Balancing Change and Tradition: A Chinese English Teacher’s Experiences of Curriculum Reform
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Abstract
Yan explores the feelings of a dedicated English teacher attempting to come to terms with the mismatch between the goals of a new English curriculum and the unchanged national examinations, which remain the measure by which the education system and wider society evaluate teacher and learner achievement. Yan identifies the personal difficulties that the teacher encountered, as she worked to achieve a degree of consistency between teaching in ways appropriate for enabling curriculum goals, and the teaching valued by those around her in her working context. Yan discusses how, over time and at cost to her personal and professional well-being, the teacher managed to establish a modus vivendi that has allowed her to maintain a positive attitude to her work.
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