Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Building education groups as school collaboration for education improvement: a case study of stakeholder interactions in District A of Chengdu

  • Published:
Asia Pacific Education Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

School collaboration has become a popular approach for education improvement in global education reform. This study examined the dynamics of stakeholder school collaboration in China to improve public education using a case study focused on an Education Group government initiative in Chengdu, China. Frist an introduction to a global reform for education improvement through school collaboration is given, followed by a review of global reform for school collaboration and Hargreaves and Shirley’s discussion on design and innovation for school networks and collaboration to visualize the framework for the interpretation of the stakeholders’ school collaborative interactions. Then, the school collaboration for education improvement in China is examined in detail based on 20 interviews with stakeholders from educational authorities, the lead and member schools involved in the establishment of the Education Groups in Chengdu, China. The interviews were designed based on a review of policy documents about construction of the Education Groups in Chengdu. The findings revealed that the establishment of the Education Groups in Chengdu was driven by both top-down initiatives and bottom-up innovations, and while there had been some success in improving education quality in the lower performing schools, the stakeholder interactions had been hindered by the lack of policy coordination within and beyond the education reforms. It was concluded that a collective institutional context was needed to foster the shared values and trust needed between all stakeholders and promote the sustainable reform of the Education Groups to ensure education equity and quality.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source: Author, based on Hargreaves and Shirley (2009, pp. 99–101)

Fig. 2

Source: Author

Fig. 3

Source: Author. Data collected from School B of Education Group A on May 23, 2018

Fig. 4

Source: Author. Data collected from School B of Education Group A on May 23, 2018

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Zhong (2013) reported that the original Counterpart Support Policy practice was a collaboration between factories in urban areas and a People’s commune in the rural area of Shanxi Province. Through the collaboration, the factory provided technical assistance for the commune’s maintenance of agricultural machines, and fostered technicians and support for facility construction.

  2. CCP refers to Chinese Communist Party.

  3. The city education authority had already established group management, exchange of staff, construction of educational community, effect of special program, and other innovative practices criteria for evaluating the Education Group achievements (information collected from interviews with staff at the Chengdu City Education Bureau on April 27, 2018).

  4. Information is based on interview with staff of Chengdu City Education Bureau on April 27,

  5. The interviews with two teachers of School B were conducted on May 23, 2018.

  6. According to the principal of School B, this community used to be the largest community of internal migrants in Chengdu before becoming a newly-established residential area in 2008. This is why Fig. 4 shows there were more internal migrant children than local children at the beginning. With the rapid urbanization, an increasing number of local children moved into this school. Gradually, it became an educational nest accommodating both local children and migrant children (Interview with principal of School B conducted on May 23, 2018).

References

  • Ainscow, M., Chapman, C., & Hadfield, M. (2020). Changing education systems: A research-based approach. Routledge.

  • Ainscow, M., Muijs, D., & West, M. (2006). Using collaboration as a strategy for improving schools in complex and challenging circumstances: What makes the difference? National College for School Leadership.

  • Armstrong, P. (2015). Effective school partneships and collaboration for school improvement: A review of the evidence. Department for Education.

  • Armstrong, P. W., & Ainscow, M. (2018). School-to-school support within a competitive education system: Views from the inside. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 29(4), 614–633. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2018.1499534

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, P. W., Brown, C., & Chapman, C. J. (2021). School-to-school collaboration in England: A configurative review of the empirical evidence. Review of Education. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beffy, M., & Davezies, L. (2013). Has the “Ambition Success Networks” educational program achieved its ambition? Annals of Economics and Statistics, 111/112(Special Issue on Education), 271–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burr, V. (1995). An introduction to social constructionism. Routledge.

  • Chapman, C., & Muijs, D. (2013). Collaborative school turnaround: A study of the impact of school federations on student outcomes. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 12(3), 200–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2013.831456

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chengdu City Education Bureau. (2009). Opinions on promoting development of “Education Groups”. Chengdu City Education Bureau.

  • Chengdu City Education Bureau. (2016). Opinions on further improvement of development of Education Groups. Chengdu City Education Bureau.

  • Gao, Y., & Wei, Z. (2011). The present situation and developmental trend of educational groups in China (in Chinese). Journal of Higher Education (in Chinese), 22(6), 36–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gergen, K. J. (2015 ). An invitation to social construction (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.

  • Group of Book Series of Comprehensive Education Reform of Chengdu. (2019). Chengxiang Yiti Ronghe Fazhan: Chengdu Shi Mingxiao Jietuan Fazhan Shijian Yanjiu (Integrated Development of Urban and Rural Areas: A study on the practice of Chengdu Elite School Groups). People's Publishing House.

  • Gu, M., Ma, J., & Teng, J. (2017). Portraits of Chinese schools. Higher Education Press & Springer.

  • Hadfield, M., & Chapman, C. (2009). Leading school-based networks. Routledge.

  • Han, Z., & Zhang, W. (2018). Contemporary value systems in China. China Social Sciences Press & Springer.

  • Hargreaves, A., & Shirley, D. (2009). The fourth way: The inspiring future of educational change. Corwin.

  • Hargreaves, A., & Shirley, D. (2012). The global fourth way: The quest for educational excellence. Corwin.

  • Hayes, G., & Lynch, S. (2013). Local partnerships: Blowing in the wind of national policy changes. British Educational Research Journal, 39(3), 425–446. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2011.647680

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, B., & Farmer, J. (2013). School turnaround in Shanghai: The empowered-management program approach to improving school performance. Center for American Progress.

  • Keddie, A. (2015). School autonomy, accountability and collaboration: A critical review. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 47(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2015.974146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, X., Kidwai, H., & Zhang, M. (2016). How Shanghai does it: Insights and lessons from the highest-ranking education system in the world. World Bank Group.

  • Liu, X. (2015). A best-know school group: “Chengdu Model” with balanced coverage of high quality education (in Chinese). Education and Teaching Research (in Chinese), 29(10), 15–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J. (2018a). Constructing resource sharing collaboration for quality public education in urban China: Case study of school alliance in Beijing. International Journal of Educational Development, 59, 9–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.09.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J. (2018b). Inequality in public school admission in urban China: Discourses. Springer.

  • Liu, J. (2019). Development of Elite School Groups in the context of urban and rural education integration: A case study on Qingyang District in Chengdu (in Chinese). In D. Yang (Ed.), Annual report on China's education (2019) (in Chinese) (pp. 204–219). Social Sciences Academic Press (China).

  • Meng, F., Zhang, L., & She, Y. (2016). Three modes of running schools by group in elementary education in China (in Chinese). Educational Research (in Chinese), 441, 40–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Education. (2005). Opinions on enhancing the balanced development of compulsory education. Ministry of Education.

  • Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, & Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. (2014). Opinions on rotation of school leaders and teachers in compulsory education schools at county (district) level. Ministry of Education.

  • Muijs, D. (2015). Improving schools through collaboration: A mixed methods study of school-to-school partnerships in the primary sector. Oxford Review of Education, 41(5), 563–586. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2015.1047824

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muijs, D., Ainscow, M., Chapman, C., & West, M. (2011). Collaboration and networking in education. Springer.

  • OECD. (2011). Strong performers and successful reformers in education: Lessons from PISA for the United States. OECD.

  • OECD. (2012). Equity and quality in education: Supporting disadvantaged students and schools. OECD.

  • Sato, M. (2012). Gako wo kaigakusuru: Manabi no kyodotai no kosou to jisen (Reforming schools: concepts of Learning Community and its practices). Iwanami Shoten.

  • Shi, G., & Xu, Y. (2011). Education Groups: Time shift of balanced development of education (in Chinese). Zhejing University Press (in Chinese).

  • Tan, C. (2013). Learning from Shanghai: Lessons on achieving education success. Springer Singapore.

  • Tan, C., & Ng, P. T. (2007). Dynamics of change: Decentralised centralism of education in Singapore. Journal of Educational Change, 8(2), 155–168. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-006-9016-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Central Committee of CCP, & The State Council. (2010). Outline of national medium-term and long-term program for education reform and development. The Central Committee of CCP & The State Council.

  • The General Office of the Central Committee of CPC, & The General Office of the State Council. (2017). Opinions on deepening reform of education system and mechanism. The General Office of the Central Committee of CPC & The General Office of the State Council

  • The General Office of the Central Committee of CPC, & The General Office of the State Council. (2019). China's educational modernization 2035. The General Office of the Central Committee of CPC & The General Office of the State Council.

  • The National People’s Congress. (1984). Law of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities in the People’s Republic of China. The National People’s Congress.

  • The State Education Commission, & The State Ethnic Affairs Commission. (1994). Notification of minutes of national conference on one-on-one educational assistance. The State Education Commission.

  • Weick, K. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. Sage Publications.

  • West, M., & Ainscow, M. (2010). Improving schools in Hong Kong: A description of the implement model and some reflections on its impact on schools, teachers and school principals. In S. G. Huber (Ed.), School leadership-international perspectives (pp. 1–18). Springer.

  • Yang, X. (2014). Exploring the new mechanisms of balanced high quality development of regional compulsory education: An example of collective school running (in Chinese). Research in Educational Development (in Chinese), 24, 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yong, G. L. C. C. (2006). The role of heads of department in cluster secondary schools in Singapore. University of Leicester.

  • Yuan, Z. (Ed.) (2012). Education quality as the priority for urban-rural integration (in Chinese). Educational Science Publishing House (in Chinese).

  • Zhong, K. (2013). Paired assistance in China: Origins, formation and development (in Chinese). Journal of Gansu Administration (in Chinese), 2013(4), 14–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, Z., & Deng, M. (2019). Education reform in Shanghai in the era of globalisation: Towards a balanced and innovative system? In S. S. Teng, M. Manzon, & K. K. Poon (Eds.), Equity in excellence: Experiences of East Asian high-performing education systems (pp. 27–41). Springer.

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the MITSUBISHI Foundation, Japan (ID: 30209).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, Tohoku University, 27-1 Kawauchi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 9808576, Japan

    Jing Liu

Authors
  1. Jing Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jing Liu.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liu, J. Building education groups as school collaboration for education improvement: a case study of stakeholder interactions in District A of Chengdu. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 22, 427–439 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-021-09682-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-021-09682-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation