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ACCULTURATION OF FOUR CHINESE TEACHERS TEACHING
IN THE UNITED STATES: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

by

Nancy A. Romig

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Educational Psychology and Educational Technology

2009

ABSTRACT

ACCULTURATION OF FOUR CHINESE TEACHERS TEACHING
IN THE UNITED STATES: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

by

Nancy A. Romig

This ethnographic study examined the acculturation and induction process of four
Chinese teachers who participated in the Education for Global Citizenship (EGC) project.
The purpose was to study the teachers’ acculturation process as these novice teachers
began teaching in US. educational settings that were different from their own in terms of
language, teaching practices, and educational expectations. The study employed methods
that fostered teacher reflections of their experiences by methods of video analysis,
observations, unstructured interviews, email communications, artifact reviews, electronic
journal blogs, and extended conversations with teachers and administrators, the practices
of the teachers were analyzed in context of culture embedded into the teaching practices
employed by the teachers.

The findings were encompassed the two areas of behavior management and
teaching pedagogy. Within both areas, these teachers demonstrated novice teacher
characteristics with a cultural approach. Aspects of culture such as actions, thoughts,
communications, customs, beliefs, and values were examined as they were portrayed
within the teaching practices that Chinese teachers employed. Results were multifaceted.
First, in relation to behavior management issues, Chinese teachers initially embedded
aspects of Chinese culture when implementing disciplinary measures, but over time they

shifted towards embedding it within classroom management practices. Second, the

teachers taught utilizing a pedagogical approach that included Chinese cultural aspects;
an area where many practices remained constant over time. Third, the school cultural
knowledge on behalf of the teachers was modified and adjusted over time to assimilate
and adjust for teaching in US. classrooms so that both the teachers and students were
able to build mutual understanding.

This study has implications on recruiting and preparing foreign teachers to teach
in the US. Understanding the underlying moral or practical aspects behind the embedded
culture within the teachers’ practices and how they interact with students is important to
help prepare teachers for their classroom teaching. Preservice and inservice education in
areas such as behavior management and cultural differences may alleviate aspects of
miscommunication that arise. As school sites prepare for foreign teachers, educating the
US. teachers and students to the factors and issues that these teachers will encounter may

help create a network for teachers adjusting to the new environment.

Copyright by
NANCY A. ROMIG
2009

DEDICATION

This dissertation is dedicated to my husband, Kurt Romig, whose unconditional love and

support made this endeavor possible.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation would not be possible without the help and support of many
individuals. Due to encouragement, inspiration, and advice, I have grown, both
professionally and academically, over the past few years of my graduate studies. I would
like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to those whom have helped me
personally and professionally.

First of all, my deepest appreciation goes to my family. I am very grateful to my
husband, Kurt, and two sons, Charles and Samuel, who have unconditionally loved and
supported me through this process. The sacrifices they made in order to support me in my
dream is truly appreciated. I sincerely hope that my love of learning has been modeled
and will serve as a foundation for my sons’ educational futures.

I am especially thankful for my distinguished director and chair, Dr. Yong Zhao.
Through him, I have realized the potential that resides within myself. I am very
appreciative of his comprehensive teaching and mentoring, both of which brought
insights and a passion for international education.

My deepest appreciation goes to my dissertation committee members—- Dr. Carol
Sue Englert, Dr. Thomas Bird and Dr. Susan Florio-Ruane. Their insightful guidance,
sage advice, and generous time have helped me grow. I am grateful for their thoughtful
questions and feedback in helping me to design my study, analyze data and revise drafts.

This was most helpful as I moved forward with my work.

vi

With juggling full time employment and academics, I would like to express my
deep appreciation to my administrators, Sergio Keck, Camela Diaz and Shelley Barlow.
Through them, I have learned leadership skills and effectively implementing innovative
programs within public education. Without their support, I would not have been able to
completed my studies and have reached this pinnacle point in education and career.

I am indebted to the teachers who participated in this study. Despite their
overwhelming teaching loads and their struggles to adapt to living and working in the
United States, their willingness to take risks and become professional teachers in a
foreign country to provide language and cultural knowledge to students is truly amazing.
Each of my participants’ inspired me. Without these outstanding participants, I could not

possibly have finished my dissertation.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................ xi
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 1
Statement of Problem and Rationale ................................................ 3
Research Question ..................................................................... 4
Significance of the Study ............................................................. 4
Limitations ............................................................................... 5
Definitions of terms .................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................................................ 9
Cultural Competency in New Environments .................................... 9
Culture and Chinese and American Educational Systems ...................... 15
Collectivism .................................................................. 1 7
Authority versus Autonomy ................................................ 20
Student Success and Failure ................................................... 21
Pedagogies ...................................................................... 22
Discipline ........................................................................ 24
Student Outcomes .............................................................. 25
Curriculum ....................................................................... 26
Summary .......................................................................... 27
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 29
Site and Instructional Models ..................................................... 29
Participants ........................................................................... 31
Fan ............................................................................. 34
Yuan ........................................................................... 35
Xiao ........................................................................... 36
J ingJing ....................................................................... 36
School Environment and Support Systems ........................................ 37
Data Collection Procedures ......................................................... 38
Videotapes of Teaching .................................................... 39
Video Consultation Data ................................................... 39
Blogs ........................................................................... 41
Field Notes .................................................................. 42
Artifacts ....................................................................... 42
Email Communications .................................................... 43
Research Timeline and Setting ..................................................... 43
Data Analysis Procedures ......................................................... 45
Identification of Embedded Culture within the Data ........................... 47
Ethical Issues ........................................................................ 49

viii

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS ..................................................................................... 51
Behavior Management ............................................................... 52
Discipline .............................................................................. 53

Disciplining in the Context of Novice Teachers ....................... 54
Micro-level Discipline ...................................................... 54
Macro-level Discipline ...................................................... 55
Novice Teacher Trends ................................... - ................ 58
Passive Behavior Management .......................................... 6O
Culturally Embedded Disciplinary Actions .............................. 62
Discipline Summary ...................................................... 64
Classroom Management ............................................................ 65
Classroom Management in the Context of Novice Teachers ......... 66
Culturally Embedded Classroom Management Actions ............... 68
Classroom Management Summary ....................................... 69
Other Culturally Embedded Teaching Practices Influencing Behavior
Management ........................................................................... 69
Praising or Rewarding Students .......................................... 70
Teacher/ Student Attention ................................................ 71
Physical Positions of Teachers in the
Classroom ..................................................................... 73
Language Use and Behavior Management .............................. 74
Teaching Resources ......................................................... 75
Summary of Behavior Management .............................................. 77
Developing Cultural Competency within the Context of Behavior
Management ................................................................... 77
Culture within Discipline and Behavior
Management ................................................................... 79
Culturally Embedded Pedagogy .................................................... 81
Teacher Dominated Lessons ......................................................... 82
Social Control and Teacher Authority ................................... 83
Imparting Knowledge ........................................................ 85
Whole Class versus Small Group Instruction ...................................... 86
Rote Practice and Learning .......................................................... 88
Immersion Program ........................................................... 88
Language and Culture Program ............................................ 89
Knowledge Expectations in Classroom Discourse .............................. 9O
Recalling Basic Information ................................................ 92
Higher-Level Thinking ...................................................... 95
Summary of Culturally Embedded Pedagogy ................................... 97
Teacher Dominated Lessons ................................................ 98
Culturally Embedded Knowledge Expectations 1n Classroom
Discourse ........................................................................ 98

CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION ....................................................................... 100
Introduction .......................................................................... 1 00
Research Question 1: How Do Novice Chinese Teachers Acculturate and
Develop Cultural Competency within The US. School Environment? ...... 102
Overcoming Culture Shock and Developing Cultural Competency 103
Cultural Competency within Behavior Management ................. 105
Bridging Language Differences between Teachers and Students to
Develop Competency .............. 110
Passive Behavior Management Styles ................................... 111
Research Question 2: What are Novice Chinese Teachers’
Knowledge and Beliefs? ............................................................ 112
Teacher as Central Figure of Knowledge ................................. 113
Whole Class Approach ..................................................... 114
Embedding Authority in the Teaching Philosophy ..................... 114
Culturally Embedded Teacher Dominated Instruction ............... 115
Ideas of Effort and Achievement ........................................ 117
Attempts to Adopt Western Teaching Practices ....................... 118
Limitations ........................................................................... 1 19
Further Research .................................................................... 120
Recommendations for Practice ....................................................... 121
APPENDIX A ................................................................................ 124
REFERENCES ............................................................................... 125

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Summary of Chinese and American Educational Systems .................... 18
Table 2. Data Collection Timeline ........................................................... 44
Table 3. Macro-level Behavior Management .............................................. 57
Table 4. Frequency of Behavior Management Issues .................................... 59
Table 5. Ratios of Behavior Management Issues ......................................... 60
Table 6. Literacy Lesson Plan Example ................................................... 86
Table 7. I-R-E Structures and Percentage of Occurrences ............................... 91
Table 8. Name/Recognize ..................................................................... 93
Table 9. Recall .................................................................................. 93
Table 10. Teacher Translation and Student Repetition ................................... 94
Table 11. Extended I-R-E ..................................................................... 95
Table 12. Comprehension/Explain ........................................................... 96

xi

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Lack of qualified and certified teachers has been one of the biggest obstacles
facing American schools in the quest to expand foreign language education programs.
This is particularly the case in traditionally less commonly taught languages, such as
Arabic and Chinese (Committee for Economic Development, 2006). There are neither
sufficient numbers of US. teachers certified to teach these critical languages, nor
sufficient university teacher certification programs to address the demand for such
teachers (US. Department of Education, 2008). Since this demand outweighs the
availability of credentialed teachers, alternative methods are needed for recruiting and
retaining critical language teachers to work within the US. educational institutions. One
source of such teachers is native speakers of the critical languages: teachers who come
from their native countries to teach in American schools (Hutchinson & Jazzar, 2007).

i The recruitment of foreign teachers is a new and growing response to the foreign
language teacher shortage. These teachers are credentialed individuals (e.g. Chinese as a
second language, English as a second language), but have not had experience teaching
abroad in countries where the languages and cultures are radically different from their
own. This recruitment to teach in US. schools may remedy the shortage of teachers.
However, the central problem in supplying teachers in this manner is the disparity

between environments in which these teachers were trained and for which they were

prepared to work, and the new school environment where these teachers now are
practicing.

Foreign teachers who come from fundamentally different cultural backgrounds
and teaching practices are likely to encounter problems with acculturation, induction, and
developing competency within the new educational system and to the expectations
inherent in that setting. Compounding the issue is that individuals interested in teaching
abroad are often just beginning their teaching careers. Their novice teacher actions and
own cultural backgrounds and knowledge play a role in how they react and respond
within the new environment. They also affect the success these teachers experience in the
new environment.

The process of acculturation has been studied in a variety of contexts. There have
been a number of studies that have examined U.S. expatriates working. abroad (Gonzalez,
1993, Mendenhall & Oddou, 1985), acculturation of prison teachers (Wright, 2005),
acculturation of immigrants within the United States (Dumka, Roosa, & Jackson, 1997;
Rosen 1970; Silvers, 1965), and acculturation of teachers within their native countries
(Morey, Nakazawa, & Colvin, 1997). But despite an increased interest in foreign
teachers working within the United States, little empirical research has been conducted
on the topic. Currently only one study (Hutchinson & Jazzar, 2007) was found to focus
on the acculturation of foreign teachers within US. educational settings. The small
amount of external research is partly due to the limited number of teachers previously
entering the US. to teach in American schools. As the number of foreign teachers

increases, the issue becomes more pressing.

This study aimed to increase our understanding by exploring the factors
influencing acculturation, the development of cultural competency and the teaching
practices of foreign teachers in a western educational setting. The purpose of this study
was specifically to explore the acculturation and induction processes of novice Chinese
teachers as they learned to teach in US. educational settings that were different from
their own in terms of language, practices, and cultural expectations. The research
examined aspects of tensions between being novice teachers and the influence of cultures
as teachers adapted to western culture and teaching practices, and how these clashes lead
to or hindered the acculturation process.

The educational program model in which these teachers were employed adds to
the complexity of these research questions. Chinese pedagogy has some pronounced
difi‘erences from teaching as typically practiced in American schools. However, as part of
the program model in the Michigan school, teachers were initially expected and
encouraged to preserve their own Chinese teaching style, even as they taught in the
American classrooms with American children. Thus, there were many opportunities for
conflict and difficulties. Many such conflicts emerged directly from teachers’ attempts to
maintain their cultural teaching pedagogies and their identities as Chinese teachers, which

in turn only compounded the issues of induction and acculturation.

Statement of Problem and Rationale
Foreign teachers working in the United States get a crash course in the US.
education system and encounter a very different culture from the one they left. As

products of a different culture and educational system, foreign teachers often find

themselves adrift within a system in which they are professionally and culturally isolated.
Without being able to rely on structures and support systems that would ideally be built
within the educational system, adaptation and acculturation may be problematic for the
foreign teacher, as well as for the students and teachers who interact with the foreign
teacher. Therefore, new insight is needed of the factors that link the teachers’ home

culture with the new culture, in efforts to make the adaptation process more fluid.

Research Questions
This study addressed several questions related to cultural expectations,

educational systems, and pedagogical knowledge and beliefs.

1. How do novice Chinese teachers acculturate and develop cultural competency within
the US. school environment?
a. How does culture manifest and influence the practices of the novice teachers?
b. As teachers acculturate to the new school environment, how do practices change
over time?
2. What are the novice Chinese teachers’ knowledge and beliefs?
a. How do Chinese teachers reflect on what they know and believe?

b. How may their knowledge and beliefs change over time?

Significance of the Study
The significance of this study has multiple implications. First, from the practical

side, the call for language teachers required the recruitment of teachers from foreign

countries, including those countries that have educational and cultural systems radically
different from our own. This study identified the issues that teachers have to adjust to
when becoming acculturated in a new country. Knowing the factors that influence
teachers’ adjustment will allow for US. schools to be proactive in devising a support
system to ease the process of adaptation. As a result of the identification of acculturation
issues that may be encountered, future teachers can be educated and be provided with
strategies that may help in anticipating and addressing such issues prior to leaving their
home country as well as upon arrival. The study may also inform western educators of
the issues so they will have the cultural knowledge necessary to be compassionate and
understanding When mentoring with new teachers.

This study adds to the accumulating analyses of acculturation in a variety of
settings. The study’s findings are significant because they examined the influences of
teachers’ own culture as they interacted in a new and distinctly different educational
environment that was organized in terms of different cultural norms and expectations.
Investigating the aspects that linked teachers’ home culture with the new culture provided
insight into ways newcomers adapted, and thus refines their own cultural growth.

In a world of rapidly increasing intercultural contact, it is these skills that may be
important to successful communication. Communication is built on the basis of cultural
understanding, and it is contact and communication that is the potential site of cultural

understanding (Cheng, 1993; Cheng, 1998; Coats, 2005).

Limitations
This study was confined to studying Chinese teachers new to teaching Simplified

Mandarin Chinese in Michigan Chinese language programs in one elementary school.

The purpose of focusing on teachers from one country was that individuals brought their
own cultural understandings with them when they taught abroad. While there was, of
course, individual variation among Chinese teachers, it was expected that all teachers
from China would have some similar cultural values and understandings, particularly as
they related to their own teaching and learning experiences. Therefore, different cultural
backgrounds of teachers from different countries would have complicated the study.
Instead, this was a case study limited to the study of one language/culture group.
Furthermore, this delimitation also opens the study up for future replication and repetition
with teachers from other countries with different languages. With baseline results
representing teachers from one country, further studies can examine the similarities and
differences that may be found with teachers from different countries.

The teachers were further selected using purposive sampling procedures. This
sampling included Chinese teachers in the United States brought to the US through the
Education for Global Citizenship (EGC) program. With Chinese and US. visa
regulations, it is challenging to bring international teachers to the US. The EGC program
solved this problem by using established procedures and institutions to bring over a larger
quantity of teachers on visiting scholar (teacher/researcher) visas. The primary purpose of
such visas is to provide short-term solutions for filling open Chinese language teaching
positions.

The three-semester time period (fall 2007; spring 2008; fall 2008) encompassed
by this study allowed for investigation of acculturation issues such as initial contact
culture shock and induction when teachers are most aware of conflicts and their problem

resolution efforts. Because acculturation happens at different rates for different

individuals, 18 months would not have enabled us to be sure all subjects had achieved
even initial resolution of the encounter. The study leaves them with much
accommodation and adjustment remaining. However, it spoke to the general problem of
cultural adjustment when teachers first crossed national, societal, and linguistic borders in
order to teach their native language as second language to students whose backgrounds
are foreign to them. Though there were other programs that placed teachers within US.
classrooms for up to one year, the visa issuance provided via the EGC program allowed

the teacher to remain in the US. for up to three years.

Definitions of Terms

Critical languages. For the purpose of this study, critical languages were defined
as languages in which there is a critical need for proficient speakers, but the demand
exceeds the supply of trained speakers. The need for proficient speakers is usually
derived from political, cultural, or economic factors (U .S. Department of Education,
2008)

Acculturation. Acculturation is defined as the change in the cultural behavior and
thinking of an individual or group through contact with another culture (Cox & Beale,
1997). In this study, the cultural environment that promoted change was the Michigan
school environment where the teachers were employed.

Culture. There are many different definitions and interpretations of culture. For
this study, culture is defined as the ideas, behaviors, artifact interpretations, knowledge
systems, and customs that are shared by interacting members of a group (Cole, 1996).

Language is included with the knowledge systems making up “culture” here.

Culture Shock. An ailment with its own symptoms and cures, culture shock is the
anxiety brought on by sudden immersion into a foreign culture. The term anxiety
reflected which was brought on due to the sudden loss of familiar cues, communication
difficulties, and personal identity crisis within the new culture (Weaver, 1993).

Cultural Competency. Cultural competency is characterized by the ability to work
effectively across cultures in ways that accept and respect differences (Hanley, 1999)
while it lending itself also to the understandings of the difference between cultures
(Edgar, Patton, & Day-Vines, 2002).

Cultural Adaptation. Cultural adaptation involves the process of individuals
changing over time in response to the new culture. These individuals had completed their
primary socialization process in one culture and then entered into continuous and
extended contact with a new and unfamiliar culture (Kim & Gudykunst, 1987; Zhong,
1996)

Cultural Scripts. In this study, cultural scripts were localized knowledge about a
happening or event that enabled participants to know what to expect and how to behave.
In general, scripts act as guides for participants to know what to expect and to how to

behave in the situation (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999).

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Culture permeates all aspects of life, including school life. A school is an
environment for promoting intellectual growth, but also inherent in its system is the
promotion of cultural capital through a methodical flow of cultural values to the members
of the school culture. As one enters a new culture system, adapting to new sets of rules
and expectations initially produces anxiety and awkwardness but eventually leads to
cultural competency.

This literature review focuses on the acculturation processes of individuals in a
new environment and thus development of cultural competency. But also, in order to
reach the point of being culturally competent, it requires knowing and understanding the
cultural norms and values of the new environment and understanding the degrees in
which these may vary or the subtleness of the differences between one’s home culture
and the new culture. Therefore, this review of literature transitions into some of the
cultural differences between American and Chinese cultures as they may affect the
acculturation process and the ability of teachers to develop competency within the new

school culture.

Cultural and Language Competency in New Environments
Cultural competency has been reviewed as a needed skill across several domains

including the medical field Crandall, George, Marion, & Davis, 2003; Tanabe, 2007),

psychology and social work (Gordon, Nelson-Becker, Chapin, & Landry, 2007; Hays,

2008; Lassiter & Chang, 2006) education (Hasslen & Bacharach, 2007; Kitsantas &
Talleyrand, 2005), and government/professional organizations (Goldsmith, 1979). Much
of the literature focuses on measurement and instrumentation (Dunn, Smith, & Montoya,
2006, Hays, 2008, what needs to be taught (Kitsantas & Talleyrand, 2005), or traits of
cultural competency (Suzuki, McRae, & Short, 2001).

Few articles have addressed the issues teachers from outside the US. face when
they enter the elementary and secondary education field. Hutchinson and Jazzar (2007)
focused on the need for mentorship while Coats (2005) and de Oyarzabal (1982)
addressed the problems that foreign teachers encountered while teaching in the US.
When teaching in the US, foreign teachers may have many of the needed teaching skills,
as well as command of the language and cultural knowledge. Yet they may lack teaching
skills needed at a particular site, including the local knowledge to be able to create mutual
understanding when using the language (de Oyarzabal, 1982), or the cultural knowledge
and skills necessary to handle issues such as discipline (Coats, 2005).

A parallel line of research is in the area of higher education. It is common practice
for college and universities to employ teaching assistants of whom many are foreign
graduate students. This practice is not without its challenges and is fraught with
complaints against the foreign teaching assistants (Davis, 1984; Smyrniou, 1994). Many
native English speaking students and faculty struggle with discourse, as differences in
language lead to miscommunication (Chang, 1993; Davis, 1984; Jenkins, 1997).
Preconceived notions and the initial reactions of students to heavy accents further affect

the relationships between teaching assistants and their students (Rao, 1995).

10

There is limited American research focusing on teachers teaching overseas or
outside of the United States (Fast, 2000; Garson, 2005; Howe, 2005; McAlpine & Crago,
1995). Instead, much of the focus has been on aspects of enculturation and induction
processes for US. born novice teachers (Johnson & Kardos, 2002; Kleifgen, 1988;
Pardini, 2002), including US. teachers working in culturally different settings, typically
white, middle-class teachers working outside of their economic or racial backgrounds. It
includes research in areas such as urban (Rushton, 1999) or rural areas (Barnhardt, 1999),
or prison settings (Wright, 2005) within one’s own country or higher education programs
(Gorsuch, 2003).

There are various definitions of cultural competency. Ford and Whiting (2007)
define cultural competency as having the knowledge, dispositions, and skills to
effectively interact with individuals from diverse backgrounds. This definition stresses
the need for teachers to learn and develop cross-cultural understanding, because what is
right for one culture is not necessarily correct for others (Elkturk, 2003). Developing
cultural competency involves gaining knowledge and consideration for other cultures.

Barrera and Corso (2002) provided a somewhat different definition that
emphasized not the breadth of one’s knowledge of other cultures, but rather the ability to
shape considerate and responsive interactions (both verbal and nonverbal), which are
reciprocal in nature across diverse cultures. This definition further expands upon Whiting
and Ford’s (2007) definition by adding more concrete information as to what it means to
function effectively across cultures.

Bremer (2006) posited that universities need to prepare students with deeper

understanding of the global community, drawing upon the inclusion of knowledge of

11

both different languages and cultures. The competency and the skills necessary to work in
a global society are thought to be best learned through cross-cultural experiences, but that
doesn’t necessarily mean leaving the country. Cross-cultural experiences can be
experienced by stepping outside of one’s own cultural comfort zone, Educational
programs such as language (e. g. immersion or Foreign language) learning, hosting
exchange students and working with immigrants have the potential to provide cross-
cultural experiences. Through intercultural experiences, competencies such as the ability
to listen, communicate, observe, evaluate, analyze, interpret, and relate will develop,
leading to intercultural competency.

Research on learning intercultural competence has been conducted in specific
areas, such as in the field of counseling. The awareness of multiple variables, such as
one’s own race, ethnicity, culture, language, and power status, plays a part in
multicultural counseling competencies (Sodowsky, Taffe, Gutkin, & Wise, 1994) and
contributes to one’s own cultural identity. Sodowsky et a1. (1994) argued that these
competencies encompass three areas. First, the skills area includes the behavioral domain
that incorporates general counseling skills such as listening and communication. Second,
the affective domain encompasses an individual’s cultural self-awareness and awareness
of others, and last, the cognitive domain includes the knowledge, theory, research, and
cross-paradigmatic approaches of multicultural counseling.

Several articles identified features that need to be acquired in order to build
cultural competency. One element that many American students lack is knowledge of
other world regions, languages, and cultures (Committee for Economic Development,

2006). The knowledge and acceptance that individuals don’t know enough about different

12

cultures (Elturk, 2003; Hertzog & Adams, 2001) and the desire to seek out this
knowledge from authentic sources (Elturk, 2003; Hertzog & Adams, 2001) is paramount
in order for individuals to develop cultural competency.

As admirable as it is to have cultural awareness, there must also be an
acknowledgement that biases and power issues are at play when culture is discussed. As
individuals develop cultural awareness, there is also a need to confront biases that may
exist about cultures, which can lead to stereotyping and prejudices (Hertzog & Adams,
2001). Such awareness can lead to flexibility of approach and thinking (Elturk, 2003).

An individual’s ability to respond to the challenges and frustrations of being
immersed within a new culture also influences his or her ability to deve10p competency
within that new culture (Paige, 1993). Foreign teachers who are immersed in an
unfamiliar and new culture have the possibility of experiencing culture shock as they
seek to acculturate to the new and overlapping environments. For example, Chinese
teachers entering the US. may experience culture shock and adaptation as they attempt to
participate in the general American culture. But they also experience these as they
acculturate into a specific school culture as members and participants of a new and
unfamiliar working environment. Therefore, as foreign teachers enter into both the
general American culture and the subculture of the school, culture shock may occur as a
reaction to both the general culture and the school culture and one’s ability to respond
and cope with the frustrations impact the ability to cope with the culture shock.

Culture shock was first defined as an ailment with its own symptoms and cures,
brought on by anxiety due to sudden immersion into a foreign culture. The sudden loss of

familiar cues, communication difficulties, and subsequent personal identity crisis within

13

the new culture all contribute to this anxiety (Weaver, 1993). Five factors have been
identified as contributing to culture shock: (a) individuals are confronted by a new
environment that present new expectations and patterns for social interactions and
behavior; (b) individuals are ineffective in intercultural or interpersonal communication;
(0) there is a threat to the emotional well-being of the individual; ((1) the individual needs
to modify his/her behavior to regain positive reinforcement in the new environment; and
(e) the individual is participating in a growth experience (Juffer, 1993). All of these
factors involved in culture shock must be addressed for the individual to become
culturally competent in the new environment.

Wright (2005) suggested that there are five stages associated with culture shock.
As individuals progress through the stages, the rate is not necessarily constant nor does
everyone reach the final stage. In studies of US. expatriates going overseas, 30% of the
individuals do not perform adequately and 25% return to the US. earlier than expected
(Garson, 2005; Lubin, 1992), thus indicating the inability of many individuals to adjust
and reach cultural acclimation, which is the final stage of cultural adaptation.

In Wright’s (2005) model, the first phase in culture shock is known as the tourist
stage, wherein the individual is overwhelmed with impressions from the host
environment. The novelty experienced by the individual results in feelings of excitement
and fascination due to exposure to exotic surroundings and new experiences (Wright,
2005). The next phase of culture shock is the disintegration/difference phase, which is
characterized by anxiety, anger, withdrawal, and a dislike of the cultural and social
differences that are experienced in the new environment. This is accompanied by an

aversion to events and situations that are unpredictable and uncertain. In this stage, the

14

individual realizes that the familiar cues of his or her own culture do not apply directly to
the new culture, leading to disequilibrium. The third stage, reintegration, involves an
increased ability to function within the new culture as the individual resides partly inside
and outside of the new cultural group. In this stage, the individual develops the ability to
meld old and new stimuli and experiences in order to more successfully interact in the
new culture (Wright, 2005). In the fourth stage, gradual adjustment occurs. This stage is
characterized by increased comfort, predictable actions and expectations, with fewer
feelings of isolation. The individual gains a sense of cultural equilibrium within the new
environment, allowing the individual to become more finely attuned and responsive. He
or she is then able to predict and react to the cultural cues within the new environment
(Wright, 2005). The fifth stage is called reciprocal interdependence, and results in
biculturalism. The individual has acclimated to the new culture and expectations within
that culture. He or she is capable of fluidly moving between the two cultures, adopting
the cultural cues and propriety of both cultures (Wright, 2005). But in order to explore
the issues of acculturation and developing cultural competency, it is important to examine
the potential cultural differences between the United States and China that may affect

teachers’ ability to acculturate to the school environment.

Culture and Chinese and American Educational Systems
Schools are cultural units where culture is implicitly acquired and understood, and
is embedded within classroom activities. Children use their culture, their acquired beliefs,
values and attitudes, to make clear and explain their world (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992),

or in this case, their educational experience. According to Stigler & Heibert (1999),

15

“Cultural activities are represented in cultural scripts, generalized knowledge about an
event that resides within the heads of the participants. These scripts guide behavior and
also tell participants what to expect” (p. 85). When students and teachers within the same
classroom share common cultural scripts, cultural knowledge is collectively distributed
so that all participants know what to expect, are familiar with interaction protocols and
properly act and/or react to encounters within the classroom.

However, when participants function with different cultural expectations, the
potential for problems arise as participants apply social and cognitive routines that are
based on their cultural knowledge, but are not collectively shared or aligned with the
cultural expectations and cues that are present in the new environment. This results in
situations where the participants are uncomfortable because they do not know what to
expect or don't know how to act/react to social cues and encounters. In school contexts,
teachers and students then must negotiate to develop a common set of expectations where
both teachers and students can function. These common cultural expectations convey the
expected behaviors, actions, and interactions for a given situation. In essence, they must
develop joint cultural competency in the school environment.

Because there are differences between the cultures of the United States and China,
there are also differences in the cultures of Chinese and American educational systems
and these differences may be subtle or drastic. These differences span across the physical
environment, teaching pedagogies, expectations of students language structures,
functions, norms for appropriate behaviors, educational goals and values, as well as the
envisioned characteristics of workers produced from the different systems. As teachers

transition from one teaching environment to another, they must develop competency that

16

shapes what Barrera and Corso (2002) term as considerate and responsive interactions
(both verbal and nonverbal) that are reciprocal in nature across diverse cultures.
Therefore, to examine acculturation one must consider the differences between the
educational cultures and remember how culture influences the participants’ actions. Thus,
when examining the implications of culture on the classroom events, one must take into
account how culture may influences activities and represent or reflect the overarching
cultural theme (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992; Stigler & Hiebert, 1999). Several of these
overarching themes are discussed further: collectivism, authority and autonomy, success

and failure, pedagogy, discipline, student outcomes, curriculum, and classroom discourse

(Table 1).

Collectivism

Within Chinese culture there is an emphasis on the value of the collective, in
which the individual is defined through his or her participation in groups (Stevenson &
Stigler, 1992). Chinese culture places value on the degree to which the smaller self
(individual) can submit to the larger self. The larger self may be the family or country,
and the smaller self must become accustomed to the expectations of that larger self
(Stigler, Smith & Mao], 1985). This is different from American culture inasmuch as the
broader society places greater value on the concept of the “self” or individuality, which
allows the participants to have the right to choose whether or not to place their needs and
desires first. These cultural beliefs play an intricate role in each country’s educational

system because they give a different emphasis to the centrality of the individual relative

17

Table 1

Summary of Chinese and American Educational Systems

 

Chinese Educational System
Collective Society

American Educational System
“Individuality” of “Self”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Authority vs. Authority Autonomy
Autonomy
Ranking — both of teachers and students Provided required curriculum but
teachers have the ability to decide
Extreme value and respect of the teacher when and how to teach
Instructions on what and how to teach
Student Effort applied regardless of cognitive Self or individuality
Success and ability of performance level
Failure Multiple (academic and
High test scores nonacademic) ways to be
successful
Pedagogies Teacher directed Child centered
Strong content knowledge Creativity
Memorization and rote learning Whole class, small group and
independent work
Whole class instruction
Discourse controlled by teacher
Expectation that all students meet the (i-R-E) With open ended
same educational criteria and perform at questions
the same level
Discourse controlled by teacher (I-R-E)
Student passiveness/receptors of
knowledge
Discipline Student behaviors and actions reflect on Varied and diverse management
family honor techniques in both classroom
management and disciplinary
Students themselves maintain appropriate action '
discipline
Student Strong content knowledge Creativity
Outcomes
High test scores Multiple ways to demonstrate
knowledge
Curriculum Standardized, State standards but local control

Centralized
Common textbooks

Same pacing

of how to teach standards

 

18

to the social collective. In Chinese schools, for example, individuals might be expected to
subjugate their individual goals to ensure the accomplishment of the collective or societal
goals, whereas, American schools might also value the group as a whole, but to a certain
degree the individual has rights to pursue individual outcomes and goals. These
differences in the perceptions of the standing of individuals in the social group might lead
to differences in teachers’ and students’ emphases on conformity and individualism.
Collectivism, as reflected in education, includes the family reputation. Parallel to
this is the Asian perspective that the success or failure of a child is reflected in family
honor. The family defines the child’s academic success as a significant source of pride
for the entire family, and failure as disgrace to the family (Stigler et al., 1985). If a child
is successful, honor is brought to the family. Likewise, a child who misbehaves or
receives poor grades, may cause the family to “lose face” due to the family not meeting
its responsibility to the child (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). This is not to say that
American parents do not regard their children’s success or failures as reflecting on them,
but rather that there may be different implications that occur at varying degrees. For
Chinese families, the success/failures may be more public (e. g. all parents attend parent
teacher conferences and the teacher talks about students’ progress in front of the group of
parents) or have different long-term educational implications (e.g. higher test scores
provide students with access to the better schools and higher educational opportunities)
than it may have on an American family. For example, college admissions in the US. use
a variety of factors (academic achievement, recommendations, essay samples,
volunteering, sports, etc.) to determine admissions, whereas in China, the primary

determinant of admission decisions are test scores.

19

Authority versus Autonomy.

A large cultural incongruity between American and Chinese culture is embodied
in the related concepts of authority and autonomy. These are so engrained that they reach
all the way to the political systems of each country. Likewise, the cultural values of
authority and autonomy reverberate from the design of the educational systems all the
way down to the individual classrooms.

China has an authoritative structure in its political system, and this structure
trickles down to other aspects of its culture, including the school systems. Teachers are
ranked according to their status. Senior teachers oversee junior teachers or those of lower
rank. Students are of the lowest rank, and in this position they are not expected to
participate (Mehan, 1978) or interact with their teachers. Rather they are expected to be
receivers of information imparted by the teacher.

In Chinese classroom culture, the importance of control (guan) by the authority
figure (teacher) is acutely stressed (Tobin, Hu, & Davidson, 1989). A teacher’s true
. power and value is measured by his or her ability to persuade others to listen. Through
the domination of the discourse, the higher-status person often justifies his or her status.
“Consistent with such values is a view of learning as the accumulation of the knowledge
that can bring status, and a view of teaching as the “giving” of knowledge by the teacher
to those who lack it” (Schoenhals, 1994, pp.409-410).

Teachers are also provided a standardized curriculum that contains the step-by-
step instructions on what to teach and how to teach the particular content. There is little

to no variation in the content of the subject matter or the pedagogical methods of

20

instruction employed by the teacher. This reflects the collective approach to teaching that
has been reinforced by the Chinese educational system.

This is different than the educational system in the United States. Though each
individual state may provide requirements as to the curriculum that must be taught at
each grade and within each subject, the individual teachers have the autonomy to decide
how to teach the content and how to meet the particular requirements. American teachers
bring to the learning environment a variety of “tools of the trade,” which include multiple
pedagogical approaches to instruction. Teachers are allowed greater flexibility in
choosing the appropriate methods to teach the curriculum. Such practices may include,
but are not limited to, instructional approaches such as lectures, use of hands-on
manipulatives, collaborative theme-based projects, and problem-based learning. This
degree of creative flexibility within the American school system is customary, though it

may vary between schools and/or school districts.

Student Success and Failure

Within the US. system, the success or failure of students is thought to be based
on the multitude of abilities students may possess. These abilities aren’t necessarily
limited only to academics. Current educational theory suggests there are multiple ways to
measure success by looking not only at academic achievement, but also including other
ways of knowing as represented in multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1993) and similar
ideas. Such theories mirror parental views that children are individuals (Zhao, 2007). In
contrast, the Chinese education system views success and failure in terms of how much

effort was applied (Cheng, 1998) regardless of one’s cognitive ability or performance

21

level (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). High values are placed upon test scores and
admissions into prestigious universities (Zhao, 2007), and these achievements are
rewarded through the strong efforts of the students to be successful.

An example of this perspective was Stevenson and Stigler’s (1992), multi-year,
cross—cultural, large-scale study of Chinese, Japanese and American educational systems.
Initially it was thought that Asian students did not have students with reading disabilities.
This study disproved the notion and demonstrated that severe reading problems in
students were not different across the three countries. Rather what differed was the belief
behind the difficulties. Asian families referred more to environmental factors and
children’s efforts, whereas, Americans attributed difficulties to innate abilities and

disabilities.

Pedagogies

The teaching pedagogies of both systems also reflect collectivism and
individualism. In US. schools, instruction may be perceived as more diversified through
the implementation of whole group, small group and individual instruction with
individual teachers having choices and opportunities to determine which instructional
strategies and modes of teaching best fit the needs of individual students. In China, a
more teacher-directed approach is taken in which instruction is tailored to the class as a
whole and all students are expected to learn the same material, meet the same educational
criteria, and perform at the same level. The teacher is the deliverer of the content, and all
students are expected to employ the same methods of learning that are consistent across

classrooms and across schools. These methods rely heavily on the memorization of

22

factual knowledge, with a emphasis on the ability of students to recite such information
on school and state examinations (Cheng, 1998). This is not to say that fact-memorization
is not a common criticism of US. education, rather the subtleties of this practice between
and across classrooms and schools vary to a greater degree than in Chinese classrooms.

Teachers dominate Chinese classrooms. In US. classrooms, instructional time is
divided between whole class, small group, and independent work. Chinese classrooms are
different, as approximately 90% of the classroom time is dominated by the teacher’s
direct instruction of content, which is presented to the whole class at once (Stevenson &
Stigler, 1992). However, it is important to note that the provision of instructional time in
Chinese classrooms is not entirely dominated by teacher lectures. Instead, instruction is
divided between content lectures, the provision of problems for student rehearsal, posing
questions, and eliciting answers from students in a whole-class setting.

Based on the hierarchy of authority in the Chinese classroom, student
participation is largely limited to content memorization and recitation. In what was once
referred to as the “stuff-the-duck method” (tian ya shi), the role of students has been
constructed to emphasize passiveness, with the student being viewed as a silent
receptacle for the teacher’s knowledge (Schoenhals, 1994) where the participation
structures, ways of arranging verbal interactions between teachers and students (Phillips,
1972), are tightly regulated and controlled by the teacher; as a result the interactions are
teacher dominated. A typical teacher controlled question-answer session follows an
Initiate-Reply-Evaluation pattern where a teacher initiates usually with a question, a
student responds, and the teacher evaluates the response (Mehan, 1979; Polman, 1998).

This pattern tends to be repeated throughout the lesson. It is also a practice that is

23

employed within both Chinese and American classrooms. It is easily enacted and
participants can quickly understand the “rules” of such interactions and how to succeed
within such participation structures (Polman, 1998; Wittgenstien, 1967).

As I—R—E structures are a common question—answer method of teaching in both
China and the United States, it is important to identify the subtle differences that motivate
the practice. Though in China, the classroom discourse is controlled, it is argued that in
this method of whole class instruction the interactions that occur between the teacher and
students are interactive and effective. Such methods allow each student to maximize
opportunities; all are afforded the learning benefits provided by the teacher (Ference &
Tsui, 2004). Slightly different is the motivation within American education where
teachers query students’ comprehension in order to bring them to understanding a set of
clearly defined concepts (Polman, 1998). Rather than utilizing such sequences to be the
giver or controller of knowledge, American education uses it as a method to guide

understanding.

Discipline

Discipline approaches in the two countries differ. In China, discipline is explicitly
taught to reflect the norms of the country. There are virtually no behavior problems
within the Chinese classrooms because problems of the student reflect adversely on the
family (Coats, 2005) and therefore, Chinese teachers rely on the students themselves to
maintain appropriate discipline (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). While these research studies
present a stark comparison, the idea that there are not any misbehaving students in

Chinese schools is perplexing. Perhaps there may not be the obtrusive behavior problems

24

that can occur within American schools, but less confrontive misbehavior such as
secretive reading, crying, and pouting may indeed be present but without the
confrontational aspects. These may be unacknowledged in previous research.

Within the ideal of individuality, U.S. schools and classrooms allow teachers to
have choice and apply diverse management techniques. In the history of US. schools,
teachers have applied various techniques varying from punishments or penalties, to
awarding prizes, to implementing routines and procedures (Butcher, 1998). Many
American parents support the teachers’ perspectives in classroom management. While
they may think that their children's actions in school reflect upon them, they also tend to
think--within limits--that a child should learn to get along on his or her own at school,
and that the child’s behavior at school is the teacher's business. In contrast, they may feel
that the child’s behavior at home is the parents' business. Thus, parents may remain

uninvolved, but do engage as the need arises.

Student Outcomes

American schools show a strong tendency to value efforts to produce students
who have the ability to think creatively and solve problems. Creativity is valued as the
ability to be unique, constructive, and original in the expression of ideas. Students who
can creatively represent curricular ideas in new formats and media are rewarded.
Creativity is a general trait that is valued and respected in the larger U.S. culture (Zhao,
2007), and American schools mirror this appreciation for this quality. Within Chinese
schools, in contrast, the ability of students to develop mastery of the curricular content

and the reflection of their knowledge in the attainment of high standardized test scores is

25

valued. Hence, the replication and internalization of knowledge takes precedence over
creativity, and there is a corresponding emphasis among Chinese families on the
attainment of high marks that indicate the mastery of curriculum facts and problems
(Zhao, 2007).

This is not to say that standardized test scores are not valued in the US. For
example, Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) examinations are
administrated yearly to students from third grade on. Where the difference comes into
play is the value that the two cultures place on the scores. Both use scores to monitor the
progress of students and schools. In China, the scores directly affect teacher ranking,
performance perception and the pay of the teachers. For students, their test scores affect
admissions into “better” performing schools and without high test scores, students will
not be admitted into college programs. This is somewhat different in the US. as students
may not have high test scores but have other performance avenues (e. g. extra-curricular
activities, sports/art performance, volunteering, etc.) that represent a well-balanced

individual with the potential to succeed in college.

Curriculum

Curriculum is standardized and is centralized in China. Teaching occurs at the
same pace, utilizing the same standard textbooks within the same sequence (Zhao, 2007).
In the US, there is a strong history and belief in local control with autonomy in how
curricular content is delivered. In recent years, the US. has moved towards a slightly
more centralized role for curriculum and standards. For example Michigan has Grade

Level Content Expectations (GLCEs), which outline the concepts to be taught at each

26

grade level. However, teachers retain broad leeway to decide how to teach the standards,
what materials to use, and how to sequence the instruction to reach the standards.
According to Marsh (1999) almost all pedagogy and methodology choices are made by
individual teachers acting on their own best judgment without reference to or reflection

on input from other professionals or even professional literature.

Summary

Given these contrasts in educational systems and whether in the differences are
obvious or subtle, the position here is that they vary by degree. Even slight variations
have the potential to create culture shock and affect a teacher’s ability to develop
competency. The underlying assumptions, norms, and values of the Chinese culture that
the teachers have internalized may or may not operate or serve in the expected manner in
the new cross-cultural classroom environment. Not knowing, understanding, or expecting
difficulties and the challenges associated with communication with individuals operating
under different cultural expectations opens the teachers up to culture shock,
communication difficulties, and the inability to control their situations. The teachers’
individual abilities to adjust and navigate through the various stages of culture shock
affect acculturation and successful interaction within the new teaching environment.

There are two problematic gaps within this research literature. The literature
neither addresses novice teachers as they acculturate and develop cultural competency in
foreign teaching environments, nor does it address how or in what ways culture
influences novice teachers’ teaching practices within a foreign educational environment.

Because of this, the purpose of this study will examine the issues of acculturation/cultural

27

competency in the context of novice teachers teaching within US. educational
environments and the dynamics of culture as he/she practices in American educational
environments. This is important because it adds to the literature addressing cultural

competency from a different perspective.

28

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY

This study incorporated a microethnography approach with a multiple case study
research methodology. “Case studies are preferred strategy when ‘how’ or ‘why’
questions are being posed . . . When the focus is on a contemporary phenomenon within
some real-life context” (Yin, 1989, p. 13). It was important to apply a microethnographic
approach (Erickson & Mohatt, 1982) as this study did not attempt to describe the whole
way of life of a social group. Rather, it focused on particular cultural scenes within
school settings. The goal was to gain in-depth understanding of the cultural adaptations
and concerns of Chinese teachers newly working in the US. schools and what it meant
for collaborating teachers and supervisors who were involved.

Though videotaped observations, informal interviews, email communications,
artifact reviews, electronic journal blogs, and extended conversations with teachers and
administrators, this study attempted to explore issues related to cultural learning that
tended to remain hidden or at the periphery of the educational field when foreign teachers
entered the US. educational system. While the research questions could have been
viewed against a wider social, historical, and practical landscape, this study focused more

narrowly on the teachers’ knowledge and experiences as they made this transition.

Site and Instructional Models
This study took place at a public elementary (Pre-K through 5'h grade) school in a
Midwest urban school district. The school has a Chinese immersion program, in which

children receive 50% of their instruction in Chinese, and 50% in English, as well as a

29

Chinese “Language and Culture” enrichment program. This site had elected to employ
the services of Chinese language teachers for both programs. Initially one teacher was
needed to teach kindergarten children in the Immersion Program, which provided an
immersion like learning environments, but in mid-year a second teacher was needed to
replace the first. The other two teachers were recruited to teach in the Language and
Culture Program.

The Immersion Programs incorporated a 50/50 immersion model in which
students spent half their educational time learning in English and the other half learning
in (Simplified) Mandarin Chinese. Children were not taught Mandarin Chinese using a
traditional foreign language instructional model; rather students acquired the language
through being immersed in content area instruction in language arts, mathematics,
science, social studies, global studies, and the arts. The Immersion Program valued the
strengths of two distinct and different educational systems. It was designed to incorporate
the best educational practices of both the East and the West in terms of language, culture,
and pedagogy. This blending was expected to allow children to move fluidly between
different cultures, languages, and educational philosophies as part of their school
experience. In Western classrooms, students learned in the English language with a child-
centered Western approach. In Eastern classrooms, students learned through the
Mandarin Chinese language with the knowledge-centered instructional practices of the
East. Because of this, the immersion Chinese teacher taught two classes of students daily
with one group in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The content was split
between the Chinese and English classrooms with both classes addressing language arts

in the perspective language. The Chinese classroom provided the majority of instruction

3O

in the area of mathematics; then science and social studies were split between classrooms
according to mutual decisions of the two teachers.

As part of the Language and Culture Program, two teachers taught language and
cultural enrichment courses to students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The
objective/mission/vision of the Language and Culture program was to provide language
instruction and cultural exposure to students in the building who were not in the
immersion classrooms so all students in the school may benefit from the exposure to
second language instruction. These courses emphasized cultural awareness more than a
high level of language proficiency. These courses functioned similar to elementary
physical or musical education in that they were viewed by the homeroom teacher as
release time. Therefore, the homeroom teacher did not need to be present during the time
the language and culture teachers were teaching their lessons. Each teacher had freedom
to choose to the cultural aspects that she wanted to teach. For example, calligraphy and
paper cutting were popular, yet geography and Chinese history were also included. As
teachers incorporated language, they tried to tie in important cultural words along with
traditional second language teaching categories (e. g. colors, numbers, foods, basic

phrases, etc.)

Participants
The Education for Global Citizenship (EGC) program was designed to introduce a
variety of Chinese language programs into public schools ranging in grades from
preschool through high school. Part of the EGC program’s mission was to recruit and
place foreign teachers within US. schools, both in face-to-face teaching situations and

online classrooms. Because of the difficulty of finding certified and qualified Chinese

31

speaking individuals with the approved visa status to work within the United States,
many of the teachers who worked for the EGC program were recruited directly from
China.

The participants in this study consisted of three newly recruited Chinese teachers
ranging in age from 23 to 25. They had recently arrived within the United States to teach
at an elementary school in a Midwestern urban school district. As the study progressed
and one teacher exited from her teaching position, a fourth teacher, who replaced the
former teacher, was added to the study.

The selection process for becoming foreign Chinese language teachers in
Michigan was rigorous. All teachers recruited from China were enrolled in Beijing
Normal University in Master’s Degree language programs, and they also participated in a
visiting scholar program. In order to be selected for this program, individuals were
required to: (a) have a valid Chinese teaching degree, (b) demonstrate proficiency in both
the English and Chinese languages, (c) pass rigorous panel interviews conducted by
professors from both Beijing Normal University and Michigan State University, (d)
participate in a school district interview process to be selected for individual sites, and (e)
agree to a minimum of one year of teaching.

An incidental group of participants in this study consisted of district officials and
western teachers who worked in close proximity with the participants in the program.
Though these individuals were not treated as primary study participants, they were
included because they provided valuable insights into the acclimation of the participants.
However, this was not an evaluation study and the researcher carefully designed and

explained the study to all participants so to emphasize the study being emergent and

32

discovery-oriented in character. As such, any problems teachers or supervisors identified
were noted as part of the data on the processes experienced by the teachers as they
learned to teach a familiar language (and to enact a familiar role) in a vastly new culture.

School district administrators wanted to be a part of the process of selecting
teachers who would be teaching their students, and they utilized the school district’s
approach to teacher selection. The principal, the Director of Bilingual Education, and the
Immersion Specialist requested and reviewed resumes provided by the applicants but
found that the resumes lacked specific information that would valuable to the
interviewers. For example, the applicants provided little to no information about their
prior teaching, tutoring, or work experiences, yet they prominently displayed their
academic test scores, which had no contextual value to the interviewers. They also
provided personal information (age, gender, and pictures, marital status) that is not
typically collected by potential employers within the selection process in the US.
Furthermore, all resumes had been created using the same template, thus making it
challenging to differentiate potential teaching qualifications between candidates.

Seven potential candidates were selected for interviews, which were conducted
via Skype, a free intemet-based video/audio conferencing software program. With the
twelve-hour time difference, interviews were conducted late into the night. Upon
conclusion of the interviews, the candidates all appeared quite similar to the interviewing
panel, and none demonstrated knowledge of teaching practices in the US. Because of
this, the decisive factor was more of gauging personality and potential fit with the school,

rather than teaching experience.

33

The Chinese teacher participants, Xiao, Yuan, Fan, and JingJing, were four of 19
teachers brought to the US. to teach the Chinese language in American classrooms in late
August of 2007. They were volunteer teachers who were granted a practicum teaching
experience abroad as part of the Master’s degree program (Teaching Chinese as a Foreign
Language) at a prestigious Chinese teaching university. They committed to teaching for
one year knowing that it was possible to extend their experience for a second year. As
volunteer teachers, they had been selected by a panel review consisting of university
professors and assigned to a Confucius Institute in the Midwestern United States to
supervise their teaching in a local school district.

The teachers selected all were female, and by US. standards, they were small; in
fact, several elementary students were physically taller or larger. They were all relatively
young, and had melodic, soft-spoken voices. This was the first full-time job for all
teachers; none of the four had previous experience teaching elementary students. All four
were extremely hard working, and often stayed at the school late into the evenings or

took additional work home to be completed after hours.

Fan

Fan was 23 years old at the start of the study. She had a Bachelor’s Degree in
English focusing on linguistics, literature of English-speaking countries, translation, and
interpretation. She had a very approachable and outgoing personality, and had a sense of
humor that would show itself at unexpected times. She was placed at one of the K-5
schools as one of the Language and Culture teachers. She quickly made the acquaintance

of the various homeroom teachers with whom she worked closely.

34

Fan taught the Language and Culture program. The first year, she taught Chinese
to six groups of kindergarten through fifth grade students for a total of two hours per
week per grade level. She thus taught a total of 104 different children in the course of a
day. The second year, she became the designated upper elementary (third through fifth
grade) Chinese Language and Culture Teacher. She taught 2 classes per grade level for
30 minutes per day. Thus, she taught 123 students/day/week. In both years, Like others in
typical elementary school specialist positions, she brought her teaching materials to each

classroom on a cart and also utilized materials that were within each classroom.

Yuan

Yuan was also a Language and Culture teacher at the same K-5 school as Fan. At
the start of the study, Yuan was 22 years old and had a bachelor’s degree in English. She
had a quiet and reserved personality, yet had great perceptual skills in the way she would
observe and learn from people and situations. Once she became comfortable with whom
she associated, she was full of questions to further her knowledge. As remarked by an
American colleague, “She’s a natural example of an inquirer. She’s always asking
questions, wanting to observe, sharing her knowledge and reflecting to merge what she
knows with what she’s learning.”

Yuan’s situation was similar to Fan’s the first year. She also taught students in

grades Kindergarten through fifth grade. During the second year, she was the designated
lower elementary teacher teaching students in kindergarten through second grade. She

taught 2 classes per grade level for 30 minutes per day. Thus, she taught 135 students

35

every day. In both years, Yuan also traveled with a cart from classroom to classroom

providing instruction in the students’ homerooms.

Xiao

Assigned as a kindergarten immersion teacher, Xiao, a 23 year old woman with a
bachelor’s degree in English, was eager and outgoing. She had an energetic personality
and typically wore a smile. Xiao remained in her position for only five months. She had
many challenges adjusting to teaching kindergarten, and returned to China after she was
asked to resign. Xiao was a participant in the study while she was in the US. and when
she returned to China, she continued to communicate and participate through email
through October, 2008. i

As true to the immersion model of instruction, she was expected to teach almost
exclusively in Chinese and was responsible for teaching half of the kindergarten content
curriculum through. Data were collected from both groups of students that Xiao taught
and from Xiao directly. Unlike the language and culture teachers, Xiao had her own

classroom.

JingJing

J ingJ ing was 27 years old when she became a participant of this study, and had a
BA in English. She had been teaching online high school courses in the United States
until mid-February of 2007 when she replaced Xiao as a kindergarten immersion teacher.
JingJing had been a very successfiil as an online teacher, as she had demonstrated

maturity and was given additional responsibilities such as overseeing other online

36

teachers and designing curriculum. She had been abruptly switched into the kindergarten
immersion position without being consulted. This change was accepted without grievance
and she successfully completed the school year in the kindergarten position. Thus, when
the school year was complete she was granted permission to return to her former online
teaching position. J ingJ ing began participation in the study when she replaced Xiao in

February, 2008 and continued through the remainder of the study.

School Environment and Support Systems

All four teachers had the support of the school administrators and staff. When the
teachers first arrived, the school staff completely furnished an apartment nearby.
Additionally, many American teachers came forward to assist with classroom set up,
encouraged classroom observations during teacher release time, offered advice for
behavior management and extended invitations for interactions outside of the school.
There was a genuine desire on the part of the teachers’ American colleagues to see each
of the Chinese teachers succeed. Parents were also interested in being supportive, though
they were less confident in their own ability to demonstrate support beyond basic
conversations.

The teachers were scheduled to arrive in early July to allow for intensive inservice
education prior to classroom teaching, but visa issues delayed the arrival and prevented
the inservice resulting in the teachers arriving the last week in August. Over the Labor
Day weekend, an emergency three day professional development session was held to
address the initial needs and concerns of the teachers, discuss behavior management

techniques, and lesson planning. This was designed to address to the immediate needs of

37

the teachers. To also provide support services, Education for Global Citizenship (EGC)
provided “as needed” onsite support from an experienced Chinese teacher, two professors
specializing in Second Language Acquisition, and site support administrators.

The school district also provided periodic professional development inservice
sessions to all teachers. Because some of the topics, such as student achievement trends,
were not considered as important to the Chinese teachers as they were for the local
teachers, administrators allowed the teachers to forego the training so that they could be
assisted at the building level in preparation for teaching. This course of action was
thought to be more beneficial to the Chinese teachers than attending inservice sessions in
which the teachers had no prior knowledge or understanding of the topics.

A very important source of support was the social network that the Chinese
teachers created with each other. They lived and worked together, always in close
proximity to each other and therefore, there was a strong camaraderie between them. The
Language and Culture teachers had lighter teaching loads due to the nature of their
program, and they would often help the immersion teachers with their weekly parental
newsletters, prepare teaching materials, and even go into the immersion kindergarten

room to help out on their own release time.

Data Collection Procedures
This study took place during the first three semesters of the Chinese teachers’
experience--their first year and the initial months of the second year. Multiple methods of
data collection were utilized as part of this study. Primary data sources included

videotapes, video consultation data, blogs, field notes, and email communications.

38

Videotapes of Teaching

During the initial year of teaching, two thirty-minute video samples of each
teacher were collected. Unfortunately, one teacher (Xiao) was removed from the
classroom after five months and subsequently returned to China. Because Xiao and her
replacement, JingJing, did not complete a second year of classroom teaching, video was
only collected from them in the first year of the study.

, The videos ranged from 31-49 minutes in length and were collected across
various time periods (Table 2). Though it was attempted to have video footage shot
during the same time period, it was not the always the case. With the teacher switches,
the two immersion teachers had initial video during the first month of entering the
classroom and their final video was taken within the last six weeks of classroom teaching.
As Xiao exited and JingJing took over, these videotapes coincided within three weeks of
the mid-year teaching video of Fan and Yuan.

As part of the teachers’ certification courses during their second year of teaching,
teachers were required to submit two videotapes of their teaching, and these tapes served
in that capacity. The tapes were recorded during the fall semester of the second year with
3-4 weeks between the two tapings and collected according the directions on the course

syllabus. These two tapes were included to trace change and adaptation over time.

Video Consultation Data
Teachers were interviewed upon conclusion of collecting the final videotapes in

the fall semester of the second year. During this time, each teacher viewed her own

39

videotapes; her reflective comments and conversations with the researcher were audio
recorded and notes were also taken. The closing interviews served the purpose of
obtaining general perceptions from the teachers as to what was happening in the video,
how teachers thought or felt about situations, and how their teaching had evolved over
time.

To do this, teachers viewed sample video footage of their teaching from both the
first year and second year. Prior to the schedule viewings, the researcher noted particular
video segments for discussion with questions (e. g. What did you mean when you said
this? What reaction did you expect from this student? Why did/didn’t you get the
response you wanted? What was your purpose here? How does this relate to your
education/teaching training in China? Where does this viewpoint/belief come from?)
This was done to clarify issues related to plausible interpretations. Likewise, additional
questions (Appendix A) were asked to dig deeper into the teachers’ thoughts in
relationship to the research questions and for general perceptions as school, adjustments,
and acculturation.

The protocol for the viewing first allowed teachers to view their videotape from
start to finish. They were given guidance as to how to operate the technology and were
instructed if they wanted to stop or review segments, to go ahead and do so. The general
pattern for this portion was for teachers to talk over the viewing and commenting on what
they saw of both themselves and their students. This led to general conversations with
many impromptu questions in response to teacher comments. After a tape was viewed,
the predetermined segments were individually viewed with the prompting questions

posed to get further insights into specific data samples.

Later, when the researcher reviewed the videotapes, audiotapes and notes and new
questions arose, the teachers were contacted via email and asked for clarification and
confirmation of their thinking. Hence the interview was extended and the follow-up
contacts offered a form of member checking to validate emerging hypotheses and
theories. Some of these interactions took place after teachers left their teaching positions.

Indeed, one problem that arose with the videotape and interviews was that Xiao
was removed from her teaching position prior to the conclusion of the school year. Thus,
videotaping was only possible while she was teaching. Likewise, JingJing replaced Xiao
and therefore her videotaping began after she started teaching midyear and concluded at
the end of that first year because she chose to return to her prior teaching position that
was outside of this research project. This complicated the accessibility to the data. In this
case, arrangements were made to continue email communication for follow up data

collection before and after the changes occurred.

Blogs

As part of teachers’ visiting scholar program responsibilities, they wrote two
reflective blog entries each month of their first year to reflect on their teaching
experiences and the issues encountered as they taught. Within the blogs, each teacher was
required to write and reflect on one aspect of her teaching or report and aspect of her
experience in the classrooms. Likewise, they were encouraged to respond to other
teachers’ posts. This was not continued into the second year because it was determined
that with the addition of academic coursework required for certification, this requirement

would place undue stress and extra demands on the teachers.

41

Teachers were encouraged to write in English. Those who were more comfortable
expressing themselves better in Chinese and choose to write in Chinese had their blogs
which were translated into English by a translator. Teachers were provided an
opportunity to verify the accuracy of their English translation to ensure that

misinterpretations did not occur.

Field Notes

To supplement videotapes, field notes were collected. As the researcher was at the
site on a full-time basis, these included one formal monthly scheduled observation plus
additional time with the teachers in or out of the classroom. Field notes included the notes
that were collected during the visitations. The protocol for collecting field notes
consisted of noting date and time duration. During formal observations, 3 table was used
to note time increments, teaching/learning activity, teacher statements/action and student
responses. For informal, impromptu observations, notes consisted of similar

documentation, though they were usually handwritten.

Artifacts

As a supplement to field notes, documents from teacher professional
development, teaching observations, lesson plans, and informal participant conversations.
During professional development times, field notes were also taken. Artifact documents
came from online bi-weekly professional development sessions and mid-year on

university campus sessions.

42

Email Communications

Regular email communications between the researcher, the participants, and
various other district administrators occurred, and informed consent was granted by
participants to use these communications as data. They included communications about a
variety of topics such as weekly lesson plans, problems or issues that arose at the school
or classroom levels, instructional methods, and successful endeavors. In addition, when
specific questions arose that pertained to data analyses interpretation, emails including
specific questions or probes were sent to follow up with the participants, this helped
portray a more complete story. All email communications were used as additional

documentation as to issues that have affected the acculturation of the Chinese teachers.

Research Timeline and Setting
Data were collected over a total of two years, starting in September of 2007 and
concluding in November, 2008. Table 2 depicts the participation of each teacher over
this research timeline. Data were not collected during school vacations, including

summer months.

43

Table 2

Data Collection Timeline

 

 

 

 

Month
Fan Yuan X iao JingJing
September 2007 Blog Blog Blog
Field notes Field notes Field notes
Video
October Blog Blog Blog
Field notes Field notes Field notes
November Blog Blog Blog
Field notes Field notes Field notes
Video
December Blog Blog Blog
Field notes Field notes Field notes
Video
January 2008 Blog Blog Blog
Field notes Field notes Field notes
Video
February Blog Blog Blog Blog
Field notes Field notes Field notes Field notes
Video Video
March Blog Blog Xiao removed Blog
Field notes Field notes from classroom. Field notes
Video
April Blog Blog Blog
Field notes Field notes Field notes
Video
May Blog Blog Interview Blog
Field notes Field notes Field notes
September Field notes Field notes Email Interview and
Communication Video Review
Email
Communication
October Field notes Field notes Email Email
Video Video Communication Communication
November Field notes Field notes
Video Video
Interview and Interview and
Video Review Video Review
December Field notes Field notes

 

Data Analysis Procedures

Data analysis was conducted in conjunction with collection procedures. All
interviews were transcribed and any reflections written in Chinese were translated.
Teachers had the opportunity to verify translations for accuracy.

To begin data analysis, a qualitative software package called HyperResearch was
employed to assist with the organization and manipulation of systematic data coding.
This allowed a methodical look for the variations across the various data sources that
supported various emerging themes.

One hypothesis under study was related to the possible challenges experienced by
Chinese teachers in a new school setting; specifically, an incongruence with their
personal knowledge of school. It was thought that teachers’ experiences with the Chinese
educational system might not match the educational environment in which they now
found themselves teaching. Study of this incongruence, and how it affected teachers’
acculturation and development of school cultural competency, included the examination
of a variety of data. Interpretation focused on the routine actions as well as on the
responses or reactions of the teachers. These could be interpreted as responses based on
their teaching as novice educators, responses based on their particular thoughts, ideas of
how schools operate, and/or how teachers might embed their personal cultural norms and
values into their thoughts and actions. In addition, they were examined for evidence of
how teachers may acculturate and develop cultural competency within American school
environments.

An initial focus in data analysis involved looking at data in terms of aspects of

time that may indicate acculturation. Utilizing aspects of time provided insights frames

45

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the habits allowed for determining changes that occurred over time that were attributed to
the acculturation. Additional examination to see if the changes over time were positive
and/or negative also gave indication as to the participants’ abilities to become culturally
competent in their new teaching environment.

The focus was first on the interactions between the teacher, students, and
curriculum. This provided early flexibility rather than premature commitment to any
specific paths of interpretation. To do this, the data were first examined using the
predetermined neutral code categories of teacher, class, students, curriculum, parents, and
colleague relationships.

Applying the codes then allowed a deeper analysis, making the application of sub-
codes possible, which in turn provided a more interpretive analysis of the data. These
assertions were induced from the research data and were tested and retested based on the
collected data (Erickson, 1986). From there, consideration to other possibilities such as
mutual behavior accommodations, functions of the universal language of teachers and/or
similarities or differences in expectations between student/teacher were given.

Following contrasted-groups analysis procedures, responses to interview questions
and field notes were read to search for converging or diverging themes or common ideas
(Miles & Huberman, 1994). This was examined in context of the research questions. The
data were segmented and coded through a process of data reduction, by selecting,
focusing, simplifying, abstracting, and transforming the data. As this was done, the coded
segments were inputted into HyperResearch in order to better manipulate and organize
the data. Then the coded data organized based upon the recurring patterns, classes of

behaviors or themes that were emerging (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Within this process,

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an “audit trail” was maintained by recording the research steps taken to identify themes,
the decisions rules, and summaries related to the analytical process and decisions
(Lincoln & Cuba, 1981). Once the recurring patterns and text segments had been
identified and labeled, HyperResearch was used to facilitate the analysis of qualitative
and text-based data. Throughout the process, the researcher looked for verification of
themes by noting regularities or patterns that confirmed or denied the plausibility and
validity of the conclusions. Themes then described the practices and contextual features
that characterized the teachers, such as those that might inform the literature on culture
shock, acculturation, cultural competency, and how one’s own culture may influence the
teaching practices. Of interest in this process were specific instances and classes of
behaviors that provided information on the themes. Together, these characterized the
nature of the teachers’ practices and how culture was embedded within their practices. In
addition, specific indicators of teachers’ acculturation and induction processes were duly
noted.

Several data sources were compared during interpretation with the aim of
estimating whether the pictures were consistent with each other. The variety of data
sources allowed for the richness and complexity of the issues being studied to be
approached from a variety of sources and perspectives. Such an approach provided a

more comprehensive and objective picture of the condition.

Identification of Embedded Culture within the Data
Teachers and students enter the school environment with preconceived ideas and

notions of school and how it functions. Within this study, teachers and students had been

47

educated within different school environments that built upon different cultural moral and
values of the two different societies. Therefore, certain thoughts and actions that
embedded cultural values may or may not have been shared across participants within the
new school environment. This created the potential for conflict and discord. The analysis
was challenging in itself because it not only required identification of conflicts between
participants, but also identification of cultural components that may have been similar or
conflicting across the teachers and students. Identification of the motivating factors and
underlying expectations, morals, or values that were driving the participants’ thoughts
and actions was also required.

In order to identify examples of embedded culture, a step-by-step process was
employed. The data were segmented and coded through a process of data reduction, by
selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting, and transforming the data. From there, each
individual segment was examined with the purpose of identifying potential any potential
influence of culture (e. g. repetitive actions, conflicts, anomalies in expectations and
patterns). This in itself was not enough to identify embedded culture as these factors
could potentially be interpreted in a variety of other ways. For example, many actions on
the part of the teachers could also be interpreted as actions on the part of novice teachers.
As these participants were indeed novices, it would therefore be expected that they would
also share actions typical of novice teachers. In order to corroborate examples of
embedded culture, it was necessary to determine which factors were a part of the mental
picture the teachers held and how these were representative of the morals and values of
the Chinese culture. To do this, two actions were taken. First, the potential examples were

examined across the various data sources and participants. This was to examine the

48

repetitiveness of such thoughts and actions and if such were shared and common across
the teachers and whether or not it continued across time.

Second, video analysis, interviews, and email communications provided the
opportunity for teachers to review their thoughts and reflect upon their actions within the
classroom. This process was incorporated to see if the data indeed held embedded
culture. They needed to be examined for whether or not these were indeed part of the
teachers’ mental pictures of teaching, and whether they reflected upon the moral and
values of Chinese education. The analysis could then help determine how competency
involved gaining knowledge and cultivating considerations for other cultures.

Once it was determined whether or not data contained aspects of culture, they
were coded under the appropriate theme. This allowed for the calculations of frequencies
and ratios between segments with and without embedded culture to examine possible

patterns across time.

Ethical Issues
The researcher was involved in the Education for Global Citizenship (EGC)

project in two capacities: (a) as the Senior Project Director, primarily responsible for
overseeing all sites within the state and providing the necessary support, either directly or
through assistance provided by other individuals; and (b) as one of the specialists at one
of the sites employing the three Chinese teachers with the responsibility of overseeing the
Chinese language program at the site and district level. This was a difficult position for
the researcher, because the Senior Project Director was a supervisory role. Yet, as the site

specialist, the position was a mentorship position with no evaluative or authoritative

49

power. These two positions were contradictory in nature. To negate any possible
challenge to the interpretations, the researcher introduced some safeguards. First,
supervisory actions were either implemented by another supervisor, or they were carried
out at the district and administrative level and also implemented by others. The one
failing in this was the when one teacher was removed from the classroom. Second, when
necessary, the researcher’s job role was clearly defined to the teachers so there was
clarity as to whether or not she was functioning as mentor or supervisor. Thus,
confidentiality between the two roles was kept. Finally, the Chinese teachers had other
staff members, both at the school and at the Confucius Institute to talk to when they felt
they were being misunderstood. Though these safeguards were not foolproof, they did
allow for both confidence and a productive relationship, whereby teachers could safely
explain their feelings and beliefs.

Participant observation experiences are typically fraught with a range of ethical
issues ranging from participant/researcher relationship, to power and status issues
(N ewkirk, 1996). In this case, strategies were employed to ensure trustworthiness of the
methodology. Participants had the opportunity to look at the data to confirm the
researcher’s interpretation of the data. Additionally, triangulation of the multiple data
sources ensured that the findings were consistent across the data. These strategies served
as check-and-balance system to ensure that judgment in the researcher role was not

clouded by involvement in the project in the participant role.

50

CHAPTER 4
RESULTS

This micro-ethnography was designed to explore the acculturation and induction
process of four Chinese teachers who participated in the Education for Global Citizenship
(EGC) project. The purpose of the research was to understand the how Chinese teachers
adapted to the complex territory between their own teaching practices as compared with
the norms and values that characterize effective teaching in Michigan Chinese language
classrooms. It was clear through examination that some teachers’ habits changed over
time. It gave a glimpse into the cultural adaptation that occurred, and gave indications as
to how teachers’ culture influenced classroom interactions.

There were many dimensions at play in this research study. Rather than
examining variables independently or in dichotomies, this study examined the
interrelationships between the variables. First, these teachers were novice teachers and
exhibited behaviors characteristic of individuals who are novices in the teaching field.
Even if they had had prior teaching experience, upon entering this new environment, they
exhibited novice teacher behaviors in context of the new teaching situation. Second,
teachers functioned within their personal knowledge of school; they behaved and taught
according to their own particular thoughts and ideas of how schools operate. Third, there
was a strong cultural component that was embedded within their teaching scripts.

Within these contexts, there were three primary trends. First in relation to
behavior management issues, these teachers demonstrated patterns and characteristics of
novice teachers. But a strong cultural approach was integrated into this context. Initially,

a Chinese cultural approach for implementing disciplinary measures was evident, but

51

over time, the teachers shifted towards integrating a cultural approach into their
classroom management practices. Second, the teachers embedded Chinese culture in their
pedagogical approaches; an area where many practices remained constant over time.
Third, the school cultural knowledge on behalf of the teachers was modified and adjusted
over time to assimilate to and adjust for teaching in US. classrooms. These primary
trends were interrelated and often overlapping. As a whole, they were associated with
both “culture shock” and acculturation as they directly influenced the teachers’ ability to

adapt, change, and work competently across the two distinct cultures.

Behavior Management

The most prominent issue surrounding the participants of this study was
managing American students. Behavior management in the classroom is challenging at
best, even for professionally prepared teachers who are already familiar with working
with American children. For these Chinese teachers who were not familiar with the
American educational system, the cultural values, and the actions of American
youngsters, the problem was magnified and difficult to overcome.

Behavior management was examined in this study within the novice teacher
practices and the context of cultural competency. Aspects of culture, including actions,
thoughts, communications, customs, beliefs, and values were embedded within the
teaching practices these teachers employed. They were observed in relationship to each
teacher’s ability to develop competency skills that would allow her to effectively function

Within and across the two cultures, a finding similar to what Ford and Whiting (2007)

52

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suggested. In the practical situation, there were resulting implications across many
different aspects of behavior management.

The data revealed several primary categories within the overall category of
behavior management. These were (a) discipline, (b) classroom management, (c) other
Chinese cultural factors, (d) novice teacher factors, (e) differing expectations of students
and teachers, and (f) time spent on behavior management. These same categories might
pertain to teachers in general; thus an examination of these trends was useful at that level.
It was also useful to determine patterns that could relate back to either cultural
adaptation, or to how novice teachers gain experience, or perhaps to a combination of
both factors. This chapter presents the results in these categories as well as several

subthemes revealed by the data.

Discipline

The category of Discipline is closely related to that of Classroom Management.
These two categories were sub-coded within the category of Behavior Management in
order to distinguish what appeared to be different situations and events. On the surface it
might appear that these were the same category, but review of the video data in particular
showed that they were different enough to warrant separate analyses. Discipline tended to
be reactive or punitive (negative) to misbehavior happening in the classroom and was
directly related behavior management, whereas, classroom management was proactive
(positive) and could be identified in teachers’ design of rules, routines, and procedures to

Prevent misbehavior.

53

Discipline in the Context of Novice Teachers

Several behavior management issues were related to novice teacher behavior.
Certain characteristics, such as turning one’s back to the class when writing on the
chalkboard or talking over students, are actions that novice teachers learn to modify as
they develop their management skills. Behavior management problems such as these
were expected because these Chinese teachers were novice teachers. Thus, the results
within behavior management were characteristic of novice teachers. In other words,
demonstrated trends that were characteristic of novice teachers as they transitioned into
their second year of teaching.

Behavior management problems were quite prevalent in Year 1. Though several
types of behavior management challenges continued into the following year, the
frequency of discipline occurrences decreased. Further analyses revealed the themes of
macro-level discipline (disciplinary action aimed towards the class as a whole), direct
micro-level discipline (disciplinary actions aimed at a specific student that interrupted
instruction), indirect micro-level discipline (disciplinary actions aimed at a specific
student that did not interrupted instruction), and specific patterns in how teachers
addressed student misbehavior. During the first year, the frequency of implementing

discipline strategies at both macro and micro (direct) levels were relatively equal.

Micro-level Discipline
Micro-level Discipline was defined and coded as disciplinary action aimed at a
specific student and his or her infraction. At the micro level, teachers addressed specific

student misbehaviors both directly, as when behavior was handled both publically and in

54

a manner that interrupted instruction, or indirectly through means that corrected the
problem but did not interfere with instruction. Key to this concept was understanding that
direct management was done in a manner that brought the infraction to the attention to
other members of the class with negativity associated to the behavior and reaction.
Indirect management was not kept subtle or private.

An example of both direct and indirect micro-level discipline occurred when Xiao
was teaching a literacy lesson. She frequently stopped to tell a student to pay attention,
for example, “[Student], be quiet.” In such cases, she utilized micro-level discipline skills
in a direct and public manner. The student’s misbehavior was acknowledged in front of
the whole class in a manner that interrupted instruction. An example of indirect micro-
level discipline occurred when a student was playing with a small piece of paper. Xiao
took the paper from the student and rose slightly off her chair to place it on a nearby
table. Throughout this action, she continued to read and direct the class to the title of the
story. In this case, she was able to remove the distracting factor while redirecting the
student and maintaining the integrity of the instruction, making it an indirect micro-level

discipline act.

Macro-level Discipline

Macro-level discipline was defined and coded to include ways of addressing
problematic behaviors among a large number of students. In these cases both the behavior
on the part of the students and disciplinary action on the part of the teacher always
interrupted instruction. This form of discipline was always conducted publically in a

direct manner. At the macro level, discipline took the form of verbally addressing the

55

whole classroom primarily about the noise level or not listening to the teacher during the
lesson. Periodically, disciplinary remarks were supported with nonverbal cues such as a
finger over the mouth indicating a quiet sign or tapping an item that the teacher requested
students to direct their attention to.

Specific examples of direct macro-level discipline are found in the transcript of
Fan’s video segment (Table 3). In this example taken from Year 2, Fan was transitioning
between learning activities. Preceding this segment, students had been playing a game
with teams racing to identify the Chinese character displayed to win points for their
teams. Fan transitioned into an activity using chopsticks with the learning goal of
differentiating colors (e. g. yellow, huangse) and the use of color identification in objects
requiring additional measurement words (e. g. huangse de), thus students would use color
words in the correct contextual situation. Students became excited with the activity and
began yelling out and cheering. It began as Fan pulled out a pair of chopsticks and a
container. Segment 1 identifies Fan’s first attempt to redirect students. She used the
verbal cue “quiet” in conjunction with a nonverbal cue of raising her hand. Segment 3
shows how F an unsuccessfully incorporated “shhh” as she continued to set up the
activity. Both of these segments demonstrated a Macro-level behavior management
strategy due to her direct interaction with the whole class. This strategy was relatively
ineffective as it took repeated efforts to redirect students’ attention. But rather than
continuing with a form of macro—level discipline that was not producing the desired
behaviors, Fan quickly got the new activity going and immediately asked a question to

draw students back on task with appropriate participation.

56

Table 3

Macro-level Behavior Management

 

 

Number Transcription Student Actions

(1) T: Quiet T stands very erect. T raises hand at
the elbow.

(2) T: [Student]

(3) T: shhh T moves a student’s desk over to be
directly in front of class as a
demonstration table.

(4) The teacher is saying something in Class is yelling out

Chinese, but cannot tell what it is due to
students yelling out.

(5) T: shén me?
(6) T: lfise de

(7) T: lfise de

(8) Class: huangse
(9) T: huangse de
(10) Class: beisé de
(l l) T: dul

(12) T: se de

Takes out chop sticks and shakes the
container. T is looking into the
container.

T uses chops sticks and picks a green
pompon from the container.

Pulls out a yellow
Pulls out another one

Points to the board while saying 56: de

 

This example demonstrates Fan’s ability to redirect students in a manner that

shifts from a macro-level effort of trying to command attention to a technique that drew

students’ interest into the activity and therefore, they were motivated to participate. This

eliminated the management issue. When Fan transitioned between activities, she initially

stood very erect and stiff in front of the classroom and stated a single word (quiet). Her

posture, stance, and placement at the front of the class were typical of all the Chinese

teachers and indicative of a repetitive trend and a cultural approach. This also developed

into a successful tactic she implemented at the start of each lesson. As she realized that

her tactics were not effective during lesson transitions, she adjusted her behavior, relaxed

her stance, and took a new approach. This example highlights not only an example of a

57

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novice teacher gaining experience, but also Fan’s acculturation process of learning to
adapt to the environment. She realized that transition cues that may have been effective in
one environment were ineffective in the new environment. Therefore, Fan had to adjust

her behavior to achieve the desired results.

Novice Teacher Trends

Not surprisingly, discipline patterns changed over time indicating a developing
competency with the new teaching environment. Table 4 shows the issues related to the
frequency in which management characteristics occurred within the video analysis and
field notes. As previously described, each data segment was specifically coded according
to prescribed categories. In the frequency count, each numerator constituted the count
within the specific coded category. A total count of all acknowledged disciplinary actions
(macro, micro/direct and micro/indirect) was used as the denominator to calculate the
percentage of frequencies of occurrences within each discipline category (Table 4, Items
1-4). Classroom management (Table 4, Item 5) percentages divided the count of coded
classroom management with cultural scripts by the total count of all coded classroom
management segments.

Likewise, Table 4 addresses the ratios of behavior management issues. Coded
categories of classroom management, discipline, behaviors addressed and behaviors
ignored were applied to the data segments and cross-compared. When the teacher
addressed misbehavior, whether at the macro, micro (direct/indirect), or classroom
management levels, the data segments were coded as behaviors addressed. Any instance

of misbehavior that was detrimental to learning and did not elicit a reaction from the

58

teacher were coded as ignored behaviors. The analysis process acknowledged that at
times teachers will ignore certain behaviors with the knowledge that it will correct the
misbehavior in a manner better than drawing attention to it. The review specifically
monitored for such actions and did not code them as ignored behaviors when the
teacher’s specific purpose of ignoring the behavior was to correct the behavior. Any

questionable instance was reviewed with the teacher for clarification.

Table 4

Frequency of Behavior Management Issues

 

 

Category of Behavior Management Year 1 Year 2
Percentage Percentage

1. Macro (whole class) Discipline (Students/Behavior 45.5 38.5
Management)

2. Micro (Direct) Level Discipline--Directly addressing a student’s 45.5 23.0
behavior

3. Micro (Indirect) Level-~Indirectly addressing a student’s 9.0 38.5
behavior (e.g. removing item student playing with)

4. Teachers’ Discipline with Culturally Embedded Strategies 40.9 0.0

5. Culturally Embedded Classroom Management Procedures 25.0 50.0

 

As expected, there were decreases in both Macro and Micro (Direct) levels of
discipline (Table 4). Simultaneously, there was an increase in Micro (Indirect) levels of
discipline (Table 4). Especially problematic in Year 1 was behavior management in
relationship with classroom management strategies for discipline (Table 5). As evident on
video observations during Year 1, for each classroom management technique utilized,
there were 18 disciplinary actions on the part of the teachers that indicated teachers were
being reactive to problems that had arisen. As time went on, some of the teachers adapted
and learned new techniques that provided them with more success in this area. During

Year 2, disciplinary actions still outnumbered evident classroom management techniques,

59

but there was a substantial decrease in the ratio between preventative actions to reactive
disciplining. This indicated that teachers were taking a preventative approach to
maintaining classroom order.

These two trends indicated that the teachers were developing competency in
implementing management strategies that made discipline less intrusive on instruction.
This finding was typical of what could be expected of any novice teacher as he or she

becomes acclimated with being a classroom teacher.

Table 5

Ratios of Behavior Management Issues

 

 

Year 1 Year 2
Ratio Ratio
1. Classroom Management
Strategies to Discipline 1:18 1:16
2. Behaviors Addressed to 121.5 3.25:1

Behaviorngnored

Passive Behavior Management

The degree of which behavior management was problematic was distinctive
between the Immersion Program and the Language and Culture Program. With the latter,
teachers interacted with multiple classes for limited amounts of time and were not viewed
as the classroom teacher. When problems arose, the problems could be temporarily
overlooked or ignored. Teachers also deferred to the classroom teacher, if necessary. This
lead to a passiveness and reliance on the classroom teacher for follow through. Whereas
in the Immersion Program, teachers interacted with each of their two classes on a full
time basis, were the instructors of record, and were thus viewed as being authority figures

in their own classrooms.

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During the first year the amount of inappropriate behavior that was ignored on the
part of the teachers was high. For every misbehavior addressed, 1.5 were ignored (Table
5), which magnified the management problems, because students quickly learned that
their Chinese teachers would not address certain behaviors. For Fan and Yuan, behaviors
that they did not address during their lessons were conveyed to the classroom teacher for
disciplinary follow up. This sort of handing over of behavior management duties was
termed passive behavior management. Xiao and JingJing, as the classroom teachers, did
not have the ability to hand over regular classroom misbehavior to another individual.
Xiao ultimately did not overcome these management challenges. In mid-February, she
was removed from her classroom. In her final interview prior to her return to China, she

reflected on her choice of ignoring behavior problems.

Interviewer: What was your biggest mistake in managing your class? '

Xiao: I was teaching to the students who wanted to learn and ignoring the
behaviors. I didn’t realize that not taking care of bad behavior would have
me lose my job.

Interviewer: Why was that?

Xiao: In China students have to learn to please their family and naughty kids are
not in the class. I teached the kids who wanted to learn, who respected the
teacher.

Data from Xiao’s provide evidence of her use of Macro-level and direct Micro
level techniques, which were not effective for her. The other teachers were able to shed
these two management techniques in favor of Micro—level techniques, and subsequently
enjoyed more success in the classroom. These types of techniques are discussed more

fully in the next section.

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Culturally Embedded Disciplinary Actions

The patterns of addressing misbehavior appeared to integrate a cultural approach
on the part of the teachers. In order to visual the difference in disciplinary actions with
and without a cultural approach, it is important to identify the underlying moral or
practical action that drives disciplinary action. For example, a typical disciplinary action
without an indication of culture was a situation where Yuan took a toy away from a
student and placed it on a nearby table. She handled the issue effectively, but there was
no indication as to how Yuan’s thoughts or actions within this data segment could tie into
any cultural norms that influenced her actions. A disciplinary data segment containing a
cultural approach was when Fan acknowledged a student’s talking and stated, “[Student]
please stand up in the back there with hands behind back and listen to what I am saying.”
Moving a problematic student is a typical teacher behavior management strategy. But
within the command, Fan directed the student to stand with his hands behind the back, an
action that could be viewed as atypical. This in itself did not constitute classification as a
culturally embedded teaching script, but in Fan’s follow up review she indicated students
in China are taught to stand to show respect (e. g. answering a teacher’s question or when
being asked to do something or perform a task) and teachers teach students to keep their
hands behind their backs to keep from misbehaving. Therefore, this example
demonstrated Fan’s attempt to incorporate her cultural values into her management
practice through a cultural approach.

But this finding could be taken a step further by looking at it in terms of culturally
embedded teaching scripts. During Year 1, culturally embedded teaching scripts, similar

to the previously mentioned example, were evident in 40% of all disciplinary actions on

62

the part of the teachers. To obtain this percentage, a total of all disciplinary actions had
been counted and compared against those disciplinary actions and included those that
embedded Chinese culture. These tended to be present, but were not exclusive within the
first half of the lessons indicating that as compared to the latter half of the lesson. Thus,
teachers dropped a strategy if they found it ineffective. Additionally, evidence of Chinese
cultural scripts were more prevalent in the beginning of the school year than at the end.
By the second year, there was no evidence of Chinese cultural scripts within teachers’
disciplinary actions.

When teachers incorporated their Chinese viewpoints into discipline, students did
not react per the teachers’ expectations. For example, during one of Xiao’s lessons, a
student moved away from the group and another other student grabbed her pant leg.
Xiao’s response was “[Student] I don’t think you show me good behavior.” This
statement highlighted inconsistency in expectations: in a follow up interview, Xiao
further explained. “In China, when you misbehave in class, you are being disrespectful to
the teacher. I thought [Student] was disrespectful to me.”

This statement did not address the inappropriateness of physically touching
another child that could have resulted in injury. A typical American teacher’s response
may have been to remind the student that hands, feet, and objects were to be kept to
oneself to keep one’s friends safe. Yet, Xiao did two things differently here. First, she
took a moral perspective by framing the behavior as being disrespectful to her. This
statement reflected upon her Chinese values that respect for the teacher is paramount, and
any disrespect to the teacher disgraces the student’s family, a finding similar to Coats

(2005). Second, the difference in language discourse and what students expected to hear,

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and what Xiao actually said, were two distinctly different things. This ultimately led to
miscommunication between the Xiao and the student. As the other teachers realized
students were not responding to their culturally embedded disciplinary responses to clue
students to change their behavior, they shifted to using other disciplinary measures to
which students were more accustomed. This trend continued into the second year, as
then no apparent embedded culture was observed within disciplinary actions (Table 4)
from the data collected. This finding was rather extreme, and leads one to question
whether the finding was realistic. There are two possible rationales: First, the two
teachers who completed the study into the second year were both in Language and
Culture positions. Throughout the study, they had the help and mentorship of American
teachers who also modeled classroom disciplinary actions and encouraged the teachers to
implement classroom management routines of the teacher to allow for consistency
between the classroom teacher and the Chinese teacher. This allowed these two Chinese
teachers to adopt the practices of their western mentors. Second, although the Language
and Culture teachers practiced passive discipline referral, it actually served to buy them
time in a supportive way, allowing them to bring in appropriate practices at a slower and

more culturally comfortable pace under better supervision and support.

Discipline Summary

Disciplinary management at both the macro and micro levels decreased from the
first year to the second year. This decrease, in relationship to the increase in classroom
management procedures in conjunction with instructional routines, showed that the

Chinese teachers increased skills that allowed them to be proactive in the approach to

behavior management. Similarly, there was a 22.5% decrease in directly addressing

individual student behavior in relationship to 29.5% increase in indirect disciplinary
strategies. This made behavior management less intrusive on classroom instructional
time. This trend is also one that follows patterns demonstrated by novice teachers.

An important shift was noted from an overt integration of culturally embedded
disciplinary strategies in the first year, to embedded culture being undetectable the
second year. The teachers incorporated fewer Chinese cultural scripts in their discipline
techniques and shifted towards adopting discipline strategies modeled by their American
teaching peers, a process of adapting and developing cultural competency in the new
school environment. As time progressed, the Chinese teachers indicated that they
observed other disciplinary management approaches, and discussed with American
teachers how to best implement them in the various classrooms. As Yuan noted,
“Teachers at the school were so nice to let us watch them and tell us what they do to
make students behave. They have good control so I try to do what they do.” The other
three teachers also expressed similar sentiments. In taking this approach, the teachers
attempted to adopt the behavior management strategies of their American counterpart
teachers in lieu of their previous approach. Acculturation, defined here as change in
cultural behavior and thinking, occurred as the Chinese teachers interacted with their

American counterparts within this new cultural environment.

Classroom Management
Though the terms are often used homogenously, there is a distinction between

classroom management practices and discipline (Weinstein, 2003). Teachers’ disciplinary

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actions focused specifically on responses to inappropriate behavior that was happening in
the classroom by one or many of the students. Their classroom management, on the other
hand, focused on ways in which the teacher created a caring, respectful environment that
supported learning. There were trends in classroom management actions that were

indicative of both novice teachers and culturally embedded classroom management.

Classroom Management in the Context of Novice Teachers

In the area of behavior management, novice teachers typically shift from
implementing disciplinary procedures to classroom management procedures. As
expected, comparisons in this study between classroom management and disciplinary
measures (Table 4) indicated a major shift from Year 1 to Year 2. Though disciplinary
actions still outnumbered classroom management techniques in Year 2, there was a
substantial decrease in the ratio between preventative actions to reactive discipline. This
indicated that teachers were taking a preventative approach to maintaining classroom
order.

Reflecting upon the changes in management from Year 1 to Year 2, Yuan stated,
“I made my expectations clear to the students from the first day. I followed through and
was consistent. Things are much better when students know the routines and procedures.
I wait until all students are ready.” Not knowing how to establish routines and procedures
that allowed students to identify the classroom expectations made them difficult to
manage during the first year. During the second year, when management procedures were
taught and implemented with clear and consistent expectations, there was a decrease in

behavior problems.

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One primary proactive measure utilized by the Chinese teachers during the first
year, and that continued into the second year, was to arrange student seating into rows,
both when the students were at their desks and when they sat on the floor. When asked
about the structure of the rows they created, all four teachers indicated that it was usually
assigned seating and students were given a designated spot to sit so that they could break
up problematic students.

The second year, more management procedures were integrated. To gain
students’ attention and to also signal the start of a lesson, a chant "pantui pantui zuo zuo
hao" (cross legs and sit nicely), was initiated after Fan and Yuan had observed an
experienced Chinese immersion teacher using the strategy within her classroom. When
hearing this, students were cued into joining the chant, orienting themselves appropriately
and focusing attention on the teacher. Likewise, rather than passively addressing or not
addressing misbehaviors, the expectation was that all students would cue in before the
lesson continued.

Several routines provided evidence that the new strategies worked. For example,
when Fan would stand straight at the front of the class and raise her hand at the start of
the lesson, students would become attentive to what she had to say. Similarly, when Yuan
wanted to signal to students to raise their hands to answer questions, she would also raise
her hand providing a visual cue to her students on what is expected. Most evident was the
consistency in expectations. For example, both Yuan and Fan would stop and wait for all
students to come back on task. This was a major change from the previous year when
they would stop and request students’ attention, but then continue despite not all students

being on task.

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Implementation of successful classroom management strategies indicated a
change as novice teachers became more experienced in their second year of teaching.
They learned that establishing and implementing consistent classroom management
procedures made the classroom run more smoothly and decreased behavior problems.
Incorporating a few Chinese cultural actions and expectations into their management
strategies extended classroom management in the second year, yet did not impede
classroom management as they did the first year. This is because they were taught in a

manner that allowed students to adapt to practices that were new and different.

Culturally embedded Classroom Management Actions

Though teachers struggled with the ineffectiveness of culturally embedded
disciplinary action, they achieved relative success in embedding aspects of Chinese
culture into their classroom management approaches. Over the course of the study,
teachers were able to double the percentage of culturally embedded classroom
management actions (Table 4). Reflecting back at the previous classroom management
examples, cultural factors were found within those examples. Fan’s procedure to indicate
the start of the lesson, for example, extended beyond what may have been expected to be
seen in a US. classroom. Though raising a hand may be an action taken by a US.
teacher, other associated actions were different. To begin, she would stand very straight
and stiff at the front of the room. Then she would bend her right arm at the elbow to raise
her hand. This was also done in an abrupt and stiff motion. Through repetition, teaching

the students her expectations, they acculturated to this practice.

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Classroom Management Summary

During the second year, the teachers developed competency to suitably function
within the realm of behavior management. Their shift in embedding cultural scripts
changed from being disciplinary centered to classroom management centered. As noted
above, there were several examples where cultural values were embedded within
classroom management practices, for example arranging students in assigned seating
rows both in desks and on the floor. Special duties were designated by the teacher and
given only to students who were behaving appropriately or to students who raised their
hands or chose to actively participate. Teachers also used a special Chinese chant to cue

students into the start of the lesson or to remind the class to refocus.

Other Culturally Embedded Teaching Practices
Influencing Behavior Management

Individuals, whether teachers or students, enter a school with certain expectations
of what school is and how it should function. Within this framework of ideas, they use
their working knowledge of school and education to interact within the school
environments. In this case, the Chinese teachers and American students had different
expectations of how the school environment should function. Thus, what would be
culturally appropriate in one environment did not necessarily function well in the new
environment. There were additional cultural aspects that influenced teachers’ actions and

students’ engagement and behavior.

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Praising or Rewarding Students

Teachers also took on the practice of praising students who demonstrated
respectful behavior. For example, an American teacher may purposefully call on students
during whole class instruction, asking them questions about the subject matter being
discussed, or to spot check on understanding. American teachers use such classroom
management strategies to draw students back on task, and ensure that individual needs
are being met in the classroom instruction, both of which are practical matters. This was
not the case with any of the four Chinese teachers. During the first year, all data indicated
that all four teachers’ practice was to call only on students who were raising their hands
and actively participating. There is no documented data to indicate otherwise, and
teachers agreed that it was indeed purposeful on their part to call only on students who

were participating. JingJing’s final interview provides an example:

Interviewer: Why did you call only on students who were raising their hands?

J ingJ ing: Those were the students wanting to learn and show what they know.

Interviewer: Why didn’t you call on students who were not paying attention? Maybe
you could have drawn them back into your lesson.

JingJing: I want to reward and give praise to students who are being respectful and
trying to learn. If students are not paying attention, they should not get
praise for correct answers if they can answer properly. It just teaches them
that they don’t have to pay attention.

This exchange suggested that JingJing saw calling on students more as a moral
matter (rewarding virtue) than a practical matter (moving a class along). While both
Chinese and American teachers (and students) vary on this moral-practical dimension,

Chinese teachers are somewhat more likely than American teachers to see calling on

students as a moral matter rather than a practical matter.

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All teachers indicated that it was important to praise students, which is yet another
moral matter. Yuan noted, “Like when a good student gives a correct answer in the class,
a positive feedback (word or smile) from the teacher will satisfy him.” It was important to
the teachers not to acknowledge or call attention to any disrespectfirl behavior in any
manner that might have ultimately resulted in positive feedback or could be misconstrued
by the students as rewarding inappropriate behavior. However, this practice had adverse
effects when the Chinese teachers used it the classroom. American students, being
accustomed to teachers calling on them when they are not paying attention, quickly
learned that there would be no attempt to draw them into the lessons. Therefore they were
not required to pay to attention. These students also give no indication that they were

concerned that their Chinese teachers interpreted this as a lack of respect.

Teacher/Student Attention

Teachers also rewarded students with teacher attention, which is related to their
actions of rewarding virtue by calling on students who raised their hands. In China,
teachers are highly regarded and respected. In their collective society, an emphasis is
placed on what is best for the whole, in this case, the classroom. Working in conjunction
to this is a social ranking system, wherein the teacher maintains the highest rank and
students are of lower rank. Chinese teachers initially brought a cultural mentality to the
classroom that expected students to be subordinate and respond implicitly to the
expectations of the teachers. When this occurred, students were rewarded with the
teacher’s attention. When students did not respond, they were ignored. For example, Xiao

focused her attention on students in the class who were eager to learn and attentive to

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learning, and ignored the students who did not meet her expectations of listening and
paying attention. She even acknowledged that this teaching practice was driven by her
culture. But the result was that students who were not motivated to learn were quickly
alienated from lessons and ignored. Those who were eager to learn and were respectful
met Xiao’s cultural expectations for social rank in the classroom.

Xiao had the most difficult time of the four teachers, and things progressively got
worse for her. As students learned that they would not be held accountable for
inappropriate behavior, such behaviors intensified. Xiao documented multiple
occurrences of major behavior problems such as:

1. Students walking out of the classroom unnoticed or without permission,

2. Students refusing to line up and come in from recess,

3. Students fighting in the classroom,

4. Students wandering around the classroom despite teaching instruction in progress,
5. Excessive noise and yelling in the classroom, and

6. Outright insubordination in refusal to do what Xiao requested.

These were also behavior problems that Xiao realized did not occur while
students were in attendance with their American teacher, all making the situation even
more perplexing for her. One such example was when she compared a student’s
misbehavior in her room to his behavior in another teacher’s classroom. Xiao wrote, “...I
have asked Christine [the other teacher] about [the student’s] behavior in her classroom.
She said he seems okay, and he listens to her words when she said ‘time out or stand by

the wall etc.’ I don’t know why he just ignore my words.”

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Physical Positions of Teachers in the Classroom

One recurring issue was that of how each teacher positioned herself in the
classroom. During both years of teaching, teachers routinely positioned themselves in the
front of the class, an action that indicated authority or dominance. Within the video
segments, teachers were not seen moving from these positions of dominance. They did
not actively circulate around the room, but rather stood or sat at the front of the room at
all times. Examination of field notes indicated that even though students may have been
working at their seats, teachers still routinely positioned themselves at the front with
students coming to them for questions or assistance. This positioning was typical in
Chinese education, as students are expected to watch and listen to the teacher as the
lesson is delivered. However, this practice is also often seen with novice teachers in US.
classrooms. As any teacher becomes more comfortable with classroom management, it is
easier for him or her to relinquish that position of control. In this study however, the
Chinese teachers, with one exception, never relinquished that control even when they
were no longer considered novices.

The teachers’ movements were also interesting to review, in that they typically
maximized the space between the teachers and the students. In review of the first year of
field notes and video, it appeared that teachers were creating an invisible physical barrier
between themselves and their students. There was little to no physical contact between
teachers and students, suggesting that teachers were actually scared to touch students.
Little actions were apparent such as leaning or stepping back when students encroached
on the teacher’s personal space. When teachers handed materials to students, they did so

taking care that hands did not touch.

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During a video review with the teacher and researcher, such actions of the
teachers were pointed out by the researcher. As summarized by Yuan, “Before we came,
we were told that [in America] teachers cannot touch students. American parents will get
mad at us and they are mean when they are mad and we do not want parents mad at us.”
This comment indicated that the teachers were intimidated by the perception of American
parents. This intimidation was not rooted in any actions by parents, rather it was a result
of cultural misperceptions. The effect was that it directly influenced the relationship

between the teachers and students.

Language Use in Behavior Management

Videotape data showed that English was exclusively used for behavior
management across both programs during the first year. This was not surprising in the
Language and Culture Program, as it did not expect exclusive use of Chinese. Yet, the
Immersion Program by definition maximizes the use of the target language for both
academics and classroom procedures. This was not the case however when teachers
attempted to manage students’ behavior.

When asked about the use of English to manage her class, Xiao responded:

Before, I tried using Chinese to make the kids behave. I make my voice

sound mean. I don’t think they understand the Chinese words so I need to

use English to make them behave. In China, kids come to school and they

know how to behave in school. All a teacher has to do is tell them they be

disrespectful to the teacher and they behave.

In trying to understand Xiao’s explanation of making her voice “sound mean,”

tapes and field notes were revisited. Chinese is a tonal language and for non-speakers of

Chinese, it may have a melodic sound to it. Through video review, there was virtually no

74

discemable change in the tone or volume of voice or strong visual actions to show
disappointment in the behavior when addressing behavior through the Chinese language.
The rise and fall of the natural tones in the language were apparent when listening to the
tapes. Typically, when a teacher reprimands in English, there is a change in voice, where
the voice is usually dropped and given a sterner sound. This brings in a oral cue for the
student that goes beyond the mere words spoken.

Yet, in review of the data, attempts to be vocally strict in Chinese terms, together
with the use of cultural expectations (e. g. respect for the teacher), were not effective in
classroom management. Students did not provide any visible reaction to teacher
warnings, especially as there were no discemable changes in teachers’ voices. This
indicated that both teachers and students did not have the language and/or cultural
understandings to produce a desired change in student actions. The second year, the use
of English for behavior management dropped to 54%. English was still used exclusively
for disciplinary measures, but the teachers more successfully embedded Chinese into

classroom management procedures.

Teaching Resources

Access to written text was one element in which there were different expectations
between what the students expected and the teachers provided. All teachers had access to
video projectors, chalk, dry erase boards, chart paper, easels, and a variety of other tools
that allowed for text to be made visible. They were eager to use virtually all the tools
except the video projector. The difference came in the use of physical books, as they had

access to limited Chinese books. In the classroom, there were approximately 100

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storybooks for the teachers to use to read to the children. In addition, there were
approximately 50 electronic file books that could be printed and stapled together as
additional reading materials. Teachers did use many of these materials, but also tended to
make and produce their own mini-books related to their specific lesson for students to
use.

One such example from an immersion program class was Xiao’s language arts
block where she used a book she created for teaching story comprehension. It was a
single photocopied paper folded in half so the book had four pages. She had enough
copies for each student to have his or her own book, but while she was using it as a
teaching point, she did not distribute them to the students. Rather, she held up a single
copy for all the students seated in rows on the carpet to watch. There were pictures on the
first three pages and on the fourth, students would be eventually drawing their own
picture to match the ending of the story. There was also text, both characters on pinyin,
on all four pages, but in a small font. This made the access to text very difficult for
students. Within Xiao’s first video segment that featured this 14-minute literacy lesson,
she had 19 unacknowledged behavior problems and 11 attempts at addressing
inappropriate behavior. Xiao also made management statements to the effect of “eyes on
the book,” yet with the limited accessibility to the book and visibility poor, this may have
contributed to her behavior management struggles.

Similarly, in mid-January, an American teaching colleague raised a concern
regarding the use of technology for teaching. She was extremely impressed with the
presentations and supporting media that was being incorporated into the lessons, but was

uneasy with lack of visibility and sound. She was concerned that this was promoting

76

behavior management problems. What the teacher observed was that Yuan was bringing
in her laptop, with a 15” monitor to class. Students would sit on the carpet around her and
view the media presentation from the laptop screen. After the issue was investigated, it
emerged that this practice was happening in all the rooms where Yuan taught. This was
despite the fact that half of the classrooms had computer projectors in them, and the rest
had portable projectors available. Yuan had ready access to these, but Yuan chose to use
her own laptop because, “I thought students could see it fine.”

The differences in visual representations may have also contributed to problems
with materials. The Chinese books within the school tended to have a lot of small font
sized text with minimal pictures, unlike the English materials. American students were
used to resources that promote visual access (e. g. big books, projection screens,

individual textbooks, etc.), but these were not available to them in their Chinese lessons

Summary of Behavior Management
Developing Cultural Competency within the Context of Behavior Management.

Foreign teachers’ ability to develop cultural competency to interact within and
between two distinct cultures directly affected the classroom behavior management.
Throughout the study, teachers maintained their positions of authority by remaining at the
front of the classroom rather than routinely circulating throughout the student body. This
in itself was not problematic. The misconception of needing to maximize the physical
space so not to physically touch students directly affected teachers’ abilities to build
relationship with their students. This misguided attempt to please American parents was

actually detrimental to teachers’ management practices because it created invisible

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barriers that affected their personal connections with students. After this misconception
was addressed, teaching scripts still had them routinely position themselves at the front of
the class. But the self-imposed barrier was no longer visible as teachers had purposefully
modified it. This reflected teachers’ diminished fear of touching their students, and
provided a clear example of where teachers addressed their own cultural misconceptions
and modified their actions to build competency.

Throughout the first year, it was clear that there were cultural mismatches. When
students and teachers share the same cultural knowledge, classrooms run smoothly
(Stigler & Hiebert, 1999), but within this context, teachers and students did not have
mutual cultural understanding. Teachers managed their classes within their own personal
cultural context and students reacted within their own personal cultural context. This
mismatch required teachers to develop cultural competency that not only allowed them to
personally function, but also allowed their students to function competently in a two
culture environment.

Again, it was with behavior management that this competency was especially
important. Three of the four teachers developed sufficient behavior management skills
and successfully adapted. Unfortunately, Xiao was removed from her teaching position
and she returned to China. Though a qualified teacher of Chinese, she did not have the
knowledge to be able to create mutual understanding when using the language in
American schools. Xiao’s cultural beliefs and expectations were so integrated to her
teaching that she failed to see them as mutable or changeable. She was not able to
overcome the intercultural miscommunication and adapt her behavior so she could regain

positive reinforcement in her new environment. Xiao was unaware of how her implicit

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and informal culture played a major role in influencing behavior management techniques.
As Xiao functioned within her own culture boundaries, her students functioned within
their own; the two did not connect or develop a joint cohesive school culture. In her case,
it appeared that she was unable to reflect on her practices effectively. The result was

insufficient adjustment or changes that would have lead to successful teaching.

Culture within Discipline and Classroom Management

Cultural practices, in conjunction with novice teacher behavior, played a strong
role in the problems the teachers encountered with behavior management during their
first year. Though all teachers struggled with behavior management, their ability to adapt
and acquire competency within the American school culture affected their ability to
function and manage students. One related area was with the understanding of “respect.”
The teachers did not experience or define respect using the same cultural definitions or
experiences as their students. These aspects all related to cultural competency in
behavior management.

Teachers initially did not implement many classroom management procedures,
which resulted the disproportionate use of disciplinary measures in their first year of
teaching. Behavior problems occurred due to the differences in language discourse. What
students expected to hear and what was actually said were two different things, and this
ultimately led to miscommunication between the teachers and students. Yet, in the second
year there was a noticeable decrease in disciplinary measures, and those noted were
absent of Chinese cultural scripts. This development, in conjunction with the increase in

classroom management procedures with successful Chinese cultural scripts, resulted in

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fewer behavior problems. Through the successful implementation of classroom
management procedures, teachers unknowingly embedded various cultural norms into
their classroom management practices that their American students could successfully
learn and respond to. This practice allowed teachers to close the gap between student
expectations and teacher expectations, as students were able identify the clues and adjust
their behaviors appropriately. Ultimately, this reduced the need for disciplinary measures.

Another drastic change in cultural approaches to discipline was that during the
first year teachers were likely to address specific student misbehaviors directly. This
practice strongly reflected the teachers’ Chinese cultural background. In US. classrooms,
such matters are often considered personal or confidentiali In China they are conducted in
an open and public manner. In China, students’ grades are posted for all to see, with an
overt comparison of ranking and performance. Parent teacher conferences are conducted
with all parents attending and student information is presented in front of all. Negativity
associated with a particular student reflects poorly upon his or her family honor.

In addition, parents show high levels of respect for the teacher. It follows that
when teachers managed student behavior openly and publically in front of the class, it
reflected cultural elements relating specifically to respect. In the second year, teachers’
actions of indirectly addressing students’ misbehaviors were much more noticeable. They
were more likely to provide discrete auditory clues that allowed students to adjust the
behavior without it being public or intrusive of the learning that was occurring.

This is not to say that changes in embedding culture into classroom management
caused all the improvements in behavior management. Because the Chinese language

program was designed to build cultural awareness at the school, these results give

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indications that embedding cultural expectations within the rules, routines, and
procedures within classrooms also allowed for students to develop competency skills.
Teachers were able to function competently within and across the two distinct cultures in
their management practices. This in turn allowed them to scaffold the culturally
appropriate Chinese behavioral expectations for students. Through this, students were
able to eventually respond to the subtleties of the underlying culture as it was being

introduced into the classroom environment and thus respond appropriately.

Culturally Embedded Pedagogy

The purpose of this section is to examine the pedagogical approach to teaching as
the teachers taught within the American classrooms. The pedagogy of these teachers had
embedded in them certain aspects of Chinese culture. Thus, they provided a clear
indication of the adaptation processes the teachers were experiencing.

As every teacher are capable of imparting knowledge, why still some

children can't make it? I think what matters will be how a teacher impart

knowledge and how ready (a ready mood to accept or not) children are to

learn.

Fan

The statement by Fan is indicative of how culture influenced all four teachers and
their philosophies of teaching. First, teachers were responsible for imparting knowledge,
and second, students were expected to have motivation for learning. Both were highly
interconnected. This section, however, will focus on their culturally embedded
pedagogical teaching perspectives as related to their endeavors to impart knowledge.

Teachers indicated that it was their responsibility to impart knowledge; to

choreograph and direct lessons so that students had the opportunity to learn. Ultimately,

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however, the extent of the learning was up to the students. Working within this teaching
philosophy in itself is challenging for any teacher. While this perspective was not totally
unfamiliar to US. students, it was sufficiently different to cause discord in the classroom.
This problem was magnified by the fact that the cultural perspective that was embedded
within the pedagogies was largely disconnected from students’ scripts, thus causing
discrepancies in expectations.

The results in this section were also characteristic of novice teacher behaviors.
What becomes evident in this section is the degree in which the cultural morals and
values play a part in the actions of the teachers. For example, novice teachers often times
will dominate the classroom instruction. But what becomes evident is there is the degree
in which the difference may occur. As in China, the smaller self must always submit to
the greater. In this case, the students must submit to the teachers. The difference is not
so much in the notion itself, as it is also sometimes apparent in US. classrooms. Rather
the difference is in degree in which it is carried out. In the US, students submit to their
teachers, but students also know that within limits, they also have rights. The degree in
which students can exert their rights is somewhat different from the notion of always
submitting to the teacher. The Chinese teachers were operating under different degrees of

expectations.

Teacher Dominated Lessons

Teacher dominated lessons were those that teachers maintained authoritarian

control over the content of the material being learned and the interactions within the

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classroom. Evident here were: (a) teacher authority as evident in social control, and (b)
teacher expectations for imparting knowledge.

During both years of teaching, all participant teachers routinely positioned
themselves in the front of their classes, a position that indicated authority or dominance.
Within the video segments, teachers were not seen moving from their positions of
dominance or actively circulating around the room; rather they stood or sat at the front of
the room at all times. Examination of field notes indicated that even though students may
have been working at their seats, teachers still routinely positioned themselves at the front

with students coming to them for questions or assistance.

Social Control and Teacher Authority

Teachers exercised social control during all lessons, making it clear as to whose
time it was. When time belonged to the teacher, the teachers monitored the attention of
the children: “I wish everybody be quiet and eyes on this book” or “[student] come
back,” a type of talk that displayed authority. Likewise, there was purposefulness when
teachers called on students to provide answers. Fan’s response to an interview question
about her choice of calling on students is an example of this: “I could always see a forest
of hands up, so I could easily pick an appropriate person to say something or answer the
question, basically. Thus they are expressing themselves and other are learning from what
they said.” With this strategy F an would select students who could answer appropriately
so others would hear the correct answer.

Videotape and field note analyses revealed only one classroom activity in which

the teacher maintained classroom control, but relinquished social control to a student. In

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her

and

0]

her second year, Fan had a single 11 minute lesson segment in which she stepped back
and let one of her students direct a game. Except for when she stepped in to mediate a
small disagreement, Fan stood in the front of the class off to the left side, but allowed the
student leader to choose participants and control the game. When she had the opportunity
to watch the video recording that was made of this instructional segment, Fan commented

on her motivation and rational for turning social control over to her student.

Interviewer: During this game, you turned control over to a leader student. What made
you reach the point where you could turn the control over to a student
rather than you controlling the game?

Fan: This question seems easy. My action derives from my belief in students'
ability and my knowing where the students will get.

Interviewer: I understand your belief in your students' ability. Can you further explain
what you mean by my knowing where the students will get it?

Fan: I know my students can do it. They have enough control of themselves to
do the game. If you give kids a chance to play a game and compete
against another group, the interest will be there to be good and they can do
a good job. They like to compete. I don’t need to lead and I can choose a
student to be a good leader.

Interviewer: How do you select a student to be a leader?

Fan: I choose someone who listens and hes good in class. I also choose
someone who other students like and get along with so their friends will
respect them.

Fan realized that if she structured her activity in a manner that motivated students’
participation, it allowed her to reduce the need for her to dominate the classroom
interactions. She combined this with the purposeful method of selecting her student
leader, choosing one who modeled appropriate classroom behavior and had a positive
relationship with peers. This allowed facilitation of interactions that were relatively free

of conflict. Because of these two purposeful actions on her part, Fan demonstrated an

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example of acculturation. She was able to step back and relinquish her authority in favor

of a successfirl form of social control, one that was held and monitored by the students.

Imparting Knowledge

The teachers’ philosophy of teaching was to impart knowledge. This included
choreographing and directing lessons so that students had opportunities to learn. Yuan
noted, “Teachers talk a lot . . . We are very used to the way we tell the students
something and expect them to learn from us. Then we keep talking all the time.”
Teachers were in control of the learning objectives and would often “lecture” students or
allow instances for students to practice learning objectives in a manner where the focus
remained upon the teacher. In this structure, teachers controlled participatory interaction
between the teacher and their students with no student-to-student interactions. Teachers
were most comfortable when students focused directly on the teacher so that students
could be the receivers of knowledge.

The average literacy immersion lesson plan segment had students listening to
their teachers for 30 minutes. These lessons had relatively few teacher-student
interactions, and would usually begin with a 5-7 minute practice session of reading
Chinese character flashcards followed by reading a story. In the 14-minute videotape
segment of Xiao reading and discussing a story, she dominated the teaching time and
presented three questions. All three questions allowed for students to participate, though
required responses to be made directly to the teacher.

The excerpt shown in Table 6 is from a typical immersion lesson plan, and

highlights the attitude of teachers that it was their responsibility to pass on knowledge. As

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seen in this example, teachers viewed their actions as informing students about the
desired learning objectives. Phrases such as “I tell,” “I write,” and “I show” were
demonstrative of teachers’ actions of informing students, where teachers were in control
of the information and how students received the learning material. Interactions between
the teacher and students were also limited and in such a manner that it was one-on-one

and without interaction between peers.

Table 6

Literacy Lesson Plan Example: Going Through Previously Learned Characters

 

Activity’ Steps

 

Go through all the characters we have

learned before. 5’

Read a book: The Fun of Fall 10’ I show leaves and colors.
I show what we do in fall for fun.

Review the story: Four Squirrels 15’ I write the character on one big piece of paper. I
read them out at first.
I tell them what they mean.
I tell them what they mean.
I ask some students to recognize those characters.
I show how to write characters.

I ask some students to copy characters.

 

Whole Class versus Small Group Instruction
Whole group instruction was indicated by the expected participation of all
students in the class in the same activity or lesson. Small group instruction comprised

groups of 3 to 8 students, who participated in a variety of learning activities set up around

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the classroom. For all teachers, whole group lessons dominated the instructional time and
were designed to accommodate learning of all students simultaneously. Teachers
consistently expected the educational outcomes to be the same for all students, and rarely
varied their method of instruction from lesson to lesson.

Differentiation according to academic ability levels or student-specific needs was
not found in any of the teaching practices in the Language and Culture Program. For
teachers in the Immersion Program, evidence of conscious attempts at differentiated
instruction finally appeared in mid-January of 2008, nearly 5 months after beginning the
teaching year. It surfaced first with Xiao, who began including 30-minutes a day of
“center time.” Center time is an educational practice that is dominant in American
kindergarten classrooms. When J ingJ ing took over Xiao’s class, she continued the
practice of center time. In examination of lesson plans that included center time, the
activities listed were reading books, flash cards, puzzles, and pattern blocks. Classroom
observations and lesson plans yielded that in centers, materials were placed at the various
center areas, but without concrete learning expectations. Students were allowed to
interact or “play” as they wanted without any expressed or conscious educational
expectations on behalf of the teachers. As characterized by Xiao in regards to her western
teaching partner’s center practice, “Christine lets kids play for about 45 minutes each
day. I want to have centers so my kids can have play time, too.” The misconception that
center time was for “playing” may have resulted in the lack of academic outcomes being
incorporated into that time. This may have been an unconscious attempt at incorporating

differentiated instruction, but in essence, the time resulted in a form of indoor recess.

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Rote Practice and Learning
Rote learning involves repetitive practice within academic content areas. As
characteristic of Chinese education, the value and emphasis on rote and mechanical
memorization was prominent within the classrooms. Rote learning was prevalent in both

the Immersion Classrooms and in the Language and Culture Program classroom.

Immersion Program

In the 50/50 Immersion Program, students spent half of their school day in their
Chinese classroom. The average half-day class session was three hours after removing
special classes (e.g. library, physical education, music). During the first year, rote-
leaming activities were common. Data from Immersion Program lesson plans were
examined only to identify the rote practice of previously taught materials, and for no
other reason. Based on the number of minutes that Immersion Program teachers indicated
in their lesson plans the time that each activity would take, the average length for rote,
whole-class practice was calculated. Examination of collected daily lesson plans included
20-47 minutes (M=37.54, sd=8.31) per day per class of teacher directed rote activities
that involved whole class repetitive practice to reinforce previously taught material. The
class time recorded here did not include any of the individual rote practice that had
occurred in forms such as seatwork and worksheets, or repetition that may have occurred
within the newly taught lessons, such as repeating phrases modeled by the teacher. To

ensure that teachers were actually following their submitted lesson plans, other forms of

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data were collected and analyzed, including videotaped segments of classroom
instruction and field notes. Routine rote learning was evident in all of these.

In the Immersion Program rote-learning came across in a variety of forms and in
various subjects, including mathematics and Chinese language. To practice the Chinese
language, flashcards were routinely used. These included pictures for students to orally
identify a vocabulary word or a Chinese character so students could read the sight word.
Data from video segments demonstrated that rote review characteristically ran between 7
and 13 minutes, and usually preempted a literacy activity such as reading a story. In
mathematics, rote practice would also take the form of orally reading and answering math
equations (e.g. 3 + 2 = 5) and writing activities included the repetitiveness of writing of

Chinese characters on the white board in the front of the classroom one student at a time.

Language and Culture Program

Rote activities were also part of the Language and Culture Program, drawing
primarily on the use of flashcards for language practice for oral repetition. Rather than
individual flashcard sets, numerous pictures with identifying characters were photocopied
on single sheets of paper and presented to students in classrooms. The teachers chose
picture sheets instead of flashcards because of their reported ease of using the ability for
them to leave copies for the classes. Fan and Yuan believed this was the easiest
adaptation since they did not have sufficient sets of flashcards to share in each class.

Language and Culture Program lesson plans during Year 1 did not indicate the
number of minutes each lesson segment would take. Thus, it was not possible to identify

the designated time allotted to rote learning activities. Teachers also tended to repeat the

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same lesson across all grade levels. Therefore, the language level was instructionally
appropriate for all students. In review of the diverse plans that were submitted, 84%
indicated whole-class rote practice embedded within the lessons.

Rote learning was still evident within lessons during the second year, but it
transitioned from use of flashcard type materials for whole class practice to activity based
learning that included rote practice. Videotapes provided data of whole class activities
that were game based, such as team racing to yell out the correct character identified on a
flashcard to earn points, or students walking over colored sheets and when the music
stopped, they would identify the color they are standing on. These video excerpts
included rote practice activities that dominated the allotted class time with teachers taking
short moments to teach or reinforce where needed.

The incentive behind this change in rote learning characteristics was the shared
philosophical notion that lesson design needed to be very interesting in order to motivate
students to learn and behave appropriately. As summarized by Yuan in her concluding
interview, she summarized the change in her thinking as, “The first thing I learnt from
my class is that class design for kids needs to be very interesting. Though I knew this

before, I had no concept how interesting is interesting enough to attract kids' attention.”

Knowledge Expectations in Classroom Discourse
Classroom discourse was dominated and controlled by the Chinese teachers. In
their classrooms, teachers allocated turns by inviting students to participate, either by
whole class recitations or calling on specific students. Their teaching practices included

activity structures that were characteristic of question and answer sessions. Lessons were

organized as sequence where the teacher initiated an episode by asking a question about a

fact or idea that she wanted to convey. Students replied with correct or incorrect

responses, followed by the teachers’ evaluation the responses, in a sequence that is

known as Initiate-Reply-Evaluate (I-R-E) structure (Mehan, 1978). Although the I-R-E

structures operated with low intellectual expectations, there were other, less formal

opportunities for learning that allowed for higher-order thinking. However, opportunities

for such higher-order learning, including comprehension and application, were on the

whole quite limited.

Table7 indicates the average number of I-R-E segments per 30-minute segments

and the percentage of occurrence in each category.

Table 7

I—R-E Structures and Percentage of Occurrences

 

 

 

Year 1 Year 2
Average I-R-E Percentage Average I-R- Percentage
structures/3O E
Minute structures/30
Segment Minute
Segment
Low Level Thinking Skills
Name/Recognize 23 48 28 53
Recall 4 9 2 4
Teacher Translation 16 33 19 36
and Student
Repetition
Extended I-R-E 2 4 3 5
Higher Level Thinking
Skills
Comprehension] 3 6 1 2
Application

 

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The percentages of interaction structures were consistent across years.
Name/recognize structures comprised the highest percentage each year. This was not
surprising, as flashcard use predominated in both years and appeared in all videotape.
The primary purpose of name/recognize structures was to review reading of Chinese
characters and color recognition. Because this rote practice occurred at a rapid rate, there
were more response structures in this category. Likewise, occurrences with teacher
translation and student repetition were also quite high. These strategies were used to
promote student language output. They are second language teaching strategies that are
typical in language programs, and these teachers were comfortable in employing them.

There was a slight decrease of lessons that included higher level thinking skills
during the second year. One possible reason for this decrease was that the second year
data collection took place primarily in language arts lessons, and not at all in mathematics
lessons. Mathematics was the content area in which most of the lessons that incorporated

higher level thinking skills occurred the most during the first year.

Recalling Basic Information

Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956), the I-R—E structures functioned
within the Knowledge Level of requiring simple recall or recognition of facts, and thus
operated within low intellectual expectations. The three segments below model examples
of the different forms of basic knowledge required by teachers within the I-R-E
sequences.

Table 8 indicates an I-R-E sequence with the conceptual practice of color

identification, a required kindergarten learning standard. This first sequence reflected in

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rote practice where the same sequence was repeated numerous times by the teacher to
allow basic recall practice and often times included the use of flashcards. This was either
conducted within the expectation of participation of the whole class or while the whole
class watched and individual students were called upon to answer the question or read the

flashcard. This did not necessarily guarantee participation on behalf of all students.

 

 

Table 8

Name/Recognize

I-R-E Sequence Chinese English Translation
Initiation T: zhé shi shénme yansé? What is this color?

Reply S: Huangsé Yellow

Evaluation T: Huangse de. dui Yellow [measurement word].

Correct

 

A second example (Table 9) of basic knowledge expectations was when students
were expected to recall basic information. These sequences usually were present when
reading a story or checking for basic understanding. Basically, students were required to

reiterate points of the story without having to extend their thinking to express or explain.

 

 

Table 9

Recall

I-R-E Sequence Chinese English Translation

Initiation T: gushi ze'nmejiéshz‘t? [student] How did the story end
[student]?

Reply S: They get married and live happily ever

after

Evaluation T: Good Teacher smiles — thumbs up

sign

 

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Repetition was common with all four teachers, but in the Immersion Program
classrooms, repetition I-R-E sequences were frequently used in situations to encourage
students to use Chinese language rather than rely upon their native English. These
sequences predominantly were set up with a precipitator, a phrase that students say in
English that would prompt the I-R-E sequence. Immersion teachers’ efforts to encourage
students to practice Chinese would involve modeling of the translation and expansion
into a complete sentence on the part of the teacher, followed by repetition on the part of

the student. Translation and repetition are both knowledge level skills (Table 10).

Table 10

Teacher Translation and Student Repetition

 

 

I-R-E Sequence Chinese English Translation
Precipitator: S: big brother

Initiation T: W6 shi gége. I’m a big brother.
Reply S: W6 shi ge'ge. I’m a big brother.
Evaluation T: He'n hao. Very good.

 

Another type of I-R—E segment was the Extended I-R-E Sequence, an example of
which is found in Table 11. This type of sequence occurred when the teacher did not get
the desired response. It also highlights that initiation and evaluation were not always
verbal in nature, but also included non-verbal actions that would prompt responses on the

part of the student(s).

Table 1 1

Extended I-R-E

 

I-R-E Sequence

Chinese

English Translation

 

 

Initiation Non-verbal cue by holding up a flash card with a
Chinese character on it.
Reply S: kaféi Coffee
Evaluation T: kaféiwhat? Coffee what?
Reply S: kaféise de Coffee (with correct
ending)
Evaluation Non-verbal by awarding a point to the student’s
team.
Higher-Level Thinking

The I-R-E segments discussed in the previous sections were typical interactions

within language arts activities that brought forth the question of what subjects, if any,

infused higher-level thinking skills. The area of mathematics yielded evidence of

Comprehension and Application levels of intellectual behavior. These examples that

included higher level thinking skills were imbedded in mathematical story problems

(Table 12).

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Table 12

Comprehension/Explain

 

I-R-E Sequence

Chinese

English Translation

 

Initiation

Reply

Evaluation/
Initiation
Reply

Evaluation

On the white board is a picture of an apple tree
and two children. The children have baskets and
the teacher had told them they were picking
apples and students were going to figure out how
many apples the children had.

Teacher writes on the board 9+8=

Students raise hands and the teacher calls on a
student with his hand up.

T: [student]

S:jiujid bci de'ngyu shiqi.

Dui. Wéishénme?

Student goes to board and takes a marker. He
draws 9 dots in the first basket.

S: Jiu dots. yi, er, scin, si, mi, liit, qi, ba',jiu. Jiu
ping guo

He touches each dot as he counts and some
classmates count with him. He then draws 8 dots
in the second basket.

S: 85 dots for plus 8. yr“, e‘r, sa'n, si, mi, 1m, qz', bd
ping gué

He touches each dot as he counts and some
classmates count with him.

S: That 's shiqz'.

He touches both baskets with his marker

T: yi, e‘r, sa'n, si, mi, liu, qt’, b5, jiu, shi, Shiyt',
sht"ér, shisdn, shisi, shiwu, sht'liit, shiqi'
T: Hén hcio.

Nine plus eight equals
seventeen

Correct. Why?

Nine dots. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9. Nine apples

Eight dots for plus 8.
1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8
apples.

That’s 17.

1,2, 3,4, 5,6, 7, 8, 9,
10,11,12,13,l4,15,
16,17

Very good

 

In the video-recorded data of language arts classroom time, examples of high

level of thinking were not found. However, data showed that students were indeed given

opportunities to explain (Comprehension-Blooms) and that these examples were more
prominent within the teachers’ reflective blogs, a place where teachers had the
opportunity to reflect on the disconnection between their cultural beliefs and the values
the American students brought to their educational experiences. The following blog
excerpt from Fan provides a typical example of one of these occurrences.

Kong Rong Giving up Big Pears" is one of Chinese classical stories...

Kong Rong was offered pears I stopped for a couple of minutes and asked

children whether Kong Rong should take the big pear as people showed

him, they answered with one accord "Yes!" I bet you are as shocked as I

was, so I inquired about the reason (both for you and for me, hehe"_").

Children said: "Because parents want to make him happy, nice and

strong." And some children's answer for Kong Rong's giving the biggest

pear to his biggest brother is that it's his brother who climbed the ladder to

pick pears. Although that's quite different from what Chinese people have

derived from the story (I don't prefer to say that's the truth conclusion of

the story) children all nodded after my explaining to them what meaning

the story is bestowed with in China.
In Fan’s blog entry, it is evident that students were given an opportunity to rationalize
their responses to situations of differences in cultural expectations. This was done
through the English language, and in this case students were not required to express their
views in Chinese. One might question whether this was impromptu step out of Fan’s

typical teaching pattern in order to satisfy her curiosity as to why students were

responding in a manner quite differently than what she had expected.

Summary of Culturally Embedded Pedagogy

Foreign teachers’ abilities to interact competently within and between two distinct

cultures was reflected in their teaching pedagogies. Throughout the study, teachers

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maintained their positions being responsible of imparting knowledge to their students,

controlled the access to knowledge and interactions.

Teacher Dominated Lessons

In their teaching practices, Chinese teachers’ beliefs about the need to educate the
class a whole were evident. This lended itself to a teacher-directed approach with
instruction tailored to the class as a whole, whereby all students were expected to learn

the same material, meet the same educational criteria, and perform at the same level.

1W“ [tn-w. V ~

Likewise, the Chinese teachers controlled the discourse in ways that allowed them to
impart and control the knowledge to which students had access. These two positions
reflected the systems in which they were pupils and were educated to teach.

There was one example in which Fan released social control to her students. Fan
expressed her confidence and belief in students’ ability to conduct themselves in an
appropriate manner within a structured game as to allow them to maintain social control
over the activity. Though time of the activity was limited, it nevertheless demonstrated a

shift in Fan’s thinking towards social control of the learning environment.

Culturally Embedded Knowledge Expectations in Classroom Discourse

Teaching practices relied heavily upon memorization of cognitive knowledge.
With knowledge being the lowest level of learning outcomes, all that was cognitively
required was the recollection of appropriate information upon cue. When higher-level
thinking skills were required, they were primarily found within the content area of

mathematics, which in turn held limited examples of cultural acquisition.

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Participant structures, including ways of arranging verbal interactions between
teachers and students were regulated and controlled by teacher. Such interactions
routinely followed I-R-E patterns with a teacher prompt, followed by student response
and then an evaluation by the teacher.

The percentages of interaction structures remained consistent across both years,
with emphasis on basic knowledge. Chinese teachers’ knowledge and beliefs in the
importance of content knowledge did not change significantly between years as
indicative of the data percentages remaining consistent across years with the emphasis

being on lower-level knowledge acquisition.

CHAPTER 5

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

Introduction

This study found that the trends and patterns demonstrated by the teachers
indicated novice teacher behaviors with a strong cultural component. As beginning
teachers, they encountered many of the struggles and teaching trends typical of beginning
teachers, yet the uniqueness of their situation was influential. As the teachers were
learning to teach in an unfamiliar school environment, they were embedding aspects of
their home culture into their practices.

Culture is rooted in every aspect of life: in home life, in employment, and in
schools. It is not isolated within a particular environment; rather it transcends a variety of
environments. Schools are environments for promoting intellectual growth, but their
systems also lend themselves to the promotion of cultural capital through methodical
flow of cultural values to and between the members of the school culture. In these
members, culture is implicitly acquired and understood and is embedded within all
classroom activities. Children use their culture, their acquired beliefs, and their values
and attitudes to make clear and explain their world (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992), or in this
case, their educational experiences. When students and teachers share common cultural
knowledge, it is collectively distributed so that all participants know what to expect, are
familiar with interaction protocols and proper action, and react to encounters within the

classroom.

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The findings of this study indicated that the teachers embedded their cultural
knowledge and expectations into teaching practices. In certain cases, these actions caused
led to confusion because the students were functioning with different cultural knowledge
than their teachers. This problematic clash of cultural morals and values occured within
an environment that was new to the teachers, and led to miscommunication and
misunderstandings between them and their students. In order to develop cultural
competency in this new environment, the teachers needed to negotiate with the students
to develop a common classroom culture.

This study examined the developing cultural competency from the perspective of
the four novice Chinese teachers. The research was an effort to understand how Chinese
teachers navigated teaching as novice educators while they attempted to adapt to the
complex territory between their own culture and teaching practices as compared with the
norms and values that characterize effective teaching in Michigan Chinese language
classrooms. When these Chinese teachers entered American classrooms there was the
need to build the competency for developing a reciprocal interdependence that could
result in biculturalism. The teachers had to acclimate to the new culture and the
expectations within that culture in order to move fluidly between the new culture and old
culture. Thus, the ultimate goal, similarly described by Juffer (1993) was the adoption of
new cultural cues and a propriety of both cultures.

In addressing the research questions, this study examined the lived experiences of
these four Chinese teachers as they taught the Chinese language in a Michigan
elementary school. The data were analyzed for relevant themes. Some of these themes

were expected and anticipated, and others emerged as the study progressed. There were

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two groups of research questions: the first focused on the influences of culture on
teaching practices as the Chinese teachers acculturated to the new educational system,
and the second focused on the knowledge and beliefs of the Chinese teachers, in
particular reference to their teaching philosophies and practices. These research questions
are discussed first, followed by a review of each participant, and the how the ideas and
themes of this study played out in each personal context. The chapter concludes with the

implications and recommendations for practice and for further research.

Research Question 1:
How Do Novice Chinese Teachers Acculturate and Develop Cultural Competency within
The US. School Environment?

There were two research questions related to the Chinese teachers’ cultural
expectations and their adjustment to their new educational environment. These were:

a. How does culture manifest and influence the practices of the novice
teachers?

b. As teachers acculturate to the new school environment, how do practices
change over time?

A primary and overarching finding was related to culture shock. Culture shock
must lead the discussion here, because the ability to cope with culture shock directly
relates to the ability to develop a cultural competency that was needed by these teachers.
Additionally, other prominent and recurring themes could be identified with this first
group of research questions. These themes were closely related, and featured strongly

throughout the data analysis. These were the Behavior Management themes of discipline

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and classroom management. Other key themes emerged here, and again were often

related to the teachers’ efforts of embedding culture into their practices.

Overcoming Culture Shock to Develop Cultural Competency

Culture shock was first defined as an ailment with its own symptoms and cures
(Weaver, 1993). It is precipitated by anxiety brought on by sudden immersion into a
foreign culture that includes a loss of familiar cues and communication difficulties that
result in subsequent personal identity crisis within the new culture. In the current study,
three interconnected factors related to culture shock influenced the development of the
teachers’ cultural competency within the American school environment. First, the
Chinese teachers were confronted by a new environment that functioned in a manner that
was dissimilar to what they were accustomed to resulting in ineffective intercultural
and/or interpersonal communications. This was compounded by the fact that as first year
teachers, they were novices by definition. They therefore would be expected to encounter
many challenges typical of any novice teacher. Second, as they were interacting in this
unfamiliar environment, the teachers needed to modify their behavior to overcome the
ineffectiveness in communication between themselves and their students, and to regain
positive footing in the new environment. This resulted in the final factor of participation
in a growth experience. Teachers had to grow and adapt to develop cultural competency
in the new setting.

When individuals do not overcome culture shock, they are unable to cope and do
not develop competency within the new environment. This current study mirrored the

statistic of 25% of US. expatriate teachers that return to the US. earlier than expected

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(Garson, 2005; Lubin 1992). In this study, one (25%) of the Chinese expatriate teachers
in the United States returned to China prior to the completion of her teaching
responsibility. The remaining three teachers developed sufficient cultural competency
skills that allowed for their successful adaptation and achievement of relative success
within US. schools. Fan, Yuan, and J ingJ ing all had the ability to shape what are termed
by Barrera and Corso, (2002) as respectful and responsive interactions between
themselves and their students. These three teachers, whether consciously or
subconsciously, had the capacity to interpret and analyze the situations they were placed
in. As they identified aspects of their practices that were ineffective, both in terms of
novice teacher actions and where the embedded cultural practice failed, they had to
ability to adapt their interactions to make their teaching practices more effective. For
example, during their first year, disciplinary rates were elevated, and disciplinary efforts
were relatively ineffective. Adjusting their approach to implement a higher ratio of
classroom management strategies as compared to disciplinary actions improved teachers’
behavior management competency, particularly as students were more familiar with
classroom management strategies and responded more appropriately to them. In this
situation, the teachers gained a cultural equilibrium within the new environment that
allowed them to become attuned to it. They were able to predict and react to the cues
within the new environment. Taking this example a step further, implementing aspects of
Chinese culture within their classroom management demonstrated the capacity to fluidly
move between the new culture and old culture adopting the cultural cues and propriety of

both cultures. These interactions represented the ability to effectively function between

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the native culture and the new culture, as was also found by Ford and Whiting (2007) in
their study of what students need when preparing for interacting in diverse societies.

On the other hand, Xiao was not able to overcome the ineffectiveness of both
novice teacher behaviors and intercultural communication. Thus, she left her position to
return to China. She could not adapt her behavior to regain what Juffer (1993) termed as
positive reinforcement in the new environment. What happened with the Chinese
teachers, and Xiao in particular, mirrors the finding of Erickson and Mohatt (1982): “The
idea that implicit, informal culture shapes people’s way of acting in everyday life does
not seem to be generally taught to teachers” (P. 167). Xiao had no experience or
knowledge of how her own Chinese culture interacted with students’ American culture.
Thus she was left perplexed and without the knowhow to modify and adapt her thoughts,

actions and beliefs, so that she could develop competency within the school environment.

Cultural Competency within Behavior Management

The four participants were trained teachers specializing in Teaching Chinese as a
Second language before they came to the US. All had a command of both the Chinese
and English languages, as well as some cultural knowledge of their new country. Yet, this
did not necessarily mean they had the set of teaching skills needed at this a particular site,
including the local knowledge to be able to create mutual understanding when using
communicative language (de Oyarzabal, 1982), or the cultural knowledge ands skills
necessary to handle issues (Coats, 2005), especially with classroom discipline. As they

entered their US. classrooms, they were novices in the new environment.

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Characteristic of novice teachers, the teachers’ disciplinary actions focused
specifically on responding to inappropriate behavior that was happening in the classroom
by one or many of the students. This was a challenging endeavor during the first year, but
transitioning into their second year, teachers were able to reduce the need for disciplinary
actions and transition to implement more classroom management techniques. This is a
positive trend for novice teachers, yet of particular interest in this study was the
embedding of culture into these practices.

These teachers initially embedded their cultural knowledge of discipline and
respect being taught as part of the norms of the country and all cultural units within it.
This position of respect for Chinese teachers within Chinese society has been well
documented (Coats, 2005 ; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992; Stigler & Hiebert, 1999). Thus,
one area of consistently differing expectations was seen when teachers’ ideas of respect
and disrespect toward the teacher were not seen in the same manner by students.
Teachers expected students to respectfully and passively listen and follow directions;
when students did not act in the expected manner, teachers were at a loss. “As those who
have never taught within the context of an Eastern culture may find difficulty in dealing
with the apparent, lack of response in a classroom, and may interpret as dullness or lack of
cooperation what is in fact a reticence based on a cultural form of respect.” (Boyle, 2000,
p. 148). Likewise, when teachers who are products of Eastern culture are accustomed to
respect that is demonstrated through specific student responses, they may not know how
to respond or react when they encounter students who demonstrate respect through
different means, or function with different cultural expectations. As all four teachers

struggled with behavior management, their ability to adapt and acquire competency

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within the American school culture directly affected their ability to function and manage
students.

When put in extreme terms, the teachers expected total control or blind obedience
from the students, but encountered student rebellion. With the variety of behavior issues
in the American classrooms, they were perplexed with how to deal with American
students who did not share what Coats (2005) documented as a Chinese moral
perspective that personal behaviors reflect upon Chinese cultural values. This finding is
also similar to that of Stevenson and Stigler (1992), who posited that the Chinese family
would “lose face” due to the family not meeting the responsibility to the child. The
teachers thus relied on their Chinese cultural knowledge that students should maintain
their own appropriate discipline. This translated into the classroom practice of “ignoring”
students that they thought were not interested in learning, instead focusing their teaching
those students who showed respect and interest in learning. However, the other students
interpreted the ignoring of misbehavior instead as implicit permission for them to
misbehave. Or,the ignoring was perceived by the student as evidence that the teacher did
not care for him or her.

Teachers initially realized that though American education values problem
solving and creativity on the part of students (Zhao, 2007). However, they did not
immediately recognize that there were also boundaries. These boundaries structure the
educational environment within expectations of how students behave through the
implementation classroom management strategies, which are proactive measures

designed to prevent behavior problems.

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During the first year, the teachers’ behavior management strategies were reactive
and disciplinary in nature. They primarily used both macro level discipline aimed at
disciplining the whole class, and direct micro level discipline that publically focused on a
particular student’s behavior. Both of these disciplinary strategies disrupted classroom
instruction. In addition, the teachers ignored more misbehaviors than they addressed. As
the teachers drew on cultural knowledge educating those students who were interested in
learning, certain students’ actions demonstrated different interpretations from what the

teachers held. In order to be successful in this environment, the teachers needed to shed

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the associated cultural perceptions.

Indeed, this pattern of novice teacher behaviors changed the second year. Both
macro (disciplining the class as a whole) and direct micro (disciplining individual
students publically) behavior management strategies decreased in favor of (a) increased
indirect micro behavior strategies, (b) disciplining individual students in a manner that is
non-disruptive to instruction, and (c) the implementation of classroom management
strategies. These changes were partly due to novice teachers gaining experience, and
partly due the Chinese teachers adopting the behavior management practices of their
American counterpart teachers, which were cultural practices that students were familiar
with.

An important finding was that teachers did not shed all of their culturally
embedded management practices. They managed to successfully merge or retain some of
these along with the new strategies they learned. In their endeavors to shift towards
proactive measures, the teachers embedded Chinese cultural values into their classroom

management strategies while shedding them from their discipline measures. This

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eliminated the cultural disconnect for disciplinary expectations, thus reducing discipline
problems. In addition, culturally embedded classroom management allowed for teachers
to teach and model expectations so students could operate within the Chinese cultural
expectations. For example, as students needed to cue the start of class, Fan would stand
stiffly at the front of the room, stem-faced with one hand raised. Initially, this was not
effective, though as she explicitly taught her expectations, over time students started
cuing into the expectation. Though in China, a class monitor may have employed this
action with the teacher standing next to the monitor, it is very similar to the cultural
behavior management actions that Stevenson and Stigler (1992) reported within their
research of Asian education.

The adaptations of disciplinary actions and the embedding of cultural approaches
within the classroom management techniques made behavior management less intrusive
on instructional time. Students were explicitly taught the norms and expectations of
Chinese classrooms through the classroom management techniques employed. As
classroom management is proactive behavior management, it is explicitly taught through
the routines and procedures. In this course of action, the teachers embedded Chinese
cultural expectations in a manner that students could learn. Likewise, disciplinary
measures are reactive, or not explicitly taught beforehand. Therefore, when necessary,
teachers utilized the disciplinary techniques that students expected to see and hear. This
situation improved after the first year as the teachers worked through their stages of
culture shock, developed new teaching skills and acculturated to the American classroom.

As defined by Wright (2005), reciprocal interdependence resulting in biculturalism is a

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point in time whereby an individual is capable of moving fluidly between the new culture

and old culture, while adopting the cultural cues and propriety of both cultures.

Bridging Language Differences Between Teachers and Students to Develop Competency
If students and teachers within the same classroom share a common school

culture, cultural knowledge is jointly shared so that all participants know what to expect,

are familiar with communication procedures, and properly act and/or react to encounters

within the classroom. But, when these are not the same, then teachers and students must

 

negotiate to develop a common set of expectations. 1*:
According to studies by Chang (1993), Davis (1984), and Jenkins (1997), when
native English speakers interact with second language speakers they struggle with
differences in language discourse, leading to miscommunication. This phenomenon was a
primary source of conflict in the classrooms of this study where differing expectations
between teachers and students existed. A prime example of this phenomenon was when
the teachers abandoned using Chinese language and relied strictly on English for
behavior management. Students were not able to pick up on the subtle clues to
differentiate strictness in the tone of voice and the general tone within conversational
Chinese. Here the teachers demonstrated what Wright (2005) termed as reciprocal
interdependence, which can result in biculturalism. The teachers had to acculturate to the
terms of language discourse, where they moved fluidly between languages for
management purposes, using English for disciplinary measures and Chinese within
classroom management techniques. Initially, the differences in language discourse and

what students expected to hear and what was actually said were two distinctly different

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things, which ultimately led to miscommunication and resulted in unmet expectations and
even confusion. But, over time, teachers adapted their approach so that Chinese could be
implemented in behavior management in a manner that bridged the differences and led to

mutual understanding between the teachers and students.

Passive Behavior Management Styles
There was an aspect of passiveness in behavior management that can be attributed

to novice teacher behavior with a cultural approach. When behavior problems arose in the

 

Language and Culture classrooms, the problems were temporarily overlooked and ll
deferred to the classroom teacher. This passive style led to a reliance on the classroom
teacher for follow through on discipline. Whereas in the Immersion Program, teachers
interacted with each of their two classes on a full time basis. They were the instructors of
record and were viewed as the classroom teacher, and thus did not have the opportunity
to defer any discipline to another teacher.When they ignored or practiced passivity in
management, behavior problems arose. Both of these situations are characteristic of
novice teacher behavior.

This passivity was problematic. When behavior problems were not addressed,
students’ either perceived it as permission to misbehave, or that the teacher did not care
for them or was neglected them. These were typical misunderstandings that occurred
between the teacher and the misbehaving students. Drawing on their experiences in the
Chinese educational system, the teachers had been relying on students to self-monitor and
maintain appropriate behavior. These findings were similar to Stevenson and Stigler’s

(1992) research on the learning gap between American education and Chinese and

Ill

Japanese education. What came across in this study as passivity towards behavior
management was compounded by other problems, namely that these teachers experienced
hardships that were typical for beginner teachers. The teachers also initially made
ineffective attempts to embed their cultural values into their approach. Their efforts to
make behavior management the direct responsibility of the students conflicted with

students’ expectations that teachers would impose the discipline, thus causing conflict.

Research Question 2:
What Are Novice Chinese Teachers’ Knowledge and Beliefs?

There were three research questions related to the Chinese teachers’ knowledge
and beliefs, and these related particularly to their ideas about teaching and learning
processes, and the cultural changes they experience from their teaching experiences in the
United States.

a. How do Chinese teachers reflect on what they know and believe?
b. How do their knowledge and beliefs change over time?

Prominent and recurring themes were identified with this second group of
research questions relating to the knowledge and belief of the teachers, and focused on
embedded culture related to Pedagogy. Their pedagogy was steeped in the cultural morals
and values the teachers brought with them from China. The cultural values and
expectations of a society play an intricate role in what the system values within its
students and what is expected from its teachers and students. Within Chinese culture is
the value of the collective. Chinese culture holds that the smaller self (individual) should

always submit to the larger self, whether the larger self is the family or country, and the

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smaller self must adapt the expectations of the larger self. In this philosophy was the
belief of educating the whole (Coats, 2005). Teachers’ practices focused on the academic
needs of the class as a whole, those students interested in learning, rather than on the
individual needs of students within the class. The primary amount of instructional time

thus involved the class as a whole, all working towards the same educational outcomes.

Teacher as Central Figure of Knowledge

Teachers identified their practice as imparting knowledge to their students. They

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controlled the information and knowledge that students had access to and were 1::
responsible for giving this knowledge to their students.

The actions and beliefs of the Chinese teachers within this study were very similar
to the vast majority of Chinese teacher in Mainland China. In a study by Schoenhals
(1994), a Chinese teacher, while educating Chinese students in China, attempted to have
students actively participate and debate within the classroom. This was a very rogue idea.
She was openly criticized by her fellow teachers for not giving her students enough
knowledge and therefore, was thought to inadequately prepare her students for
examination. Though not preparing students for examinations, the teachers in this study
took their responsibility of imparting knowledge seriously so that students could meet
educational expectations. Similarly the fellow teachers Shoenhals’ in this study, the
teachers in this study took seriously their responsibility of imparting knowledge, where

they presented knowledge in an evaluative manner without debate.

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A Whole Class Approach

In their practices, Chinese teachers focused on educating the class as a whole.
Whole class instruction is also a common practice within many classrooms within the
US. The tendencies and motivations behind the practice were what were different within
this teaching situation. As teachers were teaching, they were drawing upon their values of
the collectivist society that they were products of, and it was manifested in the way the
teachers identified the students as a collective group rather than as individual students.
Therefore, they consistently took a teacher-directed approach to instruction, tailoring it to
the needs of the class as a whole. All students were expected to learn the same material,
meet the same educational criteria, and perform at the same level. Such methods of
learning relied heavily upon reiteration of cognitive knowledge. With knowledge being
the lowest level of learning outcomes, all that was cognitively needed was the
recollection of appropriate information upon cue. Cheng (1998), in her discussion of the
Asian moral dimension of education, described this phenomenon as the memorization
and the ability to recite cognitive knowledge in which the exercise is understood as a
training mode to develop discipline and work ethic. Building upon Cheng’s (1998) views,
as the teachers in this study were teaching, they were subconsciously embedding the

cultural values of the collective while developing social and moral ethics.

Embedding Authority into the Philosophy of Teaching
The manifestation of control (guan) over the classroom discourse by the teachers
was demonstrated by the authority held by the teacher. The Chinese teachers controlling

the discourse allowed them to impart and control the knowledge which students had

114

access to. According to Schoenhals (1994), the power and value of the teacher lies in her
ability to persuade others to listen and through the domination of the discourse, an action
which prevailed in this study. In their positioning of themselves at the front of the

classroom, they put themselves in a position of authority that allowed for the attention to
be focused on them as they imparted their knowledge. Teachers controlled the classroom

discourse in the amount of time that they spent lecturing or authoritative talk. This

——-

phenomena were also described by Xia, (2000) in a study of Chinese graduate students’

5

speaking discourse in US. classrooms. Similar to Xia’s finding, teachers in this study

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demonstrated their authority through the words and phrases chosen and expressed. This

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was representative of what Schoenhals (1994) described as the “stuff-the-duck method”
(tian ya shi), where the role of students emphasizes passiveness and being a receiver of
the teacher’s knowledge (Shoenhals, 1994). This notion that is quite similar to the
western educational philosophy where students are seen as “empty vessels” in that they
learn what is presented in order for them to perform well. This idea in certain viewpoints
has a negative connotation with emphasis on more favor to educational philosophies such
as child-centered and socio-cultural theories (Willmott, 2002). Yet, the teachers in the

study placed high value on authority and the imparting of knowledge.

Culturally Embedded Teacher Dominated Instruction
This study mirrored work by Stevenson and Stigler (1992) in which instruction
was found to be dominated by the teacher, with whole class group work the primary

mode of instruction. This primarily manifested itself through the degree in which the

115

teachers exercised stringent control over the content of the material being learned. It was
also seen in teachers’ control of interactions within the classroom.

According to Stevenson and Stigler (1992) in Chinese classrooms, instructional
time is primarily dominated by the teacher’s instruction. The same was true in the current
study as the teachers consistently dominated their clasSrooms. This time was not
dominated by lectures, rather it was spent providing problems, proposing questions and
eliciting answers from students. Even so, this is quite different from what is typically
seen in the US, where classroom educational time is may be divided between whole
class, small group, and independent work.

From the teachers’ point of view, it was their responsibility to impart knowledge,
and to choreograph and direct lessons so that students had the opportunity to learn.
Within this framework, the extent of the learning was up to the students, and ultimate
responsibility for learning was placed on the students. Working within this teaching
philosophy in itself is challenging for any teacher, and while this perspective was not
totally unfamiliar to US. students, the degree of differences was sufficiently different to
cause discord in the classroom. Thus discrepancies in expectations resulted.

At the same time the interaction protocols of the classroom were routine and
predictable. Instructional time involved providing problems, proposing questions, and
eliciting answers from students. This was seen in a routine verbal protocol of an I-R-E
pattern with a teacher prompt, followed by student response and being followed up with
an evaluation by the teacher (Mehan, 1978). Such patterns of interaction made it easy for

students to realize expectations.

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The control of the interaction structures also made it easy for teachers to exercise
social control, making it clear as to whose time it was. Teachers made clear their
expectations that students raise their hands and participate in classroom discourse that
matched the I-R-E patterns. In the one instance of relinquishing social control, it was
done is such a manner where the teacher purposefully selected a student leader and
designed an engaging activity that motivated participation to control for behavior

management. Even within the activity, participation structures were also I-R-E in nature

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emphasizing the teacher’s value.

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Ideas of Effort and Achievement

In the Chinese education system, success and failure are viewed in terms of how
much effort was applied (Cheng, 1998) regardless of one’s cognitive ability or
performance level (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). Likewise, in Chinese schools, students
possess strong content knowledge and this knowledge is reflected in the attainment of
high standardized test scores. There is a corresponding emphasis that Chinese families
place on achieving high marks (Zhao, 2007). Reflective of these perspectives, the
teachers relied on their knowledge of school systems and based instruction to the specific
needs of the class as a whole, where all students were expected to perform at the same
instructional level with high academic expectations. There were definite ideas as to what
was considered effort and achievement. Effort was valued in terms of the ability of
students to listen, behave appropriately, and participate within the learning situation.

Rote learning involves repetitive practice within academic content areas. As

described by Cheng (1998), it is characteristic of Chinese education that the value and

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emphasis on rote and mechanical memorization is prominent. The findings of this study
concurred with other research: rote learning was prevalent in both the Immersion
Program and in the Language and Culture Program classrooms. During instructional
lessons teachers allocated turns by inviting students to participate, either by whole class
recitations or by calling on attentive students.

Similar to findings in other research (Cheng, 1998; Zhao, 2007), achievement was
measured in terms of the students’ ability to recall knowledge. Classroom discourse was
dominated and controlled by the Chinese teachers with teaching practices including
activity structures that were characteristic of question and answer sessions. Lessons were
organized as sequence where the teacher initiated an episode by asking a question about a
fact or idea that she wanted to convey; students replied with their responses (either
correct or incorrect), followed by the teachers’ evaluation the responses, sequence that is
known as Initiate-Reply-Evaluate (I-R-E) structures (Mehan, 1978). Most the I-R-E
structures operated with low intellectual expectations that may be attributed to the
teachers’ value place on the recalling basic knowledge, though primarily in the area of

mathematics and higher-level comprehension was valued.

Attempts to Adopt Western Teaching Practices

Xiao and J ingJing each made a single attempt to adopt learning centers into their
teaching practices. In theory, learning centers are designed to individualize instruction to
meet the varying needs of individual students (Thompkins, 2006). Centers reflect on a
child-centered approach in which educational standards are incorporated into the

students’ interests and learning styles with the goal of empowering students (Thompkins,

118

2006). Xiao and J ingJing developed awareness of the differences between their teaching
practices and their western counterparts, they attempted replicate the practice of centers.
Not truly understanding the educational philosophy behind the practice led to the
misconception and perception that center time was “play” time. Thus, the immersion
teachers’ attempts to adapt center-based learning failed. Despite their attempt, the
immersion teachers were unable to address the bias in their perspective, which created the
incorrect idea that the center time was “play” time.

This study reflects Elturk’s (2003) position that different individuals have
different stories and interpretations that are authentic to each individual involved. In this
case of this study, the teachers involved viewed the purposes of centers differently. The
American colleagues viewed them as educational activities and the Chinese teachers
viewed them as play time. Their preconceived notions interfered with building an
awareness that could have lead to flexibility their approaches and thinking. This in turn
reinforced the fact that what is right for one culture is not necessarily correct for others
(Elturk, 2003). The question that arises, and cannot be answered here, can a practice that
is not prominent and/or present in one educational environment, if the philosophy is truly
understood, be implemented in a manner that embeds the cultural expectations of

different educational environment?

Limitations
There were several limitations to this study. First, this study was confined to
studying native Chinese teachers new to teaching Mandarin Chinese in the United States.

Focusing on teachers from one country was purposeful in that individuals brought their

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own cultural understandings with them when they taught abroad. While there was
individual variation among the teachers, it was expected that teachers from China bought
different cultural values, understandings and working knowledge of schools than a
teacher, for example, from India. Therefore, different cultural backgrounds of teachers
from many different countries would have complicated the study, but it also limits the
findings to this population. Second, examining short-term acculturation in a three-
semester time period allowed for investigation of acculturation issues such as initial
culture shock and the induction process when teachers were most aware of their conflict
and resolution efforts. With the possibilities of acculturation happening at different rates
for different individuals, this study could not encompass the whole acculturation process
for all teachers. However, it spoke to the general problem of cultural adjustment when
teachers first crossed national, societal and linguistic borders in order to teach their native

language as second language to students whose backgrounds are foreign to them.

Further Research
Employing foreign teachers to teach in the United States, though not new, is a
rather understudied field. First, this study examined only a small group of Chinese
teachers teaching in the United States. Similar qualitative studies could be carried out, not
only with teachers from China, but also with teachers originating from a variety of
countries. Such studies could extend to surveying foreign teachers from a variety of
countries to identify patterns of adjusting to teaching in the United States, acculturation,

behavior management, and pedagogies. With baseline results representing teachers from

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one country, further studies can examine the similarities and differences that may be
found with teachers from different countries.

Second, the teachers within this study were first year teachers and encountered
many of the difficulties and challenges associated with being a novice teacher. This
raises the question as to whether or not bringing teachers who have had experience
teaching in China will encounter the same issues as these novice teachers.

Finally, this study only looked at influence of embedding culture within teaching
practices and how teachers developed competency in the areas related to behavior
management and teaching pedagogy. There are several different avenues that may also be
researched and such as relationship dynamics between foreign teachers and colleagues or
parents, influences of cultural as foreign teachers teach at different educational levels
such as middle and high school, or even a case study of the program as a whole (students,
parents, administrators and other teachers) rather than just a small aspect of it such as the

foreign teachers.

Recommendations for Practice
Although foreign teachers may have the education and teaching experience to be
successful as teachers in their native country, they once again become novices as they
begin teaching in foreign classrooms. To better prepare Chinese teachers for teaching in
the United States, it is recommended that the following actions be taken. First, teachers
should arrive within the country early enough to allow for sufficient time to adapt to
living in the new country and attend to aspects of culture shock before entering the

teaching environment. Culture shock will be inevitable, but allowing for time to

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acclimate to living differences before entering the educational environment may help
reduce or lesson the effects of having to adjust simultaneously to culture shock associated
with both living and teaching in the foreign country. As teachers enter the new
community, actions such as (a) providing community mentors, (b) assisting in helping
teachers network and develop community relationships, (c) invitations to holiday and/or
social events, and ((1) individuals to contact when ill to name a few, all have the potential
to reduce pressure and allow for adjustment to the new environment.

Second, it is imperative that teachers receive intensive professional development
to support teachers as beginning practitioners and building awareness of how their own
culture and views on education influences their classroom. Preservice education is
necessary to prepare teachers for working in American classroom. To begin with,
teachers need to understand the basic educational structures of American schools and
how they function. This includes topics focusing on the roles of various
teachers/administrators, basic procedures (e. g. drills, report cards, parent
communication), race/ethnicities in America, child development, behavior management,
professionalism and lesson planning.

To take this course of action a step further, it is recommended that teachers have
the opportunity to enroll in teacher education programs that not only recognizes their
academic teaching degrees from China, but provide additional collaborative structures to
support Chinese teachers. Course(s), which provide an internship like structures (e. g.
field instructor) add supplementary monitoring elements for further support while

acclimating and honing teaching skills. Similarly, methodology courses potentially add

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perspective to American teaching practices such as center-based teaching to allow for
understanding the theory behind teaching practices.

Finally, as school sites prepare for foreign teachers, educating the US. teachers
and students to the factors and issues that these teachers will encounter may help create a
network to help teachers as they adjust to the new environment. Building an awareness
of the culturally embedded teaching practices that are influential will assist sites with
understanding the actions and practices that the Chinese teachers. Likewise, teachers
should have a designated mentor. These individuals must not only be experienced
teachers, but also open to different ideas and practices and aware of potential cultural
differences that may impact teaching practices. Allowing Chinese teachers to observe
their mentors and/or other American teachers and likewise, being observed by the mentor
teacher may develop a coaching situation that may assist in easing the issues associated
with acclimation. Providing knowledge and insights in conjunction with scaffolding
support structures into the transitions Chinese teachers will go through as they develop
competency within the school environment will allow administrators to tailor special

support services for their foreign teacher.

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12.

13.
14.

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

. How were your expectations of teaching in the US. were similar and different than

what you experienced?

What was the best and worst experience of your first year of teaching in the US?

Tell me about your perceptions of students in the US. How are they the same and
different to students in China? How did your experience with Chinese education
influence how you interacted with American students?

Tell me about your perceptions of American parents and how have they changed over
the school year?

What were the challenges you encountered teaching in your placement? Living in the
US?

What were the successes you encountered teaching in your placement?

Do you consider yourself a teacher? Why/Why not?

Tell me about what Chinese teaching is. What is good Chinese teaching?

Tell me about what American teaching is.

' ‘1

1'1“.“ _ ..

. How are these two school settings the same? Different?
. In comparing the two, what aspects of both teaching practices do you consider as

good teaching practices? Poor practices?

What have you learned over the last year? How has that shaped who you have
become?

How have you changed as a teacher?

Tell me about the differences between American classrooms and yours. How did it
make you feel?

124

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