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中文翻译翻译文后面

Update: Xiaoqi herself has added a comment to the previous post. You can read it here.

My post about Yu Xiaoqi’s presentation elicited a record number of responses, including some very elaborate ones. Here is a summary:

• 3 people thought the first group of answers came from rural students, the second from urban (Lan Xuezhao: “I am willing to bet with you guys on this”);
• 7 people thought the second group of answers came from rural students, the first from urban;
• Heng Tang and Xiao Qian couldn’t make up their minds but gave good arguments for both options.

I must admit that the correct answer was quite surprising to me during the talk. When Xiaoqi posed the question, I had the same thought as Zhenyu and Qian, namely that rural students would be more pressured to score high on exams, while urban students would be more relaxed and in touch with their feelings.

However, the first set of responses came from urban students, the second from rural! Most of you got this right. Not surprising that also our consultant Tanja Sargent (faculty at Rutgers) made the correct judgment - 鲁班门前舞大斧…

Xiaoqi conducted focus group interviews with 20 college freshmen who came from urban and rural areas and coded the interviews (she is planning to conduct more interviews this summer). She concludes from her findings that rural students have more intimate, personal relationships with their teachers. Heng Tang (Dandan) is wondering if this could have to do with students being away from home at boarding schools.

Today, Xiaoqi wrote me an email explaining more of her approach:

My major research interest lies in how sociological aspects influence people’s decisions and behavior in education-related issues. Understanding the roles of a good high school teacher from students’ perspective reflects the social settings that have conditioned the teachers and the students. A better understanding of the social setting, in turn shall facilitate rethinking teacher’s education in China and related policy that sustain the good teachers for rural areas. Equalizing teacher’s quality between urban and rural regions as one of the means to attain education equality is feasible if we know what has been neglected in the teaching practice.

Interestingly, her study suggests that “equalizing” teacher skill sets may not necessarily be a good idea. If the needs of rural students are different from those of urban students, shouldn’t their teachers have different skills and attitudes as well?

Or could it even be that rural areas provide a BETTER environment for learning that urban areas? As Vivian puts it:

The rural setting however, provides a true environment for learning and learning for its own sake, not getting high-paying jobs or chasing after status, etc. and thus there producing a conducive learning environment where a child develops both academically and socially.

Finally, Qian thinks that Xiaoqi’s research has implications for our work:

I think our RCEF volunteers should pay even more attention to emotional needs of rural kids, conduct more interaction and communication with them, be careful to not to hurt their feelings and to educate them how to grow mentally healthy.

Your thoughts? 

翻译：胡永宏 

我发表的那篇介绍晓琪报告的文章，创下留言数量之最。摘要如下：  

•  3人认为第一组回答来自农村学生，第二组来自城市学生（赵兰雪：“我愿意和你们打赌”）
• 7人认为第二组回答来自农村学生，第一组来自城市学生。
• 唐恒和肖倩没有给出最终结论，但针对两种可能都提供了合理的解释。

不得不承认：当我得知正确答案时感到非常吃惊。晓琪贴出这个问题后，我的想法和振宇、肖倩如出一辙，认为农村学生面临更大的考试压力，而城市学生则相对轻松，并且更加重视自身的感受。

然而，事实是第一组描述来自城市学生，第二组来自农村学生，大多数人是对的。毋庸置疑，我们的顾问Tanjia Sargent 作出了正确的选择——我简直是在鲁班门前舞大斧。

访问的目标人群是一组大一新生，总共20人，分别来自城市和农村。晓琪主持整个访问过程并负责整理访问结果（今年暑假她计划进行更多的访问）。最终的结论是：相较城市学生而言，农村学生和老师的个人关系更为密切。唐恒猜测这可能与孩子们远离父母寄宿学校有关。

今天，晓琪给我写了一封电子邮件，更为详尽地解释了她的研究方法：

我的主要研究兴趣在于：社会学的方方面面如何在与教育有关的议题上影响人们的决定和行为。从学生的角度去理解一位优秀高中老师应当扮演的角色，可以折射出塑造老师和学生的社会环境。而对于社会环境的深层理解，反过来，又可以促使对中国教师教育、怎样设计更好的政策为农村留住好老师等问题做进一步思考。如果我们清楚在教学实践中被忽视的因素，那么，作为实现教育公平化的途径之一——均衡城市和农村地区的老师素质，是可行的。

有趣的是，她的研究表明：均衡老师素质甚至没有必要。如果农村学生和城市学生的需求不同，为什么要求他们的老师具备同样的技能和特质呢？

抑或农村反而提供了优于城市的环境？正如Vivian所说： 

农村地区提供了学习和学以致用的真正环境，而非片面强调追求高薪工作或显赫身份等，因此能够创造出有益于学习的氛围，让孩子们得到学术和社会历练上的全面发展。

最后，肖倩认为晓琪的研究能够指导我们的工作：

我认为乡村教育促进会的志愿者应更多关注农村儿童的情感需要，进行更多的互动和交流，尽量避免伤害他们的感情，教育他们如何在心理上健康成长。

 

大家以为呢？