Reconstruction of the teacher education system in China

This article proposes a conceptual framework to examine the development of the teacher education system in contemporary China. Within the framework, three development periods, including the era of shifan, and the era of post-shifan, the era of professional teacher education, are investigated in terms of governance, institutional structures, and resource allocation. With the central government decentralising managerial control over education, the governance issue of teacher education is becoming significant in the era of post-shifan. At the end professional teacher education is suggested as the future long-term goal for reforming the teacher education system.