Negotiating With the Cultural Structure: The First-Year Teacher Development in Rural Schools in China

• In Event: Policy and Culture in Rural Education

Abstract

This research explores how rural first-year teachers (FYTs) develop personal professionalism while negotiating and constructing school and teacher cultural structures. A qualitative multi-case study reveals that FYTs were placed into cultural structures that shaped their professional expectations and social interactions, differing from their teacher education experiences; this reshaped rural FYTs’ conception of professional development (PD). Rural FYTs were able to identify and evaluate the value and practice of PD within their micro-political interactions. Rural teacher induction programs should support FYTs’ adaptability through collaboration and identify their value for renewing cultural structures.

Author

• Yu-Wen Wang, Henan Normal University
  Presenting Author