Examining The Construction Of Teaching Research Culture In Rural Primary Schools From The Perspective Of Cultural Ecology

Primary school education in rural areas is an inseparable part of education,and is currently the key difficulty and focus for achieving educational equity and a higher level of high-quality and balanced development in China.The research culture in teaching is a combination of the life style of education and teaching,the norm system of daily teaching behavior and the underlying system of values which are developed and shared by a group of teachers through long-term interaction and communication in their teaching and education,in which the essence is to promote teachers’ professional development by themselves with their self-consciousness other than from external regulation and by creating a healthy teaching research ecological environment.Creating an effective research culture in primary school teaching is conductive to fulfill the fundamental task of moral education,improve the quality of primary education in rural areas,and promote the inheritance and innovation of local culture.However,the research culture construction in rural primary school teaching currently is confronted with many challenges in practice,such as lagging teaching research concepts,lack of teaching research systems and mechanisms,and weak external support systems,which hinders the integrated function of the research culture.Through reviewing literature,it could be found that existing related research is mainly concentrated in "teaching research activities",but there are just a little researches on the school’s "research culture in teaching" which falls to the macro-level research of general systems and policies.Moreover,the research focusing on the construction of "research culture in teaching" in the rural school field has not been paid enough attention and the research paradigm is relatively lagging.Therefore,this study attempts to build an analysis framework for the research culture in teaching from the perspective of cultural ecology in theory,reveals the nature,basic structure,major function,value orientation and primitive types of research culture in rural primary school teaching,strives to update the research culture modes established by existing researchers,and proposes that the reciprocally beneficial and cooperative research culture is the ideal mode for rural primary schools.And the study also makes a systematical analysis of the formation mechanism of two types of research culture in rural primary schools which are the internal-growth type and external-development type.In practice,the study comprehensively investigates the status quo of research culture in rural primary schools with empirical research methods,explores the influencing factors of research culture in rural primary schools from external environment and education itself,and puts forward the practical paradigm of building a mutually beneficial and cooperative research culture in rural primary schools.The essence of this paradigm is to stimulate teachers’ self-consciousness,generate teachers’ problem awareness,innovation spirit,and educational and teaching ability by means of the comprehensive function of external thrust and internal force,and to promote the professional development of teachers in the reciprocal and cooperative research culture.From the perspective of cultural ecology,this study follows the basic logic of "current situation investigation-theoretical discussion-analysis of influencing factors-research on formation mechanism-countermeasures and suggestions".On the basis of literature review,combined with the questionnaire survey of 3393 rural primary school teachers,the in-depth interview with 26 rural primary school principals,vice principals in charge of teaching research,directors of the teaching research department,teaching research staff,and ordinary teachers,and the field observation of a rural primary school,the study conducts a comprehensive and in-depth study on the research culture of rural primary school.The findings are as follows,Generally speaking,most of rural primary schools have constructed material culture for teaching research which can basically meet the needs of teachers’ teaching research,and they have also established basic teaching research system and organization.The rural primary school authorities pay more attention to the spiritual level of research culture construction.The rural primary school teachers are also aware of the value of research,and have positive attitude and behavior in research.Through the difference significance test,it is found that there are significant differences in teachers’ gender,teaching years,educational background and professional title.While in fact,from the practical needs of improving the professional quality of rural teachers and the high-quality development of rural education,an effective research culture has not yet formed in rural primary schools,which is mainly reflected in the relatively closed and conservative concept of teaching research,the existing institutional obstacles restricting the development of teaching research,and the lack of strong external support system for teaching research.From the perspective of cultural ecology,this study finds that the research culture of rural primary schools is rooted in the local society and is constructed by stakeholders to meet the needs of improving the professional quality of rural teachers,promoting the all-round development of students,and improving the quality of rural education.The stakeholders include education administrators,researchers,education experts,rural teachers,rural students and their parents,rural communities,urban primary schools,etc.The essence of research culture in rural primary schools is to create an ideal teaching research ecological environment,in which the endogenous power of rural primary school teachers is stimulated to pursue professional development,the problem consciousness,sense of cooperation and inquiry spirit of teachers is aroused,and teachers will voluntarily participate in teaching research to enhance their professional quality continuously.The research culture in rural primary schools presents the basic structure of "center periphery",that is,the spiritual level of research culture is the core,and the material level,institutional level,and the behavioral level of research culture are influenced by the spiritual level of research culture.The major functions of research culture in rural primary schools are promoting students’ growth,assisting the sustainable development of rural education and promoting the inheritance and innovation of local culture.At present,the value orientation of research culture in rural primary schools is urban-centered,instrumental-rational,and individualistic.While,from the perspective of current situation and development vision of rural primary schools,the research culture of rural primary schools is rooted in the local society.Rural primary schools have unique teaching research environment,teaching research subjects integrating individuality and commonness,and the training goals swinging between "for agriculture" and "leaving agriculture".Therefore,the research culture construction in rural primary schools need to base on the reality of rural primary schools,adhere to people-oriented principle,realize the combination of borrowing experience and self-exploration,unify instrumental rationality and value rationality,and coordinate individual interests and collective interests so as to promote the generation and positive function of effective research culture in rural primary schools.There are two types of research culture in rural primary schools,the internal-growth type and the external-development type.The internal-growth type can be divided into individualism culture,small group culture and spontaneous cooperation culture.As far as the long-term development of rural primary schools is concerned,reciprocal and cooperative culture provides the ideal environment for rural primary teachers’ teaching research.Its essential features mainly include cooperation based on mutual benefit,keen sense of teaching research,and acute awareness of research culture in teaching.Cultural ecology researchers pay special attention to the dominate role of human in culture and environment.According to them,human is the main body of cultural creation.Human will not only actively adapt to the surrounding environment,but also actively obtain energy and living materials from the ecological environment with the help of the influence of culture on the ecological environment.Culture and environment are dialectically interactive.Culture is generated in the process of adapting to the environment and the change and development of culture are realized in the interaction of culture and environment.Moreover,the development and promotion of technology may also lead to the change of regional production,lifestyle and cultural mode.The study of the law in culture generation and development should consider the interaction of various variables,such as human,nature,society and culture.Only by integrating many complex factors in research,can we make clear the important role and status of environment in cultural development,and clarify how environment affects cultural types and patterns.From the generation and development process of research culture in rural primary school teaching,the research culture is affected by the external factors of education,such as geographical location,traffic conditions,economic development,rural communities,students’ parents,as well as the internal factors of education,such as educational administrative power,colleges and universities,urban primary schools,rural primary school teachers.The culture builders,knowledge and environment constitute the basic elements of the formation of research culture in rural primary school teaching.There are two main formation mechanism models of research culture in rural primary school teaching,the external model which mainly depends on the promotion of educational administrative forces and the internal model which depends on the subjective consciousness of teachers.Constructing a reciprocal and cooperative research culture in rural primary school teaching needs to give full play to people’s conscious initiative.It should be based on the reality of rural primary schools,highlight the dominant position of rural primary school teachers,stimulate the enthusiasm,initiative and creativity of rural primary school teachers in a multi-path,multi-level and all-round way,and follow the basic principles of the construction of research culture.To be more specific,firstly,formulate a scientific and reasonable construction plan of research culture in rural primary schools,including accurately positioning the direction and goal of research culture construction,establishing a correct value orientation of research culture,and clarifying the basic principles of research culture construction.Secondly,strengthen the construction of hardware facilities in rural primary schools and enhance facility efficiency by consolidating library construction,creating intelligent and immersive teaching research environment,improving the working environment of teaching research activities.Thirdly,establish and improve the teaching research system and mechanism by measures like strengthening the construction of incentive,evaluation and supervision mechanism of teaching research in the well-established organization system,expanding the field and form of teaching research activities,building a six in one collaborative teaching research mechanism,providing the relative marginal groups adequate authorities to express ideas about teaching research,creating a multi-disciplinary,cross-region and time-free teaching research community.Fourthly,promote renovation in the spiritual level of research culture construction in rural primary schools by advocating the philosophy of “scientific research is crucial to the maintenance of a school ”,changing teaching research modes,keeping faith with teaching education,focusing on teaching identity construction,and cultivating affection to education.