Similar Foci, Different Lenses: Literacy Education Beliefs and Practices of Chinese and U.S. Teachers

Abstract

The differences in literacy education practices between China and the United States are often attributed to their different educational, sociocultural, and historical contexts. However, this sweeping view offers little to help literacy educators in both countries understand the beliefs behind literacy instructional practices and how different or similar these beliefs are. This study examines key characteristics of how Chinese (n=40) and U.S. (n=44) literacy teachers (Pre-K-8th grade) articulate their beliefs about literacy education, delineating their differences and similarities. An inductive content analysis of teachers’ self-reported written narratives about their beliefs and practices in literacy education, along with double coding, reveal that the teachers’ espoused disciplinary beliefs focus on similar themes for the most part. However, their lenses were markedly different, tinted by both the substance and style of their literacy instruction contexts, as well as their cultural epistemological foundations. Inconsistencies between teachers’ beliefs and practices manifested differently in the two groups, but they reflected similar sources. Understanding these varying and nuanced beliefs in cross-cultural contexts can inform teacher education and education reform and counter the insularity of educational research.