The Enlightenment of South Korean Elementary and Middle School Teachers’ Urban-Rural Mobility System to Teacher Mobility under the Background of China’s “Double Reduction” Policy ()
1. Introduction
This year, our country launched a heavyweight document “Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden of Students’ Homework and Off-campus Training in Compulsory Education”. That is, in accordance with the decisions and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, all localities have carried out in-depth work to reduce the burden of students’ homework and off-campus training during the compulsory education stage, referred to as “double reduction”. Due to the heavy burden of schoolwork, off-campus training, family education expenditures and parents’ energy burdens, the school’s normal education and teaching time, content, and value orientation are squeezed out of the school’s normal education and teaching time, content, and value orientation, which is in line with the educational policy of “adhere to morality and foster people”. Deviate. This is an important measure that is concerned by the central government, the masses, and the society, and has a bearing on the future of the country and the development of the nation. Therefore, to implement the “double reduction” goal, “teacher flow” is indispensable. In the implementation of the measures, the content of “the flow of teachers across schools and districts to radiate high-quality education services” has attracted much attention. The uneven distribution of educational resources is the root cause of the intensified involution of education; and the distribution of high-quality teachers is the core issue of the distribution of educational resources. Parents squeeze their heads and send their children to “prestigious schools” because they value the powerful teachers behind the prestigious schools. Therefore, realizing the flow of high-quality teachers, closing the gap between schools, and gradually solving the problem of uneven distribution of educational resources are indispensable measures to implement the “double reduction” policy [1] .
Although it is difficult to achieve teacher mobility, it is not without precedents. At present, Japan and South Korea have promoted the development of education and teaching through teacher exchanges in the compulsory education stage, and their experience is of reference significance. Learn about the development process of the Korean teacher mobility system through relevant literature, and introduce the specific implementation background and implementation procedures; the Korean government not only formulated special laws and regulations, but also provided relevant support economically and spiritually. Combining my country’s actual conditions, we hope to learn from the reform and practice of the teacher mobility system in South Korea, the enlightenment and demonstrative significance for our country have been extracted.
2. The Development Process of the Teacher Mobility System in South Korea
In the 1970s in South Korea, the level of urban and rural education development was unbalanced, and there was a growing gap between rural and urban conditions for running schools, and the loss of the teaching staff became more and more serious. In order to change the status quo and enable balanced development of urban and rural education, the Korean government A teacher mobility system has been implemented. Teachers who are engaged in elementary, junior high, and high school levels can implement personnel exchanges or transfers in their work area if they have the same position [2] . This system has been implemented in South Korea for more than 40 years, and has achieved good results and rich experience in balancing educational resources. It is of reference significance to the teacher mobility system developed in our country [3] . South Korea’s 1962 Educational Civil Servants Act, the 1963 Educational Civil Servants’ Appointment Order, and the 1974 Island and Remote Area Education Promotion Act have implemented relevant legal systems to define the status of civil servants and determine that primary and secondary school teachers are civil servants. Therefore, it has the related responsibilities of powers and obligations; the requirement for teachers to regularly move to provide protection and treatment for those who work in the mobile area, so that the legislation will reflect the full, full, and normalized, and clarify Mobility standards, implemented in accordance with the law, and supporting related measures are conducive to the balanced development of education [4] .
3. Characteristics of the Teacher Mobility System in South Korea
3.1. Types of Teacher Flow System
The principals of public schools will participate in the mobility of the same school for 4 consecutive years. The mobility of teachers is divided into the mobility of ordinary teachers and the mobility of full-time personnel. South Korea has formulated rules for the flow of teachers. In order to better promote education fairness and balance educational resources, teachers must flow between urban and rural areas to meet the obligations of teachers. If they do not reach the specified number of years in the same area, irregular flow will be implemented, but they must go through. The pre-application can be implemented after approval. According to the development of education and teaching in various regions, the government has divided five regions. The government encourages and supports the migration of teachers to schools with remote locations and weak education [5] .
3.2. South Korea Government-Led
In South Korea, teachers belong to the rank of civil servants, and the government has to carry out a macro layout and make overall arrangements every year. Through the relevant provisions of the law, the flow of teachers has become a norm. The first is full-staffing. According to relevant regulations, all educational civil servants who work in educational institutions must rotate their posts on a regular basis. In other words, the target of rotation is neither outstanding teachers nor some subject teachers, but all public school teachers, school administrators and education administrators. The second is globalization. Teacher rotation in South Korea is a nationwide rotation. Under the local education autonomy system, omnidirectional job rotation within the region is usually implemented with the city, province, city, and county as the rotation area [6] . It is normalization again. Teacher rotation in South Korea implements school year limit and regional service year limit. Once the prescribed number of years is reached, they must rotate between schools and regions. Ensuring students’ right to study through legalization of expanding compulsory education and equal education opportunities, makes the allocation more reasonable, and balances the proportions of majors and ages.
3.3. Improve the Flow Procedures and Implement Them Flexibly
In the process of implementing the flow policy, there is a standardized implementation process, which is distributed and implemented through the previous statistics. If the movement is suspended due to family reasons, it can be approved in advance, and the movement can be suspended. Each education department will coordinate and coordinate according to the source of students and teachers of each school, and fully consider the distance of the teacher’s mobile school during the flow process. If it exceeds the scope, it will adopt relevant supporting measures to increase its salary. This alleviates the worries that migrant teachers cannot take care of their families. In addition, the Korean government does not have a “one size fits all” policy. Not all teachers must participate in the mobility. Special circumstances such as the following may not be necessary: The backbone classrooms of a characteristic school need to support the school’s running and development, and if you need to stay, you can temporarily not participate in the mobility; Both spouses are educators, one is already teaching in a remote area, and the other is not required to participate in the migration; teachers themselves or their family members who need long-term care due to medical conditions and other illnesses can temporarily postpone the migration as appropriate [7] . In the implementation of the mobility policy, there is still humanistic care, but the gradual nature has a certain degree of flexibility.
4. Problems Faced by Teacher Mobility in China
4.1. Lack of Effective Government Policy Guidance
The Chinese government also attaches great importance to the balanced development of compulsory education. Promulgated the 2006 “Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China”, in 2012, the State Council issued the “Opinions on Strengthening the Teaching Staff”, in 2014, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security jointly issued the Regarding Promotion Opinions on Exchange of Rotation between Principals and Teachers of Compulsory Education Schools in Counties (Districts). In July this year, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden of Students’ Work and Off-campus Training in Compulsory Education [8] , further strengthened the main position of school education. In the context of this policy, improve the teacher rotation exchange mechanism, increase the intensity of teacher rotation exchanges, promote the sharing of high-quality educational resources, give better play to the advantages of the teacher rotation system, and make the educational resources of all regions and schools more balanced. It becomes more important and urgent. According to a review of relevant literature and related data, in the survey of 3 provinces and 35 schools, the lack of legal documents on the urban-rural migration system of teachers in various regions has led to a weak awareness of teacher mobility. I understand, but the details are not clear. In the past 15 years, my country has issued 12 policy documents related to teacher mobility, forming a related mechanism for teacher mobility, and no relevant laws and regulations have been issued.
4.2. Policy Implementation Lacks Effectiveness
According to related investigations, the policy for the flow of urban and rural teachers in some areas is not in place, and there is a one-way imbalance in the flow. Judging from the current flow, more areas still use a simple form of supporting education to flow from cities to rural areas, or from rural areas to rural areas. From city to city, the proportion from city to countryside is very small, and it is more difficult to go from countryside to city. Therefore, the flow of teachers in primary and middle schools is in an unbalanced state, which is not conducive to narrowing the education gap between urban and rural schools.
4.3. Families’ Inability to Take Care of Is One of the Factors that Contribute to Mobility Difficulties
Teachers also have their own families. Although people deify the teaching profession, they also have difficulties faced by their families. So when encouraging teachers to move, put themselves in the shoes of teachers, the education administration department should see these difficult factors that affect the flow of teachers, and think about countermeasures to solve the related difficulties, so as to promote the implementation of urban-rural mobility.
5. The Enlightenment of South Korean Elementary and Middle School Teachers’ Urban-rural Mobility System to China
The development of education depends on reform. Only reform can solve the problems and promote the development of education. The reform of the Korean teacher mobility system has made us more deeply aware of the implementation of the urban and rural teacher mobility system, and balancing the quality of teachers between urban and rural areas is a key link to promote the balanced development of compulsory education.
5.1. Strengthen the Construction of Teacher Mobility System and Do a Good Job of Top-Level Design
At present, the awareness of urban and rural teachers in primary and secondary schools is weak and their enthusiasm is not high, mainly because many schools do not realize the importance of urban-rural mobility of teachers, and there are no relevant laws and regulations. The relevant regulations have not attracted the attention of schools, only laws and regulations. As a standard, the government, schools, and teachers should pay attention to it, and form a sense of mobility, rather than a passive sense of active participation. This policy can be implemented and achieve the effect of educational balance [9] . The urban and rural teacher mobility system is a systematic project that requires the administrative leadership and promotion of the national, provincial, municipal, and district governments at all levels, and all departments work together and promote it together. China has gradually begun to practice at the national and local levels. In 2005, the Ministry of Education issued “Several Opinions on Further Promoting the Balanced Development of Compulsory Education” (Jiaoji [2005] No. 9), which clearly stated that “the radiation and leading role of public schools with high-quality educational resources should be fully utilized, and weak schools should be adopted. Integration, reorganization, and sharing of educational resources will promote the transformation of weak schools.” However, the detailed rules, such as the relevant policies of the teacher mobility system, are still being explored. This requires the guidance of national policies, the coordination of local municipalities, the division of responsibilities of various departments, and the comprehensive and systematic exploration and system improvement.
5.2. Improve Supporting Policies to Enhance Teachers’ Happiness
In order to promote the development of education in remote areas in the region, the Korean government has successively improved a series of supporting encouragement and compensation measures, from the distance between the school and the public service implementation point, the convenience of the use of transportation facilities in the school location, and the pleasantness of the local climate environment. The country’s remote schools are assessed into five levels according to the degree of hardship. The Korean government provides a variety of special subsidies in addition to salaries for teachers working or moving in geographically remote and difficult areas, including special business allowances, security allowances, and commuting allowances. Housing subsidies, subsidies for studying abroad, and book purchase allowances to minimize the worries about the life and work of teachers working in these areas, and at the same time enjoy priority for honors and promotion opportunities [10] . It can be seen that the Korean government is not rigidly implementing mobility, but flexible care. In this way, teachers have a certain degree of enthusiasm when they move, and can stimulate teachers’ enthusiasm for education, and truly combine policy implementation with teachers’ voluntariness. We can refer to this point.
5.3. Pay Attention to Local Implementation and Form a Characteristic Model
In the process of implementing the teacher’s urban-rural exchange policy, the local government of South Korea has fully taken into account the local characteristics and the wishes of local teachers, and has established a relevant mechanism for the flow of teachers in the region. Similarly, in the process of establishing and implementing the teacher mobility system in our country, local districts and counties are the subjects of policy implementation. In the specific implementation process, what responsibilities do schools in the region have for teacher management? How to choose and use mobile teachers? What kind of mobile procedures should be developed to stimulate teachers’ motivation? How to standardize the promotion and evaluation system procedures in the flow process to protect the rights and interests of teachers? In the face of problems such as these, it is necessary for all local districts and counties in our country to gradually explore their own model under the top-level design, adapt to local conditions, and form a flow model with local characteristics.
5.4. Strengthen Supervision and Monitoring, Establish an Evaluation Feedback Mechanism
South Korean teachers will move between the region and schools every 2 to 5 years to ensure a balanced allocation of urban and rural school resources. However, in the implementation, it is found that there are too frequent teacher flows in some regions that affect normal work. The years are too short, which affects the continuity of education. Although there are many benefits, such as allowing teachers to experience multiple positions, optimizing and balancing the allocation of teachers within the group, eliminating job burnout, and stimulating the vitality of education, in the implementation process, it is necessary to continuously improve and improve the long-term mechanism of teacher mobility. Scientifically and rationally plan the flow cycle, establish a reasonable evaluation system, and learn from South Korea’s experience. We can also establish an evaluation system for the flow of teachers, fully affirm their positive contributions, and serve as an important basis for improving the salary and appointing professional titles for mobile exchanges.
At present, China has implemented teacher rotation exchanges under the background of the “double reduction” policy, which has optimized the structure of the teaching staff and promoted the professional development of teachers. Through exchanges, excellent principals and key teachers flowed to rural schools and weak schools, and “super-numbered” school teachers flowed to “absent” schools. Teacher resources were allocated in a balanced and reasonable manner, and the school’s teacher team structure was optimized. In the process of job rotation and exchange, teachers work and study in different schools, which eliminates job burnout to a certain extent and promotes the improvement of teachers’ professional ability. In addition, the teacher rotation exchange mechanism is combined with school district system management, group schooling and other reforms to promote the sharing of high-quality educational resources, improve the quality of education and teaching in rural schools and weak schools, and promote the balanced development of compulsory education. Mr. GuMingyuan said that the essence of the openness of education and the autonomous flow of teachers is not only the transformation of teacher education, but also the promotion of teacher professionalization. The quality of teacher education is improved. Only by strengthening the orderly and reasonable flow of teachers Sexual guidance enables the effective and balanced allocation of teacher resources to weaken the gap between regions and improve educational equity.
Only by improving the teacher flow management system can the balanced allocation of teacher resources be effectively promoted. Implementing a system of regular teacher exchanges and balancing the quality of teachers between urban and rural areas and between schools is a key link in promoting the balanced development of compulsory education at the county level, and “teacher mobility” is a powerful tool to promote the orderly and positive flow of teachers. It can be foreseen from the research on the Korean teacher mobility system that China’s future teacher mobility system tends to be rigid, with rigid requirements for the number of years, location and proportion of teachers’ mobility, and there is also a certain degree of flexible care. Its purpose is to promote the balance of teachers between schools, thereby reducing the gap between schools and achieving balanced development of education.
6. Conclusions
In the context of my country’s “double reduction” policy, both the research and practical exploration of teacher mobility policies have expanded to a certain extent, but there are few studies on the more mature Korean teacher mobility policies, and in the research on teacher mobility policies, how to think about the relationship between specific cross-regional alliances and teacher exchanges, and how to deal with the existing innovative practices and specific problems in my country. While studying the Korean teacher exchange policy, the author is more about exploring how to achieve the goal of educational balance through collaboration between the government, schools, and teachers through teacher exchanges. Furthermore, the author builds a targeted and more comprehensive policy foundation and action guide that suits China’s actual conditions on the basis of the existing research on the teacher mobility policy in South Korea, and provides a different perspective.
Similarly, the author still has some shortcomings in the research of this article. For example, in terms of theoretical discussion, there is a consensus on the basic framework of teacher mobility policy. However, in practice, how to manage teacher mobility and how to participate equally at all levels of society are not easy. The author lacks certain empirical research in discussing the presentation of the practical effects of the teacher mobility policy in our country, and is relatively weak in the pursuit of teacher mobility to promote educational balance and thereby achieve the value goal of educational equity. This is also the direction that the author will continue to study in the future.
Fund Project
The 2019 key project of the Korea Research Center, a regional and national key research base in Sichuan Province (Research on Rural Basic Education Policy in Korea, project number: hgzx-19004).