February 2019 – Volume 22, Number 4
Faridah Pawan
Indiana University, USA
<fpawan
indiana.edu>
Hong Pu
Qujing University, PR China
<ph1228hotmail.com>
Abstract
Much research shows that regardless of where teachers are trained, there is the disjuncture between training and practice. As a result, teachers reject new approaches because they are not aligned to contexts in which they eventually find themselves. This research, however, shines a light on the efforts of Chinese English language teachers in Yunnan Province to make the connection between new and external approaches into their classrooms. Findings demonstrate that the teachers’ interpretation and glocalization decision-making is based on whether it empowers teachers (e.g. strengthens teachers’ professional position); empowers their teaching (e.g. improves their course design); engenders critical thinking (e.g. helps teachers to critically evaluate practice); enables appropriation and transformation (e.g. provides room for teachers to incorporate local practices). The findings result in the development of the “Critical Glocalization Teaching Framework” to help teachers to critically reflect on the utility of their teacher training experiences in light of their immediate teaching contexts. While the specifics of the teachers’ contexts in the study differ from that of teachers’ elsewhere, the outcomes of the research reflect not only many issues shared by but also the teacher agency of English-as-a-Second/Foreign language teachers across the board.
Keywords: Methods, Teacher Agency, Critical Glocalization
You have to think carefully about the things you learned in the West… They were good, and maybe very good on that soil…. But for many of them, you have to “beat and polish” them to make them fit…
Introduction
The quote from a Chinese English Language (ELT) teacher trained in the West speaks of the challenging work that awaits teachers who return to their own classrooms after completing their teacher education or professional development programs overseas. Much research (See Ermmeling, 2010; Wei, Darling-Hammond, & Adamson, 2010) shows that regardless of where teachers are trained, there is the disjuncture between training and practice. As a result, teachers reject new approaches because they are not aligned to contexts in which they eventually find themselves. This research, however, shines a light on the efforts of Chinese English language teachers in Yunnan Province to make the connection between new and external approaches in their classrooms.
The study began with Chinese English teachers who were trained in Western countries overseas. However, as we delved into the research, we began to see that our research questions resonated with all teachers we encountered in China, whether or not they were trained in the West. In this regard, it is our opinion that, while the specifics of the Chinese teachers’ contexts differ from that of teachers elsewhere, the outcomes of the research reflect many issues shared by English-as-a-Second/Foreign language across the board.
The research questions for the study are as follows:
- What factors influence Chinese ELTs application of new and external methods they learned from teacher training/professional development sessions?
- When teachers choose to introduce into or bridge the approaches with local teaching practices in their classroom, what factors either enhance or challenge their efforts to do so?
In the process of responding to these questions, teachers also shared with us the various teaching methods they used to teach English. This information provides insight into teachers’ decision-making when they are trying to make things work in their English language classrooms. The findings demonstrate that the teachers draw from multiple sources and make decisions grounded in their understanding of what works the best in their classroom.
Literature Review
Glocalization as a Concept:
Glocalization is an important concept in this study and refers to the interplay between the external (global) and the local teaching approaches, methods and activities. Robertson (1992) coined the term “glocalization” from the Japanese term “dochakuka” which refers to the adaptation of new approaches into Japanese farming techniques. Friedman (1999) defines it as “the ability of a culture, when it encounters other strong cultures, to absorb influences that naturally fit into and can enrich that culture, to resist those things that are truly alien, and to compartmentalize those things that, while different, can nevertheless be enjoyed and celebrated as different” (p. 29).
In the field of language teaching, glocalization refers to the process of adapting external and local pedagogical knowledge into teachers’ classroom practices. The interest paid to glocalization as a process stems from the recognition that teaching approaches have limited utility in places other than the places in which they were originally developed. In his edited text, Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice, Canagarajah (2005) argues against the acceptance as a universal standard of Western-based approaches such as the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach, in second and foreign language teaching. Such as an acceptance, he argues, ignores the equal and/or greater power of local knowledge and practices and spreads biases against them in the name of globalization. Arguing his point further, Canagarajah asserts that local knowledge and practice are “getting short-changed by the social processes and intellectual discourses of contemporary globalization” (p. xiv).
As Pu and Pawan (2013) assert, glocalization is a social and strategic negotiation between external pedagogical ideals and local practice. Our position aligns with Shin’s (2006) post-colonial pedagogy where local knowledge and practice are not in a subsidiary position relative to that of the global but have equal standing in deconstructing unexamined assumptions and in shaping knowledge to meet local and situated educational needs.
Tripartite Sociocultural Framework of Teacher Knowledge Base:
We referred to Freeman and Johnson’s (1998) tripartite framework in our research as it situates teachers’ knowledge at the center of (a) teachers’ reflections and experiences of themselves as learners; (b) the nature of schools and schooling they experienced; and (c) the nature of the teaching and learning that is happening in their own classrooms. In this regard, our perspective is influenced by Vygotskyian sociocultural theory (1986) which posits that teachers’ actions emerge out of the interplay between cognition and the sociocultural interactions (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). We thus see the decisions and actions that teachers in the study undertake as emerging from teachers’ knowledge of themselves and knowledge of the discipline in combination with their awareness of and engagement in the sociocultural opportunities and constraints of their classrooms, schools and communities.
Freeman and Johnson’s framework can be understood in terms of its three areas of focus. First, “teachers as learners” includes how teachers’ prior knowledge, beliefs and training inform their current instructional practices. It also focuses on teachers as learners of their teaching practice. The nature of schools and schooling refers to the immediate physical influences of their schools on teachers as well as the long-term sociocultural and historical processes that prevail in their schools over time (Johnson & Golombek, 2016, p. 6). The third domain of the framework refers to teachers’ understanding of learners and learning processes in their own classrooms. When teachers see “teaching as learning and learning as teaching” (Branscombe, Goswami, & Schwartz, 1992, cited in Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999, p. 281), their classrooms is more than a place for application; they are a place for learning as well (Freeman, 2016).
Figure 1: Freeman and Johnson’s (1998) Tripartite Framework
Research Method
Setting:
The research was undertaken with in-service Chinese English language teachers (ELTs) in 10 schools in Yunnan Province in China which ranged from schools within its provincial capital to other parts of the region. The researchers were heavily involved in teacher professional development work in the province. Two factors led the researchers to undertake glocalization research in the province: First, it is home to approximately 25 out of the 56 minority groups in China and thus it is very ethnically diverse as a setting (Wang, 2016). Given this diversity, we hypothesized that we would find different forms of localization as teachers sought ways to make their instruction appropriate and relevant to their student and school contexts. Second, because English teachers in these communities are often not from the local community, (and this is the case in all but one of the schools we visited), they would have to bridge what they learned from elsewhere into the local context. Many English teachers are from elsewhere because there is an acute shortage of teachers in general in these ethnically diverse areas (See Jiang, Liu, Quan & Ma, 2007; Wang, 2017). Due to the shortage as well, often teachers from other subject areas are re-assigned to teach English, some with minimal professional training, leading them to rely on their knowledge of middle school or high school English to undertake the job. Subsequently, these teachers would have had to make adaptions and modifications in order to use their subject area approaches in English language teaching.
Participants:
Individual interviewees. We sent out a call for interview volunteers through an online group for teachers in Yunnan Province schools in which we had previously undertaken professional development work and we interviewed an initial group of sixteen teachers who came forth. They all have taught for at least 10 years and were primarily middle school and high school teachers. Generally, teachers at these levels are more experienced in teaching English as the language has long been a part of the middle and high school requirement since China’s 1978 “Open Door Policy.” All were female teachers; male teachers are few in number in China where four out of five public school teachers are female (Hernández, 2016).
Survey respondents. The data from the interview were compiled into a questionnaire which was sent out to teachers participating in an online discussion group of ELTs at schools connected with our professional development programs in Yunnan Province. 216 teachers responded to the questionnaire and their backgrounds can be seen in the Table 1 below:
Table 1: Survey Respondents’ Professional Background
As can be seen above, most of the teachers have had more than 5 years of teaching experience, most are teaching at the middle school level, and most received their English language teacher training from universities. It is to be noted, as well, that a significant number of teachers obtained in-service training from activities organized by their schools or districts, as well as from online discussion groups such as WeChat.
Research Approach:
The research was undertaken from March to July of 2018. It is a mixed-method approach consisting of interviews (individual and focus groups), classroom observations, and a survey. This pragmatic approach allows us to respond to our research questions from several angles, both objectively and subjectively. The mixed method approach also enabled us to engage in Tashakkori and Teddlie’s (2008) inductive to deductive research process which included using findings grounded in our participants’ views, classroom observations, and information from surveys as a basis for making inferences.
The study began with hour-long interviews using the study’s research questions with sixteen initial respondents mentioned above. We transcribed and coded the data to identify themes. (See Table 2 for an example). We referred to Cresswell and Poth’s (2018) guidance to develop boundaries for the code categories that we were identifying. We coded separately and later compared our coding to identify areas of consensus and differences. When we could not resolve differences, we eliminated the theme and code.
Table 2: Coding Example
| Theme | Code Name | When to use | When not to use | Segment Example |
| Teachers using beliefs and principles as guides to selecting approaches, methods and activities. | Beliefs and principles | Use when teachers are expressing opinion about approaches, methods and activities etc. based on their beliefs and principles | Do not use when teachers making general descriptions in general and do not connect them back to a position they hold | I use TPR but it is not particular only in China. TPR releases anxiety of students. And it helps with comprehension. Students feel good and they feel they have achieved. I believe this is important for my students because feeling achievement is enjoyed all over the world. |
The codes were used as questions on a survey (See Table 3 below) which was then administered to English teachers in the region via an online discussion group specially created for them. The researchers then undertook 8 focus group interviews (2-5 teachers) and observations of 9 English language classrooms. (See Appendix).
Findings
Our interviews, survey, and observations yielded information on the multiple factors that Chinese ELTs identified as important as they considered external approaches to incorporate into their teaching context. In addition, the findings also yielded existing methods in Chinese English language teaching classrooms in the study, and provided glocalization examples that the teachers in the classrooms attempted.
Glocalization Factors:
The interviews with the initial set of sixteen teachers yielded 15 themes which we then converted into survey items for teachers to respond to regarding the factors they agreed as most important in making decisions about using external approaches into their local classroom. The teachers provided multiple answers (See Table 3 below). We obtained 216 responses and the following table contains the distribution of responses organized through the descending order of percentages of teacher responses.
Table 3: Factors in incorporating external teaching methods
Question: If you are going to incorporate external teaching methods into your classroom, what are the factors you agree as most important to help you make the decision?
|
45.36% |
|
43.17% |
|
40.44% |
|
39.67% |
|
38.38% |
|
37.91% |
|
36.61% |
|
36.26% |
|
32.24% |
|
29.12% |
|
29.12% |
|
17.49% |
|
14.13% |
|
12.57% |
|
8.7% |
Teaching Methods
We also asked teachers at the end of the survey to share English language teaching methods currently in use in their ELT classrooms. The responses we received ranged from overall approaches to teaching to specific methods and activities used in the classroom as can be seen below in Figure 2.
Figure 2: English Language Teaching Approaches, Methods, and Activities
Glocalization Examples:
In observations, teachers were most interested in showing us what they saw as their glocalization attempts to combine the local and the external. They were particularly adamant that we focused on and noticed their efforts to undertake the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), including its extension, the Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) approach in their classrooms. Our attention was drawn to ways the teachers tried to engage students in the oral use of the English language in student-centered, open-ended and authentic ways through tasks and projects. We classified their efforts into four categories (Table 4).
Table 4: Glocalization Categories
| Communicative continuum | Technological Scaffold | Jiàoyánzŭ (collegial) support | Local and external trait combination | Translanguaging |
The first is a category of activities on a “communicative continuum” (Littlewood, 2013), namely from the analytic to the experiential. Although the objective of a class may be open-ended communication, teachers we observed took students through the stages of analytic strategies from focusing on language structures, to practicing the structures, focusing on meaning, noticing the meaning in context. The teachers then who were using this strategy would engage students in using the pre-learned structures and the meanings associated with them in new contexts and then pushing students to engage in open-ended communication by drawing examples from what they know from their own lives. We saw, for example, a teacher who went through these steps in teaching his students to use the definite article, surprising his students with baskets of local fruit (for example, jackfruit, durian, dragon fruit) from the market he bought just outside of school to get them to talk and to engage. These steps took the students from Littlewood’s (2013) analytic stages of non-communicative learning, to pre-communicative language practice, to structured communication and then to open-ended communication related to the immediate.
In every classroom that we observed, whether in urban or rural areas, technology was ever-present in the teaching of English. Teachers point to the necessity of technology to make up for the lack of the availability of people who speak the language natively. For example, in one middle school class, we saw a teacher began by first using PowerPoint slides to give an outline of a documentary related to the highest mountains in the world. The students saw a video clip of the documentary in English and this was followed by a smart board interactive exercise. Students engaged actively in oral discussions to complete information gaps in the exercise. They had much to say about the the documentary due to differing opinions on which mountains were the most significant and were the highest. It was also clear that the technology facilitated classroom engagement as students were comfortable and savvy in using the board as a scaffold to completing their work.
It is a known fact that by Western standards, Chinese classrooms are large, for example, 50-70 students or more on average. Communicative activities in small groups are difficult to manage and teachers fear that students will lapse into using their native language instead of English when left on their own. To make group work happen, in an open demonstration class, we saw a teacher using colleagues from her “jiàoyánzŭ” or teacher research study group as small group leaders in her classroom (Pawan & Fan, 2014). The teacher’s jiàoyánzŭ colleagues guided her students in discussions on what students wanted to be in the future.
The teachers we observed were mindful and aware of the strengths that their students brought with them into the classroom as well as the potential of what communicative approaches had to offer in terms of not just learning about English but also using the language actively to advance proficiency. For example, we saw one teacher combining the two in an English classroom teaching where she combined the familiar practice of choral engagement with debate. Choral reading and joint responses to questions are frequent features of Chinese classrooms. Teachers see it as a way to include and pull along everyone, proficient and struggling students alike, in all activities in the classroom (Pu & Pawan, 2013). Two groups of students on two sides of the class chorally debated on friendly terms, the ideas of moving into a different city for work against the idea of staying on in one’s hometown.
Translanguaging (Williams, 2002) was evident too as a form of communicative glocalization. When engaging in open-ended conversations with students, we saw Chinese ELTs in the study often shuttling back and forth between Mandarin and English to sustain communication with students. In several schools, teachers used Naxi, the native language of a large minority group in a region there, in addition to Mandarin to sustain communication in English language classrooms. We also saw Dongba, the Naxi pictographic script, on school walls in addition to Mandarin. These are a further testament of how the Naxi language plays an important role in the overall schooling of the students and not just in the language classroom. Using the three languages all together made sense in this school not only to sustain communicative engagement but also to motivate students by validating their language heritage and using it is as a familiar foundation to learn something new.
Figure 3: Dongba script on a school wall
Discussions
The interviews and the survey findings on glocalization factors, that is incorporating outside methods into their classroom, could be categorized into Freeman and Johnson’s (1998) tripartite framework of sociocultural factors underlying language teachers’ knowledge base. It is evident that the teachers’ glocalization decision-making is based on their awareness of their classrooms i.e., in what they see as suitable and working in their classrooms (45.35%), what they think works well in their classrooms (40.44%), and the reverse, i.e., what is not working in their classrooms (36.26%). It is also clear that their decision-making is based on awareness of their own knowledge, abilities and skills including their own beliefs and principles of good teaching (43.17%), their course proficiency skills (29.12%), confidence as a teacher (29.12%) and how the knowledge translates into the practical aspects of what they know supports their course design (38.38%) and lesson planning (37.91%). All of these could be tied to their disciplinary knowledge (English language, applied linguistics, second language acquisition, literature and culture) accompanied with pedagogical knowledge of methods of how to teach that they acquired through teacher training institutions. Freeman (2016) would argue such disciplinary knowledge falls short of developing teaching professionals unless it is situated within the socio-interpersonal interactions and activities taking place in the teachers’ teaching/learning context.
Whether or not to incorporate external methods and approaches into their classroom is also based on whether they are compatible with those currently existing in their schools (14.13%) as well as acceptable to colleagues (12.57%). It could be argued that these two aspects directly related to jiàoyánzŭ groups of peers mentoring each other that define professional development in Chinese public schools (Tsui & Wong, 2009). As mentioned earlier, the groups are led by the most experienced teachers (backbone teachers) and they congregate on a weekly basis to share ideas, lesson plans and to share teaching PowerPoint files. These are tight knit groups to the point that in one school, members are referred to as “sisters and brothers” (Pawan & Fan, 2017). This is possible because teachers of each subject area, including English, share spacious office spaces and spend a great deal of time in proximity with each other because most taught only two or three 40-minute periods a day or ten to twelve periods a week, especially at the middle and high school levels. (American middle and high school teachers generally teach 15-20 periods a week.)
Given the importance of the jiàoyánzŭ group members, it is surprising that the percentages of responses were not higher in terms of those who agree that “glocalization” decisions are based on existing methods colleagues used in school. One possible explanation is that the jiàoyánzŭ is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, especially for new teachers, having senior peers working in tandem and in close proximity in what is known as the “shifu-tudi” (master-disciple) relationship, provides much-needed support and a safety net during a time when there are many unknowns. On the other, having to be accountable to colleagues in such close and interconnected ways can stifle teaching autonomy and creativity.
It is also surprising that the smallest percentage of teacher responses were related to the approval of school leaders (8.7%) as an important consideration when incorporating methods. Teaching is a highly regulated profession as it is an “iron rice bowl” (stable) profession because it is a civil-service profession and directly connected to the central government and its state-run enterprises (Fan, Wang, & Chen, 2017). Consequently, the job is the focus of constant regulation. For example, “Expert Inspection Teams” regularly visit teachers’ classrooms to be sure that they are on track and are following mandates from the district, province, and central governments. However, the following quote may provide an explanation for what is happening at the teacher level on the ground:
I am used to visitors in my classroom, but how to say, I teach the way I need to teach in my classroom. They do not come all the time.
This teacher’s sense of accountability to external entities came in second place when deciding how to proceed in the classroom. Sensing and attending to what was happening in the classroom took priority. In this regard, the teacher’s words bring to mind a Chinese saying, “Heaven is high and the emperor is far away.”
The teaching approaches, methods, and activities that teachers shared ranged from the teacher-centered to those that are learner-centered, and from those that are knowledge transmission-oriented to those that are socio-constructivist and open-ended in nature. They included, for example, what one teacher called, “duck-stuffing” or cramming in which teachers provide and make students learn as much information as they can provide to prepare the latter for tests and examinations.
“Duck-stuffing” is what I call a Chinese approach. It is full of teachers’ input. We have to prepare students for tests as the aim of learning a language is to take tests.
Teachers also may resort to the use of their native language in classrooms to direct students and to make sure they are following along.
We use Chinese to teach English. We give instructions in Chinese and tell students to repeat after the teacher. Teachers say a word or a sentence and students follow or mimic them.
Nevertheless, at the other end of the spectrum, it is also evident that teachers included student-centered activities. For example:
I also play games in the classroom. This method is interesting to students because they can use the language on their own ways and practice what they’re learning in class in the games.
The following example also showcases a similar student-centered approach using student stories to contextualize new ideas:
As a teacher, I see my role is to help students to connect new knowledge to knowledge they know through vivid stories. So in my English classes, we often discuss in small groups stories that students know.
The teacher- to student-centered range of examples in the data reflects the range in the three positions we saw regarding the communicative language teaching approach (CLT) in China (Pu & Pawan, 2013). On one end, teacher-centered approaches are upheld and there is resistance to CLT. Its incompatibility to the practicalities and the values in Chinese classrooms are often cited as reasons (See Bax, 2003). These include for example, that the approach takes away teachers’ authority that is essential in the Chinese culture; CLTs’ group work focus does not take into consideration the large numbers of students in Chinese classrooms; it favors only the most fluent and bold of students who are willing to speak up; and finally, it does not take into consideration the extensive resources required for teachers to have access to in order to develop communicative lessons. Because of frustration with many students not being able to communicate in English even after eight or nine years of exposure, the CLT approach is seen as “best for China” (Hu, 2005) because it is considered interesting, engages students actively, promote more speaking and listening and this all can be achieved with less studying (Liao, 2000). The third position on CLT centers on its pragmatic adaptation into the Chinese context and for it to be strongly promoted as a pedagogy in the English Language Curriculum. This is evidenced by the fact that Task-based language teaching (TBLT), an outgrowth of CLT mentioned above, has been the focus of the English Language curriculum since 2001 (Bao & Du, 2015) and more importantly, the increasing call for eclectic approaches to English language teaching (See Gao, 2011; Li, 2012). This pragmatic approach is reflected in the quote below from one of the teachers in the study:
I don’t know which method is Chinese or which is from abroad. I just use… There is no fixed method for me as every class is alive…Each class needs something different.
The glocalization examples derived from our classroom observations further reinforce this pragmatic orientation. They are those indicated by teachers as their efforts to incorporate CLT into their classroom and thus, in this regard, changing and localizing the approach in ways most suited to their classrooms. The examples are also thus an affirmation of teachers’ agency, which in the sociocultural framework asserts that teachers are not “empty vessels waiting to be filled with theoretical and pedagogical skills” (Freeman & Johnson, 1998, p. 401); rather they are actively theorizing new knowledge and constantly reconstructing and generating new practices in their own right as professionals.
Implications
We use the research findings to guide our teachers to think and to talk about ways for them to bring together external influences and local knowledge and circumstances in their classrooms. We developed the “Critical Glocalization Teaching Framework” (See Figure 4) that can be useful in two ways. First, for new teachers, the framework can be used as a critical reflective lens to analyze and to think about the utility of their teacher training experiences in light of their immediate teaching contexts. Rather than feeling unnecessarily pressured or inadequately prepared to transfer or apply their training into their classroom, this framework provides the teachers with three ways to problematize rather than to succumb to the “assimilation and adaptation pressure” that accompanies expectations of trying to fit ideas from one place into another. Similarly, the framework can serve the same purpose for experienced teachers. More importantly, the framework also brings to fore, their “insider knowledge” and teaching wisdom that guide their daily teaching practice.
We used a Reuleaux spherical triangle to model our glocalization framework. (See Figure 4). It describes the three main areas to consider when teachers are considering bridging the global/external with local and existing practices in their classroom. On the right side of the triangle, the focus is on whether the process can empower teachers and their teaching. In the former, the consideration is whether it can help boost teachers’ sense of themselves and their own standing as English language experts and in the latter, is on whether it is capable of enhancing and making their teaching better. On the left of the triangle, the focus is whether glocalization can help teachers to capitalize on the combinations of strengths of external and local practices. The effort should engage teachers in critically analyzing the compatibility of external approaches in their contexts and limitations of existing approaches. Finally, the decision on whether or not to engage in the glocalization process should be based on whether it can provide teachers with opportunities for change while they remain connected to the system and context in which their teaching takes place.
Figure 4: Critical Glocalization Teaching Framework
About the Authors
Faridah Pawan is Professor of EFL Teacher Education in the Department of Literacy, Culture & Language Education (LCLE) in the School of Education, Indiana University. She has initiated and directed multiple federal- and state-funded teacher training and professional development projects in in Indiana, in Tetovo, Macedonia, Beijing and Kunming in China, and in San Ramon, Costa Rica. Pawan’s research areas are in the informal and formal approaches of ESL/EFL teacher education; hybrid and online teaching pedagogy, and the preparation of English language teachers of minority students. She has published in multiple journals including in TESOL Quarterly, Teaching and Teacher Education, Language Learning and Technology and Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research. One of her four books, The Pedagogy and Practice of Online Language Teacher Education was published in 2017.
Hong Pu is Professor and President of QuJing University, in Yunnan Province, China. Her research interests include language teacher professional development, comparative Chinese-American Higher Education, and teaching English as a Foreign Language. Formerly, she was Vice President of QuJing University, Vice Dean of the School of Foreign Languages, and the Director of the International Office at Yunnan Normal University. She received her PhD from Indiana University during which she was the TESOL coordinator of the Higher Education Project for Afghan visiting scholars at the Center for International Education, Development and Research. She has published papers in journals such as in Chinese Education Research, International Talent and Journal of Media Critiques. In 2013, she co-authored with Faridah Pawan, the book, The Pedagogy and Practice of Western Trained Chinese English Language Teachers, published by Routledge-Taylor & Francis.
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Appendix
| Schools | Focus group interviewees | Classrooms Observed | |
| 1 | Middle School A in a prefecture city in eastern Yunnan where the Yi minority group is a predominant minority group |
2 teachers | 7th and 8th grade classrooms |
| 2 | Middle School B in a prefecture level city in eastern Yunnan where the Yi minority group is a predominant minority group |
5 teachers | 7th and 8th grade classrooms |
| 3 | Middle School A in a rural area in the northeast of Yunnan Province which is the residence of several ethnic groups such as Yi, Bai, Dai, Zhuang, Miao, Hui, Lisu, Jinuo |
2 teachers | 9th grade classroom |
| 4 | Middle School B in a rural area in the northeast of Yunnan Province which is the residence of several ethnic groups such as Yi, Bai, Dai, Zhuang, Miao, Hui, Lisu, Jinuo |
7th grade classroom | |
| 5 | Middle School A in a new city in eastern central Yunnan. It is a multi-ethnic city, where the Han Chinese makes up the largest group of residents. |
3 teachers | 9th grade classroom |
| 6 | Middle School B in a new city district in eastern central Yunnan. It is a multi-ethnic city, where the Han Chinese makes up the majority group of residents. |
5 teachers | |
| 7 | Kindergarten in a large metropolis in eastern central Yunnan where the Han Chinese makes up the majority group of residents. |
3 teachers | |
| 8 | Middle school A in an old town in the northwestern Yunnan province known for the Naxi minority group as one of its well-known groups of residents |
2 teachers | 8th grade classroom |
| 9 | Middle school B in an old town in the northwestern Yunnan province known for the Naxi minority group as one of its well-known groups of residents. |
5 teachers | |
| 10 | Primary school in an old town in the northwestern Yunnan province known for the Naxi minority group as one of its well-known groups. |
4 teachers | 4th grade |
| Total | 31 teachers | 9 observations |
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