Professional Learning Communities and the Diffusion of Pedagogical Innovation in the Chinese Education System

Abstract

Pedagogical innovations have been diffusing unevenly through the Chinese education system as a result of the implementation of the New Curriculum Reforms. Drawing on large-scale linked teacher and principal survey data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families, this article investigates the extent to which interlocking teacher networks, which are a characteristic of professional learning communities in China, play a role in the diffusion of pedagogical innovations. The article argues that, despite teachers’ pessimistic attitudes about the viability of reform success in the face of the examination system, innovative ideas about pedagogy diffuse successfully throughout the education system as a result of frequent opportunities for teachers to interact and observe each other teaching in school-level professional learning communities, and as a result of the cultivation of cosmopolitan external networks for officially designated near-peer teacher opinion leaders.