Author(s)

Yang Qianli ^1,2, Rakheebrita Biswas ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Department of TESL, Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities, Lincoln University College (LUC), Kelantan, Malaysia
² Department of Ideological and Political Education, Faculty of Teacher Education, Jishou University, Jishou, China

Corresponding Author

Yang Qianli

ABSTRACT

Expanding the development space for rural teachers in western China will promote college students to participate in the education industry in western rural areas and revitalize the education industry in western rural areas. The focus of this study is to evaluate the main obstacles that college students are unwilling to teach in rural areas of western China, and to explore effective ways to expand the development space of teachers in rural areas of western China. This is a mixed research method (qualitative and quantitative methods) involving a questionnaire survey of over 400 Chinese university students. The survey tool will use the commonly used Questionnaire Star app in China, and the questionnaire design specifically includes a scale of college students' intention to teach, a scale of willingness to teach in rural areas, a scale of main factors of unwillingness to teach in rural areas, and a scale of expectations for future career development. The sample is a random sampling survey of Chinese college students through online questionnaires, and the data is analyzed using SPSS software and thematic analysis. The research results indicate that the main factors that Chinese universities are unwilling to go to western rural areas are: low treatment, being too far from the city, relatively lack of educational resources, and limited career development. In addition, college students' demography variables, such as gender, parents' occupation, growth environment, and specialty, have a certain impact on college students' willingness to go to rural areas to teach. Improving the treatment of teachers in western rural areas, rationalizing and equalizing regional educational resources, and expanding the development space of rural teachers can effectively promote college students to study in western rural areas and revitalize education in western rural areas.

KEYWORDS

Chinese college students; Rural education; Career Development

CITE THIS PAPER

Yang Qianli, Rakheebrita Biswas, Limited Development Space: Evaluation of the Main Obstacles for Chinese College Students' Unwillingness to Teach in Western Rural Areas. Adult and Higher Education (2024) Vol. 6: 155-164. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/aduhe.2024.060323.

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