ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses upon rural education, and the role of teachers and teacher education in improving the situation in these areas. It is important to see the efforts to improve rural education in the context of China as a whole. The sheer scale of the educational enterprise and the role of government in it, particularly given its originally social to all enterprise, has to always be borne in mind when thinking of particular groups who might be disadvantaged. (A ‘command’ approach is where central edicts commanded change in the system, which local administrations then had to follow.) This remains true even although contemporary China has embraced many of the market approaches, not only to the economy, but to education as well. We therefore present general background on China and on its education system, as the frame to view rural education, rural teachers and their professional development from pre-service to in-service.
