Learning from “unsuccessful” lesson studies between teacher educators and rural teachers

Purpose This paper reports on an exploratory practice of an informal lesson study conducted by a small group of Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher educators and teachers in a suburban senior secondary school to help the teachers implement pedagogical changes promoted by the current curriculum reforms. Design/methodology/approach Multiple sources of data were employed to capture the richness of the participants’ experiences, including observations, field notes of discussions during the lesson study period and in-depth individual interviews after the completion of the lesson study. Findings It was found that the teacher participants were appreciative of the teacher educators’ concern about their professional development and their altruistic pedagogical support through the lesson study. However, they did not genuinely embrace the inquiry-based lesson study activity for its informal model with limited administrative support and its irreconcilable conflict with the deep-rooted mainstream exam-oriented educational ideologies and practices. Research limitations/implications The study has implications for the parties concerned about how to make EFL lesson study sustainable in rural schools and connect the two activity systems in teacher education programmes and schools. Originality/value The study focuses on collaborative lesson studies with rural school teachers, which has received limited attention in practice and research in China where reducing the urban-rural divide remains a huge challenge.