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During Xi Jinping's presidency, the increasingly repressive political control over Chinese universities has had a significant impact on academic research. Yet, little is known about how Chinese academics navigate such a climate. Drawing on interviews with 11 gay academics in China, this article explores their motivations and strategies for conducting queer research. It is shown that participants submit to heteronormativity and the Party authorities by managing their sexual identity, keeping a low profile and practising self-censorship in their research. However, they can also expand the institutional space for queer research by strategically mobilising various forms of power and discourses and highlighting the legitimacy of their research. Through the queer theoretical lens, this article presents gay academics' agency in conducting queer research as involving simultaneous conformity and resistance in relation to heteronormativity and political control in Chinese academia.

In recent years, the Chinese government has launched several policies to facilitate universities to develop performance measures closely related to national university rankings and resources allocation. Directed by these performance measures, academics employ various strategies to deal with the increasing requirements and pressure. Using a qualitative research method, we interviewed 32 informants in one top-tier and one second-tier university in Mainland China. Our study observed that first, academics mainly comply or adjust/adapt to the situation but obtain very limited space to contest. Second, academics decode that high-stakes rewards and punishment, frequently changing indicators, and governing tools that strongly stress visibility constitute the complicated pressure on them. Third, to try to obtain more opportunities, academics are eager to join research teams. However, the social context is such that social connections ("guanxi") and inbreeding constrain academics' space to recode or translate their situation.

Research activity is one of the key professional learning needs noted by teacher educators working in higher education. The purpose of this study is to explore what research activities Chinese higher education-based physical education teacher educators (PETEds) prioritised and, in turn, expressed their aligned research-related professional learning needs. A sample of 15 Chinese higher education-based PETEds was interviewed. The results conveyed that Chinese PETEds had a strong desire to avail of research-related professional learning activities, with the majority prioritising peer-review publication. The motives for PETEds to be involved in research tend to be extrinsic to the individual and include pressures aligned to the evaluation of their academic position and institute requirements. PETEds who entered teacher education with a PhD were expected and supported to do research, while PETEds without a PhD requested opportunities to undertake a PhD abroad. While it was easier for PETEds to undertake collaborative research with a research group within their faculty/department, there was a lack of collaborative research external to the faculty/department as well as a lack of international collaboration.

This article presents a co-constructive narrative inquiry into the subjectivities of three female graduate student researchers (GSRs) from China, Vietnam, and Finland pursuing academic career paths in comparative and international education (CIE). Two American teacher researchers and their GSRs came to this research committed to collaborative action. They explored educational and professional journeys from the local to the global as teachers, educational administrators, cultural ambassadors, service-learners, and global volunteers. This article promotes scholarly conversations about how GSRs' positionalities, reflexivity, social representations, and cultural practices shape their perceptions of educational norms through reflexive learning. Then, this article proposes scholarly dialogues about the roles of teacher researchers and how their social scientific knowledge, limitations, and suggestions can bolster their GSRs' subjectivities in CIE research. Overall, this article provides implications for different transnational researchers and urges them to make collective endeavours to promote new insights about emancipatory research in the field of CIE.

This research pioneered the investigation of the statistically predictive power of academics' research agendas for their organizational commitment--beyond age, gender, academic rank, and academic discipline. Three hundred and thirty-two academics from nine research-oriented comprehensive universities in Zhejiang province and Shanghai, mainland China, responded to the "Multi-Dimensional Research Agendas Inventory-12 Items" (MDRAI-12) and the "Organizational Commitment Inventory." Three main findings were obtained. First, the MDRAI-12 was confirmed to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing the research agendas of academics in mainland China. Second, both academics' research agendas and their organizational commitment varied as a function of demographics. Third and most importantly, when age, gender, academic rank, and academic discipline were put under control, three of the four trailblazing research agendas (scientific ambition, collaboration, and discovery) predicted the three adaptive organizational commitments (affective, normative, and ideal), whereas the two cohesive research agendas (convergence and conservative) chiefly contributed to the two maladaptive organizational commitments (economic and choice). These findings have shed new light on the literature concerning research agendas and that on organizational commitment. At the same time, the findings have practical implications for university academics and senior managers in their respective efforts to promote innovative research and adaptive organizational commitment among academics.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the key aspects of the demographic characteristics and motivations of Chinese faculty at Japanese universities. Design/Approach/Methods: Main methods include an analysis of relevant data from a national survey of full-time international faculty in Japan in 2017 and results from semi-structured interviews with several full-time Chinese faculty hired in different Japanese universities. Findings: This study suggests that, compared to the average level of international faculty, there are larger numbers of female Chinese faculty, greater numbers of Chinese professors, Chinese doctoral degree holders, Chinese faculty in engineering, and larger numbers of them being engaged in research rather than teaching. Further, this study argues that the most important reasons for Chinese faculty to work in Japanese universities are academic or professional reasons, followed by their fondness for Japanese life and culture and their agreement with better living conditions in Japan than in China. Originality/Value: It is the first time that the key characteristics of full-time Chinese faculty at Japanese universities and their motivations to come to Japan are investigated and discussed based on both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Professional development of teacher educators has received growing attention in recent years owing to their important role in preparing teachers for schools and universities, however, female-dominated mid-career EFL teacher educators in regional teacher education universities remain underexplored. This study examined 18 female experienced teacher educators' professional state, teaching beliefs and competence in a non-elite teacher education university. A combination of longitudinal observations, questionnaires, individual interviews, and official documents was employed to gather data. The results reveal the participants' plateauing indicated by their teaching-focused professional identity and the lack of personal and collective agency for professional development and organisational improvement. Personal and contextual factors were found to have caused their perceived lack of professional expertise, research inactivity in the pervading 'publish or perish' climate. The study yields implications to teacher educators, policymakers, and researchers in different educational and cultural contexts.

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology in Mainland China have stressed facilitating knowledge transfer of research output in recent years. By facilitating this transfer, the government aims to enhance authentic productivity and boost economic development. Due to this facilitation, universities have encouraged academics to conduct applied projects. To examine this process, this study employed a qualitative research method, carrying out in-depth interviews with 20 academics in a third-tier university in Mainland China. The study observed that first, academics were torn between academic and applied projects. Second, the status of being in a third-tier university affected academics' participation in applied research. Third, project leaders had to perform specific roles (including the work of managerial professionals) as academic entrepreneurs. Social connections (guanxi) played a prominent role in academic entrepreneurship in the authors' case study.

This study aimed to examine obstacles to foreign language teacher educators' research development. Phenomenology was adopted to probe the issue from seven experienced EFL (English as a foreign language) teacher educators' perspectives, who did not appear to be highly research-productive. Multiple sources of data were employed, including longitudinal participant observations, semi-structured individual interviews and informal conversations. It was found that the participants' research development had long been constrained by the interplay of personal and contextual factors. Personal factors include their attitudinal resistance, academic weaknesses and work-family tensions. Contextual factors involve the managerialist approach in higher education and limited ongoing academic support at the meso and macro levels. The study suggests that teacher educators' professional identity reconstruction and professional wellbeing should be a top agenda.

Under the background of insufficient scientific research funding, evaluating the level of scientific research from the perspective of sustainable development is necessary. The study aims to develop an evaluation index system based on the theories for sustainable competitive advantage (SCA), which could be used to evaluate the sustainable development trend of scientific research in universities. In this study, 42 world-class universities in China are used as examples to calculate their SCA performance in scientific research using the entropy and equal weights methods. The scores of scientific research in different universities in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2021 are used to verify the effectiveness of the evaluation index system. The results show that the evaluation index system can effectively predict the scientific research performance of universities in the future. It could be deduced from the results that universities with better scientific research performance meet the needs of the external market better and have more valuable, rare, imitable, and ambiguous resources but a lower level of scientific research dynamic ability. The evaluation index system makes up for the lack of emphasis on the potential scientific research capacity of the university in the current evaluation methods. It can help university administrators formulate relevant scientific research management regulations.

Whether faculty research affects college student learning has long been the subject of debate. Previous studies use subjective measures of student learning; focus on correlation rather than causation; and typically focus on one college, thus lacking generalizability. Using unique, large-scale survey and assessment data that we collected from nationally representative samples of STEM undergraduates in China, India, and Russia, as well as a causal identification strategy that accounts for differential sorting of students to faculty, we present generalizable estimates of the effect of faculty research on objective, standardized measures of student learning. Results show that faculty research has a negative effect on student learning, suggesting direct trade-offs between the university's dual mission of producing research and learning.

Since the 1980s when mixed methods emerged as "the third research methodology", it was widely adopted in Western countries. However, inadequate literature revealed how this methodology was accepted by scholars in Asian countries, such as China. Therefore, this paper used a quantitative survey to investigate Chinese scholars' perceptions and adoption of mixed methods in China. The data of the study were obtained from 247 Chinese scholars in higher education. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the relationship between participants' perceptions and use of mixed methods. The results revealed that Chinese scholars' research expertise of using quantitative and qualitative methods as well as their perceived advantage of using mixed methods has significantly influenced their adoption of mixed methods. This paper advanced the literature of the evolution of mixed methods by investigating the expansion and adaptability of mixed methods in an Asian context.

An unprecedented increase in international academic mobility has occurred over the past four decades, and nations and universities around the world have valued and encouraged academics' transnational experiences greatly. This study explored the influence of different types of international experiences on academics' research productivity in their domestic environment through the theoretical lens of the construction of negotiated meaning. Interviews showed that long-term international experiences in early career stage affect researchers' productivity more deeply, substantially, and broadly than do short-term experiences in a later stage. Both types of overseas experiences exert their influence through academics' negotiations in their research focus, audience, and network. The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge of academic mobility and its effects on academics' research behaviour. The study's policy implications extend beyond its empirical context, and inspire all countries who attempt to encourage either its talented diasporas to return or attract top migrant scientists.

This study describes the experiences of teachers during a data-driven inquiry process to improve literacy-related practices. This action research was initiated at an international English immersion school for native Chinese speakers. Two 9th grade professional learning communities (PLC) from the English and Social Studies departments collaboratively studied student and instructional data to form an action plan. Four team members reflected upon their experiences during the process, in light of their own identities, cultural backgrounds, and previous experiences. These reflections, as well as follow-up qualitative interviews, were qualitatively analyzed based on action research. The data showed that while the process was perceived as beneficial to most participants, perceptions varied based on teacher background.

Purpose -- This study aimed to examine the boundary conditions under which teaching??-research conflict influences university teachers'??? job burnout. Methods -- Data from 487 teachers of three universities in China were analyzed with structural equation modeling and other statistical approaches.? Findings -- (a) Teaching-research conflict was positively linked to job burnout; (b)?? perceived supervisory support (PSS) moderated the effect of teaching--?research conflict on job burnout, and (c) psychological capital (PsyCap) moderated the effect of teaching-research conflict on job burnout. Implications -- Universities should manage to increase teachers' PSS and PsyCap so as to buffer the effect of role conflict on job burnout. Originality/value --??? Our findings stress the importance of PSS and PsyCap as important external and internal resources and offer new insights on the boundary conditions of teaching-research conflict influencing teachers' job burnout.

This study examined the relationship between teaching-research conflict and job burnout among university teachers and the moderating role of perceived supervisor support (PSS) and psychological capital (PsyCap) in this relationship. Using a cross-sectional design, data were collected from a convenience sample of 488 university teachers in China. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to examine the moderating role of PSS and PsyCap in the relationship between teaching-research conflict and job burnout. The results showed that (a) teaching-research conflict was positively linked to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization but negatively linked to personal accomplishment, (b) PSS moderated the effects of teaching-research conflict on both emotional exhaustion and depersonalization but did not act as a moderator in the relationship between teaching-research conflict and personal accomplishment, and (c) PsyCap moderated the effect of teaching-research conflict on all three dimensions of job burnout.

Women academics reportedly exhibit lower research productivity than males. This study first quantitatively explored gender differences in research output based on a survey among 309 Chinese academics teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL). Qualitative data obtained through interviews with seven female respondents were analyzed from an ecological perspective. Results showed significant gender differences in domestic publication but no such differences in international publication. Women academics' pursuit of research was influenced by many factors from and beyond the microsystems of workplace and family, and their coping strategies included soliciting help from seasoned colleagues, attending academic conferences, and joining online communities. The findings highlight the institutional supportive practices and familial environment that are equally important in promoting women academics' professional development.

Responding to increased global research interest in teacher educators' professional lives, this study explores the resilience of Teaching-Research Officers, a characteristic type of teacher educators, in the context of mainland China. Based on survey data collected from a nationally representative sample (N = 5489), the results show that the Teaching-Research Officers surveyed generally favourably evaluated their resilience, as measured by their efficacy beliefs and work engagement, and that their resilience was significantly influenced by various personal, situated, and professional factors. This study extends the research on teacher resilience and provides quantitative evidence supporting the existing conceptual framework. The findings call for attention to be paid to the roles of professional development programmes and research-related job requirements for teacher educators. The study's limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

This article about collaborative research approaches between professors at Chinese universities and teachers in public schools examines theory-practice relationships and the cooperative interactions that need to be developed between those producing theory and those living practice. The work is based on a 24-year New Basic Education (NBE) collaborative research partnership that has produced knowledge about "two-way transformation" informing future actions. This paper focuses mainly on the theory-to-practice portion of the transformation. This research study's significance has to do with five partnership conditions: (1) theorists must change their assumptions about practice; (2) partners must have deep understandings of each other and reach mutually beneficial consensus; (3) partners must have sustained and frequent communications after reaching consensus; (4) comprehensive applications of various research methods and continuous reflection and reconstruction of methodologies are necessary, and (5) "transformation intermediaries" are also exceedingly important. Narratives of experiences illustrate how these five underlying conditions were achieved.

Collective teaching study for teachers in Chinese primary and secondary schools plays an important role in promoting the quality of basic education, and is a major characteristic of Chinese education. This paper looks at the collective study of teaching by Chinese teachers as a product of the historical and cultural traditions particular to China, and also incorporates historical sources to explain the origins, development, and formation of this tradition. The paper further discusses the challenges facing collective teaching study for Chinese teachers by analyzing the changes underlying modern Chinese society and culture. [This article was translated by Jeff Keller.]

Drawing on in-depth interviews and classroom observations with 14 academics from the field of applied sciences, this case study provides empirical evidences on the research-teaching nexus in the context of Chinese research universities by examining the multi-layered factors at the individual, institutional and organisational levels. The study sketches out several substantive social structures, including performative incentives, research culture and institutional emphases, that have significantly shaped the research-teaching nexus in a managerial context. Teaching beliefs that are rooted in traditional Chinese culture, however, have been identified as an essential factor to strengthen the research-teaching nexus. This study concludes that a more supportive environment based on the cultural beliefs of teaching can be created to alleviate the growing tensions between research and teaching.

This study explores the challenges faced by young lecturers in managerial transformation in elite Chinese academic institutions which aim to develop into world-class universities. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews, the paper discusses how a group of lecturers on tenure-track contracts at a research university in China perceived the impacts of this managerial personnel reform. The study revealed intensified academic pressure and consequent feelings of insecurity, uncertainty and anxiety among the participants. Rigid tenure requirements pushed down research quality, and detracted from the efforts the participants could have devoted to teaching. Further negative impacts were strengthened power hierarchies and increasingly gendered nature of the academic culture.

This study explores how two language teachers constructed and reconstructed their professional identities through their action research (AR) facilitated by university researchers in China. Informed by the theory of 'community of practice', the findings of the study show that AR exerted a transformative impact on the teachers' identity development. Four distinctive routes of identity change were noted, namely their transformation from "fisherman" to "fishing coach", from "craftsman" to "teacher researcher", from "lonely fighter" to "collaborator", and from "housekeeper" to "change agent". Such change can be attributed to their engagement and practice in different communities of practice. However, the participants' identity development also encountered some contextual obstacles, including the rigid school curriculum, lack of research knowledge, as well as the power dynamics between them and the researchers. Several implications can be drawn for teachers, teacher educators, and school leaders to help teachers construct a solid and robust professional identity in seeking their continuing professional development through AR.

Despite increasing evidence showing the benefits language teachers can reap from university-school collaborative action research (CAR), scant attention has been given to how university researchers collaborate with language teachers, what challenges they might encounter, and how they navigate such challenges in CAR. To fill the gap, this study examines three university teacher educators/researchers' professional experiences in different CAR projects in China. The findings demonstrate that the research participants experienced three major challenges in CAR projects. In order to cope with these difficulties, while the researchers and teachers engaged in continuous negotiation about each other's needs, the researchers also helped the teachers develop their reflective abilities and promote the influence of their action research. This study has implications for how the effectiveness of CAR may be enhanced to facilitate the sustainable professional development of language teachers.

This study aims to re-story the provision of the context-model-based instruction in teaching EFL writing, focusing especially on students' development of the context model and learning to guide EFL writing with the context model. The research data have been collected from the audio recordings of the classroom instruction, the teacher-researcher's memos, and the students' reflections on their learning experience in the study. The findings that have resulted from this narrative inquiry show (1) the context-model-based instruction has helped students develop their context model; (2) students could learn to configure the four elements of the context model (i.e. "the purpose of communication, the subject matter, the relationship with the reader and the normal pattern of presentation"); and (3) students could learn to be mindful to proactively apply the context model in the process of EFL writing to manage the situated, dynamic and intercultural issues involved.

The philosophy of "publish or perish" has already been adopted as a yardstick by the vast majority of Chinese higher education institutions in their attempts to benchmark Western research universities in recent years, which has led to increasing pressure on university teachers to produce research publications. This paper addresses this endemic issue in China's teaching universities with particular reference to its impact on English teacher educators. It points out that this trend is a result of unrealistically benchmarking research universities in well-resourced Western countries and overlooking the nature of teaching universities, the nature of English teacher educators' professional commitments, and the practical constraints on China's teaching institutions. It has given rise to a variety of problems which, unless addressed properly, may demoralize English teacher educators and impair the quality of both teaching and research. The paper argues that a fair perception of and attitude towards research and realistic expectations of English teacher educators' research outcomes are essential. Practical implications at macro-, meso- and micro-levels are provided with the aim of improving the status quo.

During the past decades, university teachers from both the East and the West have been increasingly called to involve their students in research, therefore they have to rethink not only their research and teaching practices but re-evaluate the role of research in their ongoing teaching. Thus, a survey was conducted to explore (1) what Chinese and Dutch university teachers "believe" the role of research "should be" in their teaching, (2) how they "perceive" their "actual" incorporation of research into their current teaching practice, and (3) how their beliefs about the role of research relate to their beliefs about teaching. Altogether, 284 university teachers from China and the Netherlands participated in the study. One striking result was that the Chinese and the Dutch university teachers were similar in several ways. They both highly valued the role of research in teaching, and were dissatisfied with the actual incorporation of research into their ongoing teaching practice. However, despite all similarities, the Chinese teachers were also found to be different from the Dutch teachers: They scored lower on how much they valued the role of research, how well they could incorporate research into their current teaching practice, and how much they agreed with teaching as conceptual change and focusing on an active role of the student. In general, the differences between the Chinese and the Dutch teachers may have their roots in the Confucian versus Western educational philosophies, respectively, and the similarities identified perhaps reflect the Western influence on Asian higher education.

Established in 1949, the People's Republic of China has gone through 70 years of history. From China's initial inception to the modern day it has grown quickly and become a major force on the world stage, the basic education in mainland China has contributed to cultivating student's talents and developing qualified workers. Specifically, in the 1980s, after implementing a national policy of economic reform and opening up mainland China, China has started a continuous reform in basic education aiming to shift the examination-oriented educational system to literacy-oriented education so as to help students to become modern productive citizens in the twenty-first century. Moving into the twenty-first Century China expanded its education infrastructure and instituted compulsory education from grades 1 through 9, the law was intended to create a compulsory 9-year education. This first round of educational reform began in 1986 helping to ensure every child went to school. The second round began in 2001 when the Ministry of Education promulgated new curriculums, which put forward several new philosophies related to the implementation of literacy-oriented education for the first time in mainland China. The third round began in 2012 when the 18th National People's Congress put forward the fundamental goal of the education named "Lideshuren," which means the basic education must make efforts for students' development in moral and core competencies, pushing reforms related to human-centered and quality-oriented education to develop students to be more capable in the twenty-first century. Teachers are the key to improving education quality. Each basic education reform in mainland China has triggered a paradigm shift in teacher education. In particular, the first-round reform started in the 1980s has caused mainland China to attend to the professionalization of teachers. Three reforms in science teacher professional development have occurred in the past 30 years. The professional identity of science teachers changed from that of the lecturer in the science classroom to that of the facilitator of science beliefs and is morphing into that of a practice-based-researcher in science teaching. This paper outlines the characteristics and effects of the three-stage Chinese science teachers' professional development. It also points out the difficulties and challenges science teachers currently meet in professional development. Hence, the paper provides a case for creating a team of professional science teachers in developing countries. This effort will provide an exemplar to help improve students' scientific literacy all over the world.

This article reports on a narrative study of university EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers' research practices and their identity construction as researchers in China. Drawing upon data from narrative frames among 104 teachers and in-depth interviews with four teachers, the study reveals that teachers' increased research engagement, as well as mixed attitudes towards and external drives for research, are mediated by their mixed contexts of supporting policies and practical constraints. It also recounts four scenarios of teachers' identity construction as researchers and explores the reasons why their identities as researchers are more or less fragmented at different times, which may be attributed to academic competence signaled by research interests and publications, institutional and peer support in the workplace, and the professional life cycles in which they are involved. It concludes with implications for promoting research and teachers' becoming researchers as paths for empowerment and professional excellence through joint efforts from university administrators, mentors, teacher educators and teachers.

Publications by teachers reporting results or case studies of school-based teacher inquiry activities benchmark their professional development by indicating they have a "stance of inquiry". Such papers also disseminate valuable knowledge to the education community for sharing. Essay or case writing has always been a part of school-based teacher learning in China. The small-scale qualitative study reported here examines the impact of producing publications on the professional development of teachers within the context of educational reform. Findings show that producing publications contributes to teacher development in three ways. First, an expanded knowledge base gives the teachers new understandings of student-based learning. Second, teachers obtain insight into their practices by making their tacit knowledge explicit. Third, teachers have a sense of achievement by theorising personal experience. Publications serve as "boundary objects" which can potentially help teachers achieve and develop their professionalism by disseminating individual knowledge into the public knowledge domain with transformative learning. Such developments, however, normally tend to focus on expanding local pedagogical practice. More emphasis on the notion of "teachers as researchers" through critical reflection may help teachers perform as transformative intellectuals whilst searching for ways to retain teachers' voices in their written publications.

In order to raise the international reputation and quality of higher education in "China", the Ministry of Education initiated new university employment reform, which pressed academics to produce more research. Recent employment reform has aggravated the conflict between teaching and research. This study "uses" mixed methods to investigate how academics perceived the employment reform and how they employed various strategies to handle teaching and research. Our study indicates a trend of deprofessionalization in academic work and an increasing tension between teaching and research. Handling teaching and research required a strong and conscientious effort on the part of academics. Concerted efforts should be made to offer a more supportive environment for academics to balance teaching and research.

University/industry partnerships provide a vehicle for synthesizing knowledge from the fields of teachers' professional learning, higher degree research training and research impact. This analysis outlines a conceptual framework for having a direct research impact on socio-cultural, economic and environmental learning (SEEL). The particular case that informs this analysis is called the Sydney-Ningbo Partnership, a longitudinal (10 year) program of research oriented, school engaged teacher-researcher education. "SEEL research impact" provides a framework for understanding the underpinnings of the case study of the partnership which is presented here. This paper identifies how the organisation of a university/industry partnership contributes to teachers' professional learning and HDR training so that their research impacts on students' learning.

Workplace influences on Chinese Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) academics' development as researchers were examined in two Chinese higher education institutions in this qualitative collective case study. Data sources included research documentation and interviews with 12 Chinese TEFL academics. Both institutions were keen on research capacity building, but they accorded different attention to TEFL academics' research.

Research engagement is an important means for teachers to develop their professional competence. This paper reports on an enquiry into the research engagement of a group of primary school English language teachers in Guangdong province on the Chinese mainland. Drawing on questionnaire data and teachers' interview narratives, the paper examines how these Chinese primary school teachers experienced research and what their conceptions of good quality research were. While the enquiry revealed that the participants had a variety of research experiences, it also revealed that their research engagement was undermined by numerous contextual constraints and their perceived inadequacy as teacher researchers. These findings will be discussed with suggestions for making research an effective sustainable path for primary school English teachers' professional development.

Research engagement has been widely considered crucial in transforming teachers into "expert knowers about their students and classrooms" (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999, p. 16). This article reports on a mixed-method study of the research engagement of a group of primary school teachers in China's Guangdong province, focusing particularly on their conceptions of teacher research and the contextual factors driving them to do research. The study revealed that the majority of these teachers opted for the type of research involving experimental use of particular teaching methods or approaches in their classrooms with the intention of improving their teaching and their students' learning. While sharing research findings through publication is an integral part of academic research, these teachers did not place much emphasis on writing for publication, although they reported alternative forms of research dissemination. The study also revealed that research has been promoted through a top-down performance review process for schools and teachers, which has research activity and outcomes structured into it. This mechanism may be effective in promoting research activity among schools and teachers, but it is far less effective in actually supporting teachers' research efforts. We conclude that further research on primary school English teachers' research experiences is needed in order to provide relevant and useful knowledge to teacher educators and policymakers on the Chinese mainland, making research a sustainable path to professional excellence for teachers. (Contains 1 table.)

The current round of basic education curriculum reform in China is considered by many to be the most radical and wide-reaching. However, very little is known about education reform at the school level. Here we document and discuss some of the challenges and opportunities that the reform programme is providing for teachers and schools. We describe the progress to date of an international collaborative research and development project involving teachers, school and district leaders from different regions in China working with Chinese, Canadian and Australian academics on changing teacher practices through "professional learning communities". This model draws on the success of such communities in Australia and Canada in bringing about substantial teacher development. In this article, we explore the mobility of ideas about teacher professional development and student learning across cultural systems. We provide an insight into how Chinese educators have developed "hybrid models" of teaching and learning and teacher development drawn from experience and expertise of teacher researchers in Canada and Australia. Drawing on observational data over a three-year period, as well as the teachers' and school leaders' own accounts, we demonstrate the value of teacher research, and cross-cultural collaboration, in bringing about profound and sustainable changes to educational practices in a network of teacher professional learning communities in China. (Contains 1 figure and 2 notes.)

Teacher professional learning communities provide environments in which teachers engage in regular research and collaboration. They have been found effective as a means for connecting professional learning to the day-to-day realities faced by teachers in the classroom. In this article, the authors draw on survey data collected in primary schools serving 71 villages in rural Gansu Province as well as transcripts from in-depth interviews with 30 teachers. Findings indicate that professional learning communities penetrate to some of China's most resource-constrained schools but that their nature and development are shaped by institutional supports, principal leadership, and teachers' own initiative. (Contains 1 figure, 5 tables, and 4 notes.)

Conducting collaborative fieldwork between American researchers and foreign scholars in developing countries is a difficult prospect for political scientists. Yet, we can use our knowledge and position at an American university to contribute to the academic community in our areas of study and establish lasting personal and institutional ties with our host institutions. This article proposes several ways in which a collaborative-training and research program that can help American professors and students develop long-term relationships with their overseas colleagues. First, direct involvement in training local students and faculty from our host institutions can improve the quality of our data and research. Second, American scholars can reduce host university costs by developing institutional ties with smaller more enthusiastic host universities rather than the top academic institutions in their respective host countries. Third, we can teach American students how to practice collaborative-training research. Whether our political science students go on to become academics, government officials, or business consultants, the relationships they establish in developing countries can last well beyond their academic career. (Contains 1 figure and 10 notes.)

Academic corruption is a hot issue in today's society. "Academic corruption" means that certain individuals in academic circles, driven by the desire for personal gain, resort to various kinds of nonnormative and unethical behavior in academic research activities. These include: academic self-piracy, academic piracy, copying and plagiarism, multiple submission of papers, impersonation, concept appropriation, footnote opportunism, academic deception, slipshod work, verbal garbage, buying and selling of writings, and other academic distortions. This article describes (1) how academic corruption harms the Party; (2) the causes of academic corruption; (3) the main problems confronting China's institutions of higher learning in the effort to control academic corruption; (4) current prevention and control of academic corruption in the United States, France, Germany, and Britain; and (5) proposals for countermeasures by academic journals in China's institutions of higher learning against academic corruption. (Contains 6 notes.) [This article was translated by Ted Wang.]

This article reports recent foraging for ideas in action research among the lives and intellects of Chinese society. It began and is reported as a personal journey, initially following the trail of the activist scholar Wang Yang-Ming. The method is a roam through some of the resources that have so far been discovered. The style is autobiographical, in that it seeks to expose a degree of puzzling about the relationships between action research and some challenging concepts from Chinese culture. The outcome hoped for is to introduce others who find the ideas interesting to a conversation across generations and across cultures. The conclusions thereby remain to be heard.

This article reports that at Rollins College, a liberal-arts institution, professors are paid to get away for overseas travel so that their students will learn to be more globally minded. The college's president, Lewis M. Duncan, has pledged to send every faculty and staff member with teaching duties abroad once every three years. Since 2006, 128 Rollins employees, about two-thirds of those eligible, have used the $3,000 grants to conduct individual research projects or to travel internationally with faculty-led groups to destinations including China, Ecuador, and Tanzania. Rollins is among a growing number of colleges across the country that are trying to create more-global campuses by cultivating a faculty of internationalists. Indeed, a recent report by the American Council on Education pointed to the expansion of support for faculty members to study or conduct research abroad, or to lead overseas programs, as a bright spot in colleges' otherwise uneven efforts at internationalization.

Narrative inquiry has been widely used in different disciplines around the world. In this article, we focus on narrative inquiry in China where we start by retelling our first close contact with narrative researchers in China in 2007 when Professor Gang Ding at East China Normal University invited leading Chinese researchers to a three-day narrative inquiry workshop co-planned with us (Connelly and Xu). Second, we review narrative studies published in Chinese to demonstrate how widely narrative inquiry has been adopted in educational studies in the country in the past two decades by Chinese university researchers, graduate students, and schoolteachers. Next, our review of English literature of narrative studies related to education in China has two important components: English literature on narrative inquiry contextualized in China and narrative inquiry for reciprocal learning in teacher education and school education between Canada and China. Both reveal how narrative inquiry has contributed to international cross-cultural educational studies related to Chinese contexts. Finally, in the "Discussion" section, we provide our interpretation of some current dialogs on narrative inquiry among Chinese educational researchers; for example, the differences between yanjiu ... (research) and tanjiu ... (inquiry). Some heated discussions surrounding narrative inquiry in China are also highlighted, including: (1) cultural complexities in narrative inquiry, (2) theoretical frameworks in narrative inquiry, (3) re-storying and fictionalization processes in narrative inquiry, and (4) ethical considerations in narrative inquiry. To conclude, with cases selected and elaborated from the Canada-China partnership, we demonstrate how narrative inquiry has enabled us to develop "reciprocal learning" as both a conceptual framework and a methodological approach to building a multidimensional bridge for reciprocal learning in education between the West and East. This Reciprocal Learning approach reflects our global comparative studies view that the path to global crosscultural harmony and understanding lies with collaborative action plans among people of different cultures. Writing this article on narrative inquiry in China enabled us to reflect on and learn from narrative inquirers and researchers in China while sharing what we have done in our own narrative inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the pending problem and improve the effectiveness of online classrooms in the post-COVID-19 era, researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 41 teachers from China, the Philippines, and other countries who have experienced long-time online classrooms. The research indicated that (1) all problems the teachers face in the online classroom can be classified into two types, including internal problems (the problems in teachers' teaching, students' learning, classroom discipline, and students' psychology) and external problems (the problems in hardware and equipment, school management, education equity and privacy protection, and family interference). (2) To better improve online classroom effectiveness, teachers strongly call for a series of reforms, including the reform of school management, curriculum and teaching, after-class instruction, and psychological support, which require schools, teachers, and parents to work together to make fundamental improvements. (3) Educational equity issues caused by economic development level, long-term inefficient online interaction, and various internal contradictions are the fundamental reasons why the previous problems existing in the online classroom have not been solved. Teachers, schools, educational researchers, and government departments need to deeply study and analyze these reasons, which will help solve a series of past and present problems in the online classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The institutional setting for transnational education has gradually evolved from practices that provide limited exposure to those that offer a globalized experience, such as branch campuses or joint-venture universities (JVUs). JVUs aim to create an environment that goes beyond the dichotomy between education experiences at home and in the local destination. China invites branch campuses in the form of JVUs in order to contribute to the internationalization of its higher education system. Providing diversity exposure for over a decade now, JVUs in China play a role in shaping a particular youth identity. Socialization in a multicultural environment shapes students' individual and collective identity, as well as their career trajectories. This action research discusses the impact of the transnational education environment in JVUs on their students' education and professional pathways; and argues that students develop academic habits that go beyond expectations attributed to their cultural backgrounds. The case study focuses on students' perceptions and participation practices in social science classes. The empirical data, comprised of an attitude survey and focus group interviews, were collected in the 2018–2019 academic year at a Sino-British JVU based in China. This study contributes to both the sociology of education and contemporary China studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]