State Politics & the Emergence of Alternative Teacher Preparation Programs in China

Fast-track teacher training programs have received increasing support over the past twenty years. This reform movement rallies behind the belief that placing short-term teachers in under-served schools will be a catalyst for longer term educational change. Such programs are often recognized as part of a larger movement seeking to weaken state and institutional authority over the licensing/certification (and education) of teachers. However, in the Chinese context, this approach to educational reform is reinterpellated by means through which to maintain existing forms of hegemonic state control over teacher education. This talk will examine the politics and power of networks surrounding these new movements, noting how they need to be recognized as existing relationally—further arguing that while on the surface this reform agenda may seem to challenge long-standing models of teacher preparation and state authority in China, in practice it largely works to support existing state-driven approaches to educational reform.

Presenter: Christopher B. Crowley is an assistant professor of teacher education at Wayne State University. He holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree in reading, writing and literacy from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. His research focuses on issues of privatization in teacher education and the politics of education reform.

Audiences: General Public, College of Education Faculty, Staff, and Students

Sponsors: Office of International Studies in Education