A Study Of The50-Year Evolution Of The Structure Of Rural Teachers In A County Of Western China

The evolution of the structure of teachers meets not only the development of school teaching and learning, but also the need of students'healthy growth and the improvement of the individual teacher and all the teaching staff as well. Therefore, the evolution of the structure of teachers in a region reflects the merit of its education and teaching, which can be seen in the following aspects:the instrumental value of the education, social value of students'growth and teachers'self improvement. This dissertation undertakes multidimcnsional methodology in the study,-focusing respectively on the literature analysis, country survey, interviews, historical comparison and statistical projection. However, after a careful study of the evolution of the structure of teachers in the past50years in a rural county in Western China, such as the changes of teachers'geographical background, education background, and the structure of genders, majors, identities, and age, the dissertation attempts to illustrate that the number of local teachers has been on the rise while the number of the teachers immigrated from other provinces and counties has decreased continually. All of these changes are due to the politics, economy, culture, population, education policies as well as social environment, natural factors of the region. The proportion of the teachers with technical and bachelor degree in middle school are influenced highly by high-degreed teachers in a rural region. The proportion of the teachers with technical degree, especially the teachers with bachelor degree, increases since higher education becomes popular.The proportion of the regular teachers in public junior and primary school declines totally during the period of social turbulence and the era of blindly seeking for educational quantity. What's more, the proportion of the regular teachers in primary school declines greatly. To some extent, the proportion of the regular teachers declines a little. The education develops steadily since the practice of the reform and opening policy. The proportion of the regular teachers in junior and primary school tends to increase in general. The proportion of the regular teachers in primary school increases extendedly. The proportion of the regular teachers in junior school increases slightly and changes a little. On the contrary, the proportion of rural irregular teachers in public junior and primary school increases greatly before the practice of the reform and opening policy. However, the proportion of the rural irregular teachers in primary school increases greatly. The proportion of the irregular teachers increases a little. After the practice of the reform and opening policy, the proportion of irregular teachers in public junior and primary school tends to decline entirely. However, the proportion of the irregular teachers in public primary school declines extendedly while the proportion of the irregular teachers in junior school declines slightly.The quantity of women teacher is larger than men teacher during the compulsory education period. However, the quantity of men teacher is larger than that of women teachers'during senior high school period. During the high school period and that of the primary school, the quantity of men teacher is larger than that of women teachers'at anytime. Nevertheless, the proportion of teachers'gender is declining. The proportion of teachers'gender is at lowest level then. From the aspect of major structure, the extent of teacher-training specialized in high school teaching is higher than that of junior school. The extent of teacher-training specialized in junior school teaching is higher than that of primary school. In order to support the development of the education, some primary school teachers with teacher-training degree are introduced into junior school in1990s. The proportion of the primary school teachers with teacher-training degree declines. On the other hand, the proportion of the primary school teachers without teacher-training degree increases. The proportion of the rural junior school teachers with teacher-training degree tends to increase and that of the teachers without teacher-training degree tends to decline before2000. The proportion of junior school teachers with teacher-training begins to decline because of the influence of the educational policies and the proportion of the teachers without teacher-training starts to increase after2000. As for the structure of the teachers regarding the age,(1) the proportion of the primary school teachers under the age25is instable for a long time. It is affected by teachers'working time. The proportion of primary school teachers under the age25is higher than that of junior school teachers'. The proportion of junior school teacher is higher than that of high school teachers'.(2) The proportion of youth teachers in primary school aged between26and35is fairly stable. However, the proportion of junior school teachers is instable for a long time in this period. The proportion of good teachers aged between36and45 in primary school and high school is instable for a long time. In addition, junior school teachers develop stably in this period.(3)The proportion of primary school teachers beyond the age40increases before1980s. The proportion of junior school teachers declines before2000. The proportion of primary school teachers beyond the age40declines after1980s. The proportion of junior school teachers increases continually after2000. The proportion of high school teachers aged beyond the age40keeps increasing.(4) The proportion of primary school teachers beyond the age50is increasing all along. The proportion of junior school teachers beyond the age50declines before1990s. However, it increases continually after1990s. The proportion of high school teachers beyond the age50is increasing all along. These indicate that primary school teachers in the rural areas of Western China tend to be aging, junior school teachers tend to be aging for twenty years, and the high school teachers are almost all in the middle age.The structure of the teachers in rural areas of Western China shows the characteristics on the further development and improvement. However, some teachers' structure are backing up; some compositions of rural teachers show the positive function on the development of education, students'growth, and teachers'development; some composition of rural teachers show non-function, even passive function. In summary, the positive function of the teachers from other provinces and other counties are weakening entirely. The function of native teachers is increasing. The positive function of the teachers'degree development is increasing. However, the passive function of improving degree still exists. The positive function of specialized teachers is increasing in a period and on an educational stage. Moreover, the passive function of non-specialized teachers is increasing in another period and on another educational stage. The quantity and proportion of women teacher is increasing while quantity and proportion of men teacher is declining. The function of irregular teachers increases step by step while the function of regular teachers declines gradually before the practice of reform and opening policy. The function of irregular teachers increases step by step and the function of regular teachers declines gradually after the practice of reform and opening policy. The function of regular teachers increases generally with the adding of the irregular teachers. Talking from the age structure, youth, middle-age and aged teachers have their own advantages and disadvantages in different periods and different educational stages. Thus, the changes of teachers'composition have their own reason on the development of education, students'growth and teachers'development in a learning period or stage. Another teachers' structure develops unreasonably in another period and educational stage. Therefore, in order to create good and rational system for the development of rural teachers in western China, the author suggests several levels on educational background, gender and age for primary and junior school teachers in the dissertation. The author also predicts the direction of the development of the teachers' structure in rural areas of western China. Based on these factors, the author suggests some basic methods to improve the structure of teachers in rural regions of western China.