ABSTRACT
When I began to visit schools in China in the late 1980s, I was particularly struck by the ratio of classes to teachers. Relative to the number of classes the number of teachers seemed enormous in comparison with schools in the UK. This was the case in both mainstream and segregated settings. How were the teachers organising their time? What activities were undertaken outside, as well as inside, classrooms? It gradually became clear to me that Chinese teachers were using time and space quite differently from their colleagues in the UK.
