Upward responsibility and downward accountability: Characteristics and causes of non-teaching workload on Chinese rural teachers

Abstract

A qualitative analysis was conducted to examine the non-teaching workload experienced by 40 rural teachers in China. The findings shed light on the impact of management and control logics employed, which leads to increased work burden on rural teachers. Rural teachers need to adjust their work from standardization, quantifiability, informatization, and simplification to facilitate upward accountability, and the purpose of doing so is to make administrative departments and schools more accurately downward accountable. Factors contributing to this issue include an excessive concentration of administrative power, insufficient proactive measures taken by schools, and a compliant attitude among teachers toward the current situation.