West East Reciprocal Learning in Teacher Education: From Knowing to Doing

During this uncertain time, teacher education has never been more needed for West-East dialogues and Reciprocal Learning. "International collaborations have become challenging, but the teacher education partnership of the Canada-China Reciprocal Learning Project has shown that they still are possible. This volume provides an intercultural roadmap of what diverse educators mutually learn through sustained collaboration. Insights into knowing, doing, and being shine through, heralding breakthroughs in how we think about comparative teacher education." —Dr. Yali Zou, Director of the Asian American Studies Center & Asian International Programs, University of Houston During this uncertain time, teacher education has never been more needed for West-East dialogues and Reciprocal Learning. Xu and Connelly’s concept of reciprocal learning aims to harmonize the West-East dichotomy and foster appreciation in education and understanding of each other’s culture and history. This book focuses on the field work done by the Teacher Education Research Team with chapter contributors from Canadian and Chinese professors, graduate students and pre-service teachers who have been deeply engaged in the RLP. Following Xu and Connelly’s conceptual framework of “Reciprocal Learning as Collaborative Partnership,” the book begins with knowing the Teacher Education RLP followed by doing the West-East reciprocal learning through the program. It concludes with a discussion of the envisioned future of the RLP and commentaries from distinguished scholars in teacher education, one from the West and the other from the East. Shijing Xu is Canada Research Chair and Professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Windsor, Canada. Yibing Liu is the Director of the Research Institute for West China Education Development at Southwest University, Chongqing, China. Zuochen Zhang is Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor, Canada. Michael Connelly is Professor Emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (OISE), Canada. Chenkai Chi is a PhD Candidate in Educational Studies at the University of Windsor, Canada. During this uncertain time, teacher education has never been more needed for West-East dialogues and Reciprocal Learning. Xu and Connelly’s concept of reciprocal learning aims to harmonize the West-East dichotomy and foster appreciation in education and understanding of each other’s culture and history. This book focuses on the field work done by the Teacher Education Research Team with chapter contributors from Canadian and Chinese professors, graduate students and pre-service teachers who have been deeply engaged in the RLP. Following Xu and Connelly’s conceptual framework of “Reciprocal Learning as Collaborative Partnership,” the book begins with knowing the Teacher Education RLP followed by doing the West-East reciprocal learning through the program. It concludes with a discussion of the envisioned future of the RLP and commentaries from distinguished scholars in teacher education, one from the West and the other from the East.