International Journal of Progressive Education
ISSN (Print): 2834-7919 - ISSN (Online): 1554-5210

Research article    |    Open Access
International Journal of Progressive Education 2018, Vol. 14(1) 105-121

‘We are a Chinese school’: Constructing school identity from the lived experiences of expatriate and Chinese teaching faculty in a Type C international school in Shanghai, China.

Adam Poole

pp. 105 - 121   |  DOI: https://doi.org/10.29329/ijpe.2018.129.8

Publish Date: February 11, 2018  |   Single/Total View: 905/1.694   |   Single/Total Download: 1.280/3.514

PDF Download

Abstract

This study explores school identity by analysing the perceptions of Chinese and expatriate teachers in a Type C, non-traditional international school in Shanghai, China. The purpose of this study was to build on Hayden's (2016) work by offering a detailed description of this type of school which continues to be under researched. A mixed-methods approach was adopted that explored the school's identity on three levels: the rhetorical, the curricula, and the lived. The data revealed considerable discontinuity between these levels, particularly from the perspective of the international teachers. The findings are discussed in relation to cultural scripts for teaching and learning and institutional logics and implications are drawn for creating a more interculturally inclusive school ethos.

Keywords: school identity, mixed methods, curricula, international schools

How to Cite this Article?

APA 7th edition
Poole, A. (2018). ‘We are a Chinese school’: Constructing school identity from the lived experiences of expatriate and Chinese teaching faculty in a Type C international school in Shanghai, China.. International Journal of Progressive Education, 14(1), 105-121. https://doi.org/10.29329/ijpe.2018.129.8

Harvard
Poole, A. (2018). ‘We are a Chinese school’: Constructing school identity from the lived experiences of expatriate and Chinese teaching faculty in a Type C international school in Shanghai, China.. International Journal of Progressive Education, 14(1), pp. 105-121.

Chicago 16th edition
Poole, Adam (2018). "‘We are a Chinese school’: Constructing school identity from the lived experiences of expatriate and Chinese teaching faculty in a Type C international school in Shanghai, China.". International Journal of Progressive Education 14 (1):105-121. https://doi.org/10.29329/ijpe.2018.129.8

References
  1. Ball, S. J. (2010). The necessity and violence of theory. In Thomson, P., & Walker, M. (Eds.). The Routledge Doctoral Student's Companion: Getting to grips with research in education and the social sciences. Routledge, 68-75. [Google Scholar]
  2. Battilana, J., Leca, B., & Boxenbaum, E. (2009). 2 how actors change institutions: towards a theory of institutional entrepreneurship. The academy of management annals, 3(1), 65-107. [Google Scholar]
  3. Bjerregaard, T., & Jonasson, C. (2014). Managing unstable institutional contradictions: The work of becoming. Organization Studies, 35(10), 1507-1536. [Google Scholar]
  4. Bourdieu, P., Chamboredon, J. C., & Passeron, J. C. (1991). The craft of sociology: Epistemological preliminaries. Walter de Gruyter. [Google Scholar]
  5. Bunnell, T., Fertig, M., & James, C. (2016). What is international about International Schools? An institutional legitimacy perspective. Oxford Review of Education. [Google Scholar]
  6. Bunnell, T., & Fertig, M. (2016). International schools as' institutions' and the issue of 'legitimacy'. International Schools Journal, 36(1), 56-64. [Google Scholar]
  7. Chen, Y., & Reid, I. (2002). Citizenship education in Chinese schools: retrospect and prospect. Research in Education, 67(1), 58-69. [Google Scholar]
  8. Chen, Q., May, L., Klenowski, V., & Kettle, M. (2014). The enactment of formative assessment in English language classrooms in two Chinese universities: Teacher and student responses. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 21, 271–285. [Google Scholar]
  9. Cheng, K. M. (2010). Shanghai and Hong Kong: Two distinct examples of education reform in China. In OAED (Ed.), Organisation for economic co-operation and development, strong performers and successful performers in education: Lessons from P ISA for the United States (pp. 83–115). Paris: OAED. [Google Scholar]
  10. Chow, A. (2014). Replanting the flower in different soil? A critical analysis of education borrowing in Hong Kong. International Journal of Education, 6, p114–p130. [Google Scholar]
  11. Denzin, N. K. (1989). Interpretive interactionism. Newbury Park, CA: Sage ECNUAS. (2015). School Brochure. [Brochure]. Shanghai: Auht. [Google Scholar]
  12. Fairbrother, G. P. (2003). Toward critical patriotism. Hong Kong University Press, HKU. [Google Scholar]
  13. Gellar, C. (2002). International education: A commitment to universal values. In M. Hayden, J. Thomspon, & G. Walker (eds), International Education in Practice: Dimensions for Schools and International Schools (pp. 30-35). Abingdon: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
  14. Greenwood, R., Raynard, M., Kodeih, F., Micelotta, E. R., & Lounsbury, M. (2011). Institutional complexity and organizational responses. The Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 317-371. [Google Scholar]
  15. Gu, P. Y. (2014). The unbearable lightness of the curriculum: What drives the assessment practices of a teacher of English as a foreign language in a Chinese secondary school? Assessment in Education: Principles Policy & Practice, 21, 286–305. [Google Scholar]
  16. Gu, Q., & Schweisfurth, M. (2015). Transnational connections, competences and identities: experiences of Chinese international students after their return ‘home’. British Educational Research Journal, 41(6), 947-970. [Google Scholar]
  17. Gu, Q. (2014). The Work and Lives of Teachers in China. Oxford: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
  18. Hayden, M. (2006). Introduction to International education: International schools and their communities. London: Sage. [Google Scholar]
  19. Hayden, M. (2011). Transnational spaces of education: the growth of the international school sector. Globalisation, societies and education, 9(2), 211-224. [Google Scholar]
  20. Hayden, M. (2016). Institutional Interpretations of International Education in National Contexts. In: SAGE Library of Educational Thought and Practice: International Education (Volume 2):. London: Sage, i-xiv [Google Scholar]
  21. Hayden, M. & Thompson J. (2013). International Schools: Antecedents, current issues and metaphors for the future, in P Pearce (Ed), International Education and Schools: Moving Beyond the First 40 years (pp. 3 – 23). London: Bloomsbury. [Google Scholar]
  22. Hwang, A., Ang, S., & Francesco, A. M. (2002). The silent Chinese: The influence of face and Kiasuism on Student Feedback-Seeking Behaviors. Journal of Management Education, 26, 70–98. [Google Scholar]
  23. ISC (2015) ISC The International School Consultancy. Faringdon: The International School Consultancy. [Google Scholar]
  24. Ivankova, N., Creswell, J., & Stick, S. (2006). Using mixed methods in sequential explanatory design: From theory to practice. Field Methods, 18(3), 3-20. [Google Scholar]
  25. Jin, L., & Cortazzi, M. (2006). Changing practices in Chinese Cultures of Learning. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 19, 5–20. [Google Scholar]
  26. Johnson, B., & Onwuegbuzie, A. (2006). Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33(7), 14-26. [Google Scholar]
  27. Kuhn, T. (1996). The structure of scientific revolutions (3rd ed). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1962) [Google Scholar]
  28. Lan, P.-C. (2014). Segmented incorporation: The second generation of rural migrants in Shanghai. The China Quarterly, 217, 243–265. [Google Scholar]
  29. Law, W. (2014). Understanding china’s curriculum reform for the 21st century. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 46, 332–360 [Google Scholar]
  30. Lowe, J.A. (2000). International examinations: The new credentialism and reproduction of advantage in a globalising world. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice. 7(3), 363-377. [Google Scholar]
  31. Mair, J., Mayer, J., & Lutz, E. (2015). Navigating institutional plurality: Organizational governance in hybrid organizations. Organization Studies, 36(6), 713-739. [Google Scholar]
  32. Marshall, H. 2007. The global education terminology debate: Exploring some of the issues. In The Sage handbook of research in international education, ed. M.C. Hayden, J. Levy, and J.J. Thompson, 38-50. London: Sage. [Google Scholar]
  33. Matthews, M. (1989) The scale of international education’, International Schools Journal, 17:7-17. [Google Scholar]
  34. Ministry of Education (2010). Outline of China’s National Plan for Medium–and long-term Education Reform and reform Development, 2010–2020. [accessed 19/12/2016] http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/China/China_National_Long_Term_Educational_Reform_Development_2010-2020_eng.pdf [Google Scholar]
  35. Morgan, D. L. (2007). Paradigms lost and pragmatism regained methodological implications of combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Journal of mixed methods research, 1(1), 48-76. [Google Scholar]
  36. Nanzhao, Z., Muju, Z., Baohua, Y., Xia, G., Wenjing, W., & Li, Z. (2007). Educational reform and curriculum change in China: a comparative case study. International Bureau of education. [accessed 20/12/216] http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/COPs/Pages_documents/Comparative_Research/EduReformChina.pdf [Google Scholar]
  37. Pearce R. (2013). International Education and Schools: Moving Beyond the First 40 Years. Bloomsbury Academic: London [Google Scholar]
  38. Poole, A. (2016). ‘Complex teaching realities’ and ‘deep rooted cultural traditions’: Barriers to the implementation and internalization of formative assessment in China. Cogent Education, 3: 1156242. [Google Scholar]
  39. Robinson, J., & Guan, X. (2012). The changing face of international education in China. On the Horizon, 20(4), 305-312. [Google Scholar]
  40. Ryan, J. (Ed.). (2013). Education reform in China: Changing concepts, contexts and practices (Vol. 69). Routledge. [Google Scholar]
  41. Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2009). Research methods for business students (4th ed.). Essex: Person Education Limited. [Google Scholar]
  42. Sellar, S., & Lingard, B. (2013). Looking East: Shanghai, PISA 2009 and the reconstitution of reference societies in the global education policy field. Comparative Education, 49, 464–485. [Google Scholar]
  43. Stigler, J. W., & Hiebert, J. (1998). Teaching is a cultural activity. American Educator, 22, 4–11. [Google Scholar]
  44. Sung, C. C. M. (2014). Global, local or glocal? Identities of L2 learners in English as a Lingua Franca communication. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 27(1), 43-57. [Google Scholar]
  45. Tan, C. (2013). Learning from Shanghai: Lessons in success (Vol. 21). Singapore: Springer Science & Business Media. [Google Scholar]
  46. Tan, C. (2015a). Education policy borrowing and cultural scripts for teaching in China. Comparative Education, 51, 196–211. [Google Scholar]
  47. Tan, C., & Chua, C. (2015). Education policy borrowing in China: Has the West wind overpowered the East wind? Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 45, 686–704. [Google Scholar]
  48. Thornton, P. H., & Ocasio, W. (1999). Institutional logics and the historical contingency of power in organizations: Executive succession in the higher education publishing industry, 1958–1990 1. American journal of Sociology, 105(3), 801-843. [Google Scholar]
  49. Thornton, P. H., & Ocasio, W. (2008). Institutional logics. The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism, 840, 99-128. [Google Scholar]
  50. Walker, G. (2016). International Schools and International Curricula. In M. Hayden, Mary, and J. Thompson (Eds). International Schools: Current Issues and Future Prospects. (pp. 37-51). Oxford: Symposium Books Ltd [Google Scholar]
  51. Wu, Q. (2015). Re-examining the “Chinese learner”: a case study of mainland Chinese students’ learning experiences at British Universities. Higher Education, 70(4), 753-766. [Google Scholar]
  52. Yan, C. (2012). ‘We can only change in a small way’: A study of secondary English teachers’ implementation of curriculum reform in China. Journal of Educational Change, 13, 431–447. [Google Scholar]
  53. Yang, D. T. (2015). The Pursuit of the Chinese Dream in America: Chinese Undergraduate Students at American Universities. Rowman & Littlefield. [Google Scholar]
  54. Yin, X., & Buck, G. A. (2015). There is another choice: an exploration of integrating formative assessment in a Chinese high school chemistry classroom through collaborative action research. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 10, 753–762. [Google Scholar]
  55. Yu, K. H. (2013). Institutionalization in the context of institutional pluralism: Politics as a generative process. Organization Studies, 34(1), 105-131. [Google Scholar]
Meta
Vol. 14 (1)
Download
Metric
History
Related

Volume 14 Issue 1

February 2018

All Manuscript

International Journal of Progressive Education

Copyright © 2025 International Journal of Progressive Education.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. CC BY
All elements of this website were created using the BOQ™ - Intelligent Webverse System.