Research On Directional Training Of Rural Primary School Teachers

There are many problems of the supply of rural teachers.For example,the number of rural teachers is not sufficient and the teaching quality is bad.Besides,most teachers who work in rural schools intend to move to and work in urban schools.Therefore,it is urgent to establish a supplementary approach to attract and retain more excellent talents to serve rural schools.Some new approaches have been tried to solve those problems.For instance,the policy of directional training of rural primary school teachers has been carried out in Hunan Province since 2006,and has achieved some positive results.Those things present an image that secondary normal education has come back again.Then,this study concentrates on some basic research questions: why can the directional training of rural primary school teachers be feasible at various times,especially compared to the time when the secondary normal education worked? Why can it attract and retain more excellent talents to work in rural schools,and help them teach well? What is the generating logic of this supplementary approach? However,there is not much academic research on the directional training of rural primary school teachers.In fact,previous studies do not answer the question very well because most of them are the descriptive research on the practical experiences and talents training,and they lack theoretical analysis.Therefore,this research will adopt an embedded case study of Hunan province,using case study,investigation and literature study comprehensively,and designing parallel mix-methods research strategy to study why the directional training of rural primary school teachers can be feasible(including why to produce and why to be effective)under the current social environment.After analyzing the data,this study gets some conclusions.Firstly,this study constructs a new explanation mode of institutional change based on the institution change theory in new institutional economics and the sociological institutionalism theory,and adding a variable to the stability of the institutional environment.It is found that there is an inherent relation between the generation of the policy of directional training of rural teachers and the elimination of the secondary normal education,and the efficiency mechanism plays an important role in the generation of the policy of directional training of rural teachers.Specifically,in the beginning of the transition from the planned economy to market economy in China,the legitimacy mechanism mainly leaded to the abolition of the secondary normal education which is not only the disappearance of the secondary education level of normal education,but also the fading of the teacher-training mode and institutional advantages of the secondary normal education.As a result,some rural schools have lost stable and high-quality teacher sources and even have to face the problem of the shortage and declining quality of teachers.Under the background that the socialist market economy system has gradually been established and improved,the social environment has tended to be stable and the organizational microenvironment has been more active,the efficiency mechanism becomes the main motive force of the institutional change.The reason why the directional training is regarded as an efficient supplementary approach of rural teachers,to a large extent,is due to the path dependence in the process of institutional change.According to the analysis of the economic development level and international experiences,it is historical trend that the directional training becomes an important way of the supply of rural teachers in the central and western provinces in China for some time to come,especially in the backward areas of economy,society and education.Secondly,this study gets some explanations for why the directional training of rural teachers is effective compared with the secondary normal education and existing supplementary approaches for rural teachers,based on the investigation of each subject,using the related theories,and adopting the analytical thinking of "presenting effects with data,analyzing reasons with data,explaining logics with theories".In detail,the institutional design of the directional training is fit for the social reality and the objective demand,thus attracting the relatively excellent students,cultivating the high-quality normal students,and supplementing the teachers with the spirit of keeping the promise.It has better solved the problem of rural teachers,including not going,not staying and the bad teaching quality,compared with other supplementary approaches.Specifically,although the times have changed,the reason why the directional training can attract relatively excellent students is that the public education accords with the survival rationality of poor peasant families,employment security is fit for the peasant' logic of risk aversion,and the professional characteristics are in line with the job expectancy of various social strata to their children.The high quality of the directional training is closely related to the good quality of students,systematic teacher education and proper examination and withdrawal mechanism.The training grasps the key of pre-service teacher education for rural primary school teachers,and enhances the adaptability to rural education.The contract mechanism is the key to ensure normal students to go and stay and it is in accord with the spirit of socialist market economy and traditional culture of China.Besides,the localization mechanism promotes the automatic implementation of the contract.The directional training also has some problems in the implementation.This study also offers some advice that is based on the analysis of demands of various stakeholders in the investigation.In detail,the advice focuses on the policy design,college training,implementation guarantee,external support and many others.