Teaching in Shanghai: Where Teachers Work and Learn Together

• In Event: Teacher Professional Collaboration and Learning: Lessons From an International Teacher Policy Study

Abstract

Purpose and framework
Shanghai surprised the global education community by scoring at the top of the charts of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in reading, mathematics, and science in 2009 and 2012. Beyond the cultural explanation that education is the key to social mobility for the individual who works hard, we must also consider how the financial and policy investments in expanding and improving China’s educational systems also support student success. With this systems frame in mind, I ask the following questions: How is the educational system—its culture, policies, and practices—set up to support the kind of student performance we see in Shanghai? In particular, how does the system structure teaching, and the role and quality of teachers, to contribute to these outcomes?

Methods and data sources
I draw on national laws and regulations of China, published research, national surveys and reports, summaries of the educational context and policies in China and Shanghai published by organizations such as OECD, UNESCO, the Asia Society, and NCEE. I also conducted field research in Shanghai for four weeks, making observations of classroom teaching, teacher meetings, and a parent feedback session and interviewing teachers, principals, education officials, university professors and education students.

Results
Educational policy in China has systematically supported the development of teachers for thirty years. From the beginning of compulsory education in 1986, to the Teachers’ Law in 1995, through the educational reform laws of 2006, and in the current 2020 Plan teachers have been identified as a cornerstone of educational success for students. The national government has called for increasing support for teacher salaries, living conditions, preparation, ongoing learning opportunities, and awards for their accomplishments. In policies and reform plans focus on national investments and improvement rather than punishment or sanctions. National policy also supports deepening teachers’ pedagogical repertoires to encourage innovative and creative thinking in their students rather than on improving test scores.

In Shanghai schools, teaching is an open and publicly examined practice. Teachers regularly collaborate on instructional design and conduct research on issues that are important to their daily teaching and school improvement. This openness creates a stronger collective set of ideals to gauge strong teaching versus weak teaching.

Teachers have a clearly defined career ladder to climb which brings with it recognition for their accomplishments, increased status among their peers, and leadership opportunities within their school and in other educational bureaus. The differentiated roles for teachers and the leadership opportunities that the career ladder affords supports the national policy call for teachers to be professionals who strive for lifelong learning and who contribute to improvement of the educational systems in which they work.

Significance
The case of Shanghai allows us to see an illustration of an educational system that has been investing in educating a diverse student population for three decades and, by measures of international comparison tests, is achieving success. Shanghai is a case of seeing the possibilities of what a developing nation can accomplish within its educational systems.

Author

• Mistilina D. Sato, University of Minnesota