Research On The Development Of Youth Teachers Of Regional Universities From The Perspective Of Caring Theory

As a significant component of the faculty of higher educational institutes,youth teachers will serve as the backbone of China's education in the future and play an important role for improving the education quality of regional universities.As such,it is much of significance and value to conduct research on the issues regarding the development of youth teachers of regional universities.In this thesis,youth teachers refer to the teacher group under the age of 40,who are engaged in teaching,research and student management at regional universities.Based on Maslow's theory of the hierarchy of needs,the development of youth teachers is delimited to three levels,i.e.,individual development,organizational development and professional development.The first one refers to the satisfaction of the material needs for those teachers to keep normal operation of life;the second involves their development in respect of interpersonal relationship,organizational milieu,organizational position and the exercise of power;the third denotes the development of teachers in teaching,research,management and professional title.Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949,the development of university teachers of China has undergone three phases,i.e.,"learning from the Soviet Union" in the early days,general training and that for improving academic degree after the initiation of the open and reform policy,and pluralized teacher education in the 21 st century.In this process,the construct of teacher development has been generalized and dissimilated.As such,this thesis reflects on the ontology of teacher development.Through in-depth interviews with 20 young teachers of regional universities,this thesis describes the status quo on the development of youth teachers of regional universities.In terms of personal development,the contradiction between low wages and high cost of life reduces the living quality of youth teachers,and the income gap between different groups of teachers puts young teachers in an awkward position.With regard to organizational development,their identification with the organization and profession identity is affected by the subtlety of interpersonal relationship,the limitation of their positions in organization and the exercise of power as well as the tension of organizational culture.As for professional development,they are faced with heavy pressures in respect of teaching,research,student management,promotion assessment,among others.Based on the status quo of the development of youth teachers of regional universities,the main problems faced by the teachers are presented from three aspects,i.e.,the overall low work satisfaction,the occupational burnout of some teachers and the heavy pressure on the construction of teachers' morality and professional style.Reasons manifest in three respects.Firstly,many teachers are lack of professional spirit and career planning;secondly,university systems are not perfect and university teacher development centers are less constructed;thirdly,the ethos of respecting teachers and attaching importance to education at the social level has not been formed and the improvement of the treatment and income for university teachers has not been implemented properly.Drawing on Noddings' Caring Theory,the author proposes concrete countermeasures and suggestions.Youth teachers should strengthen self-care,establish the professional ideals on teaching and education and the construct on lifelong learning,formulate career development plans,and fulfill self-acceptance and self-adjustment.Universities should set up the philosophy on teacher-oriented development,improve rules and regulations and enhance management efficiency.At the social level,we should build up the social ethos of respecting teachers and valuing education and put into reality the improvement of teachers' treatment and income.