The Study Of U-S Symbiotic Cooperation In Teachers' Education

Teachers become a occupation and obtain development in the professional field owing to the social division of labor. The teachers'profession, however, is the integration of skills and suitability, moreover, the mobility of the professional knowledge and skills on objects is restricted, therefore, in order to be qualified with the profession, not only professional knowledge and skills available but also professional wisdom are required. Teachers'education needs symbiotic cooperation between universities and schools (U-S Cooperation for short) because the advantages of cultivating teachers'professional accomplishment mentioned above are respectively reflected among, universities and schools.What distinguishes U-S symbiotic cooperation from the traditional U-S cooperation lies in the equal status, common interests and symbiosis-seeking which the former emphasizes. Such symbiotic cooperation between universities and schools in teachers'education is consultative transaction in nature. In the transaction between universities and schools, universities are required to seek support from schools due to the transformation of teachers'education paradigm resulted from the university tendency and integration of teachers'education. In the meantime, the improvement of school conditions, the professional development of teachers, and students'learning performance to be upgraded need support from universities. Such mutual need makes U-S cooperation necessary. In addition, the advantages of teachers'education reflected respectively among universities and schools make the cooperation possible. Both the necessity and the possibility involved form U-S symbiotic cooperation mechanism of teachers'education.It is assumed that the mechanism of U-S symbiotic cooperation explains the necessity of such cooperation on the logic level, and the historical origins and the current modal are the vertical reflection of the cooperation. It can be dated back as early as in the late1800s when John Dewey establishes experimental schools that the clues of the cooperation between universities and schools appear. It is, however, not until1980s in America that the institutionalized U-S symbiotic cooperation begins. After1990s, U-S symbiotic cooperation which is considered to be an important practice of teachers'education reform and the education reform among schools appears in lots of countries or regions, China included. Such cooperation continuously flourishes and takes on an upward trend, and the objective, content and mode of U-S symbiotic cooperation is being gradually institutionalized and normalized at present.When exploring the world, the Partnership Schools in Britain and teachers'Professional Development Schools (PDS) in America can be called model of U-S symbiotic cooperation of teachers'education, which, to some extent, represents the development direction of U-S symbiotic cooperation of teachers'education in the future. There are a great number of reasons to explain why the continuous U-S cooperative relationship comes true in countries, such as, Britain and America. The successful experience in such countries shows that seeking symbiosis and great support from the government is the important condition to guarantee the lasting cooperation between universities and schools. It is evident, however, that universal issues, such as, cultural game, role conflicts and the shortage of funds cannot be avoided in the implementation process.Back at home, influential cooperative projects constantly raise a strong upsurge of interest in U-S symbiotic cooperation after such kind of cooperation comes into being in1990s in China. Due to the constraint resulted from the path dependency, evaluation methods and organizational boundaries at universities and schools, however, U-S symbiotic cooperation is inevitably confronted with quite a lot of dilemma and contradiction which trouble not only universities but schools, and become the structural obstacles of universities and schools participate in U-S cooperation. Moreover, U-S symbiotic cooperation in China lacks the system of incentives at present, as a result, the weak sense of dependency upon heterogeneous resources, cooperation subjects'inadequate recognition of the legality of cooperative behaviors and the absent coordination mechanism of cooperation constitute the new dilemma of U-S symbiotic cooperation. The dilemma of U-S symbiotic cooperation is characterized as a complex generation mechanism which results not only from the orderly structural factors in organizational behaviors at universities and schools but from the actors'unordered and non-structural factors full of strategies in action area. The effectiveness of U-S symbiotic cooperation is directly impacted by different methods of organizational behaviors because there are independent organizational systems with such different methods for both universities and schools. In the meantime, it is difficult to avoid the dilemma of U-S cooperation if the sense of dependency upon heterogeneous resources is weak or the recognition of the legality of cooperative behaviors is disagreed on in transaction because U-S symbiotic cooperation, as a kind of consultative transaction, needs to be based on the common interests of both sides. Additionally, the cooperation inevitably causes transaction costs which become the conflict in U-S symbiotic cooperation because both universities and schools are limited rational subjects with the issue of special property and opportunism tendency. Therefore, both the structural and non-structural factors are the variables bringing about the dilemma of U-S symbiotic cooperation.The dilemma can certainly be evaded by systems though it has inevitability to some extent. It is, therefore, necessary to reform systems in order to help U-S cooperation out of the dilemma. However, the transformation guided by demands of partners in cooperation, focused on the interest adjustment and ensured by institutional innovation is the institutional change logic of U-S symbiotic cooperation of teachers'education. Based on what is mentioned above, the measures to be taken are as follows:Firstly, to construct the management systems of U-S cooperation planned as whole by the government. The obligation of cultivating teachers at schools is endowed and compensated by the government. Secondly, to establish the lasting cooperation mechanism between universities and schools for the clear division of labor, the democratic decision-making, the standard operational procedures, and the cooperation resource ensured. Thirdly, to set up the system of incentives for compatible targets at universities and schools, and to make come true of compatible targets of the cooperation between administrators at universities and schools, and the cooperation among teachers at schools as well.