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How China’s EdTech Crackdown Is Also Reshaping Education Across the English-Speaking World
About
In a previous BridgeUniverse webinar, we discussed how dramatic changes in China’s education policies are affecting current and prospective English language teachers. In particular, we examined the effect of this disruption on teaching English online, which makes up a large portion of the Chinese education market (as many as 500,000 teachers, by some estimates).
Now, we’ll take a closer look. What were the reasons behind these drastic changes? What has the immediate impact of these policies been and what outcomes will we likely see in the future? Will the ripple effects be felt mostly on international student mobility to the West or on the EdTech unicorns in China?
Join our expert panel as we probe these contextual issues, delving deeper into the big business of Chinese ed tech–fueled by families’ drive to learn English – and discuss the greater implications of this shake-up for the global ELT industry.
Read more on this topic in our BridgeUniverse article: Quakes in the Landscape of China’s English Language Education System (https://bridge.edu/tefl/blog/quakes-in-chinas-english-language-education/)
Panelists
Yong Zhao
Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas and a professor in Educational Leadership at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education in Australia. He has been recognized as one of the most influential education scholars; his works (over 100 articles and 30 books) focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education. Zhao was born in China’s Sichuan Province. He received his bachelor’s degree in English Language Education from Sichuan Institute of Foreign Languages in Chongqing, China in 1986, and his master’s in Education and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Andrew H. Chen
Andrew H. Chen is Co-founder and Chief Learning Officer of WholeRen Education. As an international student from Beijing, Andrew Chen came to the U.S. for graduate school in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1995. In 2010, Mr. Chen founded WholeRen Education, an "on-shore" education service provider for Chinese students and their families. Alongside WholeRen colleagues, Mr. Chen has advised thousands of clients: in areas including long term educational attainment, school placement, university transfer, tutoring, mentoring, employability training, as well as international student school suspension recovery by second chance support. Mr. Chen hosts the "Andrew Chen on American Education" channel, which reaches up to 30% of international Chinese student families. Andrew Chen serves as the Vice-Chair of NAFSA China Member Interest Group (MIG). He has lived with his wife and 2 children in Pittsburgh, PA since 1998.
Charles Abelmann
Charles Abelmann is an educational leader with experience in both research, policy and practice. Most recently he was the Director of the Laboratory Schools at the University of Chicago, a school founded by John Dewey. Earlier in his career, he worked at the World Bank and managed programs in China and other East Asian Countries. He has done numerous projects related to China and currently is working on producing and directing a documentary film project about the cultural connections between teachers and students through the online English industry. He holds a doctoral degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.