Teacher Autonomy: A Perspective Of Examining Teachers' Development

As a pervasive and common need of human beings, autonomy is a natural inclination of human self-organizing behavior. It features independence, liberty, self-decision and active creation.Teacher autonomy has its inherent value and significance, not only because the booming of globalization and informatization and the popularity of lifelong learning has posed a new requirement to the teachers that they should change their roles, be creative, promote the autonomous learning of students and the upgrading of occupational skills, but also because the initiative, consciousness and creative impetus inherent in teachers' life can be only awaken and stimulated through a transformation from being to doing. Thus, this dissertation, from the perspective of autonomy of teachers' life, with the interaction between teachers and external environment as the main clue and on the basis of an analysis, combing and distinction of the existing researches, has undertaken an contextualized multi-dimensional interpretation of the concept "teacher autonomy", and then from the perspective of autonomy, has fully explored the development of teachers in ancient China, and has analyzed and probed into the border of rights and duties and current difficulties in development of temporary Chinese teachers as well as the possible means of self-transcendence of teachers.This dissertation can be divided into three parts. Part One (Chapter 1), on the basis of a reflection on the existing researches and a historical examination of human autonomy, has presented a contextualized multidimensional interpretation of the problem "What is teacher autonomy?" The main ideas include the following. First, in the outward orientation, teacher autonomy means a self-liberation from control, which takes the form of autonomy in interpersonal relationship, autonomy in the system and autonomy in instrumental norms. Second, in the inward orientation, teacher autonomy means a self-reinforcing self-transcendence, which takes the form of autonomy in teaching, autonomy in learning and autonomy in daily life.Part Two (with chapter 2, 3 and 4 included) is a historical examination of the situation of teacher autonomy in China, and an exploration of the current difficulty in contemporary teacher autonomy. To be more specific, this part includes the next 3 ideas. First, this part probes into the development of teachers in ancient China from the perspective of autonomy, and analyzed in a detailed way the autonomous creation in the birth of teachers, the control of official education by Confucian classics on Confucian classics teachers and its practical strategies, the ways and the evolution of "making other people succeed" and "making oneself succeed" in the Orthodox Confucian Tradition. The research results reveal two points. Firstly, the inheritance of experiences and generation of culture of ancient saints and the cultural inheritance of the teachers in palace as well as the remarks by Confucius "narrating without creating" and "Being tireless in teaching" signify the origin of Chinese teachers, and also a strong expression of teachers' autonomous creation. Secondly, with the reunion of the country, the feudal rulers acquired the privilege of supporting and protecting civilians, so the country chose the language for people to use and selected teachers, controlled teachers with laws and systematic strategies, reducing teacher's function to the impartment of knowledge. Faced with the strict external restriction, part of the intellectuals raised the flag of "Neo-Confucianism" to adhere to truth. They demonstrated the collective wisdom of the autonomous creation of the ancient Chinese teachers by the belief and practice of "making other people succeed" and "making oneself succeed".Second, the dissertation has carried out a detailed analysis of the teacher autonomy in modern China's "New Education". This research reveals the following results. (1) The Westernization Movement met the challenges of the hard times of China and began the difficult exploration from the education of foreign languages to technology, and then to scientific knowledge. This attempt in education reform broke the control of Chinese education by Confucian ethic education, enabling China to begin communicating with the other part of the world. But at the same time, it made teachers the tools of carrying out the externally-presumed plans, and after that, Chinese teachers gradually became more professional. (2) The publication and implementation of "Presented School Regulation" promulgated in 1904 not only made the Chinese education more systematic, but also made the professional development of Chinese teachers from the state of spontaneous to the state of being conscious. (3) In the period of Republican China, the Educational Independence Movement coming together with the New Culture Movement started Chinese teachers' professional process of upholding their rights consciously. The teachers in this period, with a strong sense of responsibility, on the one hand emphasized the independence of academic research, the promotion of self-ability and the establishment of teacher professional standard, and on the other hand, combated bravely the improper intervention of government on education for their own rights.Thirdly, the dissertation probed into the basis and current background of advocating teacher autonomy in China today and the evolution of this process, and conducted a detailed analysis of the difficulty the teachers encounter in reality. The research shows that advocating teacher autonomy in present China is an inheritance and development of the 17-year education reform after the founding of People's Republic of China. After an overview of the external environment of present-day teachers' autonomy, we can draw following conclusions. (1) The reformed planning and implementation of a vertical and hierarchic administration system and a horizontal classification means the teachers as a whole have possessed a unique space for their autonomy, and the balance between rights and duty, in turn, has posed a restriction on teachers' autonomy. (2) Laws and regulations have ensured teachers' rights in teaching, research, administration and further training, but on the other hand require teachers foster a new generation possessing the indispensable skills and ability for the present social life, which poses a great challenge to the present-day teachers. Against the background of external empowerment, the difficulty of present-day Chinese teachers lies in that the compartmentation of knowledge has caused the loss of public discourse, the lack of teachers' self-reflection led to the fossilization of thoughts, and the individualistic teaching culture hinders the resources from flowing smoothly.Part 3 of the dissertation (Chapter 5), with the New Basic Education as the anchor of the research, is an "abductive inference" of the teachers' transformation in creating the environment of development as well as the reasons. The research shows that the concern of the external school environment over the active development of teachers and students makes it impossible for the internal organizations, which features diving things into sections, to fulfill the function of educating people. This is the preliminary reason for the downward shift of the organizational focus. The possessing of power, however, highlights the inability of the people concerned (including the school leaders, teachers, head teachers). In this case, the special training of all these people, the multidirectional flowing of the school resources, the distinction between teachers and the timely reform of the school system are important conditions for the self-development of the teachers. On the other hand, with the promotion of teachers' exploratory ability, teachers' autonomous creativity in studying students, teaching, and self-teaching will enrich the school resources. The multi-layered integration in the whole process will ensure the effective assembling and radiation of the high-quality resources inside as well as outside the school. In one word, teachers' autonomous creativity in the course of creating a developmental environment develops increasingly with the deepening of the reform.