An Interpretation of Chinese Teacher Images from a Cultural Perspective

李傲君 张文星

【基金項目】北京服装学院人事处促进人才培养综合改革项目，项目编号： PTTBIFT_YC-005。

【中图分类号】G64 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2015）03-0098-01

When comes to teaching in Chinese classroom， a collage of arguments always arise. Some say in order to “revolute” Chinese students， western ways of teaching have to take the lead， as it does more in evoking students thinking； some disagree by saying that more disciplines in Chinese classroom help students better develop， thus cannot be dismissed.

Thus in the following， we will start from describing Chinese teacher images in our minds， in which Confucius and Socratess teaching philosophy are interpreted as basic frameworks. Then we value the comparison between teaching images attached to two cultures as necessary. Rogoffs cultural aspect of human development is employed as an analysis tool.

Chinese classes are always said to be teacher？鄄centered classes. Teachers have the authority over students， and do most of the talking. Teaching is seen as a matter of transmitting information usually by lecturing （Biggs， 2001）. Why can Chinese teachers be authoritative？ What are the embodiments of Chinese teachers authority？ We will address these questions one by one in the following part. The authority of Chinese teachers is closely related to their responsibilities which we will explain later on. We will also talk about Confucius influence over Chinese teachers authority which can be said is at the root of Chinese teachers image. In the end， we will answer why Chinese teachers have to change the traditional image according to some statistics.

Why Chinese teachers can be authoritative？

Why can Chinese teachers be authoritative？ And why do students in China see their teachers words as sacred？ In our opinion there are four reasons behind it：

1.The social environment asks people to respect teachers. China has a long history of valuing education. Education is seen as important for personal development， associated with human perfectibility and social mobility. “Men， one and all， in infancy are virtuous at heart， their natures are much the same， the practice wide apart. Without instructions aid， our instinct grew less pure. By aiming at thoroughness only can teaching ensure.” This is part of the Three Character Classic， which prevailed in China for over 600 years， being adopted as a major elementary guide to knowledge for school beginners. This poem points out how important education and teacher is for a persons personal internal development. Education is also linked closely with a persons external or career development. Lets look at what the idioms say. “Although studying anonymously for ten years， once you are successful， you will become well？鄄known in the world.” “There are golden houses in books and there are beautiful girls in books” （Lee， 1996）. The government also advocates “Respecting teachers and valuing education” （zun shi zhong jiao）. Here respecting teachers is the precondition of valuing education. In China we dont have fathers day or mothers day， but we have teachers day （September 1）. Between teachers and students there is certain etiquette to follow.

2.Parents always tell their children to listen to their teachers. For children， before they go to school， their parents will tell them to listen to their teachers. In China a good student is a student who listens to his/her teachers. When pupils have arguments with their parents， they usually say “this is what our teacher said”. Children assume that since their parents always tell them that they should listen to their teachers， if they quote their teachers words， their parents will have to admit that they are right.

3.The exam？鄄orientated educational system makes students have to listen to their teachers. In China students have a lot of exams even from grade 1 in elementary school. “Students may have to go through as many as eight sets of competitive examinations in their school years. In addition most schools have examinations at least twice a year， and formal and informal tests at regular intervals monthly” （Salili， 2001. p90）.

4.The large class sizes make teachers have to be authoritative. Canadians always feel surprised when told the usual size of a Chinese class. They are wondering how come Chinese teachers can handle such large classes. Romanowski （2006） claims that in his research class size in China experienced by participants varied， ranging from 35 to 98. A class size of 90 in middle school is common.“The challenge for the Chinese teacher is to arouse and maintain their pupils attention， concentration， listening， and interests and also to enable as many individual pupils as possible to speak however briefly” （Watkins， 2003， p250）. In a big size class， it is impossible for teachers to follow every students interests. Teachers have to judge what the majoritys will is and what the best choice is for the whole group. We all have such experience： the more students we have， the more opinions appear， the more difficult the decision is to be made. At circumstance like this we need someone who has the authority to give a final say.

In our opinion， the four factors we discussed above are the direct causes enabling Chinese teachers to have authority in class. But if we dig deeper and look at teachers authoritative image from a traditional cultural perspective， we can find its origin from Confucius who established the foundation of Chinese thinking and doing.

References：

[1]Bosworth & Kris （1995）. Caring For Others And Being Cared For. Phi Delta Kappan， 0031-7217， 76， （9）， 1-10.

[2]Biggs，J.B.（2001）.Teaching across cultures. In Salii. F， Chiu，C.Y.&Hong.Y.Y.Student motivation： The culture and context of learning. New York： Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

[3]Biggs，J.B.（1996）.Western misperceptions of the Confucian？鄄heritage learning culture. In In D. Watkins & J. Biggs （Eds.），The Chinese learner： Cultural， psychological， and contextual influences. Hong Kong： Comparative Education Research Center.

[4]Bull， P. （Producer）， & Bull， P. & Gibney， A. （Writers） （1992）. Big business and the ghost of Confucius [Videorecording]. Seattle： Pacific Basin Institute in association with KCTS.

[5]Cassidy W&Bates，A.（2005） “Drops？鄄Outs”and“Push？鄄Outs”：Finding Hope at a School That Actualize the Ethic of Care. American Journal of Education 112 （November）， 66-109.