This chapter outlines and explains the scope of data, the design and the methods of this research. Firstly, I record the aims of my research and the power configuration of the production and implementation of the Yuwen curriculum in China. I provide the three research questions that were identified in Chapter 1 and explain how I addressed these questions in my research design. The main body of this chapter is devoted to explaining and justifying the research design and research method including data collection and analysis. I specify that this research is qualitative in nature and qualitative content analysis was employed to process and analyse the data concerning the major syllabus documents, the textbooks and the interview transcripts with teachers. In the latter half of this chapter, I briefly summarise and justify the methods adopted to process the data.
This study provides a trajectory of how the Chinese language and literacy as a national subject evolved for the three decades. It essentially adopts two kinds of data collections : textual documents and interviews that represent the historical curriculum changes and the participants’ (teachers) voice and reflections of the curriculum changes and implementation. 4.2 Aims, research questions and research design
4.2.1 Aims
This study explored the changes in the key components of the Chinese language and literacy curriculum (Yuwen) of secondary education in Mainland China since the 1980s, with a focus on the recent changes after the new curriculum standards were released in 2003. The study also sought to discover how these changes were brought about by the key players
representing the power configuration in this curriculum domain.
The chart below delineates Yuwen’s curriculum dynamics featuring the top-down initiation and implementation process.
As the chart demonstrates, the state and its delegates are situated at the top of the flow chart and the schools, teachers and students are on the bottom having limited administrative and discursive power in the curriculum design, re-design and implementation.
Figure 4.1 Power configuration chart of Yuwen curriculum production and implementation
4.2.2 Research questions
The central questions of this thesis are:
How has the Yuwen (Chinese language and literacy) curriculum been controlled and mediated by social and political domination?
How have the teachers and schools responded in their teaching practices to the top-down curriculum changes?
CCP, Central government and its dominant ideology in education and language
National Ministry of Education
Delegated publishing houses and nominated experts in language and literacy education
(yuwen zhuanjia)
produce
National Language and Literacy syllabus
Textbooks and other teaching materials compilation, approval
and publication
National Universtiy entrance examination (Gaokao)
Schools, teachers and students classroom teaching
These central questions can be further divided into three sub-questions to address the three most important aspects of the curriculum: the syllabus, the textbooks and the actual teaching practice. Regarding the syllabus which functions as the guiding document of the curriculum defining the nature, aims and teaching approaches of the subject, the sub-question is: how has the syllabus been changed along with social and political transformation? Regarding the prescribed textbooks, which are assumed to be the embodiment of the syllabus, the sub- question is: how have the prescribed texts been changed along with changes in the syllabus? Regarding the teaching practice, the sub-question is: to what extent have the new syllabus and the new textbooks changed (or not changed) teachers’ teaching philosophy and teaching practice? Table 4.1 provides the research questions and the corresponding research data categories.
Table 4.1Research questions and corresponding subject and data
Research questions Subject and data
How has the syllabus been changed along with social and political transformation?
Selected syllabus documents, published government documents
How have the prescribed texts been changed along with changes in the syllabus?
Selected textbooks
To what extent have the new syllabus and the new textbooks changed (or not changed) teachers’ teaching philosophy and teaching practice?
Transcripts of interviews with Yuwen teachers of two schools in Jiangsu province
4.2.3 Research design
Figure 4.2 illustrates the research design. The design is firstly concerned with each individual key component in the three text boxes on the left of the diagram. Secondly, the design is also meant to explore the dynamics or interaction among the three key components of the
curriculum, as the arrows in the diagram show: syllabus guides define the textbooks, and both syllabus and textbooks control the teaching practices.
Figure 4.2 Data range and research design
The data collected for each box will provide evidence for questions such as: To what extent do textbooks follow or deviate from the aims, objectives and approaches dictated in the syllabus, and why? How do teachers’ practices comply with the syllabus and textbooks’ true intentions and why? The interpretation of each box and the delineation of the interactions among the three boxes eventually present a big picture of the subject, which is the text box on the right hand of the diagram. The three arrows pointing to the big box on the right indicate that the detailed study of the three components contributes to the big picture of the status and development of Yuwen subject.
4.2.4 Research methods
This section illustrates why qualitative content analysis was employed and how it was conducted in addressing the research questions. The section is divided into three parts, each addressing why and how qualitative content analysis was applicable to the syllabus analysis, textbook analysis and fieldwork data analysis.
Chapter 5