Exploring Chinese Teachers' Commitment to Being a Cooperating Teacher in a University-Government-School Initiative for Rural Practicum Placements

Faced with urban schools' reluctance to host student teachers on practicum because "student teachers disturb their teaching order," Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China, collaborated with four rural provinces to develop a University-Government-School (UGS) initiative for rural practicum placements. To understand the teachers' commitment to this alternative approach to practicum placements, we posed the question: What motivates and challenges teacher participation in the UGS initiative? To provide answers, we drew on the recently developed Mentoring Profile Inventory--a 62-item inventory that captures teachers' motivations and challenges in supervising student teachers on practicum. Further, by comparing the UGS results with those of supervising teachers from three other countries, we were able to discern aspects of the UGS teachers' commitment that were particularly distinctive to the Chinese context. For example, UGS supervisors are significantly more motivated than their international counterparts to participate in the practicum because student teachers: act as a "Reminder about Career Development"; enable supervisors to have "Time-Out to Monitor Pupil Learning"; and they "Promote Pupil Engagement." These results provide important baseline data for making sense of the UGS teachers' commitment to the practicum, for situating their responses within current educational reform efforts, and for determining their professional development needs.