Teacher ethical regulation policies and teacher autonomy in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the interaction between local government’s regulation of teacher ethics and teacher autonomy in X District in China’s Shanghai. A case study was conducted, with documents collected from X District education authority on teacher ethics, semi-structured interviews with three local education bureau officers, eight school leaders, and ten teachers, and a survey of 42 school teachers between January and June 2023. The findings show that the local government tightened its regulation of teacher ethics and restricted both individual and collegial autonomy of teachers. Meanwhile, different from the view that Chinese teachers have little autonomy, teachers and schools responded to local government’s control and developed multi-level autonomy. This article presents a “Yin-Yang” framework for understanding the coexistence, development, and change interaction between government regulation and school teachers’ autonomy in teacher ethics in China and responding to international concerns on tensions in the teaching profession’s ethical regulation and aspirations.