This article was downloaded by: [Chinese University of Hong Kong]On: 20 December 2014, At: 20:23Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
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Understanding mainland Chinesestudents' motivations for choosingteacher education programmes in HongKongXuesong Gao a & John Trent aa Department of English , Hong Kong Institute of Education , 10 LoPing Road, Taipo, New Territories, Hong KongPublished online: 20 Apr 2009.
To cite this article: Xuesong Gao & John Trent (2009) Understanding mainland Chinese students'motivations for choosing teacher education programmes in Hong Kong, Journal of Education forTeaching: International research and pedagogy, 35:2, 145-159
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Understanding mainland Chinese students’ motivations for choosingteacher education programmes in Hong Kong
Xuesong Gao* and John Trent
Department of English, Hong Kong Institute of Education, 10 Lo Ping Road, Taipo, NewTerritories, Hong Kong
(Received 11 August 2008; resubmitted 5 January 2009; accepted 7 January 2009)
In this paper, we report on an inquiry exploring the experiences of 10 mainlandChinese student teachers of English so as to understand why they came to HongKong for a teacher education programme. The study revealed that these studentswere largely attracted to teaching in Hong Kong because of its extrinsic benefitssuch as professional stability, the prestige associated with the English languageteaching profession and the opportunities to acquire valued skills transferable toother professions including English competence. Facing challenges as non-localstudents, they were also uncertain of becoming teachers in the new context. As‘elite’ Chinese students were often unwilling to become teachers, we found itstrategic to attract a large number of talented non-local students to the teachingprofession and retain them. We conclude the paper with recommendations forvarious stakeholders to support these non-local students’ adaptation anddevelopment as committed and competent teachers in local schools.
Keywords: motivation; pre-service student teachers; the biographic method;mainland Chinese students; English medium tertiary education
Introduction
Since the late 1970s an unprecedented number of students from the Chinese
mainland have gone abroad to pursue English medium higher education, often in
search of opportunities to improve their linguistic competence and advance socially
(Gu and Schweisfurth 2006; Li and Bray 2007; Tan and Simpson 2008). In recent
years, English medium tertiary institutions in Hong Kong have attracted an
increasing number of mainland Chinese applicants (Li and Bray 2007; Gao 2008a).
In 2008, 12,000 mainland Chinese school graduates applied to study at the
University of Hong Kong, the leading English medium university in the region
(Singtao Daily 2008a). Hong Kong Institute of Education (the ‘Institute’), the local
teacher training institution, has also attracted a large number of applications
(Singtao Daily 2008b). For instance, the number of mainland Chinese students
enrolled at the Department of English has risen steadily from eight in the academic
year of 2005–2006 to 35 in the following year. In 2007–2008, mainland Chinese
students (73 of them) made up over 57% of the student intake in the Department. As
a rule, mainland Chinese applicants who are qualified for first-tier mainland
universities could submit applications to tertiary institutions funded by the
University Grant Committee (UGC, Hong Kong), including the Institute.
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Journal of Education for Teaching
Vol. 35, No. 2, May 2009, 145–159
ISSN 0260-7476 print/ISSN 1360-0540 online
# 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/02607470902771037
http://www.informaworld.com
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Such enthusiasm for teacher training programmes among mainland Chinese
applicants, however, contradicts findings of ‘elite’ Chinese students’ unwillingness to
become teachers in previous research (Gordon 2000; Lai et al. 2005; Su et al. 2001;
Zhou and Reed 2005). It is also surprising to see that heavy financial costs do not
seem to discourage these ‘elite’ students from applying to study at the Institute as
most of these students pay US$15,000 for tuition and minimal living costs each year.
In addition, mainland Chinese students face challenges unique to them as non-local
student teachers, including learning through English at the Institute as well as
surviving and succeeding in local schools. Hong Kong is a multilingual context with
Cantonese as the language for daily life and socialisation, English widely used in
business and higher education, and Putonghua (a language of rising importance
since the political change in 1997), which is founded on the Mandarin dialect as used
in Beijing (Davison and Lai 2007; Evans 2000; Lai 2001). Yet, most of the mainland
Chinese students speak Putonghua and only a small number speak Cantonese.
Considering the shortage of qualified teachers, in particular English teachers, in
Hong Kong schools (Morris 2004), the influx of these students to Hong Kong’s
teacher education programmes has created uncertainty as to the future of teacher
supply in the Hong Kong school system. Given the lack of research on non-local
students’ motivations for choosing to teach in schools, this paper reports on an
inquiry exploring a group of mainland Chinese student teachers’ prior experiences so
as to understand why they came to Hong Kong for teacher education programmes.
Motivations for choosing to teach
Motivation affects student teachers’ choice to become teachers, drives them to learn
and achieve their professional goals, and retains them in the teaching profession
against adverse experiences and conditions (Sinclair 2008). Individuals are attracted
to the teaching profession for various reasons. Kyriacou and Kobori (1998, 345)
classified the reasons students choose to become English language teachers into three
groups:
(1) Altruistic reasons refer to individuals’ perceptions of teaching as a socially
important job and desires to help society and children improve through
teaching.
(2) Intrinsic reasons are how the job itself attracts individuals to teach, including
their interest in using their knowledge of a particular subject.
(3) Extrinsic reasons are related to the attractions external to the teaching
including pay and holidays (see also Kyriacou and Coulthard 2000; Lai
et al. 2005; Manuel and Hughes 2006).
Research in many contexts concludes that teaching is not an attractive profession
because it is normally regarded as a profession with ‘less job security, low pay and
prestige, subordinate status, limited career opportunities’ (Sinclair 2008, 79).
Echoing many of these negative associations, research has established a complex
picture of Chinese attitudes towards the teaching profession. On the one hand, the
teaching profession has been considered highly respectable. In traditional Chinese
cultural discourses, teachers enjoy high social status and are regarded as being in the
same league as other key cultural figures, including heaven, earth, the emperor and
parents (Cleverley 1991; Fwu and Wang 2002; Gao 2008b; Schoenhals 1993).
146 X. Gao and J. Trent
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On the other hand, studies have revealed a widespread unwillingness among
Chinese students to become school teachers (Gordon 2000; Lai et al. 2005; Su et al.
2001; Zhou and Reed 2005). Gordon’s study on Asian minority students in the USA,
largely of Chinese ethnic origin, identified that the participants did not wish to
become teachers even though they attributed their academic success to their teachers’
effort. In Hong Kong, Lai et al. (2005) found that high-school students ranked
‘teaching’ third among their 20 ‘most wanted’ and ‘most respected’ occupations.
However, it was also found that students in schools with low university admission
rates and from families with low monthly household income were more interested in
becoming teachers than those in schools with high university admission rates and
from families with high monthly household income. On the Chinese mainland, Su
et al. (2001) discovered that many of the participants in their research disliked the
teaching profession and they came into the teacher education programmes due to
low university entrance exam scores and lack of financial support. The findings of Su
et al. (2001) indicate that the student teachers’ life experiences strongly mediate their
attitudes towards the profession (see also Bodycott 1997). These participants, whose
parents were teachers, and who lived in cramped residences with their parents
allocated by schools, developed remarkably negative attitudes towards the teaching
profession as they came to believe that teaching and teachers were not respected.
In short, these studies project a paradox of teaching as a highly valued but
unpopular profession among Chinese students in various Chinese cultural contexts
such as Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. This creates a puzzle given the
enthusiasm among mainland Chinese applicants to attend teacher training
programmes in Hong Kong. One possible explanation for the puzzle directs our
attention to the processes in the wider social and educational context on the Chinese
mainland.
The educational context on the Chinese mainland
Education occupies a central position in the Chinese cultural tradition and remains a
top priority among most Chinese people (Elman 2000; Lee 2000; Thøgersen 2002).
The public regard education as one of the most important means to acquire
academic and literacy skills as well as achieve upward social mobility and personal
development (Thøgersen 2002). Education is also an investment in gaining highly
valued cultural and social capital (Bai 2006).
Education in China has always been highly competitive. In the past 10 years,
academic competition has been particularly intense largely due to the rapid
expansion of tertiary education and the commercialisation of education. The
commercialisation of education means that users have to pay more for their
education, while the expansion in the tertiary educational sector has led to an
increasing number of unemployed tertiary graduates and uncertain returns on
educational investment (Bai 2006; Postiglione 2005). In order to succeed in such a
competitive educational context, many Chinese started attaching great importance
to the learning of foreign languages, especially English. ‘Elite’ families send their
children to private schools or employ private tutors so that they can get an early start
in the race to learn English. Better education and English competence are widely
conceived by these emerging Chinese middle-class families as essential to securing a
better future for their child. As a result, China has witnessed a massive outflow of
Journal of Education for Teaching 147
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Chinese students to overseas institutions, in particular, to Anglophone countries
where education is delivered through the medium of English (Gu and Schweisfurth
2006; Li and Bray 2007; Tan and Simpson 2008). It is in the context of this ongoing
outflow of students from the Chinese mainland in search of better academic
credentials and English competence that Hong Kong has become a favoured
destination (Gao 2008a; Li and Bray 2007; Singtao Daily 2008a, 2008b).
The study
The interview study reported in this paper is the starting point of a longitudinal
ethnographic inquiry into the process of mainland Chinese students’ development,
first as student teachers of English at the Institute and, second, as English teachers in
Hong Kong schools. As a baseline study, the interviews aimed to understand the
participants’ prior experiences and, in particular, address the question as to why
these ‘elite’ mainland Chinese students chose Hong Kong for their teacher training
programmes.
As most of the mainland Chinese students chose the English language education
programme in the Institute, the inquiry involved 10 first-year mainland Chinese
undergraduates in the Department of English (see Table 1). The selected participants
largely represented the wide mainland Chinese student population at the Institute.
As can be seen from Table 1, most (including those from Beijing, Shanghai,
Zhejiang, Hubei and Shandong) spoke Putonghua and their hometown dialects.
Three were from Guangdong province and spoke Cantonese. Though we were
interested in finding out why they came to Hong Kong for teacher training, we also
took the view that individual motivation is mediated by social contexts and life
experiences (Bodycott 1997; Gao 2008a; Su et al. 2001). For this reason, we adopted
a biographical narrative interview approach in the study because life history
interviews or the biographical method, through which research participants’
retrospective accounts of their experiences are collected and analysed, help capture
Table 1. The study participants.
No. Name Gender Place of origin Native languages
1 Star Female Hubei Putonghua
2 Jiashan Female Shandong Putonghua
3 Winter Female Guangdong Cantonese, Putonghua
4 Meng Female Beijing Putonghua
5 Qian* Male Liaoning/Guangdong** Cantonese, Putonghua
6 Lin Female Shandong Putonghua
7 Tao Male Zhejiang Hangzhou dialect,
Putonghua
8 Hui Female Shanghai Shanghai dialect,
Putonghua
9 Xi Female Beijing Putonghua
10 Jess Female Shaanxi/Guangdong** Putonghua, Cantonese
Notes: *participant was interviewed in English; **participants migrated to Guangdong
province from other provinces.
148 X. Gao and J. Trent
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the participants’ voices and enhance our understanding of their life realities (Johnson
and Golombek 2002; Goodson and Sikes 2001).
While a semi-structured interview guide (Appendix 1) was used in the process,
we encouraged the participants to recount their life experiences whenever possible.
The first author conducted interviews in either English or Chinese with the
participants after they finished the first semester in Hong Kong, though one might
argue that the participants’ accounts of prior experiences might have been
mediated by their new experiences in Hong Kong. However, the first author was
also involved in a promotion tour on the Chinese mainland and dealt with queries
from interested parents and students. Such first-hand knowledge about prospective
mainland Chinese applicants corroborated our interpretation of the participants’
accounts.
In the data analysis, a ‘paradigmatic approach’ (Erickson 2004; Smeyers and
Verhesschen 2001) was adopted when interpreting the participants’ narratives. We
normally read all the data (e.g. interview transcripts) to have a global
understanding of what actually happened to the participants. Then, guided by
the interpretative focus, we constantly questioned and compared the relevant data
to generate categories (Patton 1990). Some of the categories were informed by
existing theories. For instance, Kyriacou and Kobori’s (1998) classification of
motivations helped the analysis of data relevant to the participants’ perceptions of
the teaching profession.
Thus, when Star was asked about why she wanted to become an English teacher
in Hong Kong, one of the reasons she gave was: ‘As for being an English teacher, I
think that it is a quite stable job’ (Star).
According to Kyriacou and Kobori (1998), this statement indicates that Star had
an extrinsic reason when choosing to attend the teacher training programme. As in
most naturalistic interviews, the participants produced many statements that were
subject to multiple interpretations. For instance, when asked about why she decided
to apply for the teacher education programme, Hui described the process of her
changing attitudes towards the teaching profession as follows:
My father thought that teaching was a nice job for girls. Teaching is a stable job. Quiterelaxing... I myself do not love to be a teacher but I do not dislike being a teacher. I canaccept it as my profession. It is not a relaxing job at all. I think that one needs toaccumulate a lot of teaching experience though it will not be a very challenging job...And also, in my previous schools, a teacher’s attitude towards students was reallyimportant in these students’ growth and development. So I think that teaching is a reallyimportant job. (Hui)
In the previous interview extract, Hui referred to both extrinsic (‘a nice job for
girls’) and altruistic (‘a really important job’) reasons for being a teacher. She also
revealed that her family and teachers were instrumental in developing such
perceptions about the profession. Moreover, the extract is also indicative of her
ambiguous attitude towards becoming a teacher herself as she noted the
demanding nature of the job. The richness of data certainly added complexity
to the interpretation process, but in our view, this is also a strength of the
methodological approach adopted in this inquiry. The interpretation of data was
further refined through collegial discussions between both authors. Reiterative
analysis of the data under each category led to the emergence of fine-grained
findings from preliminary ones (Patton 1990).
Journal of Education for Teaching 149
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Emerging findings
The analysis of the data led to the conclusion that the participants’ motivation to
teach could be interpreted by examining their perceptions of the teaching profession
(English language teaching) and Hong Kong as the educational context in relation to
their self perceptions. Their perceptions of the profession and Hong Kong helped us
understand what attracted these participants to join the teacher education
programme. They were also indicative of their commitment to the teaching
profession. These findings will be presented in turn in the following sections. The
interview extracts that appear in the subsequent sections are all translations from
Chinese originals, unless otherwise stated.
Perceptions of the teaching profession
Positive attractions of the profession
The participants’ reasons for joining the teacher education programme were largely
related to their perceptions of the teaching profession as mediated by their prior
experiences. The reason given by Star, mentioned previously, represents a widespread
conception of the teaching profession among the participants, indicating that they
were attracted to the profession by its extrinsic incentives. At least four participants
also referred to the relational aspect of the profession like Jiashan. Jiashan witnessed a
harmonious collegial culture among teachers and students in her previous school and
was deeply impressed by their readiness to help each other in teaching. In contrast to
other professions, the teaching profession almost served as a safe haven for her:
Teaching must have been a happy profession. It will not be full of complexities like inother professions... Teachers in my previous schools have a very harmoniousrelationship. They like to help each other and prepare lessons together. They alsodiscuss problems together... I think that it is nice to be a teacher in such schools. There isfierce competition in other professions, I know. (Jiashan)
Other participants, like Meng, pointed to the therapeutic function of the teaching
profession. She believed that teaching could help her ‘keep a young heart’ (Meng)
since it allowed her to be in contact with children.
Other benefits associated with teaching such as ‘vacations’ were also mentioned
as incentives by these female participants. Possibly because of these benefits, three
participants mentioned that teaching was particularly a woman’s job. It was also
found in the study that their family and friends were influential in mediating them to
internalise the discourses between teaching and gender into their attitudes towards
the teaching profession. Like Hui (previously), Jess changed her negative perception
of the teaching profession on the Chinese mainland as a result of her parents’ and
friends’ persuasion:
My parents said to me that teaching was not a bad job for girls. You can have twovacations. Job is stable. Many people around me wanted to become teachers. Theytalked to me about it so gradually they changed my initial perceptions. (Jess)
In contrast, two male participants emphasised other attractions of the teaching
profession in the interviews. While Tao noted ‘vacations’ as an important attraction,
Qian was attracted to teaching because of its autonomous nature, a perception
continuously fostered by his father, who was a university lecturer before becoming a
businessman:
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Well, my father...told me that it is much better to be a teacher than to be abusinessman...being a teacher you can do what you like. He likes to do some research,and, and communicate with students. So he, he thinks it is a good job to be a teacher.(Qian, English original)
Somehow Qian’s father had succeeded in making his unfulfilled desire to be a
teacher, a lifelong regret caused by his decision to be a businessman, to be Qian’s
dream career. As a result, Qian described a self free from professional constraints to
the teaching profession. In addition, three participants recalled how important
teachers had been in their past experience and concluded that teaching was ‘a noble
job’. The perception of teaching as a ‘noble’ profession had functioned as an altruistic
incentive, attracting these participants to the teacher education programme.
Negative aspects of the profession
While the participants were attracted to the profession by both extrinsic and
altruistic reasons, the data revealed that their perceptions of the teaching profession
were shadowed by negative professional images. While Meng thought that teachers
‘are highly respected’, most other participants believed that the profession had a low
status on the Chinese mainland in that, ‘People talk about respecting teachers. But
you know. It is a materialistic society. I do not think that teaching has a high social
status’ (Tao).
As Tao made clear, the status of teaching is somehow reflected in the material
rewards for the teaching profession, including teachers’ ‘low salaries’ (Jiashan). In
comparison with other professions, teaching is also a very time-consuming job:
I found that teachers in my previous schools worked really hard. They had to be with usall day long. They had a lot to do. Those who work in companies have free time. Butthey did not have any….Therefore, I do not like the teaching profession as a whole….Italso has a low social status. (Lin)
Lin’s observation of teachers working in her previous schools confirmed her belief
that the teaching profession has a low status and made her dislike it. Another
indicator of low professional status is related to low recruitment criteria and the
incentives that the government uses to encourage school graduates to join teacher
education programmes:
Teaching has a low status in the society….I often read in the newspaper, politicians onthe Chinese mainland are calling people to go to teacher education universitieswithout paying any tuition fee…then I started feeling that those who do not havegood family or whose families are poor go to study in teacher education universities.(Jess)
On the Chinese mainland, the society does not place a lot of emphasis on the importanceof the teaching profession….On the mainland, the entry level to teacher traininginstitutes is low. And one can easily graduate and become teachers. This is not good tothe teaching profession. (Star)
In Jess’s opinion, this had made the profession unsuitable for ‘elite’ students like her.
It is also much easier for school graduates to enter and graduate from teacher
education programmes, deepening the impression of teaching as a non-elite
profession in the participants’ perceptions.
Low social status and material returns mean that hardly any of the traditional
values attached to education could be realised by pursuing a career in teaching. The
Journal of Education for Teaching 151
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participants’ school experiences, like that of Winter, further made them feel that the
teaching profession was not an attractive career option:
I know a lot of parents sometimes complain about teachers. I don’t know whether this isdue to the increasing pressure in the society or the fact that their children do not do wellin studies. There are a lot of complaints…I had some friends. We were good friends.They did not work hard. We all studied at key middle schools, provincial key middleschools. Then they could not catch up with others in studies. Their grades fell. Theirparents complained about teachers. My parents, who were their good friends, told methat they had a big argument with the teacher in the parents’ meeting….The status ofteachers is very low now on the Chinese mainland. Although my previous school is a keyschool, there was a teacher, for unknown reason, was beaten up. Terrible. A student hitthat teacher….When I heard the news, I just could not believe it. A student hit teacher.Students should place teachers above their parents. (Winter)
As noted by Winter, the much valued ‘harmonious’ professional relationships had
become complicated because of wider social processes, such as cultural shifts and
increasing educational competition (see also Gao 2008b). As a result, she was deeply
troubled by her school experiences, in which she saw the status of teachers
undermined by demanding parents and disrespectful students. Her ambiguity about
the status of the teaching profession and her uncertainty in teaching as a career was
also clear.
Unique attractions of the English language teaching profession
In spite of their reservations of teaching in general, seven participants had intrinsic
reasons behind their choice to be English teachers. Although Winter was
discouraged by the prospect of a profession with an undermined status, she liked
the idea of becoming an English teacher because she was able to use English with her
future students in teaching:
Being a language teacher is not a bad idea although I have not taught so far. Justimagine I can have access to English every day. I like English very much. If I can useEnglish to teach students and socialise with them in English, that will be nice. (Winter)
Meng enjoyed teaching English more than other subjects as it was ‘more fun’. Three
participants also noted the status of English as an academic subject in schools on the
Chinese mainland to justify their decision to join the English Language Education
programme.
At least four participants mentioned that English teachers could have more
career choices than other subject teachers because English is a socially important
language on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong:
English has wider applications. If you are a physics or mathematics teacher, it will bedifficult for you to change your job in the future. As an English teacher, you can find aneasy entry to different professions. You can be an English teacher, but you can also be atranslator. It is easier for you to change your career. (Jiashan)
As suggested by Jiashan, being proficient in English was important because it gave
them career options other than being teachers, including working as translators.
Therefore many participants were attracted to English language teaching because
their English competence might offer them an easy exit to other careers. The easy exit
is important in these participants’ perception as they, like other teachers in Chinese
cultural contexts, believe that teachers are less likely to migrate to other professions.
152 X. Gao and J. Trent
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These findings suggest that the participants’ interest in becoming English teachers
was also closely related to benefits external to the teaching profession.
Attractions of Hong Kong
As the earlier findings present a picture of ambiguous attitude among the
participants to the teaching profession, one might wonder what attractions Hong
Kong had for them. According to the data, the following aspects of Hong Kong were
particularly appealing to the participants.
First, Hong Kong was widely seen by all the participants as ‘a better place’ for
learning English. Meng’s comments are representative of all the participants’
perception of Hong Kong as a resource-rich context for learning English:
It is a better choice to study English in Hong Kong. If I studied in one of the foreignlanguage universities in Beijing, I might have only one or two classes taught by foreignteachers….The conditions here are surely better. We all want to learn in an environmentwith good conditions. I think that it is nice to be here. (Meng)
As English competence was highly valued by the participants, it is not surprising that
they emphasised the importance of having a better place for learning English. Two
participants were even disappointed for a short time after arrival because the
programme paid too much attention to the teaching of English and gave insufficient
support to their pursuit of English competence.
Second, they were impressed by the Institute’s commitment to teacher education:
I think in universities, in the mainland, some of the universities in mainland, theydon’t care about you when you enter university. For example, if you don’t come to alecture, nobody will blame you. And you can still pass the exam….Hum, I think,students here will work very hard. It is much, much difficult for me to get a high markthan in mainland, because you know here we should get credits, and the, we have therecord the GPA. But in mainland, there is not this kind of things. (Qian, Englishoriginal)
As mentioned in the introduction, all the students were subject to a rigorous
selection process, aimed at ensuring that only a small number of highly qualified
‘elite’ mainland Chinese applicants could come to study in Hong Kong. Also in
Hong Kong, teacher education programmes are well-resourced and the whole
training process seems to be much stricter than those in mainland Chinese
universities. All these perceptions contribute to the feeling that the importance of
the teaching profession is highly emphasised in Hong Kong. By being part of the
teacher education programme, the participants might have continued feeling that
they were still among the educational ‘elites’. It is also important to note that
school teachers in Hong Kong get much higher salaries than those on the
Chinese mainland, confirming the participants’ perception that the profession is
valued.
Another important attraction of Hong Kong is that it is easier for graduates to
find jobs because the Institute claims that it has a near 100% graduate employment
rate in their promotion materials. This was an important attraction as most of
mainland Chinese university graduates found it increasingly difficult to find
employment (Bai 2006; Postiglione 2005). Without employment, graduates can
hardly pursue their objectives in education, such as social mobility, financial returns,
or their ‘elite’ status:
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Living and study conditions are better than those on the Chinese mainland….Graduateemployment rate is much higher too. If you do not go to a good university on theChinese mainland…except for taking postgraduate studies, it is really difficult for youto find a job. You have to take exams for postgraduate studies or being a public servant.(Lin)
In short, Hong Kong attracted these mainland Chinese students as a place where one
can have access to rich resources to enhance their English competence and there are
plenty of career opportunities. As a result, these participants felt that they couldrealise the values of education that Chinese traditionally attach to it in Hong Kong,
while they found it increasingly difficult to pursue these values on the Chinese
mainland.
Uncertainties as non-local students
Given the increasingly competitive graduate job market on the Chinese mainland,
the 100% graduate employment rate created a strong incentive for the participants tojoin the programme. However, they were also aware of the challenges facing them in
their career advances in Hong Kong:
I grew up on the Chinese mainland and do not know the system here. Or parents’expectations of children and teachers. I do not know what Hong Kong students arethinking about. (Hui)
Students are difficult to teach in Hong Kong.…I saw a TV drama series about a schoolin Hong Kong. I also a lot learnt from other senior students… Hong Kong students donot listen to teachers as mainland Chinese students do.…these teachers were localteachers. Therefore, I am thinking, as a mainland student teacher, when I go to theteaching practicum, when I find myself in a similar situation, I do not know what todo…you know, I do not speak Cantonese that well. I am a little bit worried. (Xi)
Half of the participants noted that their deficiencies included their unfamiliarity with
the local educational system, school curriculum and students’ learning needs in Hong
Kong. They were also worried that their lack of Cantonese competence mightseriously undermine their future career development.
In addition, participants were concerned with the question of whether the 100%
graduate employment rate could continue in Hong Kong. The problem was
complicated by the rising number of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong.
Macro-contextual changes, such as the decreasing demand for teachers in some
sectors due to low birth rate, might have made some of the participants feel uncertainabout being teachers in the new context as well.
In fact, many participants had already started their preparation for alternative
careers. Though graduation was still some years ahead, half of the participants were
considering taking further education upon graduation. These considerations helped
them deal with situations in which they might fail to achieve their aims when coming
to Hong Kong as ‘elite’ students from the Chinese mainland. As one commented, ‘I
may continue studies after my graduation….If I have better academic qualifications,I could easily find a job’ (Jiashan).
Empowered by their educational and social experience in the new context, these
students had set even higher career goals, which might eventually attract them away
from the teaching profession. In fact, at least three participants mentioned in the
interviews that university teachers had higher social status and thus teaching in
universities might be a more attractive career. These findings indicate that the new
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context had already influenced the participants’ motivation to teach. They also
confirmed that extrinsic attractions were important for these participants when
considering a teaching career. Success and failure in their pursuit of these extrinsic
objectives may mediate their motivation to teach and commitment to the teaching
profession in the future, making their future developmental path as student teachers
tortuous.
Discussion
So far, we have documented ambiguous attitudes towards the teaching profession
among the participants. The data suggested that they were largely attracted to
teaching because of its extrinsic benefits, but at the same time were also discouraged
by the negative professional images, such as low social status, on the Chinese
mainland. In essence, many of them did not think that being teachers helped them
fulfil their pursuit of traditional objectives of education including acquiring valuable
social capital and maintaining social ‘elite’ status (Su et al. 2001).
However, the participants’ choice of the teacher education programme in Hong
Kong was bolstered by the fact that they were choosing to be English teachers, a
subject area seen as more prestigious and having valued skills transferable to other
professions. The perceptions of Hong Kong as a better place for learning English
and as a context that values teachers also helped these ‘elite’ students choose the
teacher education programme because they saw that they were more likely to acquire
valuable social and cultural capital from their educational investment (e.g. Bai 2006;
Elman 2000; Lee 2000). Some participants were also aware of the challenges and
difficulties of becoming teachers in Hong Kong and others had begun to set higher
educational goals or make preparations for careers alternative to teaching. This
creates uncertainty for the supply of qualified teachers in the local educational
system; an issue that needs to be addressed by stakeholders in the educational system
(Cruickshank 2004; Manuel and Hughes 2006).
Research suggests that two of the most important factors that can assist in the
difficult process of becoming a teacher are a positive sense of professional
community and school administrators’ support (Scherff 2008). For instance,
participants’ commitment to teaching in the inquiry was undermined not only by
the status and conditions of teaching; they were also concerned with the likelihood of
successfully becoming members of the teaching profession in the new context. This
requires teacher training institutions to develop support strategies in helping such
students in the process of becoming teachers (Cruickshank 2004; Manuel and
Hughes 2006). For example, their motivation to teach could be sustained by keeping
them updated with information about the teaching context, such as predicted teacher
vacancies.
However, there are also limits to what teacher education institutions can achieve
and it is therefore schools that will play a crucial role in promoting a positive sense of
professional community among these teachers. At the school level, strengthening the
participants’ commitment to teaching and their sense of professional community
could begin with official recognition and acknowledgement of the strengths that the
participants, as non-local teachers, see themselves bringing to the Hong Kong
educational environment. One example is the participants’ perception of their
Putonghua competence. When asked about what made them particularly employable
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as non-local graduates, four participants mentioned that their proficiency in
Putonghua enabled them to play a unique role in Hong Kong’s schools:
Interviewer: But compared with those local students, what kind of strength do youthink you have, say, for a job, trying to get opportunities?
Qian: I think Putonghua is the first one.
Interviewer: Why?
Qian: Because our teacher told us in some schools in Hong Kong, the schools willask mainland teachers to teach Putonghua, both English and Putonghuaare taught in a primary or secondary school. And if you can speakPutonghua very well, they will let you teach both Putonghua and English, Ithink it is the strength.
(Qian, English original)
As Putonghua is being promoted in Hong Kong’s schools not only as a subject but
also as the medium of instruction for the Chinese language in primary schools
(Davison and Lai 2007), Hong Kong schools need a large number of Putonghua-
proficient speakers. Consequently, the participants’ perceived strength of Putonghuacompetence could be formally recognised as a valuable resource to change schools
into sites helping students achieve multilingual competence in Cantonese, English
and Putonghua, as advanced by the government (Davison and Lai 2007; Evans 2000;
Lai 2001).
Ensuring that the voices of these teachers are heard will also be important instrengthening this sense of community (Scherff 2008). This could begin with
consultation in which school authorities solicit and respond to the views of mainland
Chinese student teachers. A process that may mature into partnerships that allow the
unique experiences and understandings mainland Chinese student teachers possess of
educational contexts beyond Hong Kong to play a part in shaping the policies and
practices of local schools. It also needs to be recognised that mainland Chinese
student teachers working in Hong Kong will enter schools that have their own goals
and values. These teachers therefore need knowledge of local school practices and tounderstand the micro-politics of these schools (Ball 1987). For this reason we believe
schools should establish induction and mentoring programmes that provide
information to these teachers and allow them to explore their concerns in a
supportive environment (Gold 1996; Hargreaves and Fullan 2000). In addition, they
need to be helped to overcome their anxiety resulting from a strong desire to see
guaranteed returns on their substantial educational investment.
Conclusion
It may be strategically important for places like Hong Kong to attract a large
number of talented non-local students to join the teacher education programmes,
which are often turned down by their own ‘elite’ students. The mainland Chinese
student teachers in this inquiry were driven to Hong Kong because of theincreasingly competitive educational context on the Chinese mainland (Bai 2006;
Postiglione 2005). They were also attracted to Hong Kong because of better
education opportunities and their perceptions of teachers as valued professionals.
However, while these ambitious ‘elite’ mainland Chinese students may experience
quality education, they might also find it disappointing to see their ‘rosy’ picture of
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the profession disintegrating once they experience the reality of teaching, in
particular, as non-local student teachers. Teaching in Hong Kong, as in many other
contexts, is a demanding job (Lai et al. 2005; Morris 2004). These students’ paths to
teaching are unlikely to be straightforward as they bring with them their own
expectations of the teaching profession and educational investment. Given the small
number of the participants, the findings from the present study need to be treated
with caution. Nevertheless, the arrival of these non-local students in teacher
education programmes has created a need for us to undertake longitudinal follow-up
research on the process of their adaptation and development as committed and
competent teachers in local schools.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank Professor Peter Gilroy and reviewers for their
constructive comments on our original manuscript. We would also like to thank
the Research Centre into Language Education in Multilingual Societies
(RCLEMS), Hong Kong Institute of Education, for its generous funding and
support for the project.
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Appendix 1. Interview schedule
(1) Can you talk about your experiences before you joined the programme? Like who you areand what you did.
(2) Can you talk about how and why you decided to join the programme? Any particularperson(s) or life event(s) that might have influenced your decision?
(3) What are your perceptions of teachers and the teaching profession? What are yourperceptions of English language teachers and the English language teaching profession?How did you come to have such perceptions? How does your society view teachers? Whatdo you think gives rise to these perceptions?
(4) What are your expectations from taking this programme? What do you want to achieve bytaking this programme?
(5) What skills/experience/knowledge are needed to be an effective ELT? What strengths doyou think you have in becoming the kind of teacher that you expect yourself to become?How did you become convinced that these strengths are your strengths?
(6) What kind of support do you think that you may need in the programme? And others…
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