This case study contributes to counterpoints made to world culture theory and underscores that at the micro, classroom-level, rural Chinese teachers in a reform-oriented professional development course, and reform-oriented U.S. teacher trainers, understand educational reform, and the realities of education in these two cultures, very differently. This study examines interviews conducted with U.S. teachers of English who taught the Oral English Training Course (OETC), a professional development course for rural Chinese teachers of English in Jiangxi province from 2007 to 2013. These teachers reveal how their own understandings and assumptions around teaching and learning shape what and how they teach, and how they evaluate the work of others. This study explains that included in the literal baggage of these foreign teachers teaching in China, is their figurative baggage, which includes their own cultural lens. The thrust of this study lies in uncovering the ideologies, assumptions, and educative constructs of foreign teachers, how these may be perceived by the Chinese teachers that they teach, and how all of this is steeped in the realities in education and the individual experiences of local actors. This study ends with recommendations for collaboration between foreign teachers of English in China, and their students, particularly Chinese teachers of English in China.

This paper examines the educational implications of two curriculum initiatives in China that have produced curricular materials promoting education for sustainable development (ESD) in minority-populated ethnic autonomous areas in China. The two curriculum projects present distinctive discourses, conceptions, models, frameworks and scopes of ESD in the country. Nonetheless, there is a likelihood that the actual implementation of the curriculum initiatives, especially the enactment of the curriculum materials produced, might be thwarted due to structural and systemic educational constraints, an anthropocentric approach to sustainable development, poor teacher support and teacher training, omissions of the affective learning components in curricular contents, as well as loopholes and weaknesses in the development of the curriculum materials themselves.

Tensions between vision and reality in the teaching practicum is a significant issue in research and practice globally, but scanty attention has been awarded to research into areas of tension in teaching practice itself. This paper reports on a study that examines a cohort of Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) student teachers’ perceptions of the tensions arising in their teaching practicum in secondary schools. Triangulated research methods were employed for data collection. Reflective papers were employed as the main instrument of data collection, with classroom observation and field-notes used as supplementary sources of evidence for the occurrence of various unexpected difficulties. The overriding cause of this situation appeared to be the foundationalism paradigm that the teacher education program followed. The study highlights the need for teacher education programs to deal with emergent issues by way of critical postmodernist ideologies and make concerted efforts with schools to help student teachers continually adjust their visions in their practice.

This article explores the dynamics of power-sharing between teacher and students in learning and teaching situations, and describes the theoretical bases, implementation, and results of an empirical study in three elementary schools in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Findings from 58 class observations and interviews with 50 students, 25 teachers, and three school principals suggest that teachers can empower students by acknowledging their right to and responsibility for learning and by sharing power with students. Power-sharing classroom practice requires the dual efforts of teachers and students, and can be facilitated by the teachers’ interactive teaching mode, students’ cooperation and willingness to engage in learning, and school policy and culture, etc. In the power-sharing classrooms, teachers played the role of facilitators and students played as collaborators. In this article, theoretical implications for understanding power-sharing and critical pedagogy are discussed. The empirical evidence from this Hong Kong study contributes to an understanding of teacher-initiated power-sharing in the Chinese context, and the practice of critical pedagogy in classrooms.

The national open universities of China and India are unique adaptations of the open university model that emanated from the UK. These institutions have expanded to become the largest universities in the world as measured by current enrollment of approximately four million each. This article comparatively analyzes how these open universities have differentiated themselves from the open university model and from each other amidst similarities of outcome and differences of approach. Historical contexts, national governance of higher education, institutional administration, curriculum and international operations are the foci of analysis. The article contributes to the literature on national and local forces that shape higher education systems and aims to spur collaborations between the institutions in question for mutual benefit.

Among discussions on international academic mobility, a persistent challenge is to understand whether education abroad can become a source of brain gain, and whether globalization can offer source countries the hope that they might enjoy the benefits of freer cross-border flows in information and personnel. With reference to China, this article provides an understanding of these two issues. It reveals practical factors affecting returnees’ decision to return, their contribution to specific areas, and obstacles that limit their contribution and career opportunities. In addition, it sheds light on an emerging brain circulation between China and foreign countries, along with the increased cross-border flow of academic talent from and into China.