Centralised Education System - Case Study Example

?The compliance tradition and teachers’ instructional decision-making in a centralised education system: a case study of junior secondary geography teaching in Changchun, China Introduction The past few decades have seen reforms in education become a catchphrase in US, England and in the Confucian heritage areas in mainland China. The reforms focus mainly on quality of school leadership, management, governance on end and the other end curriculum, learning and teaching. There are consistent political remarks to ensure the reforms take place in order for the nations to remain internationally competent; hence, the schools have to focus on producing skilled graduates thuseducational reform ensure produce smart graduates. All over the globe, educational reform measures are implemented in a surprisingly similar manner with teachers playing the vital role of undertaking the work of delivering high-quality teaching and learning to students in order to meet curriculum standards set by governments. In mainland China, the government is encouraging teachers to adopt professional responsibility in designing curricula for students as opposed to the former centralized and controlled endeavour. Classroom Culture Though, there is much on what is considered “culture of classroom”, there is little attention on the culture of teachers whose work involves managing the classroom and even determining if term “culture” has different meanings in different contexts. Hofstede (1995), considers culture to be shared programming within the brain that differentiates category of individuals from another (p.150). Hofstede’s work has further significance in understanding teachers’ attitudes and work regarding curriculum change since according to Hofstede (1995), all societies, traditional and modern face similar basic challenges with differing solutions. Some of the basic problems include: relation to authority, conception of self and ways of dealing with conflicts like controlling aggression and expression of feelings (Lam and Lidstone, 2007). Under the highly centralized curriculum system, teachers tend to work closely with the official curriculum; although, implementation studies show thatChinese teachers do not necessarily follow strategies and methods that are less effective in offering success in public exams even though they are recommended in the curriculum. Student performance in China’s mainland plays a significant role on the teachers’ career since parents influenced by practical reality and Confucius culture emphasize on children academic performance. The significance of culture captures the attention in the field of educationadministration since culture forms a context in teachers’ work in several ways like the way culture affects people’s perception of teachers’ role, the ways it affects teachers’ perception of their independence as professionals and the way it shapes their goals. Teachers in China tend to follow textbooks and references since they work in accordance with traditional model that embraces teaching syllabus and suggested teaching materials. Although, teachers try to adapt current lesson, teachers basically follow the path of teaching the syllabus using the textbooks; hence minor modifications do not affect the execution of the curriculum (Eisner, 2002; Grossman and Lo, 2008). Adherence to textbooks is a requirement from the municipal education inspectorsas well teachers have to adhere to the control of public examination, and although these concerns are valid, they should not be very restrictive. However, since the 1990s, the Chinese government endorsed the notion that teachers develop quality education in order to cater for the needs and capabilities of students; nevertheless, teachers do not fully use their autonomy in adjusting the curriculum (Chi-Chung, 2007). Application of contemporary leadership models Formal model embraces several similar but not identical approaches because the theories in this model emphasize on official and structural features of an organization. Therefore, formal model offers prominence to official structure of an organization and present authority of leaders as a result of their official position in the organization. Teachers are accountable to department heads, who are answerable to school principals for activities taking place in their department. Therefore, authority and influence are associated with formal positions in China partly to the rank of position within organizational hierarchy. However, these formal models pervade literature on education management since they are normal approaches that present ideas on how teachers ought to act; hence, the assumptions underpin educational reforms. The main assumption of formal models is power resides at the top with school principals possessing authority because of their position as the selected leaders of their institutions. In the formal model, the portrayal of decision-making as rational process is fraught with difficulties since the belief that managerial actions follow a process of evaluating alternatives and considering the most appropriate choices is rarely substantiated. Formal models possess very detrimental restrictions since supremacy of the chain of command gets promised by proficiency of specialized staff. Therefore, the supposed consistency in decision making needs modification that allows swiftness in intricacy of change. College model theories emphasise that power and decision-making ought to be shared among members of an organization; therefore, international high education institutions determine policy and make decision via a process of discussion that results in consensus. Such institutions ensure that power is shared with members considered to have joint understanding of the aspirations of the organization. Resistance to Liberalisation of Teaching Although many teachers have experience in teaching, they are not willing to adopt more liberal stance that involves them in designing their teaching schedule, because they feel that they have to cover the content in textbooks and prepare students for the public examination. Since exams require students to memorize the teaching points, many teachers adopt teacher-centred approach that is considered an effective way of ensuring success in examination (Fullan, 2007). The findings show relaxation in the part of the public examination and inspection control since they have not liberalized the teachers since most of the teachersvalue following textbooks and the curriculum instead of adapting to their interests or those of their students. This belief seems to be in line with cultural traits of Chinese culture of “high power distance” and high uncertainty avoidance as reflected by the need to follow the government policy of adapting their teaching. Geography teachers in order to develop quality education that produces all-round development in students, they include a lot of maps in their geography lessons. Although, teachers inplanning their geography lessons may not involve students, it would be better for the teachers to focus on students’ daily life like the railway linkage that connects Changchun to other cities, which is relevant to the lives of the students. Some teachers may use relevant examples in classes; however, it is often not the prime consideration because student satisfaction and interest are subjugated to outcomes of public examination (Chi-Chung, 2007; Eisner,2002). Recommendations Without substantial change, the textbook system has managed to stifle the Chinese geography education; however, after understanding the detriment caused by rigidity of geographical education, the Chinese government has to introduce standards-based books that equip students with geographical knowledge, skills and perspectives (Torres, Howard-Hamilton and Cooper, 2003). As well, the country’s government should not have complete right to control the content in Chinese geographical education since it would leave small room for book writers to select certain content in accordance with reality. Moreover, textbook writing should not be exclusively designated to People’s Education Publishing house; similarly, education administration should be allowed to pick standards-based textbooks from various publishers (Daihu, 2011). Conclusion The main goal of higher education is to be a marketplace for ideas and is often valued when people discuss controversial issues; however, the lack of better understanding as a result of inefficient book-based system leaves high education institutions at a loss. Since this means that institution of higher learning would not be able to indulge in dialogues that focus on understanding the other side of a controversy and trying to convince it to change their mind. Hence, higher institutions of education with such students would intentionally avoid encounters and in case the encounters are forced, the institution actively tries to avoid the controversial issue. Therefore, to overcome some of the challenges posed by the inefficient book-based system, interactions with students would offer information capable of educating individuals especially information on various opinions, perceptions and behaviours. References Chi-Chung, L 2007, 'The Compliance Tradition and Teachers' Instructional Decision-Making in a Centralised Education System: A Case Study of Junior Secondary Geography Teaching in Changchun, China', International Research In Geographical & Environmental Education, 16, 3, pp. 233-249. Daihu, Y. 2011, 'A comparison of content in syllabus-based senior geography textbooks and standards-based senior geography textbooks in mainland China',International Research In Geographical & Environmental Education, 20, 2, pp. 121-138. Eisner, E. W. (2002). The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of school programs (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Fullan, M. (2007).The new meaning of educational change (4th ed.). New York: Teachers College Press. Grossman, D. L., & Lo, J. T.-Y.(2008). Social education in Asia critical issues and multiple perspectives.Charlotte, N.C., Information Age Pub. Hofstede, G. 1995. The business of international business is culture. In T. Jackson (Ed.), Cross-cultural management (pp.150–165). Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Lam, C. C., &Lidstone, J. 2007. Teachers’ cultural differences: case studies of geography teachers in Brisbane, Changchun and Hong Kong. Asia Pacific Education Review, 8(2), 178-193. Torres, V., Howard-Hamilton, M. F., & Cooper, D. L. (2003). Identity Development of Diverse Populations: Implications for Teaching and Administration in Higher Education. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report.Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series. Read More