Managerial groups competing in the field of teacher professional development: a case study of Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT

In recent years, teacher professional development (TPD) has gradually shifted from a voluntary, personal initiative towards a mandate from higher echelons to hold schools and teachers accountable. The literature mainly investigates the influences of centralised control on teachers and their professional development from the perspective of new public managerialism (NPM). It emphasises conflicts between two groups of actors: teachers and managers. This study takes TPD in Shanghai, China, as an example to investigate the relationships among various professional groups on a field level. It argues that in the context of NPM, due to the proliferation of managerial tasks, a cluster of managerial groups has emerged and separated the field into isolated yet overlapping jurisdictions. TPD has become a field in which managerial groups interact and compete with each other to legitimise their own jurisdictional claims and regulative powers rather than a mechanism for improving teachers’ knowledge and skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher professional development
• professional project
• layering
• new public management
• teachers in Shanghai

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Literally, these terms should be translated as “teaching research office” and “teaching research group” However, to distinguish them from the “research office” mentioned below, this study uses the translations “teaching office” and “teaching group.”

2. The three methods are surveys, experiments, and experience screening, and the tool is educational statistics and measurement.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xiaojiong Ding

Xiaojiong Ding is Professor at the Shanghai Normal University. Her research focuses on education policy analysis, policy implementation and international education cooperation.

Yingying Yan

Yingying Yan is currently PhD candidate at the Shanghai Normal University. Her research focuses on education policy analysis.