Working within differences: boundary and boundary practices in Chinese schools

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Over the past decades, educational policies and practices related to boundary crossing and management have emerged around the world in order to improve the quality of schooling. Strategies that invoke boundary practices, such as university-school partnership, school networking, and internationalization of teacher education, have been widely adopted by schools, including those located in China. This has entailed the experiences of group, organizational, social and cultural differences of boundary crossers (i.e., teachers, principals, and schools as focused in this panel), which has led to increased scholarly discussions on the motivation, process and implication of boundary practices and on the agency of, and power relationship embedded in, diverse stakeholders. The papers included in this panel focus on the exploration and understanding of Chinese experiences of boundary and boundary practices.

Scholars from various research fields, such as sociology, public management and education, have endeavoured to conceptualize and elaborate the notion of ‘boundary’ and derive theoretical inspirations from empirical data. Some of them have concerned with boundaries constructed through interpersonal interactions among individuals belong to different social or cultural groups. Others have highlighted physical, psychological and behavioral differences leading to divergence. Crossing boundaries in education, on the one hand, means learning opportunities and the challenges to introspective cultures. Through working at the boundary, one is enabled to interact with others from different social-cultural and/or organizational contexts and to stray away from homogeneous thinking and habitual practice. Moreover, based on knowledge translation, transfer, or transformation, boundary crossing and management may lead to knowledge innovation for school improvement. On the other hand, moving across boundaries renders conflicts and discontinuities. The diversification of participation is highly likely to result in and/or reinforce the deep division or disagreement over, for example, ‘territory’, information sharing, resource flow and integration, and ‘professional turf’. This may further restrict or stimulate agencies of, and (re-)construct power relationships between, participants.

Studies on boundary crossing and management in Chinese context have primarily concentrated on the expectations for, and the roles of, various educational cross-borders, particularly teachers, teaching-researchers (jiaoyanyuan, 教研员), and university experts, the challenges that they have encountered, and their transformative experiences. While these pioneer studies are valuable, the majority of them have been largely confined to the application of Western-originated theories and conceptions in Chinese context. This has been highly likely to place China as a ‘testing-field’, ‘consumer’, or data source which can only verify, modify or reject theories and conceptions originated from Western contexts.

Being aware of their contribution as well as limitation, we aim to further the indigenous understanding of boundary and boundary practices by drawing upon, but not restricted by, Chinese philosophical and cultural resources, such as the Dao of Teaching (shidao, 师道), the non-dichotomous ‘inner-outer’ (nei-wai, 内外), and Confucian role-based ethics. Two questions are specifically addressed in this panel: (1) how do Chinese teachers understand and work at the boundaries with the agendas which require them to cross physical, social, cultural, and professional boundaries; and (2) how the differences and sameness brought by boundaries have shaped their educational aspirations, perceptions and practices? The following five papers, including one systematic literature review, two theoretical papers, and two empirical studies, look into a variety of boundaries and related educational policies and practices in Chinese schools. More specifically:

Paper 1 examines the complexity of teachers’ ethical identities by using boundary work as a theoretical perspective. Drawing on text analysis, this study has anchored its focus in historical reviews and cross-cultural comparison by with analyzing the narratives of teachers as professional exemplars in the past four decades.

Paper 2 aims to clarify the professional boundary in teacher-student relationship. By specifically examining the extent of, and approach to, interpersonal interactions in diverse contested situations of school life, this paper argues that the establishment of teacher-student relationship within the professional boundaries should comply with the professional nature of teachers, which is deeply rooted in the ideal of ‘person-making’.

Paper 3 is concerned with how and why Chinese teachers, who are required to obtain school exchange experiences, distribute their attention during rotations. Through in-depth interviews, observations, and text analysis, this paper explores the experiences and interpretations of teachers regarding symbolic boundaries such as ‘new-old (xin-jiu)’, ‘inter-outer (nei-wai)’ and ‘difference-sameness (yi-tong)’.

Paper 4 explores school principal’ boundary leadership within a university-business-school partnership program in Chinese Hong Kong. It has identified and elaborated three modes of boundary work of school principals, which have been bridged, buffered and/or reconstructed the cultural, professional and social boundaries among different partners.

Paper 5 reviews the literature on the attempts and challenges of engaging teachers in cross-cultural professional learning experiences. It aims to offer a critical analysis of the idea and practice of teachers’ cross-cultural learning for its assumptions, contexts, and nuances by highlighting the onto-epistemological differences across cultures. Although not exclusively focusing on the case of China, the onto-epistemological reflection centered in this paper can be applied to cross-cultural learning of Chinese teachers.

Sub Unit

• East Asia SIG

Chair

• Yun You, East China Normal University

Individual Presentations

• Beyond the professional boundaries: The complex of teachers’ ethical identities in contemporary China - Liang Cheng, Department of Education，East China Normal University; 小微 杨, Faculty of Education, Guangxi Normal University

• Professional boundaries in teacher-student relationship in Chinese context: thinking through Confucian role-based ethics - Yuxi JIN, East China Normal University

• Attention distribution as boundary work: A case study of exchange teachers in China - Xuan Dong; Xiaoyan Lv, Department of Education，East China Normal University

• Principal leadership in school partnership: A boundary work perspective - 丽佳 王, Department of Education，East China Normal University; Manhong Lai, Chinese Univ of Hong Kong

• Encountering others: A review of teacher professional learning in cross-cultural settings - Licui Chen, Zhejiang University; Yun You, East China Normal University; Siyuan Yu, Department of Education，East China Normal University