From Text to Context: How Teachers Collaboratively Construct Subject Didactic Knowledge for Classical Chinese Instruction

• In Event: Exploring the Evolution of Professional Learning Communities Within Chinese Cultural Contexts

Abstract

In culturally diverse classrooms, Classical Chinese texts often feel disconnected from students’ lived experiences. This study examines how in-service junior high school teachers in Taiwan collaboratively developed Subject Didactic Knowledge (SDK) to make classical content culturally meaningful. Through iterative lesson study cycles in a professional learning community (PLC), teachers recontextualized subject matter across epistemological, pedagogical, and interdisciplinary dimensions. Their collective inquiry generated experience-based, research-informed, cultural, and critical forms of SDK that bridged classical texts and students’ sociocultural worlds. This study proposes a dynamic model of teacher knowledge construction rooted in reflective collaboration, supporting liberatory and culturally responsive pedagogy. It demonstrates how ongoing professional development can equip teachers to engage students in ethical reasoning and civic dialogue through classical literature.

Author

• Yu-Ting Hung, National Taipei University of Education