical philosophy of teaching: A study of preservice teachers’ professional perspectives. Teaching & Teacher Education, 4(2), 121–137. Guskey, T. R. (1986). Staff development and the process of teacher change. Educational Researcher, 15(5), 5–12. Johnson, B., & Turner, L. A. (2003). Data collection strategies in mixed methods research. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 297–319). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Krueger, R. A., & Casey, M. A. (2000). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Li, M. (2010). EFL teachers and English language education in the PRC: Are they the policy makers? The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 19(3), 439–451. Li, M., & Baldauf, R. B. (2011). Beyond the curriculum: Issues constraining effective English language teaching: A Chinese example. TESOL Quarterly, 45(4), 793–803. Nespor, J. (1987). The role of beliefs in the practice of teaching. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 19(4), 317–328. Orafi, S. M. S., & Borg, S. (2009). Intentions and realities in implementing communicative curriculum reform. System, 37(2), 243–253. Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers’ beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. American Educational Research Association, 62(3), 307–332. Peng, J. E. (2011). Changes in language learning beliefs during a transition to tertiary study: The mediation of classroom affordances. System, 39(3), 314–324. Phipps, S., & Borg, S. (2009). Exploring tensions between teachers’ grammar teaching beliefs and practices. System, 37(3), 380–390. Richards, J. C. (1996). Teachers’ maxims in language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 30(2), 281–296. Riessman, C. K. (2004). Narrative analysis. In M. S. Lewis-Beck, A. Bryman, & T. F. Liao (Eds.), The Sage encyclopedia of social science research methods (pp. 705–709). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Singh, P., Märtsin, M., & Glasswell, K. (2014). Dilemmatic spaces: High-stakes testing and the possibilities of collaborative knowledge work to generate learning innovations. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 21(4), 379–399. Suen, H. K., & Yu, L. (2006). Chronic consequences of high-stakes testing? Lessons from the Chinese Civil Exam. Comparative Education Review, 50(1), 46–65. Tam, A. C. F. (2012). Teachers’ misconceptions and questionable practices when using Putonghua as the medium-of-instruction: A case study of Hong Kong. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 18(6), 655–673.

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ACCOUNTING FOR CLASSROOM CURRICULUM Tan, C. (2013). Learning from Shanghai: Lessons on achieving educational success. Singapore: Springer. Underwood, P. (2012). Teacher beliefs regarding the integration of English grammar under new national curriculum reforms: A theory of planned behaviour perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education, 12(6), 911–925. Verloop, N., Van Driel, J., & Meijer, P. (2001). Teacher knowledge and the knowledgebase of teaching. International Journal of Educational Research, 35(5), 441–461. Waters, A., & Vilches, M. (2008). Factors affecting ELT reforms: The case of the Philippines basic education curriculum. RELC Journal, 39(1), 5–24. Wilkinson, S. (2004). Focus group research. In D. Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative research: Theory, method and practice (2nd ed., pp. 177–199). London; Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Zhang, F., & Liu, Y. (2014). A study of secondary school English teachers’ beliefs in the context of curriculum reform in China. Language Teaching Research, 18(2), 187–204.

Minglin Li School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science Griffith Institute for Educational Research Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia Parlo Singh Griffith Institute for Educational Research Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

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4. REORIENTING TIBETAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING A Multicultural Education Perspective

INTRODUCTION

Educational performance and outcomes for indigenous and ethnic minority students are troubling to educators and researchers in many parts of the world. In Gan nan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gansu Province, China, Tibetan ethnic minority senior high school students are suffering from a serious lag in English language learning outcomes compared with Han nationality students at the same grade. This is evident in lower scores in English writing and in weaker speaking abilities compounded by pronunciation difficulties, with both production skills constrained by failures to demonstrate linguistic and lexical knowledge introduced in classroom teaching programs (Gan nan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Education Information Network, 2015). Once a lag in learning becomes dominant, language learning becomes even more difficult, influencing adaptations to the learning culture and forming a vicious cycle of under-achievement. The origins of the problem were investigated through analysis of data generated using in-depth interviews with Tibetan students and their teachers in conjunction with participant-observations. It was found that current teaching methods and strategies are ineffective in development of productive cross-cultural communication, that learner motivation is poor, and that intercultural tension and conflicts are common. The implications of the findings for language learning, learning and teaching strategies, and social cohesion are discussed using the perspective of multicultural education (ME), and it is argued that, if learner outcomes are to improve, English language teaching in Tibetan high schools requires a ME reorientation. To this end, three countermeasures to tackle the problem are proposed. MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

Multicultural education is grounded in the essential principle that is the starting point of multiculturalism: respect for different cultures on the basis of a purposeful and planned common equality between cultures to promote mutual understanding. Banks and Banks (1993) propose three perspectives on multiculturalism: a belief or a view; a social reform movement; and, an educational reform movement. As I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 27–36. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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a social reform movement, multiculturalism is predicated upon several needs: to accept the rights of different ethnic groups; to understand the validity and variability of the socioeconomic base of ethnic groups; to expand the abilities of individuals to operate effectively in their own communities and other communities; and, to sustain ethnic and cultural diversity as a means of maintaining the richness of society. Arguing that ME is grounded in a belief or a view, Gay (1977, in Grant, 1977, pp. 95–96) asserts that: a clear and multicultural education philosophy is essential for the development of the school curriculum, which means that we should accept the truth of different ethnic groups knowledge, and develop appropriate knowledge and attitudes about the history, cultural heritage, life style and value system of different ethnic groups. The aim of ME as an education reform movement is to understand different cultures, and the rights of different cultures as different entities (Lynch, 1986; Grant, 1977; Ha & Teng, 2001) in order to improve education quality for students in different gender, ethnic, and cultural groups, and in a disadvantageous situation (Banks, 1994). Development of all students’ cross-cultural analysis and application skills, of active cultural diversity, of social equality, unity and human justice would be difficult to realize if ethnic students failed to be taught in a multicultural learning environment where ethnic culture is understood and respected. Multicultural education aims to promote cultural diversity, to allow everyone the opportunity of different life choices, to promote equality of opportunity, and to promote cultural equality between the allocation of rights (Golinick & Chinn, 1983) by means of culturally appropriate and efficient classroom adaptation of teaching performance. From its origins in Western nations as a social movement that aimed to eliminate prejudice on housing, employment and education (Banks & Lynch, 1986, in Nieto 1998), ME influenced Asian nations, such as China, India, and Japan, to reform their traditional national integrated education models, and, to varying degrees, these nations have introduced national policies and guidelines for multi-ethnic and multi-cultural education in school curriculums. Therefore, practices of multicultural education in response to the needs of indigenous groups and migrants in Western nations, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, transferred to Eastern nations with histories and traditions of multi-ethnicity in a variety of developmental models. In the case of China, home to numerous ethnic minorities, ME is a great challenge the nation has to face in the 21st century. English Language Learning in Gan Nan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gansu Province There are more than 24 ethnic peoples, including Tibetan, Han, Hui, Tu, and Mongolian in Gan nan, which is located in southwest Gansu Province. In 2013, nearly 8,000 ethnic minority students were in senior high schools, 80% of 28

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them Tibetan. Some 2,500 students, accounting for around 30% of senior high school students in Gan nan (Gan nan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Education Information Network, 2015) are in Tibetan-Mandarin bilingual schools with the aim of achieving some Mandarin proficiency in conversation and reading comprehension. The number of students who attend Tibetan-Chinese bilingual primary and secondary schools is 45,053, only accounting for 38.9% of all ethnic minority students at these levels. Tibetan texts are included in courses in less than 20% of middle schools. While students are taught English from Grade Four in primary school, the language of instruction at all levels is Mandarin, which is difficult for Tibetan mother tongue students to follow. English language learning has the potential to bring benefits to the Tibetan students in Gan nan. Language learning research has found that the complexities of language learning can improve learning processes, cognitive capacities, overall language development, receptive abilities, and so on (Li, Y. L., 2003). However, P. Li (2012) warned of problems with the phenomenon of language transfer for ethnic students, advising that English teaching be conducted using the target language, English, rather than Mandarin, because of the risk of confusion ensuing from using what is already a language additional to students’ mother tongue. Zhou (2013) also warned of three language cross-interference, adding that differences between Chinese and Tibetan students in learning styles and strategies are arguably linked to difficulties in additional language learning experienced by Tibetan students, a point also made by Liu (2003). The difficulties faced by minority students are complex and many argue that research should investigate a variety of factors, such as the composition of teaching staff, teaching methods, language of instruction, teaching materials, cultural factors, learning motivation, strategies, and tendencies (Zhou, 2013). Tibetan learners’ difficulties with English language learning require more than a superficial analysis and the grounded approach adopted in the project reported in this chapter aimed to reflect this perspective. METHOD

Findings presented here draw on data gathered in a research project conducted during 2012–2013 over two school semesters in Gan nan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province, one of the most multicultural of the ten Tibetan autonomous prefectures in China. The aim of the research was to gain new knowledge of the origins of the lag in English language learning outcomes of Tibetan students. The fieldwork involved students, teachers and school administrators. More than 1000 senior high school students in six schools, two thirds of Tibetan background and one third of Han background, completed a survey on learning motivation, learning strategies, attitudes to learning and to English language learning, interests, and ethnic identity and pride. In addition, forty Tibetan students aged from 16–20 years (S1-40) were also interviewed about English learning strategies. Fifty English teachers (T1-50) with between five to twenty years teaching experience participated 29

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in semi-structured narrative interviews of up to 120 minutes duration; interview topics covered teaching strategies, teaching targets, teaching methods, attitudes towards Tibetan students, and opinions about Tibetan religion and customs. Twenty in-depth follow-up interviews were conducted with teachers whose classes had low scores on English testing and/or who were identified in the initial interview as experiencing difficulties with English teaching approaches and techniques. Four school principals (P1–4), with three to ten years’ experience, were interviewed about school management. All interviews were carried out in Mandarin, recorded and transcribed. The researcher also carried out several short ethnographic fieldwork visits to the schools, each one or two weeks in length, participating in English teaching and daily activities, observing and speaking with participants, and observing school and classroom management, classroom learning environments and learning instruments. Observations were recorded in a fieldwork journal. In addition, the author analyzed five daily classroom journals that were kept on a rotating basis by both Han and Tibetan students. Using Mandarin, students recorded details of their observations of main events in the classroom, and any cultural tensions or classroom conflicts between students or teachers and students during the allocated day. All data from survey and interviews and daily journals were organized for analysis using SPSS software using analytical processes including descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The author sees data as consisting of an entire fieldwork and inclusive of all relationships in the field, relationships that cannot and should not be isolated from each other for research purposes. FINDINGS

Four key findings, detailed below, emerged from analysis of these data. Finding 1 Teaching methods and strategies in the English language classroom do not foster effective cross-cultural adaptation. Teachers in Tibetan schools lack adequate teaching instruments and are unable to create an English environment to develop English proficiency. The only language used to instruct English classes is Mandarin, which is confusing to Tibetan students. Han teachers in Tibetan schools have a poor attitude to Tibetan students and this might explain their poor pedagogy. They lack understanding of ethnic cultures and teach English in quite a utilitarian way; the teacher participants take it for granted that getting a high score in tests is the only goal for English learners: ‘I have never taught students anything that is irrelevant for the National College Entrance Examination, since it’s of little use for them’ (T12). With regard to the lag in English language learning outcomes , eighty-five percent of teachers surveyed attribute the reason for it to Tibetan students’ ‘stupidity’ and ‘laziness’ and offer a list of examples to illustrate it: ‘I can never teach a Tibetan student anything, for he is so stupid and could make no sense of what I mean and 30

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he thinks in a totally different way’ (T13); ‘What makes me annoyed is that he is unwilling to act as I have told him. He is just as lazy as a pig’ (T26). In the interviews, nearly half the teachers fail to supply reasons they believe explain why some of their students were absent from class or ceased school education before graduation. Several teachers suggest that they can not understand their Tibetan students’ behaviors and religious customs, which are vital for Tibetan students. More than 40% of teachers believe there is no need to communicate with their Tibetan students in an informal way to understand their interests and hobbies. Finding 2 Government fails to provide enough bi-lingual primary schools and curriculum to meet the needs of ethnic students, and does not train enough qualified teachers or adequately finance teacher professional development to meet the needs of school communities. A serious shortage of Tibetan-Chinese bilingual schools is another contributor to Tibetan students’ lag in English language learning outcomes. One principal noted the shortage of English teachers, a situation which meant ‘I had to ask Chinese teachers to teach English, for they are both language teachers. They can learn English according to the tapes together with their students’ (P4). Several teacher interviewees refer to corruption, short-sightedness and profit-seeking of government administrations at all levels. More than one teacher interviewee mentions that the local higher normal school, as the teacher education base, turned to training of civil servants as its only duty, which weakened the social functions that it should bear to cultivate qualified teachers: Although the Chinese government invested a lot of money, the money was corrupted by all levels of government. Teachers’ College, which is a place for training teachers, now is a training center for civil servants. Students there are rich and powerful officials or their sons and daughters, who generally do not learn anything. The school teaches courses of the civil service, and the employment rate of these courses is very high. (P2) Finding 3 The motivation of Tibetan students to succeed in English language learning is very poor. It was observed in English classes that Tibetan students do not concentrate on listening to teachers, and their interest in class is easily transferred to irrelevant activities such as mobile phone games. According to the survey data, 80% of Tibetan students are feeling tired of school life, and nearly 90% of students rarely enjoy learning or the experience of success. English learning is a burden of being forced to cater to the wishes of their parents and teachers. Faced with lags in learning outcomes, Tibetan students do not want to actively seek solutions with appropriate learning methods. Instead, they are satisfied with rote responses and with low 31

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self-efficacy. Because of the lack of interest and of appropriate learning strategies and methods for English, they experience difficulties applying what they have learnt to new learning situations, let alone being creative in new learning situations. Few students express clear learning objectives for English language as an end in itself or as a means to other life goals. From the survey data, we can see students’ reasons for learning English: the first two are based on utility principles of satisfying parents and teachers (35%) and promotion to the next grade (20%), whereas the goal of learning English language and culture (2%) is insignificant by comparison. Finding 4 Cultural tensions and conflicts between teachers and students are common. During the fieldwork, the relationship behaviors of Han Chinese teachers and Tibetan students were observed and then explored in the interviews. It emerged that there is a high level of misunderstanding between Tibetan and Han of culture and customs, and between Tibetan students and Han teachers there are varying degrees of conflict, such as the behaviours of insults, abuse or even fighting. Han teachers accuse Tibetan students of being lazy, of not thinking, of disrespect of teachers, of lacking social courtesy, and of being aggressive and tending to frequently violate school rules. The Tibetan students, on their part, complain that their Han teachers have biases against them, being discriminatory and condescending towards Tibetan students, regarding Tibetans as being dirty or stupid, and with a cynical attitude of scoffing at Tibetans’ devoted religious beliefs. From the observations, Tibetan students and their Han instructors have totally different views on diet, clothing, behaviors, habits and customs, and have a tendency to feel ‘uncomfortable’ about each other: ‘How ugly is it to wear a Tibetan long cloak and it is not welcomed to act in an aggressive way like Tibetans’ (T23: Han teacher); ‘I prefer wearing a Tibetan long cloak to dressing myself in an overcautious way like Han people and I am wondering whether it is a better teaching way to treat us as someone inferior to others’ (P20: Tibetan student). Relationship conflicts between teachers and students that arise from different values and religious morality are serious impediments to effective teaching and learning. DISCUSSION

Education is a process where teachers and learners interact closely in the activities of teaching and learning, which demands a productive intimacy between teachers and learners. The teachers should be more sensitive to different signifiers in the multicultural context of Tibetan schooling; at the same time, experienced teachers and appropriate teaching strategies are required. The different thinking models that religious belief has brought also contribute to cultural tension and conflicts. Culture is not the general symbols, but the positive ways of specific value thought, and is the psychological foundation and condition of actual behaviors. In the entire cultural system, faith has essential status. In the in-depth interviews, an overwhelming 32

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majority referred to religious aspects of other cultural groups that he or she could not understand. Therefore, to have a further understanding about the origins of Tibetan high school students’ English learning difficulties, teachers must know their students’ religious ideas. The main characteristic of traditional Tibetan education was a mixture of education and religion and the content of education gave priority to religious teaching and native experiential knowledge. In contrast, modern school education emphasizes separation of education and religion, and citizenship is an essential part of national education. Therefore, in modern school education, educators should take traditions of religious teaching and native experiential knowledge into consideration, and respect Tibetan culture on the basis of a purposeful and planned common equality between cultures to promote mutual understanding. From a social aspect, although the national culture has been evolving in a longterm historical process, and in interaction with all ethnic groups’ cultures, Han mainstream culture is promoted through policy by the Chinese government and is very different from Tibetan minority culture, which puts minority culture and education in a marginalized and weakened disadvantaged position. Outcomes of the process of education show the chance of admission to higher education for minorities does not really match that for non-ethnic minorities. In the university entrance examination, and in graduate admission tests, there is a small number of points to be added to the applicants who apply for higher education admission, but this can actually be harmful for building up ethnic self-confidence and pride. Meanwhile, curricula involving Tibetan religion, language, and customs are not available, let alone ethnic traditional culture and arts. Development of appropriately multicultural school curricula requires acceptance of the truth of the knowledge of different ethnic groups, development of appropriate knowledge and attitudes about the history, cultural heritage, life style and value system of different ethnic groups, and more school-based curricula where students develop appropriate attitudes to ethnicity and sustain and renew cultural heritages. Finally, it is obviously an obstacle to adopt Mandarin as the medium of instruction (MOI) in the English language classroom because most Tibetan middle school students are at a low level proficiency in this additional language. It is easy for Tibetan senior high school students to confuse the three languages and many mistakes can easily be made in phonetic intonation as well as grammar and syntax. The internal thinking model of Tibetan students and their knowledge system of Tibetan and Chinese will cause negative language transfers that lead to problems in Tibetan students’ use of English grammar, slow development of English reading skills, even translation of English materials into Chinese with Tibetan sentence order. Tibetan, Chinese, and English, three languages with three different cultures, combine to form a complex knowledge and cognition network, that is an obstacle to English language learning for Tibetan senior high school students. At the beginning of English learning, a system of English knowledge and cognition structure comes into being but still at a very low level that cannot support the assimilation of new information. When the target information comes through Mandarin used as MOI, to 33

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accomplish the information processing target information will be connected directly to the system of Chinese knowledge and cognition structure and assimilated and stored. However, these Tibetan students do not have a solid foundation of Chinese but a deep system of Tibetan knowledge and cognitive structure. In an ME approach, Tibetan students’ motivation to develop English language proficiency might be less difficult to realize if their mother tongue is recognised and accorded validity as a knowledge system on which they can directly build their understanding of an additional language. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It should be noted that this study has a number of limitations. The data collected is mainly based on self-report measures and self-descriptions so perhaps future studies could build on a quantitative research methodology. Furthermore, a behavioral analysis could be given more attention. It should be also noted that the schools in the study were selected on the basis of convenience and the selection of these particular schools could have influenced findings and constrain any generalization. Given the problems Tibetan students are experiencing with English language learning, the author’s necessary reliance on the use of Mandarin in generation of interview data must also be noted. However, this study has provided insight into the reasons for the lag in English language learning outcomes of Tibetan students: inefficient teaching methods and strategies; government failure to provide enough bi-lingual primary schools, ethnically-compatible curricula or quality teachers; Tibetan students’ poor motivations; and, cultural tensions and conflicts. Consideration and enactment of the objectives of ME has the potential to address this situation, and, specifically, the author suggests several points should be paid more attention. Government should take more effective measures to promote the policy of diversity in unity to meet the Chinese tradition of a multi-ethnic multi-cultural nation. Only in this way will the quality of teachers and of teaching methods and strategies be improved. To achieve this, government should establish more bi-lingual schools in Tibetan multi-cultural areas to promote the development of children’s native language and increase funds to cultivate more qualified teachers. Administrators at all levels should plan multicultural curricula and schools should seek out local cultural practitioners of the traditions of ethnic minorities to engage in provision of learning experiences for teachers. Furthermore, rather than the simple awarding of points on the basis of ethnicity, the proportion of multi-cultural assessment in admission into higher education should be increased. As for individual schools and teachers, ongoing professional development and training should be planned and introduced with the aim of improvement of both teaching strategies and of cultivation of abilities for cross-cultural adaptation, to learn from other cultures, to observe their own national culture, and to obtain the maximum self-understanding instead of teaching English in a utilitarian way. 34

Reorienting Tibetan high school students’ English language learning

In English classes, teachers should shift from Mandarin as their MOI to use English to create an environment for learners to develop their English thinking ways. To increase English language input by listening and reading is one way to stimulate English language output and to provide students with the chance to use English freely instead of using Mandarin as teaching language, but teachers also need to consider how to create more ethnically-grounded opportunities for students to use English; for example, introduction of speech competitions and drama performances using English to present culture and religion to others can improve proficiency as well as ethnic pride and confidence. To address low motivation of Tibetan students, teachers need to accept, understand and respect ethnic culture by treating different ethnic peoples differently and aim to nurture internal motivation, for example, by organizing diverse English language learning activities where minority cultural festivals, artifacts, traditional handworks, religious rituals are integrated. Finally, school managers need to assume responsibility for provision of facilities and accommodations to satisfy the different needs of their students, particularly taking religious beliefs into consideration, and to direct teachers and students to deal with conflicts tolerantly and wisely. If improvement of Tibetan students’ learning outcomes is to be achieved, such recommendations need to be adopted to strive for the goals of ME and an equal and just school environment for teachers and students. REFERENCES Banks, J. A. (1994). Multiethnic education: Theory and practice (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. (1993). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Gan nan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Education Information Network. (2015). Second assessment team for the Gan nan state government education supervision assessment. Retrieved from http://www.gnzjyxxw.cn [Mandarin] Golinick, D. M., & Chinn, P. C. (1983). Multicultural education in a pluralistic society. Boston, MA: Mosby. Grant, C. A. (Ed.). (1977). Multicul tural education: Commitments, issues and application. Washington, DC: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Ha, J. X., & Teng, X. (2001). Theory of national education science. Beijing: Education Science Press. [Mandarin] Li, P. (2012). Minority students’ English learning and its influence on language transfer. Journal of Zunyi Normal University, 14(4), 133–146. [Mandarin] Li, Y. L. (2003). The special research on the English learning of minority students. Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities (Humanities And Social Sciences Edition), (8), 304–306. [Mandarin] Liu, H. (2003). A survey on English learning of minority students. Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities (Humanities And Social Sciences Edition), (10), 354–355. [Mandarin] Lynch, J. (1986). Multicultural education: Principles and practice. London: Routlege & Kegan Paul. Nieto, S. (1998). Cultural difference and educational change in a sociopolitical context. In A. Hargreaves, A. Lieberman, M. Fullan, & D. Hopkins (Eds.), International handbook of educational change: Part one (pp. 418–439). Dordrecht: Springer. Zhou, L. (2013). Special difficulties and reasons of English learning of minority nationality Junior High School students in a group of regions. Journal of Chuxiong Normal University, 28(11), 76–82. [Mandarin]

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HUANG

Huang Yun Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China

36

YIJUN HU AND MINGLIN LI

5. PERCEPTIONS OF BECOMING A LEGITIMATE EFL TEACHER A Case Study of an Asian Teacher-Trainee

INTRODUCTION

With the growing popularity of the English language worldwide, demand for English teachers continues to increase, especially in some Asian countries where English is used as a foreign language (EFL) and has been made a compulsory subject in primary schools (see e.g., Hashimoto, 2011, in Japan; Li, 2007, in China; Nguyen, 2011 in Vietnam). To accommodate this demand, a large number of nonnative English-speaking (NNES) teacher-trainees enrol in language teacher training programs in native English-speaking (NES) countries to immerse themselves in English language and cultural environments. This also allows NNES teacher trainees’ to acquire Western qualifications and have frequent contact with their NES counterparts. As contact with NES speaking groups is believed to significantly benefit NNES teachers (Brady & Gulikers, 2004; Liyanage & Bartlett, 2008; Tananuraksakul & Hall, 2011), researchers (e.g., Faez, 2011; Higgins, 2003) have encouraged more investigations into how interactions between these two groups may affect NNES teacher trainees’ sense of becoming competent and legitimate EFL teachers. Aiming to contribute to this area of research, we conducted a case study with an NNES teacher-trainee undertaking a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) degree in an Australian university, examining (1) how this NNES teacher-trainee perceived the attitudes held about her by her NES peers, and (2) how these perceptions influenced the trainee’s sense of becoming a legitimate EFL teacher. This chapter presents the attitudes that this teacher-trainee perceived from her NES peers in terms of her knowledge of English language and language teaching, her oral language proficiency, teaching practice performance, and the advantages conferred by her first language capability. We would argue that in general these perceptions, either positive or negative, can constructively enhance the teacher trainee’s sense of becoming a competent and legitimate EFL teacher.

I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 37–43. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

There have been two main area of focus in discussions in literature about NES and NNES teachers within language communities. One concerns the dichotomy of the two parties, addressing that the two groups are different and that NESs enjoy a power and status in English language that NNESs are denied (Ilieva, 2010; Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, & Johnson, 2005). The other view claims that NES and NNES groups have varying degrees of ownership of the English language (Norton, 1997), and argues against the belief that NES teachers are the best teachers of English (Canagarajah, 1999; Liu, 1999). Both these judgements are believed to impact on both NES and NNES language teachers while our paper has concentrated especially on NNES teachers’ perceptions of these judgments. The literature has presented these perceptions from various standpoints, including NNES English teachers’ perceptions of the attitudes of their students, their NES colleagues and employers, as well as other NESs acknowledgement of their advantages and disadvantages in terms of English language teaching (Canagarajah, 1999; McKay, 2003; Moussu & Llurda, 2008; Rampton, 1990). Amin (1997) was the first scholar to study the influence of NNES teachers’ perceptions of other people’s impressions of them. In Amin’s study, it was found that if NNES teachers perceived implications of inferiority from their students and NES colleagues, they could become less effective in facilitating their students’ language learning regardless of their qualifications. In a similar vein, Maum (2003) identified that while NNES teachers felt inferior in their profession, their NES counterparts might have no awareness that NES teachers themeslves were potentially one of the causal factors. The existing literature has emphasized that the perceptions of being socially marginalized may have an adverse influence on how NNES teachers position themselves within the profession. As a result, NNES teachers would possibly have experienced a denial of legitimacy as competent EFL teachers (Braine, 2010; Reis, 2010). In addition to unfavorable perceptions and their correspondingly negative influences, this paper, as an exploratory and a descriptive study, extends the investigation to both the negative and positive aspects of perceptions and their influences on construction of NNES teacher trainees’ legitimate teacher identity. METHOD

Yin (2013) suggests that a case study is “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its real life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” (p. 16). This research adopts the case study method in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of NNES teacher-trainees’ perceptions of attitudes held by their NES peers. A Masters degree program in TESOL at an Australian university was chosen for the case study setting due to its mixed enrolment of both NES and NNES teacher 38

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trainees. The case study participant was Emma (pseudonym), a female Asian teacher trainee who was studying in this program. She was 30 years old and had four years of experience teaching English with young children, teenagers and adults in her home country prior to this first overseas educational experience. At the time of this study, she had completed the first semster of her degree, which involved four courses. After obtaining ethical approval for this study, the participant was invited to attend a number of informal conversations and then a one and a half hour semistructured interview with the researchers. In the course of these communications, she was encouraged to recall and articulate situations that she had encountered while interacting with NES peers in the TESOL program and the feelings these encounters had engendered. FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS

The case study highlighted four different attitudes the NNES teacher-trainee perceived to be held by her NES peers. Knowledge of the English Language and Language Teaching In the interview and conversations, Emma commentd on peers’ attitudes towards her English language knowledge. She indicated that, although she had commenced the TESOL program with a relatively positive personal evaluation of her overall competence, she had unpleasant impressions during an in-class discussion about the English language and theories about language teaching and acquisition: …I feel they [NES peers] think that Asian students don’t have very much English language knowledge. And when you really want to express some ideas, I don’t feel they really want to hear and I also don’t think they want to discuss ideas with you seriously. Emma reported that this negative perception immediately led to a reduction in her confidence. However at the same time, she indicated that this perception also motivated her to work harder and involve herself more deeply with her class peers. When describing this dual influence, she commented: …I am more deeply aware that I need to gain more language knowledge. I really think the influence has two sides: on the one hand, their attitudes made me less confident; but on the other hand, it also inspired me with enthusiasm to learn more. I want to work harder and learn more so that they will finally accept me as an equal. In line with previous studies about the negative influence of unfavourable perceptions (Liu, 1999; Reves & Medgyes, 1994), this finding has also revealed that criticism by NES colleagues may result in a lower self-image of NNES teachers. Nevertheless, the finding shows that it could be valuable to guide NNES teacher 39

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trainees to become aware of the potential positive consequences of such interactions. That is to say, rather than avoiding in-class discussions or judging whether ideas expressed are right or wrong, it should be suggested to NNES teacher-trainees that the exchange of ideas in this context and pursuing a positive initiative could be beneficial in their learning process. English Oral Proficiency The second finding concerns evaluations of English oral proficiency. The NNES teacher-trainee perceived that her NES peers had made implicitly negative evaluations. This perception influenced her in two ways: it drew her attention to language competence, and also encouraged her to gain legitimacy in her future teaching career. Emma’s interpretation of her NES peers’ attitudes towards her oral proficiency progressed through stages. At the beginning, she regarded the feedback, which to some extent was negative, as a challenge to her own self-assessed capabilities: My feeling was that they regarded the English of Asian students as not very good, so they were not willing to be patient and give you time to pour out all the things you wanted to say. She then attempted to negotiate an acceptable position for herself somewhere between her original self-perception, which was relatively positive, and the one engendered by the feedback from her NES peers. Finally, she came to an acceptance of her NES peers’ feedback, admitting that it was evidence of deficiency in her language competence: They probably thought I needed to improve. They said I seemed very nervous and that my English was not fluent… This is acceptable, because I recognize it as my weakness. These perceptions produced two outcomes, as Emma relayed: Sometimes I feel that the most important thing about language is to make yourself intelligible. But other times I know I want to improve my English, and it is also a requirement for English teachers in my country to be nativelike. Both of these opinions exist in my mind at the same time. On the one hand, she put more emphasis on intelligibility. This revealed her recognition of a fundamental difference in communicative competence between native speakers and non-native speakers, a distinction which has also caused arguments between scholars about the need to be native-like or to simply be intelligible (Canagarajah, 1999; McKay, 2003; Moussu & Llurda, 2008). The second outcome was that Emma was encouraged to strive for improvement in order to minimize the difference that she recognized between her oral proficiency and that of native speakers. 40

PERCEPTIONS OF BECOMING A LEGITIMATE EFL TEACHER

Teaching Practice Performance The third finding was drawn from Emma’s reflections on peer teaching practices, a major in-class activity in this TESOL program. Compared to what Emma perceived as moderately negative attitudes conveyed by her NES peers towards her theoretical knowledge and communicative competence, she felt their evaluation of her teaching competence was positive. Emma’s previous teaching experience in an EFL context, although short, offered unfamiliar but interesting scenarios to her NES peers, providing her with an opportunity to take a leading role in class discussions. She recounted: They are more willing to hear [about her experience]. For example, when I was describing my teaching method, they were interested and were happy to spend some time listening to me…They asked further questions and for more details about my teaching. Based on this type of response, Emma perceived that her NES peers considered that she had reasonable experience and that they thought her practical teaching ideas originating from her EFL learning experiences were valuable. This had a favorable effect on her self-identification as a competent teacher: They made me feel confident that my students will be able to speak English properly. And also it made me feel that my experience of learning English is relevant and worth recounting to my students so that they could learn from me. Her positive perceptions provided her with assurance of her ability as a teacher and affirmed what she had chosen to do, as she mentioned in the interview: The aspects to which they responded positively were like confirmation of my decision and made me recognise that I can continue to do this. From the negative ones, I know how I can be a better teacher. Knowledge of a Language Other Than English The last concern of this study is on the perceptions of the first language capability of NNES teacher-trainees. Emma commented: If I go back to my home country, I can at least speak my students’ first language… I’m familiar with my students’ way of thinking. For instance, I can understand why my students make certain errors in grammar because I have experienced the same thing when I learnt it. We understand the influence of our first language on second language acquisition. She perceived that she possessed advantages as an NNES English teacher due to her first language background, empowering her with a shared language communication facility, learning history, and comparative language knowledge. This perception corresponds with the finding of a previous study that EFL students see 41

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their NNES teachers as ‘real’ learning models (McKay, 2003). Also, this perception is manifested in the current trend of valuing multilingual competence in the field of linguistics and language teaching. For NNES teacher-trainees, they regard this as a source of confidence in becoming legtimate Englsih language teachers. CONCLUSION

We conclude from this case study that the NNES teacher-trainee perceived both favorable and unfavorable attitudes held by her NES peers towards various aspects of her knowledge and abilities. Importantly, regardless of the unfavorable attitudes, the NNES teacher trainee could usually assign positive interpretations to her perceptions. Therefore, the NNES teacher-trainee considered that through her involvement in the TESOL program and her interactions with peers, her identity as a legitimate EFL teacher had been reinforced and enhanced. Therefore, pedagogical implications can be considered from this study. To maximize the benefits of the interactions between NNES and NES teacher-trainees, various types of communication should be encouraged. For instance, in-class discussions concerning language teaching knowledge, pedagogic knowledge, and the diversity of language learners should be prompted regularly by TESOL program lecturers in order to engage both NES and NNES teacher-trainees in sharing and exchanging ideas. Other resources in universities, such as workshops, seminar discussions and other forms of collaborative study organised by university academic advisors may also be considered in order to provide a meaningful and valuable learning context. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Professor Parlo Singh for her insightful editorial suggestions and support. This chapter, as part of a previous thesis, has benefited greatly from the supervision of Associate Professor Indika Liyanage. REFERENCES Amin, N. (1997). Race and the identity of the nonnative ESL teacher. TESOL Quarterly, 31(3), 580–583. Brady, B., & Gulikers, G. (2004). Enhancing the MA in TESOL practicum course for nonnative Englishspeaking student teachers. In Kamhi-Stein (Ed.), Learning and teaching from experience: Perspectives on nonnative English-speaking professionals (pp. 206–229). Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. Braine, G. (2010). Nonnative speaker English teachers: Research, pedagogy, and professional growth. New York, NY: Routledge. Canagarajah, A. S. (1999). Interrogating the “native speaker fallacy”: Non-linguistic roots, nonpedagogical results. In G. Braine (Ed.), Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp. 77–92). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Faez, F. (2011). Reconceptualizing the native/nonnative speaker dichotomy. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 10(4), 231–249.

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PERCEPTIONS OF BECOMING A LEGITIMATE EFL TEACHER Hashimoto, K. (2011). Compulsory ‘foreign language activities’ in Japanese primary schools. Current Issues in Language Planning, 12(2), 167–184. Higgins, C. (2003). “Ownership” of English in the Outer Circle: An alternative to the NS-NNS dichotomy. TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 615–644. Ilieva, R. (2010). Non-native English–speaking teachers’ negotiations of program discourses in their construction of professional identities within a TESOL program. Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, 66(3), 343–369. Li, M. (2007). Foreign language education in primary schools in the People’s Republic of China. Current Issues in Language Planning, 8(2), 148–161. Liu, D. (1999). Training non-native TESOL students: Challenges for TESOL teacher education in the West. In G. Braine (Ed.), Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp. 197–210). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Liu, J. (1999). Nonnative-English-speaking professionals in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 33(1), 85–102. Liyanage, I., & Bartlett, B. J. (2008). Contextually responsive transfer: Perceptions of NNES on an ESL/ EFL teacher training programme. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(7), 1827–1836. doi:10.1016/ j.tate.2008.02.009 Maum, R. (2003). A comparison of native-and nonnative-English-speaking teachers’ beliefs about teaching English as a second language to adult English language learners (unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. McKay, S. L. (2003). Toward an appropriate EIL pedagogy: Re-examining common ELT assumptions. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 1–22. Moussu, L., & Llurda, E. (2008). Non-native English-speaking English language teachers: History and research. Language Teaching, 41(03), 315–348. Nguyen, H. T. M. (2011). Primary English language education policy in Vietnam: Insights from implementation. Current Issues in Language Planning, 12(2), 225–249. Norton, B. (1997). Language, identity, and the ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly, 31(3), 409–429. Rampton, M. B. H. (1990). Displacing the ‘native speaker’: Expertise, affiliation, and inheritance. ELT Journal, 44(2), 97–101. Reis, D. S. (2010). Non-native English-speaking teachers and professional legitimacy: A sociocultural theoretical perspective on identity realization (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, PA. Reves, T., & Medgyes, P. (1994). The non-native English speaking EFL/ESL teacher’s self-image: An international survey. System, 22(3), 353–367. Tananuraksakul, N., & Hall, D. (2011). International students’ emotional security and dignity in an Australian context: An aspect of psychological well-being. Journal of Research in International Education, 10(2), 189–200. Varghese, M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B., & Johnson, K. A. (2005). Theorizing language teacher identity: Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of language, Identity, and Education, 4(1), 21–44. Yin, R. K. (2013). Case study research: Design and methods. London: Sage publications.

Yijun Hu School of Education and Professional Studies Griffith University, Australia Minglin Li School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science Griffith University, Australia

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RODERICK NEILSEN

6. PUTTING GRAMMAR IN ITS PLACE Interactions and Identity in a Master of TESOL Course

INTRODUCTION

This chapter reports on the development of language awareness and second language identities of a cohort of Chinese TESOL teachers that arose as a result of incidental classroom interactions during a TESOL Masters course in Australia. The experiences of such interactions appeared to help the Chinese teachers make stronger connections between form and meaning, and, while they also reflected deeply on the pedagogies of grammar, they gained a wider view of language teaching and learning that included pragmatic and sociolinguistic awareness. The impact of cultural and educational exchanges and the resulting formations of second language identities is an emerging focus of research (Benson, Barkhuizen, Bodycott, & Brown, 2013). In the field of TESOL, by drawing on diverse traditions of professionalism in different communities and contexts, such movements and exchanges are creating opportunities to develop a richer discourse, and calls are increasingly being made for a plural professional knowledge and more inclusive relationships (Canagarajah, 2005; Holliday, 2005; Widdowson, 2004). The People’s Republic of China has been one of the major contributors to student and teacher mobility in recent years; English language is now a priority subject in China, and all students entering university must take the English college test whether they intend to major in English or not, and therefore there has been much interest in upskilling cohorts of Chinese teachers of English to meet this demand. An increasingly typical initiative is to award scholarships to gain professional qualifications in English-speaking countries. A cohort of English teachers from Jiangsu province, China, is the focus of the present study. During their Masters in TESOL course in Queensland, Australia, they experienced interactions with native speakers of English inside and outside of the classroom. As their course lecturer for several TESOL units, I was interested in the nature of the incidental language awareness arising from course activities with their native-speaking peers. I was also interested in whether they felt that these experiences had implications for their sense of identity in a second language. The following sections therefore discuss the key themes: interaction in higher education contexts, language awareness, and second language identities.

I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 45–52. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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INTERACTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Student interactions are key to development of new cognitive understandings and offer enhanced opportunities for learning (Ryan & Viete, 2009). Interaction in class settings is also considered to encourage heightened awareness of difference/s between students’ own and other cultures (Arkoudis et al., 2010). Individual learners in group-learning environments often discover the extent to which their perceptions, assumptions, values, and general understandings of subject content differ from those of their peers. In the case of TESOL teachers, as in this study, there is intrinsic motivation to be aware of linguistic and cultural difference, and the students in this study actively sought interaction in the class activities with domestic students. These interactions appeared to result in new forms of awareness about language. TEACHER LANGUAGE AWARENESS

Language awareness for teachers, an area extensively investigated by Andrews (2007), has been defined by Thornbury (1997, p. x) as “the knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of language that enables them to teach effectively”. There is consensus that these systems should not be restricted to the structurallinguistic, but should also include creativity and the embedding of language within culture (Carter, 1994). Andrews (2007, p. 64) notes that teacher language awareness (TLA) can prompt “a reconceptualization of the objectives of form-focused instruction” given what we know as achievable in language teaching. Svalberg (2007) identifies three functions that distinguish TLA from the awareness of other expert language users. Teachers need not only to know about language but they need to reflect on this knowledge and on the underlying language systems from a pedagogical viewpoint. In other words they need to be effective language users and analysts as well as teachers. It is argued that the interactions of the teachers in this study with native-speaking peers helped them not only to become more expert users, but also more skilled analysts of the wider systems of language. This greater affinity with a second language (L2) has been recognized as a contributing factor to the formation of second language identities (Block, 2007). SECOND LANGUAGE IDENTITIES

Growing recognition of the centrality of language to identity (see Hall, 1996) stimulated a ‘social turn’ in linguistics in the mid 1990s. The individual/cognitive perspectives of SLA appeared inadequate, and language identities were seen as crucial factors for success in second language learning. Block (2007, p. 40) defines language identity as “the assumed and/or attributed relationship between one’s sense of self and a means of communication which might be known as a language, dialect or sociolect.” Other challengers to the individual/cognitive perspective include Norton (2000, 2014), who developed the construct of investment as a tool to 46

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improve understandings of the relationship between language learners themselves and language being learned. She also summarised a number of arguments that supported the relevance of identity to second language learning. She claimed that understandings of identity offered ways to see how individual language learners were situated in the social world, and how learners can appropriate more desirable or positive identities in relation to TL speakers. Questions of identity were further explored by Gee (2000–2001) who posited four interlocking aspects: nature-identity, as in gender or racial categories; institutionidentity, which relates to an individual’s position in society (such as being a teacher or a student); discourse-identity, relating to self-perceptions resulting from the way an individual is perceived and talked about by others; and, affinity-identity, which relates to characteristics acquired through participation in an affinity group. These four aspects of identity are posited as a framework in which the Chinese teachers came to gain new understandings and awareness during their time in Australia. METHOD

At the end of the Masters course the Chinese group were asked if they would be willing to respond to questions by email about their experiences of interaction during the course and its effect on their awareness of language, culture and language pedagogy. The questions were sent after the teachers had returned to China and taught for more than six months, and five teachers responded. The focus of the questioning was on their perceptions in hindsight of their interactions with native English speaking students. Introspection and recall have long been considered a useful and productive methodology for second language learning (see Gass & Mackey, 2000) and I argue that in the present study, the perceptions of language teachers are equally illuminating. It was acknowledged in the questions and responses that although informal interaction with class members may have had important effects, some of the changes to perceptions reported could be attributed to the course experience itself, or to living in Australia in general. University ethics procedures were followed and pseudonyms were allocated. The teachers were asked to write down their informal reflections over a period of 3–4 weeks. I encouraged anecdotes and stories to give examples of their experience. In the online email questionnaire I asked for their retrospective comments on the following five categories: 1. Self-assessment of their increase in English proficiency; 2. Changes to understandings of grammar and its position in language learning; 3. Awareness of intercultural aspects of language knowledge; 4. Changes to understandings of language teaching pedagogy; and 5. Effects on language teaching practices after returning home. Lastly I asked if there were additional comments on specific language areas not covered in the above. Categories were suggested, such as pronunciation, pragmatics, 47

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social variation, metalinguistic knowledge, academic cultural differences, and assessment. Findings are presented below. RESULTS BY CATEGORY

1. Self-Assessment of Their Increase in English Proficiency There was disagreement whether interaction made much difference to overall skill levels. Most attributed reading and writing proficiency improvements to the course experience itself, but at least one teacher felt that her critical thinking, and synthesising and writing skills were significantly improved by learning from native speakers in the class. One teacher felt, however, that in-class interactions with Australian students made little difference to listening skills, because of unfamiliarity with the colloquial use of the L2. Usually, NS (native speaker) students speak at a speed that NNS (non-native speaker) students may find hard to follow. What’s more, because of the different cultural backgrounds, what seems interesting to NS students may make no sense to NNS students. (Louise) 2. Changes to Understandings of Grammar and Its Position in Language Learning In many Asian contexts a traditional focus-on-forms approach in language learning and teaching is applied, and one result of this that Chinese language teachers often have a more advanced knowledge of metalanguage than many native English speakers, and even NS teachers. This was an empowering attribute, as during the classes the Chinese teachers found themselves in the position of explaining metalanguage to speakers of English as a first language. Several respondents commented that they were they surprised that some of their classmates lacked such knowledge. When asked to discuss “sentence constituents”, a NS who had been teaching for more than 10 years asked me for help and she said she never heard about those (sic) metalanguage and knew little about those items such as “subject/ object-complement”. (Jane) This teacher went on to report that the domestic Australian students told her they had never been taught systematically about sentence analysis and traditional grammar items such as attributive clauses, noun clauses, or subjunctive mood, but only general discourse or genre rules. Another teacher noted that although they often appeared to have a higher metalinguistic awareness of grammar than many native speakers, some of the grammar ‘rules’ learned in China appeared to be different or even inaccurate when they were checked with native speakers. This led to new perceptions of grammar as less rigid and rule-bound, a de-emphasis of the importance of accuracy, and a questioning of the notion of ‘correctness’ in language. 48

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3. Awareness of Intercultural Aspects of Language Knowledge Several reported that during the course, conversation with native speakers created useful opportunities for them to test and learn more about pragmatic knowledge of English. Susan reported learning from one classmate ‘how to order politely in stores’. This led her to compare Australian politeness formulae with rules in her own culture, where formulaic politeness expressions are used less frequently, creating a new perception for her that Chinese people might be seen as having ‘rough manners’, as she put it. Awareness of other pragmatic features such as topic choice also emerged from informal interactions, together with a realisation that these rules are also flexible and subject to change over time, possibly due to forces of globalisation. I also learned from NS that people would not choose such taboo topics as “money”, “weight”, “marriage”, which is a bit different from China. But I noticed nowadays Chinese people have a tendency to exclude those topics gradually in conversation probably due to the increasing interaction with Western countries. (Wendy) 4. Changes to Understandings of Language Teaching Pedagogy Several respondents reported a change in their perceptions of how second languages are learned, and that a linear, lockstep approach to teaching grammatical items might not be as effective as a contextual, comparative approach. One teacher professed that she would, for example, focus on more than one verb tense at a time in future. For another the reduction of emphasis on grammatical accuracy was prompted by experiences of hearing native speakers make reasonably frequent grammatical slips of the tongue. A focus on accuracy thus gave way to an emphasis on fluency and the notion that conveying meaning was more important. This reduced emphasis on grammar, and the experience of applying it in context during all aspects of the course, modified their notions of effective pedagogy, and all conveyed their recognition that language use should be focused on as much as meaning and form. Another aspect of classroom pedagogy was highlighted. Their experiences of peer work in class, and the resulting new knowledge of a wider variety of language systems as evidenced above, gave them direct experience of its value as a pedagogical tool. One teacher (Louise) identified a fundamental difference between peer and teacher feedback in that ‘learners may feel less anxious and more confident when interacting with peers’. 5. Effects on Language Teaching Practices After Returning Home The most significant effect reported by all after returning to China was a gain in confidence relating to both their use and their teaching of English. This confidence appeared to be linked to an enhanced sense of professionalism, and also to an increase in autonomy. For all of them, grammar was still a major focus given the 49

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Chinese curriculum and assessment constraints, but they expressed willingness to tie grammar more to concepts of use, through a focus on form, or grammar in context, rather than traditional focus on forms. Now I always try to create an authentic language environment for the learners and introduce what I have learned in the native to encourage them to speak the language. (Jane) 6. Other Categories: Accent Interestingly, one category marked as significant by all was pronunciation, specifically related to accent. All reported that both NS and NNS colleagues in China had noted that they had returned with some features of Australian pronunciation. Although these were mostly restricted to intonation features such as ending statements with a rising tone, there was a suggestion that this had empowered them with a sense of uniqueness. Models of English pronunciation in China are typically North American or British, and this accommodation, or convergence, in communication accommodation theory (Gallois, Ogay, & Giles, 2005) with a different variety appeared to be a significant ‘take home’ item. Pronunciation has been recognized as the most sensitive index of the ability to take on a new identity, as change or accommodation may demonstrate the permeability of language ego boundaries (Guiora, Beit-Hallahmi, Brannon, Dull, & Scovel, 1972). DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

This study has investigated the results of informal interactions between Chinese teachers of English and native-speaking teachers in a professional educational context. It found that they appeared to develop a higher degree of confidence, and gained a wider view of language learning and teaching. Ultimately their experience in Australia, as most reported, seemed to have fostered the development of a critical stance on language teaching, which in turn has led them to develop more autonomy as teachers. Crookes (2009) identifies two aspects of autonomy: one aspect manifests itself when external restrictions are removed, such as in the new perceptions the Chinese teachers had about grammar (e.g., its shift from a central position in language teaching); the second aspect is manifested when learners develop the mental capacity to make independent and critical judgment, as demonstrated in many of the responses above. Interaction, autonomy and identity are interlinked in the experiences of these teachers. Block (2007) links formations of second language identities to language expertise, language affiliation and inheritance. It seems clear that the teachers believe that for them the first two aspects were enhanced. For a further exploration of how these identities developed I return to Gee’s (2001–2002) four views, those of nature, institution, discourse and affinity. For the teachers, nature-identity 50

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(relating to ethnicity and gender) may seem fixed, yet juxtaposed with discourseidentity there were interesting realisations from their interactions with classmates about how their cultural and professional behaviours were perceived. Likewise, consideration of their affinity-identity is interesting when viewed together with their institution-identity. As a cohort they were a selected group in China, who developed affinity with a group of like-minded TESOL teachers from different professional contexts when in Australia. This new affinity, it appears, modified their institutionidentity when they returned home, as they appeared to view the constraints of their curriculum and institutional power structures in a new light. A significant aspect of this study therefore is that the Chinese teachers, through the development of their second language identities, may become agents of change in their home professional contexts (Price & Valli, 2005). Changes such as those documented in this study, which occur as a result of exchange programs, may be significant for the TESOL profession in the future, fulfilling Graddol’s (1997, 2006) predictions that TESOL will involve discourses of the non-native speaking teacher to a higher degree. REFERENCES Andrews, S. (2007). Teacher language awareness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Arkoudis, S., Yu, X., Baik C., Borland, H., Chang, S., Lang, I., Lang, J., Pearce, A., & Watty, K. (2010). Finding common ground: Enhancing interaction between domestic and international students. Sydney: Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Retrieved from http://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/research/experience/finding-common-ground Benson, P., Barkhuizen, G., Bodycott, P., & Brown, J. (2013). Second language identity in narratives of study abroad. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Block, D. (2007). Second language identities. New York, NY: Bloomsbury. Canagarajah, A. S. (Ed.). (2005). Reclaiming the local in language policy and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Carter, R. (1994, December 14–16). How aware should language teachers and learners be? Paper presented at the International Language in Education Conference, Hong Kong. Crookes, G. (2009). Values, philosophies, and beliefs in TESOL: Making a statement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gallois, C., Ogay, T., & Giles, H. (2005). Communication accommodation theory. In W. B. Gudyunst (Ed), Theorizing intercultural communication (pp. 121–148). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Gass, S., & Mackey, A. (2000). Stimulated recall methodology in second language research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Gee, J. P. (2000–2001). Identity as an analytic lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education, 25, 99–125. Graddol, D. (1997). The future of English? A guide to forecasting the popularity of the English language in the 21st century. London: British Council. Graddol, D. (2006). English next: Why global English may mean the end of ‘English as a Foreign Language’. London: British Council. Guiora, A., Beit-Hallahmi, B., Brannon, R., Dull, C., & Scovel, T. (1972). The effects of experimentally induced changes in ego states on pronunciation ability in a second language: An exploratory study. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 13, 421–428. Hall, S. (1996). Introduction: Who needs ‘identity’? In S. Hall & P. du Gay (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 1–17). London: Sage. Holliday, A. (2005). The struggle to teach English as an international language. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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NEILSEN Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity, and educational change. Harlow, England: Longman. Norton, B. (2014). Identity and poststructuralist theory in SLA. In S. Mercer & M. Williams (Eds.), Multiple perspectives on the self in SLA. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Price, N., & Valli, L. (2005). Preservice teachers becoming agents of change: Pedagogical implications for action research. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(5), 57–72. Ryan, J., & Viete, R. (2009). Respectful interactions: Learning with international students in the Englishspeaking academy. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(3), 303–314. Svalberg, A.M.-L. (2007). Language awareness and language learning. Language Teaching, 40(4), 287–308. Thornbury, S. (1997). About language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Widdowson, H. G. (2004). A perspective on recent trends. In A. P. R. Howatt & H. G. Widdowson (Eds.), A history of English language teaching (2nd ed., pp. 353–372). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Roderick Neilsen School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

52

RUTH ARBER

7. RETHINKING PEDAGOGY AND PRACTICE IN TESOL AND LANGUAGES

INTRODUCTION

It is March and today is the beginning of the Australian academic year. I am meeting the students who will belong to this year’s English as Additional Language (EAL) and Teaching English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL) pedagogy classes for the first time. In front of me are students from a wide number of contexts: China, Iran, Syria, Thailand, Vietnam, New Guinea, Germany and Ireland. There are also a number of local, Australian-born students who make up a small percentage of my class. Many of the local students are already Australian-trained teachers who work online. Their aim is to teach English in multicultural and metropolitan classrooms in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, in schools in the increasingly gentrified areas around Australian cities, in Indigenous communities in central Australia, in rural and regional centres Australia-wide, and as expatriate teachers in international and language schools in Asia and the Middle East. They wish to teach children in early childhood centres, primary and secondary schools, and to teach adults in technical colleges, community centres and universities. Two questions focus my class preparation. What does effective pedagogy look like for the very different contexts in which my students work in Australia and worldwide? What does effective pedagogy mean for the cultivation of innovative curriculum development in teacher education? My exploration of these questions in this paper has four sections. In the first section, I explore popular texts for teacher education in relation to their usefulness and limitations for diverse student cohorts such as the one I teach. In the second section, I consider the effectiveness of those texts through the lens of recent literature about language, culture and identity. In the third, I examine recent texts that relate this thinking about culture and identity to the study of language education. In the final section, I consider the importance of this review for the development of pedagogy and practice for language teacher education. POPULAR THINKING

In this section, I critique and discuss common text books that describe TESOL and EAL pedagogy and practice. All too frequently, these text books are limited by a very narrow line of applied linguistics that does not account for the full dimensions of I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 53–60. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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language, or consider recent education theory and practice. Most thinking in TESOL is repetitive and formulaic, and does not engage with the complexity of language, the current literature of education, or the increasingly globalised and digitalised local classroom. A starting point for traditional texts for languages teachers is the examination of the forms and patterns of the English language, encompassing how they are described linguistically and how they can be taught to skilful and personally motivated language learners. Harmer’s (2015) text is used often in the course I teach. Harmer begins with a discussion of popular approaches to teaching, and then provides a guide about ways to understand and teach the English language. His detailed explanation of the components of language and its use; the theories, methods and techniques of teaching; and the characteristics of different language learners—as well as classroom management, curriculum planning and assessment—make his book an important ‘bible’ for my students. Nunan (2003) takes a slightly different but complementary direction. Taking a task-based learning approach to English language teaching, his book considers the conceptual basis of second-language teaching and learning; the empirical basis of second-language teaching and learning; the conception of language patterns and forms; the conceptualisation of the language learner; and approaches to teaching the macro skills of language use: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Ur’s (2012) book for teacher trainers and trainees provides a foundational course about the process of teaching; the components of language; the macro skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening; as well as course content, classroom interaction and learner differences. Such traditional discussions about languages education see learners and teachers of languages divorced from social interactions other than those scripted between them. These discussions explore controversies that underpin second languages acquisition and the ways that languages education can take place through changes to personal language learning attributes, and often understand language and culture in ways that define them as discrete, homogenous, binary, unchanging and untranslatable. Such debates are concerned with the ways that education is best supported through access to the meaning-making or awareness of the symbolic aspects of language learning. Kramsch (1998) famously argues that language is, in the first instance, ascribed as symbols and codes and these need to be decoded by students. Texts such as Ur’s (2012) conceptualise the language teacher as someone who has acquired simple skills that can be implemented consistently in any classroom, without any educational knowledge, decision-making or reflection involved. A second direction within the textbook market for student teachers of English has also been useful for my classes. Murray and Christison (2010, 2011, 2014) shift the discussion away from language forms and meaning-exchange to focus on student learning. The first volume investigates the characteristics of teaching contexts, the English language and the ways it works and is learned, and the professional role of teachers within teacher education. The second volume examines the processes 54

Rethinking pedagogy and practice in TESOL and languages

which, Murray and Christison argue, facilitate learning. These are planning, instructing and assessing in different contexts. The third volume surveys the notion of curriculum design: the contexts for, processes in, and types of curricula available as part of linguistic-based, content-based, learner-centred and learningcentred approaches. Gibbons (2014) argues that language learning should be part of an integrated convergence that brings together a meaningful and communicative approach to language learning, as well as the examination of genres and modes as part of a curriculum that provides students with the scaffolding required to build a strong language base. Gibbons (2014) sets out a program to enable students to become full members of the school community and to learn the language and content skills they need to do this. The chapters in her book develop comprehensive lesson plans as a way to implement these pedagogies. Candlin and Mercer (2001) bring together seminal papers from sociolinguistic, ethnographic and sociopsychological perspectives to examine issues related to teacher and learner roles: the characteristics of language learners and learning; the guidance of student learning; and the interactions between learner and teachers. These texts complexly understand language learning as a relational and contextual process that integrates language patterns, forms and meaningful communication. Systemic functional applied linguistics, as proposed by Halliday (1961/2002), moves beyond the examination of linguistic systems to a larger discussion about the ways patterns and forms are used in conversation and within the larger social context. These texts foreground the nature of teaching as a process and as an interaction between teachers and learners that takes place within and about language. They bring to view a more complex understanding of the relational and reflective aspects of language teaching and learning within classrooms. Nevertheless, these discussions remain fiercely controversial, and fiercely criticised by linguists versed in older traditions of educational, linguistic and sociocultural thought. AUGMENTING LANGUAGES THINKING

My project in this paper is to examine how the methodologies and approaches to languages education curriculum and practice can be augmented to account for recent work that comprehensively considers the characteristics of language, culture and identity and the relationship between those notions. My concern is to respond to recent research that highlights how 21st–century educational sites are impacted by the complexities of the politics of language, culture and identity, and the impact of the fluid and hybrid-languaged interactions that shape globally integrated local contexts. The practices of languages education take place contextually within cultural, political and ideological notions; local and global, digital, political and economic directions; and the material consequences that shape them. The multidimensional and reflexive nature of language and its close interrelation with culture and identity is all too often ignored in discussions about languages education practice. The examination 55

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of these questions is multi-layered and needs to take into account the complex interactions between policy, curriculum and practice, as well as their contention and implementation within local contexts (Arber, 2010). Language can be understood as a system of symbols that have cultural value; the ways that people invest in and use spoken, written and visual mediums to embody sociocultural reality; and as the ontological and ideological understandings that are the reflection of that reality (Kramsch, 1998). Like culture, language is reflective. It takes its meaning from its context even as it constructs the very contexts of what it is “to mean in the first place” (Gee & Green, 1998, p. 127). Language represents the content of what it is to teach, providing the mechanism and the framing context of language, pedagogy and curricula. Although it is often thought of as culturefree, language-teaching methodology is nevertheless part of an historical process of cultural construction (Arber, 2010). Within those terms, language has normative, meaningful and symbolic aspects—all of which must be articulated to teachers and learned by students. The ways that these various and interrelated aspects should be spoken about and implemented as pedagogy provide the focus of recent pedagogical debates. Current moves towards approaches that account for language awareness, content and communication, such as those proposed by Gibbons (2014) and Burns (2001), provide a welcome move towards a more comprehensive approach to languages teaching. The textbooks discussed above focus on how languages can be understood in relation to their codified and embodied aspects. However, they are less able to explain the ontological characteristics of language and the place of those characteristics within languages education. As a site of meaning-making practices, language provides conditions that define identities. These conditions are framed by deep-seated and unequally empowered notions that mediate our sense of ‘who we are’ and our relationships with others within social contexts. Identity comes to refer to the meeting point, the point of suture between discourses and practices that attempt to position us in place and the processes that produce us as subjectivities or construct us as subjects (Hall, 1996). The students in the classrooms in which we teach and work often exhibit cultural and linguistic practices that are similar to each other, and which correspond to students’ experiences in particular geographic or historic locations. The work of TESOL, EAL and languages teachers involves understanding of and engagement with these commonalities, which frame the common sense notions that shape ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural groups. Recent policy and curriculum, which emphasise the interrelationship between language studies, intercultural understanding and the broader sociocultural and historical context, provide an important framing for the ways that teachers must broach the diverse learning needs of their students (ACARA, 2014). Crucially, teachers need to understand the commonalities of language and culture that impact on student learning, without essentialising and reifying these as ubiquitous and unchanging representations of particular groups of students. 56

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Students and teachers need to be understood as embodied and psychic beings who are institutionally situated, and who share common ways of understanding and behaving developed within the everyday conditions of institutional life (Bourdieu, 2007). Local classrooms are, as Rizvi (2009a, p. 275) argues, spaces imbued with ideological and political context produced through interrelated process of representation, “the flows and movements identified in the realm of every day routines” and the contingencies of historic, social relationships and the experiences and aspirations of everyday life. The local spaces of the classrooms in which teachers work and teach today are increasingly integrated into processes of globalisation (Appadurai, 1996; Rizvi, 2009a, 2009b). The central images of the local classroom (Vertovec, 2009) capture relationships that bring together a multiplicity of different peoples and institutions within interrelated and globally integrated local classrooms. The learning spaces in which we position our students are constructed within an imaginative terrain defined by the memories and fantasies of what it might be like— or what it was like or what it could be like—to be embodied here or there and learn about the world through language. The work of language teachers is concerned with understanding the complex interrelations between languages, cultural identities and their links to the process of meaning-making. RETHINKING LANGUAGES EDUCATION

Those of us responsible for teacher pedagogy and practice need to understand that the work of language teachers (and of student learning) takes place in locally integrated global constructs. Theorists such as Gardner (2011) make strong arguments about the skills, knowledges and intelligences students require if they are to work in complex societies requiring access to problem-solving, team work, intercultural and cross-cultural skills, and digital technologies. Others (for example, Rizvi, 2009a) argue that in globalised and transnational times, education needs to be concerned with the interconnectivity of the local and global; the accessibility of mechanisms for changed flows of information, finance, people and technologies; the relationship between language, culture and power, particularly in times of post-colonialism; and the impact of these flows and relationships on identities. Singh and Harreveld (2014) argue that learning needs to be completely reformed to provide students with the tools they require for transformative education that will secure life – work trajectories for individual students, as well as reforms that can serve the common good. Over the last few decades, a shift has occurred within sociolinguistic literature as linguists interested in social dimensions of language augmented more traditional theory-making in a number of important ways. The different directions represented by Vygotsky’s (for example, 2012) work on the relationship between teachers and adults impacted on applied linguistic theory and on education generally. Wenger’s (1999) examination of communities of practice was similarly influential, suggesting that teachers and students actually form a community because of their involvement in the shared practice of learning. More recently, works by theorists 57

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such as Block (2007), Fairclough (2013), Gee (2010), Pennycook (2001) and Pavlenko and Norton (2007) are concerned in different ways with the development of languages policy, teaching and learning, and teacher practice. This more recent work adds to the more traditional phases of linguistic theory by bringing together the complex relationship that exists between language—as it can be understood from its different codified, embodied and normative aspects—and the social and cultural context for which it is both subject and frame. Marton and Tsui (2004) are concerned with the interrelation between discourse in classrooms and on campuses, language, culture and identity. A number of theorists have sought to bring together these approaches with pedagogies for languages education (for example, Gee, 2010). Luke and Freebody’s (1999) model, for instance, seeks to bring together the different skills and knowledges students require as part of literacy education. Other texts examine important aspects of languages education and their implications for interrogating the ideological terms and conditions of languages education. Hajek and Slaughter (2015), Miller and Norris (2007) and Garcia and Wei (2014) add important directions to the languages teaching debate in relation to the importance of social justice to a language teaching approach; the use of languages in diverse language communities; and the transformative nature of moving between and beyond what are often thought of as discrete and differentiated semiotic and social systems. Questions remain about the ways to teach pedagogy and practice to the diverse student cohorts such as the one I teach. Despite the increased prominence of a more complex examination of language, its multidimensional and reflexive terms and conditions, its interrelation with culture and the interconnectivity of language, identity and context, few writers have taken these discussions into the discussion of EAL, TESOL and languages curriculum, pedagogy and practice. For example, despite Larsen-Freeman and Anderson’s (2015) important examination of the languages classroom though the lens of complex systems, the 2011 third edition of their book describes concepts very similar to those outlined in Harmer’s (2015) seminal text, which was first published in 1983. PEDAGOGY & PRACTICE

The crucial understanding for teacher education and texts for languages, TESOL and EAL pedagogy and practice is to provide proper understanding of the meaningful, patterned and embodied aspects as they exist within and between notions of language, identity and culture. This paper argues for a nuanced approach that considers the integration of the formative and meaningful aspects of language; the psychic reality of individual students and teachers; and the social, cultural and historical terms and conditions of the globally integrated local classroom. If we are to introduce innovative, farsighted and socially-just English and languages pedagogy and practice into classrooms in schools and higher education educational institutions we need to augment approaches drawn from narrowly based understandings and activities 58

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drawn from applied linguistics, attention to language form and four skills models. Rather we must implement programs for pedagogy and practice drawn from the full range of our expertise as language educators. Teacher expertise must be interpolated within the full range of teacher knowledges of learners, context, curriculum and language and communication. In the globally integrated and changing contexts of the 21st century, the knowledges and skills of language professional experts need to be realised in their full complexity as they are integrated, formulated, enacted and understood ‘in situ’ within social contexts which are intercultural, multilingual, multi-modal and multi-contextual. REFERENCES Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalisation. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Arber, R. (2010). English education for international students in local schools: Practices of inclusion and discourses of exclusion. English: Teaching and Learning, 34(2), 1–45. Australian Curriculum and Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2014). Retrieved from http://www.acara.edu.au Block, D. (2007). Second language identities. London & New York, NY: Continuum. Bourdieu, P. (2007). The bachelors’ ball: The crisis of peasant society in Bearn (R. Nice, Trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press. Burns, A. (2001). Genre-based approaches to writing and beginning adult ESL students. In C. N. Candlin & N. Mercer (Eds.), English language teaching in its social context: A reader (pp. 200–208). London: Routledge. Candlin, C., & Mercer, N. (Eds.). (2001). English language teaching in its social context: A reader (Teaching English language worldwide). New York, NY: Psychology Press. Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Oxon: Routledge. Fairclough, N. (2014). Language and power (3rd ed.). London: Longman. Garcia, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Gardner, H. (2011). Truth, beauty, and goodness reframed: Educating for the virtues in the 21st century. New York, NY: Basic Books. Gee, J. P. (2010). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method (3rd ed.). Oxon & New York, NY: Routledge. Gee, J., & Green, J. (1998). Discourse analysis, learning and social practice: A methodological study. Review of Research in Education, 23, 119–169. Gibbons, P. (2014). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching English language learners in the mainstream classroom (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Hajek, J., & Slaughter, K. (Eds.). (2015). Challenging the monolingual mindset. Bristol: Channel View Publications. Hall, S. (1996). Who needs ‘identity’? In S. Hall & P. du Gay (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. viii–xx). London & Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Halliday, M. A. K. (2002). Categories of the theory of grammar. In J. Webster (Ed.), On grammar: Volume 1 of the collected works of M. A. K. Halliday. London: Continuum. Harmer, J. (2015). The practice of English language teaching (5th ed.). Harlow, UK: Pearson. Kramsch, C. J. (1998). Language and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2015). Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (1999). A map of possible practices: Further notes on the four resources model. Practically Primary, 4(2), 5–8.

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Arber Marton, F., & Tsui, A. B. M. (2004). Classroom discourse and the space of learning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Miller, S. J., & Norris, L. (2007). Unpacking the loaded teacher matrix: Negotiating space and time between university and secondary English classrooms. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publications. Murray, D. E., & Christison, M. (2010). What English language teachers need to know, Vol. I: Understanding learning. London: Routledge. Murray, D. E., & Christison, M. (2011). What English language teachers need to know, Vol. II: Facilitating learning. London: Routledge. Murray, D. E., & Christison, M. (2014). What English language teachers need to know, Vol. III: Designing curriculum. London: Routledge. Nunan, D. (2003). Practical English language teaching. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Pavlenko, A., & Norton, B. (2007). Imagined communities, identity, and English language learning. In J. Cummins & C. Davison (Eds.), International handbook of English language teaching (pp. 669–680). New York, NY: Springer. Pennycook, A. (2001). Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Rizvi, F. (2009a). Education and its cosmopolitan possibilities. In R. Lingard, J. Nixon, & S. Ranson (Eds.), Transforming learning in schools and communities (pp. 101–116). London: Continuum. Rizvi, F. (2009b). Mobile minds. In J. Kenway & J. Fahey (Eds.), Globalising the research imagination (pp. 101–144). London: Routledge. Singh, M., & Harreveld, B. (2014). Deschooling l’earning: Young adults and the new spirit of capitalism. London: Palgrave. Tsui, A. B. M. (2014). English as lingua franca on campus: Cultural integration or segregation. In N. Murray & A. Scarino (Eds.), Dynamic ecologies: A relational perspective on languages education (pp. 75–89). Dordecht: Springer. Ur, P. (2012). A course in English language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vertovec, S. (2009). Transnationalism. New York, NY: Routledge. Vygotsky, L. S. (2012). Thought and language (rev. ed.) (E. Hanfmann & G. Vakar, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ruth Arber School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

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YINGMEI LUO

8. CHINESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AND SINO-AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS IN CHINA

INTRODUCTION

Internationalization is a key feature and process being incorporated into strategic plans of many Chinese universities in response to both internal and external factors. It addresses problems resulting from the high demands for higher education in China (Huang, 2003; Yang, 2008) and is also a response to the trend of globalization worldwide in social and economic lives. Therefore, an increasing number of Chinese universities have established Chinese-foreign joint programs with overseas institutions since the promulgation of the 1995 National ‘Contemporary Regulation on Operation of Higher Education Institutions in Cooperation with Foreign Partners’ (Huang, 2003). In total, there are 2063 approved Chinese-foreign cooperative programs and organizations (Lin, 2015). With such a large number of partnerships with foreign institutions, internationalization of higher education in China has played a significant role in China’s tertiary education sector for the past two decades. It has contributed to China’s economic globalization and compensated the limited spaces in Chinese colleges and universities (Yang, 2008). In these Chinese-foreign joint programs, English proficiency is of paramount importance, as the partnership institutions with China are mostly English-speaking Western countries (Yang, 2008). In order to prepare students for further academic study in an English-speaking country, in most cases a partner institution in China will provide an intensive English language training program. Due to the cooperative nature of the joint programs, students, more often than not, have both local nonnative speaker (NNS) English teachers and native speaker (NS) Western English teachers to develop their English skills. Under this scheme, NNS local teachers are usually responsible for English reading and listening skills while NS Western teachers concentrate on speaking and writing skills. Faced with Western teaching pedagogy, which is foreign to most, if not all, Chinese learners of English, students experience “discernible discomfort and the stress of cultural gaps or clashes, misunderstandings and misinterpretations” (Cortazzi & Jin, 2013, p. 1). Students comment negatively on and even show resistance to their Western teachers’ teaching methods, which are mainly informed by an unfamiliar Anglo-centric pedagogical culture (Shi, 2009; Simpson, 2008; Stanley, 2010). These observations resonate with my own observations as a NNS local English teacher in a long running, and still active, Sino-Australia program in China. These negative responses from Chinese I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 61–66. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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learners are often attributed to the contrasts in Confucius-Heritage Culture (CHC) to ideas inherent in the Western philosophy of education (Hu, 2002; Simpson, 2008). Chinese learners, under the influence of Confucianism, place very high value on education, respect and cooperate with their teachers, maintain a high level of receptiveness, expect authoritative knowledge from teachers, and wholeheartedly take in the knowledge teachers transmit (Silver, Hu, & Iino, 2002, p. 38). Therefore, they are often described as being passive, dependent, respectful of authority, and lacking in critical thinking. However, this large culture stance has not only been based on partial understanding of CHC but also assumes a single and homogenous national culture (Chan & Rao, 2010; Clark & Gieve, 2006; Watkins & Biggs, 1996, 2001). This article, in line with some of these researchers, proposes that the large culture approach needs to be integrated and a more inclusive identity theory is required to understand the Chinese learners. Identity theory holds the view that “there are an infinite number of sociohistorical and sociocultural factors away from the classrooms that impinge on and shape what’s going on in a given context” (Block, 2009, p. 6). Thus, by adopting identity theory, Chinese learners will not be simply examined from a single and determinant cultural perspective; they will be understood as separate individuals with distinct social and historical backgrounds. Next, the existing literature which often sees Chinese learners as products of CHC will be reviewed; it discusses the influences of CHC on learners’ conceptions of education, on the process of teaching and learning, and on the characteristics of a good teacher, with the purpose of showing the deficiency of cultural attribution. CONFUSINISM & CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION

Numerous studies have discussed how differing cultures of learning may lead to a clash of expectations in Western teachers’ classrooms in an intercultural context. A culture of learning, as defined by Cortazzi and Jin (1996), is a set of culturally transmitted expectations, beliefs and values about what good teaching and learning are and what constitutes acceptable teaching style, approaches and methods. Researchers, by comparing differentiated notions of these concepts between China and Western countries, offer a large culture panacea for the related issues (Hu, 2002; Simpson, 2008; Stanley, 2010). Here, I will take a few oft-discussed features of two contrasting cultures in the literature to illustrate how the difficulties Chinese learners face in an intercultural learning environment are attributed to deeply rooted cultures. The first and most salient feature of CHC is the different conceptualization of education; traditional Confucian culture sees “education as a process of accumulation of knowledge rather than as a practical process of knowledge construction and use” (Hu, 2003, p. 306). In terms of English language learning, Chinese learners are more concerned with expanding their stock of language knowledge by memorizing quantifiable discrete parts as words and structures, and less interested in intangible skills development (Stanley, 2010). Chinese students feel they have learned something when they can count the number of words they have memorized – this, 62

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in their eyes, represents substantial knowledge. This notion is also reflected in the national “College English Vocabulary Requirement”, which specifies the number of English words a college student is expected to memorize in order to reach a certain English level. This partly explains why Western teachers, who are process-orientated and design classroom activities to engage students in the use of English language and to develop student’s independent thinking skills (Zhang & Watkins, 2007), may attract criticism from Chinese language learners. Chinese learners feel they do not take away quantifiable language knowledge from the interactive activities Western instructors organize in classes, so they do not have a strong sense that they have accumulated knowledge, which they regard as the purpose of education. The above perceptions of education have affected students’ conceptions of the processes of teaching and learning, and the traits of a good teacher. In order to transmit more knowledge to learners, the method of teaching considered by Chinese learners to be most effective is mainly expository and teacher dominated, and good teachers are good knowledge transmitters (Cortazzi & Jin, 2001; Hu, 2002). However, Western teachers’ educational goals, influenced by Socratic traditions, are not focused on such an accumulation, but on a search for and construction of knowledge and understanding (Hinkel, 1999). These teachers are facilitators of students’ learning, but not authoritative sources of knowledge, and thus may not be perceived as good teachers by Chinese learners. Chinese learners can be described as passive and rote learners who rely heavily on memorization, prefer a teacherdominated transmission mode of teaching, and display a lack of critical thinking skills, traits which are opposites of Western educational behaviours and values. Taken from the classification of Ryan (2013), such an analysis manifests the following binaries between Western and Confucian cultures of learning: deep/rote learners, independent/ dependence on the teacher, critical thinking/ follow the master, learning/respect for the teacher. This way of exploring the issue arising from the intercultural context is prevalent in the current literature and helps to perpetuate the stereotypes of Chinese learners (Ryan & Louie, 2007). As criticized by Clark and Gieve (2006), applied linguists generally explain NS teachers’ negative evaluations of Chinese learners “in terms of a Confucian cultural heritage” (p. 60). It is obvious that these stereotypes do not take into account the rapid and profound socioeconomic, technological and educational transformations in China, and the agency of individual students (Ryan, 2013). As proposed by Littlewood (2001), there are greater differences between individuals within a culture than the differences between different cultures. This is the stance this paper takes, that is, Chinese learners’ approach to education is not solely the product of an essentialized and homogenized national culture, but also is a response of individuals situated in a specific contexts. ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE

By reviewing the literature which provides some insights into the issues students encounter in Chinese-foreign cooperative programs in China, it can be seen that 63

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the difficulties Chinese learners have are easily attributed to the assumption of an oversimplified national culture and students’ individual differences are overlooked. Here, the problem is that all students of Chinese origin are classified together and little attempt is made to differentiate varying contexts and to take into account the agency of individual students. Though there are cultural differences in teaching and learning between CHC and Western culture, there are even greater differences among individuals within a given culture (Littlewood, 2001). An alternative approach, which seeks to understand the actual learners in the situated context, is needed in order to uncover the internal heterogeneity of Chinese learners, as there are wide variations among language learners in terms of their social backgrounds, prior educational experiences, and language learning motivations. As suggested by Block (2009), “there are an infinite number of sociohistorical and sociocultural factors away from the classrooms that impinge on and shape what’s going on in a given context” (p. 6). Identity theory, which is concerned with the relationship between the individual language learner and the larger social world, offers a new perspective to examine the issues Chinese learners face in intercultural contexts, for example, in an intensive English program in Sino-Australian programs in China. Identity theory is strongly influenced by post-structuralism. Norton (2000) synthesizes the assumptions shared by educational theorists of identity and language learning. As mentioned above, identity theory aims to investigate the complex relationship between individual language learners and the larger social world, “without resorting to deterministic or reductionist analyses” (Norton, 2000, p. 21), for example, a certain national culture; it is interested in how individual students make sense of their own experience in a specific social and historical context. Take the two concepts of motivation and investment as an example to show how identity theory extends the existing theories of second language acquisition (SLA). In traditional SLA, motivation is a psychological term and is seen as “a character trait of individual language learner … (that is) … unitary, fixed and ahistorical” (Norton & Gao, 2008, p. 110). Identity theory extends the notion of motivation and introduces the term of investment. If a language learner invests in learning a language, they do so because they believe this will bring them social and cultural capital; in the process of language learning, a language learner can have a complex identity, changing over time and space in social interaction; “an investment in the target language is in fact an investment in the learner’s own identity” (Norton & Gao, 2008, p. 110). It can be seen that investment is primarily a sociological construct and it signals the “socially and historically constructed relationship of learners to the target language” (Norton & Gao, 2008, p. 110). It is obvious that identity here is a not a fixed and stable definition of who you are, but a multiple, shifting and contradictory relationship with the world, which is influenced by sociocultural, educational, historical and institutional backgrounds (Norton, 2000; Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, & Johnson, 2005). By adopting identity theory, Chinese learners’ experiences may be explored not only by looking at classroom learning but also at the external conditions that shape their learning and 64

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their lives outside classrooms. Students’ voices and agency will be taken into account as well. In this way, Chinese learners, who are observed as silent in class, will not be simply categorized by referring to differing cultural heritage, but understood as change agents, their agentive selves linked to the larger socio-cultural and historical social practices experienced by individual students (Early & Norton, 2012). This approach, the author believes, will do justice to the variations of Chinese learners’ experience of English learning in different situated contexts. REFERENCES Block, D. (2009). Second language identities. London: Continuum. Chan, C. K., & Rao, N. (2010). Revisiting the Chinese learner: Changing contexts, changing education. Hong Kong: Springer Science & Business Media. Clark, R., & Gieve, S. N. (2006). On the discursive construction of ‘the Chinese learner’. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 19(1), 54–73. Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (1996). Cultures of learning: Language classrooms in China. Society and the Language Classroom, 169, 206. Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (2001). Large classes in China: ‘Good’ teachers and interaction. In D. Watkins & J. Biggs (Eds.), Teaching the Chinese learner: Psychological and pedagogical perspectives (pp. 115–134). Hong Kong: ACER. Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (2013). Researching cultures of learning [electronic resource]: International perspectives on language learning and education. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, & New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Early, M., & Norton, B. (2012). Language learner stories and imagined identities. Narrative Inquiry, 22(1), 194–201. doi:10.1075/ni.22.1.15ear Hinkel, E. (1999). Culture in second language teaching and learning: Cambridge, UK & New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Hu, G. (2002). Potential cultural resistance to pedagogical imports: The case of communicative language teaching in China. Language Culture and Curriculum, 15(2), 93–105. Hu, G. (2003). English language teaching in China: Regional differences and contributing factors. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 24(4), 290–318. Huang, F. (2003). Transnational higher education: A perspective from China. Higher Education Research and Development, 22(2), 193–203. Lin J. H. (2015). Using high quality scientific research to provide strong theoretical and disciplinary support for quality construction for China-foreign cooperation for running schools -The closing speech for 5th Annual Conference for China-Foreign Cooperation for Running Schools. International Tertiary Education Research, 2, 37–38. Littlewood, W. (2001). Students’ attitudes to classroom English learning: A cross-cultural study. Language Teaching Research, 5(1), 3–28. Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. Harlow, England & New York, NY: Longman. Norton, B., & Gao, Y. (2008). Identity, investment, and Chinese learners of English. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 18(1), 109–120. Ryan, J. (2013). Comparing learning characteristics in Chinese and Anglophone cultures: Pitfalls and insights. In M.Cortazzi & L. Jin (Eds.), Researching cultures of learning. Researching cultures of learning [Electronic Resource]: International perspectives on language learning and education (pp. 41–58). Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, & New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Ryan, J., & Louie, K. (2007). False dichotomy? ‘Western’ and ‘Confucian’ concepts of scholarship and learning. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 39(4), 404–417. Shi, L. (2009). Chinese-Western “contact zone”: Students’ resistance and teachers’ adaptation to local needs. TESL Canada Journal, 27(1), 47–63.

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Luo Silver, R., Hu, G., & Iino, M. (2002). English language education in China, Japan, and Singapore. Singapore: National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University. Simpson, S. T. (2008). Western EFL teachers and East-West classroom-culture conflicts. RELC Journal, 39(3), 381–394. Stanley, P. (2010). ‘The foreign teacher is an idiot’: Symbolic interactionism, and assumptions about language and language teaching in China. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 4(1), 67–89. Varghese, M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B., & Johnson, K. A. (2005). Theorizing language teacher identity: Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 4(1), 21–44. Watkins, D., & Biggs, J. B. (1996). The Chinese learner: Cultural, psychological, and contextual influences. Hong Kong, CERC; Camberwell, Melbourne, Vic: ACER. Watkins, D., & Biggs, J. B. (2001). Teaching the Chinese learner: Psychological and pedagogical perspectives. Hong Kong & Melbourne, Vic.: Comparative Education Research Centre and ACER. Yang, R. (2008). Transnational higher education in China: Contexts, characteristics and concerns. Australian Journal of Education, 52(3), 272–286. Zhang, Q., & Watkins, D. (2007). Conceptions of a good tertiary EFL teacher in China. TESOL Quarterly, 41(4), 781–790.

Yingmei Luo School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

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NHUNG NGUYEN

9. MOTIVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND DORNYEI’S L2 MOTIVATIONAL SELF SYSTEM

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents a literature review of language learner motivation with an emphasis on the L2 Motivational Self System. The review presents a summary of definitions of motivation, beginning with the views of psychologists and educators. The definitions are followed by L2 educators’ approaches, with a process-orientated point of view at the centre of the discussion. Following are definitions of motivation proposed from socio-cultural theorists’ perspectives. The second part presents Dörnyei’s (2005) L2 Motivational Self System, and the concepts of possible, ideal and ought-to selves. Finally, some key steps to help enhance language learner motivation are presented. MOTIVATION AND MOTIVATION IN L2 LEARNING

From the perspective of psychologists, motivation is basically defined as “a theoretical concept that accounts for why people (or animals) choose to engage in particular behaviours at particular times” (Beck, 2000, p. 3). Accordingly, two major differences are distinguished in the field: regulatory and purposive approaches to motivation. The regulatory approach can be traced back to the theory of evolution proposed by Darwin and emphasizes the need or drive aspects of motivation. In other words, it focuses on responses of the body to “internal forces” (Beck, 2000, p. 3). On the contrary, the purposive approach defines motivation as choices of behaviours or goals, which emphasizes the potential outcomes of choices. This approach puts the “goal-directed nature of behaviour” (Beck, 2000, p. 25) at the centre of focus. Within the field of education, motivation is viewed in a more dynamic way, as researchers seek answers to the questions of not only why language learners choose to learn a language but also how motivated they are. Dörnyei (2001) confirms that motivation, by definition, concerns generally the direction and magnitude of human behaviour, that is, the choice of a particular action (why), persistence (how long) and effort (how hard). Elaborating a similar concept, Azizoğlu and Çetin (2009) and Yılmaz and Çavaş (2007) define motivation as a factor leading to the start of a behaviour, determining the direction, force and insistence of that behaviour. In the area of second language (L2) acquisition, social psychologists like Gardner and Lambert (1959), while also seeing motivation of L2 learners as an impetus for I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 67–72. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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formulation of desires and efforts in the L2 learning process, confirm the significant role of learners’ attitudes towards the learning situation as well as towards the target language community. According to Gardner (1985), motivation is defined as the “extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity” (p. 7). It is believed to comprise efforts, desires and attitudes towards L2 learning. Gardner and Lambert (1959) distinguish between integrative and instrumental motivation as “a willingness to be like valued members of the language community … (and) … pertaining to the potential pragmatic gains of L2 proficiency” (p. 271) respectively. Extending the concepts of integrative and instrumental motivation, Noels, Pelletier, Clement and Vallerand (2000) distinguish intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, based on self-determination theory. The former, which focuses on enjoyment and satisfaction in L2 learning, consists of knowledge, accomplishment, and stimulation. The latter refers to four kinds of external regulations including “external, introjected, identified and integrative regulations” (Noels et al., 2000, p. 61). Later, Noels (2003) suggests a larger construct of motivation consisting of three interrelated orientations: intrinsic, extrinsic and integrative reasons. This theory is then synthesized by Dörnyei (2005) in a L2 Motivation Self System, in which motivation is viewed from the sociocultural approach. This system will be presented later in this chapter. While also focusing on the social nature of L2 acquisition, Dörnyei (2003), with a process-oriented approach to motivation, confirms that motivation is “a multifaceted construct” (p. 1). In more detail, Dörnyei and Otto (1998) state that: In a general sense, motivation can be defined as the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritised, operationalised and acted out. (p. 65) Consistent with the process-oriented definition of motivation, Dörnyei (2005) devised a process model of L2 motivation with motivation in three stages: choice motivation, executive motivation and motivational retrospection (see Figure 1 below). Unlike the individual-oriented definitions of motivation explored in the previous sections, socio-cultural theorists have proposed a different approach to L2 motivation with a focus on the complexity of language learner motivation. Paiva (2011) views motivation as “a dynamic force … (which involves) … social, affective and cognitive factors” (p. 63). In this sense, L2 motivation varies over time and can be seen to go beyond the educational context. Further, Kim (2009) claims that L2 learning motivation is defined as an L2 learner’s realization of the personal significance of an L2–related activity. It is argued that a learner’s L2 learning motive can be transformed into motivation when the learner’s initial motive to learn an L2 integrates with specific goal(s) and physical or imaginary participation. (p. 133) 68

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Figure 1. A process model of L2 Motivation (Source: Dörnyei, 2005, p. 85)

In the trend of the socio-cultural approach, research into the field of language motivation seems to have turned to a new page when researchers began to investigate this field in relation to learners’ identity in the context of their learning (Norton, 2013). Dörnyei (2005) conducted an investigation into motivation and the L2 self and argues that motivation “involves the desire to reduce the discrepancy between one’s actual self and the projected behavioural standards of the ideal/ought-to selves” (p. 18). The concepts of ideal and ought-to selves will be presented in the following section. L2 MOTIVATIONAL SELF SYSTEM

L2 Motivational Self System The L2 is made up of three dimensions: 1. Ideal L2 self, referring to the L2 specific facet of one’s ideal self; 2. Ought-to L2 self, referring to the attributes that one believes one ought to possess (i.e., various duties, obligations, or responsibilities) in order to avoid possible negative outcomes; and 3. L2 Learning Experience, which concerns situation-specific motives related to the immediate learning environment and experience. (Dörnyei, 2005, pp. 105, 106) 69

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In the first dimension, if the person we would like to become speaks an L2, the ideal self is a powerful motivator to learn the L2 because of the desire to reduce the discrepancy between our actual and ideal selves. This dimension is related to Noels’ (2003) integrative category. The second dimension corresponds to both Higgins’ (1987) ought-to self and the extrinsic constituents in Noels’ (2003) instrumental motives. Meanwhile, the third dimension corresponds to Noels’ (2003) intrinsic category. This learning experience has been discussed in detail in Executive Motivation in Dörnyei’s (2005) process model of motivation (See Figure 1 above). The motivational influences in Executive Motivation include quality of the learning experience, sense of autonomy, teacher’s and parents’ influence, classroom reward and goal structure, influence of the learner group, knowledge and use self-regulatory strategies (goal setting, learning and self-motivating strategies). Possible Selves, Ideal Selves, and Ought-to Selves By definition, possible selves, also referred to as future self guides, represent an individual’s “ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming” (Markus & Nurius, 1986, p. 954). These selves refer to future self states rather than to current ones as “the notion of possible selves concerns how people conceptualize their as-yet unrealized potential” (Dörnyei, 2009, p. 11), in relation to their hopes, wishes, and fantasies. The ideal self refers to the self that individuals “would very much like to become” (Markus & Nurius, 1986, p. 954) including the successful self, the creative self, the rich self, the thin self, the loved and admired self. The ideal self, therefore, represents individuals’ hopes, aspirations, or wishes. Because it concerns hopes, advancement, achievements and growth, this self has a promotion focus (Dörnyei, 2005). Meanwhile, the ought-to self represents attributes that an individual believes he/she should or ought to possess. This self represents an individual’s sense of duty, obligations, or responsibilities, and thus has “a prevention focus, regulating the absence or presence of negative outcomes, and are concerned with safety, responsibilities, and obligations” (Dörnyei, 2005, p. 101). Implications of the L2 Motivational Self System The implications for L2 teachers are comprised of key steps including: constructing the ideal L2 self – creating the vision; imagery enhancement – strengthening the vision; making the ideal L2 self plausible – substantiating the vision; activating the ideal L2 self – keeping the vision alive; developing an action plan – operationalising the vision; and considering failure – counterbalancing the vision (Dörnyei, 2009). The first step is for language learners to construct the ideal L2 self and create the vision. It is crucial that the motivational capacity of future self-guides “need to exist” (Dörnyei, 2009, p. 33). In previous research, ideal self researchers have proposed a number of activities for teachers to help with guiding students with emergence and 70

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realization of their future selves. It is suggested that L2 teachers may help students “synthesise the potential hypothetical images with what they know about themselves, their own traits and abilities, as well as their past successes and failures in order to capitalize on existing strengths and avoid weaknesses” (Dörnyei, 2009, p. 33). Thus, students may be asked to introduce themselves and talk about their strengths and weaknesses (Hock et al., 2006; Oyserman et al., 2006). They may also be ordered to choose photographs that best describe their future vision (Oyserman et al., 2006). Meanwhile, teachers may require students to write about their ‘Best Possible Selves’ with as many details as possible (Oyserman et al., 2006). Another approach which could be applied by teachers is to conduct interviews between teachers and students about their hopes, expectations or fears for the future. This is followed by an activity for students to draw a ‘Possible Selves Tree’ with representations of their desired and feared selves (Hock et al., 2006). The second step is to enhance imagery by strengthening the vision. Once a desired self-image has been created, to be effective it should be enhanced and strengthened to be vivid and elaborated. In this step, the conscious use of imagery is beneficial. It is also necessary to note that the more vivid and concrete the self-image is, the more motivational influence it is expected to exert on individual L2 learners (Strahan & Wilson, 2006). The third step involves making the ideal L2 self plausible and activating the iideal L2 self. Dörnyei (2009) argues that the possible self is only effective when it is perceived as possible by learners themselves. Oyserman et al. (2006) asked students to draw role models and negative forces as “the reality component was added to the desired self” (p. 191). Also, in Hock et al. (2006), teachers may ask students to evaluate the reality of their possible selves. In order to activate the ideal self, communicative tasks and classroom activities including role models, films, music and cultural activities like parties, festivals and so on should be used (Dörnyei, 2003). Step number four is to develop an action plan by operationalising the vision. An effective and concrete action plan is essential to operate the enhanced vision. This plan includes goals to achieve, an individualized study plan, and instructional avenues (Dörnyei, 2009). Hock et al. (2006, p. 211) constructed a program using a “thorough check-up phase”, with tasks completion, goals and actions, hopes, expectations, and fears to be completed, reviewed and/or added and examined. The final step includes considering failure or counterbalancing the vision. According to Dörnyei (2009), in learning a L2, it would involve “regular reminders of the limitations of not knowing the language as well as recurrently priming the learners’ ought-to L2 selves by highlighting the duties and obligations the learners have committed themselves to” (p. 38). CONCLUSION

In summary, language learners’ motivation can be defined as learners’ desire to reduce the discrepancies between their actual self and ideal self. Ideal self and 71

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ought-to self are the two main elements besides L2 learning experiences which comprise the L2 Motivational Self System. The article has provided a brief summary of language learners’ motivation and L2 Motivational Self System together with a number of applications to motivating language learners. REFERENCES Azizoğlu, N., & Çetin, G. (2009). Six and seven grade students’ learning styles, attitudes towards science and motivation. Kastamonu Education Journal, 17(1), 171–182. [Turkish] Beck, R. C. (2000). Motivation theories & principles (4th ed.). Trenton, NJ: Prentice Hall. Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Teaching and researching motivation. Harlow: Longman. Dörnyei, Z. (2003). Attitudes, orientation, and motivation in language learning: Advances in theory, research and applications. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Blackwell Publishing. Dörnyei, Z. (2005). Psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Dörnyei, Z. (2009). Motivation, language identity and the L2 self. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Dörnyei, Z., & Otto, I. (1998). Motivation in action: A process model of L2 motivation. Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 4, 43–69. Gardner R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold. Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1959). Motivational variables in second language acquisition: An investigation using LISREL causal modelling. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 2, 51–65. Higgins, E. T. (1987). Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. Psychological Review, 94, 319–340. Hock, M. F., Deshler, D. D., & Schulmaker, J. B. (2006). Enhancing students’ motivation through the pursuit of possible selves. In C. Dunkel & J. Kerpelman (Eds.), Possible selves: Theory, research and application (pp. 205–221). New York, NY: Nova Science. Kim, T. Y. (2009). The dynamics of L2 self and L2 learning motivation: A qualitative case study of Korean ESL students. English Teaching, 65(3), 49–70. Markus, H. R., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American Psychologist, 41(9), 954–969. Noels, K. A. (Ed.). (2003). Learning Spanish as a second language: Learners’ orientations and perceptions of their teachers’ communication style. Oxford: Blackwell. Noels, K. A., Pelletier, L. G., Clement, R., & Vallerand, R. J. (2000). Why are you learning a second language? Motivational orientations and self-determination theory. Language Learning, 50(1), 57–85. Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Oyserman, D., Bybee, D., & Terry, K. (2006). Possible selves and academic outcomes: How and when possible selves impel action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(1), 188–204. Paiva, V. L. M. O. (2011). Identity, motivation and autonomy in language learning. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Strahan, E. J., & Wilson, A. E. (2006). Temporal comparisons, identity, and motivation: The relation between past, present, and possible future selves. In C. Dunkel & J. Kerpelman (Eds.), Possible selves: Theory, research and application (pp. 1–51). New York, NY: Nova Science. Yılmaz, H., & Cavas, P. H. (2007). Reliability and validity study of the students’ motivation toward science learning questionnaire. Elementary Education Online, 6(3), 430–440. [Turkish]

Nhung Nguyen School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

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LI RUI AND ZHENG FUXING

10. REDEFINITION OF INTERNATIONAL CLASSES IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS IN CHINA The Case of Chengdu

INTRODUCTION

Internationalization in Chinese secondary education originated as a solution to educational placement of expatriate children of foreign cultural background living in China with their parents. Following implementation of the Open-Door Policy there were no appropriate schools for these children and at first private schools were engaged in the internationalization process, with the first international school built in the 1980’s in Shanghai. Following that, public high schools founded departments and international classes in the 1990’s (Wang, 2012). In the most recent decade, international classes have rapidly expanded in public high schools in first-tier cities and gradually spread to second-tier and third-tier cities. In Beijing, for instance, between 2009 and 2013 the number of international classes increased from two to 22, with 1355 students enrolled in the 17 public high schools involved (Chinese Education Online, 2014). By 2012 there were five public high schools in Nanjing, a developed city in eastern China, offering 19 international program classes (Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group, 2012), including diverse programs, such as the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB), and other programs from Western countries, for example, Virginia Communication and Literacy Assessment (VCLA ) and Advanced Placement (AP) from the United States, Advanced Level (A-Level) from the United Kingdom, and Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) from Australia (Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group, 2012). During the same period, China has distinguished itself as the largest source of undergraduate international students (China Citic Bank & Hurun Institute, 2014). and this trend in increased numbers of Chinese students studying at overseas universities drives the vigorous development of international classes in public high schools (Chinese Education Online & Gold On Line, 2015). Another official factor that speeded up the process of internationalization in Chinese secondary public education in these years was a national strategy that highlighted education in internationalization. In 2010, China’s State Council approved a long-term outline, Planning Education Reform and Development Until 2020 (Planning Team Office of Education Reform and Development, 2010). In this national educational planning, the significance of international communication and I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 73–82. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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cooperation in elementary and secondary education was officially stressed from a perspective of education for improving international understanding. INTERNATIONALISATION IN CHENGDU

In Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province and usually regarded as a second-tier city but center of South-western China, once the first international department, including both classes and administration, was built in prestigious No.7 Middle School in 1999 with the aim of preparing high school students for studying abroad (International Department in No.7 Middle School, 2006), other high performing public high schools began to attract students to enroll in international classes. During the initial years, international classes were not well-known outside these prestigious schools and developed smoothly at the beginning. In a situation similar with other cities, after the 2010 plan a powerful improvement at the official level led to development in Chengdu of cooperative program classes under a series of education internationalization policies that were part of a broader policy move to improve the internationalization of the whole city. The decision to hold the 2010 Chinese Education Internationalization Forum in Chengdu was recognition of the growth and importance of international education in the public school system of the capital of Sichuan province (Zhou, 2011). During the forum, the education administration announced A Planning and Development of Educational Internationalization of Chengdu, clearly and ambitiously sketching a blueprint of internationalization in education for the next five years. In addition, as a guideline of future action, in 2012 the Education Bureau of Chengdu announced A Three-Year Action Plan on Education Internationalization of Chengdu (2012– 2014) (Education Bureau of Chengdu, 2012). In this official plan, the administration set several tasks for the following three years, including increasing international cooperative programs, teacher and student exchanges, and running international schools. As a result, international classes entered a stage of rapid development; at the end of 2012, there were 18 Chengdu public high schools that had established international classes, and about 1,200 students were studying in international program classes in these schools (Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group, 2013). Thus, international classes became a prominent educational activity and a significant change in the work of public high schools in Chengdu. Recently, however, after an accelerated development, disputes on international classes were widely reported in the media where education experts made a number of criticisms: utilitarian-oriented training practices, which, they argued, would harm the basic value of international education (Xiong, 2014); use of unqualified staff; and, costly tuition fee without clear standards. These have led to tensions between schools and parents, who have questioned whether international classes are operated only for financial gain (Wang, 2014). In view of such turmoil in international classes in public high schools, the central government issued guidelines for local governments that suggested regulation of tuition fees charged in public high schools 74

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(Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2014), a move regarded as a turning point for international classes in public high schools. Under the stricter regulations, international classes have entered a new stage: any new international class has to be approved by the provincial government, and international classes without an international partner school or program, and which are usually promoted as offering an experimental or renovated curriculum, are not allowed to charge costly fees. Given these tensions and the newly regulated environment, we believe it is timely to reflect upon the definition of internationalization in our public high schools as a way of rethinking of internationalization in those schools. This chapter traces the recent development of international classes in public high schools in Chengdu and discusses some important implications of these classes both in conception and practice that, we argue, demand a redefinition of the international class. The authors recommend that, given current policy uncertainty in China, it is very necessary to empirically explore more international classes, for example, through case studies, in order to provide informed decision-making on the future of international education. INTERNATIONAL CLASSES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS

As an important activity and result of internationalization of education, the phenomenon of international classes has not garnered much attention compared to issues such as global education, multicultural education, mobility and education, or educational unity such as in the European Union (Teng, 2015). International classes first interested research scholars as a new practice, but using definitions drawn from existing practices, for example, international classes as a kind of international cooperation model, in which Chinese high schools cooperate with foreign educational institutions in curriculums, teaching and management, mainly enrolling Chinese students and operating in Chinese teaching sites. While in one perspective, the future of education internationalization is regarded a result of globalization, which will be difficult to avoid, there are disputes about international classes in conception (Zhou, 2011) that usually explore the differences between the international class on the basis of international education and the international program class focused more on the post-school destination of students. The case for international classes has never been argued based on empirical data and in most public high schools they are regarded simply as a means or opportunity for more frequent contact with other cultures. Implications of cultural exchange processes can be understood using diverse interpretation perspectives on these interactions, such as assimilation, integration, or exclusion, and the power relationships involved (Collinson, 1988, as cited in Wang, 2002). Wang (2002), for example, studied international classes from the perspective of cultural construction, drawing on Foucault’s theories of power and identity. In the limited research, there are very few studies focused on what is really happening in practice, for example, the surveys of international classes in Nanjing City (Long & Wang, 2013) and in Guangxi Province (Li, 2015) that produced data detailing 75

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programs introduced from foreign countries, showing that American AP, British A-level and Canadian BC programs are the most favored programs in areas surveyed. There are, then, even fewer research studies directly related to international classes in Chengdu. The limited literature is mainly official and produced in response to the 2010 Chinese Education Internationalization Forum hosted by Chengdu Education Bureau. These generally present arguments with a focus on explaining and promoting the local policies and practices at diverse levels of education internationalization. From a modernization view, Li and Xu (2013) argue that international education in Chengdu needs to be examined more theoretically as a way of improving local education and strengthening local voice. Other researchers (Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group, 2013) have conducted a survey of all international classes of public schools in Chengdu, and a comparative survey of the main international classes of public schools in Shanghai and Nanjing. Although these two unpublished reports are not strictly academic researches, they identified a rapid development of international classes in public high schools in Chengdu, but at the same time a continuing lack of standardization and balance among all the public high schools. As discussions on international classes of public schools in Chengdu remain inadequate, in the section that follows we propose and discuss some questions that we argue need to be considered if the full implications of the current realizations of international classes in Chengdu are to be appreciated. IMPLICATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CLASSES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Does Introduction of a Program from a Western Country Constitute an International Class? In reality ‘international classes’ in public schools in Chengdu at the present time seem to be little more than the introduction of ‘off-the-shelf’ Western-style education instead of specifically designed programs suitable for Chinese schools that realize the aims of the international class concept. As shown in Table 1 (Chengdu Committee of Table 1. Foreign programs introduced in international classes in Chengdu Program

Number of schools

International Baccalaureate Diploma program

1

British high school program and A-LEVEL program

3

Canadian high school program

1

American high school program and AP program

7

Australian VCE program

2

French Rabelais program

1

American Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) program etc.

3

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China Democratic League Research Group, 2013), at the end of 2012 the 18 public high schools in Chengdu that had introduced international classes were using seven types of program from countries such as U.S.A, Canada, Australia and the U.K., among which those introduced from the U.S.A are the biggest proportion. Some of these are cooperative Sino-American programs, for example, HIS (International High School) in No.7 High School (International Department of No.7 Middle School, 2011), in which parts of the curriculum program are core courses in Chinese high schools, and other courses are introduced from American high schools, and both institutions approve all the credits and diplomas of students. Liu, Tao and Zhou (2014) identify four kinds of international programs in Chinese high schools: national programs from foreign countries like A-level and VCE; international program like IB program; prerequisite courses before university courses; and, exam-oriented programs like the SAT. Obviously, with a single exception, the public high schools in Chengdu have introduced programs from foreign countries or programs directly corresponding to the entrance examinations in Western countries instead of developing their own system of international programs for international classes in Chengdu. Do International Classes Equate to Preparation Classes for Study Abroad? The objectives of international classes in Chengdu need to be examined more closely in the context of education internationalization. In Chengdu’s public high schools there are three models of running and managing international program classes, as follows (Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group, 2012; Guan, 2014): • International classes that are administered by an international department with the purpose only of graduating to study abroad. • International classes with the purposes both of study abroad and of completing the entrance examination to Chinese universities and colleges. There is no executive administration office, teaching system and living areas for international class students in these schools. • Distributed model in which there is no international department. Students who are likely to go abroad are distributed into general classes, not in one special class with an identity of international students. The primary part of these international courses is training in various languages. Whatever the model, the aim of these international programs focuses mainly on preparing for study in foreign universities, or, as in the widely used expression, ‘sending the teenagers abroad.’ From Table 1, we know that there are 7 AP programs and 3 SAT programs, which are more like a preparation program (International Department of No.7 Middle School, 2011), with the aim only of helping students gain a qualification to enter into Western universities. The key point in these programs is the final achievement of applying for entry to top universities in Western 77

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countries. In Shude High school, for example, honored graduates are regarded as those who first studied in top ranking foreign universities with a scholarship and were then employed by one of the world’s top five companies (International Department in Shude Middle School, 2011). In fact, using achievement data of very results-directed systems in international classes is the strategy of these high schools to compete to attract more excellent students. In order to achieve it, the enrolment introductions on the websites of every top high school in Chengdu highlight their excellent performance in examinations. Public Goods and Benefit or Private Goods and Benefit? From an economic view, public schools offer public goods while international classes now usually aim to supply families with expensive goods beyond ordinary necessary service. Research (Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group, 2013; Xu & Gao, 2012; Lei, 2013) shows that international classes established in public schools occupy public resources, raising queries about the nature of international classes. There are always overseas education agencies involved in operation of the programs (Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group, 2013), and any such an arrangement has usually been approved by Chengdu Education Bureau as a ‘Sino-foreign cooperative program class’, mainly in excellent public schools funded directly by Chengdu Education Bureau and in several high-quality private schools operated by education corporations. In Chengdu, international classes are usually operated in traditionally prestigious high schools, for example, No.7 High School. There are executive teaching and living areas for international class students in these schools and a system of administration and a specialized team for student management in daily life and academic performance (International Department in No.7 Middle School, 2011). On the other side, depending on the choice of program, students’ families pay annual fees of approximately CN¥63,000 to CN¥117,000 for studying in such an international program (Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group, 2013). This question of public or private benefit has been argued for a long time in Eastern China in cities like Shanghai, where international classes of public schools have been funded by government since 2010 (Li, 2010). International classes seem more complicated in financial support in Chengdu: on one side, they are funded using public resources including facilities and even some teachers; on the other side, they draw income from consumers and cooperate with profit-oriented agencies in order to successfully send college candidates abroad to study. Therefore, market goods are served in public schools, which seems destined to cause more confusion in the future. Who Holds Responsibility for International Classes in the Future? As we noted in the introduction, recent policy changes to educational practice in international classes, such as the introduction of central government guidelines, 78

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have been very dramatic (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2014), and changes in responsibility for international classes have resulted in emergence of tensions between Sichuan provincial and Chengdu local governments. Before 2010, new international classes had to be approved by provincial government, but after 2010, more than 10 international program classes were approved by the local Chengdu Education Bureau. However, the government keeps a cautious attitude to international classes in Chengdu and no new international program classes have been approved since the provincial Education Bureau took back the approval authority in 2011 (Sichuan Provincial Department of Education, 2011, as cited in Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group, 2012). Compared to the provincial administration the Chengdu government holds a more positive attitude to improving international education in public schools. In contrast, in Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai, from 2014 education administrations began to tight up the approval of international classes, opening up a huge market for private schools and agencies. Some international classes of public schools have changed their property into private ownership of the schools; thus, a blurring of the margin between public and private institutions has emerged which needs to be researched more closely (Wang, 2014). Only One Way, or More Than One, in Internationalization in Public High Schools? International education initially aimed to share intercultural knowledge with all students in a global education context devoted to improvement of international understanding and intercultural communicative capability, which implies a basic task of training global citizens (Wang, 2003). Internationalization in education is also an aspect of modernization processes aimed at enhancement of the education quality and competition capability of a city by using international techniques and resources (Lv, 2014). From such a perspective of education internationalization, current realizations of international classes might not be the only or best way to achieve the desired goals. The planning of the Chengdu government for internationalization in public high schools includes schools developing their own international programs, exchanges, and accredited cooperative courses (Education Bureau of Chengdu, 2010). In other cities the latest discussions of international classes have included the value of localization. After a long period of development of international classes in Shanghai’s public high schools, the local government stressed the local value of international classes in public high schools, which are now all owned by public administration. Discussion of an integrated international curriculum has begun and existing international classes in Shanghai have to retain some local subjects, for instance, Mandarin (Xu & Gao, 2012). In Chengdu, an integrated international education that values international understanding capability and related literacy, as well as satisfying increasing demands for overseas study, has not yet been introduced. What needs to be recognized before further action 79

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is a series of international education values and a more comprehensive system of international education containing integrated curriculum appropriate for all and diverse students is required (Fu & Gao, 2014). CONCLUSION

Although in the policy dimension, government has claimed more than one possible strategy, including teacher training, exchange credits and short-term exchange student programs, all with an expectation of realizing internationalization from a diverse perspective, in practice international classes continue in one main form of internationalization in public secondary education. Generally, the programs or courses in public high schools are directed towards preparation for studying abroad at foreign universities. International classes share the teachers and facilities of public high schools, as well as being served by certain cooperative business agencies to expedite applications for studying abroad with the purpose of profits from students, which leads to a grey zone lacking clear regulations. As a result of that, some disputes are aroused about educational equality and property. More attention should be paid to the political risk that the uncertainty and the conflict in attitudes between provincial and Chengdu governments brings to operation of international classes. Nowadays public high schools that offer international classes can hardly satisfy demands of the ordinary public for high quality education, nor can they guarantee fair distribution among the public of educational resources. Apparently, development of international education at every level in Chengdu was also promoted by local government which desired to win in the competition between regions. However, high quality high schools should not always be the only key practitioners in this trend. A policy tension reflects the upsurge of rational rethinking of recent history. There is a value choice in this process, in which ‘value rationality’ of international education, as inherent and core in education philosophy, engages with ‘instrumental rationality’ of external reactions in response to reality challenges (Teng, 2011). From our view of international education as integrated and inclusive of all students, what is currently in operation as international classes in public schools in Chengdu is not international education, neither in conception, nor in practice. International education does not equate to sending small numbers of students in public schools to Western countries but leaving the majority of students following the native or local path. International classes must not be simply limited to an import and export of education, or a consumed private product. Therefore, as a practice, the international class is a complicated phenomenon, currently a source of educational, political and social tensions, and which demands careful study. After more empirical, political, and comparative researches in this field, a more local definition of international classes needs to be proposed. Broader objectives need to be given to international classes to position them as pioneers in achieving goals of internationalization and as a beginning of more complicated reforms in 80

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public schools to increase the possibilities of sharing the knowledge of international understanding, and improving international communication capabilities of students. REFERENCES Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group. (2012). Regulating operation practice and improving multidimensional development: An investigation report on status quo and development of international department in Shanghai and Nanjing. Unpublished report, Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League. [Mandarin] Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League Research Group. (2013). An investigation report on status-quo and development of international department of public schools in Chengdu. Unpublished report, Chengdu Committee of China Democratic League. [Mandarin] Chinese Education Online. (2014). A report on the trends of studying abroad. Retrieved from http://www.eol.cn/html/lx/2014baogao/content.html [Mandarin] Chinese Education Online & Gold On Line. (2015). An investigation on the development of studying abroad. Retrieved from http://www.gol.edu.cn/zt/report/ [Mandarin] Education Bureau of Chengdu. (2012). A planning of expanding the open and improving the internationalization of education in Chengdu. World Education Journal, 306(9B), 7–8. [Mandarin] Fu, L., & Gao, Y. (2014). Further discussion on internationalization of education. Journal of Sichuan Normal University (Social Sciences Edition), 41(2), 13–17. [Mandarin] International Department in No.7 Middle School. (2006). Sixteen years developing road of internationalization of International Department in No.7 Middle School. Retrieved from http://qzgjb.cdkaplan.com/AboutUs/ [Mandarin] International Department in No.7 Middle School. (2011). Program introduction of International High School. Retrieved from http://qzgjb.cdkaplan.com/Admission/Admission__19.html [Mandarin] International Department in Shude Middle School. (2011). Top graduates. Retrieved from http://www.sdgj.com/index.php?m=intro&a=index&pid=40 [Mandarin] Li, F. (2010, May 3). Questions on about international classes as quasi-public goods. 21st Century Economy Report, p. 13. [Mandarin] Li, J. (2015). A survey on the development of international classes in Public High Schools in Guangxi. Secondary Schools Reference (No. 234), 1–4. [Mandarin] Li, J. Y., & Xu, B. (2013). A rational view on improving regional education: Thinking of the Educational development in Chengdu in the process of educational internationalization. Educational Sciences Forum, 11(317), 69–72. [Mandarin] Liu, S. Q., Tao, Y., & Zhou, L. Q. (2014). On the development dilemma and policy orientation of the international curriculum of regular senior secondary school. Educational Development Research, (6), 33–34. [Mandarin] Long, Q., & Wang, R. (2013). An investigation report on status quo of international classes in public high schools in Nanjing City. Shanghai Educational Research, (5), 31–34. [Mandarin] Lv, X. W. (2014). Improving education quality following the international standards from an international perspective: The exploring and practices in internationalization of education in Chengdu. World Education Information, (15), 59–61. [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2014). Suggestion on the implementation of regulating and governing educational irregular charges in 2014. Retrieved from http://www.moe.edu.cn/ publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s7048/201407/xxgk_171837.html [Mandarin] Planning Team Office of Education Reform and Development. (2010, March 1). Planning education reform and development until 2020. People’s Daily, p. 5. [Mandarin] Teng, J. (2011). Value rationality or instrumental rationality: Evolution of UNESCO’s education policy discourse. Educational Research, (376), 92–101. [Mandarin] Teng, J. (2015). A critical literature review on internationalization of education in Comparative Education: Review from 1987–2014. Comparative Education Research, 5(304), 37–39. [Mandarin]

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LI & ZHENG Wang, F. (2012). A review on the development of high school international course in Shanghai. Journal of Schooling Studies, 9(4), 66–67. [Mandarin] Wang, M. (2014, November 17). International classes in public high schools cannot only aim to money. Chinese Education Daily, p. 2. [Mandarin] Wang, M. H. (2003). Learning to Live Together—Summary of the 46th International Conference on Education. Comparative Education Review, 2003(06), 86–90. [Mandarin] Wang, X. (2002). A case study on international class: Using the concept of qualification competence in exploring the cultural construction of Sino-foreign cooperation education. Journal of Sichuan Normal University (Social Science Edition), 39(1), 73–80. [Mandarin] Wang, X. (2011). Exploring the cooperation obstacle in international classes in high school: A case study of a school-government cooperation project. Teacher’s Journal, (14114), 5–9. [Mandarin] Xiong, B. Q. (2014, February 12). International classes: Be careful about utilitarian pitfalls just after breaking out of an encirclement. Chinese Education Daily, p. 2. [Mandarin] Xu, S. G., & Gao, G. (2012). Situations, problems and suggestions on international programs offered to civil students in public high schools: Shanghai as an example. Research in Educational Development, 12(6), 11–15. [Mandarin] Zhou, M. S. (2011, June 22). A review on the exploring and confusions on basic education internationalization. People’s Political Consultative Conference Newspaper, p. C01. [Mandarin]

Li Rui Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China Zheng Fuxing Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China

82

YAN CHAOYUN, WEI TING AND HE XIAOQIONG

11. KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT OUTDOOR LEARNING ACTIVITIES

INTRODUCTION

High quality early childhood education (ECE) is very important for children’s physical, cognitive, language, social and emotional learning and development (Heckman, Moon, Pinto, Savelyev, & Yavitz, 2010; Chaturvedi, Srivastava, Singh, & Prasad, 1987). In any ECE setting there are always allotted times and activities for learning in both indoor and outdoor spaces (Tang, 2013; Bullard, 2014), and children’s learning and development are embedded in both their indoor and outdoor activities. Outdoor learning activities are good for both physical and mental development, help children learn, and build understandings of relations with the natural environment, such as conservation values (Louv, 2005/2008, 2012). In China, the Ministry of Education (MOE) stipulates there should be not less than two hours of outdoor activities every day in kindergarten (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (MOE of PRC), 1996). When conducting evaluations of the quality of kindergartens, the evaluators always check whether the time allocated to outdoor activities meets the two hours requirement (Chengdu Educational Bureau (CEB), 2012) and kindergarten supervisors pay much attention to organization of the schedule, to arrangement of outdoor activities, the time of play, and such things. However, the planned schedule on the classroom wall is one thing, but the actual time devoted to outdoor activities is another; in many kindergartens, the outdoor time is less than one hour (Zheng, 2010) and most activities are carried out in classrooms (Tian, 2011). In Chinese kindergartens, the young children usually arrive at about 8:30 am and leave at 5:30 pm and many kindergartens have large playgrounds. In 2014, in all China, the outdoor space/ indoor space ratio was 1:1; each child had an average of 5.34m² outdoor space, which included green space of 1.77m² and sports space of 3.56m² (MOE of PRC, 2015). Given these conditions, why does it appear to be so difficult to achieve two hours outdoor time in the total of nine hours spent in kindergarten each day? We investigated this problem using video-cued ethnography (Tobin, Hsueh, & Karasawa, 2009) to explore kindergarten teachers’ beliefs on outdoor learning activities and in this chapter report our findings and present conclusions about the relation between teachers’ beliefs and provision of adequate outdoor time, space and activities in enacted kindergarten programs.

I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 83–92. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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TEACHERS’ BELIEFS

Teachers’ beliefs are teachers’ ideas, thinking, or theories about teaching and learning (Yu & Xin, 2000). Researchers use a variety of terms, such as teacher cognition (Borg, 2003), teacher knowledge (Zhong, Shen, & Xin, 1998), or teachers’ educational ideas (Pang & Ye, 2000) to express the concept of teachers’ beliefs. Teachers’ have beliefs about all aspects of education, such as epistemology, curriculum, classroom management, and assessment (Yu & Xin, 2000), or more specifically about teaching and teachers, learning, students, subject matter, materials, instructional activities, and the self (Borg, 2003). During their career, teachers’ beliefs change and develop to form a belief system (Block & Hazelip, 2006): some of the beliefs are core and underlying, not easy to observe, and also not easy to change; some beliefs, however, are more superficial, less fixed, and prone to change (Block & Hazelip, 2006; Pajares, 1992). Researchers are very interested in the source of teachers’ beliefs (Xie & Ma, 2007), because if we know how teachers’ beliefs originate and develop we can influence teachers’ beliefs, and thus, arguably, students’ learning and development. Borg (2003) points out how teachers’ beliefs are a complex inter-relation of their own schooling, their professional coursework, their classroom practice and context of practice. A critically important research point is how to measure teachers’ beliefs. The most popular method is use of questionnaires (Lu, 2004; Cheng, 2004), and although researchers (Yu & Xin, 2000) point out that questionnaires are helpful to measure the belief frameworks of large samples of teachers, interviews are much more useful to uncover implicit and in-depth beliefs. However, interviews are also limited in their capacity to discover core beliefs and hence, in this study, we use the technique of video-cued ethnography (Tobin, Hsueh, & Karasawa, 2009) which encourages teachers to comment on the actions and language of another teacher in order to uncover their own beliefs about practice. OUTDOOR LEARNING & CHINESE KINDERGARTENS

Research (Hammerman, Hammerman, & Hammerman, 2008) has shown important benefits of outdoor activities, especially for young children. Many researchers (e.g., Rivkin, 2014; Louv, 2012; Beames, Higgins, & Nicol, 2012) have shown that outdoor experiences are not only good for physical but also for mental development, help children learn, and build conservation values. From the opposite perspective, Louv (2005/2008) also emphasizes the importance of outdoor activities by pointing out a deficit of experiences of nature among children can cause dysesthesia, impaired concentration, high incidence of some diseases, and impact on behavior and thinking models. Chawla (2002) focuses on the importance of outdoor activities for children in cities who live in restrictive indoor environments with limited access to open space, and gives new emphasis to the active participation of children in the planning, design, and implementation of urban improvements. Some researchers (Rivkin, 84

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2014; Gould, 2011) pay more attention to the practice perspective, to the methods, processes, resources, and how to deal with safety and risk assessment. Shu (2014) focuses on class size and the difficulties of organization of outdoor activities if there are too many children in a class. In China, the average kindergarten class has 29.3 children; in Sichuan province, however, the number is 33.3 and in some areas, class size is bigger than 60, especially in county and town kindergartens (MOE of PRC, 2015). This problem is compounded by a failure to staff kindergartens according to the policy of no less than two teachers and one care-taker in each kindergarten class (MOE of PRC, 1996); across China in 2014, there was an average of 1.3 full time teachers and 0.4 care-taker per class (MOE of PRC, 2015). The lack of teacher education and training on outdoor education in ECE in China has also been identified as a problem in the research literature (Huan, 2009). In China’s ECE teacher training programs, there is no specialized course and few courses with an outdoor education component (MOE of PRC, 2012). This weakness in the quality of the kindergarten teacher workforce is exacerbated by 25% of teachers having no additional educational qualifications post-graduation from high school and another 2.5% without even that standard of education (MOE of PRC, 2015). These teachers lack not only outdoor teacher education, but any formal teacher education. Thanks to research, “we know enough to act” (Rivkin, 2014, p. viii) to provide adequate and effective outdoor education in kindergartens, but in everyday classroom practice, what do teachers believe about outdoor activities, about the principles involved, and about how to organize these? A pilot study on outdoor education and Child-Friendly Space (Su, 2011) in a rural area1 found that kindergarten teachers’ beliefs on outdoor education affected the activities, routines, and also the quality of ECE. But what are the concrete beliefs held by kindergarten teachers? We wanted to know more about it, both broadly and deeply. METHODOLOGY

Teachers’ beliefs are implicit, embodied in teachers’ actions and language, and thus researchers cannot collect data only by test, measurement, or questionnaire. In this study, we used video-cued ethnography (Tobin, Hsueh, & Karasawa, 2009) to elicit teachers’ implicit beliefs and provide data for analysis. The study had 12 participants, all of them female. Five of them are from rural kindergartens (R1-5), and have at least 10 years kindergarten teaching experience. Seven of them are from city kindergartens, including three expert level teachers (CE1-3), two kindergarten principals (CP1-2) and two young teachers (CT1-2). The study, was carried out as follow: (1) Using teachers unknown to the participants, we video-recorded entire school days in a rural kindergarten for one week using two cameras simultaneously. During the first three days the children and teachers became familiarized with the presence of the camera. The fourth day’s recording provided most of the content for the 85

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video used with participants. Following recording of the fourth day, the researchers identified particular activities missing from the previous day’s recording and planned to capture these on the final day. (2) In editing of the video recording to about 20 minutes, the researchers followed a predetermined standard procedure (Tobin & Hsueh, 2007; Tobin, Hsueh, & Karasawa, 2009) to decide what to retain and what to remove. We considered the following principles: (a) Follow the routines of a day to try to include all parts of a day, such as arrival, free play, morning exercise, lessons, toilet time, launch, sleep at noon – our aim was not to make a typical day which represented the kindergarten, but we also did not want a recording that looked strange to the participants, and the teachers being recorded viewed the draft video and provided feedback and suggestions; (b) during editing, with a limit of 20 minutes duration, we always asked ourselves whether the material could stimulate the teacher participants to talk about their beliefs about outdoor learning activities; and, (c) we concentrated on outdoor learning activities and included few indoor activities. The completed stimulus material was 20 minutes in duration. There were about 80 children in this kindergarten, and 3 teachers, and the content was as follows: The children come to Kindergarten about 8:30 am, and they can choose to play by themselves, outdoor or indoor. Then they do morning exercise outdoors, for about 30 minutes, followed by two lessons, language and arts, in which the children make a flower using clay. Both lessons teach directly, and last about 30 minutes. Then the children play in the classroom before lunch and the noon sleep. In the afternoon the main activity is visiting a pond, a little way from the kindergarten. On the way to the pond, some children pick grass, pretend it is a flower, and send the flower to one teacher as a gift. Some children inspect a dead snake. Passing a signboard with words, the teacher asks the children some words and teaches them. When arrived at the pond, they play a game that lasts about half an hour. When they come back to the kindergarten, it is time to leave. The teachers ask the children take their bags and stand on the playground, telling them they should pay more attention to safety, should go directly home and not play. The young children go home, some with parents, some with their older sisters or brothers, some by themselves. (3) Viewing of the edited video recording by kindergarten teachers was followed by an interview. During viewing of the recording, participants were observed for their reactions, and then questioned during the interview about their thinking at the time of these responses. Participants were also asked the open ended question, “What did you think of what you have seen in the video?” In addition, a set of questions eliciting individual teachers’ beliefs were administered to all participants, and these focused on: what is outdoor learning education; why should teachers organize outdoor learning activities; when in the daily program the teacher usually organized the outdoor learning activities and when should they take place; where the outdoor learning activities usually take place and where should they take place; 86

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and, how the teacher organized the outdoor learning activities and how they should be organized? We followed the grounded theory process (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) to analyze the interview data. First, we transcribed the recording into text word by word. Then we decomposed the data, breaking the data into pieces, suspending our prejudice (Chen, 2000). In this process, we just read the text, tried to understand what the teachers were saying, took some notes, asked some questions and answered them. Third, we coded the data, and conceptualized and classified the teachers’ beliefs. Fourth, we sorted the teachers’ beliefs. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this study, we found teachers’ beliefs on outdoor learning form a connected system (Block & Hazelip, 2006; Pajares, 1992), but with a contradiction. The participants believed outdoor learning activities are very important to young children, but they also noticed the decline of outdoor time. They believed social change led to the change in outdoor time, that parents, and all of society, are paying more and more attention to safety. However, the underlying reasons are embedded in tensions between core Chinese cultural beliefs about learning, play and development. Outdoor Learning Activities are Valuable Learning Experiences During the participants’ viewing of the video, many volunteered their responses by pointing out the importance of outdoor time, remarking, for example, that they ‘really appreciate their outdoor learning activities. Especially in the afternoon, they have the chance to go to the pond. It’s really good for the children’ (CP2). Although the mode of arrival and departure was not strictly an element of the teaching program, these events were seen as opportunities for valuable outdoor learning experiences because ‘some children go to kindergarten and go home by themselves, not by bike or car, this is good for children’s motor skills, and also the children will communicate. Communication indoors and outdoors are different’ (CE3). The importance of teachers providing planned and organized outdoor learning activities was emphasized by participants, and the reasons they gave for this importance reflected the arguments in ECE literature (Rivkin, 2014; Gould, 2011; Louv, 2005/2008, 2012). When explaining why teachers should organize outdoor learning activities, participants proposed reasons such as that it is good both for bodily health and mental health, good for cognitive development and socialization and that humans cannot be separate from nature, or similar sentiments that also reflect ECE literature. Given these strongly expressed beliefs, the decrease in outdoor activity time in kindergartens reveals a tension or contradiction between teachers’ beliefs about the importance of outdoor activities and other beliefs about actual practice, as revealed in other findings, below. 87

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Teachers Believe Social Change is the Reason of Outdoor Time Decrease Viewing the video prompted all participants to recall their own childhood experiences of kindergarten. Participant CT1 remarked that ‘when I watch this, actually I don’t think of my kindergarten now working, but the kindergarten I have entered when I was a child. They look the same. We have a lot of time to play outdoors, not just stay in the classroom.’ But participants believe that society has changed since their own childhoods: society changed too rapidly. At that time, it’s safe, now it’s not safe; at that time, the teacher can do everything, now everybody is monitoring you; at that time the parents always believe you, now some parents will take legal action against you. (CE2) Those sentiments were expressed not only by participants residing in large cities, but also by those from rural areas. Significantly, they also claim the demands and expectations of parents are driving the pedagogic decisions of teachers in their planning and delivery of classroom teaching: If children do not grasp some skills of reading, writing or calculating, the parents will shout at you … Maybe they will send their children to another kindergarten. How can we organize outdoor activities, plays, music? What we can do is teaching, teaching and teaching. (R1) Participants have observed that in practice outdoor time is vanishing, and they expressed concerns that the deficit will impact adversely on the development of young children. Nevertheless, they believe the primary reason they have to reduce the time spent outdoors is safety. The main source of pressure regarding safety is the parents and ‘safety is a jin-gu-zhou2 of the teachers, principals and the officers’ (CE1). Participants fear that if a child is injured in kindergarten, even just a small injury such as falling down, the parents will quarrel with the teachers and principal. Most participants believe this to be an outcome of the one-child policy, but some didn’t agree because families who have two or more children can also exert the same safety pressure on kindergartens. Some participants think that is because more and more parents are concerned with the rights of parents because they view the relationship between family and kindergarten/school as customer and seller. Overall, our findings agree with earlier research that found that as teachers experience greater pressures related to safety, they believed children’s happiness in their experiences at school is diminished (Yan & Che, 2008). In the practice of ECE in the field in China, it appears we are using safety to explain everything. If teachers don’t want, are not able, or have no time to do something, they can say it is because of safety and this is accepted as a valid reason. However, our findings suggest there is another barrier between outdoors and indoors in the kindergarten.

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DISCUSSION

The study participants think children are happy in outdoor settings, but they accept the thinking of many parents that outdoor activities and play are useless for learning, and thus the beliefs that children learn little or just play outdoors. Safety, class sizes, and shortages of teachers are just superficial reasons. We argue the real reason is how teachers think about education, how they think about what constitutes productive learning, about what is not learning, and about what is important for young children. If teachers’ beliefs on outdoor activities are truly strong, if they really believe outdoor activities are educationally productive for young children, they will ensure they include them in their classroom programs. When we asked the teacher participants to select a time that would show other people their kindergarten’s quality, they chose morning instead of afternoon, because there are two lessons in the morning, usually in group form focusing on the basic skills of reading, writing and calculating. Those underlying beliefs are related to the teachers’ experiences when they were students and their interaction with other factors (Borg, 2003) we discuss below. In general, for Chinese, play is not learning. We have old sayings, Achievements are reached by hard work rather than play, and, Actions are done after thorough consideration rather than casual decision. Outdoor time is full of play; if you ask the teachers directly, they will tell you play and outdoor activities are very important and good for children’s development, but in their hearts the teachers agree with parents and think it is time that would better spent on academic learning. For Chinese, reading, writing and calculating are the most important forms of learning. We have another old saying, Within books, you can find houses of gold, within books, you can find ladies as fair as jade, which means if you read books very hard you will become very rich and have very beautiful wife, and is intended to encourage students to concentrate on study and not waste time on recreation. For Chinese, learning happens mainly in the classroom and listening to teachers talking is the main approach to learning. The priority accorded formal learning inside classrooms is illustrated by a response to a designer who, in a forum on kindergarten building design, said that he wanted to design more outdoor spaces in kindergartens. Principals and government officers did not agree; they told the designer he should design a more useful kindergarten, meaning bigger classrooms and smaller outdoor spaces (Yan, 2014). CONCLUSION

The kindergarten teachers’ beliefs on outdoor learning activities are part of their belief system. Where do teachers’ beliefs come from? Some beliefs are superficial, some are underlying, and each teacher has their own experience of learning, education and development. We need to know more about how teachers’ own schooling experiences and deeply entrenched cultural beliefs interact with the ideas they encounter in reading or lectures during formal teacher education, and how this

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interaction is evident in their classroom practices. The more we know about teachers’ beliefs, the more we can do to reform ECE and teacher education and training. Thus, further research should be carried out to deepen and broaden understanding of kindergarten teachers’ beliefs. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are thankful to Che Yi, who made the rural kindergarten video with me, for her wonderful videos and our cooperation, to Hsueh Yeh, the co-author of Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited, for his some little words but taking me into the world of video-cued ethnography. I am also thankful to the Faculties of Education of Deakin University and Sichuan Normal University. Especially, we thank Dr Tony Walker for his guidance. NOTES We have carried out a project on Child Friendly Space(CFS) in earthquake area supported by NICEFF. In this project, we have established 40 CFS and training the staffs from 2008–2012. 2 The Incantation of the Golden Hoop, used by the Monk in the novel Pilgrimage to the West to keep the Monkey King under control. 1

REFERENCES Beames, S., Higgins, P., & Nicol, R. (2012). Learning outside the classroom: Theory and guidelines for practice. New York, NY: Routledge. Block, J. H., & Hazelip, K. (2006). Teachers’ beliefs and belief systems. In T. Huson & T. N. Postlethwaite (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (2nd ed., Vol. 8, pp. 195–199). Chongqi: South-West China Normal University Press. [Mandarin] Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36(02), 81–109. doi:10.1017/S0261444803001903 Bullard, J. (2014). Creating environments for learning: Birth to age eight. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press. [Mandarin] Chaturvedi, E., Srivastava, B. C., Singh, J. V., & Prasad, M. (1987). Impact of six years exposure to ICDS Scheme on psycho-social development. India Pediatrics, 24(2), 153–160. Chawla, L. (2002). Growing up in an urbanizing world. London: UNESCO & Earthscan. Chen, X. (2000). Qualitative research in social science. Beijing: Educational Science Press. [Mandarin] Cheng, Y. (2004). The multi-level structure and shifting way of teachers’ educational beliefs: Taking the new teachers as examples (Unpublished master’s thesis), Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China. [Mandarin] Chengdu Educational Bureau (CEB). (2012). Regulations of kindergarten rating in Chengdu. Retrieved from http://www.cdedu.gov.cn/ [Mandarin] Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. L. (2008). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. New York, NY: Sage. Gould, T. (2012). Effective practice in outdoor learning. London: Featherstone Education/ Bloomsbury Publishing. Hammerman, D. R., Hammerman, W. M., & Hammerman, E. L. (2008). Teaching in the outdoors. Taiwan: Wunan Books. [Mandarin]

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kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about outdoor learning activities Heckman, J. J., Moon, S. H., Pinto, R., Savelyev, P. A., & Yavitz, A. (2010). The rate of return to the High-Scope Perry Preschool Program. Journal of Public Economics, 94(1–2), 114–128. doi:10.1016/ j.jpubeco.2009.11.001 Huan, A. (2009). Challenges and safety of outdoor play in kindergarten. Physical Education and Science, 30(4), 35–38. [Mandarin] Louv, R. (2005/2008). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books. [Mandarin] Louv, R. (2012). The nature principle: Reconnecting with life in a virtual age. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books. Lu, G. (2004). Research on teachers’ beliefs and factors concerned (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). North-west China Normal University, Lanzhou, China. [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (MOE of PRC). (1996). Regulations of kindergarten. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A02/s5911/moe_621/199603/ t19960309_81893.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (MOE of PRC). (2012). Curriculum standards of National training for Early Childhood Education Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.cn/ srcsite/A10/s7034/201205/t20120517_146087.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (MOE of PRC). (2015). Statistics of education in 2014. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A03/moe_560/jytjsj_2014/ [Mandarin] Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers’ beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62(3), 318–325. doi:10.3102/00346543062003307 Pang, L., & Ye, Z. (2000). On relationship of teachers’ educational idea and educational behavior. Education Research, 7, 55–60. [Mandarin] Rivkin, M. S. (2014). The great outdoors: Advocating for natural spaces for young children. Washington, DC: NAEYC. Shu, J. (2014). Study on organization of kindergarten outdoor activities (Unpublished master’s thesis). Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China. [Mandarin] Su, F. (2011). Work guidelines on Child Friendly Space. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press. [Mandarin] Tang, Z. (2013). Creating kindergarten environments (Unpublished master’s thesis). East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. [Mandarin] Tian, J. (2011). A survey on kindergarten’s PE activities in Changsha (Unpublished master’s thesis). Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China. [Mandarin] Tobin, J., & Hsueh, Y. (2007). The poetics and pleasures of video ethnography of education. In R. Goldman (Ed.), Video research in the learning sciences (pp. 77–92). New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Tobin, J., Hsueh, Y., & Karasawa, M. (2009). Preschool in three cultures revisited: China, Japan, and the United States. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Xie, Y., & Ma, Y. (2007). The formation and reformation of teachers’ beliefs. Comparative Education, 205(6), 31–36. [Mandarin] Yu, C., & Xin, J. (2000). Teachers’ beliefs and their implications for teacher training. Educational Research, 245(5), 16–20. [Mandarin] Yan, C. (2014). Children’s architecture. Young Children’s Education, 623(11), 1–1. [Mandarin] Yan, C., & Che, Y. (2008). Teacher’s safety pressure and children’s happiness: Thoughts provoked by rural children who go to kindergarten on their own. Young Children Education, 411–412(7–8), 6–11. [Mandarin] Zheng, J. (2010). A study on kindergarten’s outdoor play in Wuhan (Unpublished master’s thesis). Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China. [Mandarin] Zhong, K., Shen, J., & Xin, T. (1998). On the structure of teachers’ knowledge and its applications for teacher training. Journal of the Chinese Society of Education, 69(3), 55–58. [Mandarin]

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Yan Chaoyun Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China Wei Ting Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China He Xiaoqiong Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China

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HOI YIN BONNIE YIM AND MARJORY EBBECK

12. PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT IN MUSIC WITH YOUNG CHILDREN A Cross-Cultural Study

BACKGROUND

Parents play an important role in fostering young children’s learning. Specifically, parents are critical in terms of providing stimulating and responsive experiences in promoting young children’s development in the early years (Ghirotto & Mazzoni, 2013; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Also, parents’ responsiveness to children’s learning is important, and this is most vividly illustrated in brain development research (e.g., Bradford, 2012; Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2015; Jensen, 2008). Besides this research in the West, researchers in the East (e.g., Luo,­ Tamis-­LeMonda­, & Song, 2013; Yim, Boo, & Ebbeck, 2014) also consistently confirm the significant role of parents in facilitating children’s learning. Parents are commonly regarded as being an indispensable factor behind young children’s musical experience (Gudmundsdottir & Gudmundsdottir, 2010; Youm, 2013; Zdzinski, 2013), mainly because parents are usually their children’s first music teachers (National Association for the Education of Young Children NAEYC, 2005). They can influence both the quantity and quality of the musical environment at home (Acker, Nyland, Deans, & Ferris, 2012; Brand, 1986; Custodero, Britto, & Brooks-Gunn, 2003). Researchers, therefore, have called for parents to be actively engaged in their children’s musical learning. Parental engagement with their young children in musical home environments has long been an area of research interest (LUM, 2008; Shelton, 1965; Williams, Barrett, Welch, Abad, & Broughton, 2015). To evaluate the musical stimulation provided in homes, there are different measurements available in the research field. For example, Brand (1985) devised a measuring instrument named Home Musical Environment Scale (HOMES). This 15 item self-reporting measure helps parents “to assess and improve the musical stimulation of their own home, while researchers can use it to sharpen their knowledge about children’s musical development” (Ruismaki & Tereska, 2006, p. 116). However, HOMES was designed particularly for parents of lower elementary aged school children. There seems to be limited tools available to measure parents’/caregivers’ levels of engagement in music with children aged under 5 years.

I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 93–104. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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This present paper has three focuses. First, it reports on the findings of a new selfreporting instrument named Caregivers Musical Engagement Scale (CMES) devised by the researchers to measure parents’ engagement in musical activities with their children aged 4–5 years. This self-reporting instrument differs from HOMES, which consists of items concerned with the ownership of musical instruments and parents’ musical background, whereas CMES is a five-item scale which focuses specifically on parents’ actual musical practice (e.g. playing musical games with children, or watching music-related video programs with children). This design of CMES was used because parents’ actual behaviours have been found to be the most influential aspect of parental engagement in both music (Creech, 2010; Custodero, 2006; Custodero, Britto, & Xin, 2002) and non-music research (Zeedyk, Longbottom, & Pitts, 2005). Second, this study focuses on parents who enrolled their 4–5 years aged children in long-day child care centres. Such an age range and an early childhood educational context have been commonly overlooked in early childhood research. de Vries (2008), for example, expressed his disappointment about the lack of research into music learning particularly in “pre-schools, child care centres and with private music education providers for the Under 5s” (p. 1). Third, this present study used a cross-cultural approach to investigate parents’ engagement in music with their young children in both the East and the West. Most current and available researches were conducted in the western context (e.g., Koops, 2011). Music, however, is a universal language. As argued by Shek (2006), with the Chinese population being roughly one-fifth of the world’s total population, relevant data from Chinese people must be collected if any findings can be claimed to be universally generalizable. THE RESEARCH STUDY

This study was devised to investigate parents’ levels of engagement in music with their young children (aged 4–5 years) in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and South Australia. Specifically, two major research questions were investigated as follows: • What are parents’ levels of engagement in music with their young children (aged 4–5 years) in HKSAR and Australia? • Are there any relationships between parents’ levels of engagement in music and their cultural contexts? METHOD

This paper is part of a larger research project which investigates factors influencing children’s (aged 4–5 years) engagement in music in HKSAR and South Australia, with a particular interest in children in long-day child care educational settings, by 94

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using a mixed method approach (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011; Plowright, 2011; Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2010). This paper reports on the quantitative data of parents’ levels of engagement in music with their young children. Data were collected by the CMES (i.e., a questionnaire), which was developed by the researcher for use within the larger research study. The CMES consists of five items (Table 1). Parents/caregivers in both HKSAR and South Australia (N = 228) are invited to rate their level of involvement per item on a 4-point Likert type scale that ranged from 1 (Never) to 4 (Most of the time). Table 1. Exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation of CMES Factor/Statement

Factor loadings

2. How often do you sit down with your child and listen to music together?

.73

1. How often are you engaged in musical games with your child (for example, singing, clapping rhythms, and/or playing instrument)?

.71

4. How often do you provide music-related materials (for example, book, CD, video and/or toy) to your child?

.69

5. How often do you bring your child to attend a public music performance (for example, music concert)?

.67

3. How often do you watch early childhood music TV programs with your child (for example, Sesame Street, Barney)?

.66

Eigenvalue.

16

Note: N = 228

The CMES was translated into the Chinese language from its initial English versions for parents/caregivers in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) by using a blind-back-translation strategy (Bracken & Barona, 1991). The average percentage of match between the two versions of the CMES was 96 per cent which could be considered acceptable (Brislin, Lonner, & Thorndike, 1973). The CMES was pilot-tested on 10 parents/caregivers using convenience sampling in each cultural context and resulting in no amendment. The CMES was then distributed via the children’s child care centres to parent/caregiver-participants who were invited to return them voluntarily and anonymously to a collection box in the reception counter of each centre within a period of two weeks. An explanatory factor analysis based on data from 228 parents/caregivers from both HKSAR and South Australian samples retained one factor solution that explained 47.9 per cent of the total variance extracted. Table 1 represents the factor loadings of this analysis. Within the current dataset, the reliability of CMES using Cronbach α was .62 for HKSAR (n = 115) and .66 for South Australia (n = 113). The overall reliability for both HKSAR and South Australian samples (N = 228) using Cronbach α was .73. 95

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Sample Participants in the research were 228 parents/caregivers who enrolled their young children (aged 4–5 years) in long-day child care educational settings in HKSAR and in the Adelaide City of South Australia. Of the total number of participants (N = 228), 115 parents’/caregivers’ young children were involved in three child care centres in HKSAR, and 113 parents/caregivers’ young children were involved in four child care centres in South Australia. Ethical approval was received from the researchers’ university ethics committees in accord with their policies. FINDINGS

Significant differences were found in the levels of parental engagement between HKSAR and South Australian in six aspects and such differences are related to parents’ cultural context. The six aspects are: (1) attend music-related performances; (2) play music games; (3) watch music-related video/TV; (4) overall level of engagement; (5) engage in playing music games with female young children; and (6) engage in providing music-related materials for female young children. 1. Attend Music-Related Performances Results showed that parents/caregivers in South Australia had a higher level of engagement in ‘attending music-related performances’ with their young children than did those in HKSAR (Figure 1). An independent sample T-test analysis also

Figure 1. Parents/caregivers’ engagement in ‘attending music-related performances’ with children in HKSAR and South Australia

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confirmed that such a difference was significant, F (1, 226) = 24.30, p < .05, d = –2.25, between parents/caregivers in HKSAR (n = 115, M = .50, SD = .60) and those in South Australia (n = 113, M = 1.91, SD = .65). This finding implies a relationship between parents/caregivers’ cultural contexts and their level of engagement in ‘attending music-related performances’ with their young children. 2. Play Music Games Figure 2 showed that parents/caregivers in South Australia had a higher level of engagement in ‘playing music games’ with their young children than did those in HKSAR (Figure 2). An independent sample T-test analysis confirmed that such a difference was significant, F (1, 226) = 32.70, p < .05, d = –.75, between parents/ caregivers in HKSAR (n = 115, M = 2.33, SD = .62) and those in South Australia (n = 113, M = 2.84, SD = .73). This finding implies a relationship between parents/ caregivers’ cultural contexts and their levels of engagement in ‘playing music games’ with their young children.

Figure 2. Parents/caregivers’ engagement in ‘playing music games’ with children in HKSAR and South Australia

3. Watch Music-Related Videos/TV Figure 3 shows that parents/caregivers in South Australia had a higher level of engagement in ‘watching music-related videos/TV’ with their young children than did those in HKSAR. An independent sample T-test analysis further confirmed that such a difference was significant, F (1, 226) = 44.29, p < .05, d = –.87, between 97

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parents/caregivers in HKSAR (n = 115, M = 2.07, SD = .63) and parents/caregivers in South Australia (n = 113, M = 2.66, SD = .72). These findings imply a relationship between parents/caregivers’ cultural contexts and their levels of engagement in ‘watching music-related videos/TV’ with their young children.

Figure 3. Parents/caregivers’ engagement in ‘watching music-related video/TV’ with children in HKSAR and South Australia

Figure 4. Parents/caregivers’ overall engagement in music with children in HKSAR and South Australia

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4. Overall Engagement in Musical Activities with Young Children Figure 4 shows that parents/caregivers in South Australia had a higher overall level of engagement in music with their young children than did those in HKSAR. An independent sample T-test analysis also confirmed that such a difference was significant, F (1, 226) = 72.44, p < .05, d = –1.13, between parents/caregivers in HKSAR (n = 115, M = 10.65, SD = 1.92) and parents/caregivers in South Australia (n = 113, M = 13.04, SD = 2.29). This finding implies a relationship between parents/ caregivers’ cultural contexts and their overall engagement in music with their young children. 5. Cultural Contexts and Parents/Caregivers’ Engagement in ‘Playing Music Games’ with Their Female Children Figure 5 shows that parents/caregivers of female children in South Australia had a higher level of engagement in ‘playing music games’ than did those in HKSAR. An independent sample T-test analysis also confirmed that such a difference was significant, F (1, 98) = 28.17, p < .05, d = –1.05, between parents/caregivers in HKSAR (n = 49, M = 2.33, SD = .69) and parents/caregivers in South Australia (n = 51, M = 3.02, SD = .62). This finding implies a relationship between parents/ caregivers’ cultural contexts and their level of engagement in ‘playing music games’ with their female children.

Figure 5. Parents/caregivers’ engagement in ‘playing music games’ with their female children in HKSAR and South Australia

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6. Cultural Contexts and Parents/Caregivers’ Engagement in ‘Providing Music-Related Materials’ with Their Female Children Figure 6 shows that parents/caregivers of female children in South Australia had a higher level of engagement in ‘providing music-related materials’ than those in HKSAR. An independent sample T-test analysis also confirmed that such a difference was significant, F (1, 98) = 24.78, p < .05, d = –1.01, between parents/caregivers in HKSAR (n = 49, M = 2.59, SD = .64) and those in South Australia (n = 51, M = 3.22, SD = .61). This finding implies a relationship between parents/caregivers’ cultural contexts and their level of engagement in ‘providing music-related materials’ with their female children.

Figure 6. Parents/caregivers’ engagement in ‘providing music-related materials’ with their female children in HKSAR and South Australia DISCUSSION

Five significant findings of parents/caregivers’ engagement in music with their young children were found. First, parents/caregivers in HKSAR had a significantly lower level of engagement in ‘attending music-related performances’ than did those in South Australia. Attending music-related performances may be a luxury for some families (Smith, 1998; Wetter, Koerner, & Schwaninger, 2009). Among the three selected centres in HKSAR within the study, one was located in a comparatively higher socio-economic location than the others. Children in that centre may therefore have had more opportunities for attending concerts as an enrichment activity. In addition, child-centred performances are generally 100

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available all year round in South Australia, for example, Windmill Performing Arts (www.windmill.org. au) and ‘Something on Saturday’ (SOS) (playandgo.com.au). Comparatively speaking, child-centred programs are also available in HKSAR, such as the KidFest (http://www.kidsfest.com.hk/) and Hong Kong Children’s Musical Theatre (www.cmt.org.hk), but their availability, affordability, and accessibility may need to be further enhanced. Second, South Australian parents/caregivers had a significantly higher level of engagement in ‘playing music games’ than did those in HKSAR. Such a difference may be due to the availability of relevant resources in the two cultural contexts. In South Australia, parents/caregivers are able to acquire knowledge of music games from a wide range of resources – e.g., local shops (e.g. ABC Shop), public libraries, play-based music groups (e.g., Kindermusik), and regular music workshops/seminars (e.g., Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia). In addition, free parenting magazines (e.g., www.childmags.com.au) frequently provide ideas for parents. In HKSAR, comparatively speaking, ready-made audiovisual materials and parenting magazines tend to concentrate more on children’s individual music learning and their development in terms of cognition, perception and performance. It is therefore suggested that the variety, quality, and localization of resources on children’s music games for parents/caregivers in HKSAR may be further enhanced to support the formation of a play-based musical culture. Third, South Australian parents/caregivers had a significantly higher level of engagement in ‘watching music-related videos/TV’ than did those in HKSAR. Such a difference may be due to the availability of video/TV resources in South Australia. Early childhood music-related audiovisual programs were regularly broadcast by free local TV channels in South Australia – e.g., Play School and Bananas in Pyjamas. Also, the Australian productions The Wiggles and High-5 are regarded as children’s popular pop music icons (Gaffney, White, Dobbs, McCormack, & Powell, 2006). In HKSAR, early childhood music-related or music-centred TV programs are relatively limited. Although music is commonly included in local children’s TV programs, it is usually filmed as a small part, such as those in popular magazine-type early childhood TV programs (e.g., Pre-school Learn to Fly and Kids Channel). Even though Western music-centred programs (e.g., Barney and Sesame Street) are also available in HKSAR, these programs are neither in children’s native languages nor culturally appropriate. In addition, very limited local research is available on early childhood TV programs (e.g. Chan & Chan, 2004; Yim, 2005; Yim, 2007). Fourth, South Australian parents/caregivers had a significantly higher overall level of engagement in music than did those in HKSAR. Such a difference may be due to Australian parents’ comparatively more family-friendly working environments. Skinner and Pocock (2008) mentioned that in Australia, the average working hours are 38.2 a week. In the same report, South Australia and Western Australia showed a higher degree of work-life satisfaction than found in other states (Skinner & Pocock, 2008). In HKSAR, however, the median working hours in 2008 were 45 hours a week (Census and Statistics Department HKSAR, 2008). Such long working hours 101

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in HKSAR has frequently been criticized (Hong Kong Council of Social Services, 2000; Sullivan, 2005). Parents/caregivers in HKSAR may need to press further for more flexible and family-friendly working arrangements in order to be able to allocate more time and energy for their children’s all-round development, including their music learning experiences. Last, South Australian parents/caregivers of female children had a significantly higher level of engagement in two activities (1. ‘playing music games’ and 2. ‘providing music-related materials’) than did those in HKSAR. Such a difference may be due to parents’ responses to their children’s learning preferences as a result of the diverse parenting styles in the two cultures. Australia can be characterized as an individualistic society (Quaddus & Tung, 2002). Authoritative parenting commonly prevails in Australia, as parents generally socialize their children for independence and encourage them to exercise their autonomy (Rose, Dalakas, & Kropp, 2003). In comparison to most Asian countries, HKSAR is characterized as a collectivist society (Westwood & Posner, 1997). Authoritarian parenting commonly prevails in most Asian communities including HKSAR (Lim, 2003). Such a parenting style provides a later developmental timetable for children’s autonomy and independence, and is also relatively unresponsive to the child (Rose et al., 2003). Within the current study, parents/caregivers in HKSAR, regardless of their children’s gender or musical preferences, demonstrated similar levels of engagement in music. CONCLUSION

The outcomes of this research are non-judgmental about the different parenting styles examined between the two cultural contexts. However, the researchers believe that parenting styles may have impact and influences on their children’s music learning experiences regardless of the cultural practices, perspectives and beliefs. A final point made is that this cross-cultural study between HKSAR and South Australia may enhance early childhood professionals’ understanding of young children’s diverse learning needs, particularly in music, in both the East and the West. REFERENCES Acker, A., Nyland, B., Deans, J., & Ferris, J. (2012). Young children and singing: Music as a language that encourages home/centre understanding in early childhood. Victorian Journal of Music Education, 15(1), 12–21. Bracken, B. A., & Barona, A. (1991). State of the art procedures for translating, validating, and using psycho-educational tests in cross-cultural assessment. School Psychology International, 12, 119–132. Bradford, H. (2012). Appropriate environments for children under three. New York, NY: Routledge. Brand, M. (1985). Development and validation of the home musical environment scale for use at the early elementary level. Psychology of Music, 13(1), 40–48. Brand, M. (1986). Relationship between home musical environment and selected musical attributes of second-grade children. Journal of Research in Music Education, 34, 112–120. Brislin, R. W., Lonner, W. J., & Thorndike, E. M. (1973). Cross-cultural research methods. New York, NY: Wiley and Sons.

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Parental engagement in music with young children Census and Statistics Department HKSAR. (2008). Median hours of work during the seven days before enumeration of employed persons by sex and industry of main employment. Retrieved August 24, 2008, from http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hong_kong_statistics/statistical_tables/index.jsp?charsetID= 1&subjectID=2&tableID=016 Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2015). Brain architecture. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/brain-architecture/ Chan, K., & Chan, F. (2004). Advertising to children in China: a study of children’s TV media environment. Paper presented at the Korean Academy of Marketing Science Spring Conference, Seoul. Creech, A. (2010). Learning a musical instrument: The case for parental support. Music Education Research, 12(1), 13–32. Creswell, J., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications. Custodero, L. A. (2006). Singing practices in 10 families with young children. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54(1), 37–56. Custodero, L. A., Britto, P. R., & Xin, T. (2002). From Mozart to Motown, lullabies to love songs. Zero to Three, 23(1), 41–46. Custodero, L. A., Britto, P. R., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003). Musical lives: A collective portrait of American parents and their young children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(5), 553–572. de Vries, P. (2008). What about early childhood music education? Retrieved September 29, 2008, from http://www.mca.org.au/web/content/view/48/6 Gaffney, M., White, M., Dobbs, T., McCormack, J., & Powell, M. A. (2006). Action central: Pilot evaluation. Research report submitted to New Zealand on Air on behalf of Pickled Possum Production. New Zealand: Children’s Issue Centre, Manawa Rangahau Tamariki, University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ. Ghirotto, L., & Mazzoni, V. (2013). Being part, being involved: The adult’s role and child participation in an early childhood learning context. International Journal Of Early Years Education, 21(4), 300–308. Gudmundsdottir, H. H., & Gudmundsdottir, D. G. (2010). Parent-infant music courses in Iceland: Perceived benefits and mental well-being of mothers. Music Education Research, 12(3), 299–309. Hong Kong Council of Social Services. (2000). Effects of long working hours on family life. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Council of Social Services (in Chinese). Jensen, E. P. (2008). A fresh look at brain-based education. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(6), 408–417. Koops, L. H. (2011). Perceptions of current and desired involvement in early childhood music instruction. Visions of Research in Music Education, 17. Lim, S. L. (2003). Parenting style and child outcomes in Chinese and immigrant Chinese families: Current findings and cross-cultural considerations in conceptualization and research. Marriage & Family Review, 35(3/4), 21–43. Lum, C. H. (2008). Home musical environment of children in Singapore: On globalization, technology, and media. Journal of Research in Music Education, 56(2), 101–117. Luo, R., Tamis-LeMonda, C., & Song, L. (2013). Chinese parents’ goals and practices in early childhood. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28(4), 843–857. National Association for the Education of Young Children NAEYC. (2005). Accreditation performance criteria. Retrieved October 20, 2008, from http://www.naeyc.org/accreditation/ performance%5fcriteria/curriculum_criteria.asp Plowright, D. (2011). Using mixed methods: Frameworks for an integrated methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Quaddus, M. A., & Tung, L. L. (2002). Explaining cultural differences in decision conferencing. Communications of the ACM, 45(8), 93–98. Rose, G. M., Dalakas, V., & Kropp, F. (2003). Consumer socialization and parental style across cultures: Findings from Australia, Greece, and India. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13(4), 366–376. Ruismaki, H., & Tereska, T. (2006). Early childhood musical experiences: Contributing to pre-service elementary teachers’s self-concept. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 14(1), 113–130.

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Yim & Ebbeck Shek, D. T. L. (2006). Chinese family research: Puzzles, progress, paradigms, and policy implications. Journal of Family Issues, 27, 275–284. Shelton, J. (1965). The influence of home musical environment upon musical response of first grade children (Doctoral dissertation). George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, TN. Shonkoff, J. P., & Phillips, D. A. (Eds.). (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Skinner, N., & Pocock, B. (2008). Work, life and workplace culture: The Australian work and life index (AWALI) 2008. Retrieved August 24, 2008, from http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cwl/ documents/awali08.pdf Smith, T. M. (1998). Two essays on the economics of the arts: The demand for culture and the occupational mobility of artists (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Illinois, Chicago, IL. Sullivan, P. E. (2005). Culture, divorce, and family mediation in Hong Kong. Family Court Review, 43(1), 109–123. Tashakkori, A., & Teddlie, C. (Eds.). (2010). Sage handbook of mixed methods in social & behavioral research (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications. Westwood, R. I., & Posner, B. Z. (1997). Managerial values across cultures: Australia, Hong Kong and the United States. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 14(1), 31–66. Wetter, O. E., Koerner, F., & Schwaninger, A. (2009). Does musical training improve school performance? Instructional Science, 37(4), 365–374. Williams, K., Barrett, M., Welch, G., Abad, V., & Broughton, M. (2015). Associations between early shared music activities in the home and later child outcomes: Findings from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 31, 113–124. Yim, H. Y. (2005). A study of the effectiveness of music appreciation TV programs for young children in HK. International Journal of Early Childhood, 37(2), 59–66. Yim, H. Y. B. (2007). Exposing young children to music through the production and presentation of music appreciation television programs. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 32(4), 12–17. Yim, H. Y. B., Boo, Y. L., & Ebbeck, M. (2014). A study of children’s musical preference: A data mining approach. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(2), 21–34. Youm, H. K. (2013). Parents’ goals, knowledge, practices, and needs regarding music education for their young children in South Korea. Journal Of Research In Music Education, 61(3), 280–302. Zdzinski, S. (2013). The underlying structure of parental involvement–home environment in music. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 198, 69–88. Zeedyk, M. S., Longbottom, C., & Pitts, N. B. (2005). Tooth-brushing practices of parents and toddlers: A study of home-based videotaped sessions. Caries Research, 39(1), 27–33.

Hoi Yin Bonnie Yim School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia Marjory Ebbeck School of Education University of South Australia, Australia

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13. INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN CHINA AND AUSTRALIA

INTRODUCTION

Scientific and technological advances, along with processes of globalization, have reinvented the ways in which knowledge is imparted and gained in the 21st century. These include increasing tendencies, especially in the last two decades, to internationalize the higher education sector to efficiently accommodate the needs of local and international students. One of the main goals of higher education is to prepare and develop students with intercultural awareness, knowledge and skills to work in local and global contexts and contribute to communities (Nussbaum, 2010). In this chapter, I will first introduce the definition and process of internationalization, particularly in the Australian and Chinese higher education contexts. Second, I will outline the scope of the international student market. In addition, the motivation and expectations of international students will be discussed. Finally, the chapter highlights the gap in the literature on curricular internationalization, which calls for efforts to match the needs of international students. HISTORY OF INTERNATIONALIZATION

The term ‘internationalization’ has been popularly used in education since the early 1980s (Knight, 2015a). The definition of internationalization has evolved over the past three decades, changing from an emphasis on an internationalized system and services in higher education institutional contexts to a broader meaning, which highlights that the characteristics of internationalization should be comprehensively understood at national, sectorial and institutional levels from international, intercultural and global dimensions (Knight, 2015a). The updated definition proposed by Knight (2015a) reflects the change of internationalization in new emerging discourses, such as transnational, borderless and cross-border education: Internationalization at the national, sector, and institutional levels is defined as the process of integrating an international, intercultural, or global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of postsecondary education. (Knight, 2015b, p. 2) The internationalization of educational curricula is generally underpinned by academic, socio-political and socio-economic factors. Academically, internationalization of I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 105–114. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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curricula aims to foster excellence in teaching, learning and research. Therefore, in internationalizing traditional curricula, these dimensions are re-conceptualized to align with internationally recognized standards (Qiang, 2003). This in turn facilitates academic activity and inter-disciplinary research, which usually generates intense collaboration between institutions, both locally and globally (Harman, 2005). Socio-politically, internationalization of curricula aligns closely with a nation’s security and ideological interests (Qiang, 2003), where internationalized education is regarded as a future diplomatic investment. Socio-economically, internationalization of curricula targets both short-term and long-term profits (OECD, 2014). Whilst these observations are common across higher education institutions across the globe, the perceived importance of English language literacy (Liyanage & Walker, 2014) has created a market-driven agenda for international education in the West. International education has a long history. Exchanges of academics and researchers between universities were common in ancient India, China and the Middle East (Davis & Mackintosh, 2011). In late 20th century, international education generally meant ‘aid programs’, but a recently released paper by the Australian Federal Government, Australia in the Asia century: White paper (Australian Government, 2012), called for a departure from discussions of education as aid or trade, to education as meaningful collaboration. The concept of internationalization of higher education, however, involves a much broader scope, in that it integrates “…international, intercultural, or global dimensions into the purpose, functions or delivery of postsecondary education” (Knight, 2015b, p. 2). This emphasizes that a comprehensive understanding of the processes involved in internationalization of education can effectively result from a consideration of various dimensions: institutional, national and international, and their accompanying intercultural and socio-educational phenomena. The internationalization of higher education began around 1985 and the processes associated with internationalization can be examined at institutional, national and international levels. At the institutional level, higher education institutions were encouraged to recruit international students to full-fee charging programs (Davis & Mackintosh, 2011) and to work intercultural and international dimensions into their activities, such as collaboration in research, curricular development through the international movement of both students and staff/researchers, internationalization of curricula to impart a deep understanding of other cultures and enhance students’ competence in foreign languages, and development of open learning programs between countries to expand onshore and offshore education exportation (Harman, 2005). At the national level, higher education internationalization came about not only due to the lack of popularity of aid programs, but also due to increasing economic profits and a recognition of the commercial potential of international students. This development led to a change in focus from aid to trade with the establishment of a series of government policies and regulations. Developed Anglophone countries, 106

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such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, experienced higher education sector reforms and gradually developed an export industry to attract international students, most of whom came from developing countries with nonnative English speaking backgrounds (Liyanage & Bartlett, 2008). At the international level, global internationalization started around the mid1980s and mainly depended on the development of technology and communication. Instead of the traditional scholars’ visit/exchange, online education programs such as distance education and online open courses emerged and are increasing in popularity. In the past decade, other terms relevant to international education, such as ‘transnational education’, ‘borderless education’ and ‘cross-border education’, have also arisen (Knight, 2015b). These terms refer to the different emphases on the relationships and diversities between and among various nations, communities and cultures. It can be concluded that the international level of higher education deepens the richness of meaning attached to internationalization. In Australia, the first overseas student policy, including full-fee programs, was implemented by the Australian Government in 1985 (Davis & Mackintosh, 2011). This policy targeted the potential export of education services, especially to Asian countries, and was followed by official guidelines for implementation. It aimed to improve the efficiency of Australian universities and commercialized university education by specifically allowing universities and other institutions to charge international students full tuition fees. Second, in order to regulate the market and strengthen its attraction, the codes of ethical practice in the provision of full-fee courses to overseas students and conduct for the overseas marketing of Australian education services were developed in 1989. Furthermore, the University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) program were established in 1996, followed by the development of a migration program, an amendment to enable students completing studies in Australia and with skills in demand to apply for permanent residence onshore in 2001. The transformation, which began with the new overseas student policy as well as a series of other official policies and regulations in the higher education sector, was overall called the Dawkins reforms (Bessant, 2002). These policies and regulations were milestones that illustrated the internationalization process of Australian higher education sector in the most recent three decades, accompanied by various strategies enacted by different states (Davis & Mackintosh, 2011). In China, international education has gone through three stages since its foundation in 1949. During the first period from 1950 to 1977, the Chinese government sponsored international students from Eastern Europe, Africa and neighbouring socialist countries by political needs. Then, along with the deepening of China’s reform and opening up since 1978, international communication and cooperation in the education sector has started a new chapter with increasing numbers of both foreigners studying and working in China as well as Chinese students studying abroad (UNESCO Bangkok, 2013). It was during this second stage that the Chinese government established HanyuShuipingKaoshi (HSK) as a national standardized 107

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Chinese proficiency test and started to enrol self-funded international students. The third stage was marked by the significant establishment of the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) in 1997 to provide government scholarships for international studies and students in accordance to educational agreements and cooperative projects (Hu, 2014). In the 21st century, Chinese government has accelerated the pace of international education development by establishing a series of agreements and cooperation projects worldwide. The bilateral agreement on higher education qualifications recognition between the government of China and the government of Australia was signed in 2003, and similar agreements were signed with governments of 24 other countries. Additionally, the Chinese government developed various cooperative projects with the American and Oceanian areas, such as The ChinaU.S. Fulbright Program, The China-Canada Scholar Exchange Program, The Australia-China (Chongqing) Vocational Education and Training Project, and The China-New Zealand NZAID Scholarship. In Europe, the Chinese government established exchanges programs with 41 countries and regions, and signed educational agreements with 23 countries including Asian and African countries. In 2012, China hosted 328,330 foreign students from 200 countries and regions (Hu, 2014), and attracted about 40,000 foreign experts and teachers to its universities and higher education institutions. The Chinese education ministry aims to host 500,000 international students by 2020 (Haugen, 2013) so that the country would become one of the key players in the international education market. INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Over the last three decades, the global mobility of students has almost quadrupled and, in 2014, the global number of international student enrolments was close to five million (OECD, 2014). Based on current annual growth rates, it is expected that about seven million students will choose to study overseas by the year 2020 (Liyanage, Bartlett, Walker, & Guo, 2015). Among the destinations chosen by these international students, the top Anglophone host country is the United States, with 16.4% of the total international students, followed by 12.3% in the United Kingdom (OECD, 2014), and Australia with a share of 5.5% of the international student market (OECD, 2014). International students represent a significant portion of enrolments in higher education sectors. In 2014, the percentage of international student enrolment of the total higher education enrolment reached 20% both in Australia and the United Kingdom (Project Atlas, 2014). For some programs, such as the masters programs in TESOL, more than 80% of enrolments may be NNESB international students (Liyanage & Bartlett, 2008), which indicates a significant percentage of overall enrolments in some popular programs and has far-reaching implications for educational systems. In terms of the main source countries for international students, central Asia is the home of the majority of the international student population. Approximately 53% of international enrolments are from Asian countries (ICEF Monitor, 2014). China is the biggest source country in the world; 108

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Chinese students represent more than one third of the total international student enrolments in the top three Anglophone destinations (UNESCO Bangkok, 2013). Motivation and Expectations The concept of student motivation can be defined as the “students’ energy and drive to learn, work effectively, and achieve to their potential” (Martin, 2002, p. 35). Motivation highlights students’ individual roles in maintaining engagement in their education and may also be an important factor in determining academic success. Expectations are defined as preconceived ideas or strong beliefs that something will take place or be the case (Azmat et al., 2013). Both motivation and expectations are critical driving forces of behaviors and will significantly influence outcome and achievement (Alderman, 2013). International students have their own motivations and expectations for overseas study. The factors impacting on international students’ motivation can be classified into two groups: push factors and pull factors. Push factors originate in students’ source countries and include economic wealth, demographic factors and educational standards. Economic wealth factors, such as family income and financial security, are particularly influential in international students’ decision-making (Azmat et al., 2013). Students with low socio-economic status show more motivation and higher expectations for education. Demographic factors mainly refer to the population and educational resource of source countries, which may lead to a lack of education opportunities (Kreber, 2009) and fierce competition, and consequently increase the demand for overseas education. Educational standards mainly address education quality in developing countries. Higher education in source countries has been criticized for poor teaching and research quality, and unsatisfied student learning outcomes, which seems to encourage students to look for overseas education resources (Azmat et al., 2013). Pull factors from host countries include university reputation, academic quality and choice, social networks and opportunities for permanent residency. University reputation concerns the reliability of the host school in terms of teaching, research, material standards (Katiliute & Neverauskas, 2015) and the value of the degrees obtained. Academic quality and choice factors include the various choices of programs and the quality of both programs and staff. For academic staff, the internationalization process forces them to adjust and change in order to cater to the needs of international students (Asmar, 2005). Social networks mainly refer to the support and assistance available for international students to successfully adjust to their new environment (Sawir, Marginson, Deumert, Nyland, & Ramia, 2008) and have an important impact on their decision-making. The final factor, opportunities for permanent residency, concerns whether international students can gain permanent residency after graduation. This is possible in some cases, including in Australia. For example, Australia’s Skilled Migration programs are designed to attract specific skill shortages groups. However, they are not open to all international 109

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students. Subsequently, many international students return to their source countries after graduation to seek employment and for future professional development. International students’ expectations include earning a foreign degree, attaining the capacity for job preparation and engaging in multicultural landscapes (Liyanage & Walker, 2014). From the perspective of higher education providers, the expectation of future job preparation has a strong relationship with the curricula offered in universities. However, due to immigration policies and job opportunities, an increasing number of international students choose to return to their source countries for practice. Based on the latest data of the Chinese Ministry of Education, increasing numbers of Chinese students decide to return to China to pursue their careers upon completing their education programs abroad. In 2014, more than 360,000 of about 460,000 Chinese international students returned to China, representing an increase of 3.2% from the previous year, and the total number of returnees since 1978 has reached more than 1,080,000 and the return rate from 1978 to 2014 stands at 74.5% (Chinese Government, 2015). The trend of returning home has become a social phenomenon, which may lead to both opportunities and challenges for international students and educational institutions. INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND EDUCATION MARKET

In the past three decades, the higher education sector has become an export industry (Hemsley-Brown & Oplatka, 2006). The marketing mechanism has been introduced into higher education institutions and the nature of the relationship between universities and international students is now mainly based on the economic process of educational service exchange (Coaldrake, 2001). According to Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka (2006), universities are viewed as education service providers and international students are positioned from a marketing perspective as customers, co-producers and products (Arambewela, 2009). This section will examine the roles of international students in the international education market from these three marketing perspectives of customers, co-producers and products. Firstly, international students are treated as customers. According to the literature on marketing, customers are defined as individuals who consume “a given product or service” (Arambewela, 2003, p. 2). In the context of international education, university education is viewed as a highly valued professional service offered to fee-paying international students, representing the service-recipient paradigm. Although the status of students as customers has been questioned in light of typical commercial perspectives, such as the view that customers are always right and their wants must be satisfied (Singh, Grover, & Kumar, 2008), there is a general acknowledgement that international education has a profit-driven orientation that positions educational institutions as service suppliers and international students as target service receivers in this marketing context (Singh et al., 2008). In addition, this customer conceptualization could also be analysed from a stakeholder point of view, where international students stand as key stakeholders, alongside funders, 110

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academic and non-academic staff and government, with an interest in education institutions (Singh et al., 2008). Secondly, international students are also recognized as co-producers who shape educational services (Kotze & Du Plessis, 2003). As students are not so much passive recipients but rather active participants in education, they co-create the quality and value of education with institutions and thus should be more properly viewed as co-producers (Kotze & Du Plessis, 2003). In the competitive global international education context, international students are the key targeted customers that universities want to attract, and consequently, many changes are made to cater to international students’ various needs. Several reforms in the higher education sector have responded to international students’ requirements. These include the development of new types of educational institutions and program pathways, internationalized curricula and enhanced multicultural dimensions (Huang, 2006), and the application of new technology for online learning resources and distance/ off-shore study (Moore & Kearsley, 2011). The relationship between institutions and international students is not limited to that of providers and receivers, but should rather be viewed as a cooperative partnership, which determines the value of the educational service while trying to balance the interest of both parties. Lastly, within the broader scope of the human resource market, international students are viewed as products with intellectual and labor benefits to be purchased by potential employers (Arambewela, 2009). From this point of view, the knowledge and skills acquired by international students during their higher education programs should match the expectations of international and intercultural employers and lead to successful performance within diverse global employment contexts (Stukalina, 2008). One of the main goals of higher education is to equip graduates with sufficient abilities to enter the employment market and function satisfactorily (Lowden, Hall, Elliot, & Lewin, 2011). Moreover, in terms of the relationship between higher education and employment, when viewed from the profit-driven perspective, the value of higher education services mainly depends on their recognition within labour markets (Alexander, 2000). Consequently, there is pressure from both employers and international students for educational services offered by higher educational institutions to align with labour market expectations. Currently, international higher education, as a beneficial export industry, provides a large economic profit to host countries. For example, international students contributed almost $US27 billion dollars to the United States in 2014, and the income from non-European Union students’ tuition fees in the United Kingdom higher education sector were about £3.5 billion in 2013/2014. In Australia, higher education generates more than AUS$31 billion in revenue each year (Australian Government, 2014). Universities, as the central drivers of the international higher education market, are significantly influenced by the profit-driven direction that the internationalization process has taken, and have been required to meet the needs of international students more adequately in order to participate successfully in the market. 111

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CONCLUSION

The challenges faced by higher education institutions and international students concerning reconciliation of educational services with the needs of labour markets are particularly marked for NNESB students who return to their home country for work, in light of the differences between their educational and employment contexts. For universities as service providers, the question of how to internationalize curricula with international and intercultural dimensions in order to provide contextually responsible educational services for international students from various backgrounds is a key concern. For international students, the decision-making processes, which have a strong influence on leading them to study abroad, relate to their future career prospects (Bodycott & Lai, 2012). Consequently, the local working experiences of students with overseas study backgrounds should be taken into consideration. As NNES international students represent the majority of enrolments in international education programs in Western host countries, and most of them plan to return to their source countries to seek professional opportunities upon graduation, there is an increasing need for further research on this issue to internationalize the curriculum in a contextual responsive perspective. REFERENCES Alderman, M. K. (2013). Motivation for achievement: Possibilities for teaching and learning. New York, NY: Routledge. Alexander, F. K. (2000). The changing face of accountability: Monitoring and assessing institutional performance in higher education. Journal of Higher Education, 71, 411–431. Arambewela, R. (2003). Post-choice satisfaction of international postgraduate students from Asia studying in Victorian universities (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. Arambewela, R. (2009). Student satisfaction: An Australian perspective of international postgraduate students from Asia. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag. Asmar, C. (2005). Internationalising students: reassessing diasporic and local student difference. Studies in Higher Education, 30(3), 291–309. Australian Government. (2012). Australia in the Asian century, White Paper. Canberra, ACT: Australian Government. Australian Government. (2014). End of year summary of international student enrolment dataAustralia-2014. Retrieved from https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/International-StudentData/Documents/Monthly%20summaries%20of%20international%20student%20enrolment% 20data%202014/12_December_2014_MonthlySummary.pdf. Azmat, F., Osborne, A., Le Rossignol, K., Jogulu, U., Rentschler, R., Robottom, I., & Malathy, V. (2013). Understanding aspirations and expectations of international students in Australian higher education. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 33(1), 97–111. Bessant, J. (2002). Dawkins’ higher education reforms and how metaphors work in policy making. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 24(1), 87–99. Bodycott, P., & Lai, A. (2012). The influence and implications of Chinese culture in the decision to undertake cross-border higher education. Journal of Studies in International Education, 16(3), 252–270. Chinese Government. (2015). White paper of Chinese international students. Retrieved from http://www.education-ambchine.org/publish/portal116/tab5722/info115786.htm

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INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION in china and australia Coaldrake, P. (2001). Responding to changing student expectations. Higher Education Management, 13(2), 75–92. Davis, D., & Mackintosh, B. (2011). Making a difference: Australian international education. Kensington, NSW: University of New South Wales Press. Harman, G. (2005). Internationalization of Australian higher education. A critical review of literature and research. In P. Ninnes & M. Hellsten (Eds.), Internationalizing higher education: Critical explorations of pedagogy and policy (pp. 119–140). Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong and Springer. Haugen, H. Ø. (2013). China’s recruitment of African university students: Policy efficacy and unintended outcomes. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 11(3), 315–334. Hemsley-Brown, J., & Oplatka, I. (2006). Universities in a competitive global marketplace: A systematic review of the literature on higher education marketing. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 19(4), 316–338. Hu, D. (2014). International students in Chinese higher education: Choices, expectations, and experiences by region of origin (Unpublished master’s thesis). Stanford University, Berkeley, CA. Huang, F. (2006). Internationalization of curricula in higher education institutions in comparative perspectives: Case studies of China, Japan and the Netherlands. Higher Education, 51(4), 521–539. ICEF Monitor. (2014, February 13). Summing up international student mobility in 2014. Retrieved from http://monitor.icef.com/2014/02/summing-up-international-student-mobility-in-2014/ Katiliute, E., & Neverauskas, B. (2015). Development of quality culture in the universities. Economics and Management, 14, 1069–1076. Knight, J. (2015a). International universities: Misunderstandings and emerging models? Journal of Studies in International Education, 19(2), 107–121. Knight, J. (2015b). Updating the definition of internationalization. International Higher Education, 33, 2–3. Kotze, T. G., & Du Plessis, P. (2003). Students as “co-producers” of education: A proposed model of student socialisation and participation at tertiary institutions. Quality Assurance in Education, 11(4), 186–201. Kreber, C. (2009). Different perspectives on internationalization in higher education. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 118, 1–14. Liyanage, I., Bartlett, B., Walker, T., & Guo, X. (2015). Assessment policies, curricular directives, and teacher agency: Quandaries of EFL teachers in Inner Mongolia. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 9(3), 251–264. Liyanage, I., & Bartlett, B. J. (2008). Contextually responsive transfer: Perceptions of NNES on an ESL/ EFL teacher training programme. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(7), 1827–1836. Liyanage, I., & Walker, T. (2014). English for academic purposes: A Trojan horse bearing the advance forces of linguistic domination? In P. W. Orelus (Ed.), Affirming language diversity in schools and society: Beyond linguistic apartheid (pp. 165–175). New York, NY: Routledge. Lowden, K., Hall, S., Elliot, D., & Lewin, J. (2011). Employers’ perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates. London: Edge Foundation. Martin, A. (2002). Motivation and academic resilience: Developing a model for student enhancement. Australian Journal of Education, 46(1), 34–49. Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (2011). Distance education: A systems view of online learning. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. Nussbaum, M. C. (2010). Not for profit: Why democracy needs the humanities: Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. OECD. (2014). Education at a glance 2014: OECD indicators. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ Education-at-a-Glance-2014.pdf Project Atlas. (2014). Trends and global data 2014. Retrieved from http://www.iie.org/Research-andPublications/Project-Atlas Qiang, Z. (2003). Internationalization of higher education: Towards a conceptual framework. Policy Futures in Education, 1(2), 248–270.

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HUANG Sawir, E., Marginson, S., Deumert, A., Nyland, C., & Ramia, G. (2008). Loneliness and international students: An Australian study. Journal of Studies in International Education, 12(2), 148–180. Singh, V., Grover, S., & Kumar, A. (2008). Evaluation of quality in an educational institute: A quality function deployment approach. Educational Research and Review, 3(4), 162–168. Stukalina, Y. (2008). How to prepare students for productive and satisfying careers in the knowledgebased economy: Creating a more efficient educational environment. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 14(2), 197–207. UNESCO Bangkok. (2013). The international mobility of students in Asia and the Pacific. Fontenoy, Paris: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Lanxi Huang School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

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ZHANG YE

14. MOVING TOWARDS THE EQUALITY OF QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION China’s Institutional Construction of Higher Education Since 1949

INTRODUCTION

In the last sixty years, the demand for higher education in China has resulted in enormous expansion of the sector. During this period, the institutional construction of China’s higher education equality experienced three stages, namely: a stage of rights equality within class (1949–1977); a stage of opportunity equality (1978–2006); and a stage of moving towards equality of quality (2007– ) (Yang, 2006a; Zhang, 2012a). This chapter offers a critique of China’s higher education equality process and has two parts: the first part introduces and analyses the three stages of China’s higher education equality institutional construction; the second part reflects on realization of the process towards quality equity of higher education. The dilemmas faced by higher education in China in pursuit of the goal of equality of quality appear to be an ongoing problem for policy-makers, academics, and the population in general. The author identifies some key issues for consideration by these stakeholders. CHINA’S HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONAL CONSTRUCTION

Institutional Construction of Rights Equality in Higher Education within Class (1949–1977) In the reformation of higher education in the first 28 years after the founding of new China, there was a dilemma (Hayhoe, 2000; Pepper, 1990; Yang, 2006): how to coordinate the education rights of working people in order to popularize education rapidly, and, through regularization and institutionalization, to realize industrialization and national defense construction through cultivation of specialized personnel. The key feature was institutional construction of rights equality within class needed to expand higher education entrance opportunity and fair chance distribution, but the contradiction of the huge entrance requirements necessary to achieve identity equality within class with the country’s economic basis and the capacity of universities made the idea difficult to implement in practice. During that stage, there were two policy efforts by government (Zhang, 2012a). The adjustment to colleges and departments policy in 1952 (Central Party of Ministry of Education, I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 115–122. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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2002) directly damaged education rights of the broad masses who lacked knowledge at the grass-roots level, and it did not win the allegiance of intellectual elite (Hayhoe, 2000; Pepper, 1990). Following this first effort, the great leap forward in higher education in 1958 (CPC Central Committee and the State Council, 2010) can be seen as the second effort to construct the institution of rights equality by government (Zhang, 2009). Although, on balance, the policy value choice, quality, and equality were all reflected by the policy discourses of popularization and improvement, the second effort of institutional construction of education equality ended in failure (Zhang, 2012b). Institutional Construction of Higher Education Entrance Opportunity Equality (1977–2007) The restoration in 1977 of the National College Entrance Examination (the NCEE) (Xinhua News Agency, 1977) established the fair competition mechanism based on learning ability and quickly eliminated education discrimination based on origin and family. After that, however, for long time, the policy goal of education equality was ignored as the policy goal of higher education mainly reflected the development of science and technology, which was considered the driving force to become a country with a competitive industrialized modern economy (Yang, 2006a). Driven by the logic of this policy, China’s higher education was still in the state of being controlled by elitist views of quality, the scale of higher education growth was slowed down, and equality requirements were suppressed. However, from the mid1990s, and especially after 1999, the higher education enrolment expansion policy (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 1999a) strongly promoted the expansion of the scale of China’s higher education. In the six years after 1999, the average growth rate of admissions was around 27% (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 1999b, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005) as China’s higher education enrolment rose at an annual pace of hundreds of thousands, with growth at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Many researchers (Ji, 2006; Kang, 2005; Xie, 2001) suggested that the improvement of China’s higher education entrance opportunities and the resultant high growth in China’s higher education system changed Chinese society by raising the degree of equality in the whole of society. That is to say, it had very significant meaning in the aspect of equality of higher education entrance opportunity. Overall, during this stage, Chinese higher education was driven by enrolment policy, and, especially during the period 1999 to 2004, universities significantly expanded opportunities for access, satisfying to a great extent the demand for higher education. However, there are also many scholars (Ding, 2006; Yang, 2006b; Zhong & Lu, 2003) who argued that, in the process of higher education expansion, students of higher socio-economic background always used their better resources to make sure their advantages in education opportunity were preserved, that is, once this level of education became popularized, they would try their best to preserve their, and 116

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their children’s, advantages in access to education resources and thus achieved what has been referred to as effectively maintained inequality (see Lucas, 2001, for a full discussion). In addition, the scale of this rapid expansion was regarded by some as a threat to the overall quality of higher education (Hikaru, 2006; Ma, 2007; Wang, 2008; Zhang, 2012b); quality of personnel training, research, and service of community colleges and universities was criticized by the wider community and the higher education system suffered an unprecedented trust crisis (Hikaru, 2006; Wang, 2008), accompanied by an increasingly strong demand for equality of access to quality higher education. The Policy Demands of Higher Education Quality Equality (2007–Present) Around the year 2007, in response to dissatisfaction with higher education quality, the central government issued a series of policies (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2007; Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China & Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China, 2007) intended to promote improvement of the higher education system through quality assurance (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2007). Policies such as the National Medium- and Long-term Plan for Education Reform and Development (2010–2020) (CPC Central Committee and State Council, 2010) aim to realize higher education’s transformation by promoting quality and equality and to gradually replace the developmental policy model with a compensatory policy model (Yang, 2006b; Zhang, 2012b) Despite the potential for challenges involved in changes in values and in the logic determining resource allocation to deeply affect the enactment of compensatory policies, higher education of China has entered the process of institutional construction which is called equality of quality education. In this stage of equality of quality education, it is not only higher education enrolment numbers that should be taken into consideration in evaluations of the achievement of the expansion of enrolment and equal opportunities for Chinese higher education. If there are no basic quality standards or educational services of high quality for the future development of students given the opportunity to receive higher education, not only can educational opportunities be lost, but students can even pay more opportunity cost (Ding, 2006; Yang, 2006b; Zhong, 2014; Zhong & Lu, 2003). In this sense, we should explore the inner relationship between quality assurance and promotion of higher education and educational fairness, integrate them into equity of quality (Tan & Wang, 2011; Wang 2008), and then discuss it. I believe that the quality of higher education is a necessary requirement for equity. It can be a prerequisite that there be fairness of higher education enrolment numbers, but education equity cannot be recognized by this indicator only. In other words, the equity of higher education is a reflection of quality of education in the context of education quantity. Importantly, in my opinion, equity does not emphasize absolute quality standards that are set to meet everyone’s expectations, but rather the provision of fair and equal education which satisfies diversified needs for different levels of 117

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education consumers and education consumers at the same level with different development needs. In this sense, the quality of education is the ultimate vision of an educational realization to promote the full development of people. Lastly, I assert that the realization of education quality is a continuum from the basic to the advanced and through different levels of the development process. Therefore, it is a concept of both relativity and absoluteness. EQUALITY OF QUALITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

There are several key policy points at all levels to consider in the process of achievement  of educational equity of higher education. First, with regard to equal opportunity in the higher education admission service system, the ongoing popularization of higher education generally ensures more students enjoy higher education opportunities. It will not be difficult to achieve the goal of 40% gross enrolment rate of higher education in China by 2020. However, how to make institutional arrangements for higher education admission better reflect ethical justice is a problem that must be carefully considered. For instance, how can the NCEE system, which combines examination, enrolment and teaching, be reformed so that it can be used as a fair assessment of the standard of learners’ learning abilities? Making more reasonable systematic designs in which examination, admission, and personal development are arranged separately should be core and fundamental to guarantee equal access. What arouses most criticisms are the reforms of the NCEE household registration system and provincial admission quota allocation (Zhong, 2014; Yang, 2012), which are directly relevant to institutional ethical justice. The decisionmaking courage and determination of government authorities are the premise and guarantee to solve the unfairness of institutional arrangements. In addition, in the construction of equal access to higher education, how to offer broader access to higher education services through the development of radio and television networks to provide more education opportunities for higher education and to develop open universities of high quality should be important issues to be considered. All in all, how to really achieve the aim of obtaining access to higher education institutions according to ability, but not by geographical or family economic conditions will be a fundamental guarantee of an equitable higher education enrolment opportunity service system. How to guarantee that college students who have entered universities enjoy educational services with a consensus on guaranteed quality is a second key problem that current Chinese higher education faces. This is an equity issue for the vast majority of students in terms of quality. The base for the establishment of the education service system of quality assurance is to establish consensus on quality standards, which is to establish the guarantee mechanism of teaching quality and the evaluation mechanism of university teachers. In terms of consensus on quality standards, what kind of knowledge is being taught to students is actually an issue. Nowadays, the lack of seriousness and the lack of the spirit of truth-pursuit 118

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during teaching professional knowledge in many university classes are common phenomena observed anecdotally by experienced practitioners. The reason is that the uuniversity, to a certain extent, is guided by the market and has given up its dignity. Therefore, reform of the examination and dissertation evaluation system are important parts of improving the evaluation system. In addition, as for the teaching quality guarantee mechanism and teacher evaluation mechanism, the latter is the basis of the former. How to evaluate the work of teachers fairly, especially the teaching work, is the key point to achievement of improvement of teaching quality. The prevalence of engagement in research in place of teaching and of emphasizing scientific research but devaluing teaching will bring about deterioration of teaching quality. To improve utilitarian teaching quality evaluation standards, reversal of the formalism of educational administration, and elimination of the impetuous atmosphere in teaching are important ways to solve the problems of both students’ inadequate learning involvement and teachers’ inadequate engagement so as to ensure the quality of undergraduate teaching. The final policy point to consider in the process of achievement of educational equity of higher education is how to realize a personalized and diversified quality education service system and that involves a higher level of the quality of justice. For all college students, the quality of prescribed education services is basic. In addition, protection of selective knowledge acquisition, diversified knowledge acquisition, and knowledge acquisition from a personal aspect for individual character cultivation are also the rights of every individual in the higher education system. In this regard, the current reforms of the university curriculum and personnel training mode have achieved some results. The state-led quality standards and its systematic structure are becoming looser in form, but the actual quality control of the government and one-dimensional quality standards still have the potential to impact adversely on the implementation of a personalized and diversified education service system. It is essential that the higher level of quality requirements for the higher education system match the service of the school and the students’ individual needs to the greatest degree. At present, a series of Chinese Prominent Talent Development Programs are being aimed at solving this problem, but what needs to be considered is to which side the policy choice should give priority when the service provided for the vast majority of students’ development and resource allocation oriented to the top-notch talent service come into contradictions or even conflicts. The question of whether we should treat talent with privilege or not reveals a tension that frequently surfaces between two very important but seemingly contradictory objectives of fairness and enhancement in higher education. COMPENSATION EDUCATION POLICY

To achieve educational equity of higher education in China we need to consider not only macroscopic planning of the development of the whole society based on an 119

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homogeneous principle of equality, but also, in the specific implementation, design a variety of strategies on the basis of the principle of heterogeneous equality in order to meet the local requirements of higher education and economic development. In other words, in the process of moving towards the quality of equity, measures to promote a policy of compensation are imperative. However, this kind of compensation policy design based on heterogeneity may be not only a question of policy value choice, but also a question of whether a value choice can be achieved by institutions in the specified period. At present, during the implementation process, introduction of a series of higher education quality policies, definition of specific policy issues, establishment of policy objectives, adoption of policy options, or of choice policy tools by the government is not clear, not deep, nor systematic. Specifically, the concept of higher education quality is still vague and one-dimensional. In terms of policy promotion, discourses of quality as ‘project’ to be ‘engineered’, and similar ways of thinking, imply inflexible and standardized quality demands and are also very likely to bring the system to cater to, to follow, or even to copy the quality of the existing system. Therefore, the value system of education policy is not only a simple question of value choice, but also a question of how it is to be realized, accepted and recognized by the public. At present, the concept of higher education quality is being doubted and even criticized in public: whether to implement key university support programs, such as support for 985 Project (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 1998) and 211 Project (National Education Commission, 1993) universities; whether to implement the undergraduate teaching quality and teaching reform project to explore talents education, which is based on National Undergraduate Teaching Quality Standards (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China & Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China, 2007), and; whether to implement a revitalization plan to tilt support to the economically backward areas of Midwest universities (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2013). It can be concluded that the current compensation education policy has not penetrated the development of higher education in China, since the stubborn elite-oriented system and a single standard of quality decrease the effectiveness of the policy of compensation. Therefore, the formation of China’s compensatory education policy model may also need a gradual process of implementation. The national higher education system, and in fact the entire education system, needs time to deeply absorb the concepts of equity and harmonyy in practice, time to implement the policy progressively to compensate those who benefit least and to absorb more vulnerable groups to participate, and time in public discourse spaces to discuss and even criticize the gradual improvement. In short, if we can adhere to fair ethical standards of compensation, along with local improvement of the education system and gradual formation of the compensation education policy model, higher education quality will also be promoted steadily and effectively in the value choice and implementation process of higher education quality policy. 120

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REFERENCES Central Party of Ministry of Education. (2002). Report of the central party of ministry of education on the national institute of industry adjustment and development plan: Selected documents on the adjustment of the departments of the colleges and universities in the early period of the foundation of the PRC (1951–1953). Party Literature, (6), 59–61. [Mandarin] CPC Central Committee and State Council. (2010). Outline of the national medium and long term education reform and development plan (2010–2020). Retrieved from http://education.news.cn/201007/29/c_12389320.htm [Mandarin] Ding, X. H. (2006). Admission scale and equal opportunities of higher education. Peking University Education Review, (2/4), 24–34. [Mandarin] Hayhoe, R. (2000). Chinese university: A cultural conflict century 1895–1995 (Y. Xu, Trans.). Beijing: Education Science Press.[Mandarin] Hikaru M. (2006). Development of higher education of the Chinese model: Observed from Japan. Educational Development, (5A), 24–28. [Mandarin] Ji, B. C. (2006). Popularization of higher education challenges and countermeasures. Higher Education Research, (7/27), 1–10. [Mandarin] Kang, N. (2005). Higher education resources allocation and institutional innovative in China’s economic transformation. Beijing: Education Science Press. [Mandarin] Lucas, S. R. (2001). Effectively maintained inequality: Education transitions, track mobility, and social background effects. American Journal of Sociology, 106(6), 1642–1690. Ma, W. M. (2007). Evolution and construction of quality outlook of higher education. Higher Engineering Education Research, (4), 52–55. [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China & Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China (2007). On the implementation of the high school undergraduate teaching quality and teaching reform project. Retrieved from http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/ moe_1623/201001/xxgk_79761.html2007 [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (1998). The action plan for the revitalization of education in 21st century. Retrieved from http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/ s6986/200407/2487.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (1999a). Enrolment policy of 1999: Decision of the CPC Central Committee on deepening education reform and promoting quality education. Retrieved from http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_177/200407/ 2478.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (1999b). National education development statistics bulletin. Retrieved from http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_335/ index.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2000). National education development statistics bulletin. Retrieved from http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_335/ index.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2001). National education development statistics bulletin. Retrieved from http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_335/ index.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2002). National education development statistics bulletin. Retrieved from http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_335/ index.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2003). National education development statistics bulletin. Retrieved from http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_335/ index.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2004). National education development statistics bulletin. Retrieved from http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_335/ index.html [Mandarin]

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ZHANG Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2005). National education development statistics bulletin. Retrieved from http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_335/ index.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2007). National education development “Five Eleven” planning. Retrieved from http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/ moe_1778/200710/27737.html [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2013). The higher education revitalization plan (2012–2020) of Central and Western China. Retrieved from http://www.gov.cn/gzdt/2013-05/22/ content_2408927.htm [Mandarin] National Education Commission. (1993). Some opinions on the construction of several colleges and universities and key disciplines. Retrieved from http://www.chinalawedu.com/new/201309/ wangying2013091114220489862086.shtml [Mandarin] Pepper, S. (1990). Education of the new order. In J. R. Farquhar & Z. Q. Fei, (Eds.), Cambridge history of People’s Republic of China (1949–1965) (L. S. Xie, Trans., pp. 214–217). Beijing: China Social Sciences Press. [Mandarin] Tan, S. H., & Wang, J. (2011). Pursuit of quality education fairness. People’s Education, (18), 2–6. [Mandarin] Wang, J. Y. (2008). Quality assurance and quality improvement of higher education. Higher Education Research, (12/29), 23–27. [Mandarin] Xie, Z. X. (2001). Popularization of Chinese development path of higher education. Fuzhou: Fujian Education Press. [Mandarin] Xinhua News Agency. (1977, October 21). A major reform on the enrolment of higher schools. People’s Daily, p. 1. [Mandarin] Yang, D. P. (2006a). From equal rights to equal opportunity. Peking University Education Review, (2/4), 2–11. [Mandarin] Yang, D. P. (2006b). Access to higher education: Widening social class disparities. Tsinghua University Education Research, (1/27), 19–25. [Mandarin] Yang, D. P. (2012, September 3). The implementation of off-site college entrance examination requires institutional innovation. China Education Newspaper, p. 1. [Mandarin] Zhang, Y. (2009). Reflections on the great leap forward in 1958 higher education. East China Normal University (Education), (1/27), 78–87. [Mandarin] Zhang, Y. (2012a). Development path of higher education in China. Beijing: People’s Publishing House. [Mandarin] Zhang, Y. (2012b). Evolution and concept analysis of China’s higher education quality. Education Research Tsinghua University, (3/33), 7–13. [Mandarin] Zhong, B. L. (2014, September 8). The trend and challenges of the reform of the National College Entrance Examination enrolment system. Guangming Daily, p. 6. [Mandarin] Zhong, Y. P., & Lu, G. S. (2003). Higher cost recovery impact on fairness. Peking University Education Review, (2/1), 52–64. [Mandarin]

Zhang Ye Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China

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HOSSEIN SHOKOUHI

15. A CASE STUDY ON CRITICAL REFLECTION A Chinese Postgraduate in Australia

INTRODUCTION

Critical reflection (CR) is at the core of postgraduate studies in Anglophone academia, and students from Asia in general, and from China in particular, often find the concept challenging when reading texts or applying it to written texts in English. This study reports on a case study of a Chinese postgraduate student in Australia. It explores the challenges and obstacles in terms of CR that she faced while completing her subjects in a TESOL program in Australia. These challenges were articulated in a semi-structured interview conducted with the student. Challenges include English language proficiency, lack of focus on writing in China where there is a lot of emphasis on memorisation, different systems of conceptualisation of topics in Chinese and English, and limited freedom of expression which is expressed as ‘authoritative’ control in the Chinese educational context. The effect of CR in learning was corroborated by Dewey (1933), who argued that experience per se may not result in learning unless it is accompanied by CR, which should become an integral part of tertiary education and professional academic courses. Since then, CR has been reinforced in the Western education system. The principles underlying CR in Anglophone education systems have largely concerned seeking the truth via inquiries. In order to approach the truth, there needs to be systematic analytical investigation of a concept with an attitude of open mindedness (i.e., evaluation, and acceptance of others’ opinions if need be, even if they are against yours) conveyed by a matured reasoning and judgment (Facione, 1992). Paton (2005) believes that CR exists in all cultures in the world, but that the way it is perceived and practiced varies from one society to another depending on the cultural values and norms of each society. For instance, the principles that underlie Chinese understanding of CR are different from those which operate in the West and in Anglophone contexts. Logical thinking is at the core of the principles in Chinese CR (Paton, 2015). The logical thinking that the Chinese have been trained for is a philosophical and metaphysical thinking that relates humans to nature (Paton, 2005). Paton states that CR elements have existed in non-scientific Chinese circles with the name fengshui, which explores and explains ‘qi’ in terms of ‘yin’ and ‘yang’. These terms, respectively, reflect the philosophy that explores the order of the universe, the energy that exists in nature, and the position of male and female in I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 123–130. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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the universe. Traditionally, when Chinese sought knowledge through observation, they had their own empirical thinking (Paton, 2005). Paton further adds that the logical understandings among the Chinese are based on deduction, induction and consistency. As observed in this brief comparison, the understandings of CR held by a Chinese university graduate who has been trained in China would be different from a graduate whose first language is English and who has been trained in an Anglophone context like Australia. In order to tackle this issue from the standpoint of a Chinese student who has completed one of her tertiary degrees in China and another in Australia, this paper focuses on this student as a case study to investigate the impediments in understanding and applying CR that she faced while completing her degree in Australia. BACKGROUND

CR is seen as a cultural thinking and social practice that has been unconsciously developed in individualistic Western cultures (Atkinson, 1997). Atkinson claims that it is a unique western product and incompatible with Asian collectivist traditions in which groups and their identities, rights, goals, etcetera, are emphasised (Triandis, 2001). Similarly, Pennycook (1996) and Canagarajah (2002) have made the same assertion that CR is very much a Western idea. In the Anglophone education system topics like truth seeking, open-mindedness, analyticity, systematicity, reasoning, inquisitiveness and maturity of judgment are the defining criteria of CR (Facione, 1992). For a Chinese, according to Paton (2005), CR is a philosophical concept by which the subordinate should abide by the rules set by the master, and this is the established system of the universe. Therefore, challenging this is viewed as ‘losing face’ (diu mian zi) and is considered dishonourable in the Confucian tradition. The way a Westerner sees CR is perceived by a Chinese as ‘pi pan shi si wei’, which means finding faults in others (Paton, 2005). However, it needs to be said that, as Zhang, Chilton, He and Jing (2011) point out, questioning in Chinese tradition often refers to questioning oneself; in other words it refers to self-criticism, and CR in China is based on self-reflection and criticising the self rather than criticising others. Zhang, Chilton, He and Jing (2001) maintain that “Confucius does not use the word pīpíng but the word xǐng, the meaning of which can be paraphrased as ‘reflect on’ or ‘examine’ (and ‘examine’ is the word used by English translators)” (p. 99). The three areas for self-examination or self-criticism promoted by Confucius are concerned with social responsibilities and obligations with the sole focus on self-examination, which is completely private. They further quote from a passage of ‘The Analects of Confucius’: Tseng Tzu said, ‘Every day I examine myself on three counts. In what I have undertaken on another’s behalf, have I failed to do my best? In my dealings 124

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with my friends have I failed to be trustworthy in what I say? Have I passed on to others anything that I have not tried out myself? (Zhang et al., 2011, p. 99) As their home culture does not encourage Chinese to question authority, Chinese students are restrained when it comes to class discussion (Li & Liu, 2006). Li and Liu (2006) have attributed this to the respect for authority which results from the long rule of feudalism in China. Li and Liu further argue that there has been a firm hierarchical system, in which lower level officials must be subordinate to higher level officials and, accordingly, a son must be subordinate to his father, and a student to his teacher. This suggestion is clearly agreeable with Paton’s argument about not questioning authority in China. However, as Hu (2004) and Liu (2013) maintain, if Chinese students are silent, and uncertain to ask questions in class, it does not follow that they are uncritical. The main difficulty with this line of argument is the simple fact that there is no strong proof to support the idea that a collectivist tradition is necessarily incompatible with CR. However, it would not be hard to speculate that Chinese students who have not been taught critical pedagogy and CR, in at least the way that is practiced in the West, may conclude that Western CR is a negative way of thinking. As to how Chinese students in a tertiary context would see the way CR is perceived in an Anglophone academic context, some studies (Ip et al., 2000; Tiwari, Avery, & Lai, 2003) have used a test called California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory test (Facione, 1992). The premise of this test is seeking truth through inquisition via reasoning, maturity of judgement, open-mindedness, etcetera., and in order to read or write a text with an acceptable depth of CR, learners have to apply their analytical skills systematically to arrive at a mature reasoning and judgment. Studies based on this test show that generally Chinese students have a weak conception of these criteria. For instance, Ip et al. (2000), by applying these criteria to 122 Chinese nursing students in Hong Kong, found that they had some positive dispositions towards inquisitiveness, but negative dispositions towards systematic analysis and maturity. In another study, Tiwari, Avery and Lai (2003) examined 222 Hong Kong Chinese and 162 Australian nursing students for the same purpose. Chinese students were found to have a negative disposition towards CR in general whereas the Australian participants were more positively inclined towards CR. Tiwari et al. (2003) indicated that Chinese students’ low level of understanding of maturity in reasoning and judgment was due to their Confucian tradition. With regards to respect and face saving in Confucian tradition, Zhang et al. (2011) studied CR in terms of speech acts that are used in face saving, face loss and face threatening acts. They maintained that criticism in discursive culture in modern Chinese largely involves “personalization and face issues” (p. 98). They further point out that another dimension that impacts the practice of CR in contemporary China is “governance and political power” (p. 99). However, they believe that criticism can be guided towards ideas and texts, talks and actions, with no reference to their authors, and thus avoid the face conflict. In fact, loss of face also exists 125

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in Anglophone culture, however English speakers employ indirect speech acts to reduce the face-threatening effect of their criticism. Similarly, Chinese students can avoid bold criticism by using indirect speech acts. Paton (2015) suggests that the problem for Chinese students studying abroad is that they encounter two major challenges – one is lack of support for understanding CR, as it is defined abroad, and the other is their lack of appropriate language proficiency. He draws these two conclusions from his teaching experience in Australia, which seems to be anecdotal. METHOD

As stated above, this study is based on one case study. A Chinese student expressed her concerns to the author about her understanding of CR and explained that she could not apply it to her writing. This became the basis of the author’s encouragement to explore this issue further. For this purpose, a semi-structured interview was designed in order to respond to some of the major CR issues outlined above, namely Chinese postgraduate students’ previous familiarity with and their conceptualisation of the notion of CR, the probable impediments they encounter when applying CR to reading or writing a text in English, and what kind of support they expect to receive to overcome some of the impediments. At the time of the interview, the participant was undertaking a Master of TESOL at Deakin University. The participant was asked to express herself in either Chinese, English, or a mix of both, whichever she was comfortable with, and so she replied to some questions in English and to some others in Chinese. The interview was conducted by a Chinese research assistant and lasted about 45 minutes to answer ten questions. It is worth noting that before conducting the interview, ethical approval was obtained from the researcher’s university. The interview was audio recorded and the Chinese sections of the interview were transcribed and translated into English by the same Chinese research assistant. In order to ascertain the quality of transcription and translation, the Chinese sections of the interview were checked by another Chinese postgraduate student who confirmed the accuracy. The data analysis was based on the participant’s responses to the ten questions of the semi-structured interview. In other words, the analysis is a qualitative analysis which focuses on the main aspects that the participant finds challenging. DISCUSSION

Chinese students are traditionally known for their memorisation of texts for examinations, and the learning system is known for its ‘authoritarian teacher and obedient student’, and so authoritarianism is prevalent throughout the whole Chinese education system (He et al., 2011). Besides, as He et al. (2011) maintain, education in Chinese culture is mainly for character development, morality purposes, and social and economic status. The power relationship, as mentioned above, dates 126

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back to the feudal days, was aggravated during Mao’s reign, and has since been part of the education system in China. This power relation derives its legitimacy from Confucius, who seemed to advocate the power relation through the concept of respect. The participant in the interview in this study reflected on the hierarchical relation as such: In China, teachers and professors are ‘authorities’. They do not like to be challenged and students do not prefer to challenge teachers. In English speaking countries, teachers and professors encourage students to challenge them and will be happy if students ask some tough questions, which creates more opportunities for students to use critical thinking. In Australia, teacher in the language course told us critical thinking is not just to judge other peoples’ ideas but also to provide our own opinions with powerful evidence to persuade others. I have to say that Australia is a very rational country. Everything needs evidence. The participant’s comment indicates that teachers in China are not to be questioned because they are seen as knowledgeable and powerful. However, with one-year’s experience in the Australian context, she believes that if a teacher in Australia is challenged, the teacher will encourage the student because she is happy to see that the student expresses herself freely. The participant seems to imply that this is a preparation towards critical learning and CR. In the excerpt below, the participant is emphasising that many Chinese and English tertiary students have different interpretation and conceptualisation of CR because she thinks Chinese and English have two diverse language systems; the English language requires narrow focusing in academic works, whereas the Chinese language system does not require its speakers to be very focussed but circular (Kaplan, 1996). She expresses her opinion on the different system of Chinse and English conceptualisation as follows: Chinese and English are two different languages with a lot of differences in expression. For instance, Chinese is indirect, so it always describes the background and then discusses question, while English is more direct. The excerpts above exhibit that completing a university degree at a Masters level in an Anglophone country, even though for a short period of six to nine months, can cause significant changes in transition from a memorisation system to a system that is analytical. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out that in order to gain mastery in CR, students need to practice over an extended period of time and, as Paul (1992) notes, empowering students with CR will not be achieved overnight and in one course. It requires years of exposure and trial. That said, however, one should not overlook the competency that Chinese students show in different academic arena. Despite crowded classes, the performance of many Chinese students in examinations is astounding. One should also note that crowded classes will often make it very hard for teachers to guide students in the 127

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direction of CR. So, the question is then how is it possible to compromise such crowded classes and memorisation that is rooted in the Chinese education system on the one hand, and a system whose prime focus is on CR on the other hand? I am of the opinion that memorisation in the education system could also be a by-product of authoritarianism. In closed societies, where authoritarian rules are at work, students are gradually and implicitly trained to think whatever is written in textbooks should be accepted, therefore should be memorised, and the better the memorisation skills, the more outstanding the student becomes. Disobeying memorisation, on the other hand, could mean that they are denying the power of authorities. Nevertheless, I also think that there are often a few outstanding students in every class that are prepared for new changes, that is, to achieve competency in CR, and thus pave the way for others by assisting them. Another excerpt from the participant is in order here. Maybe there are some problems in Chinese education system, as the memorising part still plays the dominant role. But you cannot say Chinese education system cannot succeed in CR. Yes, it can. Some people can be found in this system who are critical. Here the participant indicates that CR, though hard, is achievable by some Chinese students. This must be reflected upon as a positive sign. What needs to be done for CR to be more widespread among Chinese graduate students is to try to ask for the collaboration of those who understand CR better to assist others who have difficulty grasping the ideas of CR. This is obviously more easily said than done, but any slight shift in education requires students’ and teachers’ awareness and collaboration in the first place. CONCLUSION

This study reported on a case study of a Chinese postgraduate student who had just completed her Master’s degree in TESOL in Australia. In a semi-structured interview she expressed four concerns dominating her inability to apply CR to her writing. They include her inability to express herself in English clearly, her education background in China where there is a focus on memorisation skills rather than improving analytical skills, two different conceptualisation systems of Chinese and English, and the authoritative power that dominates the education setting in China, which is both the power of the teacher as well as the power that is embedded in the text. However, it is suggested that studying in a western context such as Australia for an extended period of time can alleviate some of the barriers. Those of us who emphasise CR to domestic or international students need to be aware of how to engage pedagogically when encouraging the use of CR, as there is no clear definition of the term. As regards Chinese students studying in Australia, we need to reintroduce the term that is used in Chinese traditional culture, namely ‘logical thinking’, and combine it with the values embedded in the Anglophone culture, which include gaining knowledge through enquiry in a systematic way and 128

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proper reasoning as well as a sound and mature judgement based on evidence. That said, we need to emphasise to our students that a combination of these concepts will create a context of open-mindedness, which is a very healthy context for educational goals. In China, people avoid criticising teachers as it is considered rude to question a teacher because the teacher is known as a source of authority. We think that a culture of debate should be promoted in the Chinese education system which could pave the ground for tolerance. One way that Chinese students could lessen the negative face-threatening effect of bold criticism would be to use indirect speech acts as used English speakers. REFERENCES Atkinson, D. (1997). A critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 31(1), 71–94. Canagarajah, S. (2002). Critical academic writing and multilingual students. Michigan, MI: University of Michigan Press. Dewey J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. Boston, MA: Heath and Company. Facione, P. A. (1992). The California critical thinking skills test. Millbrae, CA: California Academic Press. He, M. F., Lee, J. C., Wang, J., Canh, L. V., Chew, P., So, K., Eng, B. C., & Sung, M. (2011). Learners and learning in Sinic societies. In Y. Zhao, J. Lei, G. Li, M. F. He, K. Okano, N. Megahed, D. Gamage, & H. Ramanathan (Eds.), Handbook of Asian education: A cultural perspective (pp. 78–104). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis. Hu, Q. (2004). A survey of the models of college English teachers’ questioning. Foreign Language World, 24(6), 22–27. Ip, W. Y., Lee, D. T. F., Lee, I. F. K., Chau, J. P. C., Wootton, Y. S. Y., & Chang, A. M. (2000). Disposition towards critical thinking: A study of Chinese undergraduate nursing students. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32(1), 84–90. Kaplan, R. B. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in intercultural communication. Language Learning, 16(1&2), 1–20. Li, J., & Liu, G. (2006). On the training of critical thinking. Journal of Northwest Normal University, 43(4), 63–67. Liu, X. M. (2013). On the model for developing students’ critical thinking skills in college English teaching. Foreign Language World, 33(5), 59–66. Paton, M. J. (2005). Is critical analysis foreign to Chinese students? In E. Manola & G. Wong-Toi (Eds.), Communication skills in university education: The international dimension (pp. 1–12). Auckland: Pearson Education. Paton, M. J. (2015). The geography of styles of reasoning: East and West, North and South. Philosophy East and West, 65(1), 178–195. Paul, R. (1992). Critical thinking: What, why, and how. In C. A. Barnes (Ed.), Critical thinking: Educational imperative (pp. 3–24). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Pennycook, A. (1996). Borrowing others’ words: Text, ownership, memory, and plagiarism. TESOL Quarterly, 30(2), 201–230. Tiwari, A., Avery, A., & Lai, P. (2003). Critical thinking disposition of Hong Kong Chinese and Australian nursing students. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 44(3), 298–307. Triandis, H. C. (2001). Individualism-collectivism and personality. Journal of Personality, 69(6), 907–924. Zhang, H., Chilton, P., He, Y., & Jing, W. (2011). Critique across cultures: Some questions for CDA. Critical Discourse Studies, 8(2), 95–107.

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Hossein Shokouhi School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

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16. VISUAL ETHICS IN ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION

We live in an era of mass higher education. We also “live in a world saturated with screens, images and objects, all demanding that we look at them” (Mirzoeff, 2009, p. 1). These two observations are intertwined. A greater proportion of the population in many countries are gaining higher education qualifications than ever before (Bach, Haynes, & Smith, 2007). In tandem and partly in response to increasing student numbers, more and more university courses are making the move from face-to-face teaching to online teaching and blended learning. There is an emerging body of work considering teachers’ roles and competencies in relation to online teaching/learning practice (e.g. Baran, Correia, & Thompson, 2011; Bennett & Lockyer, 2004; De Laat, Lally, Lipponen, & Simons, 2007). There is an emphasis in this work on teachers’ roles and the different competencies required in online education. However, the ethical demands of the visually heightened nature of the online environment is an aspect of online teaching and learning that is not often considered in depth. This chapter describes some of the ethical issues emerging for teachers working with students and images online in the context of higher education, and explores how the visual research ethics literature might inform teaching and learning practice in online environments. Visual ethics is a broad term encompassing issues arising from the interaction of people and images and including issues of representation, power relations, reproduction, dissemination and circulation, consent, copyright, privacy and anonymity. Marion and Crowder (2013, p. 3) argue that “it is vital … (for) … responsible social scientists … to take into account the full range of ethical considerations and implications involved in making, using, and disseminating images.” In this chapter, I suggest that it is similarly vital for online teachers and students to take into account ethical considerations in relation to the images made, manipulated, circulated and discussed in the courses they teach and study. University teachers post hyperlinks to images and video clips on other websites, and students produce and reflect on images in assignments and post these images and comments online. These are just a couple of the common aspects of online teaching and learning for which an understanding of ethical practice in relation to the visual field is needed.

I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 131–137. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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This chapter comprises three main further sections. First, I describe some of the ethical dilemmas arising in online higher education courses through presenting a portrait of my experiences teaching an online unit in a postgraduate education course. Second, I consider how issues raised by this portrait, and by the use of the visual in online education more generally, are only partially addressed by current literature on ethics in online higher education. I explore how a situated visual ethics (Clark, 2012) might inform aspects of online higher education. Finally, I suggest ways in which these ethical considerations might be acted on in higher education settings. PORTRAIT OF VISUAL ASPECTS & ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN AN ONLINE UNIT

Background In recent years, I taught a unit on language pedagogy to a group of 75 student teachers undertaking a postgraduate course in education at an Australian university. This was my first time teaching this particular unit and the unit materials were written and compiled by another academic. Most of the students were studying wholly online, whilst around 20 students attended a weekly on-campus seminar. All students accessed study materials online, accessing my ‘news items’ and PowerPoint presentations, and taking part in online discussions and peer review of work. The student cohort comprised Australian students and international students, located both in Australia and in a number of other countries. Many of the students were working as teachers whilst concurrently studying the unit. Visual Aspects of the Unit The online course materials of the language pedagogy unit included video based materials. Many of the ‘news items’ and weekly topic based PowerPoint presentations, which I posted on our learning management site (LMS) at regular intervals throughout the course, included hyperlinks to resources such as videos on external websites such as the Department of Education website, the ABC TV website, and specific YouTube clips. These were recordings of teachers and students in action within classrooms, as well as interviews with teachers and students in which they discussed their experiences of teaching and learning. The teaching and learning activities used in the unit incorporated a visual component. Students were required to create two photostories and to share these with the class by posting them in discussion posts on our site. For the first photostory, students were asked to picture the context in which they teach, or imagine they will teach in the future, using two photographs and a short accompanying text. For the second photostory, students were asked to picture the teaching they do, or planned to do, in this context using four photographs and a short accompanying text. These activities were designed to assist students to imagine a specific teaching context to 132

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which they could then apply the language pedagogy theories they were studying, and to enable students to develop an understanding of the range of language teaching contexts and the need to draw on theory as relevant to specific contexts and learners. Additionally, the online course materials included a photostory I created of my own past teaching contexts which I used to introduce myself to the students and to provide an example photostory. Ethical Dilemmas The video based unit materials raised ethical dilemmas for me as the online teacher. The academic who designed the unit provided me with her teaching materials to use and adapt, and as the current unit teacher I was faced with decisions about which of the hyperlinks to media clips to re-use and which to delete or replace. For example, one of the hyperlinks in the PowerPoint presentations linked to a YouTube clip of a female teacher teaching a language class in North America. Comments had been posted below this clip since the last time this YouTube clip was used in the language pedagogy unit, and these comments now included what were, in my opinion, misogynistic remarks. I considered whether I should remove the link and search for a replacement and, if so, whether I should regularly check the content of new comments posted below the replacement clip. Subsequent to this, I considered my reliability as a barometer of what is offensive or inoffensive in the context of an online classroom spanning multiple continents and cultures. The photostory learning and teaching activities raised some ethical dilemmas for both me and the student teachers. I was faced with the issue of what directions to give the student teachers regarding producing and/or sourcing photographs for inclusion in their photostories. After discussion with the previous lecturer of this unit, I provided the following instructions to student teachers: It is imperative that you do not post any photos that identify people other than yourself. Do not include pictures of children/minors under any circumstances. Another option is for you to use stock images, provided that the artist gives their written consent or the images are paid for. Although designed to avoid issues of consent, this approach led to further ethical issues to do with producing, manipulating and copying photographs. Some student teachers chose to produce photographs themselves – they photographed the outside of school buildings, empty classrooms, classroom wall displays, their teaching materials and their own students’ work. This approach raised questions for the student teachers which they in turn asked me. Questions included whose permission they needed to take different kinds of photographs within their school, and whether they could feature signage of the school’s name in their photographs. Other student teachers reproduced images from the internet and included these in their photostories to represent their teaching contexts. However, some of these student teachers did not include a reference to 133

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the website from which they had sourced the images and it was unclear whether the copied images were stock images or images under copyright, raising an additional ethical issue. A small number of the posted photostories that I viewed in the discussion posts included photos picturing the student teachers’ colleagues and students, despite them having been directed not to do this. Some teaching students manipulated their photos to de-identify the subjects pictured by either inserting a block of colour over faces or by pixelating them, whilst others simply included the identifying photos without attempting to de-identify the subjects pictured. It was unclear whether these student teachers had gained consent from the subjects pictured in their photos. This raised the dilemma of whether it was my responsibility to check all of the photostories and take action if student teachers posted photos of identifiably pictured subjects and schools. The 75 student teachers each posted two photostories online and commented on each other’s photostories, amounting to around 150 photostories and long strings of accompanying commentary. The photostory discussion areas were just two of the unit’s eight or more online discussion areas and it was impossible for me to keep up with viewing/reading the large number of photostories and other posts being placed online by the student teachers. In sum, whilst the visual aspects of the content and activities were grounded in thoughtfully designed pedagogy, a number of ethical dilemmas emerged for me and for the student teachers during preparation, teaching and learning of the unit. The underlying issues centred on what constituted the ethical production, use and circulation of visual materials in the online classroom, and what my role as teacher should be regarding the extent and manner of overseeing and facilitating student teachers’ participation with images. In the following section, I turn to the ethics in online teaching literature and the visual research ethics literature for guidance. A SITUATED VISUAL ETHICS IN THE ONLINE CLASSROOM

The online environment adds complexity to the ethical issues academics grapple with in their teaching practice, yet there is little information in the online teaching literature on how to manage these issues. In a recent, and rare, analysis of the ethical concerns of online teaching, Elison-Bowers and Snelson (2012) identify three key ethical challenges pertaining to online teaching: digital privacy, intellectual property, and professional practice. Each of these ethical challenges appear to be informed by the ethics of the justice paradigm with its focus on laws, codes and individual rights. Elison-Bowers and Snelson’s model offers a useful but limited analysis of some of the issues faced by online teachers and learners. The visual research ethics literature offers understandings about ethical interaction with visual materials which can expand on both the challenges described in Elison-Bowers and Snelson’s model and the ways of addressing them. 134

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Elison-Bowers and Snelson’s (2012) first ethical challenge of digital privacy refers to possible threats to students’ privacy resulting from the electronic storage and transmission of files, discussions, assignments and grades in LMSs. Whilst Elison-Bowers and Snelson (2012) focus on the potential privacy violation of students copying and pasting written text from online discussions and forwarding it to people and environments external to the online course, visual materials may also be circulated in this way. The complex issue of how to manage images that feature human subjects forms one of the central concerns of the visual research ethics literature, encompassing questions of whether and how to anonymise both subjects and places pictured in images. In online teaching and learning, these kinds of decisions are made by teachers and students who may not be aware of the debates and de-identifying techniques available to them. Visual researchers are thought to “have an ethical duty to consider the risks that the publication of visual data might hold” for people (Wiles, Coffey, Robinson, & Heath, 2012, p. 42). This duty is transferable to the online classroom and is arguably a duty for both teachers and students to take seriously. According to Wiles et al. (2012), decisions about which image manipulation techniques to use are best made with a view to avoid either “‘doing violence’ to images or destroying their usefulness” (p. 47). Debates in the visual research ethics literature suggest decisions to do with anonymising images need to be considered in relation to “questions of paternalism, empowerment and respect for participant voice” (Clark, 2012, p. 22). With regard to the issue of de-identifying images produced in/for online classrooms, it would seem appropriate for students to be given relevant literature on this topic, along with examples of images de-identified in various ways for students to view and discuss before deciding how to produce and de-identify images themselves. Managing intellectual property is the second of the ethical challenges in online education raised by Elison-Bowers and Snelson (2012). The legal issue of copyright becomes more pointed in the online classroom and Elison-Bowers and Snelson’s suggestions, such as teachers “linking to materials rather than making copies … (and) … using public domain materials” (pp. 59–60), take this into account. I would add that this is a challenge not only for teachers, but for students as well. In the pedagogy unit I described in the portrait, my students’ participation in online discussions included creating hyperlinks to video clips on external websites, producing and posting photographs, and posting stock images to our LMS. Given students’ active role in contributing to the learning materials shared in online classrooms, both teachers and students need to be educated about copyright and images. The third ethical challenge identified by Elison-Bowers and Snelson (2012) as emerging from online education is professional practice in the online classroom. They suggest that teachers model appropriate ethical behaviour to students in the online environment. In the pedagogy unit portrait, my inclusion of a photostory of my own in the unit materials served to model ethical participation with images. However, this was insufficient as some students nonetheless posted ethically problematic photostories. 135

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The concept of a situated visual online ethics offers a path forward for crafting an approach to ethics in online teaching and learning in higher education. In the context of visual research ethics, Clark, Prosser and Wiles (2010) suggest that a “situated visual ethics … (comprises) … a negotiated, flexible approach to informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality, situated in the contexts within which the data is produced and that is sensitive to the wishes and beliefs of research participants” (p. 89). A situated visual ethics also prompts consideration of “the contexts in which … images will subsequently be viewed and interpreted” (Clark, 2012, p. 28). This concept can be applied to online teaching and learning: we can remove the word “research” and instead consider the wishes and beliefs of participants in the image making and sharing process. The flexibility of a situated visual ethics seems well suited to the complexity of the online classroom in which students log in from a variety of different social and cultural contexts. A situated visual ethics in the online classroom adds to considerations of confidentiality/anonymity, copyright and consent; it includes concerns about representation, power relations, positioning, intertextual relations, shifting contexts of images, and reinterpretation of texts by different audiences. Deppeler, Moss, and Agbenyega (2008) argue that “[v]isual representations of social phenomena are not separable from the context in which they were generated and interpreted” (p. 219). The social context, comprising the historic and cultural understandings and ways of seeing within which an image is generated and/or initially interpreted, may be quite different to the online classroom context into which that image is transferred. In the online environment, images are copied and moved with ease between social contexts, crossing cultural and national borders. The same image can be read very differently in different contexts and in the case of online teaching and learning, there are multiple contexts at play. For example, regarding my portrait of an online unit, whilst I was teaching the unit from within an Australian university context, my student teachers were situated in a variety of school contexts across the globe in Asia, Middle East, North America, Western Europe, as well as within Australia. With regard to the photostory activity described earlier, both the school contexts of the student teachers and the shared context of our online classroom needed to be taken into account in shaping an appropriate situated ethics. A situated visual online ethics that takes specific contexts into account may be developed and negotiated by teachers and students over the duration of a unit or course of study. CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Initial forays into online teaching commenced just two decades ago in the early to mid 1990s and it is therefore understandable that there is still much work to be done in thinking through the visual aspects of online teaching and learning and in considering how we participate with images within the online classroom in ethical ways. However, it is possible to make suggestions for how ethical issues raised by the 136

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visually heightened nature of the online environment could be addressed in higher education settings. My suggestions are that, first, some study of visual ethics could be incorporated into both professional development programs preparing academics to teach online and programs designed to enhance current online teachers’ skills. Second, students could be required to undertake a unit or seminar in online and visual ethics as part of their early undergraduate studies. This could be incorporated into preparatory academic skills units in contexts where these currently exist. In these ways, online teaching and learning practices in higher education may become more ethically informed in relation to the visual field. REFERENCES Bach, S., Haynes, P., & Smith, J. L. (2007). Online learning and teaching in higher education. Maidenhead, Berkshire: McGraw Hill, Open University Press. Baran, E., Correia, A., & Thompson, A. (2011). Transforming online teaching practice: Critical analysis of the literature on the roles and competencies of online teachers. Distance Education, 32(3), 421–439. Bennett, S., & Lockyer, L. (2004). Becoming an online teacher: Adapting to a changed environment for teaching and learning in higher education. Educational Media International, 41(3), 231–248. Clark, A. (2012). Visual ethics in a contemporary landscape. In S. Pink (Ed.), Advances in visual methodology (pp. 17–35). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Clark, A., Prosser, J., & Wiles, R. (2010). Ethical issues in image-based research. Arts and Health, 2(1), 81–93. De Laat, M., Lally, V., Lipponen, L., & Simons, R.-J. (2007). Online teaching in networked learning communities: A multi-method approach to studying the role of the teacher. Instructional Science, 35(3), 257–286. Deppeler, J., Moss, J., & Agbenyega, J. (2008). The ethical dilemmas of working the visual and digital across space. In J. Moss (Ed.), Researching education: Visually-digitally-spatially (pp. 209–227). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers. Elison-Bowers, P., & Snelson, C. (2012). Ethical challenges of online teaching. In R. E. Landrum & M. A. McCarthy (Eds.), Teaching ethically: Challenges and opportunities (pp. 55–65). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Marion, J. S., & Crowder, J. W. (2013). Visual research: A concise introduction to thinking visually. London: Bloomsbury. Mirzoeff, N. (2009). An introduction to visual culture (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Wiles, R., Coffey, A., Robinson, J., & Heath, S. (2012). Anonymisation and visual images: Issues of respect, ‘voice’ and protection. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 15(1), 41–53.

Penelope Pitt School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

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HUANG LIHUI AND SANGLANGWENGMU

17. INHERITING TRADITIONAL FOLK PERFORMANCE IN MODERN SOCIETY A Case Study of the Practice of an Rgyal Rong-Tibetan Da-Erga

INTRODUCTION

Cultural heritages of smaller cultural and minority groups are threatened by modernization and the spread of dominant cultures. As an important part of human intangible cultural heritage, folk performance of song and dance reflects the deep spirit of ethnic groups in a special way because it combines cognition and emotion. However, with the pace of modern culture, more and more folk performance of song and dance is endangered. The relationship between folk performance and cultural heritage, especially in oral traditions with no written texts, means loss of folk performance is also the loss of historical records and key cultural knowledge that impacts on the capacity of cultural heritage to remain renewable and dynamic, not to mention the impact on the human spirit of members of the ethnic group. During the process of inheriting cultural practices, psychological processes interact with cultural phenomena. There are, however, two important problems associated with current research into understanding, sustaining, and protecting folk performance (Lin, 2011): (1) researchers pay more attention to performances as output, ignoring the process of transmission of music from generation to generation; and, (2) methods used to select song and dance for study focus on preservation and lack critical examination and evaluation; researchers need to develop criteria to guide selection of music and dance for study that are representative of cultural heritages, who should make these decisions, and how the decisions should be made. Thus the present study poses the following questions to explore the psychological foundation of inheriting folk performance of song and dance through investigation of a particular case, a Rgyal rong-Tibetan people Da-erga, the typical group performance of dance and song widespread in the Rgyal rong-Tibetan area: (1) what is the current situation of the significance to and understanding of traditional folk performance of music and dance by the Rgyal rong-Tibetan people? (2) What are the problems facing continued inheritance of traditional folk performance to meet the needs of the Rgyal rong-Tibetan people?

I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 139–147. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

HUANG & SANGLANGWENGMU

LITERATURE REVIEW

Historically, folk performance has been transmitted through oral traditions, often related to national culture, and performed, by custom, for a long period of time over generations (Mills, 1974). Transfer of cultural heritage of traditional folk music and dance in modern Chinese society has faced, researchers (Ge, 2014; Li, 2003) argue, a situation of deep social transition since the turn of the 20th century, because the ecological environment of traditional performance has been changed, and the aim of folk activity has changed from lifestyle to performances for tourists. Thus, the focus for researchers is the issue of whether cultural heritage, including traditional folk performance of minority ethnic groups can be dynamic and renewed through meaningful iteration, or whether it is destined to be nothing more than a static artefact. Currently, there are mainly three approaches in the research field of folk performance of music and dance. The first is artistic aesthetic research. This approach aims to let more people know about and appreciate folk music and dance by analyzing the melodies, lyrics, rhythms, movements, and meanings (Lin, 2011). The second (Lin, 2011) is cultural protection of intangible artefacts that aims to record practices using notation and modern media technology, and to record music and dance performance using photos and videotapes. This kind of research tends to protect and preserve folk traditions in a natural way without them being affected by modern culture, but under this approach, the results often turn out to be static specimens. The third approach (Lin, 2011; Qiao, 2009; Yang, 2008) is the anthropologic approach, in which performances are viewed from beyond a purely artistic perspective. This approach looks instead at folk performance within culture, as culture, and as a reflection of culture. Fieldwork is mainly concerned with collecting recordings and information on the practices of interest (Lin, 2011; Qiao, 2009; Yang, 2008). Both Yang (2008) and Lin (2011), for instance, compare folk music collected from different ethnic areas, and discuss the relationship between music, myth, history and social structure. Of the three approaches, the third has great importance as a way for development of deep understanding of traditional folk practices, and protecting the practices for the future. However, apart from the work of Yang (2008) and Lin (2011), other research of traditional folk performances in China that adopts this research perspective appears to be scarce. Moreover, even researches under the third approach still lack deep understanding of the dynamics of inheritance, failing to focus on how folk practices are passed on or learned. For the members of any ethnic group, situated learning is the key way to master traditional cultural performance dynamically. The concept of legitimate peripheral participation was proposed by researchers Lave and Wenger (1991) to understand situated learning activity, especially the process by which newcomers become part of a community of practice: Learning is recognized as a phenomenon constituted in the experienced, lived-in world, through legitimate peripheral participation in ongoing 140

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social practice; the process of changing knowledgeable skills is subsumed in processes of changing identity in and through membership in community of practitioners; and mastery is an organizational relational characteristic of communities of practice. (Lave, 1991, p. 64) Legitimate peripheral participation “offers a two-way bridge between the development of knowledgeable skill and identity – the production of person – and the production and reproduction of communities of practice” (Lave, 1991, p. 68). Legitimate peripherality provides learners with opportunities to make the culture of practice theirs (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 2009, 2010). METHOD

For this project an Rgyal rong-Tiebtan village which is located in Danba County in valleys of west Sichuan Province, about 400kms from the provincial capital of Chengdu, was selected as a sample. The village and its lands comprise an area of almost 500 square kilometers, and the population of 5000 is supported mainly through animal husbandry and agricultural production of corn and wheat. The local language, Rgyal rong-Tibetan language, is not a written language and the rich oral folk traditions, including work songs, mountain songs, and Da-erga, record the history of Rgyal rong-Tibetans, which can be traced back to the time of the second century B.C Qin dynasty (Quedan, 1995). These traditional cultural practices, which reflect the inner world of the people and how they understand nature, life, and the self, now face severe challenges to prevent their disappearance as meaningful events in the daily lives of Rgyal rong-Tibetan people. In the process of pilot field work, our research aimed to collect and record the traditional cultural content of Rgral rong-Tibetans through visiting, conducting discussions with villagers, and asking them to select typical tradition cultural content. In the work of pilot research, many examples of representative folk music and dance were collected, sorted, and selected with the guidance and participation of local people. But one new question arose in the pilot research, and that was how to keep the traditions alive in the practices of the villagers in the current situation. Nowadays, the villagers are mainly the elderly and children; most young people go out to cities to work or study for most of the year. One instance repeatedly cited by many local people, a Da-erga titled Yin Zong Se er Se, is drawn as the sample in the present study. In the present study, narrative inquiry (Chase, 2000), art-based inquiry (Finley, 2000) and interviews (Fontana & Frey, 2000) are combined to collect data in order to answer the research questions identified earlier, framed more explicitly here as: Why is this Da-erga song regarded by many people as important heritage in this village? How do they understand this Da-erga? Do they need this Da-erga and what is needed for continued inheritance of it? Thirty villagers, twelve (I1–I12) 18–30 years old, and eighteen (I13–I30) 32–55 years old, participated in the study through 141

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narrative and art-based inquiries. The initial narrative inquiry was conducted to learn the stories of these villagers’ knowledge and understanding of the song, and the relatively unstructured interviews were 60 minutes or more in duration. The recordings of the interviews were transcribed for analysis. The art-based inquiry was conducted to explore the same villagers’ feelings, emotional responses, and understandings of the song in practice. The song and dance was performed by the villagers and video-recorded by villagers themselves to avoid researcher intrusion in the event. The video was later viewed by the villagers during individual interviews and they responded to prompts to explain to the researchers their feelings, emotional responses, and understandings of the song in practice. These interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Another ten villagers (V1–V10), an older group aged 42–65 years old, participated in lengthy individual semi-structured interviews based on the following initial questions: (1) What is the meaning of the lyrics or words of this song? (2) Can you sing this Da-erga? (3) How did you learn this Da-erga? (4) Do you know any stories about this Da-erga? (5) What do you think about the situation of this Da-erga in future? These recorded interviews were also transcribed and all three sets of interview data were analyzed using the following process (Chase, 2000, p. 663; Fontana & Frey, 2000, p. 713). First, the data were perused to look for the shape of story, to capture: (a) what problems concerned the narrators; (b) what is the resolution the narrators have found; (c) what problems are not resolved; and, (d) how they recognized the problems. Second, the data were observed to analyze the narrators’ positions and opinions. Based on such analysis of similar and contextualized meaning, we arrived at the two generalizations outlined in the ensuing report of our findings. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Key findings were, first, that only the older villagers are able to provide the background of this Da-erga, and that no young people could understand the story of this Da-erga. Second, older villagers are worrying about the gloomy situation of their song and dance traditions, and feel it is difficult to change the situation. Understanding of ‘Yin Zong Se er Se’ When the local people finished the recording of the Da-erga during pilot field work, they provided a brief explanation of the song lyrics: the kindness of parents is endless, and it is difficult to express in words; to repay parents’ graciousness, offspring should always respect and care for the elderly. Crucially, the inquiry data (I1–I12) revealed that the 18–30 years age group found it very difficult to provide detailed explanations of the lyrics of the Da-erga, and that they do not have a concrete understanding of the song. Three older interviewees (V8, V9, & V10) were able to provide background. This Da-erga, Yin Zong Se er Se,1 is also called ‘a Da-erga about orphan’ (V8) and tells a sad story: a long time ago, 142

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when a child had grown up, he lost his parents and was very sad and guilty, unable to repay his parents, and he then composed this song, the whole of which expressed deep grief, loss, and gratitude to his parents. Yin Zong Se er Se is a typical Da-erga in local villagers’ minds and it is known not only at the sample village but throughout the whole Rgyal rong-Tibetan area (V9, V10). Through narrative inquiry more details of the background of this Da-erga have been shown. To begin with, the song lyric of this Da-erga is a narrative poem with unique structure, the translated meaning of which is as follows: Male (M): In the boundless life, searching through the remotest corners of the globe, I cannot find my parents, (female (F): repeated) M: My dearest parents, you might raise cattle rather than raise me, (F: repeated) M: You might raise cattle rather than raise me, it can at least provide white milk, (F: repeated) M: It can provide white milk. You can fill in at least a pail of milk, (F: repeated) M: We fill the milk in pail, stirring it into beautiful days, (F: repeated) M: We stir the milk into beautiful days, get the golden butter, (F: repeated) M: Get the golden butter, put in the cabinet, no dust, (F: repeated) M: Put butter in the cabinet and no dust, put in the kitchen and not melt, (F: repeated) M: Put in the kitchen and not melt. The oil can be used to moisturize and smooth body in your lifetime, (F: repeated) M: Smooth body in your lifetime, and light the lamp after death, (F: repeated) M: Lighting the lamp after death2, is also a way to honor parents. (F: repeated) (The final line is repeated several times by both male and female singers, and ended with the interjection word ‘Lala xia wei’) This Da-erga song takes about twelve minutes to perform and although there are minor variations in the lyrics, both the melody and text are essentially stable. We found there are only about twenty villagers, all over 50 years old, who can sing this song in its entirety without assistance; younger people rely on being able to follow the lead of older villagers who know the song. When villagers practice the Da-erga, traditionally all male and female singers stand separately, facing each other in curved lines from older to younger. The beginning sentence of the song is sung firstly by the males, and repeated by the females. Then all singers stand as a circle, continue singing the Da-erga song, and while dancing turn in a counterclockwise direction, which stems from the traditional Bon religion of the Rgyal rong-Tibetan area in which showing respect to the universe and nature with circles is an important manifestation of ancient civilization in the Tibetan Plateau (Tsering & Dunzhu, 143

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2012). This is not the only element of ancient Tibetan beliefs we found embedded in this traditional song; there are numerous linguistic features of the lyric, such as ‘se er se’ at the end of a phrase or word group that confirm the view that the song is an oral repository of the Rgyal rong-Tibetan language, a very ancient language that includes a large number of ancient Tibetan components and which is a living fossil of Sino-Tibetan languages (Jacques, 2008). There are also default rules about how and where to stand and move when practising Da-erga. In the Da-erga performance, there are two key persons: one is the leader, usually the respected person in the village or a respected guest, who stands at the head of the initial line of men; the other is the second person in the male line, who is called Demmge which means ‘neck’ in Rgral-rong language. All the others stand after them in sequence according to age; normally the female lines follow the sequence of the male lines. The Demmge should be a skilled singer and dancer, and has the responsibility to lead the chorus, lead the dance, and determine the tone and pitch. Normally, during a Da-erga performance party, the leader and Demmge may change when they practice another Da-erga. The older usually said to young people, ‘learn please! You will carry the responsibility one day’. Young people realized that everyone in the village has the responsibility to master traditional Da-erga, because one day when you became older, you could not say ‘I can’t sing or dance.’ (V5) So the process of practicing Da-erga is also the process of taking the responsibility of tradition, and shaping identity. In the process, all participants especially children and young villagers, not only obtain the internalization of Da-erga song or dance as knowledge, mastering the traditional melodies, lyrics, rhythms, movements, and meanings, but they also develop an identity as a member of their ethnic group, with deep emotional and cultural experience. This learning process through peripheral participation provides the young generation the possibility or opportunity to take the traditional Da-erga into their life. Although all the young interviewees (I1–I12) experienced difficulty understanding the traditional Da-erga in detail, most (I1–I8, I10, I11) agreed with the older villagers that this Da-erga, Yin Zong Se er Se, is very important, not only for the meaning of teaching children about honoring parents, but also teaching all the participants in Da-erga performance an understanding of their own positions in the history of their ethnic group. They also expressed awareness of the importance of all other traditional folk performance, and recognition of the great value of history and art. Local Villagers’ Puzzle – How to Keep Their Cultural Practices Alive Our findings suggest the difficulty in inheriting folk practices is firstly because of changes in daily life in the traditional villages. Inheriting traditions does not mean only familiarity with the songs and dances in isolation, but with an emphasis on inheriting and renewing the values and spirit. Now many young people go out to 144

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cities for studying or working, just visiting their hometown for a few days on festival days or holidays. It is hard for people to understand the meaning of traditional music and dance when they are far away from the traditional life. The oldest villagers (V5– V10) mentioned that in the past many people would cry when they heard or sang the song, because of its touching melody and meaningful lyrics: ‘when I was young, many people were often touched by this Da-erga, tears rolling down, whenever singing or hearing. But now can few villagers sing, and few have a deep understanding of the song.’ (V5). A 32 years old primary teacher (I18), who was born and grew up in this village and who works in the county primary school, recounted his attempt to record this Da erga song, and the unsatisfactory outcome. He invited an elderly teacher and some young villagers to record the song in a recording studio in Chengdu, but he found that ‘many villagers felt the rendition was not so touching as when the elderly sang in the village, even though the young singers were taught the meaning of the song lyrics’ (I18). The immediacy and significance of performance of the Da-erga in its endemic setting was demonstrated by a similar response elicited to a studio recording of two elderly villagers that was also considered ‘not so touching as when they sang in their hometown’ (I18). Another villager (V7) lamented that, in the past years, ‘Da erga was purifying our hearts, it is coming from daily life, and is now only activities above the neck.’ In the past, these traditional practices were subsumed in the daily life of villagers, not just shown during festivals or special events as now. The true meaningful inheritance of these folk practices is based on participation as a member of the community of practice which extends beyond just explicit knowledge of the lyrics and dance steps but involves experience of and participation in these practices as an element of community life as a whole. If the music and dance are learned as static knowledge without the motivation and emotion of participation in a meaningful community practice, the traditions cannot be inherited continually and dynamically. Our work showed that, on the one hand, the young generation cannot understand the meaning of traditional songs, nor sing these songs; they do not even know some of traditional folk music, and this is not only the situation of Da-erga Yin Zong Se er Se, but also of many traditional folk performances. Older people, on the other hand, while they are worried about the gloomy situation of their traditional performance, feel it is difficult to change the situation. The traditional folk performance had important functions in local people’s lives, reflecting how they understand and deal with social relationships and with nature, influencing new generations in a special effective way. Some local people have realized the crisis, and initiated attempts to do something remedial. Some, such as I18, have recorded traditional Da-erga; some call on the village school to participate in the inheritance and evolution of traditional songs and dances through recording and inclusion of the tradition Daerga in classroom curriculum; and some engage in demonstrating the traditions through TV shows, broadcasts, and web pages, to arouse more people’s attention. It is notable that Da-erga practices appear in cities, such as at university campuses when Tibetan students practice Da-erga on weekends, or at young Tibetan people’s 145

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social gatherings. Young generations, however, are showing a marked lack of interest in traditional performance; they prefer to learn modern songs rather than traditional songs, mainly because ‘most modern songs are close to the life’ (I2) of peer groups in cities. Moreover, the young generation faces conflicting needs; even though young people say that they know the importance of studying these traditional songs and dance, they still don’t want to take action, or don’t know how to, because they are too busy, giving priority to make a living and pursuing life in the city. Although they feel peaceful when they hear traditional folk songs or watch traditional Da-erga and other performances, and are willing to learn the traditional performance, most of them regarded the problem as too difficult as they felt ‘the content of Da-erga is too deep, we just can know a little, and we have not much more time’ (I11). The young generation are missing the experience their parents had of legitimate peripheral practice, and regard learning tradition performance as ‘one other important thing out of everyday life’ (I9). So the main challenge of continued inheritance is how to bridge the divide between people’s needs for individual life and the need of cultural meaning that comes from being a member of a community or their ethnic group. CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

In the past times, the villagers learned the traditional folk performance through legitimate peripheral participation in daily life and important festival ceremonies in communities, acquiring understanding of the ethnic group’s history and values, and shaping identity. But now many young people are lacking the chance of situated learning, are lacking the strong need to learn traditional culture, even though they are willing to master the elements of traditional cultural performance. Thus, how to resolve the local villagers’ puzzle – how to keep their cultural practices alive – is the key issue that researchers and villagers faced. The reported findings in this project implied that inheriting traditional folk music performance should be based on the people’s needs, which are rooted in values related to their individual lives and the ethnic group’s future. Future research work will focus on the following two points. One is how to revive the tradition in daily life to have children still living in villages participating more in practice of traditional culture. The other is how to motivate more young people who have moved to cities or towns to engage in traditional practices through modern techniques, such as online discussion and sharing, and not just during festival times when younger people return to the village. Inheritance of the traditional folk performance through legitimate peripheral participation still can function effectively in people’s lives in the changing modern circumstances. NOTES ‘Yin Zong Se er Se’ is transliterated from Rgyal rong-Tibetan oral language: ‘Yin’ means hometown in Rgyal rong-Tibetan, ‘zong ’means “wild yak”, ‘yin zong’ means domestic cattle. ‘se er se’means yellow. 2 Lighting the lamp after death means to illuminate the road to heaven. 1

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REFERENCES Chase, S. E. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voice. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 651–679). London: Sage Publications. Finley, S. (2000). Art-based inquiry: Performing revolutionary pedagogy. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 681–694). London: Sage Publications. Fontana, A., & Frey, J. H. (2000). The interview: From neutral stance to political involvement. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 695–727). London: Sage Publications. Ge, S. Y. (2014). Study on the minority nationality traditional music’s inheritance and innovation. Guizhou Ethnic Studies, 35(12), 68–71. [Mandarin] Gutiérrez, K. D., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of practice. Educational Researcher, 32(5), 19–25. doi:10.3102/0013189X032005019 Jacques, G. (2008). A study on the Rgyalrong language. Beijing: National Publishing House. [Mandarin] Lave, J. (1991). Situating learning in communities of practice. In J. Lave & E. Wenger (Eds.), Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation (pp. 63–82). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Li, X. (2003). Reflection on the inheritance, variation and innovation of traditional music. People’s Music, 12, 19–23. [Mandarin] Lin, H. (2011). Musical aesthetic and national psychology. Shanghai: Shanghai Conservatory Of Music Press. [Mandarin] Mills, I. (1974). The heart of the folk song. Canadian Journal for Traditional Music. Retrieved from http://cjtm.icaap.org/content/2/v2art5.html Qiao, J. (2009). The land and the song. Shanghai: Shanghai Conservatory of Music Press. [Mandarin] Quedan (1995). The history of Rgyal rong-Tibetan. Beijing: Ethnic Publishing House. [Mandarin] Tsering, T., & Dunzhu, L. (2012). Outline of Bon history. Beijing: Tibetan Press. [Mandarin] Wenger, E. (2009). Social learning capacity – Four essays on innovation and learning in social systems. In Sociedade e Trabalho booklets No 12: Social innovation (pp. 15–35). Lisbon, Portugal: MTSS/GEP. Wenger, E. (2010). Communities of practice and social learning systems: The career of a concept. In C. Blackmore (Ed.), Social learning systems and communities of practice (pp. 179–198). London: Springer. Yang, M. (2008). Chinese folksong and the earthbound society. Shanghai: Shanghai Conservatory of Music Press. [Mandarin]

Huang Lihui Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China Sanglangwengmu Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China

147

YANG WU, WANTY WIDJAJA AND JUN LI

18. GENDER ISSUES IN ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEACHING MATERIALS A Comparative Study between China and Australia

INTRODUCTION

International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) cross-national studies (FIMS, SIMS and TIMSS) show that gender differences in mathematical achievements and attitudes have decreased considerably over thirty years (Hanna, 2000), however, mathematics is still historically stereotyped as a male domain with crucial evidence supporting this belief (Forgasz, Leder, & Kloosterman, 2009). Previous research showed that gender differences in mathematics participation, performance and achievement existed widely in the majority of English speaking countries, specifically favouring boys (Forgasz, 1992; Hyde, Fennema, & Lamon, 1990; Tiedemann, 2000). Hyde, Lindberg, Linn, Ellis and Williams (2008) pointed out that the stereotype that females lack mathematical ability persists and is widely held by parents and teachers. Mathematics teaching materials play an important role in mathematics teaching and learning. The contents within mathematical teaching materials are rational, and deliver both explicit and implicit information. The explicit information refers to mathematics knowledge that students can learn from textbooks, while the latter one, also named as hidden curriculum, contains social and cultural messages. Hidden curriculum is a side effect of education. It has deep and long-term influences on students’ construction of math-gender stereotype that impact their future mathematical learning (Zhang & Zhou, 2008). Therefore, this study will investigate Chinese and Australian elementary mathematics teaching materials to explore the messages of gender equity and inequity delivered through hidden curriculum including names, images and problem-solving contexts. Based on the findings, practical implications concerning the promotion of equitable gender environments within elementary mathematics teaching materials from a cross-cultural perspective will be discussed. LITERATURE REVIEW

Significance of Gender Issues in Mathematics The significance of gender issues in mathematics education has been highlighted in previous studies. Forgasz, Leder, and Vale (2000) claimed that there was a trend I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 149–160. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

WU et al.

showing a decrease in gender differences in mathematics achievement and affect. However, some studies (e.g., Vale, Forgasz, & Home, 2004; Vale & Bartholomew, 2008) stressed that ongoing attention to and research into gender and mathematics education was still required. It would be inaccurate to conclude that gender differences in mathematics were no longer relevant (Meelissen & Luyten, 2008), because evidence of continuing and re-emerging gender differences have shown that mathematics education still favours males. Therefore, the role of gender remains a significant factor in mathematics learning and teaching (Zhang, 2006). The math-gender stereotype refers to the concept that males are superior and more competent than their female counterparts in mathematics (Passolunghi, Rueda, & Tomasetto, 2014). It greatly influences females both explicitly and implicitly by impairing their mathematics performance (Quinn & Spencer, 2001; Sekaquaptewa & Thompson, 2003), their mathematical learning ability (Appel, Kronberger, & Aronson, 2011), their self-assessments of mathematical ability (Correll, 2001), and lessening the value they place on mathematical success (Eccles, 2011), even steering them away from future math-related careers (Davies, Spencer, Quinn, & Gerhardstein, 2002). This stereotype results in a lower sense of belonging to mathematics among females (Good, Rattan, & Dweck, 2012). Development of Math-Gender Stereotype in Elementary School from a National Perspective There are two main findings about the age when children develop math-gender stereotype. One is in the early level of elementary school, while the other is in the senior elementary level. Children developed cognition of stereotype early in the first grade (Entwistle, Alexander, Pallas, & Cardigan, 1987). Some studies found that math-gender stereotype appeared at the early elementary level. Herbert and Stipek (2005) even argued that, math-gender stereotype existed among children in the absence of differences in mathematical achievement. Consistent with the previous findings, Cvencek, Meltzoff, and Greenwald (2011) demonstrated that American children endorsed the traditional math-gender stereotype that mathematics favours males, at age six or seven. Cvencek et al. (2011, p. 766) went much further and emphasised that “the math-gender stereotype is acquired early prior to ages at which there are actual differences in mathematics achievement.” Aiken (1971, p. 203) maintained that, “sex differences in mathematical abilities are presented as early as kindergarten level and even earlier.” However, the majority of existing studies demonstrated that children’s construction of math-gender stereotype begins among senior elementary level cross-culturally. Specifically, it was found that French children (Martinot & Desert, 2007) and Italian children (Passolunghi et al., 2014) did not construct math-gender stereotype until Year Eight to Nine. Likewise, study (Steffens, Jelenec, & Noack, 2010) found that German children endorsed the traditional math-gender stereotype around nine years of age. Moreover, Passolunghi et al. (2014) confirmed that children tended to 150

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construct positive distinctions in favour of their own gender groups before age eight to nine, in spite of existing negative social and cultural stereotype. Similarly, Heyman and Legare (2004) found that before age of nine to ten, American children believed members of their own gender groups were more talented in mathematics, and the same results were also found among Italian children (Muzzatti & Agnoli, 2007). The experiment conducted by Kurtz-Costes, Rowley, Harris-Britt, and Woods (2008) in the USA confirmed that the age of children transferring from in-group favour to traditional stereotype was around ten. In short, children start constructing mathgender stereotype from age eight to ten, and their transition from in-group favour to traditional stereotype happens at similar age (age eight or older). Therefore, this study puts focus on elementary level. Hidden Curriculum within Elementary Mathematics Teaching Materials A hidden curriculum refers to lessons that are learned without open intention (Martin, 1976) such as transmission of values and beliefs in classroom activities, and in social environments (Giroux & Anthony, 1983). Simply, it is a side effect of education involving both teaching and learning. Mathematics teaching materials play a significant role delivering knowledge and social values. Traditional mathematics education complies with the concept that mathematics knowledge is always rational, reasonable and culture free. However, Shi (2004) claimed that re-refined cultures and symbolic systems representing mainstream values in contemporary society are always selected and constructed by editors in teaching materials. Cheng (2006) pointed out that gender imbalance in school curriculum has a close relationship with gender imbalance in society. Hidden curriculum in mathematics teaching materials does not have instant, but rather, far-reaching influences on students. Moreover, it is found that most adults’ attitudes towards mathematics are generated from their education in early childhood (Sparrow & Hurst, 2010). Therefore, the hidden curriculum within elementary mathematics teaching materials does have deep and long-term influences on students’ future mathematics learning. The experiment conducted by Good, Woodzicka, and Wingfield (2010) demonstrated that images with specific gender stereotype do impact on male and female students’ retention of lesson materials, and play a role in maintaining the gender differences in achievement and performance. The images contained in teaching materials can have an impact on students’ comprehension of the text, without students’ ability to consciously point out a reason for their own reduced or increased learning outcomes. However, although gender differences in mathematics achievement, performance and attitudes are not solely caused by gender stereotypic images in mathematics teaching materials, they should not be ignored. Zhang and Zhou (2008) asserted that gender imbalanced contents in elementary mathematics teaching materials have an accumulative effect on students, especially for girls. The effect will become more and more obvious as time passes. Students unconsciously build up gender-relevant values, which potentially influence their behaviours. 151

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RESEARCH DESIGN

Because of different education systems, different teaching materials are employed in Chinese and Australian elementary schools. In China mathematics is taught by specialist mathematics teachers as an independent subject, while in Australia an elementary teacher teaches all subjects including mathematics. In China standard textbooks are used, while in Australia mainstream teaching materials are used. Specifically, in China the standard textbooks are edited based on the elementary curriculum standard issued by the Chinese Ministry of Education. However, in Australia different states develop different curriculum standards. These curriculum standards can be referenced by authors who want to write textbooks for the Australian curriculum. Therefore, instead of standard textbooks, mainstream textbooks are widely used in Australia. This study considers and compares Chinese and Australian elementary mathematics teaching materials, specifically, Beijing Normal University edition (BJUN-edition) Compulsory Education Textbooks – Primary Mathematics (Chinese Researching Department of Compulsory Education and Curriculum Standards, 2012) used in China and Rigby Maths for Victoria (Vincent, 2000), published by Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd, and used in Victoria, Australia. Three textbooks from BJUN-edition elementary mathematics textbooks have been selected by interval sampling (Tang, Chen & Zhang, 2010) – the first volume of the First Grade, the second volume of Third Grade, and the first volume of Sixth Grade. Considering the number of pages in these textbooks and contents in each chapter, Grade One, Grade Three and Grade Six Rigby Maths for Victoria have been selected correspondingly. A review of existing studies indicates that there is very limited existing research on gender issues in Chinese mathematics textbooks in English-language journals. The comparison between Chinese and Australian teaching materials could potentially extend our understanding in this field cross-culturally. Moreover, international studies, including PISA and TIMSS, revealed that Australia has in effect achieved more gender equity in mathematics from a national perspective (Hanna, 2003; Vale & Bartholomew, 2008). Therefore, there could arguably be something that China might learn from Australia in this field. However, in order to promote mutual understanding and learning in terms of gender issues in teaching and learning of mathematics, the current study will also explore what Australia might also learn from China. The following diagram (Figure 1) shows the structure of this study. The research considers three specific areas (names, images and problem-solving contexts) within hidden curriculum of elementary mathematics teaching materials to explore gender equity and inequity. A mixed-method approach was used in this study. Quantitative analysis was carried out to analyse the presence of names and images suggesting gender stereotype. The frequency of male and female names was calculated to explore the gender balance or imbalance. The images were classified into three categories. They are male-dominant, female-dominant and neutral. Considering frequency of males and females and gender-related social information within images, each image was 152

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Figure 1. The structure of the current study

put into certain classification. In analysing problem-solving contexts, two main ways of presenting mathematics problems in textbooks were examined. One is pure verbal description; the other is a combination of verbal description with images illustrating context. Some hints informing the solution of problems are included in the image. This study, particularly discussed how problems are described, and what social roles and status do males and females have in contextual images. Furthermore, the analysed data was presented in the table to reveal what gender messages are delivered in each country’s mathematics teaching materials, from social and cultural perspective, through cross-cultural comparison. FINDINGS

Names Table 1 presents the frequency and proportion of male and female names in two sets of textbooks. More names were used in Chinese textbooks (477) than Australian ones (327), and both sets of textbooks followed the trend that higher grades used more names. In Chinese mathematics textbooks, male names appeared more frequently than female names in each grade. However, in Australian textbooks, both Grades One and Three had more female names. In terms of total frequency of male and Table 1. The frequency of male and female names China

Australia

Total China

Gr 1

Gr 3

Gr 6

Total Aus

Gr 1 1st Vol

Gr 3 2nd Vol

Gr 6 3rd Vol

Male

67 54.9%

89 53.9%

101 53.1%

257 53.8%

20 43.5%

47 48.9%

98 52.9%

165 50.5%

Female

55 45.1%

76 46.1%

89 46.9%

220 46.2%

26 56.5%

49 51.1%

87 47.1%

162 49.5%

Total

122 100%

165 100%

190 100%

477 100%

46 100%

96 100%

185 100%

327 100%

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female names, Australian textbooks showed less difference 1.0% (50.5% for male and 49.5% for female) than Chinese textbooks 7.6% (53.8% for male and 46.2% for female). In general, Chinese textbooks showed more gender imbalance. Images Table 2 and Table 3 present the frequency of male and female appearances in images and the frequency of three types of images. Table 2 reveals that more images were used in Chinese textbooks (707 in total), which was almost twice the number in Australian textbooks (292 in total). As for gender-specific images, it can be seen that in Chinese textbooks, though the frequency of both male and female appearances decreased from Grade One (male: 141; female: 121) to Grade Six (male: 112; female: 89), more male than female appearances were presented in each grade’s textbook. Specifically, the proportion of male appearances experienced an increase from 53.8% (Grade One) to 55.7% (Grade Six), while a decrement was found among female appearances from 46.2% (Grade One) to 44.3% (Grade Six). The Australian data told a different story. Except in Grade One, a higher frequency of female appearances were found, with 51.1% in Grade Three and 58.1% in Grade Six. Moreover, a trend of decrease was found among male appearances, while a tendency of increase was revealed among female appearances from lower to higher grades. In general, Chinese textbooks revealed more significant differences between frequency of male (54.9%) and female (45.1%) appearances, while a subtle variance was found in Australian textbooks (male: 50.3%; female: 49.7%). Table 2. The frequency of male and female appearances in images China Gr 1 Gr 3 Gr 6 1st Vol 2nd Vol 1st Vol

Australia

Total China

Gr 1

Gr 3

Gr 6

Total Aus

Male

141 53.8%

135 55.3%

112 55.7%

388 54.9%

89 54.9%

24 48.9%

34 41.9%

147 50.3%

Female

121 46.2%

109 44.7%

89 44.3%

319 45.1%

73 45.1%

25 51.1%

47 58.1%

145 49.7%

Total

262 100%

244 100%

201 100%

707 100%

162 100%

49 100%

81 100%

292 100%

A higher proportion of male-dominant images were discovered in Chinese textbooks (42.5%) than Australian textbooks (33.3%) (see Table 3). Correspondingly, more female-dominant images were presented in Australian textbooks (32.0%) compared to Chinese textbooks (22.2%). Nevertheless, both countries’ gender-neutral images remained at a similar level with respective proportions of 35.3% (China) and 34.6% (Australia). An inspection of Chinese data informed that male dominant 154

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images increased from Grade One (40.1%) to Grade Three (47.9%), followed with a notable decrease to 39.5% in Grade Six, while a moderate trend of decrease existed among female dominant images through three year levels. Moreover, the number of male-dominant images was remarkably higher than female-dominant images in each grade. In Australian textbooks, the proportion of male-dominant images decreased from 42.1% (Grade One) to 22.8% (Grade Six), while the frequency of femaledominant images strikingly increased from 21.0% (Grade One) to 45.7% (Grade Six). The significant difference was that Australian textbooks included a much higher frequency of female-dominant images, especially in Grade Six. Table 3. The frequency of three types images China

Total China

Australia Gr 6

Total Aus

157 42.5%

16 3 8 42.1% 37.5% 22.8%

27 33.3%

25 21.9%

82 22.2%

8 2 16 21.0% 25.0% 45.7%

26 32.0%

37 30.2%

44 38.6%

130 35.3%

14 3 11 36.9% 37.5% 31.5%

28 34.6%

123 100%

114 100%

369 100%

38 100%

81 100%

Gr 1 1st Vol

Gr 3 2nd Vol

Gr 6 1st Vol

Male Dominant

53 40.1%

59 47.9%

45 39.5%

Female Dominant

30 22.7%

27 21.9%

Neutral

49 37.2%

Total

132 100%

Gr 1

Gr 3

8 100%

35 100%

Problem-Solving Contexts Problem-solving contexts include texts and images delivering hints relevant to solution of problems. Table 4 presents different social roles in both sets of textbooks. Because of repetitive social roles for male and female in both sets of textbooks, the page numbers are not indicated in the table. Specifically, in Chinese textbooks, the distribution scope of masculine social roles were broad – wise old man, driver, father, mathematician, scientist, teacher, chef, bank staff, spaceman, leader, and some service personnel like ticket seller – while females had more family-related roles – mother (doing shopping, accompanying children, making food, feeding chickens), teacher and service personnel like ticket seller and librarian. Compared with masculine social roles, female social roles were less intellectual and technicallyrelated. Therefore, it could be summarised that, gender stereotypic messages are delivered in Chinese textbooks’ problem-solving contexts. In Australian textbooks, more gender-equal messages were delivered. Males were presented as driver, celebrity, sportsman, professor, and even traditional feminine roles like cleaner and socially-disruptive roles like thief. In some cases, gender stereotypes still existed. For instance, males were treated as both starters 155

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Table 4. The social roles of male and female

Males’ Roles

China

Australia

Wise old man (Gr 3 & 6) Driver (Gr 1 & 3) Father (Gr 1 & 3 & 6) Mathematician (Gr 6) Scientist (Gr 3 & 6) Teacher (Gr 3) Chef (Gr 1 & 3) Bank staff (Gr 3 & 6) Spaceman (Gr 6) Sportsman (Gr 3 & 6) Ticket seller (Gr 1 & 3) Leader (Gr 3 & 6) Technical personnel (Gr 3 & 6) Newspaper reader (Gr 1 & 3)

Driver (Gr 1) Starter (Gr 1) & finisher (Gr 1) Celebrity and Sportsman (Gr 1) Cleaner (Gr 1) Professor (Gr 1) Problem Solver (Gr 3) Thief (Gr 6) The Creator of the new calendar (Gr 6)

Females’ Roles Teacher (Gr 1 & 3 & 6) Mother (Activities: shopping; making food; feeding chicken; traveling; accompanying children, etc.) (Gr 1 & 3 & 6) Ticket seller (Gr 1 & 3) Seller clerk (Gr 1 & 3 & 6) Librarian (Gr 1 & 3)

Carpenter (Gr 1) Cleaner (Gr 1) Suggestion Provider (Gr 3) Teacher (Gr 3) Problem Provider (Gr 3) Basketball Player (Gr 6) Runner (Gr 6) Newspaper Reader (Gr 6) Mother (Gr 6)

and finishers (the turning-point makers), while females were only presented during the process (the normal roles). Another example is that in some problem-solving context diagrams, male and female played the roles as problem solver and provider respectively. No contradiction of the condition that male is problem provider while female is problem solver was found in these three Australian textbooks. In terms of female social roles, some interesting findings were revealed. Besides traditional feminine social roles like cleaner, teacher, mother and runner, some less-traditional female roles were evident, such as carpenter, basketball player and newspaper reader. It is interesting to note that, in Chinese textbooks, these roles were depicted as males. Specifically, the role of newspaper reader was always depicted as a middle-aged man in Chinese textbooks. DISCUSSION

The findings reveal gender stereotype exists in both sets of mathematics teaching materials to different extents. Both Chinese and Australian textbooks have the tendency that higher grades use more male names. The main difference is that more 156

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male names appear in three grades of Chinese textbooks and only Australian Grade Six textbooks. Consistent with previous findings (Sun & Hu, 2014; Tang et al., 2010; Zhang & Zhou, 2008), in Chinese textbooks, male appearances have much higher frequency than female appearances; higher grades use more male-dominant images; males have broader and higher social-status roles while females’ roles are mainly family-related. Only the first finding applies for Australian textbooks, but with lower statistical differences between genders. Although, in total, there are more maledominant images in Australian textbooks, in higher grades more female-dominant images are found. Additionally, females are found playing some traditionally masculine roles in Australian textbooks, such as carpenter, basketball player and newspaper reader, while males played traditional feminine social roles like cleaners, even negative social roles like thief. In short, Chinese textbooks deliver more gender stereotypic messages, whilst Australian textbooks present more gender equity. Mutual learning between two nations can be promoted through this cross-cultural study. A deeper inspection of higher frequency of female appearances in Australian textbooks suggests that, it is a social message to encourage girls to believe they can learn mathematics as well as boys, which could potentially enhance girls’ mathematical confidence. Considering more female-dominant images in higher grade Australian textbooks, it could be explained that Australia values gender equity. This value is implicitly delivered through hidden curriculum in textbooks to motivate more girls learning and being confident in mathematics. Moreover, male and female sharing both masculine and feminine roles in Australian textbooks again emphasises this value. Chinese textbooks can learn a lot from Australia in this way. On the other hand, Chinese textbooks inform more diverse social messages to students. Table 2 reveals that more male and female appearances were used in Chinese textbooks (707 in total), which was almost two times of Australian ones (292 in total). Moreover, Table 4 informs that, there were more social roles for both male and female in Chinese textbooks than in Australian examples. While beyond the scope of this study, future research might explore why Chinese elementary textbooks prefer to use more images referring to more social roles, and how useful the use of images is in mathematics education. It is certain that the hidden curriculum in Chinese textbooks informed broader and more diverse social and cultural roles than Australian textbooks did. IMPLICATION & CONCLUSION

It is significant to practice gender equity in mathematics teaching materials, especially under the condition of existence of math-gender stereotype. The purpose of gender-equal mathematics textbooks is not to eliminate differences between genders, but to eliminate biased understanding of gender. From students’ perspective, teaching materials are one of the important approaches to learn mathematics. Boys and girls could subconsciously take the social roles that males and females play in textbooks for granted and even imitate them in their own life. That is why sociology 157

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of knowledge claimed that knowledge is social and cultural, instead of detached, isolated and separated from real life. Knowledge within teaching materials is a product of society, culture and history (Hu & Yang, 2003) and anything relevant to gender stereotype can never be solved or moderated in a short time, but needs evolution over time. In order to balance the gender roles in teaching materials, the frequency of male and female names and appearances in each grade needs to be taken into account. It is encouraged that in higher grades more female names and images could be included. At Grades Five and Six, girls could learn mathematics with less interest because of encountering and being aware of social and cultural values delivering math-gender stereotype, so they need more external motivation than boys. Additionally, males’ and females’ social roles need to be presented in balance, especially the careers relating to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Some traditional masculine roles played by female are encouraged, especially in the higher grade’s textbooks, which can potentially enhance girls’ mathematical confidence. Eliminating math-gender stereotype in teaching materials does not mean elimination of gender differences in mathematics learning; a gender balanced environment within mathematics textbooks is encouraged, but male’s and female’s social and cultural differences can never be ignored. Further research is encouraged to explore this area. The current study is mainly based on text analysis to explore messages delivering gender equity/inequity within elementary mathematics teaching materials. Further research could be conducted to explore how to achieve gender equity in mathematics teaching and learning through appropriate use of mathematics teaching materials. To achieve this goal, classroom observation may be conducted to explore how the mathematics teaching materials are used. Moreover, surveys and interviews with teachers and students may assist investigation of their perceptions and awareness of gender messages during teaching and learning processes. Cross-national comparisons may assist in the establishment of a deeper understanding of gender issues in mathematics in multi-cultural contexts. REFERENCES Aiken, L. R. (1971). Intellective variables and mathematics achievement: Directions for research. Journal of School Psychology, 9, 201–212. Appel, M., Kronberger, N., & Aronson, J. (2011). Stereotype threat impairs ability building: Effects on test preparation among women in science and technology. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41(7), 904–913. Cheng, F. M. (2006). The sociological analysis of gender inbalance within curriculum. Jiangxi Education Research, (3), 59–61. (In Chinese Edition) Chinese Researching Department of Compulsory Education and Curriculum Standards. (2012). Beijing Normal University edition (BJUN-edition) compulsory education textbooks – Primary mathematics. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Publishing Group. Correll, S. J. (2001). Gender and the career choice process: The role of biased self-assessments. American Journal of Sociology, 106, 1691–1730.

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GENDER ISSUES IN ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEACHING MATERIALS Cvencek, D., Meltzoff, A. N., & Greenwald, A. G. (2011). Math-gender stereotypes in elementary school children. Child Development, 82(3), 766–779. Davies, P. G., Spencer, S. J., Quinn, D. M., & Gerhardstein, R. (2002). Consuming images: How television commercials that elicit stereotype threat can restrain women academically and professionally. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1615–1628. Eccles, J. (2011). Gendered educational and occupational choices: Applying the Eccles et al. model of achievement-related choices. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35(3), 195–201. Entwistle, D. R., Alexander, K. L., Pallas, A. M., & Cardigan, D. (1987). The emergent academic selfimage of first graders: Its response to social structure. Child Development, 58, 1190–1206. Forgasz, H., Leder, G., & Vale, C. (2000). Gender and mathematics: Changing perspectives. In K. Owens & J. Mousley (Eds.), Mathematics education research in Australasia: 1996–1999 (pp. 305–340). Turramurra, NSW: MERGA. Forgasz, H. J. (1992). Gender and perceptions of mathematics achievement amongst year 2 students. In B. Southwell, B. Perry, & K. Owens (Eds.) Proceedings of the fifteenth annual conference of The Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia: Space – The first and final frontier (pp. 285–293). Sydney, Australia: Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia. Forgasz, H. J., Leder, G. C., & Kloosterman, P. (2009). New perspectives on the gender stereotyping of mathematics. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 6(4), 389–420. Giroux, H., & Anthony, P. (1983). Social education in the classroom: The dynamics of the hidden curriculum. In H. Giroux & D. Purpel (Eds.), The hidden curriculum and moral education (pp. 100–121). Berkeley, CA: McCutchan Publishing Corporation. Good, C., Rattan, A., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Why do women opt out? Sense of belonging and women’s representation in mathematics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(4), 700. Good, J. J., Woodzicka, J. A., & Wingfield, L. C. (2010). The effects of gender stereotypic and counterstereotypic textbook images on science performance. The Journal of Social Psychology, 150(2), 132–147. Hanna, G. (2000). Special aspects of TIMSS related to mathematics education. Part 2. Declining gender differences from FIMS to TIMSS. Zentralblatt fu¨r Didaktik der Mathematik, 32(1), 11–17. Hanna, G. (2003). Reaching gender equity in mathematics education. The Educational Forum, 67(3), 204–214. Herbert, J., & Stipek, D. (2005). The emergence of gender differences in children’s perceptions of their academic competence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26(3), 276–295. Heyman, G. D., & Legare, C. H. (2004). Children’s beliefs about gender differences in the academic and social domains. Sex Roles, 50, 227–239. Hu, Z. J., & Yang, C. Y. (2003). A review of feminism curriculum theory. Comparative Education Review, 162(11), 7–11. (In Chinese Edition) Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., & Lamon, S. J. (1990). Gender differences in mathematics performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 107(2), 139–155. Hyde, J. S., Lindberg, S. M., Linn, M. C., Ellis, A. B., & Williams, C. C. (2008). Gender similarities characterize math performance. Science, 321(5888), 494–495. Kurtz-Costes, B., Rowley, S. J., Harris-Britt, A., & Woods, T. A. (2008). Gender stereotypes about mathematics and science and self-perceptions of ability in late childhood and early adolescence. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54, 386–409. Martin, J. R. (1976). What should we do with a hidden curriculum when we find one? Curriculum Inquiry, 6(2), 135–151. Martinot, D., & Désert, M. (2007). Awareness of a gender stereotype, personal beliefs and self-perceptions regarding math ability: When boys do not surpass girls. Social Psychology of Education, 10(4), 455–471. Meelissen, M., & Luyten, H. (2008). The Dutch gender gap in mathematics: Small for achievement, substantial for beliefs and attitudes. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 34(2), 82–93. Muzzatti, B., & Agnoli, F. (2007). Gender and mathematics: Attitudes and stereotype threat susceptibility in Italian children. Developmental Psychology, 43, 747–759.

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 Sekaquaptewa, D., & Thompson, M. (2003). Solo status, stereotype threat, and performance expectancies: Their effects on women’s performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 68–74. Shi, J. X. (2004). Exploring the gender world of textbooks and teaching process (1st ed.). Beijing: Educational Science Press. (In Chinese Edition) Sparrow, L., & Hurst, C. (2010). Effecting affect: Developing a positive attitude to primary mathematics learning. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 15(1), 18–24. Steffens, M. C., Jelenec, P., & Noack, P. (2010). On the leaky math pipeline: Comparing implicit mathgender stereotypes and math withdrawal in female and male children and adolescents. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 947–963. Sun, Q. K., & Hu, Q. Z. (2014). Research on the gender role of the characters in math textbook from the perspective of sociology. Journal of Nanchang Normal University (Comprehensive), 35(3), 9–13. (In Chinese Edition) Tang, H., Chen, B., & Zhang, W. (2010). Gender issues in mathematical textbooks of primary schools. Journal of Mathematics Education, 3(2), 106–114. Tiedemann, J. (2000). Parents’gender stereotypes and teachers’ beliefs as predictors of children’s concept of their mathematical ability in elementary school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 308–315. Vale, C., & Bartholomew, H. (2008). Gender and mathematics: Theoretical frameworks and findings. In H. Forgasz, A. Barkatsas, A. Bishop, B. Clarke, S. Keast, W. T. Seah, & P. Sullivan (Eds.), Research in mathematics education in Australasia 2004–2007 (pp. 271–290). Rotterdam/Taipei: Sense Publishers. Vale, C., Forgasz, H., & Home, M. (2004). Gender and mathematics. In B. Perry, G. Anthony, & C. Diezmann (Eds.), Research in mathematics education in Australasia: 2000–2003 (pp. 75–100). Flaxton, Qld: Post Pressed. Vincent, J. (2000). Rigby Maths for Victoria Year 6 Student Book. Melbourne, Victoria: Reed International Books Australia Pty Ltd. Zhang, X., & Zhou, H. M. (2008). Analysing gender stereotypes within primary mathematics textbooks. Education Research Monthly, 7, 23–25. (In Chinese Edition) Zhang, X. Y. (2006). Commentary on researches of gender differences of middle school students’ mathematical skills. Journal of Tianjin Normal University (Basic education edition), 7(2), 44–47. (in Chinese edition)

Yang Wu School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia Wanty Widjaja School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia Jun Li School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

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19. UNIVERSAL EDUCATION IN LIANGSHAN, CHINA The Story of a Yi Village

INTRODUCTION

The challenges faced by marginalized minority ethnic groups in response to pressures to participate in economic development and to the encroachment of dominant cultural values and practices has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers in recent times (Ma, 2007). In the quest for modernization and national unity in China, the Yi area in Liangshan has undergone remarkable changes (Harrell & Aga, 2013) in economy, culture and politics. Educational change is the one of the most obvious impacts in the Yi area because since Liangshan’s democratic reform, Yi, as one of the ethnic minorities in China, has changed from historically having no modern school to having universal nine-year compulsory education (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 1986). Yi people developed the habit of study (Aga, 2013) and going to school became an important thing in Yi families. Following the policy of compulsory education, and the “two exempt and one subsidy” policy (General Office of the State Council, 2006), which was carried out in 2005, and the policy of “nutritious meals” (Education of China, 2013), which was carried out in 2011, most Yi children attend schools. However, although modern education of the Yi made obvious progress (Huan, Huang, & Qu, 1998) low academic achievement and retention rates are still issues in the Yi area. This chapter reports an investigation of the introduction of compulsory modern school education and the impact on the way of life of the members of a remote Yi village community and discusses the finding that education and traditional customs of ecological management and of childbearing are in a dynamic relationship. LITERATURE REVIEW

Various perspectives have focused research attention directed to ethnic minority education. In China, much research focused on national education and ethnic minority identity has reached the conclusion that, historically, education of most ethnic minority groups was implemented according to Han majority language and history, and there has been no space for the cultural values of ethnic minorities (Chen, 2008; Hansen, 1999; Gao, 2010; Mackerras, 2011; Zhu, 2007). Another body of research, focused on ethnic minority education and religious beliefs (Mackerras, I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 161–168. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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2011; Gladney, 2011, as cited in Postiglione, 2011), has shown that minority religious beliefs conflict with the values of national education. Current research on ethnic minority education has shifted from focusing on enrolment, consolidation and graduation rates, and bilingual education (Teng, 2001) to comparisons between education of different ethnic minorities and relationships between social changes linked to education and cultural inheritance (Ba, 2010; Liu, 2007). These studies show that, in general, education is associated with a dispelling influence for the inheritors of ethnic minority cultures. Although there is this significant body of research literature reporting aspects of Chinese ethnic minority education (Liu, 2007), research investigating education of Yi ethnic minority from the perspective of modernization is scarce. Modern education brings a lot of change to Yi people’s lives. Children go to school to study instead of herding grazing animals in the mountains, and because of school education the Yi children learn to speak Mandarin and absorb mainstream culture (Harrell & Aga, 2013). Yet, as Ma (2010, p. 6) advises, “when we plan the educational development of Chinese ethnic minorities, we should think of the problems in the educational system from the perspective of country modernization and a long-term development of ethnic minorities.” If we adopt this approach, assessment of the outcomes of introduction of compulsory universal education in Yi villages must be considered in terms of the implications for and of long-term development and modernization in this remote area of China. RESEARCH METHOD

The Study Area I took a village (hereafter S village), located in the south of Liangshan, China, with an average elevation of 2000 meters, as my study area. Historically, S village had a population of 90 households, a total of 467 Yi people, 236 males and 231 females. The educational standard is low, with 40 primary school graduates and 437 people currently in education in primary school or illiterate. Each family has an average of 0.9 of an acre of land, as well as additional economic tree crops. Seventy people go outside S village to work, and at the time of writing 35 of the 90 households have moved to other places because of geological disaster and/or educational problems, and are unlikely to return. The permanent population is now only 55 households, with a corresponding decline in population, currently fluctuating. S village has no school, so children need to go on foot to a neighbouring village that has only two classes with 27 students and two temporary teachers. Data Collection S village is located near the leprosy village in Liangshan where I completed my PhD. fieldwork in 2012. During this fieldwork, the leprosy villagers regularly referred to 162

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tensions related to education in neighbouring S village. In 2015, I returned to the leprosy village as a volunteer teacher in the village school and the school teacher told me some students in the same class were siblings. I was interested in this question and during the one month I lived there, I recorded semi-structured interviews, with their agreement and in the Yi language, with more than 50 Yi residents of S village (hereafter V1–50), as well as with the two teachers of the leprosy village school (hereafter T1 & T2). The questions focused on the education of S village children and other aspects of S village life and work. The interviews were transcribed in Mandarin and, through use of notes made following the interviews and repeated readings to familiarize with the data, recurrent themes and topics were identified. As a volunteer in the school, I also conducted participant observations and recorded the observation data and my reflections in a daily journal. The interviews were analyzed in conjunction with the observations data to identify recurrent themes, and similarities and discrepancies between the two types of data were considered to produce key findings of the analysis. FINDINGS

Compulsory education was found to have brought unexpected consequences to S village. First, more and more villagers are choosing to send their children to school in the nearest large town rather than the nearest local school in the neighbouring leprosy village. The initial reason appears to be fear of the leprosy village, but the situation is more complex. Despite expectations of schooling generally limited to completion of middle school, embracing the habit of study has meant not only that village children attend school, but also, perhaps unexpectedly, that parents seek a school education that they judge to be of an acceptable standard to ensure their children’s capacities to respond to the basic demands of modern life. The quality of the school in the leprosy village is not considered by S villagers to be high because there are only two temporary teachers, not all grades are offered, and siblings of different ages often have no choice but to study in the same class. Student achievement has suffered and it is because of this, as well as the fear of leprosy, that some families have chosen to send children to the more distant town school. This in turn further threatens the capacity of the local leprosy village school. Second, the distance to the town school is too far for S village children to walk, so they must take the local bus to attend school. Yi have large families and if they do not like the quality of education in the leprosy village, the cost of transportation to send several children to the town school is considerable. Families have two options in response. If they cannot afford to live in S village and send their children to town school, some parents move their family to town, where the quality of education and living conditions are better, and seek employment, all in order to educate their children. Families who choose to stay in the village and to pay to send children by bus to the town school often need additional income to support the education of their children. This is one reason villagers give for planting more cash crops and 163

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raising more livestock for sale. To make more land available for crops and livestock some families are clearing and burning more of the mountain. These practices have contributed to geological disaster in the form of landslides that have destroyed village houses and, as a result, families left homeless have moved from S village. Thus, analysis has revealed a set of complex relationships between compulsory education, village location and infrastructure, village population, family size and local ecology. In the next section, these findings and these relationships are discussed in more detail. DISCUSSION: PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE EDUCATION

The Educational School Choices Parents of S village have accepted that modern education is the one of the conditions of being a modern person, but in 2007 S village school was closed because of the retirement of the only teacher. Now, the nearest school is in the leprosy village, which is a terrifying place for S village people. Some S villagers choose to send their children to the leprosy village school to study and when they make this decision, they ignore the leprosy; attending school has become their priority choice. But, the quality of schooling in the leprosy village is not good, so nowadays more and more S villagers send their children to town school. It’s a long distance from S village to the nearest town school, so it’s not possible for S village’s children to go the town school on foot, but only by local bus. So although some families choose to send their children to the leprosy village to study, other families choose the town school but have to pay for the transportation of the children and the question of whether they can afford it becomes an issue. Yi have large families; the problem of breaking the family plan has always existed in the Yi area since the founding of new China. Since 2000, there are 19 families that have broken the family plan; according to the Chinese population policy, each Yi family living in rural areas can bear three children, but actually there are 19 families that have more than three children. Nowadays, even despite the policy of birth control, Yi people still break the family plan: ‘Even if I have sons, I still want a daughter’ (V10). This is related to Yi’s culture in which the number of family influences the social status of clan; there is a Yi saying: Fish live by river Bee live by rock Monkey live by forest Man live by clan. (Sheng, 2000, p. 237) Given the size of families in S village, transportation for several children to the town school is more than some families can afford. Moving to a place nearer the town or renting a house in town, if it means avoiding sending their children to school in the leprosy village, becomes an attractive alternative, and many families have made this choice. 164

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The Pressure of Recruitment of Students If there are fewer than 10 students to enroll the leprosy village school can’t open a new Grade One. This is not government policy but is an informal rule of the principal of the township central school who administers all the village schools in the district. Consequently, the village school can’t recruit new students every year and in 2015 had only two classes, Grade Two with 14 students and Grade Four with 13 students. During my field research, I participated in the village school’s recruitment work. We recruited just eight children in two days’ work, and two of them didn’t meet the minimum age requirement; parents want their children go to school at an early age, because they are afraid of their children experiencing shame because they are older than their classmates. In the large Yi families, the age gap between siblings is often small and parents think sisters or brothers can accompany each other and the older can take care of younger, and thus siblings often study in the same class. There are two pairs of sisters and brothers in both Grade Two and Grade Four. The siblings studying in the same class looks formal for villagers. However, going school at an early age causes some problems. I recorded exam results as part of my observations during the study and in all cases academic achievement of younger siblings is worse than their older sister or brother in the same Grade. These problems reinforce the belief of most villagers that county or town schools are better than schools in villages. One villager told me that ‘the school in town most students in town can get at least 60 scores, but in village the students just get 20–30 scores’ (V13). Thus, this is another reason that more families who can afford the cost of education choose school in town, contributing to even greater recruitment problems for the leprosy village school. In addition, as discussed below, because of geological disaster some villagers move to other places, which also increases the village school’s enrolment problem. It is difficult to see the leprosy village school remaining open in the future. If and when it closes, the parents and children of S village will no longer have any choice but to attend school in the town, with further impact on the village population likely to follow. So the school choices of villagers determine the survival of the village school in the future and the choice is made according to many factors – family income, family size, and school quality. If the village school disappears in the future, families will have fewer choices and the educational burden will increase. The Leprosy School Staffing Problems and Curriculum When the leprosy village school was built in 2000, two permanent teachers were assigned to the school, but these two teachers left because of fear of leprosy. Since that time, there have been no more permanent teachers. The two teachers currently staffing the school are temporary even though both have been teaching at the school for more than six years. Working conditions for the teachers are poor; they teach all day without any breaks, the school is poorly resourced, there is no professional training available, and the salary is low, only 1000RMB (approximately $A225) per 165

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month. Given these circumstances it is not surprising the teaching provided is not considered best quality, and the parents of S village are aware of this. In addition, the curriculum is very limited; there is no music class, no painting class, no physical education class; only Mandarin and mathematics are taught. In contrast, the town school offers a broader and varied curriculum across seven grades. Thus the choice of S village parents who send their children to the town school is not difficult to understand; the parents of S village accept the necessity and importance of attending school, but getting quality education is also their priority choice. This situation compounds the difficulties the leprosy village school faces in attracting students, and adds to the slow drain of the population of S village. Paying for School in the Town Sending children to the town school is expensive for families who choose to stay in the village. To pay for their children to travel to town, or to be accommodated by relatives in the town or city so they can attend school, puts a big demand on family incomes. This is not the only financial demand modernization has put on families, but to generate additional income to support the education of their children is one reason some villagers are planting additional cash crops and raising extra livestock to sell. This has placed pressure on the available farming and grazing land, so, to make more land available, clearing and burning more of the mountain has become a regular practice. These practices are contrary to Yi’s traditional theory of ecological balance. Yi religious culture contains the theory of ecological balance, especially in forest worship (Zhang, Long, & Zhu, 2008). There is a Yi saying: “clothes make the man and the trees make the mountain” (Sheng, 2000, p. 125). Yi people think that the dense forest is a place of God, which is inviolable. However, forest as the core of the ecological system has been extensively destroyed in recent years, which has caused significant problems in the form of landslides that have destroyed village houses. As a result families have been left homeless and have moved from S village. Thus, I argue compulsory universal education has been instrumental in generation of a complex series of impacts on life in the Yi village, which appears to face the prospect of a slowly disappearing population base, a situation which makes it progressively more difficult for the remaining families to obtain an acceptable education for their children and at the same time to sustain village life. CONCLUSION

This study investigated the impact of modern education on one Yi village and found there is a complex relationship between modern education, educational choices and obligations, family size, and ecology of the village mountain. By using interviews and participant observation, the researcher explored the details of changes wrought by modern education. The irony of the outcome is that acceptance of the value 166

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choice of school education by S villagers could prove to a factor contributing to the slow demise of their village and the disappearance of their traditional way of life. Modernization is difficult to resist, but in this case acquiescence has accelerated the abandonment of some long-held beliefs that had succeeded in managing the village environment for generations. Although this was a study of only one small Yi village in particular circumstances, it makes an important contribution to understanding the complex ways in which modernization, in this instance in the form of compulsory schooling, impacts on communities living in remote locations in sensitive relationships with their surroundings. More research into outcomes in other similar villages would contribute to building a more complete picture of the complexity that follows imposition of change. Understanding the impact of modern education needs to look beyond education itself, and not only inside the education sphere. Authorities and policy-makers would be wise to consider how compulsory education can be implemented in remote areas without disruption of the lifestyle and environments of entire communities. Perhaps greater resources need to be allocated to the task in order to bring the benefits of modernization and social development without destruction of the communities that are intended to benefit. REFERENCES Aga, R. (2013). The dilemma of Yi educational modernization: A case study of the Liangshan Yi (Unpublished PhD dissertation). Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. [Mandarin] Chen, Y. B. (2008). Muslim Uyghur students in a Chinese boarding school: Social recapitalization as a response to ethnic integration. New York, NY: Lexington Books. Gao, F. (2010). Becoming a model minority: Schooling experiences of ethnic Koreans in China. Lanham, MA: Lexington Books. General Office of the State Council. (2006). Implementation of the “Two-Free and One-Subsidy” policy. Retrieved from http://www.gov.cn/ztzl/fupin/content_396672.htm [Mandarin] Hansen, M. H. (1999). Lessons in being Chinese: Education and ethnic identity in Southwest China. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. Harrell, L., & Aga, R. (2013). Education or migrant labor: A new dilemma in China’s borderlands. The Asia-Pacific Journal, 11(20), 1–27. Retrieved from apjjf.org/-Stevan-Harrell--Aga-Rehamo/3939/ article.pdf Huang, J. M., Huang, X. Y., & Qumu, T. X. (1998). The history of Chinese ethnic minority education. Kunming: Yunnan Education Press. [Mandarin] Lee, C. J. (1986). China’s Korean minority: The politics of ethnic education. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Li, Z. F. (2007). The educational anthropology research of Liangshan Yi’ Jiazhi culture heritage. Beijing: Central University for Nationality Press. [Mandarin] Ma, R. (2007). Globalization and studies of ethnic relations. Northwestern Journal of Ethnology, 55(4), 1–14. [Mandarin] Ma, R. (2010). On the issues of ethnic minority education in China. Journal of Xingjiang Normal University (Social Sciences), 31(1), 6–18. [Mandarin] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2013). Luxin’s speech of 2013 video meeting about students’ nutrition of national rural compulsory education. Retrieved from http://www.moe.edu.cn/jyb_xwfb/moe_176/201310/t20131017_158491.html Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (1986). The compulsory education law. Retrieved from http://www.moe.edu.cn/s78/A02/zfs__left/s5911/moe_619/201001/t20100129_15687.html

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AGA Postiglione, G. A. (2001). Culture, education and development: Chinese ethnic minority education in the view of globalization (X. Teng & X. Y. Ma, Trans.). Beijing: Central University for Nationality press. [Mandarin] Sheng, W. J. (Ed.). (2000). The dictionary of Yi’s Erbi. Chengdu: Sichuan Minzu Press. [Mandarin] Wu, C. P., Wang, L., & Miao, R. F. (2003). Review: Chinese population policy from the global population in one hundred (1950–2050). Population Research, 27(4), 6–12. [Mandarin] Zhai, Z. W., Zhang, X. L., & Jin, Y. A. (2014). Demographic consequences of an immediate transition to a universal two-child policy. Population Research, 38(2), 3–17. [Mandarin] Zhang, C. D., Long, L. G., & Zhu, J. Y. (2008). The primitive religion of Yi nationality. Kunming: Yunnan Minzu Press. [Mandarin] Zhu, Z. Y. (2007). State schooling and ethnic identity: The politics of a Tibetan Neidi secondary school in China. New York, NY: Lexington Books.

Aga Rehamo Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China

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20. INTRODUCING ETHNIC CULTURE INTO CAMPUS IN CHINESE PRIMARY SCHOOLS Taking Kenre Debating for a Case

INTRODUCTION

Institutional systems of school education have become a key way of inheriting knowledge of traditional ethnic cultures around the globe (Cao & Wang, 2007). Studies of introduction of ethnic culture into schools (e.g., Yan & Li, 2007) have found them to be successful in achieving goals such as cultivating students’ selfconfidence, and have linked psychological changes with inheritance of ethnic traditional culture. These studies provide encouraging evidence that ethnic education reform can enhance social development in ethnic regions. Still, as Jing (2012) noted, there are problems to be solved. In China, as in other parts of the world, there are tensions between the national culture of school education and traditional minority ways of learning and knowing, such as perceived conflict between scientific and traditional knowledge (Jin & Sun, 2014), problems such as the limitations of time and space in school curriculums, and the relative separation of school education and life (Jin & Sun, 2014). Because of the regional characteristics of ethnic cultures, I argue methods used to promote Chinese minority traditional cultures into campuses need to be adopted or augmented locally, but based on overarching principles. LITERATURE REVIEW

School education transmits and renews traditional ethnic cultures through diverse approaches based on the work of experts, scholars and teachers with conceivably differing aims, which means the activity of “entering of ethnic culture into campus” (Yang, 2011a, p. 1) relies on diverse formulations and depends on identifying different cultural priorities. For government authorities, developing ethnic cultures on campus is a complicated and systematic project but an important one if it can realize the potential of motivation of students’ learning and of realizing their goals of education (Yang, 2011b). There are real concerns that most current attempts in China to introduce ethnic cultures into campuses through integration in elements of national education are inadequate and ineffective (Yang, 2009). An exception is a program in Guizhou province, in which folk artists were invited to schools to participate in development of school textbooks and to teach traditional skills. The I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 169–176. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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practices in this program of interactive development of national education and ethnic culture provide a feasible theory and way to protect and renew traditional cultures in Guizhou province (Yan & Li, 2007). Some studies (Cao & Sun, 2009; Chen, 2010) analyze the current situation to identify problems and discuss how to optimize the political, economic, cultural, and institutional environment for inheritance of ethnic cultures through school education, but the key conclusion is that a favorable institutional environment is a vital factor influencing local ethnic culture inheritance. Studies suggest that finding a productive balance between the national priorities and local goals are fundamental to any successful program (Meng & Wu, 2014). However, as noted earlier, because of the inherent differences between school education and the foundations of cultural heritage knowledge and practices the limitations of schools in achieving the integration of these two elements are significant (Chen & Zhang, 2014; Wang, 2005). In the study reported here, I addressed two broad issues: first, what elements of ethnic culture can make a contribution to achieving national education goals: and, second, how can school education contribute to inheritance of dynamic and meaningful ethnic culture. I used the case of introduction of Kenre debating into a Chinese primary school campus in an ethnic minority area to explore the relationship between inheritance of ethnic culture and student learning and to investigate whether ethnic culture is not only useful for contributing to school learning culture, but also useful for protecting traditional culture in a global society. DEEP DESCRIPTION OF KENRE ACTIVITY IN LOCAL COMMUNITY SETTINGS

As a traditional oral genre, Kenre is still vital in southwest China. The description that follows is based partly on the observations of the author (Gu, 2011a) and other scholars (e.g., Bamo, 2005). Kenre debating is always carried out near the fire-pit on occasions such as funerals, wedding ceremonies, and so on. It follows a tradition of oratory with the characteristic of “poetic logic … (or) … poetic wisdom” (Vico, 2006, p. 147), which is easy for chanting and memorizing. The language of Kenre is always exaggerated and innovative and makes wide use of metaphor, parallelism, and other rhetorical figures. The resultant song-like debating is pleasing to the ear, strongly rhymed, and humorous with abundant connotation. The following description is based on my fieldwork in Liangshan, Sichuan, China, during July, 2014.The structure, and conventions, of Kenre resembles a football match. There are two oppositional orators and a referee, and it is generally divided into the first and second halves. The first half mainly tests the participants’ response abilities and follows the procedure: opening remarks in which guests are welcomed and the other party complimented with polite remarks; narration or debating; retrieving the classic written texts; and, setting up questions. There is a transitional period during which the orators challenge each other to ‘go and have 170

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a look’; Kenre orators say to each other: ‘we should be like two energetic deer to compete.’ The second half, which tests proficiency in the epics and the proverbs, proceeds as follows: the origin of the epic; the evolution of the epic; and, the narration of the epic history. The words and remarks, like endless bullets, come out from the participants continuously. This half is based on two classic written texts titled Hnewo Teyyr and Hmatmu Teyyr. The debating combines the clues and stories with historical events, such as creation, immigration, wars, and settlement. At the end of the Kenre debating, there is an examination session, which is for completing the contest of experience and knowledge. The Kenre orators usually narrate the places to which they traveled, the history reported, the kind-hearted people they encountered, and the pure and honest customs. Finally, on behalf of the audience the ‘referee’, who is usually a senior citizen, will make a toast to the orators, which represents the peaceful compromise. In essence, Kenre debating is like a mental sport inclusive of cooperation and competition, which plays an important role for developing local people’s spirit. However, as the pace of modern life in a global society continues to accelerate, the Kenre orators become fewer and fewer (Gu, 2011b). The nature of Kenre resembles other debating traditions such as Socratic dialogue, a tradition important in education as a way for human beings to understand themselves and the world (Jaspers, 1991). Dialogue is the real negotiation of meaning between different thoughts, and the search for truth and self-recognition. Education through dialogue, such as in Socratic education, means that there is no fixed educational model, and the learning party and the teaching party can think freely; the teaching aims to arouse students’ sense for exploration of their own thinking, and after inquiries and questions, students and teachers will find themselves knowing about the truth, instead of answers being imposed by the teachers (Jaspers, 1991). Researching Kenre as a form of dialogic education has important significance, not only to protect the traditional culture, but also to improve the quality of school education for minority students in Chinese schools. APPROACHES OF INVESTIGATING INTRODUCTION OF KENRE DEBATING INTO CAMPUS

Fieldwork introducing Kenre debating into the campus of a primary school was conducted in Liangshan, Sichuan province, China, and achieved positive results. The logic was as follows: take Kenre as a whole, including the spirit of the debating, the principle of debating, the methods and techniques of debating. Meanwhile, through the introduction of four ways of using Kenre – specifically, debating in the knowledge test, debating in the classroom, building the Kenre debating team, and debating in the sport meeting – construction of a campus culture around the keyword ‘debating’ in order to integrate practices in learning in and out of the classroom. Issues determine methods, and in this study the issue of investigation of ethnic traditions directed the researcher to adopt ethnographic methods. First, I participated in, observed, and recorded the introduction of Kenre into the campus life both in 171

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and out of classrooms, focusing on student participation in the four ways of Kenre and their responses to the activities. Detailed observation notes were kept by recording observations immediately following participation in Kenre activities. Observation data was coded according to Kenre activity and nature of the observation so it aligned with interview questions to facilitate confirmation or disconfirmation of interview findings in a process of triangulation. Second, through in-depth interviews with three teachers (hereafter T1, T2, T3), five students (hereafter S1, S2, S3, S4, S5), and three parents (hereafter P1, P2, P3). I explored responses to the various modes of Kenre with a cross-section of the school community. Questions varied for the three groups, but covered areas such as teachers’ and parents’ observations related to classroom learning, student motivation, student attitudes and participation, student learning outcomes, and students’ own responses and thinking. Interviews were transcribed and emergent themes identified to allow data to be unitized and patterns of responses to be confirmed. Response patterns were triangulated against observation data as described. FINDINGS

In this section, I present key findings of the project and discuss aspects of the relation between ethnic culture, school education, and the outcomes of the four ways of introducing Kenre. Applying Methods of Kenre Debating in Knowledge Contests in Order to Accumulate Knowledge It was found that when Kenre debating was used in knowledge contests, the students’ learning efficiency not only improved in retention of learning, but also that they enjoyed the learning activities. Through this kind of debating, student interview participants believed their learning was more effective because their memory became stronger, as ‘the content of learning is hard to understand and remember, but through the debating, I understand deeply and don’t easily forget’ (S1). In traditional Kenre debating, the knowledge contest is usually linked to the final decision about who is the winner. The primary school used this aspect of Kenre debating when students participated in the knowledge contest. Each student each semester, on behalf of his or her class, performed at least once in the knowledge contest to show what he or she learned during the semester. At first, two students asked each other about the knowledge they had learned, and then two students are asked by judges. The judges were several school teachers who gave scores according to the students’ performances. It was the active nature of Kenre as a learning experience that was particularly important: ‘In the traditional class, teachers left us sitting neatly, everyone could not move. You can imagine the effect of learning in

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the debating, not only can we cooperate, more importantly, our bodies can move and this involves our memory’ (S1). This form of Kenre debating stimulated students’ interest through using traditional oral resources. As a teacher said: In the past, the knowledge contest used the form that teachers asked and students answered. There was no dialogue, no debate. Usually, the students felt nervous because they have no experience and it’s an unequal situation. Sometimes the students are unable to speak out a word because the content’s away from their real life. And now, the students actively participate in the activities because we use the form of traditional oral Kenre. Though the form of debating is the same, the content can be changed anytime. The students can use the unchanging form to deal with the changing content. (T1) The students held the same view, that ‘we use the form of Kenre to pick up the words, it sounds like singing a song, very nice’ (S2). Using the Spirit of Kenre Debating in Classroom Learning in Order to Develop Students’ Thinking It was found that when Kenre debating was used in classrooms, the debating not only accelerated the speed of students’ thinking, but also promoted the quality of students’ thinking. For example, in the mathematical arithmetic classroom, can the teacher and students debate whether ‘One plus one equals two?’ It is feasible according to our observations in the classroom. The content of debating is what the student learned in the previous sections and as in Socratic education, the process of knowledge acquisition emphasizes questioning and scrutiny. When the teachers explained the basic concepts to the First Grade children, they liked using the debating strategies. For example, when teaching the mathematical concepts ‘long’ and ‘short’ without using the Kenre debating, the teacher took one relatively long item and another relatively short item, and told the students that this is ‘long’, and the other is ‘short’. But the teacher who has a sense of dialogue, and is using the Kenre debating, explored the same theme by taking a pointer, and asking the students ‘This pointer is long or not?’ ‘Long,’ the students say. Then the teacher pointed to the beams and asked ‘The beams are long or not?’ The students began to wonder, and at that moment, the teacher inspired students to debate the concept of ‘long’ to try to learn exactly what ‘long’ is. The teacher thought the debating was useful to promote the quality of students’ thinking because ‘debating is a process of internal thinking. When you are in debating, you have to mobilize all the mental resources, and your attention should be concentrated highly’ (T2). In an English class, the students also used the debating method; one asked ‘What is a friend?’ or ‘What’s the difference between family and home?’, and so on, and the other answered. Many students reported that debating had accelerated the speed of

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their thinking. When asked the reason they like the debating way, the students said ‘two heads are better than one’ (S3), and ‘when we think about the issue together, our brains, the small universe, accelerated to run’ (S4). Organizing the Team of Kenre Debating in Extra-Curricular Activities in Order to Develop Students’ Team Sprint The form of Kenre debating improved students’ ability to understand the issues by considering the other point of view. The Kenre debating team used a form of dialogue, integrating folk music, rhythm and hip-hop, and other fashionable elements. The students used the form of Kenre debating team to learn history in extracurricular activities. In the past, the contents of Kenre debating came from two classics titled Hnewo and Hmatmu, but now knowledge from historical, scientific, and other fields has been added. The students’ self-confidence and language skills improved significantly by participating in debating teams. The Kenre debating teams made full use of the extra-curricular activities and practised under the instructors’ help. In the debating, the dialogue took turns: one student spoke one sentence, the other spoke next. The students were cooperative learning with each other. At the same time, the debating team participated in several evening events in and out of the school, and their performances were accepted by local students, teachers and parents. As a parent said, ‘my lovely child is shy and not good at expressing. Since participating in the team, the child has changed a lot, and not only speaks confidently, but also expresses clearly’ (P3). Applying the Form of Kenre Debating in the Opening Ceremony of School Sports Meeting in Order to Cultivate the Competitive Spirit It was found that Kenre debating used in extra-curricular activities not only improved the children’s interest but also gave the old oral tradition of Kenre renewed vitality. The students’ self-confidence and language skills improved significantly by participating in the opening ceremony. For example, the Primary School used Kenre debating to nurture the human competitive spirit in school ceremonies. In the opening ceremony of the sports competition, each class forms a team; the children self-report their team name (the way Kenre is traditionally used) and shout their slogans. For example, one is named Eagle team, their slogan is ‘We are from the hawk eagle valley, we will use our wings to measure the high sky,’ while the other is named Tiger Team, and their slogan is ‘Wooden bowl dried in the sun, but tiger leaps the hills’. The Eagles and the Tigers are totems of the Yi minority, and are symbols of the power of the sports competition, certainly welcomed by the local children.

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Introducing ethnic culture into campus in Chinese primary schools

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study suggest that school education does not have to mean the destruction of ethnic cultural heritage; on the contrary, the two can form a symbiotic relationship. Although not all ethnic culture can be renewed in schools, there is a significant contribution that can be achieved. In the school studied, the example of traditional Kenre has developed students’ oral abilities, while school education has developed students’ writing skills, forming a complementary relationship. They can achieve symbiosis and form an interactive mechanism. However, a key precondition of introduction of ethnic culture into campus is the survival environment; culture must be considered as an integrated system that is not limited by classroom walls. As Tylor (1958, p. 1) noted, “culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society,” so when introducing minority cultures into campus, we should not forget every ethnic culture has its survival environment, in which context and culture interact with each other, and that inherently provides the way of life, their material culture, institutional culture and mental culture. In the case of Kenre debating, it is important not only to cultivate independent spirit and thinking ways in the classroom, but also to develop knowledge and practices outside the classroom, such as in the opening ceremony of school sports meetings. Analysis of the experience of introduction of Kenre to a school campus leads to the conclusion that design of integration of minority culture and school curriculum and activities should focus on a central theme and develop from this. In the Kenre case, the central theme of debating was developed in four ways: debating in the knowledge test, debating in the classroom, building the Kenre debating team, and debating in the sport meeting. Schools that hope to introduce ethnic culture need to begin at the level of whole-school culture rather than adoption of a piecemeal approach of adding unrelated elements to discrete curriculums or activities. As in the Kenre case, identification of a cultural practice that captures the living essence of the particular minority group experience is the key step in integration of minority cultural knowledge and practices across diverse aspects of campus life. If this cultural practice can initially be successfully integrated and embedded in a variety of modes of school experience that renew its vitality, as in the case of Kenre, the potential exists for this vitality to spread the essence of minority cultures to other elements of campus activities in and out of classrooms. The case of Kenre suggests that integration of traditional culture as a way of living and learning in school settings can be successful in imparting knowledge, developing thinking, learning history and cultivating humanistic spirit, as well as protecting and renewing traditional culture in a global society.

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REFERENCES Bamo, Q. B. M. (2005). Kenre and Hnwo: Oral debating in the epic performers. Ethnic Cultural Forum, 22(1), 20–25. [Mandarin] Cao, N., & Sun, Y. (2009). Practical exploration into promoting inheritance of ethnic culture through education in poverty-stricken rural areas: Taking Liushao Village of Xundian Autonomous County of Hui and Yi nationalities in Yunnan Province as an example. Journal of Research on Education for Ethnic Minorities, 20(4), 58–62. [Mandarin] Cao, N. X., & Wang, L. (2007). School education and cultural inheritance in the Minority Areas. Journal of Yunnan Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences), 39(2), 64–65. [Mandarin] Chen, D. (2010). The functions of schools, community, family, human being and nature in ethnic cultural heritage. Journal of Hubei University of Economics (Humanities and Social Sciences), 7(8), 130–132. [Mandarin] Chen, G. H., & Zhang, S. Y. (2014). The limited nature of school education heritages ethnic culture. Journal of China Education, 34(5), 49–52. [Mandarin] Gu, E. H. (2011a). Research on the inheritance mechanism and pedagogical significance of the Yi Kenre (Unpublished undergraduate thesis.) Southwest University, Chongqing, China. [Mandarin] Gu, E. H. (2011b). The past, present and future of Kenre inheriting in Liangshan Yi area. Ethnic Art Study, 13(2), 124–128. [Mandarin] Jaspers, K. T. (1991). What is education? (J. Zhou, Trans.). Beijing: Three Book Store Press. Jin, D. G., & Sun. Z. D. (2014). Problems and solutions of the traditional culture heritages and school education. Journal of South-Central University for Nationalities (Humanities and Social Sciences), 34(6), 58–62. [Mandarin] Jing, X. G. (2012). Problems in introducing ethnic cultures into school. Journal of Research on Education for Ethnic Minorities, 23(5), 51–54. [Mandarin] Meng, L. J., & Wu, F. (2014). Schools’ ethnic culture inheritance habitat and its optimization under the perspective of ecology based on the investigation of the ‘Ethnic Culture Entering into the Campus Activity’ in Guizhou Province, Guizhou. Ethnic Studies, 35(2), 158–160. [Mandarin] Tylor, E. B. (1958). Primitive culture. New York, NY: Harper Torchbooks. Vico, G. B. (2006). The New Science (F. Chao, Trans.). Beijing, China: China Social Press. Wang, G. (2005). School heritage ethnic culture: Bottleneck and breakthrough. Academic Forum, 27(6), 135–136. [Mandarin] Yan, Q., & Li. B. (2007). The pushing project of interactive development of ethnic culture and national education: Thinking about the program of ‘Ethnic Culture Entering into the Campus Activity’ in Guizhou province. Guizhou Ethnic Studies, 27(4), 154–155. [Mandarin] Yang, J. (2009). Study on the effectiveness of introducing ethnic cultures into the campus. Heilongjiang Researches on Higher Education, 17(10), 201–202. [Mandarin] Yang, L. P. (2011a). Research on diverse formulation of ‘the entering of ethnic culture into campus’ and ethnic cultural inheritance. Journal of Guangxi Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 47(2), 109–113. [Mandarin] Yang, L. P. (2011b). Practice and reflection of developing ethnic cultures on campus: Investigation of ethnic education in Wuming County of Guangxi Province. Journal of Research on Education for Ethnic Minorities, 22(2), 107–111. [Mandarin]

Gu Erhuo Faculty of Education Sichuan Normal University, China

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21. ANTI-DRUG EDUCATION IN LOCAL MINORITY CULTURE An Example from Liangshan Yi Jiazhi Culture

INTRODUCTION

Illicit drug use is considered to be an increasingly serious threat to social and personal well-being in contemporary China (Chen, 2005) and Chinese teenagers in the Liangshan Yi nationality settlements in China’s southwest have been found to be among the groups most vulnerable to drug abuse (Fang, 2008). Anti-drug education initiatives have included introduction of programs of youth education on drugs prevention to control the harms of drugs (Fang, 2008) at both community and school levels. Parallel to these institutional efforts, Liangshan Yi people have a long history and cultural tradition with a matured value system and moral standards that they believe can train their ability to distinguish good from evil, can foster correct values and a correct outlook on the world and life, and can help to create a healthy personal spirit that shuns the use of illegal drugs (Wei, 2007). In this chapter I ask how the moral education of traditional Yi society, represented by clan moral education, and the drug prevention activities of modern schools can form a synergetic relationship that can be more successful in addressing the social problem of drug abuse and the spread of drugs-related AIDS. I begin with an overview of the drug abuse problem in the Yi community, then describe the Jiazhi moral culture of Liangshan Yi nationality people as it relates to illegal drug use, and conclude by identifying opportunities for the two groups to cooperate on anti-drug education. DRUG ABUSE IN LIANGSHAN YI NATIONALITY SETTLEMENTS

Yi people mainly reside in the south of Sichuan Province, southwest China, in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, the largest concentrated Yi community in China. Drugs have brought disasters to Yi people in earlier historical eras; before l949, Liangshan was seriously bogged down in the harm of opium, but the large scale anti-drug campaign in the 1950s essentially cleared the harm (Ma, 2000). In the modern social transformation period, because of their history, geography, economy, and culture, Liangshan Yi nationality settlements became the worst-hit areas of drug abuse (Wu & Zhang, 2009). In the middle and late 1980s Ze (2011) identified Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture as an important distribution centre I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 177–185. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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for drugs from abroad via Yunnan to Sichuan, which resulted in large numbers of drug addicts (Ma, 1999, 2000). Drugs and ensuing AIDS are the main reasons for loss of production ability (Hou & Ding, 2009) and even of the lives of young male adults (He, 1994), and are also becoming a threat to the lives of women, elderly people and underage teens (He & Wang, 2005). In 2007, facing the sorrow brought by drugs, the Prefecture’s education authorities required all junior and senior high schools to incorporate in education plans one session per week focusing on drug and AIDS prevention skills. Outside schools, community training, lectures, and activities on drugs and AIDS prevention activities were introduced. In the face of these difficulties, however, many argue (e.g., Ma, 1999; Tang, 2009; Nie, 2009) that the government authorities and many of the scholars involved in the research, development, and implementation of drug policies, measures and strategies, attach importance only to mechanisms of drug control at the national level, while ignoring research (e.g., Li, 2008; Zhou, 2011; Hu & Qi, 2012) advocating utilization of local culture in drug-affected ethnic minority areas (Ze, 2011). Chen and He (2008), for example, in their study of the frontier minority area of Yunnan, stress the need to explore the road of combining nationalization and localization characteristics in anti-drug education, and Ma (2000) urges the particularity of religious and ethnic customs be given full play in the anti-drug struggle in ethnic areas. At present, in the Liangshan Yi community, ethnic rituals are proving effective in treating some instances of drug addiction (Zhuang, 2005), but this and other ethnic cultural practices are still confined to use in the Yi community rather than being used in conjunction with schools and other public organizations to create a synergetic campaign against drugs. LIANGSHAN JIAZHI CULTURE

Liangshan Yi people have a long history as one of the Chinese ethnic minority nations and Liangshan Jiazhi is the core culture in this tradition. Jiazhi is a translation of Yi language meaning the blood of people from generation to generation, similar to the concept of clan in ethnic Han, but carrying additional meaning (Zhu, 1999). Jiazhi refers to clan lineage (Zhu, 1999) and Liangshan Yi Jiazhi to patriarchal clan organization (He, 1981; Zhang, 2003) or a group bound by patriarchal consanguinity (Zhang & Fang, 2005). The role of Liangshan Yi Jiazhi is maintenance of relations between members (Feng & Wu, 1998), providing clansman with knowledge of customary law to maintain social stability. Liu (2007) defined Liangshan Yi Jiazhi as a coordination of norms and principles of all sorts of human relations, behavior between group members in the same Jiazhi, between Jiazhi and the family, as well as between the different Jiazhis. Liangshan Yi Jiazhi culture includes pedigrees of special name arrangement between father and son, cultural concepts, consciousness, religious beliefs, common law, ethics, moral education, and maxim precepts (Liu, 2007). At present, few scholars have explored Liangshan Yi Jiazhi culture from the perspective of anti-drug education to investigate whether Jiazhi culture can play a 178

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role as a major force against drugs, and whether it is possible for traditional culture to collaborate with modern social institutions such as schools to form a synergistic relationship that might be more effective in providing anti-drug education. METHOD

Investigations were conducted in six villages in Butuo County and Zhaojue County, both seriously affected by high rates of drug abuse, and in Xichang Municipality, where the prefecture government is located. Twenty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted, and participants included Yi people (hereafter P1–P26) aged between 22 and 48 years, all residents of Liangshan Yi nationality settlements. The researcher, based on her experience working with and in the local community, used her knowledge and network to purposively select participants familiar with the Yi traditional culture and with the problem of and responses to drug use in the community. The purpose of this research was to examine Liangshan Yi Jiazhi culture, Jiazhi cultural influence on Yi people, the evaluation of Jiazhi clans by Yi people and other nationality people, and the effect of Jiazhi anti-drug activities. After gaining the participants’ informed consent interviews of approximately sixty minutes duration were recorded, using questions framed around: (1) the condition of their own Jiazhi; (2) the rules and requirements of their own Jiazhi; (3) their reaction to rules and requirements of their own Jiazhi; (4) the moral education from Jiazhi; (5) anti-drug education from Jiazhi. The interviews were transcribed for analysis. The qualitative approach (Chen, 1978) of a grounded method was used to analyze the interviews transcripts of Yi people (P1–P26) in order to identify themes in the data. The interview transcripts were examined repeatedly and then broken into units (Kellehear, 1993) based on the similarity of ideas. These themes were then explored to identify patterns in participants’ responses to determine some generalizations that were considered the findings of the analysis. FINDINGS

The analysis yielded three key findings. The first, to do with Liangshan Yi Jiazhi culture, is that traditionally Yi people have attached great importance to hereditary blood ties. They have emphasized moral education, and moral behavior has been regulated by Jiazhi common law, which Yi people did not dare to violate because if they did, the blood ties would be broken. Related to this, it was also found that contemporary Yi people generally still identify with the Liangshan Yi Jiazhi and Liangshan Yi Jiazhi culture, and that Jiazhi concepts and consciousness are still very strong; Yi people continue to attach great importance to morality and ethics, and the internal moral binding force of blood ties remains very strong. Last, Liangshan Yi Jiazhi carry out a lot of anti-drug activities, and attach great importance to rituals associated with these. In addition, books on traditional Yi ethics, adopted from the 179

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educational classics, have been adapted by some Yi to communicate strong anti-drug messages. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

Liangshan Yi Jiazhi Culture Yi people’s stemma obliges them to attach great importance to the blood affection of the root. The emphasis on hereditary blood ties is cherished. Yi participants explained that: The Yi nationality, each Jiazhi has its own stemma, which father and son’s name is written in the stemma, pedigree of special name arrangement between father and son. The reason is that they hope everyone do not forget their previous generation, not to lose their root, the name of my father in my name in front, you know where I come from. (P7) The stemma of the name of my father in my name in front is the symbol of Yi status. This is also the need of interpersonal communication, Wherever Yi people went, the same members of the Jiazhi will depend on each other, help each other, unity together. (P8) The investigation found that religious beliefs of Liangshan Yi nationality are a rich and a typical expression of Jiazhi culture. Most Yi people believe that all things have spirit, that the soul still exists after death, that their own ancestors during life were very brave, very great, and that the souls of ancestors passed away will always bless the whole Jiazhi. This is ancestor worship, and so they attach great importance to commitment to their ancestors in all kinds of rituals. Yi people don’t easily dare to violate Jiazhi common law, which regulates and plays an important role in the Liangshan Yi people’s moral behavior. Jiazhi common law is the rules and requirements of the Jiazhi clan. The Jiazhi has its own rules and regulations, the customary laws that Jiazhi members will follow to comply with the conduct, which has certain social compulsory. Jiazhi common law is not the official law, it is a kind of social contract. Some behaviors are not in violation of the law but violate the Jiazhi common law, as well as to receive punishment. (P6) In the past, Jiazhi common law mainly involved marriage and disputes, but has evolved to include laws related to drug use and abuse. Yi nationality societies have emphasized moral education since ancient times. The content of the Jiazhi internal moral education contains extensive content mainly from the educational classic Mamuyite. The Mamuyite included not only the regulations to deal with people and nature, but also the ethical and moral standards for the development of

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the value Yi people place on life and morality. There are many maxim precepts in these educational classics, which are taught and transmitted mainly by the Jiazhi and their families, and Jiazhi members are basically willing to comply; if Jiazhi members are in violation of the morality, attempts will be made to persuade them through arguments of the error of their ways, but if this fails they can be punished, as described in the section that follows. CONTEMPORARY VIEWS ON JIAZHI & JIAZHI CULTURE OF YI PEOPLE

The interviews revealed that the Yi people generally identify with the Liangshan Yi Jiazhi clan and Liangshan Yi Jiazhi culture and although the power of the Jiazhi heads is waning under the influence of the modernization process, the Jiazhi concept and Jiazhi consciousness are still strong despite the development of society. Liangshan Yi society is not a fully law-governed society but one that relies on kinship. Yi people attach great importance to morality and ethics; the internal moral binding force is very strong in Jiazhi. In response to questions on the consequences of violation of Jiazhi moral law, participants’ responses were in agreement that although the Jiazhi common law has shortcomings, all of them still considered its existence to be an important feature of Yi culture. Just as in the state legal system, anybody who contravenes Jiazhi common law and does not repent after persuasion, and depending on the nature of the violation, must be punished ruthlessly for the crime or wrongdoing, for example, beaten and scolded, alienated, or expelled from the Jiazhi, and even put to death. For Yi people to be expelled from Jiazhi is the most unacceptable punishment. The power of Jiazhi, in some senses, surpasses that of the state law. Until now, if Yi people experience trouble, they first think of their Jiazhi, rather than the court or other institutions. Jiazhi clan members take an active part in the activities of the Jiazhi, such as Jiazhi meetings, or events such as the torch festival, the aim of which is to promote the feelings of members and to enhance the cohesive force of the clan. The expectation that members will participate in clan activities demonstrates the Jiazhi’s strong influence and the high social status of Jiazhi society. To leave the Jiazhi means isolation and to lose dignity and all attachments to family. LIANGSHAN YI JIAZHI’S ANTI-DRUG MOVEMENT

The Jiazhi is an important form of Yi nationality social organization, and in the face of the impact of adverse external stimulation and unhealthy practices, Jiazhi will assume corresponding responsibility to help their members to solve the crisis. Thus it is not surprising Jiazhi carry out a lot of anti-drug activities. Yi people attach great importance to rituals and conduct drug addiction treatment rituals that have rich contents including ancestor worship, drinking wine, swearing oaths, praying for ancestors’ forgiveness and blessing, and expressing a promise to be determined

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not to relapse. Interview participants described the response of Jiazhi if a member is found to be involved in drug use, and one participant, who is a Jiazhi leader and thus directs the ritual, explained that the first step in the consequences is education by elders who persuaded them to go far away from the drug; The second step, the Jiazhi will kill pig and sheep to have a ritual to help them against drug; The third step, the Jiazhi will have meeting to advise him to stopping drug use; The fourth step, the Jiazhi will force him into drug addiction treatment centre. (P19) Some Jiazhis in their Jiazhi common law also expect their members not to be associated with drug trafficking. If a Jiazhi member traffics in drugs, he will immediately be educated, warned, and his family informed; if he doesn’t stop, the Jiazhi will isolate him or expel him from Jiazhi (P20). If a Jiazhi drug user is apprehended by the police, the Jiazhi member who accepts responsibility as guarantor on the drug user’s release, in order to try his best to let the drug user resume or return to normal life, takes responsibility for the understanding of the drug user’s behavior every day, for enlightening him to help him avoid drug use and drug dependence. At the same time it is reinforced that to quit drug use is not only a personal matter, it also relates to the overall dignity of the Jiazhi and the guarantor. Other adults and young men who witness an anti-drug meeting and ritual are always spiritually shocked, express their willingness to stay far away from drug use and drug trafficking, and thus also accept the obligation to supervise the drug user. One participant, who is Jiazhi leader (P22), outlined the success of the antidrug ritual: there were eleven drug addicts in their Jiazhi over a five year period; four persons successfully abstained from drug use following their Jiazhi drug addiction treatment ritual; one person successfully became abstinent after being persuaded to enter a drug addiction treatment centre, while two others were receiving treatment; one continued to be an occasional drug user and unfortunately, three died in drugrelated incidents. These success rates suggest that Liangshan Jiazhi organization and Liangshan Jiazhi culture can play a role assisting government and public security organizations in the fight against destructive drug use. RECOMMENDATIONS

The Jiazhi can be one of the major forces against drugs and should join with the authorities to create a powerful synergy in the campaign against drug use by young people in the Liangshan region. Although the Jiazhi culture does have a negative side, for example, the constraints of blood relationship can distance members from outsiders and perhaps lead to discrimination, or can limit the freedom of younger people, Yi people still identify with their Jiazhi. Despite some deviations between parts of Jiazhi common law and Chinese state laws and regulations, the rich moral and education ideology in Liangshan Yi Jiazhi culture is of great significance to the members of the Jiazhi. This not only enriches the members’ moral consciousness 182

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but also cultivates their morality. In addition to that, Jiazhi culture adjusts and standardizes members’ moral behaviors. A good part of Liangshan Jiazhi culture, including Jiazhi culture’s classic texts, should be integrated into school anti-drug education content in the Liangshan region. From ancient times, Liangshan Jiazhi culture was the content in family education and social education. At present, due to the pressure of an exam-oriented system, most schools only put emphasis upon knowledge education. There is almost no Liangshan Jiazhi cultural content in modern school curriculums. Liangshan Yi school education courses and activities should select and integrate Jiazhi culture into curriculum content to stimulate students’ sense of national pride, self-esteem and self-confidence, and awareness of Jiazhi attitudes to drugs and the consequences. In the anti – drug section of books on traditional Yi ethics, adopted from the educational classic of Yi Jiazhis, it says: move your eyes and ears from drugs; keep your hands and mouths from drugs; bear the anti-drug awareness in mind; do not traffic in drugs to get rich. This is an anti-drug education, which can help Yi people to get knowledge of the harm of drugs, and establish anti-drug and self-control awareness. CONCLUSION

Anti-drug campaigns in both developed and developing countries pay more attention to the law and increasing law enforcement. Ethnic culture, however, is a powerful weapon easily ignored and the strengths of Jiazhi culture can be exploited in the formation of an anti-drug synergy between traditional law and the authorities. With the progress of society, Yi people have wider life choices; they can live without the Jiazhi, but Yi people are used to relying on their own Jiazhi, and their feeling of responsibility to Jiazhi appears to have some power to keep them away from drug addiction. So in anti-drug education we must take advantage of Yi people’s concern with kinship and ethics to dispel thoughts of only ephemeral happiness and chasing for money at the cost of others. This kinship culture can be utilized to carry out anti-drug education, and this is a vital activity in order to arrest the drift of young Yi people in to the habits of drug abuse. This research has provided some clues as to how their own traditional culture can not only help young people avoid this destructive life choice, but at the same time it offers a path to cultural maintenance and renewal, of adaptation to modernization. The research community is well-placed to explore these options in a diverse range of community settings and in response to range of problems. In doing so we can perhaps provide a model for other minority groups in other regions who face similar situations, perhaps not of drug abuse but other threats to the solidarity and cohesion of their family and community structures. To this end, national and regional governments and community organizations should pay attention to utilization of local resources, should mobilize and support folk organizations in nationality regions to ensure the potential of these to play a positive role in addressing problems of the modern world is not lost. Schools in particular have a role to play in communicating positive messages to young people 183

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and education authorities may be able to take advantage of a synergy similar to that offered by the Yi anti-drug rituals. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Research study funded by the program of National Social Science Fund (Project No.12CMZ051). REFERENCES Chen, B. D. (2005). Drug investigation in China. Beijing: Xinhua Press. [Mandarin] Chen, X. M. (1978). Qualitative research methods and social sciences research. Beijing: Education Science Press. [Mandarin] Chen, X., & He, Y. M. (2008). Thinking of Yunnan frontier minority areas of anti-drug education. Journal of Yunnan Police Officer Academy, 88(1), 31–36. [Mandarin] Fang, M. (2008). School anti-drug education theory, practice and experience (Unpublished master’s thesis). Huadong Normal University, Shanghai, China. [Mandarin] Feng, M., & Wu, J. Z. (1998). Modern debugging of traditional family function of Yi nationality in Liangshan. Research on Ethnology, 32(1), 292–307. [Mandarin] He, J. X. (1994). The analysis pattern of Sichuan Yi death population recently. China Population Science, 118(2), 50–56. [Mandarin] He, J. X., & Wang, J. (2005). Unusual factors under the influence of Yi nationality population death pattern change analysis. Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities (Social Science Edition), 121(9), 19–24. [Mandarin] He, Y. H. (1981). Liangshan Yi Jiazhi system. China Social Science, 162(2), 205–220. [Mandarin] Hou, Y. G., & Ding, E. (2009). The cost of development: Harm of drug and AIDS research in western minority regions. Beijing: Central University for Nationalities Press. [Mandarin] Hu, J. Y., & Qi, L. (2012). China’s border and minority areas smoking prohibition in the fifties and sixties of the 20th century. Journal of the National Museum of China Publication, 113(3), 100–110. [Mandarin] Kellehear, A. (1993). The unobtrusive researcher: A guide to methods. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. Li, L. Z. (2008). Early minority smoking prohibition and its successful experience. Journal of Taiyuan Teachers College (Social Science Edition), 7(3), 39–41. [Mandarin] Liu, Z. F. (2007). Liangshan Yi nationality’s cultural heritage of the education anthropology research. Beijing: Central University for Nationalities Press. [Mandarin] Ma, L. H. (1999). Drug problem situation, trend and countermeasures research in Liangshan. Journal of Southwest Institute for Nationalities (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 32(8), 119–124. [Mandarin] Ma, L. Y. (2000). The problem of drugs in Liangshan: Current situation, trend and countermeasures study. Journal of Southwest Institute for Nationalities (Social Science Edition), 103(8), 119–124. [Mandarin] Nie, J. B. (2009). The status quo of the drug crimes in Liangshan: Cause, harm and countermeasure. Journal of Chongqing Institute of Technology (Social Science Edition), 116(1), 117–120. [Mandarin] Tang, W. (2009). The causes, characteristics and countermeasures of the current drug crimes in Liangshan prefecture. Chinese Journal of Criminal Law, 98(12), 109–112. [Mandarin] Wei, J. (2007). Research of the prevention of adolescent drug use (Unpublished Masters dissertation.) Shanghai University, Shanghai, China. [Mandarin] Wu, H. F., & Zhang, J. F. (2009). AIDS orphans under the drug. Southern People Weekly, 11(2), 42–46. [Mandarin] Ze, G. Q. (2011). National self-help in Liangshan Yi area of the shadow of AIDS. Journal of Sichuan Police Academy, 56(12), 117–121. [Mandarin]

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Anti-drug Education in local minority culture Zhang, D. Y. (2003). Liangshan Yi Jiazhi system. Journal of Guizhou Minorities Research, 7(3), 39–41. [Mandarin] Zhang, X. H., & Fang, H. (2005). Yi’s legal culture research. Beijing: National Press. [Mandarin] Zhou, Y. (2011). Opium’s influence on the modern border areas inhabited by minority nationalities in Yunnan province. Journal of Dali College. 10(9), 39–44. [Mandarin] Zhu, J. X. (1999). On the origins of the Yi language (vi) a word ‘Jiazhi’. Journal of Southwest Institute for Nationalities] (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 36(1), 1–6. [Mandarin] Zhuang, K. S. (2005). ‘Tiger day’ anthropology and practice: A new direction of application theory of visual anthropology. Guangxi Minorities Research, 63(2), 51–63. [Mandarin]

Li Jian Institute of Education Sichuan Normal University, China

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22. PROTECTING TRADITIONAL CULTURES IN CHINA Significance and Ways of Protecting the Qiang Culture by Schools

INTRODUCTION

In modern China, traditional minority ethnic groups and cultures are threatened by rapid and extensive economic and social changes that follow modernization. The ancient ethnic group of Qiang people were recorded by the oracles of the Shang Dynasty and contributed to the emergence of other ethnic groups in Chinese history, including the now dominant Han people (Fei, 1999). Over their long history, Qiang people have developed a unique culture including oral literature, festivals, music and dance, residential architecture, arts and crafts, garments, diet, and so on. The Qiang population is currently about 310,000 and ranks twenty-seventh in size among the 55 ethnic minorities in China. Unfortunately, with the acceleration of modernization, and especially following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in which ten percent of the total population lost their lives, the traditional Qiang culture is disappearing. At present, there appears to be inadequate attention devoted to active inheritance of Qiang culture, the focus being rather the collection and collation of Qiang culture as emphasized in Plans for restoration and reconstruction of the Wenchuan area following the 2008 earthquake (The State Council of the People’s Republic of China, 2008). Such efforts aim to rescue Qiang culture as a static inheritance and cannot guarantee an active inheritance. In this chapter I report a project in which a variety of data were collected with the aim of exploration of the current capacities of schools to provide education with ethnic characteristics that promotes ethnic identity, strengthens ethnic pride, and retains the sense and reality of a Qiang homeland. It was found that schools have a variety of opportunities to play a more significant role both in protection and in activating renewal of Qiang culture. THE ACTIVE INHERITANCE OF CULTURE AND THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS

The history of any culture can be divided into three stages (Feng, 2008): spontaneous culture; self-conscious culture; and, cultural self-awareness. According to Feng (2008), if there is no self-consciousness, the original culture will lose its meaning; only through self-consciousness can historical wealth be transformed into the

I. Liyanage & N. Badeng (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives in Education, 187–193. © 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.

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contemporary spirit. If a nation cannot be conscious of its own culture and cannot protect, inherit and innovate the traditional culture, it is very difficult to stand in the forest of the world. As Fei (2000, p. 44) observed: Self-consciousness of culture refers to people living in a certain culture who have a better understanding of its culture. One knows its origin, its formation process, its characteristics, its tendency of developing…It is a difficult task to achieve self-consciousness of culture…First, to recognize one’s own culture and understand a variety of culture around oneself so as to establish one’s own position in the plural cultural world that is being formed. After autonomic adaption, one culture takes advantage of another culture and makes up for the disadvantage of the other culture to establish a basic order that achieves common approval and a set of coexistence instructions that can coexist peacefully with all kinds of cultures. Obviously, self-consciousness of culture is not inherent. The inheritance of culture can be distinguished as either active, positive inheritance or static, negative inheritance. For example, protecting the social culture and life of China in a certain period, such as the Imperial Palace, the Great Wall, or the Terracotta Army and other cultural relics, is a static inheritance. It is not difficult for these things to be photographed, included in books, put into museum displays, or preserved as digital resources with the aim of preserving the culture so that it will not disappear. Alternatively, active inheritance involves people as mediative practitioners of inheritance; it cultivates people who experience and interpret culture to emanate the vigorous state of spiritual life by inheritance through one generation to the next. Obviously, active inheritance is not only about preservation, but about culture that is vital, dynamic and constantly renewed through practice. Education, including school education, plays an essential role in reiteration of cultural practices as both author and keeper of identity and culture (Green, 2004); “every nation has its roots … Every nation must know its own values, beliefs and other cultural elements. These elements are essential for every national member to recognize themselves and communicate with each other” (UNESCO, 1995, p. 20). We need the cultural enlightenment that enables children to know their own culture, to understand the culture, and then to love the culture. The cultural influence of family and of community can vary in effectiveness and the influence of effective school education that is purposeful, planned and organized activity can be an important complement – and in my opinion in the case of the Qiang, a necessary complement – to the family in the cultural enlightenment of children. Before children attended school, cultural practices retransferred mainly through family and family activities and through participation in community. However, society commissions school education to transmit knowledge, skills and ideas considered necessary for modern life and work, and the school has thus become a source of the cultural knowledge of the young generation, as well as the place 188

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where they form and develop interests, standards, attitudes and views. Students are the link between schools, communities and families; although they carry home and community culture to the school, if school environments favour the dominant national culture, as can be the case in China, students can carry the school culture into the family and community. Students risk not only alienation from their own minority culture; if the content of curriculum has no local character classroom learning risks being less meaningful because of the deviation from the actual life experiences and needs of minority students, and arguably contributes to diminished academic achievement of local minority students. Ultimately, families and communities risk experience of this alienation as well, followed by disappearance of the active inheritance of minority culture overwhelmed by a dominant national culture. Alternatively, if school education and experiences complement the culture of the home and community, active inheritance of minority culture through students’ participation in family and community is a real possibility. Such a nexus of families and community, schools, and students constitute a three-dimensional space that can nurture the inheritance of minority culture. INVESTIGATION METHOD

In 2014, in order to investigate the situation regarding protection of Qiang culture by schools in Qiang areas, we interviewed nine education officials and 13 principals of primary and secondary schools in Maoxian County, Beichuan County and Wenchuan County, districts inhabited by the Qiang. The 60 minute semi-structured interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Analysis involved familiarization of the researcher with the transcribed data and identification of units of data referring to the predetermined framework of the investigation, that is, the current capacities of schools to provide education with ethnic characteristics that promotes ethnic identity, strengthens ethnic pride, and retains the sense and reality of a Qiang homeland. These units were collated and the findings are presented and discussed in the section that follows. FINDINGS

The three key results of analysis of interview data are as follows: Cultural Materials Are Missing in School Resources Almost all the courses in primary and middle schools in Qiang areas are the same as those in the Han nationality areas. Schools have neglected collection and collation of the material of Qiang culture and less than one fifth of the schools in the area carry out extracurricular activities about Qiang song and dance, and then only occasionally.

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Only Two Schools Offer Courses in the Qiang Language The popularization of Qiang language ended in 2006 due to lack of funds, difficulties of updating the teaching materials, and absence of examinations (Wu, Zhang & Zhu, 2011). After the earthquake in 2008, up to twenty schools restored Qiang language courses, but now, seven years later, only two schools continue to offer Qiang language courses in Maoxian County. Lack of Proficient Teachers of Qiang Culture Even before the earthquake, few schools in Qiang area had provided Qiang cultural lessons or organized relevant activities due to the lack of proficient teachers of Qiang culture. Although some local governments recently adopted a ‘to protect Qiang cultural heritage is to protect Qiang culture’ philosophy, and have taken some measures, such as providing subsidies, improving health conditions, etcetera, these measures are rarely associated with schools. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings of our investigation, we propose several recommendations to foster the active inheritance of Qiang culture by schools in Qiang area. Activate Inheritance through Integration of the Data of Qiang Culture The earthquake destroyed the Qiang culture and many physical objects are being lost. Local museums are actively collecting and organizing the material of Qiang culture, but owing to lack of manpower and poor information, some of the materials are missing. Schools in the Qiang area can take advantage of this opportunity to collect data of Qiang culture after the earthquake. On the one hand, schools can encourage students and parents to contribute to the school ethnic cultural resources that family and community are about to lose; on the other hand, teachers and students can also record the unique cultural resources of Qiang, such as the Qiang’s unique cultural environment, natural ecology, architecture, folk customs, costumes, literature, language, art, and so on. These data can be saved as words, pictures, audio and video data, and digital resources, and although these activities achieve only static inheritance, collection of data of Qiang culture would not only help protect Qiang culture, but more importantly they would also provide vivid resources to support and enhance development of minority culture curriculums in schools that can foster active inheritance. Establish Courses Teaching the Qiang Language Qiang is an ethnic group with its own language that until the 1980s was oral only. At that time, an alphabetic writing system of the Qiang ethnic group language was 190

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created with government help and popularized in Maoxian County in the middle 1990s. From 1996 to 2002, twenty-one schools carried out Qiang-Han bilingual teaching in Maoxian and comparative testing shows that the Qiang language course inspired children’s study enthusiasm, and improved the achievements of children learning Mandarin (Leading Group Office of Popularizing the Qiang Language of Maoxian County in Sichuan Province, 2002). Ethnic language can not only improve the quality of teaching, but also inheritance of culture, and furthermore, it can stimulate and promote the entire political, economic and cultural development of the ethnic regions. The educational administration department and schools in the Qiang area should take this opportunity offered by government investment in reconstruction following the 2008 earthquake, and the widespread attention to Qiang people and regions, to restart the popularization of Qiang language as soon as possible. Increase the Qiang Culture Content of Curriculum Schools in Qiang areas should not only open Qiang language courses as soon as possible, but also integrate other Qiang culture into planned curriculum content. Nowadays, schools should take positive action and integrate Qiang culture education into the regular curriculum, or insert the practices into music, art, and integrated practical activity curriculums. The schools, in addition to developing school-based teaching materials, can also use books such as The Student reader of Qiang culture (Feng & Xiang, 2008) in the teaching of content, in addition to the Qiang culture contained in their language, history, geography, arts and other important aspects. Guide Students to Experience the Diversity and Vitality of the Qiang Culture Qiang culture education is not only reflected in the introduction of information, but also reflected in effective teaching practices. In the teaching of Qiang culture courses, teachers should not only teach students basic knowledge, but also guide the students in the cultural learning process and method of training. More importantly, it is necessary to cultivate the emotions, attitudes and values of the students because the protection of ethnic culture, especially non-material culture, is influenced by the valuing of ideas and the aesthetic orientation. Teachers should create conditions that encourage students to participate in Qiang culture activities so that students can experience the vitality of Qiang culture; they should require students to survey the existence of Qiang culture resources, to explore the evolution of Qiang culture, to interview people on their views of Qiang culture, and to write about their experiences, including emotional experiences and feelings, of Qiang festival activities, and so on. These activities, which are contingent to the students’ reality, can foster the growth of students to know themselves, to understand the Qiang characteristics of compassion and responsibility, the origin of ecological and social knowledge, to experience feelings of the significance to them of Qiang culture, and inspire their affiliation for home and their minority nation. 191

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HIRE THE INHERITORS OF QIANG CULTURE AS TEACHERS

The transmission of Qiang culture mainly relies on oral transmission by the elders because historically the Qiang ethnic group has no written language. There is no denying that elders will be lost in the future, so taking them into schools is a good strategy. It could not only solve the present problem of shortages of teachers in schools, but is also a good method to promote inheritance of Qiang cultures following the earthquake. Before the earthquake, although some schools had written schoolbased Qiang culture teaching materials, few schools in Qiang area had provided Qiang cultural lessons or organized relevant activities due to the lack of proficient teachers of Qiang culture. Unfortunately, many elders who know about Qiang languages, history and culture were killed or seriously injured by the earthquake, including some craftspeople who could have passed on inheritance of the techniques of Qiang embroidery, Qiangdi, Qiang folk practices, and so on. Furthermore, confronted with the shock of modernism and examination-oriented education, fewer teachers of Qiang ethnic students are proficient in Qiang culture though they have a special emotional attachment to it (Zhu & Zhao, 2015). In our investigation, Qushan primary school in Beichuan County was a successful example of a school that, before the earthquake, had grasped the local culture by inviting elders to teach students Qiang culture and employing them as part-time teachers. According to the principal of Qushan primary school, the elders were popular with teachers and students of the school; the elders themselves enjoyed the work because they appreciated the value and respect accorded their existence and Qiang culture. CONCLUSION

At present, the vast majority of schools only teach the content of the mainstream dominant culture, and Qiang culture is marginalized or even dispensed. The content of curriculum, which has no local character, has cut off the contact between the students and the local culture because of the deviation from the actual life experiences of the students. It cannot enable students to obtain the wisdom and knowledge necessary for active cultural inheritance. We have offered practical suggestions for the education authorities in the Qiang area to meet the educational needs of the local people that combine the characteristics of schools and Qiang culture together to develop a distinct ethnic minority education that offers real possibilities for active inheritance of Qiang minority culture. REFERENCES Fei, X. T. (1999). The pattern of diversity in unity of the Chinese nation. Beijing: Minzu University of China Press. [Mandarin] Fei, X. T. (2000). Review and experience of reconstruction of sociology and anthropology. Social Sciences in China, 21(1), 37–51. [Mandarin]

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Protecting traditional cultures in China Feng, J. C. (2008). Ecological culture is the core content of human civilization. Journal of Land Today, 6(10), 18–19. [Mandarin] Feng, J. C., & Xiang, Y. J. (2008). The student reader of Qiang culture. Beijing: Zhong Hua Press. [Mandarin] Green, A. (2004). Education, globalization and the nation state. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Leading Group Office of Popularizing the Qiang Language of Maoxian County in Sichuan Province. (2002). Compilation of the research data of Qiang language. Maoxian: Leading Group Office of Popularizing the Qiang Language of Maoxian County in Sichuan Province. [Mandarin] The State Council of the People’s Republic of China. (2008). Plans for restoration and reconstruction of the Wenchuan area following the 2008 earthquake. Retrieved from http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/200809/23/content_1103686.htm [Mandarin] UNESCO. (1995).Our creative diversity: Report of the World Commission on Culture and Development. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. Wu, D. C., Zhang, C. S., & Zhu, S. L. (2011). Educational development history of the Qiang ethnic group. Beijing: The Commercial Press. [Mandarin] Zhu, S. L., & Zhao, H. D. (2015). Study on the current situation and countermeasures of the teachers’ professional quality in primary and middle schools in Qiang area in China. Cross-Cultural Communication, 11(7), 32–34. doi: 10.3968/%25x

Zhu Sheng-li Institute of Education Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China

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IBRAHIMA DIALLO

23. CHINA’S EXPANSION IN AFRICA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR AFRICAN LANGUAGE EDUCATION POLICY

INTRODUCTION

The scale and the speed of Chinese expansion in Africa are unprecedented in Africa’s modern history. In less than fifteen years, China has become one of Africa’s main trading and financial partners: for example, trade between China and Africa jumped nearly sixfold between 1999 and 2004 and there are more than 800 Chinese businesses operating across Africa (Karen, 2008) with investment of more than $US1.25 billion (Naidu, 2007). In 2010, the trade volume between China and Africa more than doubled from $US39. 7 billion in 2005 to reach an all-time performance of $US106.8 billion (Samy, 2010). Most importantly, the Chinese expansion in Africa shows no sign of slowing down as the strengthening of the Chinese economic and financial push is reinforced by the creation of Confucius Institutes and Classrooms, which are the Chinese government’s language and culture1 promotion organizations. Despite being the continent’s third largest trading partner and the world’s largest economy, tipped to be the inevitable superpower by 2030 (Subramanian, 2011), Africans have not yet been receptive and proactive to revise their Eurocentric language-ineducation policy orientation to integrate the new language and culture challenges prompted by the deepening economic and financial ties with China. This chapter is about the language education implications for Africa in the wake of China’s large scale expansion in Africa. It calls for a change in direction in language education in Africa that emphasises a greater space and visibility of Chinese language and culture for the strategic economic and financial benefits of Africa. LANGUAGE PLANNING IN POSTCOLONIAL AFRICA

It is important to note that China’s economic, cultural and diplomatic relationships with Africa can be dated to the 1950s (Naidu, 2007). However, the resurgence of the economic ties between China and Africa experienced a new twist following the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000. Since then, economic, trade and cultural ties between China and Africa have increased exponentially (Naidu, Corkin, & Herman, 2009). However, the Chinese expansion in the continent is taking place while Africa is experiencing a complex language planning and language

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education situation. Colonial legacies and the role played by African leaders influenced the trajectory of European languages in postcolonial Africa. Following independence from former European colonial powers, most African countries2 implemented language policies that sought to maintain and promote European languages. Therefore, it is not a surprise that European languages have always occupied the lion’s share in the education system of many African countries. For example, between 1960, when most former French colonies gained independence, and the 1970s, education in Francophone West Africa (except for Guinea) was mainly in French because French was the only or the dominant official language. In short, European languages were preferred mainly due to the educational, economic, and diplomatic ties with the former colonial powers as well as the communication opportunities and the place of European languages in international communication. However, because of intense pressures from within and outside Africa, the hegemony of European languages in education started to be questioned. Following several years of conferences, debates, seminars, lobbying, protests, white papers, and numerous academic research papers by scholars from Africa and elsewhere, African countries shifted, mainly in 1970s, from European languages only in education to a balanced model that included African languages. Despite acknowledgement of the advantages of bilingual education, transition to balanced language education has not been smooth: African countries have different philosophies and have displayed different levels of political commitment to implementing bilingual education policies. Some countries – mostly the former British colonies – took the bold step of introducing their own languages following the independence of their countries. However, in the former French colonies the situation was quite different. While countries such as Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso rolled out effective education policies to implement bilingual programmes after the 1970s, for others, such as Senegal, introducing the national languages into mainstream education has been more rhetoric than reality. Africans now have greater control over their education programmes; yet, paradoxically, their allegiance to European languages seems stronger in the postcolonial context than it was under colonisation. In particular, while both the French and English speaking communities – in former colonies both British and nonBritish – have significantly increased in Africa over the last decades, interest in and demand for Chinese language and culture has surged in Africa. The strengthening of Chinese economic markets and financial investments in Africa, plus the global rise and ambition of China, which coincided with the economic and financial crises in America and Europe and the economic and financial emergence of Brazil, India, South Africa and Asian markets, has not only accelerated the interest in and importance of Chinese language but also underscored the need to adapt to the new communication needs and demands created by the Chinese economic and financial expansion, influence and strengthening in Africa. As discussed above, not only has the empowerment of African languages been slow, but there are no strategic language education policies to address the current 196

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language demands of Africans and to anticipate their future language needs in light of current economic and financial changes taking place in Africa. Robust language education policies need to be put in place, first, to critically emphasise the current and future role of Chinese language and culture in African education systems and, second, to strategically promote Chinese language and culture in public education curricula. Indeed, in addition to being an important language for communication with China, Chinese language and culture have become crucially important for Africa given China’s economic and financial expansion and its increasing military and diplomatic influence in the continent as well as the global rise and ambition of China. However, if one looks closely at language education policies and language education practices in Africa and analyses them both in light of current economic, financial and cultural changes in Africa and the rest of the world, the situation is concerning. Not only have African countries engaged in the same debates they had fifty years ago, but also most striking is the fact that postcolonial allegiance to European languages, especially in French speaking Africa, seems unflinching despite the rapid geo-linguistic and geoeconomic changes discussed above prompted by large scale Chinese expansion in Africa and its (increasing) global economic, financial and military standing. As can be seen, the arrival and expansion of China in Africa has occurred in a particularly complex linguistic situation. First, European languages remain the dominant official languages in the education systems in most African countries. Second, education policies in Africa are still trying to find ways to harmoniously integrate their own languages into their education systems. The attachment to European languages and the challenges to harmoniously integrate their own languages in their education system constitute serious obstacles for Africans to clearly adapt to the new language needs in the continent driven both by Chinese expansion and influence in Africa as well as its standing as a global financial and economic powerhouse. ENHANCING CHINESE (LANGUAGE & CULTURE) IN CURRICULA

China’s expansion and strengthening in Africa is not limited to commercial and financial ties. Rather, China is also investing to enhance its linguistic and cultural visibility in Africa. Having understood the importance of the linguistic and cultural dimension for its success in Africa, China has been following in the footsteps of European institutions that promote language and cultural (e.g., British Council, Alliance Française and Goethe Institut) to export Chinese language and culture into Africa by creating and supporting a large network of Confucius Institutes. These Chinese language and culture institutions are reinforced by interactive online and virtual Chinese language and culture classes. In Africa, the first Confucius centre was set up in 2006. In 2011, there were 21 Confucius Institutes and four Confucius classrooms in the continent (Khan & Diallo, 2011). However, between 2011 and 2015, the number jumped to 38 and 10 respectively (Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban), 2014). Hanban is the 197

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Chinese international language council affiliated to the Ministry of Education of China. While China is rolling out a vast language and culture network in Africa, education policy makers in Africa seem unconvinced about the need to adapt their language education policies to meet the language and culture challenges and opportunities posed by China’s economic expansion in Africa. In particular, most concerning of all, is the absence of clear and systematic language education policies to promote and teach Chinese language and culture in public education in Africa. While China is strengthening its trade and financial foothold in Africa and expanding its culture and language in Africa for its strategic benefit, very little, to say the least, is done by Africans themselves to shape the direction of their language education policies to adapt to the changing economic and linguistic circumstances in Africa. In particular, very little is done to put in place language education policies that aim at effectively increasing the visibility and the availability of Chinese language and culture in schools’ curricula in Africa. With the exception of Zimbabwe’s government proposal to make Chinese compulsory in state schools (Dube, 2015; FlorCruz, 2015), no African countries have addressed the teaching of Chinese language and culture in their education policies or articulated a clear language education framework to accommodate Chinese language and culture despite strong evidence that both Chinese language and culture and their capital market values are increasing in Africa (Caulderwood, 2015; FlorCruz, 2015). The current language education policies, based on rigid language planning attitudes and Eurocentric ideologies, call for a new strategic orientation in language education policies in Africa as the current lack of policies which amounts to passivity is evidently not adequate. Policy-makers need to be able to anticipate language changes and needs, act upon them, and shape them (Calvet, 2002). Given China’s involvement in Africa and the economic diversification in the continent, the knowledge of Chinese language and culture is crucial for Africans to successfully and meaningfully engage with Chinese people. For this to happen, a shift of focus is needed to enhance Chinese linguistic and cultural visibility in schools’ curricula in Africa. It is clear from the discussion above that in addition to the economic and trade deals with Africa, the Chinese expansion agenda in Africa is supported by a large scale policy to spread Chinese language and culture in the continent. However, Africans have not been able to adapt to the changing language and culture needs and put in place language education policies to promote and teach Chinese language and culture in public education to enable Africans to take full advantage of the economic, financial and cultural opportunities created by the new partnership with China. CHINESE (LANGUAGE & CULTURE) EDUCATION POLICIES IN AFRICA

Motivations for language planning have been discussed in a range of contexts. According to Ager (2001), there are seven motives for language planning: identity, ideology, image, insecurity, inequality, integration and instrumentality. When we 198

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look closely this narrow categorisation, we notice that the economic value/motivation is central in language education policies in the countries examined. Similarly, when we look at elsewhere, economic rationales seem a recurrent motive for language education policy. For example, Australia provides an interesting example of language policy decisions influenced by an economic rationale. According to Kaplan and Baldauf (2003, p. 145), the 1980s economic down-turn “led to a greater emphasis on economics and the perceived need for revision of the NPL [National Policy on Language] to meet changing circumstances.” Subsequently, language policy in Australia changed direction and the new language education policy focused on Asian languages in order to improve trade with Australia’s key Asian trading partners, including China, Japan, Indonesia and Korea. According to Kaplan and Baldauf (1997, p. 184), “the obvious motivation for this change lies in the notion of expanded tourism and international trade.” Indeed, the economic rationale has taken centre-stage in the formulation of language education policies in Australia following the 1997 landmark national language policy (Lo Bianco, 1987). Since 1991, the trajectory of language policy shows that Australia has resolutely opted for language education policies that meet market needs in order to benefit international strategic economic and trade competiveness with its Asian neighbours and partners. In 1994 the National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools (NALSAS) strategy was launched. It was followed by the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Programs (NALSSP) in 1999. To implement such a significant policy shift in language education, policy makers and education authorities in Australia endeavour to: increase the availability of curriculum materials in these languages, to support teacher development and to support student and teacher proficiency with the aim of increasing the numbers of students studying an Asian language in the compulsory years of schooling (through Year 10). There was also an Asian studies component. (Kaplan & Baldauf, 2003, p. 145) More recently, Scarino (2014, p. 291), indicated that “there has been a slight shift in the prioritised languages of Asia to align with economic priorities at the time of the 2013 federal election, to include Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and Hindi.” In short, to capture language education policy in Australia, one can agree with Lo Bianco (2009, p. 16) who describes it as “energetically Asian … (and) … fundamentally economic.” Even though Australia and the Australian situation are both different from African countries and African contexts, Australia’s language education policy shift and its language education model built on an economic rationale could serve as a template given, on the one hand, the changing economic and financial circumstances in Africa and, second, “Australia’s reputation for being a leader in language planning and policy” (Kaplan & Baldauf, 2003, p. 146). Such language education policy initiatives for the Asian languages in Australia, if implemented for Chinese language and culture in Africa could be beneficial to Africans and 199

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to Africa’s strategic economic, trade and cultural ties with China in a number of ways. In particular, a curriculum that offers Chinese language and culture would allow, first, greater access for Africans and African businesses to Chinese markets and businesses. Second, Chinese language and culture skills would increase the competitive edge of Africans in attracting and keeping Chinese businesses and investors operating in Africa. Third, and last, knowledge of Chinese language and culture would be vital in reducing the linguistic and cultural gap between Africans and their Chinese partners, namely to foster mutual understanding, enhance crosscultural communication and strengthen socio-economic and cultural ties between Africa and China. CONCLUSION

To maintain its unstoppable global ambition to become the world superpower, China’s expansion and strengthening in Africa is unprecedented. However, the scale and magnitude of China’s expansion in Africa seem to have taken language education policy makers in the continent by surprise. While they are still grappling with policies to give space to their own languages in their Eurocentric language policies inherited from colonisation, the need and demands for Chinese language and culture has surged in Africa. Language education policies in Africa have not been able to adapt to the changing language needs in Africa to give space and visibility to Chinese language and culture in their education system. As a result, language education policy change is needed so that Africans can communicate effectively with Chinese for the strategic economic benefits of the continent. This chapter has discussed language education policy at the continental level, but interventions to solve particular language problems are needed primarily at country level as language planning is an activity, most visibly undertaken by government (simply because it involves such massive changes in a society), intended to promote systematic linguistic change in some community of speakers… and to move the entire society in some direction deemed ‘good’ or ‘useful’ by the government. (Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997, p. xi) NOTES I use the term Chinese language (and culture) to refer to Modern Standard Chinese, the official language of the People’s Republic of China. 2 It is important to stress that this vast continent is far from being a homogenous entity in terms of its history and education policy and language planning experiences. I generalise and use the broad term of Africa simply for the purpose of this article given the relatively similar attitudes in relation to language education for Chinese following China’s expansion in the continent. 1

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REFERENCES Ager, D. (2001). Motivation in language planning and language policy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Caulderwood, K. (2015, May 19). Zimbabwe proposes compulsory Chinese lessons, stirring controversy. International Business Times. Retrieved October 24, 2015, from http://www.ibtimes.com/zimbabweproposes-compulsory-chinese-lessons-stirring-controversy-1929317 Calvet, L. J. (2002). Le marché des langues. Les effets linguistiques de la mondialisation. Paris: Plon. Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban). (2014). Confucius Institutes/Classrooms. Retrieved from http://english.hanban.org/node_10971.htm Dube, G. (2015, May 11). Zimbabwe proposes compulsory teaching of Chinese, Swahili in schools. Voice of America/ Zimbabwe. Retrieved October 17, 2015, from http://www.voazimbabwe.com/content/ zimbabwe-to-introduce-chinese-swahili-in-new-curriculum/2762983.html. FlorCruz, M. (2015, June 29). Chinese Language in Nigeria is increasingly popular as China-Africa economic relations deepen. International Business Times. Retrieved October 16, 2015, from http://www.ibtimes.com/chinese-language-nigeria-increasingly-popular-china-africa-economicrelations-deepen-1988347 Kaplan, R., & Baldauf, R. B. (1997). Language planning from practice to theory. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Kaplan, R., & Baldauf, R. B. (2003). Language and language-in-education planning in the Pacific Basin. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Karen, F. (2008). China in Africa. Global Researcher, 2(1), 1–26. Khan, S., & Diallo, I. (2001). Le réveil du Dragon : La conceptualisation des implications stratégiques et linguistico-culturelles de l’ascension de la Chine. Le Monde Chinois, 25, 95–103. Lo Bianco, J. (2009). Second languages and Australian schooling (Australian Educational Review, 54). Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research. Retrieved November 19, 2015, from http://research.acer.edu.au/aer/8 Naidu, S. (2007). The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC): What does the future hold? China Report, 43(3), 283–296. Naidu, S., Corkin, L., & Herman, H. (2009). China’s (re)-emerging relations with Africa: Forging a new consensus? Politikon, 36(1), 87–115. Samy, Y. (2010). China’s aid policy in Africa: Opportunities and challenges. The Round Table, 99(406), 75–90. Scarino, A. (2014). Situating the challenges in current languages education policy in Australia-unlearning monolingualism. International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(3), 289–306. Subramanian, A. (2011). The inevitable superpower: Why China’s dominance is a sure thing. Foreign Affairs, 90(5), 66–78.

Ibrahima Diallo Research Centre for Languages and Cultures University of South Australia, Australia

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MICHIKO WEINMANN

24. INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES EDUCATION IN VICTORIA Innovations, Opportunities and Challenges for Non-Indigenous Languages Teacher Educators

INTRODUCTION

Before colonisation, Australia was a linguistically diverse continent, with an estimated 250 Indigenous languages and about 500 spoken varieties of these languages. By 1980, a quarter of these languages had disappeared, a decline which continued over the years, with two-thirds of Indigenous languages gone by 1990. In 2001, only 17 Aboriginal1 languages were classified as actively spoken and used across all age groups. Most of the speakers of Indigenous languages that are used as a primary means of communication live in the Top End, the Kimberley, and the central deserts (Hobson, 2010; Purdie et al., 2008). However, language loss has been particularly egregious in Victoria and Tasmania; in pre-colonisation Victoria, about 40 Indigenous languages were spoken; today, no Victorian Aboriginal languages are fully spoken in the state (VACL, 2015). REVIVING2 INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES IN VICTORIA

Today, the Aboriginal people of Australia are working towards ownership and reclamation of their cultures, languages, lands and communities (VCAA, 2009). Since the early 1990s, there has been significant engagement to reclaim language3 in Victoria. Established in 1994, the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (VACL) is the key state organisation for addressing language loss and revival, its methods including several Aboriginal community language programs. As language is an integral part of local communities and their cultures, and an ancestral right, the reclamation of Aboriginal languages requires the consent, support and authority of local communities, their Elders and the land’s Traditional Custodians (VACL, 2015; VCAA, 2009). In Victoria, the Gunditjmara, Gunnai/Kŭrnai, Wathaurong, Yorta, Wergaia and Kulin communities have been particularly active in reconstructing and relearning language (Clark, 2005; VACL, 2015; VCAA, 2009).

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INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES EDUCATION POLICY AND CURRICULUM

The Australian Assessment, Curriculum and Reporting Authority (ACARA) emphasises the importance of all students in Australia learning another language in addition to English. The central place of languages as a distinct discipline area is reiterated in the preamble to the latest version of the 2013 national curriculum, which acknowledges that each student brings their own linguistic and cultural background to their learning (ACARA, 2015a). A major milestone was reached with the inclusion of a Framework of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages in the Australian national curriculum (ABC, 2016; ACARA, 2016). Beyond the languages discipline area, the unique traditions and knowledge of Australia’s first inhabitants are recognised in only one of the three cross-curriculum priorities, namely Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures (ACARA, 2015b). A parallel commitment to Indigenous languages education at the state level is expressed in the Victorian Government’s policy statement: Languages – expanding your world: Plan to implement The Victorian Government’s Vision for Languages Education 2013–2025 (DET, 2013). However, the Victorian Education Department’s commitment to integrating Indigenous languages into the state curriculum framework is not a recent phenomenon. Rather, it spans a period of over 15 years. In 1992, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) developed the Indigenous languages of Victoria, revival and reclamation: Victorian Certificate of Education Study Design in response to a request from Worawa Aboriginal College (Bowe, Reid, & Lynch, 2010). This program ran as a pilot Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE; the high school leaving certificate in Victoria) study from 1995 to 2003, and was fully accredited in 2004 (Bowe et al., 2010; VCAA, 2004). The development and implementation of the Indigenous languages senior years syllabus (Study Design) was unique and relevant to the Victorian context, as it incorporated the principles of language reclamation by teaching students to locate historical sources for Victorian Aboriginal languages and to acquire the skills required for the analysis of such historical material (Bowe et al., 2010). Further significant aspects of the pilot were its collaborative nature, and its vision of sustainable language revival through the involvement of educators, linguists, and Indigenous people and communities in the production of language resources for future students (Reid, 2010). In 2009, the Victorian curriculum framework for Years P–10 (Preparation/ Foundation to Year 10), Aboriginal languages, cultures and reclamation in Victoria: Standards P–10 and protocols (VCAA, 2009), was implemented. As a result, curriculum frameworks and resources supporting continuous language education are firmly in place for the duration of compulsory (Years P–10) and post-compulsory (Years 11 and 12) schooling in Victoria (DET, 2015).

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INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES PROGRAMS IN VICTORIAN SCHOOLS

As outlined above, the education policies and curriculum initiatives in support of Indigenous languages were major milestones for integrating the teaching and learning of Indigenous languages in schools and classrooms. The collaborative efforts of the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc. (VAEAI), VACL, VCAA and the Department of Education in Victoria (then under the name of Department of Education and Early Childhood Development), in consultation with the relevant Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (LAECG), led to a 2012 pilot trial which involved three Victorian schools introducing Koorie4 languages and cultures programs (DET, 2013; VAEAI, n.d.). In addition to the pilot schools – Thornbury Primary School in northern Melbourne (Woiwurrung), Heywood & District Secondary College in Victoria’s south-west (Gunditjmara) and Swan Hill Primary School in the state’s north-west (Wemba Wemba) – Healesville Secondary College is also offering a Woiwurrung language program, and Barkanji is taught at both Mildura Primary School and Chaffey Secondary College (VACL, 2015; VAEAI, n.d.). Building on the expertise and resources of the pilot schools, new collaborations and plans to introduce Indigenous language programs in their neighbouring schools are forming. Warrnambool College and Brauer College are now offering an introductory five-week Gunditjmara language course. Thornbury Secondary College collaborates with Thornbury Primary School’s Koorie educator and Woiwurrung teacher to teach an introductory unit in language and culture. Melton West Primary School and Kurunjang Primary School are seeking Council endorsement of a new Woiwurrung language and culture program (VAEAI, n.d.). Language playgroups such as the Balee Koolin Bubup Bush Playgroup (Boonwurrung) also support literacy, cultural and traditional language development of Indigenous children in the pre-school years (VACL, 2015). CONTEXUALISING INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE REVIVAL PROGRAMS IN VICTORIA

The situation of Indigenous school and community language revival programs in Victoria is as dynamic and encouraging as it is complex, as Eira and Salomon-Dent (2010) recognise: In Victoria the urgency of language reclamation has motivated communities to focus on using their languages as much and as soon as possible. The analysis of historical sources and its incorporation into community language programs has tended to lag behind. This creates a very particular situation for language research, in that research findings must be used to firm up the linguistic foundations of ‘a house already lived in’. (p. 372)

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It should be noted that not only linguistically does “language revival present a new situation for analysis, as the languages are simultaneously researched, learned and developed in a single, overarching and ongoing process” (Couzens & Eira, 2014, n.p.). That is, this unusual situation presents a new context for languages teacher educators to rethink, re-evaluate and re-engage in “the understanding that language is inseparable from culture” (Couzens & Eira, 2014, n.p.). While linguists, languages teachers, and academics researching languages education acknowledge this connection, the way this relationship is understood often starts with language as a linguistic system. As Couzens and Eira (2014) point out, “if language is really inseparable from culture, then what is being reclaimed is all the layers of meaning” (n.p.). One of the participants in Couzens and Eira’s (2014) study articulates this concept: …cause language is culture is language, language is land, land is language, family, language family – if you can understand what I am saying, it’s that spiritual stuff again, one can’t live without the other – as I keep saying, language is our culture, language is everything, it’s part of one another. (n.p.) These connections are reiterated in the VCAA’s (2009) curriculum framework for Indigenous languages, which emphasises that “teaching an Aboriginal language requires a particular focus on culture as inextricably bound up with not only the language itself, but also learning about the language, its people and the land” (p. 8). The document advises that Aboriginal languages need to be contextualised in ways of learning appropriate to Aboriginal people and culture. This will require … a strong base of oral learning … and an emphasis on deep learning and listening … The teaching of an Aboriginal language requires much higher levels of inbuilt community involvement than other languages. Actively recognising the authority and leadership of the local community and Traditional Custodians at all points is crucial to the purpose and success of the program. (p. 8) Such understandings, however, appear slightly at odds with the two dimensions of languages education that inform the Victorian curriculum framework for all languages: namely, “communicating in a language other than English’ and ‘intercultural knowledge and language awareness” (VCAA, 2009, p. 24). While these two dimensions are considered as ‘intimately linked’, this statement does not fully encapsulate the inseparability of language and culture, nor the connectedness of Aboriginal communities and language with the revival process. As Couzens and Eira (2014) argue in their discussion of parameters for the study of revival languages, the differences between ‘Western science’ and ‘Aboriginal ways of knowing/ being/learning/doing’ become strongly apparent where linguistic and community considerations of language reclamation are concerned. To bring the perspective of a non-Indigenous academic in languages education into the discussion, I argue that such epistemological differences might also be 206

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present in the ways that non-Indigenous and Indigenous languages teachers and teacher educators in Victoria and Australia understand language, languages education and the reasons and motivation for – as well as the importance placed on – languages education by students, parents and Indigenous communities. While pedagogies informed by approaches such as intercultural language teaching and learning (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013) and the Intercultural Understanding general capability in the Australian curriculum (ACARA, 2015c) emphasise the interconnectedness of language, culture and identity, they are still often addressed as distinct entities in current teaching practice. The integral link between “language, identity, culture, history and land as the prime reason for learning an Aboriginal language” (VCAA, 2009, p. 25) appears to be the starting point for any Indigenous language program. Conversely, gaining an understanding of the integrated nature of language and culture seems to be envisaged as an outcome resulting from language study in the teaching and learning of non-Indigenous languages. Furthermore, as acknowledged above, consideration of authority, ownership, protocols and collaboration is crucial in the process and practice of language revival: It’s not my decision to make, that’s the other thing a lot of people don’t understand too, is that all aspects of Aboriginal ways of doing things – not only language: education, health, employment, housing – there’s all those protocols, the cultural protocols that still exist today. People try to tell us that our culture is gone – people don’t understand that our culture’s been ingrained in us, and always will be and there are certain rules that are there, that have never been spoken about to you, but you know they’re there. (Couzens & Eira, 2014, n.p.) NON-INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES TEACHER EDUCATORS

Considering the unique and diverse cultural and linguistic context of Indigenous language reclamation, it is essential that language revival and language programs utilise a collaborative approach involving Indigenous communities, language centres, linguists and teachers (Purdie et al., 2008). This implies that teacher training courses, and other professional learning opportunities in Indigenous language teaching, must be delivered primarily by the relevant community bodies, and not by universities, where the majority of non-Indigenous languages teacher educators – including myself – are based. As a non-Indigenous linguist working in Indigenous language reclamation, Eira (2007) identifies some important considerations: Essentially, in linguistics, we look at structure… It allows us to build words and sentences in languages that haven’t been spoken for decades. But I have to remember that this area, which is my claim to specialist knowledge and skills, is much, much smaller than Language. I am simply not an authority on most of what people want from Language. (p. 84) 207

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Furthermore, while non-Indigenous teacher educators in languages education can bring their expertise in pedagogy and methodology to the discussion, we should not be surprised to find that we are ‘simply not an authority’ on what many Indigenous people would require from language education. As Land (2015) points out, the solidarity of non-Indigenous people “who locate themselves as supporters or potential allies … inadvertently display(s) … privilege and power’ (p. 5), and ‘fails to understand “the importance of Aboriginal control of Aboriginal affairs” to indigenous people” (p. 7). If solidarity with Indigenous interests and concerns is understood as a shift towards decolonisation, then “the way solidarity is undertaken needs to be decolonised” (Land, 2015, p. 4). Consequently, our contribution as languages teacher educators cannot be to Indigenous language teaching per se, but, rather, must take the form of a collaborative effort to renew engagement in educating non-Indigenous pre-service teachers about Australia’s Indigenous histories, cultures and heritage. Once again, as non-Indigenous languages teacher educators in Australian universities, we must commit to reconceptualising our role as a selfreflective (Land, 2015, p. 16) one, based on an understanding of engagement in Indigenous languages revival and education as a “coalition …(that is)… a site of learning and transformation (in which) being part of alliances generates significant learning for those involved, particularly for non-Indigenous people” (p. 15). The directions provided by policy and curriculum documents, such as the Australian National Curriculum and the Victorian Government’s Vision for Languages Education, are unequivocal regarding the requisite commitment of non-Indigenous teachers and students to significant re-engagement, rethinking and reconsideration of our current understanding of Aboriginal languages and cultures. Such engagement provides a new and dynamic opportunity for teachers and teacher educators in Victoria to take an active role in raising awareness about Indigenous languages education and revival, and to learn from the communities, teachers and researchers involved in the language reclamation process. To date, for many non-Indigenous academics working in languages teacher education, the principles, concerns and motivations that inform and drive the language revival process are considerations that we can only understand intellectually. They usually do not involve us mentally, interculturally or interpersonally. At the moment, we generally rely on the generosity of people working in language revival to share their time, knowledge and expertise to educate us, and our students, through guest lectures, seminars and the provision of resources. However, with the increasing exigency to integrate Indigenous knowledge and content into schools and teacher education programs, this support cannot be relied upon indefinitely. Eira (2007), in reconsidering her role as a linguist in the language revival process, argues for a shift to learning a new role as contributors to the broader project of decolonisation … . [This] could release considerable potential in increasing the effectiveness of our work, as well as assisting in bringing parallel goals of (re)conciliation and collaboration into a new phase. (p. 89) 208

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The current process of Indigenous language revival in Victoria provides a unique opportunity for non-Indigenous languages teacher educators to reconceptualise their roles as culturally sensitive contributors to, and supporters of, language reclamation. By seeking out conversations with Indigenous organisations, teachers and communities involved in the reclamation process, by looking for opportunities to experience what language revival feels and looks like in action, by listening and participating rather than driving interactions, we can take steps towards becoming advocates for languages education that is inclusive of all languages (SkutnabbKangas, 2008). As Thornbury Primary School’s Koorie educator and Woiwurrung language teacher Phil Cooper says, a great sense of pride, self-worth and acceptance is felt by Indigenous families who know that their children and other students are learning Koorie culture and language (Couzens & Eira, 2014). His concluding remark, that “this can only be good for the relationship between Koories and non-Koories” (Couzens & Eira, 2014, n.p.), should encourage non-Indigenous languages teachers and teacher educators “to understand our roles as participants in the project of decolonisation” (Eira, 2007, p. 82). When discussing community linguistics projects, Couzens and Eira (2014) describe those works “as deeply cross-cultural, requiring … a productive understanding of connection between sets of ideologies formed for very different purposes, from within very different social and intellectual heritages” (n.p.). Land (2015) highlights “the importance of non-Indigenous people examining our complicity in colonialism, including but interrogating who we are in terms of identity, culture and history, and the shape of our lives” (p. 29). Developing and nurturing an understanding that such explorations are not one-directional, but can and must take place through comparative questioning, and the deconstruction and disruption of our socioculturally constructed and evolved understandings of language, culture, identity and power, in conjunction with a commitment to continuously working on this and from this basis, could be the key for non-Indigenous languages educators to contribute to a gradual convergence between different paradigms of languages education, and to “making a contribution to an imagined progressive nonIndigenous research agenda” (Land, 2015, p. 28). NOTES There is much debate around the use of appropriate terms for the first peoples of Australia (Land, 2015; NSW Community Services, 2007; Queensland Government, 2011; The University of Sydney Koori Centre, 2015). This discussion cannot be fully captured within this paper. The terms Indigenous and Aboriginal will be used interchangeably in this chapter to refer to the original inhabitants of Australia. 2 Several terms are used to denote the process of bringing Indigenous languages back to life. Generally, language revival serves as the umbrella term, while revitalisation is used in relation to languages that are still in use, but only by few people in the community. The term reclamation is generally used for languages that are not currently spoken and are being reconstructed from historical sources (Purdie et al., 2008; VCAA, 2009). 1

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Weinmann It is customary in Australia to use the word language (no article) to refer to an Australian Indigenous language (Eira, 2007). 4 The words Koorie (Victoria) and Koori (New South Wales) are, in certain contexts, considered the appropriate terms when referring to different Indigenous nations and languages groups (Flinders University, n.d.). Since Koorie was the chosen term for the pilot language program in Victorian schools, this term will be used when referring to these language revival initiatives in Victoria. 3

REFERENCES ACARA. (2015a). Languages. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/languages/preamble ACARA. (2015b). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. Retrieved Sepetmber 26, 2015, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/crosscurriculumpriorities/Aboriginal-andTorres-Strait-Islander-histories-and-cultures ACARA. (2015c). Intercultural understanding. Retrieved September 27, 2015, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/generalcapabilities/intercultural-understanding/introduction/ introduction ACARA. (2016). Framework for Aboriginal languages and Torres Strait Islander languages. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/languages/framework-foraboriginal-languages-and-torres-strait-islander-languages/rationale Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio National. (2016). Indigenous language makes it to the classroom [Audio podcast]. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/ programs/rnafternoons/indigneous-languages-in-national-curriculum/7152880 Bowe, H., Reid, J., & Lynch, K. (2010). Increasing the accessibility of information on the Indigenous languages of Victoria. In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch, & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. 312–322). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Clark, I. D. (2005). Aboriginal language areas in Victoria, prepared for Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages, Melbourne. Retrieved September 21, 2015, from http://www.vaclang.org.au/images/ assets/docs/Language%20Map%20Report%202005.pdf Couzens, V., & Eira, C. (2014). Meeting point: Parameters for the study of revival languages. In P. K. Austin & J. Sallabank (Eds.), Endangered languages: Ideologies and beliefs in language documentation and revitalisation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from  http://www.vaclang.org.au/Resources/meeting-point-parameters-for-the-study-of-revivallanguages.html Department of Education (DET). (2013). Languages – Expanding your world: Plan to implement The Victorian Government’s vision for languages education 2013–2025. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/department/languagesvisionplan.pdf Department of Education (DET). (2015). Koorie learning resources. Retrieved September 18, 2015, from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/diversity/Pages/ wanniklearning.aspx Eira, C. (2007, October 26–28). Addressing the ground of language endangerment. In M. David, N. Ostler, & C. Dealwis (Eds.), Working together for endangered languages: Research challenges and social impacts, proceedings for Endangered Languages Conference XI (pp. 82–90). Kuala Lumpur. Eira, C., & Salomon-Dent, L. (2010). A house already lived in. In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch, & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. 372–386). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Flinders University. (n.d.). CDIP (Cultural Diversity and Inclusive Practice) toolkit: Appropriate terminology, representations and protocols of acknowledgement for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Retrieved September 27, 2015, from http://www.flinders.edu.au/staff-developmentfiles/CDIP%20documents/CDIP%20Toolkit%202015/_fms_recycle_2_%20Appropriate% 20Terminology,%20Indigenous%20Australians.pdf

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Indigenous languages education in Victoria Hobson, J. (2010). Introduction: Language policy and planning. In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch, & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. 3–5). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Land, C. (2015). Decolonising solidarity: Dilemmas and directions for supporters of indigenous struggles. London: Zed Books. Liddicoat, A., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural language teaching and learning. Oxford: WileyBlackwell. NSW Department of Community Services. (2007). Use of appropriate language when working with Aboriginal communities in NSW. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/ docswr/_assets/main/documents/researchnotes_Aboriginal_language.pdf Purdie, N., Frigo, T., Ozolis, C., Noblett, G., Thieberger, N., & Sharp, J. (2008). Indigenous languages programmes in Australian Schools: A way forward. Retrieved September 18, 2015, from http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=Indigenous_education Queensland Government. (2011). Guidelines for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander terminology. Retrieved September 16, 2015, from https://www.health.qld.gov.au/atsihealth/documents/ terminology.pdf Reid, J. (2010). The rebirth of Wergaia: A collaborative effort. In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch, & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. 240–252). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2008). Human rights and language policy in education. In S. May & N. Hornberger (Eds.), Language policy and political issues in education: Vol. 1. Encyclopedia of language and education (pp. 107–119). New York, NY: Springer. The University of Sydney Koori Centre. (2015). Indigenous style guide. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://sydney.edu.au/koori/aboutus/Indigenous%20style%20guide.pdf Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (VACL). (2015). About VACL. Retrieved September 18, 2015, from http://vaclang.org.au/Core-Articles/home.html Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc. (VAEAI). (n.d.). Case study: Thornbury Primary School Koorie cultural program. Retrieved September 18, 2015, from http://www.vaeai.org.au/_uploads/ rsfil/000374_dcfe.pdf Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc. (VAEAI). (n.d.). IECB success story: Koorie languages in Victorian schools program. Retrieved September 18, 2015, from http://www.vaeai.org.au/_uploads/ rsfil/000368_cdaf.pdf Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). (2004). Indigenous languages of Victoria: Revival and reclamation. Victorian Certificate of Education Study Design. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/ausIndigenous/IndigenousSD.pdf Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). (2009). Aboriginal languages, cultures and reclamation in Victoria: Standards P–10 and protocols. Retrieved September 21, 2015, from http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/alcv/Aboriginal_stds.aspx

Michiko Weinmann School of Education Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

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INDEX

A Aboriginal, xi, 203–208, 209n1 Academic English, 9, 12 Africa, 107, 108, 195–200 Aid, 2, 3, 106 Anglophone, 7–13, 106–109, 123–129 Anti-drug education, 177–184 Australia, xi, 1–5, 7, 8, 28, 37, 38, 45, 47–51, 53, 61–65, 73, 76, 77, 94–102, 105–112, 123–129, 132, 136, 149–158, 199, 203, 204, 207, 208, 209n1, 210n3 C China, xi, 1–5, 17, 23, 27–29, 37, 45, 47–51, 53, 61–65, 73–81, 83, 85, 88, 105–112, 115–120, 123–129, 140, 149–158, 161–167, 169–171, 177, 187–192, 195–200 China public school, 74–76, 78–81 Chinese international students, 73, 107–110, 128 Chinese language and culture, 195–200 Chinese learners, 61–65 Chinese minority education, 161, 162, 192 Chinese schools, 17–19, 23, 76, 171 Compensatory policy mode, 117 Compulsory education, 161, 163, 164, 167 Confucian-heritage-culture, 63 Confucianism, 22, 62, 63, 124, 125 Critical reflection, 123–129 Critical thinking, 8, 48, 62, 63, 125, 127 Cultural heritage, 5, 28, 33, 63, 65, 139, 140, 170, 175, 190 Cultural maintenance, 183

Cultural practices, 102, 139, 141, 144–146, 178, 188 Cultural protection, 140 Cultural revival, 146, 208 Culture, 2, 5, 27, 28, 30, 32–35, 46, 47, 49, 53–58, 61–64, 75, 101, 102, 106, 107, 123–126, 128, 129, 133, 139–141, 146, 151, 158, 161, 162, 164, 169–175, 177–184, 187–192, 195–200, 203–209 Curriculum, 17–23, 28, 31, 50, 51, 53–56, 58, 59, 75, 77, 79, 80, 84, 112, 119, 145, 149, 151, 152, 157, 165, 166, 169, 175, 183, 189–192, 199, 200, 204–208 D Debating, 169–175 Decolonization, 208, 209 Drug abuse, 177–179, 183 Drug education, 177, 184 E Early childhood, xi, 53, 83, 94, 95, 101, 102, 151, 205 Economic benefits, 200 Education internationalisation, 3 Education policy, 119, 120, 195–200, 204, 205 Elementary, 74, 93, 149–158 English as a foreign language (EFL), 17–23, 37–42 English for academic purposes (EAP), 7–12 English language learning, 27–35, 62 English language teaching, 8, 27, 38, 54 Equality, 27, 28, 33, 80, 115–120

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Ethnic cultures, 28, 30, 35, 169–175, 183, 191 Ethnic minority, 27–29, 33, 34, 161, 162, 170, 178, 187, 192 F Folk artists, 169 Folk performance, 139–146 G Gender equity, 149, 152, 157, 158 Globalization, 1–5, 61, 75, 105 Grammar, 20, 33, 41, 45–51 H Hidden curriculum, 149, 151, 152, 157 Higher education, xi, 1–5, 7–12, 33, 34, 45, 46, 58, 61, 105–112, 115–120, 131–137 Higher education, China, 1–5, 105, 116–118 I Ideal self, 69–72 Identity, 5, 9, 12, 18, 29, 38, 42, 45–51, 53, 55–58, 62, 64, 69, 75, 77, 115, 124, 141, 144, 146, 161, 187–189, 198, 207, 209 Identity construction, 38 Identity theory, 62, 64 Indigenous, xi, 27, 28, 53, 203–210 Indigenous languages, 203–210 International class, 73–81 Internationalisation, 1–5, 10, 12, 74, 75 Internationalised curriculum, 75, 77, 79, 112 Internationalised higher education, 12 International program, 73–75, 77–79 International student mobility, 7, 9 International students, 3, 8, 9, 73, 77, 105–112, 128, 132 214

J Jiazhi culture, 177–184 K Kenre, 169–175 Kindergarten, 83–90, 150 Kindergarten teachers, 83–90 L Language education policy, 195–200 Language planning, 195–200 Language reclamation, 204–209 Languages education, xi, 54–58, 203–210 M Mathematics, 149–158, 166 Mathematics teaching materials, 149–158 Math-gender stereotype, 149–151, 157, 158 Minority education, 161, 162, 192 Mobility, 4, 5, 7, 9, 45, 75, 108 Modernization, 76, 79, 139, 161, 162, 166, 167, 181, 183, 187 Modernization in China, 76, 161, 162, 187 Motivation, 10, 27, 29, 31, 34, 35, 46, 64, 67–72, 105, 109, 110, 145, 158, 169, 172, 198, 199, 207, 208 Multicultural education, 27–35, 75 Music, xi, 71, 88, 93–102, 139–141, 145, 146, 166, 174, 187, 191 N Narrative, 30, 141–143 Narrative inquiry, 141–143 NNES / NES teacher-trainees, 37–42, 107, 112 O Ought-to self, 70, 72 Outdoor education, 85 Outdoor learning, 83–90

Index

P Parental engagement, 93–102 Pedagogy, 10, 18, 22, 30, 42, 45–47, 49, 53–59, 61, 88, 125, 128, 132–135, 207, 208 Perceptions, 2, 11, 37–42, 46–50, 63, 101, 158 Photostory, 132–136 Q Qiang culture, 187–192 Qiang schools, 187–192 Quality, 1–5, 19, 23n1, 27, 28, 34, 70, 78–80, 83, 85, 89, 93, 101, 109, 111, 115–120, 126, 163–166, 171, 173, 191 Quality equality, 115, 117–119 R Religious beliefs, 32, 35, 161, 162, 178, 180 Rgyal rong-tibetan da-erga, 139–146 S Second language (l2), 41, 45–51, 54, 64, 67–72

Self-motivation, 70 Sino-Australian, 61–65 T Teacher accounts, 17–22, 135, 136 Teacher beliefs, 17, 18, 22, 23, 83–90 Teacher education, 10, 31, 53, 54, 58, 85, 89, 90, 208 Teacher education program, 208 TESOL, 10, 37–39, 41, 43, 45–51, 53–59, 108, 123, 128 Testing regimes, 17 Tibet, 27–35, 139–146 Traditional ecological management, 161 V Video-cued ethnography, 83–85, 90 Visual ethics, 131–137 Y Yi, 161–167, 177–184 Yi Jiazhi, 177–184 Yi people, 161–167, 177–183 Young children, 39, 83, 84, 86–89, 93–102

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