The Study On The Policy Implementation Of The Professional Standard For Special Education Teachers (Trial)

Promoting education modernization and quality education is the general requirements of Education Reform in China.Developing special education is an important part of promoting educational equity and modernizing education,it is an important measure to adhere to the people oriented concept and promote the Humanitarianism,it is also an important task to build a harmonious socialist society.The Chinese government pays constant attention to the development of special education,the 17^th PCP National Congress of the Party put forward"caring about special education",the 18^th PCP National Congress of the Party put forward"supporting special education",the Party's report on the Nineteenth Congress more clearly stated that it is necessary to“do a good job of special education”.These documents emphasize the importance of pursuit of high quality special education in China.In recent years,China's special education has been greatly improved overall,the number of special schools have gradually increased,the number of special children who have received nine-year compulsory education has been gradually increasing,the facilities and schooling equipment in special education school has been gradually upgraded,the number of teachers who works in the special education increased dramatically.However,there are still some issues in the development of special education,such as a weak foundation of special education development in China,big gaps between regions in special education,instability of teachers and lack of professional skills of the staff in special education.Among them,the lack of professional capability of the staff in special education stands out a lot.Wordwidely there is consensus that it is an effective way to promote teachers professional development through the development of professional standards for teachers.In order to guide the professional development of special education teachers in China,in 2015,the CPC government promulgated the Professional Standard for Special Education Teachers?Trial??hereinafter referred to as Standard?.The promulgation of this policy marks China's special education has entered the development stage of the pursuit of quality.At present,China's academic circles have conducted some valuable studies on special education,especially on the professional development of special education teachers.However,there are few studies on the professional development of special education teachers from the perspective of educational policy.Special education teacher's teaching practice need policy guidance,special education teacher educational policies also need to be improved through empirical research.Whether an education policy can obtain good policy effect,policy implementation is a crucial factor.This study therefore explores the implementation of the Professional Standards for Special Education Teachers?Trial?promulgated in 2015,Specifically the following research questions are discussed:1)How did the persons involved in this education policy?teachers,principals,researchers,etc.?perceive the Standard?2)How did persons involved in the policy implement this policy?3)What obstacles had they encountered during the implementation of the Standard?This study aims to investigate the implementation of the Standard and enhance the Standard so that it can better guide the professional development of the teachers in special education in China.The policy implementation model by T.Smith which has been widely used to study the process of policy implementation in developing countries were employed as the conceptual framework in this study.A questionnaire which is based on the dimensions of the idealized policy,policy target groups,the implementing organization and environment factor was developed to investigate the implementation of the this policy.The survey questionnaire was distributed to 254 teachers in special education schools across China.Semi-structured interviews were also undertaken to get more data.SPSS20.0.software was used for the data analysis;content analysis was done for the interview data.The findings of this study show:1)teachers were generally satisfied with the text,but it was also believed that the text is inoperable,and lack of corresponding downlink execution documents;2)teachers generally believed that the subject of execution had not publicized and guided the implementation of the Standard;The teachers themselves did not pay attention to the Standard,did not take the initiative to learn,and not asking themselves to follow the Standard;3)in the implementation of the environment,many teachers feel that they have not created an implementation environment for the Standard,and lack of corresponding funding and training support.4)the region in which the teachers were working,teaching experience,academic qualification,profession,job title,and salary all affected teachers'satisfaction with policy implementation;5)however,teachers'gender,age,previous work,whether they participated in training,whether they were prepared,whether they participated in the formulation of the Standard did not affect the implementation of the Standard.Generally,the implementation of the Standard was not optimistic,most schools did not implement,a small number of schools just begun to implement,it was still in its infancy.Analysis of the implementation status,influencing factors,and results of Standard,based on quantitative analysis and interview data analysis,this study proposes the following suggestions from the four levels of idealized policy,policy target groups,the implementing organization and environment factors.First of all,consummate the text,enhance operability,and Develop supporting documents,the district,the schools can be encouraged to develop their own implementation plans.Secondly,the executives increased their support,increased publicity,organized relevant training,and increase the corresponding staffing;thirdly,the target group should strengthen initiative,pay attention to the standard and use the standard to restrict their own behavior.They should always maintain the concept of lifelong learning,and should not stop at some external factors.Last but not least,the state education department should pay more attention to special education and create an implementation environment,put some policies into practice.For example adequate financial support from the economic side,and create a good working atmosphere for teachers in culture.This study which based on Smith's policy implementation model provides a new perspective to investigate the teachers professional development in special education in China.It will contribute to the improvement of the Standard so as to benefit the professional development of the teachers in special education.