The rural-urban gap in teachers' collaborative learning in China

Abstract

Educational inequality between rural and urban schools is an entrenched issue in China. The academic results of rural students lag far behind those of their urban peers. To reduce this gap, recent government policies try to enhance rural teachers' quality by raising the threshold of teacher qualification and through provision of professional development workshops. However, these policies neglect the most important avenue, that is, the school-based professional learning community, to improve teachers' instructional aptitudes. The learning gap between rural and urban students is not necessarily the result of different teacher credentials, but reflects the disparate school environment for teachers' collaborative learning. To verify this hypothesis, this study compares teachers' communal learning activities in rural and urban schools in China with the aim of illustrating the influence of the professional learning community (PLC) on teachers' instructional capacities. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 36 primary school teachers in ten rural schools and eight urban schools, the study reveals striking disparities in collaborative learning activities between rural and urban schools in terms of frequency, quality, and effectiveness. As a result, urban teachers receive strong support from schoolwide PLCs for advancing their instructional capacities, while rural teachers struggle in isolation with limited professional knowledge and skills. The findings echo the existing literature in arguing that teaching is a collective endeavor (Paine, 1990; Paine & Fang, 2006; Paine & Ma, 1993). Good teachers are not lonely heroes, but are nurtured in the collaborative professional community.