Generating Power through Collective Action: Addressing Educational Injustice in China's Ethnic Minority Regions through Teacher Quality Enhancement

• In Event: Educational Policy and Social Change

Proposal

Objectives

Educational inequality has persisted between China's ethnic minority regions and the mainland for a considerable period. Enhancing the quality of educators is widely recognized as a pivotal step toward rectifying this disparity. This paper investigates the Chinese government's innovative policy, "Group Educators Supporting Tibet" (GEST), which aims to bridge the shortage of high-quality teachers in Tibet, a representative underprivileged ethnic minority area. GEST seeks to narrow the teacher quality gap by forming "Excellent Educator Groups" comprised of proficient teachers and administrators from resource-rich provinces, who are then assigned to schools in Tibet. Through the networking of provincial expert educators with Tibetan counterparts and the collaboration between supporting provincial educational entities and Tibetan education entities, GEST endeavors to foster collective action that enhances the overall quality of Tibetan teachers and schools.

Approaching the study from a social networking theory perspective and utilizing mixed data from stakeholders across 12 GEST program schools, this research strives to elucidate the potency of collective action in dismantling the disparities in teacher quality within China's ethnic minority regions.

Theoretical Framework

The unequal distribution of social capital is a fundamental contributing factor to the educational gap between ethnic minority areas and other regions of China. As Lin (2001) asserts, social capital constitutes "resources embedded in social relations and social structure that can be accessed and used by actors for action." Social capital is an investment in social relationships (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Lin, 2001). On a collective level, as Putnam suggests, social capital generates benefits for all stakeholders involved through the cultivation of social relationships and networking resources (Chen, 2020). In the context of GEST, supporters and beneficiaries interlace to form a social fabric, where local needs serve as the nucleus, social relations act as threads, and varied resources represent the capital conveyed to the nucleus via these threads.

Within the framework of this social network, motivated GEST educators take action to foster resources and relationships, forging new structures and connections with Tibetan teachers and students. By integrating the theoretical underpinning of social networking theory, this study captures the grassroots perspectives of stakeholders to outline how social networking is established and contributes to the policy objective of enhancing Tibetan teachers' quality and eradicating educational injustice.
Methodology

This study adopts a sequential mixed-methods approach to collect data from stakeholder groups. The goal is to scrutinize policy impacts from the vantage point of social networking and to comprehend how stakeholders are interconnected, harnessing networking capital to drive changes in Tibetan education.

Quantitative Research
In the initial phase, distinct surveys were devised for the GEST group and Tibetan teachers. These surveys delve into the educators' demographics, their perception of policy significance, motivations, expectations, actions, perspectives, and networking habits. Additionally, a name-generator instrument (Pustejovsky & Spillane, 2009) was integrated into the survey to explore aspects such as network fragmentation, reciprocity, and density (Borgatti, Everett, & Johnson, 2013). Digital surveys were distributed to school administrators, who then conveyed them to the intended participants. A total of 333 questionnaires from local Tibetan teachers and 121 questionnaires from GEST group teachers were collected, with data analysis carried out through SPSS software. Data from the name generator tool underwent analysis using Unicet software, resulting in the depiction of a network graph to quantitatively and visually illustrate the social network structure.

Qualitative Research
In the subsequent phase, focus group interviews were conducted with GEST educators, local teachers, and students from the 12 program schools. The interview protocols were designed to elicit insights into stakeholders' authentic experiences of changes and advancements attributed to the GEST policy. This qualitative data captures stakeholders' involvement in actions, their assessments of the impacts of those actions, their efforts in fostering networks, the benefits derived from networking, and their suggestions for policy enhancement. A total of 64 interviewees participated, and the qualitative data was meticulously analyzed using Nvivo software.

Key Findings

"The policy has empowered me to make a distinctive impact on Tibetan education." Motivation propels action. The survey and interview findings illuminate that numerous GEST educators possess past experiences in educational support, prior visits to Tibet, or knowledge of Tibetan education and the needs of its children. This inner motivation, coupled with a profound sense of connection to Tibetan teachers and students, compels educators to channel their expertise and resources toward the cause.

"I am not alone; I am backed by a collective—the school, the city, the province, and the government."
GEST transitions from a traditional model of individual support to a collective approach by educators. The novel social structure and relationships engendered by GEST exhibit considerably higher efficiency and efficacy than the conventional approach. Responding to the needs of local schools, diverse teachers from various disciplines and geographic locations are recruited to form support groups dedicated to the common goal of elevating Tibetan teachers' quality. These GEST groups embody provincial educational expertise and resources, with each province endorsing one or two Tibet program schools through financial support, diverse educational resources, and relational support. The educators within GEST unite as a collective force, channeling this collective power to the benefit of Tibet's schools, teachers, and students.

"Without the support of these educators, I would have never realized the potential of designing a class in this manner."
Through diverse collective activities encompassing pedagogy research, exemplary teaching, mentoring novice teachers, reciprocal training, and partnerships between schools from inland and Tibetan regions, GEST empowers local educators by augmenting their inner capacity. This newfound capacity equips Tibetan teachers to enhance educational quality and equity, thereby cultivating a self-sustained internal capacity.

Contributions
This study contributes a compelling case to the realm of international policy studies focused on bolstering educational equity through collective teacher action. Employing a mixed-methods approach and guided by the theoretical framework of social networking theory, this research accentuates the perspectives of stakeholders. It elucidates the genuine impacts of the GEST policy, underscoring the advancement of social networking, the reinforcement of local teacher quality, and the transformative potential of cultivating a more equitable and adept teaching workforce for Tibet.

Authors

• YUMEI HAN, Southwest University

• wenfan yan, UMASS Boston

• XUEHONG MAO, Southwest University