Teacher Honour System in China and its Impact

on Teachers and Teaching Profession

Dr. LIU JingUNESCO International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education (INRULED)

The 9th International Policy Dialogue ForumSiem Reap Dec 5-7, 2016

Outline of the Presentation

Understanding the Context: A Brief Background to Teachers in China

Chinese Teacher Honour System: Status in quo

Its Impact on Teachers and Teaching Profession

Issues Discuessed for Improvement

Teachers in China: Number of Full-time Teachers & STR in Primary and Junior Secondary Schools 2005 to 2013

In 2015, 9.18 million school teachers worked in primary and junior secondary schools; 3 million of them working in poorest remote areas; 56% of them under age 40. In 2013, the female teachers in primary and junior middle schools account for 60.2% and 50.9% respectively.

Percentage of Teachers in Primary Schools in Rural and Urban areas who have a university Degree, 2005-2010 (%)

Percentage of Qualified Teachers in Junior Secondary Eduction in Rural and Urban Areas,2005-2010 (%)

In 2015, the percentage of primary school teachers who met national qualification standards reached to 99.9%; the corresponding percentage for teachers in Junior secondary education reached 99.7% .

The Legal Basis of Chinese Teacher Honour System

The 1993 Teacher Act lays the legal basis for teacher rewards.It requires all the schools grant honour and reward to teachers

who have outstanding achievement in teaching, research in education, educational innovation and social service,etc.

The State Council and local governments at different level should grant honour and reward to teachers who made great contribution to society.

Teachers who have made significant contribution to the nation will be granted with a national honour title.

The 1995 Education Act of PRC states that, the national government should grant reward to organizations and individuals who made outstanding contribution to the educational development.

Chinese Teacher Honour System

National (Ministry) Awards

to Teachers

Special-grade TeacherRatio of recipients is limited to 0.1-0.15% (1-1.5 in 1000)

National Excellent Teachers

Ratio control is limited to 2/10,000 (two in ten thousand)

China Model Teacher

China Excellent Class Teacher in Elementary and Secondary Schools China Advanced Teacher in Moral EducationChina Woman Model in Educational System

NationalAwards to Educational Administrator

China Model Worker in Education

National Excellent Educator

National Advanced Worker in Education

Local and School level

The locoal governments and schools at all levels enacted honour titles similar to “China Excellent Teachers”Backbone teachers and subject leaders at province, prefecture, county level.

Awards from Non-government organisations

“National Outstanding Teachers in Elementary and Secondary Schools”by Baosteel and China Education Press Agency since 1994;Mayun Rural Teacher Programme since 2015 by Jackma foundation;

Numbers of Honorary Title at Different Levels （ N=942 ）National

(Ministry) ProvincePrefecture

(Distric & County )

School

Number 8 141 279 514

Percentage 0.8 15.0 29.6 54.6

The nature of three major types of honoursType of the

Honour Honorary Title Characteristic

Teaching Expertise Honour

Special-grade teacher;

Backbone Teacher;

Subject Leader;

Clearly defined index criteria; Long term documented and quantifiable achievements(Open classes, conduct research and publish research papers)Follow-up professional development

Political Honour Excellent Teacher

Less clear criteria: reuqire high level of performance, strong professional dedication and noble teaching ethics. The criteria is not predetermined to the same extent as the teaching expertise honour.

Contest Honour

• Teacher’s basic skills contest; • Effective Classroom Teaching Contest ； • Math Teaching Contest for Junior Teachers; • ICT in Teaching Contest......

A clear set of criteria to measure or quantify teachers’professional knowledge, skills, and beliefs. Provide professional development opportunities to prepare teacher contestants for the contest.

Appraisal Criteria used in Teacher Awards (n=364)

Nomination and Appraisal Process

Step 1

• Set up an Award Appraisal Committee• education authoriy, special-grade teacher, educational researcher,

headteacher • clarify the appraisal process and criteria in local context

Step 2

• Release the notice to schools and teachers• The honorary title, application conditions, appraisal process, quota

allocation etc.

Step 3• self-application and school recommendation

Step 4

• Award Appraisal Committee review materials and make judgement• quantify teachers’ professional knowledge, skills, and beliefs against the

criteria;• school visit, classroom observation, interview teacher colleagues, students

and parents.

Step 5• Identify the winners and public notification• Publicity to schools and community for confirmation, 3-5 working days

Step 6

• Issuing of certificate and counterpart award • Award Ceremony;• monetary rewards, media coverage

Teachers

Schools

Receive a predetermined set of PD opportunites and resources.

Honorary title has a significant positive impact on teachers’ salary income.

Involvement to policy making, metoring other teachers; offered lecturing opportunities; Intrinsic motivation to develop their

practice further; External motivation to avoid losing

face/social pressure pushes teachers towards active PD to improve their practice for recognition

The contest honour process serves as a meaningful avenue for moving from one PD stage to another.

A symbolically acknowledgement of government’s support for teaching profession;

maintian the tradition of societal respect for teachers;

acknowledge teacher excellence raise the status of teaching in

the society raise teacher morale

Having an award recipient could raise school’s reputation;

encourgage other faculty to achieve similar levels of performance in teaching

bring out more PD opportunites to schools

Impact on subject or grade teams within school: Teaching awards serve as a

collective honour; Formation of the learning

community: share and support each other;

one teacher being singled out for an award may be counterproductive to team work.

Teaching Profession

Working Group within School

Issues Discussed for Improvement• Most teachers have little access to high level awards. • Awards appraisal criteria: In many cases, the nomination or appraisal criteria are not clear or

measurable; the criteria are not teaching focused. In some cases, it’s seniority-based rather than competence based.

• Appraisal process: Many awards serve as strongly administrative management processes or a

political balance activity rather than professional appraisal. 67.3% of the respondants call for rigorous and transparent judging; Most teachers are rarely consulted and involved in the process. • the influence of the awards: the award ceremony is quite simple; limited publicity provided to awards ceremonies, little media coverage. • Poor benefit: awards at distric, county or school level, the benefit is less attractive as

the higher level ones to motivate teachers. • Lack of follow-up Management of the awardees: Lack of a structured system to manage the awardees in terms of basic data

collection, review at a regular basis, roles and responsibilities of the awardees, conditions to keep the honorary titile.

Thank you! Dr. LIU Jing liujing@inruled.org