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Pathways to Collaboration: A case Study of Local and Foreign Teacher Relationships in a South-eastern Chinese university

This qualitative case study explored the nature of the relationships between Local (English) Teachers (LTs) and Foreign (English) Teachers (FTs) who worked at the same English institute of a foreign studies university in south-eastern China. Employing the community of practice framework, this research drew insights from a questionnaire, interviews, and observations. The findings revealed that the teachers seldom interacted and, furthermore, were influenced by broader social structures that were not considered in the framework. Accordingly, the theory was extended to include other perspectives, such as native and non-native English speaking teacher issues and the Chinese concept of face, in order to determine the underlying reasons that inhibited their interaction. Notwithstanding these challenges, three cases of FT-LT collaboration were discovered, and the factors that enhanced their collaboration were analysed. The LT and FT participants provided suggestions to each other and the administrators on how collaboration could be improved in their institute.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/18102
Date14 December 2009
CreatorsLee, Kathy Wing Yee
ContributorsGagne, Antoinette
Source SetsUniversity of Toronto
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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