The brain-drain caused by imbalanced economic development has produced a lack of qualified teachers in rural China.Short-term volunteer teaching has emerged as a response.Despite the popularity of such programs,little...The brain-drain caused by imbalanced economic development has produced a lack of qualified teachers in rural China.Short-term volunteer teaching has emerged as a response.Despite the popularity of such programs,little systematic data have been gathered regarding their strengths and weaknesses.A short-term volunteer teaching program was studied.The volunteer teachers’characteristics and teaching experience in the program were explored.It was found that volunteers did not receive sufficient training or support from the agency.Therefore,they experienced substantial challenges on site and suffered from burnout.Based on the volunteer teachers’opinions and agency staff’s suggestions,the authors propose ways to improve short-term volunteer teaching programs in China.展开更多
With the rapid expansion of Confucius Institutes globally,the Hanban launched a Volunteer Chinese Teachers(VCT)Program with the purpose of selecting a large number of college graduates and graduate students from Chine...With the rapid expansion of Confucius Institutes globally,the Hanban launched a Volunteer Chinese Teachers(VCT)Program with the purpose of selecting a large number of college graduates and graduate students from Chinese universities to fill vacancies for overseas Chinese teachers.In spite of the multitude of students participating in the program,there has been a paucity of research attention on them.How do these students,most of whom have never been abroad before,manage their life in their host country and negotiate their new role as a VCT in an overseas Confucius Institute?What are their intercultural experiences as they venture into a new country to serve as a native teacher of Chinese?Based on in-depth interviews with a dozen VCTs teaching in linguistically and culturally different contexts,this study seeks to examine the dynamics of interculturality,identity and power relations involved in their overseas language teaching.展开更多
文摘The brain-drain caused by imbalanced economic development has produced a lack of qualified teachers in rural China.Short-term volunteer teaching has emerged as a response.Despite the popularity of such programs,little systematic data have been gathered regarding their strengths and weaknesses.A short-term volunteer teaching program was studied.The volunteer teachers’characteristics and teaching experience in the program were explored.It was found that volunteers did not receive sufficient training or support from the agency.Therefore,they experienced substantial challenges on site and suffered from burnout.Based on the volunteer teachers’opinions and agency staff’s suggestions,the authors propose ways to improve short-term volunteer teaching programs in China.
文摘With the rapid expansion of Confucius Institutes globally,the Hanban launched a Volunteer Chinese Teachers(VCT)Program with the purpose of selecting a large number of college graduates and graduate students from Chinese universities to fill vacancies for overseas Chinese teachers.In spite of the multitude of students participating in the program,there has been a paucity of research attention on them.How do these students,most of whom have never been abroad before,manage their life in their host country and negotiate their new role as a VCT in an overseas Confucius Institute?What are their intercultural experiences as they venture into a new country to serve as a native teacher of Chinese?Based on in-depth interviews with a dozen VCTs teaching in linguistically and culturally different contexts,this study seeks to examine the dynamics of interculturality,identity and power relations involved in their overseas language teaching.
