Changing pedagogy: Analysing ELT teachers in China, Xin-min Zheng and Chris Davison. 2008 London:...

International Journal of Educational Development 29 (2009) 544–545

Book review

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Educational Development

journa l homepage: www.e lsev ier .com/ locate / i jedudev

Changing pedagogy: Analysing ELT teachers in China, Xin-minZheng and Chris Davison. 2008 London: Continuum ISBN-10:0-8264-8876-5 (hbk); ISBN-13: 978-0-8264-8876-3 (pbk) 220pages (jncl. index) £70 hardcover.

The aim of this book, as can be inferred from its title, is topresent a snapshot of ELT teachers in the People’s Republic of China(PRC) at a time of change, the change in this case being the phasedintroduction (2001–2007) of a new English curriculum. The statedfocus is on ‘how teachers in different situations with differentbackgrounds and motives approach the implementation of thecurriculum, how they make decisions about what and how toteach, and the extent to which they adopt the promoted methodsin their individual environments’ (p. 1).

The book consists of eight chapters. Chapter 1 provides a helpfulorientation for those unfamiliar with English language educationin the PRC and the changes that have taken place since World War2, including changing attitudes towards English. It also introducesa thought-provoking distinction between methodology (as exter-nal, theoretically coherent, typically prescriptive and generalisa-ble) and pedagogy (as an individual’s way of reconcilingeducational goals, theories and personal beliefs in response to aspecific classroom context) that is developed in the next twochapters. Chapter 2 focuses on the first of these two concepts,methodology. It establishes a theoretical framework for theanalysis of method based on Richards and Rodgers’ (2001) nowfamiliar posited hierarchical relationship between approach (i.e.theories of language and learning), (instructional) design and(classroom) procedure; this is then made concrete through aselective historical survey of ELT methods and the extent andnature of their realisation in the PRC, primarily as reflected inmaterials. Chapter 3 begins by arguing the interesting propositionthat pedagogy can be similarly conceptualised in terms of threelinked levels: teachers’ implicit and explicit theories, principlesand beliefs; their plans or designs; and how they implement thesein practice. It then reviews the literature on teacher beliefs andmodels of change. Chapters 4–6, which take the form of detailedcase studies of three teachers from Fujian province in the East ofthe PRC, constitute the descriptive-analytical heart of the book.Each case study follows the same format (biographical profile;description – using standardised categories – of the teacher’spractice; discussion of relationships between teacher’s beliefs andpractices; concluding interpretive analysis), and this helps toestablish the distinctiveness of each teacher and teaching context.Chapter 7 then shows persuasively how the unique practice of thethree teachers has been shaped by the interplay of complex forces,these forces being external (the ‘intended’ curriculum, the demandsof the national college entrance exam, the ‘intended’ commu-nicative methodology), internal (their own beliefs and reflectionson their practice) and situated (the context in which they work, andthe influence of such factors as students’ aptitudes and attitudes,

0738-0593/$ – see front matter � 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2009.05.004

expectations of school authorities and parents, and resourcesavailable). Chapter 8 draws conclusions about the three teachers’beliefs, designs and practices and briefly states a number ofimplications for practice and for further research. There is adetailed index.

The authors claim that the book ‘contributes to our knowledgeabout the act of teaching, at the same time enhancing ourunderstanding of ELT pedagogic change and the implementation ofcurriculum in the PRC, assisting teacher educators and publishersin providing teacher support, and providing curriculum plannerswith information to help design future curricular reforms’ (p.3).Claims such as these are perhaps best made on the back cover of abook, to attract as wide a range of readers as possible. Given thatthe database is limited to just three teachers, they seem a littleoverblown. My own feeling is that the wealth of detail in the casestudies makes them potentially of great interest to both practi-tioners, who may wish to compare their own ideas and practiceswith those described here, and researchers, who will find theanalytical framework easy to follow and dip into. While teachereducators and curriculum planners should also find the casestudies instructive, I am less convinced that they will feel able todraw usable conclusions, partly because the database is so small.The fact is that on a general level, the book provides vivid evidenceof the importance of the human element in the implementation ofinnovation and the complexity of factors that influence this—andthis seems to me, along with its logical structure and strongargumentation, one of its strengths. To put it differently, materialsand training can provide a helpful and supportive framework forinnovation, but what counts is how teachers interpret (literally)and respond to the external pressures and context-specific realitiesthat are clearly distinguished here, and how they balance thesewith their own knowledge-systems and personal beliefs based onlearning and teaching experience. If there is a general implicationto be drawn it is that teacher educators and curriculum plannersneed to take account of these very individual circumstances.

Although no reference is made to this, the book appears to drawheavily on the first author’s PhD thesis (Zheng, 2005) and theliterature reviews (of teacher beliefs, educational change, and soon) will be of value to other researchers. It is somewhat surprisingtherefore that there is not more explicitness about researchmethod. We are told that subjects were interviewed, their lessonsvideorecorded, and their lesson plans and journals analysed, butwhat little additional information is provided is dispersed, andsome even tucked into footnotes. My final quibble is also related tothe origins of the book. It is perhaps inevitable that in a bookwritten by two or more authors, the distinct voices will be heard. Inthis case, I felt the need to adjust not only to changes of style butalso, occasionally, of perspective. Some ‘smoothing’, perhaps withthe help of a desk editor, would have been desirable. Theseconcerns apart, I recommend the book highly to those interested inchange at the level of classroom practice.

Book review 545

References

Richards, J., Rodgers, T., 2001. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching,second ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Zheng, X.M., 2005. Pedagogy and pragmatism: secondary English teaching in thePeople’s Republic of China. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Hong Kong.

Ian McGrathSchool of Education, University of Nottingham,

United Kingdom

E-mail address: Ian.McGrath@nottingham.ac.uk