A New Vision for Teacher Education in the Context of Globalization

A New Vision for Teacher Education in the Context of Globalization:

Reflections from the Chinese Model

Jun Li

Assistant Professor (The Hong Kong Institute of Education; Email: junli@ied.edu.hk)

Ruth Hayhoe

President Emerita (The Hong Kong Institute of Education)

Professor (OISE/University of Toronto; Email: ruth-hayhoe@sympatico.ca)

It is a great honor for me to be invited to speak at the Samuel MacClintock Centennial Colloquium of Cebu Normal University, and to bring greetings from Prof. Ruth Hayhoe, President Emerita of Hong Kong Institute of Education and Professor of the University of Toronto. I am so glad that I have the opportunity here, at this centennial celebration, to congratulate your university and community on the great achievements over the century in building up a major institution of teacher education in the Asia-Pacific Region, through continuous and concerted effort and innovation, and to share with you my reflections from the Chinese model of teacher education in the context of globalization.

Personal Learning Journey to be a Chinese Educator

Please allow me to begin with a personal narrative, and some reflections on my learning journey as a graduate of two normal universities in China from the 1980s to the early 1990s. My own scholarly background is in comparative and international higher education and history of education. I was admitted into Anhui Normal University, a provincial normal university in China, after passing the very competitive National College Entrance Examination, and studied first in a four year B.A. program in the field of Educational Sciences and later in a three year M.A. program in the area of Chinese History of Education from 1982 to 1989. I finished my Ph.D. program in History of Education at East China Normal University in 1992, a national leading teacher education institution, then continued to work there before I went abroad in the late 1990s. This is a long journey of learning to be an educator. What did I benefit the most from the two normal universities over a decade? There are three things that are still fresh in my mind today: the pleasant educational environment, the solid academic training, and the Chinese way of defining the teaching profession.

First of all, I enjoyed very much the pleasant educational environment of the two normal universities, which included rich special collections of academic books in the department and easily accessible mentorship of professors. The second treasured memory relates to the solid academic training which covered a wide range of courses from psychology and sociology to pedagogy and an 8-week teaching practicum. The last important thing I learned over