Teachers' Professional Development In The Background Of Internationalization Of Education

Educational internationalization is an important strategy to promote educational modernization and educational reform in China.Since the reform and opening up,our government has promulgated a series of national policies to promote the process of internationalization of education.China's Education Modernization 2035,which is promulgated in early 2019,is a major milestone document issued during the critical period of building a well-off society in an all-round way,and clearly points out that we should create a new pattern of education opening to the outside world.The internationalization of education is a process of training a large number of internationalized talents with international vision,proficiency in international rules,and ability to participate in international affairs and international competition.The internationalization of basic education,as an essential part of the internationalization of education,is one of the important strategies of the current reform of basic education in China.It is of great significance to train students with international vision,global awareness,understanding of multiculturalism,and critical and innovative spirit.At present,the internationalization of basic education in our country has been developing rapidly,it has gradually shifted from the one-way learning characterised by simple visiting activities of teachers and students with their counterparts in the western developed countries,to the two-way exchange innovation stage of teaching,management and cooperation.Private international schools and international divisions(classes)of public schools are the main forms of internationalization education,the number is increasing recently,and gradually extended from Eastern and coastal developed areas to Western areas.However,there are still some outstanding problems in the practice of internationalization of basic education in China,such as one-sided understanding of internationalization of basic education,superficial practice,imbalancebetween internationalization and localization,and low internationalization quality of teachers.In order to solve the above problems and achieve better development of basic education in China,it is crucial to improve the professional ability of teachers who are engaged in education internationalization.Promoting their professional development is the key.Many studies on the professional development of primary and secondary school teachers have conducted in China,but most of them focus on public schools or non-international private schools.There is still a lack of empirical research on the professional development of primary and secondary school teachers under the background of internationalization of education.Based on the literature review of existing related literature,this study developed a conceptual framework including the elements of teachers' professional atributes and its influencing factors.Thus,a mixed research method combining qualitative and quantitative research was used to explore the following questions:(1)What is the current situation of teachers' professional development in the International Division of Secondary Schools under the background of internationalization of education?(2)What are the factors affecting teachers' professional development in the International Division of Secondary Schools? To explore the questions,a half-year field study was conducted in the International Division of A Middle School in Chongqing.Specifically in-depth interviews with teachers,questionnaires for students and non-participatory observation,document analysis were employed to glean data.in the sampled setting.The findings of this study were as follows:(1)Teachers in the International Division of A Middle School in Chongqing had good professional emotions and knowledge,good command of English and information skills,but relatively lack of educational and scientific research ability,curriculum innovation and cooperation ability;teachers had strong professional development needs,but their professional behavior is not obvious;(2)Teachers in International Division perceived that nine professional qualities should be held by teachers which included international vision,local feelings,understanding and tolerance of different cultures,excellent English ability,critical thinking ability,good information ability,curriculum innovation and cooperation ability,educational and scientific research ability and solid knowledge of educational science.They claimed that the first five were special professional qualities for teachers who were engaged in international education;(3)The International Division hadpreliminarily accumulated some experiences and strategies in the aspect of teachers' professional development,including: persisting in "improving teachers' international understanding" to achieve the goal of "enhancing students' international understanding";strict teacher recruitment system guarantees the construction of teachers' team;paying attention to international understanding and cultivating teachers' cultural tolerance;carrying out international exchanges to broaden teachers' and students' international horizons;building a unique integrated cirriculum system between China and the West and pay attention to the improvement of teachers' teaching ability.This study pointed out that the following problems still existed in teachers' professional development of International Division: insufficient curriculum innovation and cooperation ability and research ability,insufficient professional action of teachers,and insufficient resources and institutional guarantees for promoting teachers' professional development.The reasons were mainly in teachers' own level,internal organization level of schools and external social and cultural level: weak awareness of independent professional development,individual-centered tendency of foreign teachers;imbalance between managers' instrumental rationality and value rationality,lack of peer cooperation in the construction of Teacher Cooperative culture,high mobility of foreign teachers and shortage of bilingual teachers;conflict of parents' value goals and teachers' teaching objectives and insufficient support from the government.Based on the above findings and discussions,this study puts forward the following suggestions from the perspectives of teachers,school organizations and higher authorities:(1)Attaching importance to professional development and establishing the concept of lifelong learning;strengthening professional action to enhance professional knowledge and ability;(2)Promoting the educational sentiment of managers;perfecting the teacher management system;providing adequate resources;and building a mutual help system between Chinese and foreign teachers.(3)Strengthening the education of English ability and international understanding in the training of normal students;strengthening the support of the government.This study echoed the development trend of internationalization of education.It explores the connotation of middle school teachers' professionalism and its influencing factors in the background of internationalization of education.It would further enrich the theory of teachers' professionalization in primary and secondary schools in China.Its findings could also be used as reference for other similar schools to improve teachers' professional development.