The Groping Pace of Bureaucratic Action

Bureaucratic wrestling with the issue of teacher policy has occurred outside any routine temporal cycle. In the case of teacher standards, superiors have placed no deadline. (Contrast this with what an SEdC official described as the one-year deadline the Central Committee gave the SEdC for formulating the draft of the "Education Decision.") Instead, the regulation of teacher standards appears to be a case of an issue looking for a policy, what Cohen, March, and Olsen might describe as "issues and feelings looking for decision situations" (1972, 2). What we see is a practice of management through groping (Paine 1986; Behn 1988).

The policy process in this case involved the simultaneous occurrence of goal setting, discussion, and implementation.^[8] Goal setting began in

[8] My description of this process and its local manifestations is based on field research in 1982–84, 1986, and 1987. As part of that work I conducted extensive interviewing, observation, and library research at Beijing Normal College, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Education Institute, Changchun Teachers College, Changchun Education Institute, Dongbei Normal University, Fujian Normal University, Harbin Teachers University, Huadong Normal University, Huazhong Teachers College, Jilin Education Institute, Jilin Teachers College, Liaoning Education Institute, Liaoning Teachers University, Shanghai Education Institute, Shenyang Education Institute, Shenyang Teachers College, and Siping Teachers College.

1978 with "problem recognition" (Kingdon 1984, 19): the shortage of qualified teachers was identified as a policy problem at the 1978 National Education Work Conference, the 1980 National Teacher Education Work conference, and in numerous articles published during this time. National leaders and high education officials gradually formulated a set of goals and principles for the reform of standards for professional preparation and practice,^[9] yet these statements have been distinguished by their vagueness and breadth. The most frequently cited statement of goals, for example, simply claims that teachers (1) "must study hard and become more erudite; (2) they must seriously study and grasp the science of education and understand educational laws; (3) they must have a noble moral character and a lofty spiritual realm and must be worthy of the title teacher" (FBIS , 30 June 1980, L1).

While national political and education leaders gradually announced policy goals, discussion of teacher standards and teacher education reforms grew. Since 1978 the topic got increasing scholarly and popular attention. Over one hundred articles were published on teacher education between 1978 and 1982 (Tan, 1983), and at least six new teacher-education journals were started between 1982 and 1984. Nonetheless, the discussion did not become markedly more specific. Instead, the discussion was mired in epistemological and fundamental questions, with the most discussion of teachers' professional standards (accounting for 46 percent of the literature) concerning the need for increased attention to be given teacher education and its "special characteristics" (Tan 1983).^[10]

Despite the absence of clearly defined goals, individual institutions, sometimes acting independently and sometimes acting in concert with the MOE or other schools, carried out numerous changes in all major areas of professional teacher preparation. Repeatedly in my interviews with school administrators, faculty, and education officials, respondents referred to this as a process of "groping" (mosuo ), conveying a sense of exploration, trying to find something out, trying to accomplish something. In the Western literature we might prefer the phrase "muddling through" (Lindblom 1959).^[11]

[9] See, for example, Deng Xiaoping 1983; Gao 1980; Gu 1983a, 1983b.

[10] While there grew to be more talk about the need to strengthen professional standards of entry, there was a noticeable absence of discussion of how teachers can best be trained or standards evaluated. A spate of articles in 1983–84 calling for clarification of the mission of teacher education offer a noteworthy contrast to Gao's 1980 assertion that the "basic mission" of teacher education programs is clear (Deng Liqun 1983; Gu 1983a, 1983b).

[11] Behn (1988, 649) distinguishes "groping along" from "muddling through." He argues that Lindblom's concept implies choosing "'among values and among policies at one and the same time,'" whereas "groping along" focuses on public management of various paths one could take to reach the desired goal. In my use of "groping" I agree with Behn that long-range, broad goals may be clear, but I find that these goals, once enacted, take on different meanings in the process of negotiation and the experience of trial and error.

The practice of management-by-groping results in an unevenness of policy activity. For example, during the 1980s bureaucratic and structural changes internal to the system of teacher education and its institutions occurred in a rather swift and uniform way; throughout the country, educators were promoted as leaders in teacher-education institutions, new institutions were established, and the system became more coordinated.^[12] Yet other responses to policy discussion—especially regarding curriculum, admissions, and job allocation—were more idiosyncratic, uneven, and even problematic. Curricular change is a particularly illustrative example of three key features of management-by-groping: local interpretation, mutual adaptation, and policy fluidity.

As early as 1978, schools turned to their curricula to experiment practically with how quality could be assured. Formally, the changes appeared to be carefully controlled by the ministry, with the announcement of precise policy formulations about professional preparation in 1978 and 1980 (through MOE-published jiaoxue jihua , or teaching plans for eleven departments in teacher-training colleges, and jiaoxue dagang , or teaching outlines for 140 courses offered at normal colleges.)^[13] Yet both the plans and the outlines are "reference" (cankaoxing ) documents, which act as guidelines rather than as regulations. Without enforcing power, the guidelines allow for some measure of autonomy for individual institutions of teacher education.

Schools experimented with curriculum reform, and the plans of most schools deviated in some way from the MOE guidelines. Local experimentation varied, but beginning in 1978 it generally tended first toward expansion of and specialization within the academic curriculum and the reduction of course work in politics and education and time spent in student teaching.

Alteration of the central policy subsequently occurred, demonstrating

[12] By the mid-1980s an extensive "teacher education network" of programs and resources was established. Previously uncoordinated institutions now worked in a comprehensive, highly differentiated, and well-articulated system. This included six regional centers coordinating preservice efforts and taking responsibility for research and sabbatical training of provincial and local-level teacher educators; 218 provincial, district, and municipal education institutes (jiaoyu xueyuan ) for retraining secondary school teachers; 2,174 teacher-refresher schools (jiaoshi jinxiu xuexiao ) for elementary teachers; correspondence programs; and by 1986 a national education television station and its "television teacher-training college" (zhongguo dianshi shifan xueyuan ) (Zhongguo jiaoyu nianjian 1986, 104–5; ZGJYB , 22 December 1987, 1; RMRB , 5 August 1986, 3; FBIS , 28 January 1987, K20).

[13] The plans list courses and placement in a student's program, while outlines specify the topics and their sequence for each course.

the interactive quality and mutual adaptation that are at the core of the groping policy process. In the keynote address to the 1980 National Teacher Education Conference, Gao Yi, as a central-level representative, warned against an overly academic curriculum. This served as a response to the experimentation of local units and represented pressure from the Center (Gao 1980). Reorientation of teacher-education programs followed. According to department chairs interviewed, some departments reduced their elective offerings, and others shifted the course content away from theoretically advanced work to "fundamentals." The political-theory core sequence was strengthened, and a new required course in moral education and an extra year of physical education were added. And the MOE, in refusing the request by some normal colleges to expand to a five-year, academically more extensive B.A. program, like those that Beijing Normal University and East China Normal had established, asserted the limits of acceptable reform.

In sum, then, under the guidelines of these vague policy discussions, this reform policy has had fluidity that allowed it to change over time. Typical of the groping process, the current standards represent an evolutionary compromise between the broad objectives of the central bureaucracy (that is, upgrading teacher standards) and specific experiments of local experience. Policy is recast by those carrying it out, somewhat akin to Manion's "policy remakes" (see chapter 8 in this volume), yet different in that here those involved are relatively weak actors with limited power to revise policy. Groping is characterized by responsiveness, as implementation proceeds alongside the process of continual formulation. This policy process is iterative. Thus, the broad goals and principles for strengthening professional standards have not changed, but the boundaries of acceptability shifted after a certain amount of local experience was collected. Reformulation continues.