Community of Inquiry as Teacher Professional Development in China: New Literacies, New Complexities

Background

Driven by continuous social and economic development and the need to stay competitive in the global economy, never before has the Chinese government placed so much emphasis on improving its education quality across the nation. Realizing that teachers play a critical role in improving overall education quality, the central government has carried out a series of reform policies, which aim to improve teacher quality through continuing education and professional development. Over the past decades, improving teacher quality has been a top priority in the Chinese government’s K-12 educational reform agenda.

In 1993, the central government created the Teacher Law, which for the first time officially identified teaching as a profession (Ministry of Education, 1993). In the same year, another document by the Ministry of Education, Outline for Education Reform and Development in China, placed teachers at the center of the nation’s social development and international competitiveness. This document asserts, “A strong nation lies in its education, and a strong education system lies in its teachers” (p. 8, cited in Paine & Fang, 2006). In 1999, the Provisions on the Further Education of Primary and Middle School Teachers was published by the Chinese Ministry of Education; it aimed to involve all primary and secondary teachers in continuing education and professional growth (Zhang, 2010).