(Re)Making Low Achievers in a Context of Curriculum Reforms in China

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: Global Considerations in Education

Abstract

Curriculum reforms in China have aimed to expand the examination-oriented, test score-based notion of achievement by giving equal emphasis to affections and experiences. In this context, how do teachers conceptualize low achievers? We analyzed 97 teacher-authored journal articles that focused on how to work with low achievers, asking how this subject is discursively constituted and how the teachers (re-)orient their beliefs and know-hows about it. Analysis shows a set of complex beliefs about what low achievers mean and how to teach them underlying a discursive shift from cha-sheng (poor students) to xue-kun-sheng (students with difficulties in learning). We discuss our findings with respect to the relationship between the traditional culture of learning and the discourse of curriculum reforms.

Authors

• Sihan Xiao, East China Normal University

• Chang Liu, Arizona State University