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Method No of interviews Numbers offocus groupsNumbers ofclassroomobservationsFormer participants 10 5 5Non-participants 0 2 2Headteachers/10 0 0heads of sectionTable 1: Data collection methods and participantsWe were acutely aware of the disadvantages of our ‘insider’ status as researcherstrying to evaluate a course which we played a key part in designing and delivering.People who had known and worked with us over a period of three months mightwell find it difficult to be frank in assessments of their experience. We took a rangeof measures to counteract these effects. Semi-structured interviews with theteachers in the Zunyi and Chonqing schools and focus group discussions with theteachers in the four schools in Chengdu were undertaken by a research assistantwho had previously been a participant on the course but who was unknown to theteachers in the study, schools with teachers who had attended the same coursehaving been deliberately excluded. Daguo Li was responsible for the interviewsand focus group discussions with non-participants. He was, however, at the requestof the CSC, jointly responsible with colleagues from the CSC for four of the fivediscussions with the wider groups of former participants. All data collection wasundertaken by Chinese native speakers, thereby eliminating cultural issues thatmight have arisen in interviews either in English or with English speakers.While we are conscious of the potential weaknesses of our data, the findingswhich we report below suggest a high level of reflection and critical awareness onthe part of interviewees and focus group discussants, leading us to believe thatattempts to reduce the effects of our insider status were successful.Focus group discussions and interviews were transcribed and classroomobservations were recorded using field notes. Data were then imported intoNVivo8, a specialist software package for qualitative analysis. Analytical categorieswere allowed to emerge from, rather than being imposed on, the data.FindingsThe impact of the programmes on teachers’ return to China can be grouped underthree main headings: changes in philosophy; improvement in competencies; andnew leadership roles. Each will be considered in turn.Changes in philosophyHu (2005: 667) sums up what happens in Chinese classrooms in terms of an‘expository, teacher-centered pedagogical approach’ where ‘teachers areexpected to be virtuosos of learning’ whose priority is ‘the selection, mediation,and transmission of authoritative knowledge’. Commentators on teaching andlearning in China usually explain these expectations in terms of the deep-seatedinfluence of Confucian philosophy on all aspects of Chinese social and culturalEnglish Teachers China | 111