100 Oral Accounts of Grassroots Teachers

Author: Li Mo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: After exploring the theme of emotional privacy, "narrative" books have begun to focus on ordinary people. Recently, Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences Press launched The Narratives of 100 Grassroots Teachers, giving a voice to 100 poor grassroots teachers in Henan, a populous province in China. The recorders spent four years traveling over 60,000 kilometers, conducting the first comprehensive collection of stories and heartfelt sentiments from grassroots teachers in China. Their work provides an in-depth yet accessible reflection of the living conditions of grassroots teachers. The narrators range in age from their teens to their seventies, forming a vast age gradient that accurately reflects decades of changes in grassroots education in China. The ups and downs of grassroots education in our country over more than 50 years, the policy shift from private to public teachers, and the gradual standardization of compulsory education—all are clearly revealed through the teachers' simple narratives. This book, which collects a large-scale "narrative sample" of grassroots teachers, also helps us break through conventional understandings of grassroots education.