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engaged in research and training for rural education under the auspices of UNESCO. INRULED

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How Does an Educational NGO Help to Improve the Quality of Schooling

in Rural China: A Case of Teach Future China

Zhou Yiwei1 & Tang Yao2

1 Zhou Yiwei is a program manager of Teach Future China.

2 Tang Yao is the director of development of Teach Future China.

INRULED Working Papers on Teachers and Teaching Profession 5

August 2015 Beijing

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Contents

References

1.0 Understand the Context: Basic Education in Rural China and Major Challenges

2.0 Educational NGOs in China

3.0 Supporting Its Project Members to make changes: Teach Future China’s Practice

4.0 Conclusion

01

02

03

05

08

27

28

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Acknowledgement

This is the first full-length English introduction about Teach Future China since its

establishment in 2008. As one of the most important partners of Teach Future China,

UNESCO International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education (INRULED) has

been providing us with significant support and help, without which, this working paper cannot

be accomplished.

We would like to give our sincere thanks to Dr. Liu Jing, a program specialist of INRULED, who

has dedicated a substantial amount of time and energy in helping us to revise this working

paper. We want to thank Dr. Zhao Yuchi, the administration officer of INRULED, who has

provided tremendous administrative support and opportunities to Teach Future China since

its establishment. A special thanks to Ms. Gu Wenjuan, a graduate student of Beijing Normal

University and our former project member, who helped us to proofread this working paper. At

last, we really appreciate all the friends and colleagues from both INRULED and Teach Future

China, who devotedly and diligently helped us to become a better educational NGO.

Zhou Yiwei & Tang Yao

Beijing 2015

2INRULED

Abstract

This working paper is a case study focusing on how an educational NGO in China helps to

improve the quality of schooling in remote rural settings. The paper provides background on

basic education development in China in recent years as well as the major challenges faced

by rural schools. It reviews the development of educational NGOs in China with a belief that

educational NGO is an important power to promote the equality and the quality of education

in China. The paper then takes Teach Future China as an example and examines its history,

vision and mission, and its targeting group and working strategy. Detailed data are collected

from the two major projects successfully conducted by Teach Future China, which provide

detailed and first-hand information of how an educational NGO supports the teaching and

learning in disadvantaged schools. In light of the achievements and challenges that Teach

Future China faces, discussion and recommendation are made for future development of

educational NGOs in China.

Keywords: Educational NGOs, Basic Education in Rural China, Volunteer Teaching, Quality

of Education

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1.0 Understand the Context:Basic Education in Rural China and

Major Challenges

For the past few decades, China has attained a considerable achievement in the

development of education. According to the Ministry of Education (2013), there were more

than 0.52 million schools of all levels in China with over 257 million registered students

and 14.5 million registered teachers across the country. In the sector of basic education,

there are around 0.21 million elementary schools with 93.6 million students, 53 thousands

middle schools with 44.4 million students and 26 thousands high schools with 43.7 million

students (MOE, 2015). Although the number of schools and students in basic education

has decreased for the past three years, the number of teachers has increased. Further, the

educational condition has developed and the quality and efficiency of the education has

been improved in general. Since the number of teachers in the basic education sector has

increased and the average number of students of each class has decreased, the teacher-

student ratio has kept increasing, which ensures that every student can receive a better

education. The total construction area of schools has reached 2.87 billion square meters in

2013, and the provision of educational facilities has increased at the same time (MOE, 2015).

1.1 Achievement of Basic Education in China Precisely, in the compulsory education sector, the generalization of compulsory education

has made progress, the facilities of schooling have developed and the balance of

educational conditions between urban and rural areas has been improved. Among 93.6

millions primary school students, about 27.7 millions come from urban areas and about

65.87 millions come from rural areas. The percentage of enrollment of primary school

students in 2013 reached 99.7% in general, and the percentage of enrollment of middle

school students was 104.1% (MOE, 2015). In both urban and rural elementary and middle

schools, the financial support for educational facilities, such as scientific equipment and

Internet construction, has increased.

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1.2 Challenges Faced by Chinese Basic EducationHowever, the review of general data cannot conceal the fact that the development of China’s

basic education is still facing various challenges in terms of balance among different regions.

As the report of Education for All in China (2000-2010) pointed out that “although China

has made significant progress in universalizing nine-year compulsory education, there

were perceptible gaps among regions, urban/rural areas, population groups and schools

in terms of access, teaching conditions and quality. Many rural schools operated with

weak infrastructure and under-qualified teachers. Mechanisms to guarantee free access to

compulsory education in urban areas for children of migrant workers, and for children left-

behind in rural areas by migrants, had yet to be fully implemented” (UNICEF, 2013).

This report also summarized the challenges in China during the year of 2000 with regard to

education quality as follows: considerable gaps in education quality between regions, local

areas and schools; inadequate enforcement of quality standards in compulsory education;

inefficient quality evaluation and supervision system; insufficient teachers of quality; lack

of educational resources in rural areas such as qualified teachers, equipment and books;

outdated teaching concepts, methods and practices among some schools and teachers;

inadequate in-service training and support for teachers; etc. (UNICEF, 2013).

In addition, the “big classes” still widely exist in rural schools. Although the general statistics

from the Ministry of Education indicates that the general teacher-student ratio has reached

1:15 in high schools, 1:12.8 in middle schools and 1:16.8 in elementary schools (MOE, 2015),

you still can find classes with more than 60 students, sometimes over 70 in cooperative rural

schools of Teach Future China in southwest China. Moreover, it can be observed that one

teacher has to conduct the teaching of all subjects to a class of 20-30 students (e.g. some

project members of Teach Future China in southwest and northern China have to teach all

classes from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a class size of 20 students.).

Besides, even if the total number of qualified teachers has increased, fewer and fewer of them

would choose to go to or stay at rural schools. According to the Rural education development

in China: An annual report (2013-2014), only 38% of university graduates majoring in education

are willing to go to rural schools, 77% of teachers in urban areas do not want to exchange

5INRULED

to rural schools, and many teachers working in rural schools would prefer to leave the rural

school when they have a chance. Furthermore, the generalization of educational facilities (e.g.

experiment facilities, internet, etc.) has been promoted nationwide, but only 42.2% percent of

rural elementary schools have met the requirement (Zou & Qin, 2015).

1.3 The Quality of Teachers as the Major Challenge in Rural EducationMany researchers have reached a consensus that the primary issue is the quality of teachers

concerning the development of basic education in rural areas (Guo, 2014; Li & Chen, 2011;

Li, 2005; Wang, 2005; Zhou & Liao, 2014). The Annual Report on China’s Education (2013)

has summarized the major problems of teachers in rural schools as follows: a) the working

condition of teachers in rural schools is poor, and they are undertaking a huge burden with

a relatively lower payment; b) the turnover rate of rural teachers with good quality is quite

high which affects the quality of teaching and learning in rural schools; c) the average age

of teachers in many rural schools is over 50 even 55 (e.g. in a cooperative rural school of

Teach Future China in northern China, with 245 student but only 8 teachers in total, the

average age of teachers is 55); d) the shortage of teachers for certain subjects such as

Music, Physical Education and Fine Arts at primary level and Chemistry, Physics and Biology

at junior secondary level; e) the quality of temporary teachers is not satisfying, and the long-

term system or policy supposed to guarantee teachers' training is not fully implemented

in rural areas and f) teachers tend to become sluggish after working at rural schools for a

long time (Yang & Huang, 2013). All these become challenges that the educational NGOs

including Teach Future China have to face.

2.0 Educational NGOs in China

Based on the review that shows many problems of educational development in China

remain unsolved, it appears that the educational NGOs in China need to work on a variety

of areas with an overall aim to promote the education quality. The educational NGO is an

important power to promote the equality and quality of education in China. According to the

China Biennial Conference for Educational NGOs’ report, the number of active educational

NGOs has steadily increased in recent years (the number of active educational NGOs has

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increased to about 300 in 2013 from 150 in 2009, which is doubled in the past four years).

39% of educational NGOs are registered as private non-enterprise organizations followed by

15% of foundations, industrial and commercial firms (10%), social groups (7%) and almost

a quarter (24%) left unregistered (Liu & Liu, 2013). Most educational NGOs locate in either

eastern or western areas of China, many of which are concentrated in cities such as Beijing

or provinces such as Guangdong and Sichuan. More than half of the educational NGOs

implement their projects in the western area of China. It is noticeable that the middle area of

China has a relatively small number of both educational NGOs and projects' implementation.

The most focal areas of these educational NGOs are: financial aid with a share of 52% (e.g.

living allowance, improvement of educational condition and facilities, etc.); reading promotion

(50%) and volunteering teaching (36%). The beneficiaries top the list are rural children

(74%), migrant children3 (18%) and children with special needs4 (13%). More than half (52%)

operational teams of the educational NGOs in China have less than five staffs, and more than

half (54%) educational NGOs have a fund scale less than a million RMB (Liu & Liu, 2013).

Figure 1: Targeting beneficiaries of educational NGOs in China (2013)

Rural Children

Migrant Children

Children with Special Needs

College Student & Youth

Teacher

74%

18%

13%

10%

7%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

3 Migrant Children: children migrating with their parents, who are seeking job opportunities in urban areas from rural areas, and cannot enjoy the equal educational opportunities as city dwellers.

4 Children with Special Needs: refers to handicapped children, seriously ill children and street children according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

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Figure 2: Working areas of educational NGOs in China (2013)

Source: the report of China Biennial Conference for Educational NGOs, 2013.

With years of development, today’s educational NGOs in China contain various new

characteristics. Compared with the past ones, the educational NGOs in China draw more

attention from the main stream of society, and the application of Internet technology and new

media (e.g. social networking such as micro blog or “WeChat”) is coming into fashion. The

working domain of educational NGOs is moving forward to focusing on the improvement

of the quality of education. More and more supportive organizations and platforms (e.g.

foundations and consulting agencies) appear, and the government starts to offer more

beneficial policies such as “service-buying” policy. At the same time, educational NGOs are

generating more creative values and functions. Nowadays educational NGOs are not only

trying to meet the educational need of society but also attempting to solve social problems.

Accompanying with the development of educational NGOs, more third party supervisions are

channeled into the sector in order to guarantee the quality and efficiency of the development.

The educational NGOs also work on promoting educational reform and idea generalization in

China, which can benefit the policy study and advocacy.

As mentioned above, the volunteer teaching is one of the major domains that educational

NGOs in China are targeting. The volunteer teaching projects and organizations have

developed in the recent decade to address the issue of shortage of teachers of certain

subjects and poor quality of teaching and learning in remote rural areas by sending

volunteer teachers to work in rural schools. The volunteer teaching projects conducted by

0% 15% 30% 45% 60%

Financial Aid

Reading Promotion

Volunteering Teaching

Migrant Children Development

Multiple Educaitonal Resources

52%

50%

36%

28%

31%

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the educational NGOs in China could be divided into short-term projects and long-term

ones. The short-term projects are organized to prepare and send college students to serve

as teachers in rural schools during the school year vacation for two or three weeks, and

the long-term projects are devoted to deal with the problems in rural schooling, such as the

shortage of teachers and the quality of schooling, with a time span of one to two years.

3.0 Supporting Its Project Members to Make Changes:

Teach Future China’s Practice

Teach Future China is an educational NGO established in 2008 by

a Hong Kong citizen, Mr. Shum Sai-Tak ( 沈世德 ). Mr. Shum, after

his retirement from real estate industry, was passionate and caring

much about the development of China’s education, especially in

rural areas. During his volunteer life in a rural elementary school in

Anhui province, he realized that qualified young teachers, or those

excellent youths, could serve as a promising agent to improve the

quality of education and even promote the social justice. Inspired

by Teach for America, Mr. Shum founded Teach Future China in 2008, and it was officially

registered as a Private Non-Enterprise Organization under Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau in May

2014.

The mission of Teach Future China is to bring equal opportunities for rural students to get

a better education and to promote the social progress by supporting outstanding college

graduates to be full-time teachers in rural schools with relatively poor educational resources

for two years. During this two-year project, Teach Future China will provide its project members

with systematic and practical trainings. And at the end of projects, it will give its project

members supports in future career planning. Teach Future China hopes these excellent

youths will become the leaders to promote the educational and social progress of China. For

the past six years, it has supported more than 300 great project members, and more than

20,000 rural students have been benefited from Teach Future China’s projects. Teach Future

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China is currently supported by various charity foundations, enterprises, individuals and

NGOs both financially and technically.

3.1 Why We Do This: The Challenges Teach Future China Committed to TackleThe projects currently run by Teach Future China are targeting on certain major problems

in rural schooling, and Teach Future China believes that qualified excellent young teachers

are the key to solve these problems. Among Teach Future China’s project areas, those

highlighted problems include: hardware problems (such as poor local transportation and

facilities on campus), software problems in rural schools (such as the shortage of qualified

teachers) and the poor pastoral care provided to students for their social and emotional

development. These problems will be introduced separately.

3.1.1 The Hardware Problems in Rural Schools

Rural schools cooperated with Teach Future China confront with many hardware difficulties,

such as harsh geographical conditions and poor buildings or facilities on campus. Due to

the hardness of the natural environment, some rural schools in Teach Future China’s project

areas are suffering from difficulties of public infrastructural construction. Taking fourteen

cooperative rural schools of Teach Future China located both in eastern and western

Guizhou as examples, all of these rural schools are facing problems of different kinds due

to their environmental conditions. In Jianhe County, south-eastern Guizhou, four rural

schools are located in the mountainous area where the transportation cannot be guaranteed,

since the abundant annual rainfall often causes landslides that could break down the road

construction. If people plan to go to the remotest school of the area, Wuku Elementary

School, they have to take boat from the town “nearby” for twenty minutes and another hour

on foot in the mountains, since the road has long been broken.

(Left: the only road leading to Wuku. Right: break between classes in Wuku Elementary School.)

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In Weining County, western Guizhou, a typical Karst topography, lack of water is the biggest

problem. Lots of rural schools in this area have no portable water system or even no clean

water supply. The collection of scarce rainfall is one of the most important resources of water

storage in the area. You may find it is hard for local students to develop a good personal

hygiene habits due to the water shortage.

3.1.2 The Software Problems in Rural Schools

Concurrently, numerous unsolved software problems are exerting negative effect on local

schooling as well. First, certain subjects are unavailable for students in rural schools due

to insufficient teacher resources. For instance, Teach Future China’s cooperative schools

in Hebei province, northern China, usually have plenty of teachers of art courses, such as

music, drawing, handcrafting, etc. But the teachers of main courses (Chinese, math and

English) are in shortage. Generally, most of the project members of Teach Future China in

this area have to take the responsibility of being Chinese, math teachers for two classes or

English teachers for two to nine classes. Lianjuan, a project member of year 2013, is the

English teacher of third to fifth grade in Qingshankou Elementary School of Qinglong County,

Hebei Province.

(Lianjuan: the only English teacher in the school, and sometimes, serving as handcrafting teacher.)

In west Guizhou, the situation is severer. According to previous survey on cooperative

schools run by Teach Future China, these schools are in a shortage of both main course

teachers and art teachers. Every available teacher has to meet the need for main course

teachers first and take the role of being an art teacher when there is time left. Many project

members in Guizhou have to teach a main course for more than two classes, which means

11INRULED

a workload of 20 lessons5 each week only on this subject. Even in Hunan province, a region

has a relatively better hardware conditions, it is hard to maintain teachers to work in rural

schools for a long time. Second, the average age of local teachers is another issue worth

concerning. There are many local teachers in rural areas over age of 50 or 55, which is near

retirement. Taking Tongcheping nine-year school, western Hunan, as an example, among 33

teachers in this school, 7 are under the age of 35, 6 are from age of 35 to 50, and 20 are over

age of 50, and this is not the only case among Teach Future China’s project areas. The direct

consequences of this situation are that a) those teachers, who are near their retirement, may

not have sufficient motivation to practice educational ideas they are not accustomed to and b)

are not willing to utilize better facilities in their classes compared to younger teachers.

3.1.3 The Parenting Style in Rural Areas

Parenting style and local attitude towards education have negative effects on students and

local education. With the continuous urbanization and social changes in modern China,

a group of people is increasingly noticeable: the migrant workers. Their moving between

cities and rural areas becomes China’s special version of population migration, and the

consequences of this migration cannot be neglected. The parents of a large amount of

students in Teach Future China’s project areas are migrant workers. This migration makes

the students either grow up with their grandparents or start to live in schools from an early

age (the latter fact is also significant due to the merging of rural schools). The lack of parental

care makes these students “left-behind” and shows various issues or problems in different

levels of later school years, such as solitude, anxiety, delinquency, etc. The deviation of the

development of living and learning habits of these students can also be detected. Meanwhile,

even some parents are at home, their obsolete perspective on children’s development and

poor educational background make them (especially those with more than one child) have

no sufficient capability and knowledge to provide their children with a healthy parenting style

and think that the responsibility of taking care of their children is a mission of the school.

Based on other literature and Teach Future China’s own experience, it is believed that the

outstanding young volunteer teachers can play a leading role in solving these educational

5 Each lesson is around 40 to 45 minutes, and the workload here has not taken into account the hours that a teacher works on other subjects, checks students’ homework or prepares for new classes.

12INRULED

problems. It is not only because of the great qualities they have possessed, but also because

of knowledge and skills they have mastered. We think that there are many important qualities

these young teachers possess, such as being tough and ambitious about their goals, being

able to endure hardship while in the process of reaching goals, being honest and trustworthy

to their partners, being hardworking and steadfast while dealing with a challenge, etc. All of

these are the qualities required for a young person to devote themselves for a two-year period

in Chinese rural areas for the development of education. At the same time, this will be the

most passionate two years for these fresh teachers as they can be an engine to promote the

progress of rural education. They can play a role of bridges among various resources, spread

new educational ideas and, more importantly, apply these ideas in their teaching practice.

3.2 How Do We Do This: the Operation of the ProjectsTeach Future China is currently running two different but highly correlated projects at the

same time: the Future Educationist Project and the Two-Year Volunteer Teacher Project.

The Future Educationist Project is targeting at supporting those excellent educational

major graduates who are trained to be teachers and whose college tuition fees are paid by

the government6. When they decide to dedicate their first two years of being teachers in

rural schools after graduation, Teach Future China will provide them with opportunities of

networking with peer young teachers, training and displaying their working achievements,

etc. The members of the Future Educationist Project usually teach at county level high

schools as full-time teachers. Around 90% members of this project come from rural areas

and were hardworking and outstanding during their schooling. The problems they are facing

in their career reflect the challenges faced by entire rural education in China, for instance,

the social environment (e.g. local people’s parenting style and attitude towards education as

mentioned above), the educational system in rural areas (e.g. how does a student finish his/

her school and step into his/her later career after graduation, how does a teacher play his/her

role at schools, etc.), and the problems faced by students (e.g. students from villages nearby

gather and live at schools which leads to mental or psychological issues, delinquency, bully,

etc.), etc. For Teach Future China, we think it is highly important to support this group of

young people, and they will be a significant power to make changes in the educational chain.

6 This is a national policy since 2007, namely “the policy of free teacher education programme candidates ”, and there are about 10,000 college students graduating from six major normal universities under this policy each year across the country.

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The Two-Year Volunteer Teacher Project recruits outstanding university graduates across

the country and supports them to be full-time teachers in rural schools (usually elementary

schools and middle schools) with relatively poorer educational conditions. Members of this

project do not have to graduate from educational major, but they have to be full-time enrolled

in university programs and graduate in no more than two years. Teach Future China provides

these project members with continuous trainings, support, opportunities of communication

and other resources based on the need of local students and schools during the two-year

project. The project members are expected to understand the local environment, fulfill the

duty of being teachers, try to increase students’ interests in study through various educational

methods and activities and help students to build better behavior and learning habits by

means of being their role models. More importantly, Teach Future China hopes project

members will try their best to understand and help the children in their social and emotional

development through long-term accompany. In the future, Teach Future China’s goal is to

cultivate and help these excellent young people to be the backbones of Chinese society who

will be continuously promoting the progress of Chinese education and society.

The operational processes of both the Future Educationist Project and the Two-Year

Volunteer Teacher Project include various stages: 1) the recruitment and pre-service training

of the project members 2) the two-year teaching with continuous support and 3) finishing the

project and joining the alumni association. Due to the distinction between the members of

two projects, certain parts or details of the projects’ operation are different.

3.2.1 Recruitment

The recruiting criteria of the Future Educationist Project and the Two-Year Volunteer Teacher

Project are different. Since the applicants of the Future Educationist Project are graduates of

educational majors, we focus more on their professional capacities and thinking on education.

The recruitment of the Future Educationist Project usually measures three aspects:

a) Personal attitude (being serious, active, attempting, optimistic, etc.);

b) Cognition (ideal of education and teacher’s responsibility, understanding of students’ characteristics and needs, etc.);

c) Certain other capabilities of applicants, such as communication (oral and writing), analysis (induction and summarizing), human relation (organizing and cooperation) and learning ability (reading and retrospection), etc.

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Since some of the applicants for Two-Year Volunteer Teacher Project are not from the

educational majors, we do not have an equally high requirement on their teaching abilities.

We emphasize more on their basic qualities and personalities, such as persistence, ability

of discovering, analyzing and solving problems, teamwork, responsibility, initiative, etc. The

recruitment of the Two-Year Volunteer Teacher Project usually measures five aspects:

a) Teacher's image (basic teaching manners and outfits);

b) Ability of emotional management (honesty, activeness, altruistic, adaptation and whether

have violence inclination);

c) Past practice and experience in the field;

d) Understanding and thinking on rural education;

e) Learning ability (reading, writing and interests in psychology or pedagogy, etc.).

The recruiting procedures of the Future Educationist Project and the Two-Year Volunteer Teacher

Project are basically the same but with tiny differences in the contents. Taking the recruiting

process of the Two-Year Volunteer Teacher Project as an example, it contains five parts:

a) Filling an application form. Applicants provide basic personal information and their answers

to open questions relate to teaching in rural schools;

b) Finishing a writing test. The writing test asks the applicant to design a lesson plan (Chinese,

Math, English, etc.) in order to give them a bit of taste and preview of being a teacher and

check their basic ability of understanding the teaching material;

c) First round telephone interview. The first round telephone interview will be conducted within

five workdays if the writing test is passed. The first round interview will be conducted by

a project member currently in position and mainly checks the ability of emotional management

of an applicant. The interviewer asks various questions such as: how does the applicant deal

with failures in life, applicants’ opinions on punishment in classroom, how does an applicant

adapt to a new environment, etc.;

d) Second round telephone interview. The second round telephone interview will be conducted

by a staff of the operational team of Teach Future China within seven days after the first

round of telephone interview is finished. In order to look at an applicant’s previous experience,

understanding of rural education and learning ability, the interviewer asks questions such

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as to describe an impressive experience of teamwork and the role you usually play in a team,

to describe the disadvantages of rural schooling or education according to an applicant’s

understanding and personal experience, etc.

e) Submitting an imitating lecture. The applicants will have ten days to prepare and submit an

imitating lecture (via video recording) after the second round interview. This part checks

applicants’ capability of expression and basic manners on the stage in class.

The recruiting process of the Future Educationist Project contains four parts: filling an

application form, writing test, first round telephone interview and the second round telephone

interview. Considering that the applicants have already graduated from educational majors,

there is no “imitating lecture” in this process. Besides, the contents of other parts have some

differences. For instance, the writing test includes a series of questions, such as asking

applicants to share a passage of teaching retrospection, one of the biggest achievements

in the past, or analyzing one or two real teaching cases, etc. The first round telephone

interview asks questions such as applicants’ motivation of choosing to be a teacher, goals

trying to achieve in the future, possible challenges and plan in the future, understanding of

Teach Future China and supports expecting to gain from it, etc. The second round telephone

interview asks questions like: the reason of choosing a certain school to teach at, the reason

of joining Teach Future China and how can one benefit from the project, opinions about

current news, plan for future career, etc. Applicants’ attitude, cognition and other abilities are

also checked through these questions in each part.

3.2.2 Pre-service Training

When applicants become Teach Future China’s project members, they will attend a pre-

service training before being officially deployed to teaching positions. The pre-service

training is held every July to August, usually in elementary schools for migrant workers’

children around Beijing and lasts for about 30 days. Members of both projects will attend.

Five goals are set for the training: a) improving one's self-recognition and emotional

management; b) understanding the environment of rural schools; c) having basic knowledge

of some educational theories; d) learning, practicing and improving the teaching skills

and e) developing a spirit of teamwork. The first 3-5 days of the training would be held in

Beijing Normal University, and Teach Future China will invite famous scholars and frontier

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researchers to share their opinions on improving rural education and introduce their latest

researches on rural China, which can give our project members a general view of education

and rural China.

The remaining days of the training will be spent in a school for migrant workers’ children in

suburb of Beijing. To help our project members build an idea of self-cognition and improve

the ability of emotional management, Teach Future China invites professional psychological

advisors to give various relevant courses, from which our project members can learn to

control their temper and communicate with others in a more comfortable and efficient way.

The experience sharing from previous or in-position project members helps new project

members to preview the environment and possible challenges of being teachers in rural

schools. Our project members can also learn many useful tips from their predecessors.

Besides, Teach Future China has many partners and supervisors who are formal teachers

with years of abundant practical experience and willing to help the project members

to improve their teaching skills. These excellent teachers help our project members to

become more confident and skillful through multiple methods, such as workshop, lecture,

teaching example and giving comments, etc. What is also important is that there are several

professional teams and trainers, who can help our project members to develop their spirit of

teamwork through various kinds of indoor and outdoor activities.

Following is an example of the basic arrangement of pre-service training in the year of 2015:

Table 1: Arrangement of the pre-service training in 2015.

Day Activity Participation

Day 1-2Registration;

Commencement.

Day 3-4Lectures:

-Educational ideas;-Public welfare.

Lectures;

Day 5-10

Lectures:-Children development;-Communication skills;-Class management.

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(The project members are doing teamwork activities during the pre-service training.)

Teamwork:-Team building games.

Cognition courses:-Self-cognition;

-Communication skills.

Lectures;Group works; Workshops;

Skills practice.

Day 11-14Lectures:

-Educational theories;-Teaching skills.

Lectures;Group discussion;

Skills practice.

Day 15-21Teaching practice:

-Lectures;-Practice teaching skills.

Lectures;Skills practice;

Practice commentary.

Day 22-27

Experience sharing:-Experienced teachers;

-Previous members.Teamwork:

-Outdoor activities.

Lectures;Group works.

Day 28-35

Selected courses:-Art courses;

-Field research skills;-Other courses.

Training feedback;Training finished.

Lectures;Skills practice.

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The pre-service training benefits Teach Future China’s project members in various aspects.

We evaluate the outcomes of the pre-service training through both the subjective assessment

of the project members and the objective observation of the staffs and trainers. For example,

according to the result of the pre-service training feedback questionnaire for the project

members of the year 2014, they agreed that they had achieved improvements in following

aspects: building the sense of being a member of Teach Future China, learning practical

and effective experience from others and improving the spirit and ability of teamwork. Based

on the observation of our trainers (e.g. professional psychological advisors) and staffs, we

also found that project members improved in, for example, developing a better cognition

about themselves and the others (e.g. how to communicate and solve conflicts with others

effectively), increasing realization and understanding of rural education, obtaining various

basic teaching skills and manners (e.g. acquiring the basic criteria of writing a qualified class

design and behaving on the stage in class), etc. All these activities provided Teach Future

China’s project members with great chances to prepare for the future teaching position they

were about to take.

3.2.3 The Two-year Teaching with Continuous Support

During the two-year teaching of both projects, Teach Future China continuously provides our

project members with various kinds of training and support, platforms of communication and

opportunities of experience sharing.

1) Supporting Activities of the Future Educationist Project

The supporting activities of the Future Educationist Project can be summarized from number

“one” to “seven”, which, as we mentioned above, focuses on project members’ professional

capacities:

a) “One” for “one good beginning”, which refers to the pre-service training of project

members that has been introduced in the previous section.

b) “Two” for “two journeys with tough conditions”. During the two-year project, Teach

Future China organizes two journeys usually towards places such as Tibet, Guizhou,

Guangxi or Hong Kong with very low cost and tough conditions. Different trainings can

be held on the train or in the fields during the journeys, which give project members

opportunities to meet and communicate with different cultures, visit local schools and

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universities and improve their ability of teamwork. Teach Future China attempts to make

project members understand that they can always “go out” and see the world even without

lots of money and to convey our organizational culture: frugality.

c) “Three” for “three times in-service training”. During the two years, the staffs of

Teach Future China go to the project members’ schools and organize three training

workshops targeting the problems or challenges they face during the daily teaching. We

try to give the project members opportunities of sharing ideas, improve their general

capability of being teachers and help them to set up future plans through these training

workshops. Sometimes, Teach Future China recommends the project members to attend

external training workshops held in different cities or areas organized by various social

organizations.

d) “Four” for “four papers or work reports”. The project members are required to write at

least one working report each semester and submit a two-year summary at the end of the

project. They are also encouraged to write two research papers based on their teaching

experiences and thoughts, and Teach Future China invites supervisors (usually teachers

with abundant practical experiences) to give them feedbacks. We also help project

members to publicize well-written and revised papers. Teach Future China hopes to help

the project members to retrospect their teaching practice, summarize their experiences

and disseminate to others in the future through their writings.

e) “Five” for “five platforms of communication”. Teach Future China provides the project

members with five major platforms of communication, which are monthly internet meetings,

“reading space” (a regularly held reading sharing activity), the Firefly (a bimonthly

magazine written and edited by the project members), Teach Future China’s monthly

review and educational exploration and communication platform (organized in various

ways). The project members gain opportunities to share their thoughts on education and

get feedbacks and suggestions from different perspectives, which may be helpful in their

future teaching career.

f) “Six” for “six study trips among different teams”. The project members are divided

into various teams based on the locations of their schools, and Teach Future China

encourages every team to visit another team at least once each semester (sometimes

with the guidance of a supervisor or mentor). This gives the project members opportunities

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to learn the teaching theories and methods or educational management in other schools

or areas. Different teaching methods and school culture can inspire our project members

and broaden their horizon. The project members are required to submit a written summary

after each trip.

g) “Seven” for “seven aspects of evaluation”. At the end of the project, as well as in every

part of the project, there are seven aspects of evaluation that help to give the project

members feedbacks on their changes and improvements, which are feedbacks after

each activity attended by the project members, dossier of each project member collected

through the project, self-assessment of the project members after two years, summary of

teaching outcomes at the end of each semester, assessment from the school and students,

evaluation from the supervisor or mentor and opinions come from team members.

2) Supporting Activities of the Two-Year Volunteer Teacher Project

For the members of the Two-Year Volunteer Teacher Project, the training and support are

different during the two-year teaching. Our project members are usually confronted with

various problems and challenges at different stages of the project, such as adapting to local

environment (both physically and mentally) and refining their teaching skills. The training and

support provided by Teach Future China should not only consider how to improve project

members’ teaching ability but also care about their mental status (e.g. they can appropriately

deal with the challenges and manage their personal emotion in rural schools). Besides,

Teach Future China offers various kinds of resources for them, such as helping the project

members to plan their future career at the end of the project.

a) Regular training. During the two-year project, Teach Future China organizes four mid-

term trainings, a winter training and a summer one. The mid-term trainings are usually held

for the project members within a specific county area. And the winter and summer trainings

are held in Beijing. These regular trainings often serve as a platform for the project

members in the same area to communicate and exchange their recent experiences,

feelings and ideas. Teach Future China also invites different trainers to join based on the

needs of our project members. For instance, we have invited some professional field study

researchers from a Guangdong based social group to take part in the mid-term trainings

in Weining, Guizhou, for past two years. Since both the natural and social environment in

this area are complex, it is important for the project members to understand “what is going

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on”. These field researchers helped our project members to learn how to observe the

local environment, record valuable information and interpret phenomenon observed. This

training makes the project members feel easier to adapt to the local environment and build

a right attitude towards what they are facing.

(Left: the training of field research, Weining, Guizhou;

Right: the project members sharing ideas during a regular training, Qinglong, Hebei.)

b) Visit of staffs or advisors. The staffs, directors of Teach Future China, supervisors of

an area or qualified psychiatric advisors visit every cooperative school at least once each

semester. The project members usually get “shocked” when they first arrive or even later

at some point: they do not know how to deal with the situations that pop out in the middle

of a class or how to appropriately develop their relations with students, local teachers

and parents of students. Therefore, it is necessary for us to offer them mental supports

or adequate advices. For instance, Teach Future China has invited qualified psychiatric

consultants every semester to join the trips to each school. During the visits, the

consultants listen to project members’ confusion, understand their thoughts, communicate

with them and give them proper suggestions. According to the feedbacks provided by the

project members, such communication or mental support is always effective and helpful,

and these consultants are often highly praised.

c) Team activities. Teach Future China encourages the project members to organize

team activities by themselves, such as trips to other project areas, hiking or other outdoor

activities in order to help the project members to strengthen their sense and ability of

teamwork. We provide small fundings for team activities and sometimes invite advisors

to join in. For instance, in the spring semester of 2015, the project members in Hunan

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province organized a challenging trip crossing a mountainous area in west Hunan. Our

project members not only enjoyed the journey but also went through same experience,

which made them feel more trustful to each other. At the same time, some advisors

from Teach Future China’s partner organization, “Angel Education”, were invited. These

experienced advisors are devoted to practice ideas inspired by Waldorf Schools. They

shared many ideas and perspectives on education with our project members during the

journey, which made this trip more than a simple outdoor teamwork activity.

d) Introduce different resources. Teach Future China is willing to introduce all kinds

of resources to help our project members to make some changes. When the project

members are dispatched to various project areas, they simultaneously find that there are

many needs of students that daily classes cannot meet, such as the library in the school

is malfunctioned, students do not have any facilities for PE or science classes, or the

equipment they have for classes is very poor, etc. Therefore, Teach Future China can

be a platform of channeling different resources coming from various social connections

to where they are mostly needed. For instance, we introduced “1kg Box” project to our

project members in western Guizhou, which aims to provide students with affordable and

convenient handcraft classes through various tools and materials in a little 1kg box. We

also introduced the “Lighter” project to our project members in Guizhou and Hunan, which

is a popular and practical project helping students to build a tiny library corner in each

classroom with books just for their age. Our project members utilize these resources to

make the campus not only a place for students to have classes but also a colorful play

yard they can enjoy every minute.

e) Career plan. When it is close to the end of the two years, Teach Future China will

provide project members with consultation and advice on their future career plan. Unlike

the members of the Future Educationist Project, most members of this project will choose

to find another job after their two-year service. Many of them may feel unsure about their

future career. For instance, some may consider finding a job in a company, some are

interested in being teachers in the future, and some may think about starting their own

business. At this moment, some experience sharing, brainstorming or evaluation on one’s

career inclination will be constructive. Many members of the board of directors of Teach

Future China have a background of working in enterprises, NGO sectors or educational

fields. They can serve as advisors on the project members’ career plan. Our directors

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usually go to visit the project members with our project managers during their regular

visit. And they listen to project members’ thoughts and share their own opinions on future

career plan.

3.2.4 Graduation and Alumni Association

Teach Future China holds a commencement for the members from both projects when they

“graduate”. And then they will be our alumni and become members of the alumni association.

The alumni association is serving for the long-term goal of Teach Future China that we hope

our project members will continuously promote the development of China’s education and

society in whatever areas they are in. Currently, the alumni association functions in following

aspects: a) introducing job opportunities to our project members and alumni b) encouraging

alumni to help the project members that are still in positions and c) spreading the ideal of

Teach Future China to the society. In 2015, two salons for Teach Future China’s alumni have

been organized to introduce employment opportunities. We have also made our project

members and alumni into pairs, by which the alumni can support the project members

financially and mentally which will help them to practice their educational ideas better.

3.3 Changes Teach Future China Brings3.3.1 Changes on Students

In 2013 and 2014, Teach Future China supported about 240 project members, 105 of the

Two-year Volunteer Project and 134 of the Future Educationist Project. The first project

served in 37 rural schools and the latter, over 100. Two projects covered more than

20,000 students in rural areas. The project members of Teach Future China help students

in rural schools based on what they really need through multiple methods. First, the

project members develop students’ reading interests and habits by setting book corner in

classrooms and reading time. Second, the project members increase students’ interests in

study and help them to acquire the sense of achievement through patient instructions and

adequate encouragement both inside and outside of classes. Besides, the project members

cultivate the general quality of students (e.g. capability of expression and communication,

creativity, imagination, ability of cooperating with others, etc.) through various courses, such

as handcrafting, storytelling, art and outdoor activities. More importantly, since there are a

number of students in rural areas living at school with their parents working in remote places,

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the project members care about students’ mental health through daily companionship, equal

communication or methods such as storytelling before bedtime.

Following are some examples that show how our project members help their students:

Case 1: “Big World in A Small Village”, Wuku Elementary School, East Guizhou;

Liu Zhibin, graduated from Beijing Normal University and majored in history, was a Teach

Future China’s project member of year 2013. The Wuku Elementary School he taught at, as

mentioned earlier, had a poor condition. Liu attempted to make some changes. He asked a

local teacher to write the lyrics and a project member of year 2012 to compose the melody,

and then the school got its first school song ever in its history. Since most of the students in

this school are Miao ethnicity with a relatively poor knowledge of Chinese, Liu tried different

ways to make students become interested in learning Chinese. Inspired by a TV program,

Liu started a Chinese dictation competition with simpler rules that students can understand,

and it turned out that the students loved it a lot and started being active in Chinese class.

After taking advice from a Teach Future China trainer, Liu tried to make students more

concentrated in classes through improving their sense of balance by conducting outdoor

activities. He set some blocks and timbers in a route and asked students to pass it while

staying balanced on it. The students really enjoyed and not only then became more focusing

in classes but also began to develop a sense of teamwork.

Case 2: “Happy Classes”, Beirong Nine-Year School, West Hunan;

Zou Yufan, graduated from Sichuan University, is a project member of year 2014 and

teaches Chinese and English at a rural school in west Hunan. Zou’s ideal about a class is

to make it happy and every student can enjoy it. Since a number of students in this school

have to live on campus from Sunday to Thursday, they have to stay in classrooms for self-

studying after dinner. Therefore, Zou designed five different themes for each night: “a weekly

song” for Monday, “you are great” for Tuesday, “storytelling” for Wednesday, “working report”

for Thursday and they make “plan for next week” on Sunday. For instance, on Tuesday, Zou

asks one of the students to come on the stage and let each student of the rest to say a good

thing about the student on the stage. Zou gives every student an equal chance to be praised

by others and makes her students more confident through this way. Meanwhile, Zou sets a

mailbox in the classroom and everyone is allowed to write letters to everybody else, and Zou

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will be the mailman who delivers the letters. This mailbox gives both teachers and students

an opportunity to tell about their “little secrets” or words in their minds. This little mailbox

makes students start to practice their writing skills, and they never again pass notes during

classes.

Case 3: “the Hope Tree”, Qingshankou Elementary School, Hebei;

Liu Wangsen, a project member of year 2013, is the

teacher of all classes (except English) of a sixth grade

class at a rural school in northern Hebei province. He

contacted a company that cares much about the rural

education through Teach Future China. And sponsored

by this company, Liu led his twenty kids to build a “hope

tree” (Photo: Liu’s classroom with the “hope tree” on

the wall) on the wall of their classroom and put their

little wishes or goals on the tree. Liu encouraged students to make their wishes and goals

come true through making and implementing plans. For instance, they set goals such as

keeping the classroom clean, learning to take care of their parents or improving their scores

of homework, and then Liu helped students to make timelines and practicable plans to reach

the goal. They also put other wishes on the tree, such as hope they could have a projector in

the classroom, and the company would help them to make the dreams come true once they

have reached their goals of making changes. A year later, Liu found that his students started

to know how to take care of others and contribute to the class.

In spring 2015, Teach Future China runs a survey on its project members in order to find

out their subjective assessments on the changes they made. The survey covered all project

members in-position (year 2013-2014), and 130 valid responses were collected. The result

shows that the top three changes our project members made on students are: developed

a good habit or behavior, increased interests in studying and increased confidence. More

than forty-four percent (44.16%) of the project members reported that their students have

apparently changed their habits or behavior (e.g. personal hygiene, manners, etc.). Around

forty percent (40.26%) of the project members found that their students are more likely to

actively join classes than before. Over thirty-six percent (36.36%) of the project members

felt that their students are more confident than before (e.g. more likely to express their ideas

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or opinions in front of others). Besides, students also showed changes in following aspects:

improvement of capability of communication and expression (32.47%), increase of grades

(28.57%), and better status of emotion or sentiments (25.97%).

3.3.2 Changes on Project Members

As an important beneficiary, Teach Future China’s project members also have changes

during the two-year time. According to the same survey, the most obvious changes on

project members themselves are: becoming more willing to learn from others and share

experiences with others, improvement of the problem solving ability and understanding the

local environment. Over thirty-two percent (32.47%) of the project members said that they

are more active to learn from local teachers and share their successful experience with

their team members than before. Nearly thirty percent (29.87%) of the project members

reported that they are better at discovering, analyzing and solving problems independently

than before. Over a quarter (25.97%) project members felt that they adapted to the local

environment better than before (e.g. having a good relationship with local teachers and

team members). The survey revealed that the project members also have changes in other

aspects such as: becoming more likely to broaden their horizons through reading (24.68%),

accurately understanding their own characteristics and abilities (24.68%) and having a clear

plan about their future career (22.08%).

3.3.3 Changes on Local Schools

Teach Future China’s project members have also brought changes to local schools. First,

the project members helped local schools improve their capability of daily management. For

instance, the project members in many schools helped organize and run facilities such as the

school library, experimental lab, media classroom, etc. Second, according to the interview

made by project managers during their visits to local schools, lots of officers of local Bureau

of Education and school principals agreed that our project members have brought new

atmosphere to local education. Our project members were not only willing to learn from local

teachers to understand the situation of their students but also passionate and active to bring

fresh educational ideas into practice, which also inspired local teachers. Besides, the training of

our project members also benefited local teachers. For instance, Teach Future China has once

invited a professional psychiatric consultant to Weining County, western Guizhou for a mid-

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term training of the project members, and she also gave a lecture to more than hundreds of

local teachers. Many teachers from local school said that lots of ideas of the lecture were fresh

to them, which was inspiring, and they were willing to practice some of them in their classes.

4.0 Conclusion

After six years of development, Teach Future China has stepped into the stage of improving

projects’ quality. In the future, Teach Future China will introduce an information technology

system to provide our project members across the country with a platform of communication

and experience sharing. We would also like to cooperate with third party agencies to provide

our project members with support through effective psychiatric consulting. At the same

time, we will put more emphasis on the evaluation of the outcomes and long-term effects of

Teach Future China’s two projects. Like Teach Future China, educational NGOs are facing

opportunities as well as challenges in the coming future. Some problems of educational

NGOs’ daily operation are worth mentioning. Educational NGOs have to consider some

important relations, such as how to manage their relationships with the government, different

social groups, market and even other educational NGOs. Educational NGOs also need

to improve their capability of operational management. Further, how to seek collaboration

through an international perspective bothers educational NGOs too. However, several

future tendencies in terms of educational NGOs’ development can be also expected. More

educational NGOs will appear, and educational NGOs will be multi-dimensional and multi-

functional. In the coming future, educational NGOs will seek for wider collaboration among

themselves as well as on international stages. It is undoubtedly true that the quality of

educational NGOs’ daily operation will keep improving. What is more, this sector will look

forward to government’s further move in terms of policy making.

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