published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

The research focuses on the strategies for the transition from elite to mass higher education in China. The expansion of Chinese higher education has accelerated since 1998. The Chinese government plans to increase its gross enrolment rate in higher education to 15% by 2010. According to Trow's (1974:63) phase development theories, this increase of enrolment would lead to fundamental changes in higher education. These changes interact with its contextual factors, such as, economy, politics, society et cetera. The research aimed at analyzing this by using both literature study and qualitative inquiry. The Chinese strategies for the transition were preliminarily evaluated. Findings were that people's elite values, shortage of funds and social inequality are major obstacles for the transition. The study revealed that developing non-traditional higher education, among others, is an effective way to overcome these difficulties and to accelerate the transition from elite to mass higher education. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Comparative Education)

Finally, case studies of the thesis revealed that teachers constructed their professional identity around the focus, main contradictions and human relations in their work. In the context of reform for Quality Education, the construction of teacher professional identity referred to different levels of relationships and expectations as well as to personal factors. Such construction embodied the complex interactions and competitions among the state, the market, the school, as well as personal factors. The tensions between structure and agency were illustrated by characteristics that marked different stages, dynamics and varieties in the construction process of teacher professional identity. / First, in the macro-context of policy, teachers realized their key role in implementing Quality Education and took on an "adaptive" attitude toward reform. With regard to responsibility and commitment, teachers felt that rigidity in their work decreased. However, they found it difficult to put new ideas into practice, mainly due to their concern over high-stake examination results. Accordingly, there were two opposing trends of change in teacher professional identity. The first trend involved changes from "Sparta coach", "parts maker" to "normal teacher". The second trend was attributed to the pressure of examinations which compelled teachers to follow their requirements. Consequently, teachers changed from "angel" to "birdman" and "teaching craftsman". Limitations notwithstanding, some teachers tried to remain persons who "influence and enhance" education. / Identity is a valuable concept for guiding the analysis of theoretical and practical issues in education. Professional identity is closely related to teachers' professional practice. Therefore, from the perspective of teacher professional identity, this study aims to explore teachers' professional lives and their development in the context of reform for Quality Education. Its central concern is how teachers construct or reconstruct their professional identity in response to reform. Based on in-depth interviews with 29 teachers in 5 schools, the main observations and findings are explicated in the following paragraphs. / In concert with the global wave of educational reform, basic education in the Chinese Mainland has undergone comprehensive changes in paradigms and practices since 1985. The emphasis of reform has been on Quality Education. Teachers played a key role in the reform endeavors, and teacher professional development became an important topic in policy discourse and theoretical research. In educational transformation, what are the conditions in the life of front-line teachers? What are their personal experiences and feelings? / In the context of reform for Quality Education, tensions between educational quality and examination results penetrated every aspect of teachers' work. They also effected changes in their work and professional roles. Although teachers demonstrated different aspects of professional identity, academic subject identity stood out as the most significant identity. The status and characteristics of academic subjects affected teachers' understanding of and their reaction to Quality Education. They also affected the ways teachers dealt with their students and viewed their place in school. Academic subject identity, therefore, has affected teachers' individual autonomy as well as the extent to which they conformed to external systems. / Key words: Chinese Mainland; Quality Education; educational reform; identity; teacher professional identity; teacher professional development / Second, in the meso-context of school, teachers generally understood the structural influence of schooling, including its intrinsic norms and values on their work and sense of self. The promotion rates to schools on a higher level, and a school's tradition and management style determined how teachers viewed and responded to the reform for Quality Education. Tensions between the external system world and the internal life-world of a school emerged. How these tensions were played out depended on the school's autonomy relative to external evaluation by the authorities and the public. This in tum brought different meanings to teachers' work, which caused teacher professional identity and its construction to be perceived either positively or negatively. / Student influence teachers' internal experience (sense of satisfaction and failure) by means of discipline and examination results, recognition and evaluation (love and contempt), which further caused changes in teachers' attitudes toward work and their behavior, i.e., their commitment to work. Several teacher identities emerged in their meeting student expectations and dealing with student behavior and attitudes: "learner"; "responsible person"; "friend" and "educator". / Third, the context of teachers' core work, which was critical to the construction of teacher professional identity, was composed of academic subjects and students. In the context of academic subjects, the reform for Quality Education had various kinds of impact on academic subjects which possessed different status and characteristics. Teachers' perception of and response to reform were grounded in the subjects that they taught. Status and characteristics of academic subjects determined the change that took place in teacher behavior, their professional understanding and experience. In general, teachers positioned themselves as "subject teachers". Moreover, subject department was the organizational form of subjects within schools. Cooperation or competition among teachers depended on the importance that the schools attached to examination results. As a major form of collegial interaction and learning, collective lesson preparation was perceived as a useful way of meeting the needs of classroom teaching and the improvement of teaching efficiency in order to obtain better examination results. In this, teacher professional identity was based on a practical rationality. Collective lesson preparation embodied a series of tensions, such as individualism and cooperation, voluntariness and compulsion, and requirements from the top and the teachers' own professional autonomy. / 王夫艳. / Adviser: Nai-kwai Leslie Lo. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-310). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Wang Fuyan.

In 2012, the vast majority of programmes within the eight tertiary institutions in Hong Kong will transform from three-year to four-year undergraduate curricula. As a result, general education requirements, extra-curricular modes of learning, methods of assessment, and numerous other issues are being considerably revised under the rhetoric of “reform.” Although several public policy documents produced by the governing body for tertiary education (the University Grants Committee) offer rationales for reform, there has not yet been a study which examines the individual interests, expectations and concerns of professors working in the Hong Kong public university system. Through interviews and questionnaires with professors working at tertiary institutions in Hong Kong, this project aimed to define and evaluate the reform issues which academic staff consider most meaningful. Responses from academic staff members were analyzed not only as a whole, but by demographic factors, such as individual universities, fields of study, cultural backgrounds, educational backgrounds, and work experiences. This study employed a sequential mixed-method exploratory design, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. Hence, the study progressed through two stages: a single qualitative stage in which data was gathered from 23 semi-structured interviews, and a single quantitative stage in which a thirty-item questionnaire was completed by 261 full-time junior and senior level academic staff. For the qualitative stage, a phenomenological approach was adopted to explain and compare the perceptions of individuals deeply invested in Hong Kong’s curriculum reform. For the quantitative stage, a number of statistical tools were utilized to explicate results, draw comparisons, and support conclusions. As a result of interviews and the quantitative data propagated by the questionnaire, it was found that 1) there were more negative than positive responses concerning the articulation and implementation of reforms; 2) conspicuously negative scores were generated on all four defined aspects of the reform process; 3) there was a general sense that research expectations had increased and there was a greater emphasis on international benchmarking in the Hong Kong higher education sector; 4) a significant proportion of academic staff wanted to see greater collaboration between different universities, increased recruitment of international students, a greater emphasis on Putonghua and English language training, an upward adjustment in the retirement age for professors, and greater freedom for students to change degree programmes; and 5) statistically significant differences could be observed on several issues, depending on individual professors’ universities, fields of study, cultural and educational backgrounds, and work experiences in Hong Kong. Based on these results, implications for Hong Kong, reforms in other cultural contexts, and future research were advanced. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education