We are now living in an era of big data. From the perspective of data analysis of classroom questioning, the paper chooses three districts in City B that have significant differences. These are educationally developed District D, less developed District F, and developing District M. The study uses the stratified sampling method to choose from three different groups of teachers, namely novice teachers, competent teachers, and experienced teachers, by way of video case analysis, the Item Response Theory (IRT) model method, and the inductive and deductive method, to analyze the characteristics of teachers’ classroom questions. It was found that: (1) In terms of open questioning, all three districts with their different levels in educational development need to improve open questioning levels among their experienced primary school teachers. In middle schools, novice teachers’ open questioning tendency is significantly lower than that of qualified and experienced teachers; (2) From the quantitative study of three kinds of tendencies, the lowest level of the three tendencies in the classroom questions is problem-solving; (3) In the three districts, the experienced and qualified primary school teachers in the developing district has a prominent advantage in raising critical and creative questions, while in the middle schools, novice teachers generally have a lower level than qualified and experienced teachers in raising critical and creative questions. The results of the big data analysis enable us to draw a conclusion about teachers’ value orientation regarding questioning in class. At present, they pay attention to the local value of classroom questioning, but ignore the overall value; pay attention to the instrumental value of classroom questioning, but ignore the objective value; and pay attention to the superficial value of classroom questions, but ignore the underlying value.

This paper highlights Chinese teachers’ ethical concerns in their relationships with students, colleagues, and students’ parents. Through a qualitative study of 26 teachers, it was found that the teachers were often trapped in a dilemma between teaching to students’ real development and teaching to the test. The ethics of professional collaboration were compromised by the dominant norms, including interpersonal harmony and respect for older teachers, and by competition among individual teachers to demonstrate good performance. Moreover, in a situation where parents’ trust was diminishing, teachers assumed certain teaching and caring responsibilities for children from disadvantaged families. It is suggested that the professionalization of teachers should provide them with more professional space to transform their ethical considerations into practice.

This article is designed as the starting point for future research into the implementation of the funds of knowledge concept in the People’s Republic of China. Utilizing an exploratory research design, I sketch how the funds of knowledge concept could be used by teachers to empower ethnic minority and city-born migrant children disadvantaged by government policies that restrict access to educational resources and marginalize local languages. The article identifies a number of logistical and cultural constraints that complicate the implementation of the funds of knowledge concept in the Chinese context, including access to minority and city-born migrant students, guanxi, examination pressure, and cultural scripts for teaching that emphasize knowledge transmission. However, it also suggests how teachers can work within these constraints by taking advantage of curriculum reform in China, which has led to more autonomy at the local level and the creation of elective courses. Elective courses could provide the space for the deployment of strategies that draw on students’ funds of knowledge. The strategies proposed include neighborhood walks, artifact collection, and pedagogies for teaching that foster collaboration between teachers and students. The article also extends the notion of funds of knowledge by suggesting how the funds of knowledge concept could be of benefit to China’s Han ethnic majority.

In Shanghai, a mega-city of approximately 24.15 million people (Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau, 2015, “Art. 13”), the population of migrant workers continues to increase. According to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau (2015), as of 2015, 9.81 million residents did not have household registration papers. Of these, 70%, or 6.87 million were migrant workers (“Art. 13”). The researcher relied on qualitative research techniques to explore the outcomes of an after-school program for the children of migrant workers. The study took place over a four-year period with data being collected throughout. Keeping in mind methodology limitations, the analysis affirmed the success of the hoped for outcomes of the program.