A QUESTION OF CULTURE: NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKING TEACHERS TEACHING YOUNG CHILDREN IN CHINA

Tens of thousands native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) are employed, in many cases for only being able to speak the language, to teach English in public and private schools in China, and many concentrated in early childhood bilingual programs. However, these schools face the lingering problem of not addressing the cultural and professional needs of the NESTs from foreign lands. There are cultural differences, clashes and misunderstandings between NESTs and the Chinese cultural community they situate. Many Chinese administrators and teachers have been unable to incorporate successful strategies for accommodating cultural differences and addressing conflicts, and sometimes even worsened the situation by engaging in behaviors of white supremacy and institutional racism. Additionally, poor pre-service preparations of NESTs and a lack of in-service professional support, combined with the cultural isolation, negatively impacted their teaching quality. Furthermore, no studies have been found to examine their lived experience of teaching young children in a cross-cultural context and its impact on their teaching practice. To address these issues, this ethnographic study explored a group of NESTs’ cultural ecology at a private preschool and kindergarten in China, and used an acculturation project to facilitate cultural understanding, collegial collaboration and professional growth of NESTs. The design of this research called for cultural participation through NESTs’ involvement in local cultural activities, semi-structured and unstructured interviews, classroom observations, focus groups, and artifacts. Positive impacts have been found on the NESTs’ professionalism, collegial collaboration, teamwork, and teaching practice, but not on their cultural dispositions