Research on Types, Implementation Issues, and Countermeasures of Teacher Exchange Rotation in Compulsory Education

: Teacher exchange rotation policy is significant in China’s compulsory education to promote its balanced development and education equity. Currently, the Chinese political structure of teacher exchange rotation is diverse and complicated and has various problems in practice. In compulsory education, teacher exchange rotation is divided into two main modes: alliance school exchange and voluntary service exchange. In practice, there are many problems in teacher exchange rotation, such as insufficient system and mechanism of teacher exchange rotation, insufficient participation of teachers and ineffective safeguard measures. In terms of countermeasures, this study analyzes the types and implementation issues of teachers' rotation of the compulsory education, and puts forward relevant suggestions, i.e. perfecting the system design and perfecting the operation mechanism; strengthening humanistic care and enhancing teachers' willingness to participate; strengthen the guarantee and promote the quality improvement of rotation.


Introduction
In November 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee passed the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Major Issues of Deepening Reform in an allround way, which proposed to coordinate balanced resource allocation for compulsory education in urban and rural areas and implement standardized construction of public schools and exchanges of principals and teachers.The teacher exchange rotation policy is an important measure in China's compulsory education to promote its balanced development and education equity.Exchange rotation is an important responsibility and glorious mission entrusted by the state to principals and teachers.Principals and teachers should be clearly required to take part in the exchange rotation.There should also be political guidance through the incentive and guarantee mechanism to motivate them [1].At present, the policy form of teacher exchange rotation in our country has diversity and complexity.In reality, the level of teachers in compulsory education is facing a significant variety among schools and between urban and rural areas.Therefore, this study will analyze the types and implementation of teachers' rotation in compulsory education, then put forward countermeasures to further narrow the gap between urban and rural areas and promote education fairness.

Alliance School Communication Model
The mode of alliance school communication specifically includes the forms of school alliance, group school running, famous school running, temporary employment, central school, school district integrated management, etc.
"Education alliance" refers to the aid system in which two or more schools form an education alliance in some provinces and autonomous regions, so as to realize the flow of personnel within the alliance [2].For example, Yuci District, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province, is divided into five university districts with 20 primary schools and 11 secondary schools, forming ten major consortiums.The strong and weak schools in the district communicate with each other, implementing the "binding" communication of proofreading schools.Through the "three fixed" actions of fixed-point teaching delivery, regular opening and targeted demonstration, the exchange of teachers has risen from the exchange of teachers to a more extensive interactive communication in various ways, such as expert guidance, peer support, joint film teaching and research, etc.
"Alliance School Exchange" refers to the establishment of a school alliance in a certain area, the implementation of regular exchange of principals and teachers in the school alliance, and the use of high-quality schools in the alliance to drive weaker schools, to largely improve education quality and teaching quality in the alliance schools, and to maximize the benefits of the exchange of principals and teachers [3].At present, the exchange of alliance schools in various provinces is mainly carried out in the following two forms: one is the school alliance, the other is the group running of schools.Shaoguan City Wujiang District, Tianjin City Beichen District and other places are mainly in this way of exchange rotation.
"School alliance" refers to schools absorbing the strong points of each other to cover their weakness, and cooperating and making progress in order to narrow the gap between urban and rural schools.With "leading schools" as the wisdom guide, they ultimately promote the balanced development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas [4].Representative regions, such as Hangzhou City and Quzhou City in Zhejiang Province, have established basic education groups to form a school consortium for urban and rural compulsory education to realize teacher exchange rotation.
"Group-run" is a school-running mechanism.Considering the common wishes of schools, it is guided by administrative instructions.It combines a well-known school with several schools to form a school community (a group of famous schools) [5].In the mechanism, the principal of the head office of a prestigious school, expert consultants, and principals of each school district all take the responsiblility for general planning and decision-making.That is, there is a vertical unified management among the schools within the group.According to the internal organization and operation mode of the Group, it can be divided into various forms, such as the famous schools running branch schools and the famous schools managing the weak schools.
In short, from the perspective of the main body of the measures, school alliance and collectivization is mainly concentrated at the school level, i.e. the integrated planning and promotion of the management mode, resource allocation, teaching design, etc. of each school.Therefore, the two forms are unified and divided into alliance school exchanges.

Support Service Model
Under the support service model, specific forms of teacher rotation include counterpart support, teaching, sending teaching to the countryside, supporting teaching, and radiation of high-quality teacher resources.
"Counterpart support" refers to a kind of policy-oriented behavior in which those with stronger educational ability provides assistance to the weaker ones.In some provinces, cities, and regions, top schools in cities are explicitly required to build a long-term relationship to help weak schools in rural areas.They should regularly send teachers to support the weak schools.For example, the Xinjiang Construction Corps encourages and guides high-level schools to establish a long-term and stable inter-school support relationship with schools with weak school-running conditions in the Implementation Measures for Pairing Assistance to Compulsory Education Schools, and promotes the sharing of high-quality educational resources through various forms such as "pairing" and "holding hands." "Walking to teach" means that some provinces and autonomous regions break the school restrictions of teachers, and one teacher teaches in multiple schools at the same time.For example, Hunan Province has established a system of no school registration for teachers of sound, sports and beauty in villages and towns.Teachers of sound, sports and beauty in villages and towns throughout the county are only employed in villages and towns and do not come to school at fixed points.A system of "walk-in" is implemented for small villages and small schools.
The "sending teachers to the countryside" aims to fully utilize leading position of key teachers, strengthen urban and rural exchanges, and promote mutual learning and common improvement among teachers in various schools.For example, the town backbone teachers' teaching group established in Anhui Province regularly sends teachers to the countryside to facilitate rural school teachers to listen to professional reports and carry out various professional development activities nearby.
"Supporting education" refers to supporting the education and teaching management of primary and secondary schools in villages and towns in backward areas.It is a system that exists all over the country.For example, according to regulations of Hebei province, 5% of teachers in urban areas should be sent to the countryside each year.
The "radiation of high-quality teacher resources" is mainly manifested in the various forms of support and radiation provided by famous teachers in some provinces.For example, Beijing realizes the sharing and radiation of high-quality teacher resources through the establishment of famous teacher studios, mentor groups, lectures by famous teachers, cross-school delivery of classes, breaking inter-school and cross-school teacher worship, mentoring and other forms.These diversified ways of radiating high-quality resources with very low investment cost are favored by many schools and teachers [6].

The Exchange and Rotation System of the Institutional Mechanism is not Perfect
Although many counties in the west have initially established basic exchange and rotation regulations, the whole management system and operation mechanism are still far from perfect [7].Below are their main performances.First, they lack effective organization and leadership.The effective implementation of exchange and rotation requires the cooperation of personnel, staffing, finance, education and other departments, but at present, the county education bureaus are usually responsible for overall coordination.As a matter of fact, the Education Bureau can only manage the selection of exchange rotation personnel, and it is often unable to do anything about staffing, funding, post setting, etc.
The second is the lack of a scientific and effective mechanism for the selection of exchange rotation personnel.How to determine the candidates for the exchange rotation, what standards and rules the principals and teachers should follow to participate in the exchange rotation, and what treatment the principals and teachers should enjoy after participating in the exchange rotation, etc. are important links to ensure the effect of exchange and rotation.
Third, there is a lack of perfect and detailed use management mechanism.At present, in policy implementation, teachers' salaries and personnel relations are all in the original schools, which has led to the obvious phenomenon that the principals and teachers in the exchange rotation are "in Cao Ying's heart and in Han Dynasty".
The fourth is the lack of scientific evaluation and monitoring mechanism.At present, in the policy texts issued by the state and some western provinces, although there are monitoring and evaluation provisions for the exchange rotation policy, its contents are often too general and broad, and lack of operability.

Low Willingness of Teachers to Participate
Although the National Medium-and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan Outline (2010 ~2020) puts forward "realizing the exchange system between teachers and principals in county (district) areas [8]" and advocates voluntary participation in exchanges, in practice, teachers' willingness to exchange is not strong and teachers' overall satisfaction with exchanges is low.The exchange of teachers has changed from "encouragement", "guidance" and "active promotion" on the surface to mandatory ways such as issuing exchange indicators.The lack of timely and effective communication with teachers, the retention of teachers with "professional nature" and the contradiction between the school and the education authorities on the issue of teacher communication have all led to the decline in the recognition of the communication policy and the inefficient implementation of the communication policy.
At the school level, most high-quality school leaders are worried about the impact on their school's teaching quality due to the rotation of teachers, or about the dissatisfaction of students and parents.They are neither willing to accept the exchange of teachers from rural schools, nor are they willing to replace their own excellent teachers, nor are they willing to share the school's teaching characteristics and high-quality teaching experience with other schools.
At the teacher level, or due to a weak sense of responsibility, they regard communication as a requirement beyond their daily teaching responsibilities and are unwilling to communicate.Or, for various utilitarian purposes, regard communication as an act of last resort, such as promotion, evaluation and allowance.

The Safeguards are Ineffective
In terms of teachers' remuneration, there are 16 provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) and cities that have made provisions in principle, but only 2 provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) and cities have specific provisions, and 9 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have not yet made provisions [9].
As for the promotion of teachers' posts, 25 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have stipulated the promotion of floating teachers' posts (titles), but only 12 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) and municipalities have specific and explicit stipulations.
In terms of the assessment of the employment of floating teachers, 14 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) and cities have made provisions, 11 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) and cities have made specific provisions, and 11 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have not made provisions; Twenty-four provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have made provisions for the evaluation of floating teachers, but only 16 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have specific provisions.
In terms of supervision mechanism for teachers, there is currently no perfect assessment mechanism for local education authorities, schools and teachers, and the non-implementation phenomenon in the implementation of the teacher exchange system has not been effectively monitored, fed back and corrected, which makes a good system not play its active role fully.For example, as early as 2000, the Nanjing Municipal Education Commission planned to try out a teacher rotation system in five counties and some key schools and experimental schools in the urban areas, but until September 2006, only one person was actually in place in Gulou District.
In addition, the teacher assessment system for the exchange is not perfect, there is no comprehensive, objective and fair assessment of the work performance during the exchange, and the effectiveness assessment and the process and dynamics of the assessment are ignored.As a result, some teachers only "muddle through" after exchanging to other schools and return to their original schools when the time limit expires, which does not serve the purpose of improving the teaching level and professional development of the exchange schools.

4.
Countermeasures and Suggestions

To Improve the System Design and the Operating Mechanism
The first is to straighten out the management system of exchange rotation.We must strengthen the county-level government's main responsibility to promote this work.It is suggested that the counties in the west should take the exchange of principals and teachers as the "top leaders" project, do a good job in the top-level design, co-ordinate and coordinate the education, finance, human resources, social welfare, staffing and other departments in the counties, work together to formulate relevant policies, clarify their respective responsibilities and tasks, and ensure the implementation in place.
The second is to establish a scientific exchange mechanism for the selection of principals and teachers.It is suggested that, on the premise of ensuring the completion of the tasks, a "two-way selection" method for the exchange rotation of principals and teachers should be explored, i.e. principals and teachers should be allowed to take a combination of intention and self-selection within the specified scope, based on the selection conditions, standards, expected results and operating procedures, and the autonomy of the principals and teachers and the recipients should be fully respected.By signing the exchange rotation agreement, principals and teachers participating in the exchange rotation will be changed from "forcing me to go" to "I want to go" and "unwilling to go" to "I want to go".
The third is to innovate the exchange and rotation mechanism between principals and teachers.It is suggested to establish a working mechanism of exchange and follow-up guidance for principals and teachers.The dispatched schools should strengthen the training and management of the exchange rotation teachers, explore an effective integration mechanism between the floating principals and teachers and the management of the flowing schools, and build a "scaffold" for their professional development, so that they can have pressure on their professions, a platform for their development, an opportunity for their growth, and mentors.The flow into schools should create a good management environment and strive to stimulate the positive energy of floating teachers.Schools participating in the exchange rotation should explore the establishment of a continuous tracking management mechanism after the exchange of principals and teachers to promote teachers' professional development and growth.
The fourth is to improve the monitoring mechanism of exchange rotation between principals and teachers.It is suggested that the education supervision office of the people's government at the county level should take the lead to set up an evaluation and monitoring organization for teachers' exchange rotation.According to the principle that the management and management should be separated from each other, a practical monitoring and evaluation index system should be developed, the whole process, comprehensive and all-staff monitoring should be implemented, the monitoring results should be used scientifically, and the incentive and accountability mechanism for exchange rotation should be improved.The exchange rotation work will be included in the supervision and assessment system of the education work of the leading cadres of the Party and government, and will be taken as an important indicator for determining the basic balanced county for the balanced development of compulsory education.The implementation of the situation is good, the results of the region, to be rewarded.For areas where the work is ineffective, the scope is not wide, and the results are not great.The application for county accreditation for balanced development of compulsory education will not be accepted, and accountability procedures will be initiated to track down responsibilities [7].

To Strengthen Human Care and Enhance Teachers' Willingness to Participate
Educational administrative department at all levels, while vigorously publicize that policy of teacher exchange, should also guide schools and teachers to correctly view the reasonable flow of teacher, adhere to the people-oriented principle, effectively solve the practical difficulties of exchanging teachers on rotation in terms of transportation, housing, education for children, etc., and give teachers a relatively loose space for development, creating a good educational ecological environment for teachers' exchange on rotation.

To Strengthen the Protection, and Promote the Quality of Rotation
Judging from the details of relevant policies issued by various places in our country, it is also a key step to improve the guarantee mechanism of teachers' treatment in compulsory education.In terms of teachers' salaries, we can learn from the method proposed by Zhejiang province: guarantee and gradually increase the salaries of teachers in compulsory education according to law; make sure their average salaries not lower than that of local civil servants.In terms of teacher recruitment assessment, they prefer teachers who have experience of supporting rural and weak schools and studying in urban schools or high-quality schools.In terms of job promotion, it is suggested to give priority to teachers' experience and achievements in supporting education in rural schools and weak schools, and in studying in urban schools and high-quality schools [10].

Summary
The implementation of the exchange rotation policy is not only a policy issue, but also a practical proposition.It is related to the overall situation of the construction of the teaching staff and has a large impact.It is very theoretical and policy-oriented.It involves many specific issues and requires a lot of research.Meanwhile, teacher exchange is a scientific management work.From the political perspective, the demands of the state, schools, and teachers' mobility should be considered.Only by continuously optimizing the policy tools and stimulating the internal driving force for schools and teachers to participate in the exchange can we gradually realize the full exchange and balanced allocation of teachers.Only by emphasizing the transformation of the whole mechanism and system within the education system and between different government departments and systems, and realizing the reorganization of power and resources, can the effectiveness of education governance be comprehensively and systematically improved.