The Academic Action Choice Of Young Teachers In The Context Of The Reform Of The Evaluation System

In the 1990s,new managerialism swept the field of higher education in our country.In order to improve the quality,competitiveness and popularity of teachers’ academic work,universities have introduced performance-based teacher evaluation systems such as "up or out",quantitative evaluation,and performance compensation,which have reshaped the academic work of university teachers.Based on the practical background of the reform of the evaluation and employment system for university teachers,this research selects 18 young teachers from a“Double First-Class” university in my country as the research objects and investigates how young teachers as newcomers perceive and respond to the reform of the teacher evaluation system.Based on rational choice theory and community theory,it explains the logic and production mechanism behind different types of young teachers’ action choices,in order to gain insight into the deep-seated contradictions in the current education reform process,and provide good strategies for resolving crises.The study finds that young teachers who grew up in the Neo-liberalism era are familiar with the superficial text of the teacher evaluation system and the policy connotation behind it,but they generally do not agree with the system because they dislike the evaluation method that oversteps the academic logic and the controlled external evaluation.The specific life and career stage of young teachers determines that their survival needs are the primary and unsatisfied important interests of all young teachers,which constitutes the direct driving force of teachers’ academic action choices.By providing stable faculty to meet the basic material needs of teachers to maintain their livelihoods and the occupational safety requirements of pursuing academic freedom,the organization has produced general incentives for young teachers.The compliance behavior of following the assessment requirements has become the mainstream choice of teachers.The performance evaluation model of post-supervision does not make rigid requirements for teachers on how to meet the standards,so teachers’ actions are divided on the issue of how to comply.The characteristics and total amount of resources of young teachers affect their degree of obedience,which reflects the rational choice with differences.The expedients who seek to survive have survival-oriented interests.Due to their lack of resources,they exhibit highly submissive behaviors characterized by survival rationality,and re-endow these behaviors with reasonable meaning through self-rationalization.The adapters of "Survive first,then Develop " have the benefit characteristics of survival first and development later.They are constrained by limited resources and have to follow the action logic of "survival reason" before "development reason",show moderate obedience,and use resources as the intermediate transmission mechanism to realize the transition and transformation of the two.Both the coordinators who take care of survival and development and the detached men with superior ability have strong academic beliefs and low survival needs.Due to the lack of total resources,the former seek individual space through flexible policies,improved self-discipline,and time management while complying with the system,showing a low degree of compliance behavior characterized by utility rationality.The latter have more academic freedom with abundant resources,and exhibit lower compliance behavior characterized by utility rationality.Because universities attach too much importance to the incentive role of money,it poses a serious threat to the basic survival of young teachers.And it does not provide sufficient resources for the long-term development of young teachers,so that all teachers are involved in the competition to reach the standard to varying degrees under rational calculation.The individual teacher’s rationality does not maximize the social utility.Instead,it makes teachers burnout and lose the sense of meaning to engage in educational work.Behind the prosperity of higher education are the problems of “social anomie” such as insufficient originality,academic irrigation,and fraud.In order to actively promote the conversion of expedients,adaptors and coordinators to detached ones,Accordingly,this research proposes to deepen the implementation of the reform of the teacher evaluation and appointment system;strengthen the internal system construction of the academic community;to simultaneously introduce and breed,to reduce the survival pressure of young teachers;to improve the talent recruitment mechanism,and to comprehensively improve the openness and mobility of the higher education system.The main contribution of this research is to replace the "economic rationality" in rational choice theory with “survival rationality” and “utility rationality”,which is more in line with the professional stage and professional characteristics of young teachers.It has insight into the hidden coordination and resistance strategies of young teachers as "the weak" in the academic field,excavated teachers’ initiative and autonomy,and generalized it with the concept of "dependent autonomy".