| About the relationship between textbooks and teachers,researchers have different understandings based on different perspectives.Among them,two kinds of views contrast finely with each other: one emphasizes the importance of the textbook and its inner,objective and proper requirements for teachers;the other places heavy emphasis on the role of the teacher and their own initiative to process the textbook for adapting to the educated or teaching situation.Over the past few decades,we have wobbled between these two views.In addition,there is a more worthy and also different perspective to reconsider this relationship.That is,based on what teachers actually feel or grasp or even translate into teaching design and action from the textbook,to explore the effects of the textbook on teachers.It also means that we may be able to stand on the teachers’ side to see how the textbook on the other side exerts its normative power on the teachers.This dissertation attempts to answer the above questions and reveals the specific performance of the norms that teachers actually accept.This research adopted the qualitative research method,selected teachers of Chinese and mathematics in a middle school in Shanghai as the research objects.On the basis of respecting the teachers’ wishes,we conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve teachers,and also conducted classroom observations of six teachers who are open to be observed in class.In addition,we gathered and organized a variety of textual research materials,including lesson plans,students’ worksheets,homework which were designed by teachers.To enrich the research data,we also conducted formal interviews with two school administrators.Afterwards,we analyzed and dug all data,and combined with our field notes to form this dissertation.After classifying,summarizing and analyzing the teachers’ words and deeds about what they actually feel,grasp and translate into teaching action from the textbook,we find that the textbook normalized teachers and their teaching from three aspects,namely,guide direction,define boundary and support teaching process.First,the textbook guides teachers and their teaching,that is to say,the textbook tells them where to go.Different from our general understanding of the direction as the objective,the direction that teachers perceive or grasp from the textbook is a comprehensive and mixed direction,including value orientation at the macro level and teaching objectives at the micro level,as well as senses of direction conveyed by resource and its organization,expected results and standards.For directions mentioned above,teachers followed some and chose to lose some,and at the same time,they are also affected by examinations represented by the college entrance examination.Second,the textbook defines the teaching boundary for teachers and their teaching,that is,the scope of teaching content.During the process of using materialized and structured textbooks,teachers have generated consciousness and behavior of staying within boundaries,layering and grid-division.At the same time,under the combined effects of other factors such as exams,teachers have shown a tendency or intention to fully cover all content of textbooks.In addition,in teachers’ eyes,they are more inclined to see content excluded from the textbook as content that maybe used or taught.It leaves a small opening in the boundary represented by the textbook.Finally,the textbook provides process support for teachers and their teaching,that is,it gives tips for how to teach to teachers.In the overall process,teachers generally follow the order of the textbook,namely,table of contents.And they have felt the impetus from contents of the textbook.In the sub-process,the textbook is often used as the prototype or example.Based on it,teachers design teaching with the help of other references.In the above process,the main contradiction between the textbook and teachers emerges,manifesting as the individual and the society,the internal and the external.After summarizing and analyzing the contradictions,we also made a supplementary discussion on teachers’ autonomy and its limits,students’ influence as the subject,and disciplinary differences on norm’s performance. |
