Education Commons^™

Doing More With Less: Teacher Professional Learning Communities In Resource-Constrained Primary Schools In Rural China, Tanja C. Sargent, Emily C. Hannum

Emily C. Hannum

Teacher professional learning communities provide environments in which teachers engage in regular research and collaboration. They have been found effective as a means for connecting professional learning to the day-to-day realities faced by teachers in the classroom. In this article, the authors draw on survey data collected in primary schools serving 71 villages in rural Gansu Province as well as transcripts from in-depth interviews with 30 teachers. Findings indicate that professional learning communities penetrate to some of China’s most resource-constrained schools but that their nature and development are shaped by institutional supports, principal leadership, and teachers’ own initiative.

Teaching Quality And Student Outcomes: Academic Achievement And Educational Engagement In Rural Northwest China, Xuehui An, Emily C. Hannum, Tanja Sargent

Emily C. Hannum

A central task of educational researchers has been to uncover factors that improve student academic achievement. Research in both developed and developing nations during the past few decades has analysed the links between educational outcomes and school physical resources, teacher quality and children's demographic and family background. Importantly, research on teacher and school effects in developing countries has focused on factors such as human capital, economic resources and physical infrastructure, the so-called input factors in the "black box" production function model of school outcomes. Fewer studies have focused on the "softer" classroom process factors that might be seen as important …

Keeping Teachers Happy: Job Satisfaction Among Primary School Teachers In Rural Northwest China, Tanja Sargent, Emily Hannum

Emily C. Hannum

Numerous empirical studies from developing countries have noted that parental education has a robust and positive effect on child learning, a result that is often attributed to more educated parents making greater investments in their children's human capital. However, the nature of any such investment has not been well understood. This study examines how parental education affects various parental investments in goods and time used in children's human capital production via an unusually detailed survey from rural China. It is found that more educated parents make greater educational investments in both goods and time and that these relationships are generally …

Education In The Reform Era, Emily C. Hannum, Jere Behrman, Meiyan Wang, Jihong Liu

Jihong Liu

No abstract provided.

Education In The Reform Era, Emily C. Hannum, Jere Behrman, Meiyan Wang, Jihong Liu

Emily C. Hannum

No abstract provided.

Urban-Rural Disparities In Access To Primary And Secondary Education Under Market Reform, Emily C. Hannum, Meiyan Wang, Jennifer H. Adams

Emily C. Hannum

No abstract provided.

Educational Resources And Impediments In Rural Gansu, China, Emily Hannum, Peggy Kong

Emily C. Hannum

This report seeks to provide a portrait of schools serving rural communities in northwest China, and to shed light on factors that encourage and discourage school persistence among children in this region. To achieve these goals, we analyze a survey of rural children and their families, schools, and teachers in Gansu province. The project interviewed children in the year 2000, when children were 9 to 12 years old, and again four years later.

In part one of the paper, we provide a descriptive overview of the material, human, and cultural resources available in sampled primary and middle schools. Where possible, …