Teacher education policies in China since the mid-1990s

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, teacher education in China has entered a new period of transformation, mirroring larger rapid societal development. Although quality improvement has been the theme of teacher education development in China since the mid-1990s, this period of more than 20 years can still be divided into three periods: the phase of system restructuring (from the mid-1990s to 2005), the phase of capacity building (from 2005 to 2016), and the phase of revitalization (since 2017). This chapter reviews the changes to the background, goals, content, and impacts in teacher education policies since the 1990s and then discusses its future development.