University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Embracing globalization and 21st century skills in a dual language immersion school

(USC Thesis Other)

Embracing globalization and 21st century skills in a dual language immersion school

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content

EMBRACING GLOBALIZATION AND 21
ST
CENTURY SKILLS

IN A DUAL LANGUAGE IMMERSION SCHOOL

by

Zhilong (Terry) Qian

___________________________________________________________________________

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

May 2012
Copyright 2012 Zhilong (Terry) Qian
ii

DEDICATION

I dedicate this dissertation to my friend Sara Anderson, the strongest person I know.
Sara was my M.A. classmate at the University of Hawai‘i, and she started teaching at the
American Language Institute at USC after graduation. With the goal of continuing our
development as professional educators, we looked into the Ed.D. Program at USC and were so
impressed by it that we both applied. It was exciting and at the same time nerve-racking when we
both got accepted, especially because I was already in the process of moving to Northern
California to accept a position as the elementary school principal at the International School of
the Peninsula. It was Sara who convinced me that we could make it by encouraging and
supporting each other.
Unfortunately, two months before we were scheduled to start the program, Sara, a 27-
year-old vegetarian who ran every day, unexpectedly experienced a massive stroke that left her
with devastating brain injuries. The stroke took away many of her basic abilities such as
breathing, swallowing, moving, and speaking. When I first saw her in Los Angeles at the
hospital, she could barely blink one eye to communicate. Yet, beyond her doctors’ expectations,
Sara achieved a miracle with the love from family, friends, caretakers, and strangers, and most
importantly, with a strong and determined will to live and to recover.
In the fall of 2011, I spent a few days with Sara at her home in Westby, a small town in
Wisconsin, and I observed with awe the incredible recovery she has achieved. After 2.5 years of
unimaginable determination and painfully hard work, Sara now has recovered most of her living
skills and is unceasingly and diligently training her left brain to take over the responsibility of
her right brain, which was severely damaged during the stroke. Fortunately, her intelligence and
iii

memory are intact, and she is still the same smart, fun, caring and goal-driven person that I
know, only with much stronger mental strength.
The one thing that concerns her family and me is her lack of confidence, which is
stopping her from achieving something great. I have to say, Sara was literally the most beautiful
person that I have ever had the pleasure to know. Since her stroke, she has become very self-
conscious and is reluctant to meet people or take pictures. We had a long talk during my visit,
and when I shared with her all the great things about the Ed.D. program, I was able to see a new
window gradually open for her to make the next step of recovery. If she could start her Ed.D.
program at her 3
rd
year milestone, it would not only be extremely encouraging, but it would serve
as a therapeutic step for her to realize the potential she has to do something incredible.
As an international student whose native language is not English , splitting my life
between Northern and Southern California, trying to do my best as an elementary school
principal and Ed.D. candidate at Rossier, leaves me exhausted all the time. Nevertheless, every
time I feel I am at the edge of my physical and mental limits, I think of Sara, who remains for
me a true source of inspiration. I know I am not doing this program only for myself; I am doing
it for both of us. I am personally indebted to this strong young woman. I sincerely hope, with
many people’s help and support, Sara will start the Ed.D. program the same year as I finish mine,
so I could be her mental support to return the favor that she did for me.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation committee: Dr. Stuart Gothold,
Dr. Dennis Hocevar and Dr. Pedro Garcia. I could not ask for a better group of experts. Dr.
Gothold, you have no idea how much it meant to me when you put those encouraging notes and
smiley faces in between the lines of my writing, especially when I was so desperately convinced
that what I was writing was really garbage. I thank you for being the most wise and calm,
nurturing and understanding academic advisor and dissertation committee chair.

This dissertation would not have been possible without the support from the school that I
studied. Particularly, I want to thank Dr. Jeffery Bissell, head of school, for opening the door for
my research and providing me with resources and convenience. It simply was a learning
experience for me, in addition to the effective data collection for my paper. I also want to thank
my long time friend, Mr. Kevin Chang, the Chinese program director, without whom I would not
have even known where to start. In addition, I thank all the research participants for their time
and input in this study.

I appreciate the support from my colleagues and friends. I am lucky to have the best cohort
and colleagues with shared interests in the Ed.D. program. It is a great pleasure and honor for me
to know all of you and work as a team. Thank you for all the support, tolerance, and the
stimulating discussions. I especially want to thank Nadia Hillman, who provided me with
encouragement and tremendous peer support.
I am indebted to all of my friends in Los Angeles, especially Frank Guo, Andy Wang, Jun
Qian, Tony Wang, Andy Zhao, Jackson Liang, Charles Li, Deric Zhou, Howard Yao, Zan
Huang, Joshua Li, Jeff Lv, Ning Chen, Raymond Shi, Hunter Xu, Yvonne Mao, and many
others. You provided me not only with nice guest rooms, sofa beds, home-cooked meals, parking
v

spaces, and many other conveniences, but more importantly, your fun-filled company and eternal
friendship provided me the mental support, which was one of the key factors so that I could
finish this program, traveling back and forth between Northern California and SoCal. Each
Saturday evening that I was able to spend with you guys was a charging station and a celebration
for each of my small steps closer to my ultimate goal. The wine and laughter also provided me
with distraction that helped maintain my sanity and balance my world.
I thank my parents who gave me life, unconditional love, and everything else you could
afford to give me. Don’t ever feel bad about not being able to provide me more. As a matter of
fact, it is exactly because of the limited resources you were able to give me, I was able to try
harder and develop autonomous accountability at a young age. Therefore, I can never ask for a
better gift.
Luckily, I had been blessed to run into great teachers all the way through my school years.
Namely, Mr. Wei Zhu, who was my elementary Chinese teacher, who made sure I understood
that only through studying and studying hard that I had a chance to change my life and the life of
my family at age 10. Ms. Yin Gu, my middle school home room teacher who not only gave me a
second chance to prove to people that I am capable, but also taught me many important life
lessons such as resilience and self-respect. Mr. Kailai Shi, my high school Chinese teacher, who
paid for my tuition when I almost gave up the pre-admission opportunity for the best university
of China. It is these wonderful teachers, who I am eternally grateful for, that made me who I am
today. It is the ultimate motivation that I want to become a dedicated educator so I can pass on
the favors they gave me many years ago, to many other children who deserve it.
Ms. Zhaodan Huang, my best friend since college, who came with me to the United States
to pursue graduate study 9 years ago, happened to be in the same boat on the same term, and on
vi

the same schedule of finishing her Ed.D. program with Teacher’s College at Columbia
University. I want to tell her- no scream at her- We made it! Yay! Thank you for being there,
feeling and sharing my pain and frustration, and now it’s time for us to share each other’s
achievement and joy!
I also want to share an intimate gratitude with my cousin Dongliang Sun aka Liangliang,
the closest family member I have. You were unfortunately forced to see me as a role model since
a very young age, which was against your wish and mine, believe it or not. I feel very apologetic
if my earlier achievement had cast any shadow on your childhood. However, my apology has
been dwindling in recent years; instead, I can’t be more happy and proud to witness that an
inquisitive, ambitious, goal-driven, and extremely smart young man is growing tremendously in
front of my eyes. Maybe I didn’t do too much damage to you after all. I want you to remember
one thing: that you are matriculated and destined to read more books than I have, travel more
miles than I have, and eventually you will achieve much higher goals than I will ever be able to.
Don’t let anything or any reason stop you from doing that.
Last but not least, I owe my ultimate gratitude to a special person: Beibei. Instead of
saying that you ran into my life, I’d rather say, you were sent to my life to soothe me and keep
me accompanied and loved during the “darkest” age of my life. Your overall package of
outstanding intellect, cute and witty sense of humor, insatiable and untiring desire to cook, to eat
and to love, and diligent work ethics, on top of your youthful beauty, was exactly what I wanted
and needed at the moment. Without grocery shopping, cooking, eating, living and going to the
study room with you on a religiously crazy schedule, there’s no chance I could ever finish this
writing project. Thank you Beibei!

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION ....................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................... iv
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... ix
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................1
Background ..................................................................................................1
Statement of the Problem .............................................................................2
Purpose of the Study ....................................................................................2
Research Questions .....................................................................................2
Limitations ...................................................................................................3
Definition of the Key Terms ........................................................................3
Summary ......................................................................................................4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................6
Why do we need to teach 21
st
century skills? ..............................................6
What are 21
st
century skills? ......................................................................13
Table 1: NCREL/Metiri Framework .........................................................17
Who have already started embracing 21
st
century skills? ..........................28
What are the challenges of implementation 21
st
century skills? ...............35

CHAPTER3: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................42
Introduction ................................................................................................42
Research Questions ....................................................................................43
Research Design .........................................................................................44
Subjects and Settings .................................................................................44
Instrumentation ..........................................................................................47
Data Collection ..........................................................................................51
Data Analysis .............................................................................................52

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ...................................................................................54
Data Collection ..........................................................................................54
Results ........................................................................................................57
Research Question 1 ..................................................................................58
Theme 1: Global Consciousness ....................................................58
Theme 2: Embracing Chinese ........................................................68
Theme 3: Responsibility and Adaptiveness ...................................75

viii

Research Question 2 ..................................................................................83
Human Resource Framework ........................................................83
Political Framework .......................................................................91
Structural Framework ....................................................................97
Symbolic Framework ...................................................................103
Research Question 3 ................................................................................110
Theme 1: Global Consciousness ..................................................110
Theme 2: Embrace Chinese .........................................................115
Theme 3: Responsibility and Adaptiveness .................................119

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION ...........................................................................126
Summary of Findings ...............................................................................126
Discussion ................................................................................................129
Limitations ...............................................................................................136
Implications for Practice ..........................................................................136
Future Research .......................................................................................140
Conclusion ...............................................................................................141

REFERENCES ....................................................................................................144

APPENDICES ....................................................................................................149
APPENDIX A: Document Review Instrument ........................................149
APPENDIX B: Observation Instrument ..................................................152
APPENDIX C: Interview Instrument ......................................................154
APPENDIX D: Survey Instrument ..........................................................156
APPENDIX E: Survey Result ..................................................................159

ix

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: enGauge 21
st
Century Skills by NCREL/Metiri Group, 2003 .................................. 17

Figure 2: Conceptual Framework for 21st Century Skills by P21, 2009 ................................. 26

Figure 3: Current and future models of education and business world (Dede et al, 2005) ..... 38

Figure 4: The Process of school improvement (Head’s professional blog, Oct. 20, 2011) ..... 97

Figure 5: ZMGJ 30
th
Anniversary Logo ................................................................................ 103

x

ABSTRACT
The United States stands unfavorably to other nations on the educational level, as many
schools in the U.S. do not acknowledge the skills and knowledge that students need to succeed as
global citizens with the increasing global and economic changes. Though some schools in the
U.S. have already sounded the alarm and implemented changes to integrate 21
st
century skills
into their existing curriculum, it is unclear how they are integrating these global skills and how
effectively the programs are responding to the dynamic changing world. The purpose of this
study was to identify the programs and practices that promote the acquisition of 21
st
century
skills at a K-12 school. A qualitative, descriptive single case study was used as the primary
research method for this study. Three themes stood out during data analysis: 1) Global
Consciousness, 2) Embrace Chinese and 3) Responsibility and Adaptiveness. Leadership style
and organizational culture were also observed and discussed through Bolman and Deal’s (2003)
four frames, which emphasize the importance of collaborative teamwork, competent leadership,
strategic planning and biliterate charisma. This study is part of a thematic group research project
on the same topic. By combining and synthesizing the common themes that emerged through
data analysis in each of the nine individual school case studies, this project will shed some light
on how schools can better prepare students for 21
st
century.
1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
Background
The world continues to change and flatten at an increasing speed (Friedman,
2007), that is, development in politics, technology, and economy are becoming
globalized and interrelated into a larger network. With this comes a higher need for more
skilled workers, managers, and other professionals to be able to analyze and synthesize
information to solve pressing problems (Dede et al, 2005). No fundamental changes,
however, are happening in schools that respond to the changes in society and world
(Friedman, 2007).
The United States compares unfavorably to other nations on academic
benchmarks that reflect students’ ability to apply knowledge to real-life problems (PISA,
2010). It is apparent and urgent that students now need a skill set and knowledge base to
succeed as global citizens (Darling-Hammond, 2010). Some K-12 schools have attempted
to embrace globalization, but it is unclear what programs and practices they are
implementing and the effectiveness of them.
This study identifies a high performing school that incorporates 21
st
century skills
into its mission statement and has implemented programs that prepare students for an
increasingly globalized world. The components that the study will examine are the school
programs, the professional community and the cultural impact of 21
st
century skills on
school life. The study reports the key practices and elements in the school that
contributed to a beneficial difference in students’ learning as compared to standard
schools in the U.S., and that left a positive impact on the school community.
2

Statement of the Problem
The United States stands adversely compared to other nations on the educational
level, as many schools in the U.S. do not acknowledge the skills and knowledge that
students need to succeed as global citizens with the increasing global and economic
changes. Though some schools in the United States have already sounded the alarm to
implement changes that integrate 21
st
century skills into their existing curriculum, it is
unclear how they are integrating these global skills and how effectively the programs are
responding to the dynamic changing world.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to identify the programs and practices that promote
the acquisition of 21
st
century skills at a K-12 school.
Research Questions
Research questions aimed at obtaining descriptive information about past and
present implementations were used to gather detailed information about the practices
observed at the school of study. The following research questions were developed by a
thematic dissertation team that met over the course of one year:
1. What are the practices and programs at the school and how are they aligned
with 21
st
century skills?
2. What does the professional community at the school do to support the
practices that promote the acquisition of 21
st
century skills?
3. What is the impact of 21
st
century skills on the life of the school?

3

Limitations
This is a case study, which makes no claims for generalizations across contexts.
Critics of the case study method believe that such study type can offer little grounds for
establishing generalizability of findings, and the intense exposure to the specific case
biases the findings (Yin, 1984).
However, this study intends to explore, describe and document what a high-
performing school has done and is currently doing to embrace globalization, and to better
prepare students with 21
st
century skills, which will help them excel in this century. By
looking at nine different schools through the same investigative lenses, the researcher is
confident that both the outcome and the process of this study will benefit the field of
education in general and shed light on the direction our next generation of schools is
heading, as well as how to overcome the obstacles while reaching to accomplish this
direction.
Definition of Key Terms
Many groups and organizations have called for all students to learn “21
st
Century
Skills” and have developed frameworks for the new millennium content and processes
teachers should convey as part of students’ schooling. Each of these organization’s
framework has its own emphasis and structure, according to their mission and targeted
audience. “21
st
Century Skills” may be thought of as a set of skills that will better equip
the students to survive and excel in 21
st
century, which will be described in detail through
the literature review.
4

For the purposes of this study, the framework developed by the Partnership for the
21st Century skills (P21, 2010) will be utilized to screen and pre-select exemplary
schools that are already responding to the new challenges. The framework will also be
used to examine the program and practice in those schools and to make recommendations
for change.
Partnership for the 21
st
century Skills (P21) Framework is a framework that
presents a holistic view of 21
st
century teaching and learning that combines a discrete
focus on 21st century student outcomes (a blending of specific skills, content knowledge,
expertise and literacies) with innovative support systems to help students master the
multi-dimensional abilities required of them in the 21
st
century.
Educational Records Bureau (ERB) is the only not-for-profit educational services
organization offering English and Math standardized assessments for both admission and
achievement for independent and selective public schools for Pre K-grade 12.
Summary
This dissertation serves to identify and explore practices that embrace 21
st
century
skills in K-12 schools and the paper is structured as follows: Chapter 1 introduces the
societal and educational background of the need of such study and the purpose as well as
the research questions of the study. Chapter 2 explores the rationale of the urgency of 21
st

century skills, and displays the existing frameworks from the literatures of 21
st
century
skills. Some examples of practices and programs are listed as a starting point and some
predicted challenges are also summarized. Chapter 3 details the research design and
methods used in this study, participant recruitment and assignment, data collection, and
5

data analysis procedures. Chapter 4 reports the results of qualitative analysis and
triangulation of document, observation notes, interview transcripts and survey results.
Chapter 5 synthesizes the major findings of the study, discusses its theoretical,
methodological, and practical implications, acknowledges its limitations, and points out
future research directions.

6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
The crux of success or failure is to know which core values to hold on to, and which to
discard and replace when time changes.
-Jared Diamond
The following literature review will address four questions related to this study.
First, why there is a need to teach 21
st
century skills? Second, what are 21
st
century
skills? Third, are 21
st
century skills currently being taught and if so, how? And finally,
what are the potential challenges of teaching 21
st
century skills?
Why do we need to teach 21
st
century skills?
Friedman (2007) felt compelled to expand and update his book The World is Flat
only a year after its original publication because, as he explained, the world is changing
at a rate that is beyond the imagination for both young and old. Friedman beautifully
illustrates this change through examples of the striking shifts in our approach to work and
leisure, such as off shoring and outsourcing. These examples of how work is being
performed in dramatically novel ways, and how people are connected in such evolving
terms, allow us to consider the true, daunting pace of this change. The examples also
illustrate this evolutionary impact on professions such as trade, service, legal, accounting,
as well as other professions that are now expected to also be seen as impacted by
globalization, such as medical professionals and restaurant businesses.
According to Darling-Hammond (2010), about 70 percent of the jobs in the U.S.
now require specialized knowledge and skills, as compared to only five percent in the last
century. Technology, particularly the Internet, makes information and data wildly
available and allows it to flow with much ease. We therefore need workers, managers,
7

and professionals with relevant skills to connect and synthesize the information to resolve
today’s problems (Dede et al, 2005).
Friedman (2007) used three vivid analogies in his book to describe the changes
that are happening to the “flattening” world. Cable, the Internet, and workflow software
have blown down many of the “walls” that have previously prevented collaboration
among those in distant countries. People suddenly realize that they can have a global
impact on the world by uploading their opinions and viewpoints onto the Internet. This
access also blows away the “ceilings”, which used to limit individual power in a
hierarchical social structure to allow voices that were once small to be heard. The new
industry, called “search”, enables individuals to drill down the rock hard cement “floors”
and search out data of strangers and facts from the past to the future, providing an
entirely new way of learning about and understanding the world (Friedman, 2007).
The phenomenon of uploading is a reflection of the “architecture of participation”
systems, which are designed for users to produce, not just consume (Friedman, 2007) and
creates a system of diverse and collaborative thought. The same concept can apply to
education. The trend could be learning by creating and collaborative doing, instead of
learning only by listening and reading. Empowerment and ownership motivates students
to learn, and to produce the best work.
Friedman (2007) also identified ten flatteners that are mainly responsible for
many of the dramatic changes the work force is going through. Among them, more than
half are technology-related, such as computers, Internet, search engine and blogging. The
remaining flatteners concern global connection, interrelation and innovation.
8

With the growth of economic globalization and “flattening” of the world, the
traditional hierarchical structure of information and production has changed. More jobs
can be outsourced and/or off-shored to countries where hardworking individuals who
accept low wages and minimal benefits are abundantly available. In Silicon Valley,
obvious trends continue- more than half of the Silicon Valley’s engineers are Asian, not
Asian American, but are actually Asians who were born and educated (at least partially
educated, especially K-12) in China, India and other Asian countries. As a result of the
high-speed Internet, the work products in many information and knowledge-based
industries place less emphasis on the physical location of the workforce, which allows
labor force competition in certain areas, and as a result, people can no longer assume
there will always be enough jobs for everyone in town (Friedman, 2007).
In contrast to these fast and increasing changes, it is almost ironic to see how little
the school system has changed in the past few decades. Generally, schools are using the
same curriculum, the same materials, the same classroom settings, and often even the
same teachers, if they have not yet retired. Maybe a few more computers are added to a
lab, maybe a few younger teachers occasionally put their heads together and start
considering innovation, but no fundamental change is happening in response to the
changes in our society and world, and this is worrisome when considering how students
will adapt as successful professionals in the future. An awareness of these inevitable and
predictable changes exists; however there lacks the leadership, flexibility and imagination
to adapt, simply due to the overwhelming speed of the change itself (Friedman, 2007).
9

This change clearly presents a challenge across environments. Companies that
adjust best to the flattening world are not just making minor changes, they are revamping
the whole model and system of the work performed. In accordance, modern students,
when planning to find a job after graduation, also have to fundamentally reorient what
they are learning at school, and how they are learning it. As a result, educators, whose job
is to prepare students for post-school years, need to revisit and change how they teach. It
is logical that no one should expect the same model that worked for the past 50 years,
when the world was still round, to continue being effective now (Friedman, 2007).
A Chinese proverb says: When rowing a boat upstream, the moment you stop
rowing, you start moving backward. When the world is changing quickly and people are
constantly feeling that the knowledge base is being outdated every minute and that
nothing can slow down the change, the only hope that the “boat” can still move forward
then lies in education. Education for the 21
st
century is the rowing power and vital
resource in this international race for the economic high ground. Unfortunately, the
current models of U.S. education, which were designed for the 20
th
century or even
earlier, no longer suffice to prepare the students for a knowledge-based, global economy
and a flat world. Developing, more precisely, re-creating, 21
st
century educational models
requires immediate, coordinated action and revolution by this country’s business,
education and policy makers (Dede et al, 2005).
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, had intentions to address the issue of accountability through
standards-based assessments in K-12 education. To a certain degree, it did successfully
10

send a positive message to the community emphasizing the importance and the quality of
education (albeit the budget cut), while bringing to light the achievement gap between
different ethnic and socioeconomic groups. However, in many ways it unfortunately
backfired and caused numerous issues. There was an unavoidable narrowing of the
curriculum, as schools were encouraged to teach to the test, while failing to develop
students’ higher order thinking skills. In addition, there was punishing and de-motivating
of teachers, who were not the [only] parties responsible for the achievement gap and such
issues. But most importantly, NCLB failed to address the need for teaching and acquiring
21
st
century skills, to face the new challenges for our students’ future. Therefore,
improving the overall education cannot count on NCLB; there is a need for something
else, something more revolutionary.
Educators need to consider that the current most desirable jobs did not even exist
in 20
th
century. It is a known fact that the schools are preparing the students for jobs that
may not even exist yet, that the teacher are preparing them to use technology that has not
been invented yet, to solve problems that we have yet to identify. Some of the things the
students learn in school will be outdated before they graduate. Therefore, compared with
subject and/or content knowledge that the school teachers are constantly worried about
covering, learning ability and agility is much more important, and is becoming a critical
qualification of any information worker (Did you know, 2007).
In the 21
st
century, the basic skills of reading, writing, and math are no longer
sufficient for almost any job that pays more than minimal wage. Employees are now
expected to be able to solve a range of intellectual and technical problems. Additionally,
11

the information that is readily available increases in an exponential speed while new
technologies change and upgrade on a daily basis. The world is also confronted with
more complex societal challenges such as global warming, economic polarity. Therefore,
to survive and excel in school, work and life in the 21
st
century demand that the students
know how to think, reason, analyze, weigh evidence, problem solve, and communicate
effectively. The skills that used to be privileged only for the elite are now becoming
essential surviving skills for all to succeed (Dede et al, 2005).
In a global age, new skills are needed to achieve business and professional
success. According to Michael Eskew, CEO of United Parcel Service, which employs
over 400,000 people worldwide, effective employees must demonstrate sensitivity to
foreign cultures, fluency in foreign languages, and the understanding of international
trade. They also need to be technology savvy and able to manage complexity, with a
strong ethical core (Asia Society, 2007). However, less than 100 out of the more than 400
employers recently surveyed for a major study of work-readiness believed that new
employees holding four-year college degrees have “excellent” basic knowledge and
applied skills (Wagner, 2008).
Students are not ready for work, nor are they ready for school. Wagner (2009)
found that only about one third of U.S. high school graduates are ready for college, and
the rates are even lower for poor and minority students. It was found that 40% of all
freshmen will have to take remedial courses, and 65% of college professors agree that
what is taught in high school does not prepare students for college (Wagner, 2009). A
primary reason for this lack of preparedness is that the tests students are required to take
12

in high school for state-accountability purposes are primarily multiple-choice
assessments. They rarely ask students to explain their reasoning or to apply knowledge to
new situations- skills that are critical for success in college.
When Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test results were
published last year, there was widespread concern in the U.S. about the shocking
achievement gap between United States and other industrial countries, as well as some
developing countries. U.S. ranked 35
th
in math and 29
th
in science out of 40 countries,
outscored by nations such as China, Finland, Sweden, South Korea, and the United
Kingdom (Darling-Hammond, 2010). Predictably, those in denial question the validity
and relevance of the PISA test, blaming the results on China’s “teach to the test”
education model while finger-pointing at its rote memorization skill training.
As a matter of fact, instead of being a knowledge-based standardized test, PISA
was developed with the focus on young people’s ability to apply their knowledge and
skills to meet real-life challenges. This orientation is leading a change, or at least a trend
in the goals and objectives of current curricula. It represents a shift from merely covering
the curricular content to application of the knowledge acquired at school (PISA Executive
Summary).
So, what now? The message is clear: in order for U.S. to thrive in a global
economy, and for U.S. students to be competitive in a global labor market, acquisition of
a new set of skills, which is well articulated in the 21
st
Century Skills Framework, is
becoming imperative.

13

What are 21
st
century skills?
Friedman (2007) created the word “untouchable” to describe those jobs that are
fungible. He listed three categories of untouchable occupations. The first category is the
“specialized” job, such as Michael Jordan’s professional athlete position. The second is
“localized”, such as the daily service providers, whose wage will be set by the local
market forces of supply and demand. The third broad category of jobs, which consists
mostly of the old middle class jobs, will remain up for grabs but under the pressure of
much intense competition. Therefore, a new skill set is required to keep one in the labor
market (Friedman, 2007).
Friedman (2007) also suggested a list of traits that depicts the desired workers: 1)
the great collaborators and orchestrators, 2) the great synthesizers, 3) the great explainers,
4) the great leveragers, 5) the great adaptors, 6) the green people, 7) the passionate
personalizers, 8) math lovers, 9) the great localizers.
Many groups and organizations have also called for all students to learn “21
st

Century Skills” and have developed frameworks for the new millennium content and
processes teachers should convey as part of students’ schooling. Each of these
organization’s framework has its own emphasis and structure, according to their mission
and targeted audience. Some of these major frameworks will be presented in the
following paragraphs.
Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). The
Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) was founded in
14

1961, and its current mission is to use its wealth of information to promote a broad range
of topics that support governmental goals of fostering prosperity and fighting poverty
through economic growth and financial stability. In 1997, OECD initiated the Definition
and Selection of Competencies (DeSeCo) Project with the goal of providing a conceptual
framework to inform the identification of key competencies to survive and excel in 21
st

century. In the same year, they launched the Program for International Student
Assessment (PISA), which is a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils'
scholastic performance. PISA requires individual students not only to be adaptive, but
also innovative, creative, self-directed and self-motivated (OECD, 2005).
Through the DeSeCo Project, the OECD has collaborated with a wide range of
scholars, experts, and institutions to identify the definitions and selection of key
competencies. Some of the common goals agreed upon by OECD societies are the
importance of democratic values and sustainable development and implying autonomous
development and interaction with others. OECD has also identified universal challenges
of the global economy and culture, as well as common values that inform the selection of
the most important competencies.
In 2005, the OECD came up with its conception of 21
st
century skills. The
ultimate mission of OECD is economic prosperity, and most of the feedback comes from
business and employers perspective. Accordingly, the DeSeCo Project’s conceptual
framework for key competencies synthesizes and classifies the competencies in three
broad categories. First, individuals need to effectively use a wide range of tools
interactively. With a modern accent, the tools are further defined into three subcategories:
15

1) language, symbols and texts; 2) knowledge and information; and then 3) technology.
Second, in an interconnected world, individuals need to know how to interact in
heterogeneous groups where they are able to relate well to others, work in teams, manage
emotions, and resolve conflicts. Third, individuals need to be able to act autonomously
and responsibly while managing their own lives in a social context. They need to be
organized in goal planning and attainment, and they need to be assertive about their
rights, interests, limits and needs (OCED, 2005).
OECD competencies framework fills a gap of knowledge by offering a
systematic, pragmatic approach, but is still in its early stage of development. Much work
is left to make it a truly meaningful reference. It would be beneficial to view it as a
constellation of competences, instead of treating each in isolation. One of the advantages
of OECD competencies framework is that it comes hand in hand with PISA, an
assessment of the competencies, which makes the framework more relevant, convenient
and convincing. OECD also recognizes the fact that all the key competencies will evolve
and develop in life time, which makes it not only a reference for initial education, but for
adult education as well.
OECD Framework is not only a list of content and cognitive skills. It includes
attitudes, motivation and values. Learners are expected to engage with and take
responsibility for learning (OECD, 2005). Friedman echoes this sentiment when
contrasting life-time employment to life-time employability, which is a shared
responsibility. The institute provides access to knowledge, but the employees need to take
advantage of it (Friedman, 2007).
16

The enGauge Framework from Metiri/NCREL Partnership. The Metiri
Group is a consulting firm based in Los Angeles, California. This firm specializes in
gauging the impact of technology in K-12 schools. This technology includes policy,
strategic planning, professional development, research, assessment, and impact studies.
The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to serve and assist schools and their students to reach their full potential.
Special attention is given to helping states, districts, and schools effectively integrate
technology into education.
With the goal of preparing students for the world beyond classroom, Metiri Group
and the NCREL (2003) collaborated efforts to identify what students need to learn, as
well as how they learn it and how often they need to refresh their skill sets. They
developed the enGauge 21
st
Century Skills Framework which includes the following four
components: 1) Digital Age Literacy, which includes basic, scientific and technology
literacies, visual and information literacy, cultural literacy and global awareness; 2)
Inventive Thinking, which is further broken down into adaptability, managing complexity
and self- direction, curiosity, creativity, and risk-taking, as well as higher order thinking
and sound reasoning; 3) Interactive Communication, which covers team-working,
collaboration, personal and social responsibility, and interactive communication; and 4)
Quality, State-of- the-Art result, which refers to prioritizing, planning, and managing
skills, effective use of real-world tools, and high quality results with real world
application. The diagram below provides a visual model of the enGauge 21
st
Century’s
conceptual framework, as outlined above.
17

Figure 1: enGauge 21
st
Century Skills by NCREL/Metiri Group, 2003

The enGauge 21
st
Century Skills Framework was developed through a process
that included extensive contemporary literature review with a focus on the unique
characteristics of the new generation, and a review of current trends from education,
business, and industry. The information and sources have been cross-matched with
Information Literacy Standards for Students (1998) by the American Association of
School Librarians and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology;
Secretary's Commission on Achieving the Necessary Skills (1991) by the U.S.
18

Department of Labor Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning, Technically
Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More About Technology (2002) by the
National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Research Council (NRC) and
Standards for Technological Literacy (2002) by International Technology Education
Association (ITEA). The details are shown in the table below.

19

NETS
ISTE
SCANS
U.S.
DOL
Information
Literacy
AASL &
AECT
Technically
Speaking -
NAE/NRC
Digital Age Literacy
• Basic Literacy ü ü
• Scientific Literacy ü ü ü
• Technological Literacy ü ü ü ü
• Economic Literacy ü ü ü ü
• Visual Literacy ü ü
• Information Literacy ü ü ü
• Multicultural Literacy ü ü ü
• Global Awareness

Inventive Thinking
• Adaptability, Managing
Complexity
ü
• Self-Direction ü ü ü
• Curiosity ü ü
• Creativity ü ü ü
• Risk-Taking
• Higher Order Thinking
and Sound Reasoning
ü ü ü

Interactive Communication
• Teaming and
Collaboration
ü ü ü
• Interpersonal ü
• Personal Responsibility ü ü ü
• Social and Civic
Responsibility
ü ü ü ü
• Interactive
Communication
ü ü
Quality, State-of-the-Art
Results

• Prioritizing, Planning, and
Managing for Results
ü ü ü ü
• Effective Use of Real-
World Tools
ü ü ü
• Relevant, High-quality
Products
ü ü
Table 1: NCREL/Metiri Framework cross-matching with other standards,
(NCREL/Metiri Group, 2003).
20

Noteworthy is the emphasis that enGauge 21
st
Century Skill Framework puts on
curiosity and risk taking, which is rarely seen in other frameworks, but echoed by
Friedman: “Work matters, but curiosity matters more, nobody works harder at learning
than a curious kid” (Friedman, 2007).
It is recommended that the educational institutions should incorporate 21
st
century
skills and competencies into school curricula within the context of academic standards.
(NCREL/Metiri Group, 2003).
The Asia Society. Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockfeller, The Asia Society is a
leading international nonprofit organization that strives to strengthen relationships and
promote mutual understanding between the United States and Asia. As the world
becomes more globalized, the Education Department has focused on improving and
redesigning K-12 curriculum in the United States by creating models and resources for
schools nationwide in order to prepare American students for the challenges and
responsibilities of an increasingly interdependent world (Asia Society, 2009).
The Asia Society has been using the word “International Education” to emphasize
the vital connection between vision and student academic achievement. According to the
Asia Society (2009), students will need to be able to compete, connect, and cooperate
with their peer generation around the world. In order to achieve this goal, it is important
for schools to have a vision of what they hope to achieve: a school culture that is open to
global learning. Before attempting to make their school “global” in nature, the Asia
Society has set mandatory educator guidelines for international education: 1) Knowledge
of other world regions, cultures, and international/global issues; 2) Skills in
21

communicating in language other than English, working in cross-cultural environments,
and using information from different sources around the world; and 3) Values of respect
and concern for other cultures and peoples (Asia Society, 2008).
These elements provide a framework different from those that entail the
deliberation of content and knowledge, which focuses on competencies and skills.
Instead, this framework simply shifts the perspective to outside the United States, and
gives students and educators a new pair of lenses to see the world and the curriculum that
will support the implementation of these core elements. Instead of creating a new
separate discipline, Asia Society advocates informing and modernizing existing
disciplines by infusing its novel perspective. In order to help educators smoothly and
painlessly integrate these skills into their curriculum, the Asia Society offers very specific
guidelines in its handbook to support the process of updating and changing existing
teaching materials and class activities (Asia Society, 2008).
The 21st century skills developed by the Asia Society are heavily based on
multiculturalism. Given that the students will be living in a very different world in the
future, individuals must learn global competence and must have the capacity to
investigate and interact globally. Students must be able to acquire and apply both
disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge, recognize and weigh perspectives from
different angles, communicate ideas, and take action. These skills are essential to
successfully interact with those from other parts of the world (Asia Society, 2008).
In addition to these key competency skills in both cultural and global awareness,
international education also recognizes the importance of effective communication,
22

technology literacy, and collaborative teamwork skills. Proficiency in a second language
is another significant difference from the other of 21st century skills frameworks. As a
matter of fact, Asia Society explicitly pointed out that it is the essential need to treat the
world language class more seriously through the allocation of sufficient amount of time,
quality teachers, active and serious student engagement, commitment and the use of
language beyond the classroom. Zhao (2009) also posits that proficiency in a second
world language is critical for developing cross-cultural communication and to better
understand of the global nature of societal issues.
In order to achieve the widespread integration of information, communication,
and technology in “International Education”, schools need to adopt a holistic strategy that
addresses not only budget challenges, technological issues, faculty recruitment and
training, but more importantly, the transformation of school cultures and ideology (Asia
Society, 2006).
The Partnership for 21
st
Century Skills. Founded in 2002, funded by the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Partnership for 21
st
Century Skills (P21) is a national
organization whose mission is to infuse 21
st
century skills into education by building
collaborative partnerships among education, business, community, and government
stakeholders. The P21 works in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, and
many other organizations along with farseeing leaders from the business world who will
eventually directly benefit from the efforts in the near future. Fifteen states’ Departments
of Education have become involved with the movement for 21
st
century skills since 2002.
Hence, P21 has become one of the leading advocacy organizations in this field.
23

As the United States continues to compete in a global, knowledge-based economy
that demands innovation, the P21 has developed the framework that describes the skills,
knowledge, and expertise relevant to the global demands that students need to succeed in
work and life. The elements of “21
st
century student outcomes” consist of core subjects
and 21
st
century interdisciplinary themes. The core subjects include conventional areas
such as English Language Arts, World languages, Arts, Mathematics, Science,
Geography, History, and some new areas such as Economics and Government and
Civics.
In addition to these subjects, five 21
st
century themes are also woven into the core
subjects, so the students will be able to develop higher order thinking skills and make
more relevant connections between school and life. The first theme is global awareness,
which has been promoted by most other frameworks, (OECD 2005, Asia Society 2008
and NCREL/Metiri 2003), for the same reason that the students will be living in a global
village and they need to understand their world.
The second theme is financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy,
which may include personal economic choices, workplace productivity, and career
options. This theme is similar to DeSoCo’s approach (OECD, 2005) in the way that it
supports individuals as well as sustains the economy. This interdisciplinary theme is in
many ways similar to global awareness, due to the new market opportunities that
transcend time and distance to reach an audience of mega scale in 21
st
century (Friedman,
2007). The sooner students have exposure to such knowledge, the better prepared they
will become when facing the challenges in this fast changing and flattening world.
24

Collective good is as important as individual success in the 21st century. Civic
literacy will enable students to actively participate in political life as citizens and make
thoughtful civic decisions at the local, state, national and global levels (P21, 2010); health
literacy gives students tools and information to live a healthier life, in an era in which
average expectancy has been continuously extended. The newest interdisciplinary theme
is environmental literacy, which informs and alerts every 21
st
global citizen about the
urgent and dangerous situation that the entire human race is facing. Changing
perspective, making correct and responsible decisions and finding solutions to save and
extend the life of earth is the imperative mission for everyone (P21, 2010).
In addition to core subjects and themes, P21 has also listed three skill sets to
summarize the necessary capabilities to survive and excel in the 21
st
century. First,
learning and innovation skills are the driving power of human and societal development.
This set emphasizes the importance of lifetime learning and the creative feature of the
learning style. The increased size of available data and the increased speed of transferring
the data across tremendous distances create limitless possibilities for inventiveness,
which is problem solving and critical thinking skills. Through innovation and only
through innovation will our students be able to create new jobs to replace those that have
been automated or performed more cheaply by overseas labor source (Friedman, 2007).
This high level reasoning involves judgment, evaluation and synthesis of ideas. Effective
and efficient communication of information and knowledge is also essential to success.
Communication skills include oral, written, nonverbal, interpersonal and cross-cultural
communication in a variety of forms, norms and contexts.
25

The last learning component is collaboration skills, which requires individuals to
work in teams, instead of in isolation. Individuals need to assume shared responsibility
and to make compromises. With fewer and fewer jobs that require solo work, the ability
to build friendly and productive collegial relationships is becoming increasingly
important in work and life in 21
st
century, when technology allows for collaboration
across great distances (Friedman, 2007).
Secondly, information, media and technology skills are the tools to access and
process information and knowledge in the new era. Workforce trends identified by
Friedman (2007) suggest that the world, especially the economic world, has already been
reshaped and restructured by the new technology and information. Without the skill of
updated ICT and media literacy, one can be identified as illiterate by the new standard.
Lastly, life and career skills complete a student’s character development, along
with the academic achievement, in preparation for life and work environments. This skills
set includes personal and dispositional development and professional and work ethics
training, some of which by nature indicate a lifetime learning process. A student, an
employee, or simply a 21
st
century citizen, by default a global citizen, will have to be
more flexible and more adaptable to the fast changing world we are living in, and be able
to initiate thoughts, projects and changes in self-motivated and self-directed mode. This
world needs more responsible leaders who know how to live with and deal with different
people from different parts of the world. It also needs leaders who know how to be
productive while being held accountable for various emerging challenges we will be
facing in the near future (P21 2010, Asia Society, 2007).
26

The graphic below represents the framework used by the P21 to illustrate their
notions of learning in the 21
st
century (See Figure 2).

Figure 2: Conceptual Framework for 21st Century Skills by the Partnership for 21
st

Century Skills, 2009

In short, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework gives a general
guideline on curriculum, instruction, professional development, standards and
assessment. It also provides us with an updated list of essential skills in the new century.
Some of the P21 skills are emerging skills that are driven by the new challenges we are
facing in the flattening world, while other skills are established abilities that schools have
taught for years, but it is the first time each of these skills is described in a nonlinear
27

approach with multiple solutions, perspectives, or contexts. The interdisciplinary themes
and approaches make them particularly meaningful in a curricular context to enable the
students to effectively participate in the globalized environment of the 21st century (P21,
2010).
To make all of the essential 21
st
century skills of the P21 framework even more
memorable, Trilling (2009) reshuffled and condensed the eleven skills sets into seven, all
beginning with “C”. This created a practical formula for successful learning in the 21
st

century: “3Rs X 7Cs=21
st
Century Learning”. The “3Rs” refer to skill of Reading, ‘Riting
and ‘Rithmetic, and the “7Cs” refer to Critical thinking and problem solving;
Communications, information and media literacy; Collaboration, teamwork, and
leadership; Creativity and innovation; Computing and ICT literacy; Career and learning
self-reliance and Cross-cultural understanding.
Various professional, academic, and economic organizations have developed their
own set of 21st century skills. Chris Dede (2009) did a thorough and comprehensive
comparison of Partnership for 21
st
Century Skill (2006), the Mitiri Group and NCREL
(2003), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2005) and the
American Association of Colleges and Universities (2007). In the particular area of
information and communications technology, there are also the revised ISTE student
standards from the Educational Testing Service ICT Literacy Panel (2007), and various
lists of “digital literacies” developed by individual scholars such as Dede (2005) and
Jenkins et al (2006). The differences in foci vary in large part due to the interests of the
28

organizations that developed them, but they share most of the core values and standards
that are driven by the flattening world.
In conclusion, for individuals to endure and succeed in a world of global
competition, one must be able to perform non-routine, creative tasks that are reflective of
global understanding. While skills like self-direction, creativity, critical thinking, and
innovation may not be new to the 21
st
century, they are newly relevant in an age where it
is a basic requirement to be able to think critically, solve problems, communicate,
collaborate, find good information quickly, and use technology effectively (P21, 2010).
In comparison with the other frameworks, P21 Framework is more
comprehensive yet with a more balanced emphasis on many critical skills. Therefore, for
the purposes of this study, the framework developed by the Partnership for the 21st
Century skills (P21, 2010) will be utilized to screen and pre-select exemplary schools,
who are already responding to the new challenges. The framework will also be used to
examine the program and practice in those schools and to make recommendations for
change.
Who has already started embracing 21
st
century skills?
According to the research of promoting 21
st
century skills by Asia Society (2008)
and other independent scholars (Thrilling 2009, Wagner, 2008) some schools have
embraced globalization to enrich their curriculum. The practice and approach of a few
exemplary schools will be examined in this section, to shed light on how 21
st
century
skills can be practically implemented. There are more schools than can be reviewed for
this particular paper, the selection preference is meant to cover a range of preschools,
29

elementary, middle and high schools in both private and public sectors. Each school,
based on its own education philosophy and vision, approaches 21
st
century skills from its
unique angle and presents a diversified outcome.
High Tech High. High Tech High School (HTH) is a public charter high school
currently serving 3000 local students in San Diego area. It was launched by a coalition of
business leaders and educators with the first stated goal to serve a student body that
mirrors the ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the local community. Its mission
focuses on personalization, real-world connections, and a common intellectual mission,
which was developed and held true by the founding principal and CEO Larry Rosenstock.
HTH refuses to teach to the test, yet ironically still ranks among the highest in
API report in California. HTH does not offer any AP courses, yet prides itself with a 100
percent college acceptance rate. How could this happen? One of the “magic tricks” HTH
uses is that all learning of academic content, with the exception of 11
th
grade and 12
th

grade math and science, is project-based, instead of textbook driven. Students need to
show samples of their work in digital portfolio format to a panel of teachers to pass on to
the next grade, in addition to a 10-week intern program in 11
th
grade and a senior project
to graduate. This is an example of the model of labor training that Friedman (2007)
described to be used to prepare our next generation to compete in global labor market.
Another goal of this school is to increase the number of disadvantaged students
who excel in math and engineering because the local labor pool is insufficient for the
changing economy. The internship mentors are expected to give specific skills to
individual students for a particular placement, and students are asked to practice daily on
30

working with others who are different and who hold different opinions. With a focus on
the massive amount of information and changing workforce, and the changing culture of
working independently and collaboratively, this interest in collaboration matches
DeSeCo’s competency of working in heterogeneous groups (OECD, 2005).
HTH refuses to track students by perceived academic ability. Criticizing the mile
wide and inch deep AP courses, Rosenstock emphasizes that the concept of rigor in this
new age is not about more complex content. Instead, it is about deepening the quality of
analysis. He promotes the five habits of mind that entail 1) Significance: Why is it
important? 2) Perspective: What is the point of view? 3) Evidence: How do you know? 4)
Connection: How does it apply? 5) Supposition: What if it were different? (Meier 2002).
Rosenstock also emphasizes the importance of persistence, resilience, inquiry, persuasion
and presentation skills.
HTH recruits teachers who know what to bring into the classrooms that textbooks
might enhance, and allows the students to write about their preferred interests, instead of
test-orientated writing. Having analytical writing skills will prepare students to approach
any goal they set. They will know how to hold an adult conversation about current events,
and they understand their civic rights and social responsibilities. They also know how to
articulate and communicate their thoughts, feelings and beliefs. All of this is possible
because HTH integrates technical and academic education to prepare students for both
high tech and liberal arts field, and to prepare them to be thoughtful and engaged citizens,
which are the other two stated goals of the school.
31

Basically, the teachers’ role changes while the education model changes, and that
poses challenges for teachers who do not possess the skills that they are supposed to
teach the student. To ensure that teacher’s practice continues to reflect 21st century
priorities, HTH started its own teacher training program in order to develop teacher
candidates who embrace the school mission, culture, and know how.
The design of High Tech High School reflects many of the themes and skill sets
defined by the Partnership for the 21
st
century. Therefore it is truly a great example for
other schools to duplicate (Wagner, 2008).
Eastview Middle School. According to Asia Society’s advocacy, in a globalized
economy and world, it is no longer enough for a state or district to only look at itself or
the state or district next door; they need to compare, relate and connect to the rest of the
world (Asia Society, 2006). Eastview Middle School (EMS) in White Plains, New York
is certainly one of the schools that takes the students outside the classroom, while also
bringing the world into the classroom. In 2005, Eastview Middle School created the
Global Run Project, which now involves at least 20 schools in 10 countries. Students are
assigned to groups to research, debate, and then choose an international humanitarian
project to support. To fully learn real global issues, the students are responsible for
researching all aspects of the global issue that they chose. They will then look for other
schools that share the same interest and passion in the wild world, and will communicate
and collaborate with students from these schools through video-conferences. Finally, they
turn their research into action through fundraising and raising community awareness. In
the words of Maya Oliver, one of the students and a Global Ambassador to the program:
32

“This project really blew my mind…seeing people in Africa and Peru actually
receiving water from our money was really exciting. We got 11 schools in six different
countries to participate…by video-conferencing with those schools and giving
information about the project.”
This is just one example of thematic, inter-disciplinary projects Eastview Middle
School does. EMS also offers French or Spanish study beginning in 6
th
grade and allows
students to receive one high school credit in the Middle School. The music and art
programs coordinate with the social studies and language arts curriculum. Additionally,
technology is integrated into daily instruction in all subject areas.
EMS also offers a Family and Consumer Science Education, the goal of which is
to prepare students for family life and careers by providing opportunities to develop the
knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors needed for balancing personal, professional
and family lives, as well as promoting optimal nutrition and wellness across the life span.
Students will learn how to successfully manage resources to meet the material needs of
individuals and families, and become effective providers and consumers of goods and
services. These courses respond to society’s need for responsible citizens and leaders
with critical and creative thinking skills in more and more diverse family, community,
and work settings (Asia Society, 2008).
The Ross School. The Ross School in East Hampton, New York, is an
independent prenursery-12
th
grade day school (with a boarding Upper school). The
mission of Ross School is to change the way education meets the future. Compared with
schools that have a stronger focus on economy-driven, career-readiness and technology-
33

heavy curriculum, Ross School education model has much deeper roots in liberal arts.
One of Ross’ signature teaching strategies is teaching through history, not the textbook
type history of simple facts related to date, location and event; instead, the curriculum
interweaves knowledge in an integrated manner, and it incorporates skills and content
from all disciplines and subjects. When global cultural history is studied in a continuous
thread in all core courses, through different lenses and from different perspectives,
students will be able to understand the significant historical shifts leading up to the major
transformations of the present time. More importantly, there is a better chance they can
also use it to make prediction and solve problems in the future. A famous Chinese poem
by the first emperor of Tang Dynasty says: “Using bronze as mirror, we can dress
properly, using people as mirror, we understand loss and gain, using history as mirror,
we can predict power shift.” The integrated nature of the curriculum provides students
with tools and opportunities for exploring and solving world problems in a holistic
manner.
Here are three examples of how different subjects are integrated for students to
develop higher order thinking skills through these interdisciplinary projects.
1) Teachers use inventive ways to approach topics such as imperialism of the late
19
th
century and engage students in multi-disciplinary collaborative projects and
historical research, which incorporates technology, historical geography, English and the
theater arts.
2) Students embark on an in-depth, hands-on exploration of natural patterns,
rhythms and cycles of a certain animal to recognize patterns, which is the core of
34

scientific investigation, artistic creation, mathematical calculation and social
communication. This integrated approach combines scientific discovery with literature,
cultural history and wellness.
3) The Early Dwellings unit was designed for Elementary School students to
explore the life of early humans and the challenges encountered in locating and designing
safe and functional dwellings. Following an inspiring fieldtrip, students design and build
their own dwellings in a creative exercise of architecture and play.
The opportunities that Ross School offers extend beyond the walls of the
classroom, incorporating multiple disciplines and technologies with the goal of nurturing
creativity and leadership in each child. The Ross educational experience gives young
students two things: the necessary skill sets and stimulation that will motivate them to
keep their minds actively engaged in learning, with a heavier emphasis on the latter.
Ross School’s philosophy is rooted in a basic set of principles that guide its
vision. In addition to the emphasis on integrated curriculum based on global cultural
history, attention to multiple intelligences, holistic approach, community service and
lifelong learning, embracing new technologies, and media literacy, the school maintains
ties with other learning institutions and children around the world. As a result, the Ross
students will gain global perspective and intercultural understanding through classroom
experiences, on-site learning and travel.
In order to foster interdisciplinary, integrated thinking and innovative leadership,
so the students can fully engage in the global community and lifelong learning, the school
also offers electives such as Model UN, World Dance, and Cultural Anthropology, so the
35

students can further examine a topic that they are particularly interested in. Annually each
spring, students focus on learning in-depth about a specific interest through a three-week
intensive course, often involving travel and service learning. The curriculum at the Ross
School is now being adapted for use in New York City public schools. (Asia Society
2008, and Ross School website)
What are the Challenges implementing 21
st
century skills?
The illiterate of the 21
st
century are not those that cannot read or write, but those that
cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
-Alvin Toffler

Our society has to realize and bravely admit that many educational practices that
have worked well during the 20
th
century will not serve the country’s new needs in the
21
st
century. It is time to replace and transform the traditional K-12 education models to
better meet the needs of the children and the nation. New, powerful, sustained
partnerships are in immediate need to guide this necessary work, an arduous
transformation fraught with potential pitfalls and traps (Asia Society, 2008).
Up until now, most content standards have been developed by experts in each
discipline, who are also in charge of developing high-stake tests to document whether or
not students are grasping and mastering the content. Individual students, teachers, schools
and districts bear the consequences according to the results of the test performance. The
more developed and comprehensive the “so-called” standards become, the more content
the U.S. educators are mandated to cover in just 12 years –if at all impossible. To make
matters worse, most of these disciplinary standards are each prioritizing their own
content, without interrelating to each others’ and making sense to the learners, not to
36

mention the fact that only a small subset of students will be seriously pursuing these
particular fields in college (Friedman, 2007). Zhao (2009) also expresses the same
concern for the Chinese education system that arduously trains all the high school
students as if they are all to become scientists or engineers, which apparently is not the
case.
The materials that are currently taught are soon to become irrelevant, if they are
not irrelevant already. The content is not as important as skills, and skills are not as
powerful as abilities to learn and to adapt. Then what will be the absolute knowledge that
we must teach students? The information we are dealing with in one year nowadays
exceeds the total amount of information in the human history (Did you know?, YouTube
video). With so much new knowledge coming to into our world every minute, while
students still spend the same number of hours in school every day, how to deal with the
discrepancy and mission impossible?
As the curriculum is already too crowded, if we do not know how to deemphasize
the curriculum, how can we make room for students to deeply master core 21
st
century
understandings and performances? This does not necessarily mean that we must eliminate
an equivalent amount of current curriculum for each new 21
st
century theme added. A
better pedagogical structure and interdisciplinary approach will actually result in more
effective learning and improved retention, (Van Lehn and the Pittsburgh Science of
Learning Center, 2006).
For so many decades, teachers have been busy covering the glut of recipes, facts,
and test-taking skills through lecturing and drilling, which has been proven much less
37

effective than guided inquiry, collaborative learning, mentoring, and apprenticeships. The
problem is that teachers all know they have great instructional strategies but these
methods take up too much class time, compared with simply delivering information for
students’ passive absorption. Unfortunately what is left out is the teachers’ means to
prioritize knowledge and skills in terms of 21
st
century citizenship; workplace capabilities
for the knowledge-based global economy; and life-long learning (Dede et al, 2005).
The critical role of brainpower and workforce in the global economy suggest a
much more active networking model. Transitions between school and work, and school
and postsecondary education, become very important as the pace of change in the
economy accelerates (Dede et al, 2005).
The first of the following graphs illustrate the disconnection between what is
happening in school and what is happening in the business world. The second graph
demonstrates the correct role education should play in producing the labor force and
citizens for global world they will be living in.

Figure 3: Current and future models of education and business world (Dede et al,
2005)
38

Figure 3, continued
Another challenge is assessment, one of the most critical elements and potential
obstacles of the curriculum revolution. Classrooms today typically lack 21
st
century
learning and teaching in part because high-stakes tests do not assess these competencies.
Even worse, those high-stake tests still play a huge role in dictating where the students’
future stands to a great extent. Multiple choice questions, which serve as the main
assessment tool, can only measure students’ lower thinking skills, such as memorization
and superficial understanding, but typically do not assess their strategies for critical
thinking, analyzing and expert decision making. Even essay questions emphasize simple
presentation in written form, rather than sophisticated forms of rhetorical interaction.
Schools are nowhere near assessing students’ abilities to transfer their
understandings to real world situations or teamwork capabilities. The use of technological
applications is generally not allowed during testing, which would measure students’
capacities to use tools, applications, and media effectively (Dede, 2009). Abilities to
effectively utilize various forms of mediated interaction are typically not assessed; as a
39

matter of fact, it is unknown how to accurately and practically assess them yet. PISA is a
starting point but greater work needs to be done to make valid and reliable assessments of
21
st
century skills available to improve this situation.
Lack of appropriate and timely professional development is another reason 21
st

century skills are underemphasized in today’s schooling (Dede, 2009). Generally
speaking, K-12 teachers are usually one to two generations older than the students they
are teaching. None of them had gone through what the students are presently
experiencing in this fast-changing world, not to mention that the education the teachers
went through themselves is from last century. Therefore, the challenges we have are
obvious and self-explanatory. The teachers are and will be outdated by nature, unless
they are fully aware of the situation and urgency of it, and make an extra effort to go
against time.
It is very simple logic that teachers cannot prepare students to use knowledge,
ITC literacy, foreign languages, the collaborative and networking skills unless they
possess and use those skills themselves. Teachers will not be able to effectively use
technology-based guided inquiry and collaborative learning in classroom settings unless
they have received preparation and modeling on how to effectively implement these
sophisticated pedagogical tools they were never given. As Freidman (2007) beautifully
described: “You can’t light the fire of passion in someone else if it doesn’t burn in you to
begin with.” Educators need to be provided with resources, support and opportunities to
learn about the ideas and strategies to utilize 21
st
century skills in their own relearning
and teaching. If they do not know about it, they do not want to know about it or even
40

believe in it, they are more likely to stand in between the status quo and the necessary
changes. Therefore, not only the teachers, but also policy makers, administrators and
local communities, and parents all need to unlearn the beliefs, values, assumptions, and
cultures underlying school’s industrial-era operating practices, such as 45- minutes class
periods, which does not allow sufficient time for all but superficial forms of active
learning by students (P21, 2010).
Altering the routines and structure of schooling that have been deeply ingrained
and strongly reinforced for centuries takes more than the superficial “make and take”
professional development or “slightly concerned” school board meetings. Only with
intellectual, emotional, and social support is it possible for “unlearning” and “relearning”
to happen, that consequently can lead to deeper behavioral changes to create next
generation of educational practices. (Asia Society, 2008)
In order to teach an integrated curriculum, it is important to form interdisciplinary
teams of teachers. Collaborative work and communication across disciplinary boundaries
are essential in the planning and implementation of an integrated curriculum. Flexible
scheduling and high buy-in and motivation from the entire faculty team are almost a
prerequisite for such efforts (Asia Society, 2008).
There is a story about a high-society woman from Boston who goes to San
Francisco for the first time. When she is asked by a friend how she likes it when she
came back, she says, “not very much-it’s too far from the ocean.” The perspective and
predispositions that one carries are very important in shaping what is seen and not seen.
41

The world is changing, as is the United States, but some people are still in denial and
some educators are still in denial.
As Friedman (2007) says: “Change is hard. Change is harder on those caught by
surprise. Change is hardest on those who have difficulty changing”.
Now it is clearer why there is an urgent need to integrate 21
st
century skills into
the existing curriculum in K-12 schools- the students will be well prepared for the
globalized and flattening world they will be living in when they leave school. Well-
developed frameworks within the field have been compared and analyzed and existing
programs and practices in different schools have been discussed and reflected on.
Challenges and obstacles will continue to be identified that schools need to overcome
when implementing these skill-driven programs.
A case study, by its design, will allow researchers to go deeper inside a school
community to thoroughly examine and document the details of the 21
st
century skill-
driven programs that are being implemented, the nuts and bolts of how to implement
them, and maybe even the mistakes and lessons a school makes while doing so. By
conducting such study, valuable information will be documented and shared with a
bigger audience. Therefore, those who want to follow suit and integrate 21
st
century skills
into their curriculum will greatly benefit from the wisdom as well as the lessons learned
by referencing one of the pioneer schools who have already made their brave attempts.
42

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Academic enhancement in the United States stands as inadequate when compared
to other nations (PISA, 2010). Times have changed in that students now need specific
skill sets and knowledge base to succeed as global citizens, and this need is not being met
nationally. Some K-12 schools have claimed to embrace globalization, but it is indistinct
what programs and practices they are implementing. The purpose of this study was to
identify the programs and practices that promote the acquisition of 21
st
century skills at a
K-12 school.
This study examined the practices and culture at a high performing school that
includes 21
st
century skills in its mission statement and has implemented programs
according to this mission, to prepare students for an increasingly globalized world. The
specific components that the study will examine are the programs, the professional
community and the cultural impact of 21
st
Century Skills on school life.
Research on education in the globalized world has identified the framework of
21
st
century skills that students need to be equipped with in order to become
accomplished in an increasingly interconnected world with daily advancing technology
(Friedman, 2007). In response to the changing needs (Darling-Hammond, 2010), some
schools in the United States begun to integrate 21
st
century skills into their existing
curriculum. The study identified such a school and reported the key practices and
elements in the school that made a difference in students’ learning and that left a positive
impact on the school community.
43

A qualitative, descriptive single case study was used as the primary research
method for this study. According to Merriam (1998), case studies are used to “gain an in-
depth understanding of the situation and meaning for those involved” (p. 19). The
researcher engages in a case or multiple cases so to draw a detailed picture of the case/s
for others to understand. As Duff (2008) describes:
By concentrating on the behavior of one individual or a small number of
individuals (or characteristics of sites), it is possible to conduct a very thorough
analysis (a thick or rich description) of the case and to include triangulated
perspectives from other participants or observers. (p. 43)

The above mentioned definition draws a general picture of what a case study
looks like, and Yin (2009) provides a thorough and twofold definition of case study:
1) Case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon
in depth and within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between
phenomenon and context are not clearly evident.
2) Case study inquiry copes with the technically distinctive situation in which there
will be many more variables of interest than data points, and as one result relies
on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a triangulating
fashion, and as another result benefits from the prior development of theoretical
propositions to guide data collection and analysis (p.18).

Research Questions
Research questions aimed at providing descriptive information about past and
present happenings were used to gather detailed information about the practices observed
at the school of study. The findings have been narrowed down to three open-ended
questions in the hopes of shedding some light on how schools could (further) embrace
globalization to better prepare the students for the 21
st
century:
1. What are the practices and programs at the school and how are they aligned to
21
st
century skills?
44

2. What does the professional community at the school do to support these
practices?
3. What is the impact of 21
st
century skills on the life of the school?
Research Design
Nine doctoral students from the Ed.D. program at Rossier School of Education,
who are all interested in this topic, formed a thematic dissertation group which met over
the course of one year. The group members collected research on the topic of 21
st
century
skills, and agreed to use the same methodology to study the same research question. The
group also collaboratively developed the investigation tools together so the data was
collected and analyzed in the same way. Therefore, this study is one of nine studies of the
same kind, and will contribute to the collective pool of knowledge, in addition to the
independent findings.
The study used a qualitative case study design. In order to present a holistic live
picture of the current school function using only text, sufficient and relevant first hand
and second hand information needed to be collected from multiple angles. The next
section details the research methodology that was used to conduct this study including a
description of the subjects and setting, the instrumentation, the data collection, and the
data analysis.
Subjects and Setting
The thematic team decided on the criteria for the school to be selected. First, the
school had to be high performing, which for this particular study, is narrowly interpreted
into the academic success in standardized tests. For public schools, the API has to be
45

above 800 and the equivalent for private schools. Secondly, the school should have
addressed or at least mentioned 21
st
century skills in its mission statement.
ZMGJ, (which is a pseudo-name to maintain the school’s anonymity) the school
of this study, is an independent school in northern California, so it does not have an API
score. Instead, the school takes the ERB, a standardized test widely taken and recognized
among all independent schools across the country. ZMGJ’s ERB score has been
consistently ranking at or above 95 percentile among all participating schools over the
past many years.
The school’s mission statement is as follows: (School website, 2011)
“ZMGJ educates students for academic excellence, moral character and
international perspective through immersion in American and Chinese culture and
language.
The ZMGJ program prepares students to:
• Graduate with bilingual, biliterate and bicultural skills
• Demonstrate intellectual curiosity that inspires a lifelong love of learning
• Exhibit diligence and resiliency
• Contribute to society, family and peers with a sincere desire to lead and be of
service
• Commit to preserving the global environment and improving the human
condition”
The researcher found in this statement many key words that reflect 21
st
century skills
such as: international perspective, bilingual, biliterate, bicultural, resiliency, curiosity,
46

lead, global, and environment. Therefore, the school meets the selection criteria and
qualifies to become the subject of the study.
ZMGJ is an independent co-educational day school for pre-school (pre-
kindergarten and kindergarten), elementary, and middle school students. Founded in 1981
with a handful of students and teachers, ZMGJ’s education philosophy makes it special,
in that it emphasizes the importance and effectiveness of bilingual education on the lives
of children who are part of an increasingly global community. The school implements a
dual language immersion curriculum, which integrates language minority students and
language majority students (English speakers) in order to develop their oral skills and
literacy in both languages.
There are additional reasons for choosing ZMGJ as the subject of this study. First,
the school that the researcher works for has many commonalities with ZMGJ, which
created a sense of familiarity on how the school operates. The list of similarities and
shared features includes but is not limited to: the history and growth of the school, the
administrative structure, the target families, the language of instruction, the curriculum
design, and the unique two way immersion program, which is a successful model that has
been receiving new-found attention in recent years and has been adopted by increasing
numbers of schools across the country.
In addition, studying ZMGJ presented research advantages on multiple levels,
including being able to conduct unbiased research by observing, documenting, and
reporting the school’s process from an outsider’s perspective, while benefiting from my
insider’s understanding of the process. Due to the researcher’s familiarity with the school
47

structure, he had an elaborate understanding of the school culture and could easily catch
and put relevant information into context, which will consequently yield a more valuable,
thorough and accurate interpretation.
Second, during the initial discussion of the possibility of studying the school with
the new head of the school, the researcher was informed that the school was actually
planning to break down and rewrite their school mission statement and address the new
challenges of a changing world more systematically and comprehensively. Therefore, it
was exciting for the researcher to be able to witness and document the whole process,
including its successes and challenges, to be able to report and share the experience, and
lessons freshly learned from experiencing this firsthand.
Last but not least, the school that the researcher works for was undergoing the
same process of revamping and rewriting the school’s mission statement with the goal of
including more elements related to 21
st
century skills. This coincidence also offered the
researcher an extra reference point and a benchmark, so that he could better understand
the situation and was better prepared to pose relevant questions.
Instrumentation
Multiple forms of data and triangulation were used to validate the results of the
study and to eliminate or reduce bias. The research instruments were developed by the
thematic team. This study used the following forms of multiple data: observations,
surveys, interviews and document analysis.
Document review. In order to answer the first research question, among all the
available documents, the researcher placed more emphasis on the course offerings, school
48

calendar, master schedule, curriculum standards, textbook adoption, lesson plans,
technology plan, student handbook, assessment tools. For research question number two,
he focused on leadership, faculty and staff meeting agenda and memos. As for research
question number three, report cards, student’s achievement data, PTA agenda and
activities, school newsletters and publications, and partnership and sponsorship, were the
focus.
Documents can certainly provide valuable information about the school,
especially for an outsider/observer who is starting to understand the administrative and
pedagogical structure and who is starting to find patterns in the function of the school. It
also helps the researcher to identify key stakeholders and prepares the researcher to ask
the right questions to the right person.
Observation. In order for the researcher to truly find evidence that will validate
document review, the researcher had to spend a significant amount of time “living” in the
situation, watching how a day is spent in school, how things get done, how people
interact with each other, all the while intentionally searching for patterns and evidence
that reflect what the document indicates is happening in the school. Therefore, the printed
words as well as the messages in between the lines can come alive in researcher’s eyes as
connections are made.
According to the head of school during the initial conversation, the school was
going through the process of rewriting its mission statement starting in fall 2011 in honor
of the school’s 30
th
anniversary. Therefore, there would be many interesting and
49

meaningful meetings that were worth observing, in addition to the regular school life that
the researcher was also able to observe and record accordingly.
Interview. In China, there’s a fable story that goes like this: four blind people,
who have never seen an elephant, are trying to describe an elephant by touching it.
Therefore, the one who felt the tusk thinks an elephant is like a smooth giant carrot; the
one who touched the trunk believes that an elephant is like a big thick rope; the one who
was grabbing the ear is convinced that an elephant is something like a big fan, and the
one who touched its leg is convinced that an elephant resembles a pillar.
Although researchers are usually not blind, a few days of a school observation
cannot give him or her the complete picture of what a school is truly about. No matter
how many things the researcher witnesses and experiences, there still may be very
different interpretations that might not necessarily reflect the truth or tell the whole story.
It would be difficult for the researcher to truly start to answer the “why-questions”, after
observing some of the “what” and “how”, until he or she begins to talk to people.
To address the need and challenges of 21
st
century skills, which is in general a
new topic for most educators and schools, all stakeholders on campus should be on board.
In order to get a better idea of how the school community brainstorms, discusses, and
agrees on key elements and processes, how programs are or will be collaboratively
implemented and how it has impacted the school life, the researcher interviewed the
following people:
Administrators. The head of school was the person who spearheaded the project
and got everyone on board. He was also responsible for the vision and action. The head
50

of school was relatively new, so he had lots of fresh ideas from a “newcomer’s
perspective”, which would liberate him from the burden of the history and politics of the
school.
The Chinese program director was another key administrator, who was put in
charge of many logistic and pedagogical tasks as the implementation took place. The
Chinese program director had been with the school for a significant number of years,
therefore his opinion was perfectly complimentary with what the head of school offered,
with enough knowledge and wisdom of the history and background. This person was also
assigned as the contact person to facilitate and accommodate the study needs.
The researcher was also able to visit the newly acquired pre-school campus and
interview the principal for the preschool, who was recently hired.
Teachers. It was ideal to sample some teachers who had been with the school for
quite a few years, and some who were relatively young and new to the school. The
researcher got advice from the administration to identify teachers who were passionate
about the change, and who were willing and able to share opinions. Another teacher
volunteered to be interviewed after the survey, and she also recommended which other
teachers would be beneficial to speak with. Lastly, the researcher spoke with a staff
member, the school librarian, who had been with the school for a very long time.
Parents. For independent schools, parents play an active and vital role in school’s
mission and daily operation. Their point of view, hopefully, is in alignment with the
school’s administration, and can provide perspectives from a different angle. Some
parents come to school on a regular base and volunteer for different activities and events.
51

Most importantly they, to a certain degree, care more about what the school does for their
children; they have a lot to offer (time, money, wisdom, labor and mental support),
assuming they feel the responsibility and have the capacity. The researcher was able to
interview two parents at the same time. They happened to be the co-chairs for the Parent
Teacher Association, who by definition shared more responsibility in supporting school’s
vision and mission.
Survey. In addition to all abovementioned qualitative investigative tools, the
thematic team designed a short survey, so that it could reach more people in the school
community. It is understood that there are only a limited number of people that could be
interviewed and able to go into depth to talk about things related to school mission.
Therefore, a well-designed survey with the right questions included could give
researchers another layer of triangulation and confirmation in a relatively efficient
manner, with a twist of quantitative power.
Data Collection
As the head of school explained to the researcher during the initial meeting, the
timeline for this project was to start the brainstorm initiative school-wide in fall 2011. In
order to obtain more valuable data on site, the researcher studied all the existing and
available documents between May and September 2011. After clarifying confusions and
obtaining answers for some basic questions with the help of the contact person, the
researcher worked closely with him and his administrative assistant to be promptly
updated and reminded about any major events of the school. For this particular case, any
52

meetings, discussions, assemblies, that addresses or plans for this project were considered
relevant.
The period between September 2011 and January 2012 was the primary time to
collect data. The researcher paid six visits to the school, observing what was happening
on campus. The researcher took field notes during observation with focus on what
everyone (administrator, teachers, staff, students, parents on site) did as routine work, the
interactions among and with each other, what they talked about, the “key words” in the
language they used, body language, and so on.
In order to be efficient and be respectful of others’ time and my own, and to
minimize the absence from my work as school administrator, the researcher conducted
most of the interviews during the days of observation as well. The researcher tape-
recorded the interviews with the consent of the interviewee. The researcher was formally
introduced to the community as a colleague researcher at one of the faculty meetings, so
that he could get the necessary attention, support, and cooperation needed to conduct this
research and to distribute and collect surveys.
Data Analysis
The bulk of the data for this study are observational field notes and interview
transcription, in addition to the document reviewed. The researcher first transcribed
observational data and interview data into content log format. Then, data was organized
according to their topic and key words.
It was important to incorporate the field notes when it came to analyzing
interview transcription. When synthesizing and analyzing data, certain patterns, themes
53

and categories emerged; the researcher could consolidate the categories into fewer
patterns and found relationships between the patterns.
When answering the second research question, the researcher used the four frames
of organizational leadership theory by Bolman and Deal (2003). Modern leadership and
management research has typically addressed leadership challenges and strategies in
terms of one of four "frames of reference" -- structural, human resource, political, and
symbolic. Bolman and Deal (2003) suggest that leaders tend to operate in one of these
four "frames" in viewing leadership issues and proposing solutions within their "default
frame." However, each of the frames is both powerful and coherent. Collectively, they
made it possible to reframe, viewing the same idea or actionfrom multiple perspectives;
reframing was a powerful tool for gaining clarity, generating new options, and finding
strategies that worked.

54

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS
Data Collection
The target school, ZMGJ is an independent school located in Northern California
with a population of 475 students over the grades of pre-school, elementary, and middle
school. The demographic of the school is diverse in its own way, with 41% being Asian-
American, 36% multi-racial, 21% Caucasian, 1% Hispanic and 1% being African
American. The school integrates the 21
st
century skills into its teaching vision and
emphasizes bilingual education through a dual language immersion curriculum.
ZMGJ was found suitable for this study; on site observation, accessibility to
school documents, and ample opportunity to speak with key players involved with the
school allowed many areas of 21
st
century skills to be thoroughly examined on various
levels.
ZMGJ was very cooperative and supportive of the research project being
conducted. Before and during the visits, the researcher was able to collect informative
documents, such as the curriculum guidelines, student report cards, teachers’ lesson
plans, welcome back to school packet, samples of student work, faculty meeting
presentation slides, and worksheets for faculty meetings. In addition, the school website
and the head of school’s professional blog provided regular school updates and gave the
researcher abundant useful information about the public appearance it creates.
After being introduced by the head of the school to the entire faculty and staff, the
researcher was able to visit the school on six school days, as planned. During those visits
the researcher observed daily school life, the facilities, and interactions among students
55

and faculty members. He also attended two faculty meetings, during one of which he was
able to conduct a short survey that was developed by the research team. Out of the 35
questionnaires that were given out, 33 were returned. As the survey was mainly designed
for teachers, some administrators and staff did not participate in this, or only answered
questions that were applicable to them.
The researcher observed eight classes, all of which differed from one another in
regard to the subject, grade level, and language. To gather information beyond the
original plan, he was able to line up 10 interviews, among which there were 3
administrators, 5 teachers, 1 staff, and 2 parents.
Participants. All interviews were pre-scheduled, and each lasted between 40-90
minutes. All conversations were recorded and transcribed with consent from the
participants. Unfortunately, due to technical accidents, one of 10 recordings did not
record adequately and another was accidentally cut off after 60 minutes, but the
researcher was able to reconstruct almost all the content of both sessions with notes taken
during the interviews.
The head of school was appointed by the board in early 2010, with a mission to
reform and improve the school in commemoration of the 30
th
anniversary in 2011.
Therefore, he was working hard to become familiar with a 30 year-old school from inside
out in a short amount of time, prior to rolling up his sleeves and making changes. He was
ambitious and excited, setting his mind to enhance the school to lead the field for another
30 years to come.
56

There was a recent reshuffle of the senior administrative team at ZMGJ. Between
the other two administrators interviewed, one had been with the school for many years,
and one was a recent hire. They spoke different native languages, and played different
roles in supporting the new head’s mission for the school. (To maintain anonymity of the
participants, they will be referred to as Administrator A. and Administrator B.).
Among the five teachers interviewed, the number of years they had been with
ZMGJ varied from 3-15. They taught the subjects of Chinese, English, Music, Social
studies, in different languages and varying grade levels of Kindergarten, 2
nd
, 3
rd
, 5
th
, 6
th
,
and7
th
. All teachers had a B.A. degree and teaching credential from either the United
States or another country and a few had Master’s degree. (To maintain anonymity of the
participants, they will be cited as Teacher A., Teacher B., Teachers C…).
The only staff member the researcher interviewed was the librarian, who had been
with the school for 19 years, witnessing the growth of the school from 50 students at the
school’s start to 475 as of today. (To maintain anonymity of the participant, his name has
been changed to the pseudonym of Bob).
The two parents interviewed were co-chairs for the Parent Association (PA) of the
school. They came to the researcher’s school to get advice from the former PTA chair,
then were recruited as interviewees on the spot. One parent had a 4
th
grade son and was a
veteran PA officer for three different schools. She and her family lived in China for five
years and were among the first group of parents who sent their children to the very first
dual immersion school in Shanghai. The other parent was a father of a 3
rd
grade daughter,
and was a newly elected PA officer. His mission was to reform the PA with the co-chair
57

by making the organization not only an agent to organize events, but also a vital
contributor to support the school’s [new] mission. (To maintain anonymity of the
participants, they will be quoted as Parent A. and Parent B.).
Results
The purpose of this study was to identify the programs and practices that promote
the acquisition of 21
st
century skills at a high performing K-12 school. The research
spoke with different stakeholders on campus, with three main research questions in mind
that could collect and filter information that reflected 21
st
century skills and the efforts
behind developing these skills. By triangulating the information he collected through
document review, observation notes, interview transcripts, and survey results, the
researcher was hoping to construct a cohesive and convincing story in order for other
schools to gain a model to follow or at least insight to begin a process of change.
Three main themes emerged as information were gathered, coded and
categorized: global consciousness, embracing Chinese, responsibility and adaptiveness.
These three themes were found to be consistent and effective in answering the first and
third research questions, respectively: What are the school programs and practices that
are aligned with the 21
st
century skills? And what is the perceived impact of 21
st
century
skills on the school’s culture? Therefore, it was efficient and logical that the results were
organized and presented to reflect these themes.
In order to describe the leadership style and professional community and explain
how it supported the practices, which reflects the second research question, Bolman and
Deal’s (2003) four frames of political, symbolic, structural, and human resources, were
58

used to structure the results that pertain to this research question. As Bolman and Deal
(2003) suggest, leaders tend to operate in one of these four "frames" of viewing
leadership issues; when proposing solutions, considerations are made within their
"default frame." Each frame is both powerful and coherent as a leadership style, but in
differing ways. Collectively, they make it possible to reframe potential issues by viewing
the same concern from multiple perspectives. The researcher was able to synthesize and
consolidate the evidence around all four frames, hoping to draw readers a multi-angled
and multi-colored picture of the organizational chart and comprehensively describe the
leadership characteristics in-depth and from different perspectives.
Research Question #1: What are the practices and programs at the school and how
are they aligned to 21
st
century skills?
Theme 1: Global Consciousness
Global awareness. The school researched represented itself as an international
school. As the school name (Chinese American International School) entails, it is not a
typical, monolingual American K-12 school. In addition to the academic goals of the
school, it embraces multiculturalism and globalism, beginning with the mission, in which
the words “diverse” and “global” are used in its old mission and “world” in its new
mission. This shows that even with a new mission for improving the school, diversity and
global focus have consistently held significant places.
“We have reviewed the missions several times… but Global awareness is always
there,” as reported by staff member, Bob.
59

In response to the mission, one of the school’s key curricular goals was to expose
students to different languages and cultures. This was validated twice by the survey
results of question #8 and question #26, which were similar. When asked “Students are
exposed to different cultures, languages and experiences”, 26 out of 31 participants
answered “most of the time” and 32 out of 33 participants answered “always”.
Three other interviewees expressed the same impression:
“I think Global awareness is what the whole school’s mission is built on…there
are definitely different things that we do every now and then, but I don't see as much
consistency, compared to global awareness, which is always there, and always strong,”
Teacher R described.
“Multiculturalism is one of the areas that the school has done an excellent job,” as
agreed by Teacher J.
Administrator A described, “The nature of the school is already diverse, and
naturally there are two distinguished cultures on campus. Of course we need to do more,
such as in the readings about different places in the world, for example, in 3
rd
grade social
studies, they cover Japan, Mexico, Egypt…”.
When the researcher walked into a 7
th
grade social studies class, the class was
talking about Islam. It was evident that the teacher’s approach of teaching world religions
was liberal and non-biased. The lesson was not meant to preach to the students what to
believe, but to inform them of the varying cultural belief systems in the world. During the
discussion with the teacher afterwards, the researcher was informed that in addition to
world religion, she teaches European and Middle Eastern history.
60

Teacher K explained her globalized approach, “I also teach about the Crusades,
the Renaissance Reformation and I am going to be teaching about the Age of
Exploration, and how that specifically affected South East Asia, like Indonesia and the
Philippines. Certainly, global awareness and understanding is sort of a big one for me.”
Approaching the end of her lecture, she proposed an activity to have the students
to spell out their English names using Arabic letters. Arabic has a phonetic system that is
very different from English: Consonants are represented by letters, and vowels are
indicated with tone marks. After realizing that the researcher actually had studied Arabic
for four years in college, she invited him to take over the podium. The students were very
excited about this unexpected expertise and demonstrated a high level of curiosity and
enthusiasm when the researcher taught them how to spell and sound Arabic words.
The teacher does the same global integration for all three middle school grades
that she teaches. For example, even though the main focus in the 8
th
grade curriculum is
on the United States, she uses current events to explain history and politics that are only
loosely covered for the curriculum. Therefore, as the class lesson would focus on the
American Revolution, she would also incorporate information about the ongoing
revolution recently taking place in the Arabic world.
It may be obvious that global awareness is integrated into social studies classes,
but the researcher was able to find abundant evidence of its incorporation in other
classrooms as well. While observing the 6
th
grade music class, the classroom was filled
with musical instruments from all over the world: Yangqin and Gongs from China, flutes,
viola, pianos from the West, a whole set of Indonesian concerto instruments, and many
61

interesting looking pieces that could not even be recognized. During a quick discussion
with the music teacher, the researcher was informed that there had been a constant push
from both the school and the parents to have more international instruments in the music
curriculum. Therefore, she mainly focuses the class on world music and creativity. For
instance, for the 6
th
grade performance during the spring concert, the story line was that 4
students fell asleep during a classic music class, and each had a dream about Romeo and
Juliet in a special setting: Balinese, Greek, Chinese and English.
The same concept of global music was echoed when the researcher interviewed
the Chinese music teacher, Teacher J., who teaches Kindergarten through 2
nd
grade: “I
focus on Chinese music, but not only Chinese, I also introduce foreign music to students,
classics from all over the world, and music stories from China and other countries.”
A parent, referred to as Parent A., also expressed her opinion on the importance of
international music education:
I believe Music literacy is very important, and it’s not on the list [of 21
st
century
skills]. Music literacy, as well as art, are both important, because 21
st
century is
about communicating, not only communicating about business, but communicate
to get people together. They could share music and share art, and bring people and
culture together, around, they could sit and talk about different cultures…

Evidence about global integration was found throughout the school, but is
interconnected, as Administrator A explains,“…curriculum wise, we try to connect all the
thematic units to what’s happening in the real world, in San Francisco, in China, and in
the rest of the world.”
Luckily, parents are behind this approach and attitude as well, as Parent A.
expressed with deep enthusiasm:
62

The curriculum does a very good job, they study Egypt, and then move on to
other cultures, but they study in depth, and in interdisciplinary manner. They did
art, math, games and music about Egyptian culture; the kids were very excited
and became very knowledgeable about this in the end. So for me, this is 21
st

century skill, to understand in depth across disciplines about the multicultural. It
gets them an enthusiasm, not just getting across the board, about other cultures.
It’s a heart-felt understanding, not just awareness, not just knowing where Africa
is, where Egypt is.The reason that parents are drawn to bilingual schools, thank
goodness, is not only for the language, but the understanding what learning a
language enable you to have. It’s only when you understand the Chinese language
then you can understand the Chinese way of thinking about things, same with
French, with German, so the more language you study, even though you don't
master it, you understand their mindset.
This view was shared by other parents; Parent B. described, “I totally agree, now
they just go grade by grade and choose a country to study. But once they understand what
country they are studying, the etymology part becomes an issue. It’s not just saying:
‘Bobby, what is in Australia?’ How do we know what is that geography actually bring to
you? You not only need to know what is the latitude of that country, but you gotta know
what that country does, how is it integrated into the global community, what is that they
bring, or don’t bring to the global stage.”
It is clear that introducing subjects from various global viewpoints is a value that
not only teachers, but also parents agree with for the growth of the students. Observations
and discussions with the participants display how subjects incorporate global positions
into the curriculum and the positive response held by teachers and parents by doing so.
Dual language immersion program. Dual language immersion, also known as
Two-Way Immersion, is a form of bilingual education in which students are taught
literacy and content in two languages. With increasing research on this model, and a
rising number of examples of its success, it is catching universal attention, not only in
63

private sectors, but also in public schools, as they are adopting it after realizing its benefit
to student learning and enhancement of international awareness and diversity.
ZMGJ was the very first Chinese dual language immersion school in the United
States, and a few critical factors dictate and predict the success of their dual language
immersion program.
First is compartmentalization of the language. ZMGJ has two separate teams of
excellent teachers, each of whom were hired from countries where the target language is
the native tongue. As the researcher observed in a 5
th
grade Chinese class, the instruction
was conducted solely in Chinese, and very few English words were used by the students.
It almost looked and sounded like any classroom in China, if one ignored the skin or hair
color of the students.
Then content was delivered in both languages. Looking at the curriculum, the
researcher noticed that almost all main subjects (language arts, social studies, math,
science and health) were taught in both languages, except for physical education, which
was only taught in English. Some subjects were taught in Chinese/English for different
grades (art and music, and technology). For mixed language classes, such as social
studies and health, lessons were carefully designed so that content was scientifically
divided into two languages, avoiding redundancy and overlap. With lessons that held
more difficult concepts, the concepts were introduced initially in one language and then
reinforced in the other, such as in math. Math and Science were taught in English in
middle school, to better prepare them for standardized tests.
64

One of the reasons, if not the most important reason, that dual language
immersion programs can achieve the same academic goals as monolingual programs,
producing effective learners with bilingual and biliterate competencies, without students
spending more time, is the greatly enhanced cognitive ability-studying skills that were
developed through the program. Parents are also seeing and believing this. Parent B.
described this perspective, “We chose the school, my wife and I, for our daughter, not
only for the extra language…we also thought because the way our kids are wired, they
will be able to stay in school and excel in the curriculum ZMGJ is going to provide her,
allowing her to be able to compete in a world stage.”
Although language is not the only outcome of the dual language immersion
program, it certainly is one of the reasons that parents were drawn to the school. Teacher
R. draws on this, “I’d say, what separates us from other school is the language. People
come to our school to get Chinese, not for our English program, not for our social
emotional program.”
“My daughter also speaks Spanish at home, so she will be able to, with the three
languages she has, speak to 80% of the world population,” as stated by Parent B.
Some parents were more aggressive in making their point, like Parent A.,
“I think the biggest mistake the country is making is not start teaching the students a
language when they are young…Kids can learn up to 5 languages when they are young.
In Shanghai, most of the kids of that age, 4 years old, speak 3 languages.”
The school staff member, Bob, agreed, “The biggest advantage is: Second
language gives the students a second pair of eyes, a different way to look at the world.
65

They literally act in a certain way in their Chinese classroom, and a totally different way
in their English classroom. That’s kind of the ability to go between two cultures, and
know how to act and respect.”
The social studies teacher, Teacher K., could not agree more:
What I am really proud of is the literacy, the biculturalism and bilingualism, it’s
really impressive cuz it really transforms these skills into many different things.
The students really have deep understanding of two drastically different languages
and cultures. These kids are amazing and I am really impressed of what they are
capable of doing. I tell them all the time: you are the future generation, and you
are the ones who will be able to do many things that our generation was not given
the right tools to do.

It is clear that a consensus was found in regards to the benefits of a dual language
immersion program. Parents and teachers agreed that having bilingual skills will allow
students to strive much further in their futures by allowing them to connect with the
world more. The dual language immersion program displays the level of global
awareness the school functions at; by teaching students in more than one language, the
school is recognizing what it means to be globally competent.
International programs. Another area that ZMGJ has successfully implemented
is the international program, as 27 out of 33 survey participants chose “always” and
“most of the time” to answer the following question: Students are given the opportunity
to participate in out of school activities, such as field trips.
Administrator A reported on this international program, “The China trip and the
Exchange programs are the biggest success. The 5
th
graders will go to Taiwan every year,
to spend a week in a local school, staying with host families, and then another week
66

touring the country. In Chinese we say, reading about it without seeing the real thing is
like ‘talking about martial art on a piece of paper.’”
“The strongest program for global awareness is the exchange program to Taiwan
and mainland China…8
th
graders go to sister school in Shanghai and visit Beijing to be
immersed in an authentic Chinese environment, and host families,” Teacher M. describes.
Teachers who volunteered to be chaperons observed the growth of the students:
Teacher K. reported on the experience for the students while in China, “When visiting
Shanghai, I was with the students in homestay situation, and I also visited the school, it’s
an all girl school, to see how a Chinese school functions. We were there everyday, it was
two weeks, kids learned a lot. It was hard for them, students had to keep up with the
class, they were in the classrooms, everything happened so fast, but the kids could do it,
they really try and they really try hard.”
The school has held this exchange program for many years, but the scale was not
initially popular, due to financial burdens that many could not afford, but now the school
is doing more with something different.
“Starting last year, 6
th
and 7
th
graders go on backpack style trip lead by teachers to
see different parts of China (such as Xi’an) to learn authentic Chinese culture, tradition
and lifestyle of different parts of China, compared to the artificially tailored programs to
suit the needs of visitors. They stay in low-budget hostels and use local transportation,
and practice their life skills using the Chinese language they learned from class.
Therefore, they won’t be limited by the academic environment in a school setting. I think
this program will grow in depth and strength with time,” Teacher M. explained.
67

These efforts were made possible by the head of the school, and his supporters,
who saw the value of developing life skills and gaining authentic and deep cross-cultural
understanding; though expensive, he understood the worthwhile experience students
would gain.
The head of the school spoke about the value of cross-cultural experiences as a
benefit for the cost, “Our goal now is to have every ZMGJ student graduate with a
significant experience of living in a foreign country, and we are working hard building
steps and strategies to make it happen. Fortunately we received an anonymous donation
as the seed money to fund this program, and we will make it sustainable by well-planned
financial design. We also get support and commitment from the board.”
He went on to explain the details of the “Academic Extension”:
“The students will have intensive language class for half a day with a Chinese
teacher. Then they spend the rest of the day with homestay to experience authentic
Chinese culture. They will be on the street, in the local stores, dealing with day-to-day
challenges, and dealing with their fear…we are looking at 3-4 weeks for this program.”
This international exchange and academic program exemplifies how the school’s
value of global awareness is applied through actual global experience. By sending
students to China, where they may experience cultures and traditions first hand, the
school provides a unique and life-changing opportunity for students to understand a part
of the world through genuine exposure.

68

Theme 2: Embracing Chinese
The school, by name and by design, was founded to educate students in both
Chinese and American languages and cultures. Therefore, one focus and effort is to
embrace Chinese. It is coined in both the old and the new mission statement that the
school recently updated and published.
During the researcher’s first meeting with the head of the school introducing the
research project and having an informal discussion about 21
st
century skills, the head
spoke with a joking, but realistic tone: “Chinese IS 21
st
century skill!”
This shows the importance of the mission for the head of the school, and his
efforts are recognized, supported and cherished by the entire community, which can be
summarized by the following statement by Parent A.
I look at ZMGJ, is making leaps, really quantifiable leaps lead by Jeff’s initiative,
the head of school, and benefitting from the fact that he had lived in Beijing. He is
not only connecting the students to a bilingual modern world culturally, but I
think he is working really hard to bring the authentic Chinese culture from China,
not the kind of caricature of Chinese culture, you know what I mean to the school.
I see him doing a really good job to make Strides to bring cultures to the school,
not only to the students.

Incorporate Chinese elements on campus. The school campus is decorated with
Chinese signs and art pieces everywhere. When stepping into any Chinese classroom,
almost every piece of the furniture and facilities was labeled in Chinese. Students’ work
in Chinese was displayed within the classrooms and on the hallway walls. Chinese
artwork such as water painting, paper cutting, and Chinese calligraphy were posted
throughout the hallways and in the library. Bilingual signs of the procedure of washing
hands were consistently posted in all pre-school classrooms.
69

In addition to the subjects taught in Chinese, the researcher also found that many
after-school classes of traditional Chinese art forms and crafts are offered and well
attended, such as Chinese cooking, Chinese dance, Chinese calligraphy, and Guzheng,
Yangqin, Sanxian, Pipa, which are all traditional musical instruments.
From the website, the researcher was surprised to notice that AP (Advanced
Placement) Chinese was offered. The goal of the course, which is normally offered only
in high school, is to prepare students for the May AP Chinese exam, which upon
successful completion, gives students credit towards their foreign language requirements
in college. It is evident that the level of ZMGJ students’ Chinese is extremely high, if
such a course is offered.
The pervasiveness of Chinese culture and a high level of students’ proficiency in
Chinese were also confirmed by a worksheet that the researcher collected from the 5
th

grade Chinese class. It was the lyrics of a famous Chinese pop song by the number one
famous Taiwanese pop singer, Jet Chow, who is known to use a lot of elements from
classic Chinese poetry, which could be challenging to understand even for native Chinese
speakers. However, the students were very motivated and excited to learn about it and
sing the song.
The snacks on the preschool campus- rice and fruit- were also found to be
influenced by Chinese culture. Here is Administrator B’s rationale:
“Now with so many kids have all kinds of allergies, and we decided to give them
rice product, nobody is allergic to rice, as far as I know. We also happen to have a parent
who owns several Thai restaurants in the city, who brings high quality brown rice to
70

school for free. It’s also great opportunity for the kids to learn how to use chopsticks at an
early age so it becomes part of them.”
“Rice, the predominant staple food and a symbolic cultural notion for the high
esteem of this food item in Asian cultures and identity,” Teacher M. simply states.
Chinese cultural celebration. As a school that verbally and physically embraces
Chinese heritage and tradition, significant Chinese festivals are highlighted in the school
calendar and the curriculum (Chinese language art, social studies, music and movement,
and art) and elaborately celebrated throughout the entire community.
Teacher M. enthusiastically reported, “As for the students, they certainly know a
lot about Chinese culture; as a school, we have the Mass Greeting during Chinese New
Year, they have definitely an enriched Chinese experience, which are visible and
obvious.”
“Sixth graders do about 30 lion dances during Chinese New Year season, visiting
all onsite and offsite offices and even some neighbors. Student rotate roles, so they all
have the experience of being a lion head, lion body, drummers, and dancers,” Teacher J.
stated.
Moon Festival, the second most important Chinese festival, is an occasion in
which the librarian tells the mythological Chinese story of the Moon Goddess to the
students, and there is a festival party which includes face painting.
September 28 was Confucius’ Birthday, which also stands as Teacher’s Day
celebrated in Taiwan, and the librarian showed students the video of people doing the
71

Confucius Dance. For China, he showed Qufu, Shandong, and gave a presentation on the
hometown and graveyard of Confucius for that entire week.
For the same cause, the head of the school wrote a newsletter to the community,
discussing and comparing the Gaokao -the national college entry examination and Keju -
the imperial civil service examination system, and the inspiration and lessons drawn from
them to educate the students about hard work and dedication. (Nov 6, 2011) In these
ways, significant Chinese traditions and holidays are not only recognized by the school,
but celebrated and used to teach the students about the culture.
Chinese virtues and values. Many Chinese value systems that have been tested
and passed down over thousand generations are well reflected and emphasized at ZMGJ.
The first value is “Hard work pays off.” This corresponds to the English idiom
“No pain no gain”, which has been literally and metaphorically presented in Chinese
literature in many versions, such as, “Chi de ku zhong ku, fang wei ren shang ren”- only
those who endured and survived the bitterest of the bitter can become someone who is the
cream of the crops. “Bao jian feng zi mo li chu, mei hua xiang zi ku han lai”- the
invincible blade of a treasured sword comes from the repeated sharpening, just like the
fragrance of the plum blossom only comes from the coldest winter.
In general, American education philosophy promotes encouragement against
criticism and advocate fun of learning over rigorous practicing and testing. Many
American parents are concerned of the load of work yet they expect the same
extraordinary achievement. The researcher does not disagree with the overall idea of
72

intrinsic motivation, yet would like to point out a piece of the argumentation that was
glanced over- hard work.
As illuminated in the school’s newsletter (Oct. 6, 2011) that the head wrote, “U.S.
children are less and less able to overcome life’s inevitable obstacles because the adults
in their lives are sheltering them from challenges and fighting their battles for them. In
the process, children are losing out on opportunities to develop the necessary ‘grits’ to
face challenges successfully on their own.”
The spirit of hard work, focus, dedication and perseverance is embraced
throughout the ZMGJ community and verbally agreed among upon adults, as the
evidence presented through Parent A., “…it’s hard when you put your child through a
bilingual curriculum, maybe trilingual. That IS a real effort, and there are clear outcomes,
I like that, and I believe that to elevate the 21
st
century skills, America needs to put the
bar higher…”
Teacher K. described the schools efforts, “The school really pushes it, cuz it’s
tough, it’s not easy. And I think for some kids it’s more challenging…When I tell people,
like my friends and people in the community what I do, where I work, they all think it
sounds like a neat school and I think we are going in a right direction.”
“Back to 21
st
century skills, more time working, we are not gonna get to where we
gotta go, without kids do extra learning, I also believe in lots of play…but from a 21
st

century perspective, we are looking at America, looking out, too much homework, I think
there’s a point, we have to say: Wait a minute, we are living in a globalized world now,
we have to raise our own engineers, scientist, look at the university and colleges, over
73

half of the students are foreigners, that’s why we are so excellent, not because of our own
students, there’s a foreign population, we need to think about this…” as explained by
Parent A.
Parent B. further described the benefit of 21
st
century skills, “…you’ve got all
these skills that are put out there, and say we all wanna do this, but the school then has to
figure out a plan, how to translate these desires into tangible results, and into a
mechanism to get there...”
At ZMGJ, there is an additional hour after school in which students, especially
those who would not be able to receive help with their (Chinese) homework from home,
stay and complete their homework with the help of the teaching associate. This “study
hall” system has been well received by both parents and students themselves.
Parent B. spoke about this study hall as beneficial, “…this extra hour is very
helpful, this helps the students to be more autonomous, taking control of their own work,
when the parents can’t be always involved, the student outcome as a recommendation,
this extra hour, is really really helpful the kids really love it, they all sit together help
each other, they work as team, it’s a collaborative hour for doing homework, I think it’s a
mechanism for developing the kind of 21
st
century skills…”
Parent A. agreed on the extra effort made by the school, “My son hates sitting
down to do work, but he wouldn’t miss that extra hour for anything, oh no, they love it,
they get all their homework done, the teachers are there to help them, guide them, they
come home, it’s done, they got help right there, they find it so valuable, they don’t want
to go home and struggle, it’s a social thing too.”
74

Another important emphasis ZMGJ puts in their education is character and
compassion development.
The head of the school reported, “As Chinese culture mandates, we are not only
individuals, we are always a part of a bigger community, a bigger world. Context is
always important. No matter what context it is, Chinese people always ask ‘where do I
stand?’ In English, when people read, they focus; in Chinese, people scan, which make
sense also from a linguistic point of view. Chinese language is a high context language,
and Chinese culture is a high context culture, in contrast to English, which is low in
both.”
Respect and care for the old is a non-negotiable custom and value in Chinese
culture. In 4
th
grade class, they discussed the concept of “filial piety” which is an exotic
notion in western culture where individual need and independence is emphasized.
Middle-school students periodically spend some time with the residents at An Lok
Nursing home in San Francisco, reading and entertaining Chinese senior citizens.
Sometimes, they listen to stories from seniors to learn life skills that include an element
of appreciation.
There are many other community services that the school encourages and
facilitates. Middle school students may sign up to attend the community church, which
happens to be the facility what the pre-school campus rent from. They help serve food to
homeless people there.
75

Humility is another highly important value in Chinese culture, but rarely
discussed in American education. The following statement comes from a Caucasian
mother’s point of view:
Having lived overseas, then look back at U.S. education, we have great attributes
but also not great attributes, it works both ways: Americans are highly confident,
overly confident, very open, easy to get along with, under-educated, …When they
walk on to the global stage, when they walk into a new environment, where they
don’t have a good reverence for the nuances of a culture, and they don’t try, I
consider that a failure of our education system, and I believe is a failure in 21
st

century skills…They have to sometimes, learn to listen. We need to learn
humility, which is not on the list (of the 21
st
century skills) and respect other
culture, and understand that they actually have a lot to bring to the table, just
because you are confident, doesn’t make you better.

Parent B. also commented on this, “The hegemony that this country has had for
quite some time is diminishing. You can see that in education, in research, in
development, all these arenas we used to lead are diminishing now, not only because of
the lack of education we just pointed out, but also other countries are developing in a
much faster rate…”
Theme 3: Responsibility and Adaptiveness
Another theme that emerged through the sources of data during the research was
responsibility and adaptiveness.
Sense of responsibility. The researcher observed many programs that specifically
taught and helped the students to develop a strong sense of responsibility.
The “Beads Program” was an activity the researcher noted while observing one of
the classes as an example of responsibility and honesty from the students. During the 5
th

grade Chinese class, the researcher noticed that two minutes before the class was over,
76

some of the students headed to a plastic jar that holds hundreds of colorful beads. Those
who got the beads put them on a piece of string to make a nice bracelet or something
similar. He later found out from the class teacher that this is a reward system for students
who used Chinese outside the Chinese class and or did not use a single word of English
during the entire Chinese class. The most amazing part was that it was a self-monitoring
system from which the student learned discipline, self-direction, and honesty.
The “Book Buddy Program” was another program organized to enforce a sense of
responsibility and role-modeling for the students. As the researcher was interviewing the
librarian, the 5
th
grade students walked in with the teaching associate to find books to be
read to the 2
nd
grade students. The students chose the books they wanted to read, and the
TA confirmed the appropriateness and level of difficulty. The Chinese program director
had developed a list of questions for the reader, such as “What do you see on the cover?
Where do you find the author? How many places you remember? What would you do if
you were the character?” The questions start from simple and specific ones to more
complex and implicit ones. Through this program, mentorship and friendship are
developed between the older and younger students. The older students do their best to
refresh and practice their own skills and knowledge before teaching the younger ones,
who absolutely look up to the older students, which further motivates them to do better
work.
In 5
th
grade, during group work time, there was a rotating table leader system; the
leader reasonably assigns and monitors the responsibility of each team member and
solves conflicts at times when team members are not cooperating. The teacher will advise
77

them how to help those in need. This allows students to practice a role in leadership and
gain the necessary skills for leading a group of people.
Fifth grade students learn about health and nutrition by learning how to read the
labels on food products (what are the ingredients and what does each of them do).As a
result, they eventually learn how to choose and consume healthier food on their own.
Student government is another a way for students to be elected as representatives
and take a lead in many school-related events, through which leadership and sense of
responsibility can be developed.
The “Folloween Program” is described like a Halloween event- it is an activity-
based school event, where students get into groups, are then placed into different stations,
and are mixed with another grade group (6
th
-8
th
) for organized team activities such as
“bobbing the apples”. These activities are guided by the P.E. teacher, who is extremely
good at encouraging teambuilding skills among the kids. This allows the students who are
not likely to play the leadership role in student government to emerge as a non-traditional
leader to participate, shine, and develop their leadership skills. Older students teach the
younger ones how to do certain tasks; they have to work as a team and move together,
which requires teamwork and collaboration, which are skills students develop and learn.
A parent also offered another example:
Another thing they do… the Chinese Program Director, has some lunches with
some groups of boys, because there is a little bullying...He will just have them
talk, it’s kind of an honor that they are having lunch with Mr. Chang, but in the
same time, Mr. Chang is having some conversation with the boys, it’s very very
nice, I think this speaks to that he school is doing an excellent not being
disciplinarian, while showing discipline. There is a consequence for bad behavior,
in the end, believe me… I think by doing this, they are modeling again,
empowering the students to take responsibility for their own behaviors. If we only
78

do behavior- consequences-behavior consequences, there is a point that they are
not developing the skills, that only develops obedience, as you well know in
China, everybody complies, it doesn’t engender new thoughts.

The students’ responsibility begins with taking good care of themselves, their
homework, their peers, and strangers, but it does not stop here, as it is also applied to the
environment, which aligns with the school’s mission.
Throughout the grades, specific topics and themes involving environmental care
are integrated into the curriculum. For example, the 6
th
grade students will study the
specific environmental issues in China, such as the Three Gorges Dam on Yangzi River.
Each grade makes connections between their topic with their travel destination, to make it
more relevant and experiential. In the physical classroom space, there is a green plant on
each table in the 2
nd
grade classroom to elaborate on nature. The school used to have
students plant trees around the campus, and has placed recycle and compost bins all over
the school grounds. The parents like that the school is promoting being green, and it is
one of the reasons that they chose the school over other schools which do not emphasize
environmental care as strongly. For younger grades, the vocabulary, concepts, and habits
of recycling, reusing and composting have been introduced and reinforced in various
ways.
Administrator B. described this, “When the students learn how to expand their
vocabulary from known words to unknown words, they already start transforming
knowledge. They not only learn about the subject matter, they also develop their
conceptual understanding and to have conversation for the future. They adapt the
scientific knowledge and develop interest and they want to learn new vocabulary, and
79

eventually they can address environment problems, which is exactly what we want to
achieve here in school education, to educate and produce problem solvers, when they get
older.”
The survey results also confirmed that the concept is embraced throughout the
community. In the survey question asking: My instruction includes civic responsibility,
26 out of 31 participants chose “most of the time” and “always”.
Adaptiveness. In addition to a high level of responsibility that the school imposes
on the students, there are also many programs that were particularly designed to enhance
the students’ adaptiveness. Most schools pay great attention to “text skills” which include
what students can do and what they are knowledgeable about; even within this very 21
st

century skill framework, this was found. Nevertheless, there is also an urgent need for
teachers to teach students how to learn, how to use tools to learn. No one does a better job
than the head of school, describing such emergent scenario:
“We used to train people for particular jobs, you go to dental school to become
dentist, you go to law schools to be lawyers, accountant, mechanicals,. Now we have to
prepare students to create positions. The jobs they will have either don’t exist anymore,
or haven’t existed yet,” the Head of school suggested.
And parents apparently agree with him, as Parent A. stated,
“Adaptability is important…The bottom line is, there is too much lexicon in the
current education system, soft skills, too little on the things we just talked about, the real
thing, you understand that, the real deals the children need to deal with, they will become
more adaptable, because they have been asked to do so.”
80

The administrators not only just felt that way, but also put their philosophy into
action and effort. They recently adopted Common Core as their English Curriculum
Guideline, which emphasizes skills instead of a content approach. In a bilingual program,
there are naturally many opportunities for students to compare and contrast two
languages: such as Mainland China vs. Taiwan or living in China vs. living in the U.S.
This ability not only gives them a great deal of topics for discussion, but also provides a
refreshed perspective to recognize differences, and embrace and adapt to them. For
example, in 5
th
grade Chinese class, they compare prose and poetry. They read both
Classic and modern poems, Poems from Tang Dynasty vs. Song Dynasty, and Chinese
poetry vs. English poetry. The benefit from doing this is not only for learning two
literatures, but also to gain a more rounded, comprehensive, and creative understanding
on the subject.
Teacher M. described the impact of this type of teaching, “The ‘New Poetry
Program’ has achieved success beyond the teacher’s expectation. I was amazed and
impressed by the creativity demonstrated in the students’ writing of poetry. You will be
shocked too, if you read them. I can’t imagine students from Taiwan can do the same.
When there’s relatively less restriction from grammar, the capacity of imagination is
uncapped and unchained; they write freely and create beautiful pieces.”
Though the teachers teach on a variety of subjects, they never force the students
to believe a specific philosophy. They encourage the students to think independently and
critically before taking in knowledge.
81

Teacher M. described, “I teach them many things in class about Chinese culture,
but they don’t have to agree with everything I teach them, nor do they need to like them.
After this process of filtering, they understand it in much depth. Instead of indoctrinating
and telling them what to do, how to behave, they choose and pick and reflect their
understanding through their natural behavior…”
“I’d prefer to expose them to different experience so they will make their own
decision of what they want to learn and achieve in the future,” Teacher J. echoed too.
The same perspective is practiced within the Math program as well, as further
reflect on by Teacher M.:
I am a math and science background, so I enjoy teaching Math. I put more
emphasis on the thinking process rather than the actual result. The student receive
some credit if they can successful describe and explain the formula they use even
if they get the result wrong. I always tell the students to think independently and
conceptually.

The researcher was able to find evidence of the same attitude towards teaching
higher ordered thinking skills, which allowed the students to be more autonomous and
adaptable; these same findings was confirmed in the survey results as well. When asked
“I model and encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills, 27 out of 31
participants chose “most of the time” and “always.” Not surprisingly, on similar topic,
when asked: “I encourage creativity and innovation in my classroom”, all 31 participants
unanimously responded positively.
There are multiple factors that contribute to encouraging responsibility in the
students. In the survey question asking: My instruction includes civic responsibility, 26
82

out of 31 participants chose “most of the time” and “always”, but here are some of the
head of school’s thoughts:
It more or less happened organically, maybe there had been some force from the
administration, but I think it mostly comes from the Chinese culture
itself...Responsibility is at the core of Chinese culture, everyone has a job to do,
multiple roles to play, in a family, in a society. Therefore, students that have been
immersed in such bilingual and bicultural program capture and nurture these core
values, just like drinking mother’s milk.

The first research question posed what are the programs and practices of the
school and how do they align with 21
st
century skills. Data from the study answers this
question according to three common themes found throughout practices and programs:
global consciousness, embracing Chinese, and responsibility and adaptiveness. Within
each of these themes, we can understand how the school has set up its approach for
providing students 21
st
century skills. The programs that provide global consciousness are
set up to include frames of global awareness, through exposure to different cultures and
international integration into coursework. Embracing Chinese culture is seen through the
school’s activities of exhibiting Chinese culture, through the physical actions of
displaying Chinese traditions in coursework and celebrating major occasions and through
the reflection and integration of Chinese values to teach the students as they master their
education. The students are provided with activities and modeling of responsibility and
adaptability to help them develop leadership, respect, and higher order thinking skills.
Overall, it is clear that the school is providing more than an education for its students; it’s
providing an upbringing that will allow students to adapt to the 21
st
century as they grow
older through the values, skills, and positive attitudes they gain through the programs and
practices.
83

Research Question #2: What is the professional community at the school, and how
does it support these practices?
Bolman and Deal (2003) suggest that leaders tend to operate in one of these four
"frames" in viewing leadership issues and proposing solutions within their "default
frame." However, each of the frames is both powerful and coherent. Collectively, they
make it possible to reframe a problem, viewing solutions from multiple perspectives. In
this sense, if a leader can tackle issues from multiple frameworks, or if multiple
frameworks are reflected in leadership style and overall functioning of the professional
community, there is a better chance to mobilize the entire community to help support the
leader to achieve the institutional goals, especially during a critical phase of change, such
as reforming and revamping the organizational goals.
During the data analysis, the researcher found evidence to support that multiple
perspectives and multiple approaches were adopted to facilitate change, hence he was
able to organize and report the data around each of the four frames that Bolman and
Deals (2003) have published.
Human Resource Framework
According to Bolman and Deals’s (2003) framework, a leader with human
resource style serves as a catalyst whose management style is supportive, advocating, and
empowering. Visible and accessible, they empower, increase participation, support,
share information, and move decision-making down into the organization.
There are many variables that contribute to the success or failure of an
organization, or a change that an organization is trying to make happen. Some of these
84

are controllable, while some of them are not, but one very critical factor is human
resource. An organization needs the right people in the right position and most
importantly, the right and competent person in the leader’s position in order to have
efficient functioning.
A strong leader. ZMGJ was lucky to have that right person as head of the school
and the leader of the community. To lead and reform a 30 year-old, well-reputed school,
and improve it in a fast-changing world is not an easy task, especially when having to
deal with two languages and two cultures, all the time. Therefore, the first and foremost
quality of the leader is to be not only familiar with both cultures and languages, but
highly proficient in each language.
During the discussion about the challenges of running an independent school, the
head of the school further told the researcher, “One thing is for sure, parents want
someone strong, the school leader has to be strong enough, even when the parents don’t
agree with everything the head says, but if he demonstrates his strong will and high
ability to improve students’ learning, they will follow his initiatives.”
This statement proved to be true, and to be working for ZMGJ, as Administrator
B commented:
Like many other private schools, historically, the Parent Association has had too
much control of the education model ZMGJ has to adopt. At least in the past, to
keep the enrollment high, and to keep the parents happy, the administration has
been limited to some degree, by the parents, or at least some verbally strong and
big-donor parents, but now I think the community has reached some consensus
that it’s time to put the educators back in charge, to do their job of running the
school.

85

“We are lucky to have found XXX, a dedicated leader who has a vision and a
high level energy to mobilize everyone in the community and non-stoppingly drives the
boat forward…When you have a driving leader and a driven team like that, it’s not
difficult for me and for others to say: ‘I am on!’” Administrator B. spoke about this
passionately.
Another asset of the head of school is that he is a great communicator. The head
of school sends out newsletters to the community and republishes them through his
professional blog at least twice a month, to constantly share his thoughts and vision about
the school with the entire community.
Parent A. talked about the head of the school with praise, “He is making regular
meetings and communications with parent community, about the history of China, not
only teach Chinese characters but also explain the meaning behind the characters. It is the
birthday of Confucius, what does that mean? He gives us the characters, he does a
beautiful job explaining the importance of Confucius…”
A dedicated team. According to the researcher’s observation, in addition to
having a knowledgeable and determined leader, ZMGJ was also blessed to have a team of
competent employees stand with the leader to help deliver his message and fulfill the
mission.
“The whole team can’t move fast enough. We are very lucky to have an ideal
group where each one’s expertise and education philosophy are melded together and
determined to move forward to create the best education environment and best practice
86

for the children.” This comment from Administrator B can probably draw a sketch of the
whole picture of the morale.
As a newly appointed leader, a critical responsibility was having to also deal with
the staff he had inherited, which is not necessarily an easy task. As most leaders in all
professions would agree, the most challenging part in their responsibility is human
resource management, in other words, dealing with people. In order to move forward, the
head did some “house cleaning” during the spring of 2010. Now the entire pedagogical
team among senior administrators is mainly composed of new hires including the three
division principals.
The researcher was able to interview one of them, had dinner with another, and
observed a faculty meeting lead by the third one. Each of them has his/her own strength,
cultural background, and unique experience in education administration. For instance, the
pre-school principal has a combination of Montessori and Reggio Emilio training
background and teaches a class at the community college; the middle school principal has
solid background in curriculum design, and the lower school principal is a technology
guru from New Zealand. The general impression was that each of them had different
strengths to offer, yet they were all united in the same philosophy of education;
Administrator B. commented, “It’s also critical that all team members who agree with
each and share the same vision and have the same innovation spirit and to be flexible
thinkers and then dedicate their energy and effort heart and soul.”
The head of school was also wise enough to have kept a handful of veteran cadres
on staff in the supportive sections, without which the school would not function well,
87

such as the Director of Finance and Operation, the Director of Admission, the Chinese
Program Director and the bilingual librarian that everybody loves. Some of them have
been with the school for as many as 19 years and have played very important roles to
hold the community together.
Nevertheless, even with the huge turnover with the staff, there was little change in
the faculty roster, except for the entire team of teaching associates from BATTI
1
, which
was added to the pedagogical team as a new concept and innovation. For example, every
class teacher has a teaching associate working with him/her, for both languages.
The teaching associate program, costly as it is, has received great feedback from
the community. It helps reduce the workload from the class teachers so that they can
focus on the curriculum development. The teaching associates made the support time
more consistent and conveniently available, which allowed for more differentiation and
diversified classroom activities. They also made scheduling easier, and students could
count on receiving timely assistance during and after school hours.
As Teacher R. explained:
I think the new teaching associate thing is great, it’s a big change about the TA
time, but I also feel we kind of always had some sort of TA time, the new system
just enhances something that was already working well. It’s just more consistent,
much easier instead of having different people coming in and out at different time
everyday, now we just one person working with you all day long. I think we are
really happy, the teachers are all happy to have a TA.

1
The Bay Area Teacher Training Institute (BATTI) is a two-year elementary school credential program
under the sponsorship of San Francisco State University. Our students work as paid, full-time assistant
teachers in one of 25 independent schools in the Bay Area while taking university credential classes two
evenings a week. Close supervision from thoughtful, experienced mentors and supervisors creates an
atmosphere of reflection, collegiality, and support.
88

As for the existing faculty team, it was quite meaningful and impressive that the
researcher was constantly reminded what a wonderful job the teachers are doing by
administrators, staff, parents, and mostly peer teachers, during the interviews and
observations, without asking any probing questions. The following collection of praise
was ultimately a great sign of extremely high morale and collaborative spirit that any
school leader would dream of.
“Math teacher is excellent, a very strong, a very experienced teacher, very
rigorous, who also coaches after school math club.”-Teacher K.
“The music teacher, who happens to be very passionate about African American
culture, which is a population missing in the school. It really made a great
change/emphasis on the culture exposure to Africa, in addition to the Chinese culture that
is everywhere.”-Staff Bob.
“…our P.E. teacher, who is really, really good at teambuilding skills among the
kids…”-Teacher K.
“For instance, Teacher XXX for Kindergarten, she is just brilliant. I told her, if I
just take a 30-minute video clip of her teaching a class. We all sit down and watch it
together, it’s the best professional development.”-Head of school.
“…the computer teacher has put up a web page, she would give students
information and assignment on different areas of the world, third graders studying
Australia, Japan and something that is going on in the world, such as Halloween. The
students really loved that.”-Staff member Bob.
89

“She is so worth the value, cuz technology is so important, and it’s been such an
effort to move things forward, and it will be difficult without having someone of her
quality in this role and her knowledge and contribution in technology area.”-
Administrator B.
“I am gonna give ZMGJ a high mark on life and career skills, and I am gonna tell
you why. This goes to teacher training. I believe that the teachers at ZMGJ are doing a
truly extraordinary job in this.” -Parent A.
“She is one of the new young minds that she listens, she thinks, she also
questions, ‘why would you do that?’ So we have these great conversations that she is
thrilled by the new knowledge, you can see the joy in her face, when she sees things in a
new way.”-Administrator B.
“I will give ZMGJ very high marks, they have an outstanding music program;
they are very fortunate to have an outstanding music teacher XXX.”-Parent A.
“XXX for example, who is older, but her flexible thinking, and classroom
discipline is amazing…she went through that system herself, but she is willing to go the
other way.” -Administrator B.
“…She educated me also, this is about accountability, self-direction, encouraging
initiative, it solves a problem in a very subtle way to encourage a kid not wanting to do
his work.” -Parent B.
“We are lucky to have a great librarian, and you probably want to talk to him, (I
already did) his wealth of knowledge, and he does a lot to help students find
information.” -Teacher K.
90

“I am not saying ZMGJ is doing better or worse… they have better teachers, we
have a cadre of wonderful teachers here, that’s the reason I come here.”-Parent A.
Amazingly and non-surprisingly, on the other hand, the teachers were not shy
about telling the researcher how much they loved the school and how much they enjoyed
working here:
Teacher K. raved, “Yes, absolutely, I have lived in this neighborhood, for a good
ten years. I have always walked past the international school and I have always wanted to
teach for one. It’s like a dream job, and I really enjoy it and I love teaching social
studies.”
“I am very lucky to be able to do what I love to do for work, incorporating the
skills that I have,” Teacher J. expressed with gratitude.
Here is another verbatim transcription of an interview between Staff member Bob,
and the researcher. Not a word could be left out, because it is just so beautifully
expressed:
-Then I came to ZMGJ, it’s been 19 years at ZMGJ.
-So you have been enjoying it?
-Oh yeah, I can’t imagine myself anywhere else.
-What other things make you love the school so much, besides the fact that it’s
bilingual?
-I think it’s been very successful in creating a community, like a family, “Tian
Xia Wei Gong” -everything is for the public goods. Everyone is a family,
considering a ZMGJ community. It’s also a culture thing; in Chinese culture,
family is number one. So we try to steal that, no matter what, you are there for
each other.”

External resources. It is clear that the school has a committed and devoted team
working for the school, and the head of school has also reached out for external support
from expertise in the field when necessary.
91

During a two day retreat facilitated by recently retired head of school at Head
Royce, Paul Chapman, a leadership team of 12 CAIS employees developed school goals
for the 2011-2012 school year, organized primarily around the Areas of Focus.
On December 12
th
and 13
th
, 2011, CAIS held a "Curriculum Summit." The purpose of
the meeting was to create a three-plus year plan to develop and implement a model
Chinese-English dual language immersion curriculum that leverages, codifies and
improves upon our 30 years of experience. These two days were hosted an outside team
of curriculum experts from the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) at the
University of Maryland and Curriculum21, a nation-leading curriculum consultancy
group.
All above-mentioned evidence not only drew a picture of a high-functioning and
high morale institution, but also indicated that the leadership was able to put all the right
people on the bus, and the wrong ones off the bus, in order to maximize the human
resources of the organization, which is arguably the most critical factor of the
institutional success.
Political Framework
This framework focuses on advocacy, in which the leadership style is defined by
coalition and team-building. Leaders clarify what they want and what they can get; they
assess the distribution of power and interests; they build linkages to other stakeholders
and use persuasion first, then negotiation and coercion only if necessary (Bolman & Deal,
2003).
92

It is the prerequisite to have great human resources before developing a way for
the team to work together efficiently. One area of the school improvement plan was to
revise the mission statement, which is a healthy and necessary thing for any school to do
once in a while. The Board held a facilitated retreat in early September to draft a
revised Mission Statement.
In November, the board announced the new revised mission statement to the
community, after months of hard work. It caught everyone’s attention that the new
statement did not follow the English conventional rendition that usually reads:
“_________educate students through__________, to prepare them for________”. The
new mission statement only has three lines and each line contains a clean-cut verbal
phrase that does not come with a subject. It goes like this:
, - Embrace Chinese, Become your best self, Create
your place in the world (school website).
Here is how the head of school explained the rationale behind this subject-less
new mission statement:
It’s because the subject for this mission is everyone. That’s what the board of
trustees want us to achieve, this mission is something everyone in the community
is committed to, everyone must embrace Chinese, and everyone has to strive to be
the best. We have to strive to be the best institution; we have to create our place in
the world as a school. Every child needs to find his or her own place in the world.
The board has to ensure that with the proper fiscal and facility planning we
created a place in the world as a school. I think this makes our mission more
flexible and more compelling, and really opens it up for discussion of all sorts of
things.

The revision of the mission statement by the board displays the political
framework focus; the head of the school brought together a team to tackle a task that was
93

necessary for the school’s goals. By working together, a new mission statement was
developed and it also required every person of the community do his/her share of the
work.
Teacher collaboration. The researcher found that the teachers held high levels of
commitment towards the school’s mission and what the school sets out to do. They also
did their own best to collaborate with their colleagues, in addition fulfilling their
individual responsibilities.
The head of school acknowledged this effort and pointed out the benefit of it in
his own words, “Teachers do benefit from it (collaboration), they watch other teachers
teach, they get inspired and become more creative and stronger teachers, because they
have the hunger for more knowledge and new methods. It’s ‘Teacher for Teacher’.”
Administrator A. felt the same by explaining the pedagogical structure of ZMGJ,
according to its own unique design: “There are two to three classes in each grade, so the
collaboration among all teachers of the same grade are critical. Director makes sure the
overarching goals are the same, but teachers decide how to reach that goal, using the
same materials. We can’t ask them to do the same, we don’t want either.”
Collaboration was found to be a tool that needed to happen on the grass root; the
administrators can talk for hours about the effectiveness of it, but without the teachers’
buy-in, it will be a vain effort. Fortunately, the teachers do understand the value and
regularly practice it too.
Teacher R. described, “I’d say, on a daily base, I mostly work with XXX, who is
my teaching associate, and my second tier of people that I work with is my language
94

partner in the same grade level. So there is another second grade teacher and another third
grade English teacher, so I collaborate with them. Another level of collaboration is me
working with the specialists. A lot of the art projects are related to the topics in English
class, some assignment in English class is done in the computer lab, also library...”
Here is another reflection from Teacher M.,
Because we are a bilingual school, Chinese teachers and English teachers often
meet and work together. We need to cover all the elements in the California
Standard that we are supposed to follow, so when poems are taught in English,
most likely there are some poetry classes going on in the Chinese class, so we can
publish together.

“Collaboration between math teachers in both languages is critical. We list all the
skills in the beginning of the school year, then choose, and divide subject between two
languages. For example, direct teaching about time and money in English, then do
problem solving in Chinese,” Administrator A. emphasized, highlighting the value and
necessity of collaboration for dual language immersion program, due to the limited
instruction time in each language.
And Teacher M. echoed and confirmed this, “Especially for math, we have to be
very time conscious, Math is taught in both languages, so we don’t have enough time to
do Math twice without extending the school. As for the vertical alignment, during the
language meeting, we also meet often to talk about what needs to be added for a certain
grade, to meet the expectation for the grade after.”
Parent involvement. As in any private school, parents are an integral part of the
education team and play a vital role in supporting their kids and the mission of the
school. The parents volunteer in the classroom and offices, read for students in the
95

library, serve as chaperones on field trips, bring food and rice to the school, and most
importantly, they help raise funds, which is a very critical component for a private
institution.
In addition to all the above, the parents at ZMGJ take their involvement to a new
level, according to the researcher’s observation. First of all, their efforts and involvement
are well recognized in the survey: 27 out of 33 participants chose “always” and “most of
the time” when asked whether parents are involved in school-related activities.
Besides the indirect evidence collected by different interviewees, the researcher
constantly ran into parents during all his six school visits, witnessing them help decorate
the classrooms, take care of green plants in the garden in the rain, and help make
costumes for a school performance. Even parents of the alumni came back with the
alumni to participate in the rehearsal for the performance, which was very unusual and
heart-warming, considering how tight high school students’ schedule could be.
The school also made an effort to reach out in parent education, especially for
those families that do not know much about Chinese language and culture. Six cultural
presentations were lined up this year to give parents a general introduction to Chinese
culture, with topics such as the Chinese family names and the traditions.
Apparently the parents love that and embrace it verbally. Parent A. stated:
One of the things he (the head of school) is doing, is to work more and more to
engage the parents, to have, in a meaningful, I don’t want to say dialogue, the
understanding of where he is going, in a very profound way. So the parents will
be on board of what these 21
st
century skills are in these areas, on a bilingual side,
but also the communication of it, then it opens a higher dialogue...

96

Additionally, the parents are informed and updated with the latest changes and
development of the education field. During one of the visits, the researcher ran into a
group of parents having a meeting early in the morning with the preschool principal.
Later he was informed that it was a newly formed group called PAECE-Parent
Association for Early Childhood Education. It was a learning group, where in-depth
conversation and discussion took place, so that parents’ support and contributions were
recognized and their concerns and voices could also be heard. That was truly inspiring, as
Administrator B. explained the rationale and benefit of doing such, “While some young
and new parents are educated, they become advocate for the school, and as we all know,
sometime, actually most of the time, the same word or news coming out from a peer
parent’s mouth is much more powerful and effective than if coming out from the school
administration.”
From both direct and informal source, the researcher also found that at ZMGJ,
parents not only became solid supporters and advocates for the school, but also some of
them even came on board to work for the school. One of the receptionists is a parent, the
admission director is a parent, and a former parent also works as the director for
development.
In summary, all the above-mentioned evidence confirmed that the leadership of
ZMGJ was able to fully and effectively incorporate the essence of political maneuver of
all stakeholders, to get everyone involved towards the same goal of the school.

97

Structural Framework
According to Bolman and Deal (2003), the structural framework reflects a leader
who is a social architect, in which in the guidance style reflects analysis and design – a
focus on structure, strategy, environment, implementation, experimentation, and
adaptation is instilled.
With both the human resource and coalitional teamwork in place, the next
challenge is how to implement the mission. The head of school had a very structured
step-by-step strategic plan, which was designed in a reasonably attainable timeline, so the
goals could be achieved in a timely and effective manner.
In September 2010, soon after his inauguration, the head of school outlined for
the community a process for evaluating CAIS and improving the school program
demonstrated in the following diagram, which is a visual representation of the process.

Figure 4: The Process of school improvement (Head’s professional blog, Oct. 20,
2011)

98

During the first stage of “Observation, Listening and Learning”, in addition to the
various group meetings and observation with different stake-holders he had, the head of
school carefully studied the results of a survey of the faculty and a survey of the Parent
Association, as well as the accreditation report and Chinese and English program review.
At the end of the first semester, the head of school, after getting the feedback
from the faculty, then hosted a community meeting in which he outlined the following
five areas of focus he believed the school needed to place its efforts and resources over
the next three to four years: Curriculum and Instruction; Chinese Language and Culture;
Communication; Technology; and School Identity and Culture.
Early in 2011 the school entered the “Planning and Creating a Shared Vision”
stage, which included a series of half-day, facilitated planning retreats, and each one
focused specifically on one of the five areas of focus. In the planning retreats, focus
groups of faculty, staff and in some cases other CAIS stakeholders met and developed
visions for each Area of Focus. The statements of vision were concrete expressions of
tasks the school was committed to achieving by the beginning of the 2014 school year.
Early spring of 2011 was focused on “infrastructure” issues; restructuring and
staffing in order to ensure the school had the capacity to achieve the vision for each of the
Areas of Focus. The community was informed of the restructuring and staffing plans in
February and kept up to date on key hires in the subsequent weeks and months.
At the same time of restructuring and staffing, groups of faculty and staff
established short-term goals in each of the Areas of Focus, as the school began making
the transition from the planning stage to the “Implementation” stage.
99

The actual implementation stage was launched over the summer of 2011. During
a two-day retreat, a leadership team developed all school goals for the 2011-2012 school
year, organized primarily around the areas of focus. Achieving these goals helped the
school realize its vision called “CAIS 2014”, which is not meant to be an exhaustive list
of everything occurring at the school, but constitutes an overview of important strategic
initiatives.
The year of 2012 is special for ZMGJ, as it marks the 30
th
anniversary. In addition
to a variety of celebration activities, the school wanted to take this opportunity to review
and revise its mission statement. Timing this process with the anniversary provided a
natural reflection point to evaluate what is important to the school. As always, the process
involved all constituents of the school - faculty, staff, parents, trustees and students. A
Steering Team, which was comprised of parents, faculty, staff, trustees and
administration, sent a survey to the community in spring of 2011, asking everyone’s input
on the new mission. In fall of 2011, the Board used the Steering Team's report, which
consolidated the survey results, and held a retreat in early September to draft a
revised Mission Statement.
Here is one piece of evidence that anyone could be involved in the process, as
described by Staff member Bob:
While the board is the ultimately responsible for the long-term interest of the
school, but for the past few times, it was conducted by a committee. The faculty
and staff parents formed the committee, to get everyone’s input. I was part of the
tem, it was put out on the white board, at a faculty meeting, I was invited to
participate in the discussion of the school mission, both 10 years and another one
during a retreat 5 years ago.

100

On November 30
th
, one week after the Board communicated with the community
of the mission revision process, the head of school announced the new mission statement
to the community, and further explained it to the community the process by asking and
answering two questions, the first of which being: “What is ‘Mission’ and why does it
matter?”
The head of school answered this:
It should express the core purpose for which an organization exists. Without
clarity of purpose, then it doesn’t really matter what we do as a school. With
clarity of purpose we can make deliberate decisions about what students should
learn, how teachers should teach, the kinds of teachers we hire, the types of
families we admit, the priorities reflected in the way we construct our budget,
how we assess the progress of our students, what kind of co-curricular programs
we support. (Newsletter, Nov. 30, 2011).

The second question is “How can we ensure that daily life at CAIS is mission
consistent?”, which in the researcher’s mind, transitions the effort from “talk the talk” to
“walk the walk” by turning ideas into action.
With the limited number of visits the researcher was able to pay, he was not able
to observe most of the action, but he was fortunate to be invited to attend a faculty
meeting on December 1
st
, right after the announcement, during which he was able to
witness and document what was apparently one of the first few steps of the action.
The head of school started the meeting by further explaining the necessity of a
mission by asking a few fundamental questions: Why do we exist? Why are we here?
Why do we do this? What is our core purpose?
Then he answered the question:
To educate kids, in a way which will give them proficiency and understanding in
a deep level of Chinese language and culture, as well as the American language
101

and culture, through that process, become much more comfortable with the
variety and complexity of the world beyond SF. We started doing this 30 years
ago, here we are, standing strong, at 30, a great time to look back, at our historical
mission, we articulate what it is to go forward. Today’s meeting, is going to be an
attempt then to take that mission, what does it look like in 2
nd
grade math? What
does it look like in auxiliary, what is it if we live our mission, what will that look
like in outdoor education, should we have outdoor education? Should we expand
things of this nature?

Then he played a two-minute video, which was designed and produced by the
lower school principal. The video captures not only the mission, but also the process that
the community went through, in order to arrive at this mission, seven months of work.
Then he once again, pointed out the highlight at the end of the video, which says: the
Mission is for everyone: faculty, parents, staff, administration, board members, students,
alumni, and founders.
The head of the school then asked the faculty to reflect on the school’s mission
from the perspectives of teaching, assessment, and professional development and how
emerging patterns can connect to the larger community. Ultimately, he urged the staff to
consider what the school’s values of embracing Chinese culture, becoming the best of
yourself, and creating a place in the world would look like if part of daily life. He asked,
“If ZMGJ were truly guided by our mission, what will our students know? What will our
students understand, what will our student be able to do? How would student demonstrate
their knowledge and understanding of the skills? What will teaching and learning
activities look like? What current professional development will we have?”
To draw on this reflection, the teachers went into pre-assigned groups, relevant to
the language they spoke, to debate the meaning of certain phrases. Just as the head of the
school expected, they were not emphasizing an end goal of finding answers, but were
102

encouraging the process of brainstorming, which served the purpose of understanding the
mission in a deeper level. This enthusiastic discussion went over time so they did not get
a chance to share and read all the comments populated, but it was clear that this reflection
process was effective at having the staff understand the values of the school’s mission.
During another meeting that the researcher attended, very similar structure and
style were observed. The middle school principal was the designated leader of this
meeting, which appeared to be a sign of delegation, empowerment and ownership of
leadership strategy. After reviewing and refreshing the teachers’ minds about what was
previously achieved, the principal articulated goals to be achieved over the next hour of
the meeting time. Teachers were also divided into groups of 5-9, by language, and they
were supposed to come up with their own understanding and interpretation of the
Learning Principles that was drafted and published by the curriculum committee, which
was composed of administrators and teachers. The development of the Learning
Principles was part of the first item of the five Areas of focus in the school improvement
plan, and they were designed to hold the teachers accountable for the students’
achievement. The document were prepared and presented in both languages, so the
teachers from both team can feel the ease sharing their original thoughts.
This meeting provided another strong example of the structural framework
approach used by the faculty at the school. In an organized and functional manner, the
team was able to work collaboratively, while the leaders guided them, to dissect ideas,
brainstorm solutions, and understand the directions the school should move in to achieve
its mission.
103

Symbolic Framework
Within this framework, one would imagine a prophet, whose leadership style
includes inspiration and views organizations as a stage or theater to play certain roles and
give impressions. These leaders use symbols to capture attention, framing experience by
providing plausible interpretations of experiences. They discover and communicate a
vision (Bolman & Deal, 2003).
It looked very optimistic and promising to see the entire school community
working together, following a detailed plan that the head of school mapped for them.
Nevertheless, it is human nature to get tired, feel bored and become distracted and less
motivated as times goes by and as work piles up. Therefore, in a successful organization,
in addition to the competent and willing human resources, effective and productive
collaborative efforts, and organized and strategized structure, there is also a need of a bit
of magic, a bit of charm, a bit of underlying motivation that is beyond the words, talks
and diagrams and keeps the team moving forward.
At ZMGJ, the researcher was able to notice something that could not be easily
captured and categorized.

Figure 5: ZMGJ 30
th
Anniversary Logo

104

Biliterate charisma. When the researcher opened the website of ZMGJ, the 30
th

anniversary logo was the first thing that caught his aattention.I n addition to the fact that
it was presented in both languages, it was also worth noting that the Chinese words on the
logo “sānshí ěr lì ” and their English rendition “30, standing strong” were taken from the
Confucian Analects , a collection of Confucius’ sayings compiled by his disciples. The
full Analects passage from which the 30
th
anniversary tag line is derived, reads as
follows:
The Master said: At 15 my heart was set on learning; At 30, I stood strong; At 40,
I had no doubts; At 50, I knew the will of Heaven; At 60, my ear was attuned to
the truth; At 70, I follow my heart’s desires without transgressing what is right.
(Head of school’s Blog, September 28, 2011).

The head of school spent many years in the U.S. and in Greater China area
studying the Chinese language, and he is fluent in Chinese to an extent that the researcher
had never encountered a single communication block with him, no matter whether they
were discussing very subject-specific intellectual topics or merely conversation about the
“ji mao suan pi,” -chicken feather and garlic peel, which is an example of the most trivial
topic in everyday life in a China context. The researcher observed that the head of school
encouraged the Chinese faculty to speak their mind in their most comfortable language
and format during faculty meetings to maximize their intellectual contribution with
minimized language blockade, and he would serve as site interpreter to convey their
thoughts and ideas to the English team when needed.
The head of school is not only verbally bilingual, but also a true scholar in both
modern and classic Chinese literature. There is not a single newsletter he sent out to the
community that does not contain at least a couple of Chinese proverbs or idioms from
105

scholarly contexts. For example, in order to convince the community to embrace the
trend of using textbooks for teaching simplified Chinese characters, he published on his
professional blog a scholarly paper that he wrote as a first year graduate student on the
topic of the reform of the Chinese characters in 1990. Who could have challenged that?
Being a Midwest native who had lived in Beijing for over 10 years gave him the
non-negotiable authority to talk about these two languages and cultures with minimal bias
and prejudice. Despite his deep and insightful understanding of Chinese culture, he still
self-identifies as a life-long student of Chinese language and culture on his blog. This
statement is indicative that he not only truly understands how Chinese people think and
behave, but he also practices the Chinese social norms and customs himself. This is the
reason why when he “preaches” about humility, people listen.
“So far as I know, the locus classicus (or chūchù ) of “lifelong learning” in
Chinese culture is this passage from the Analects. Confucius describes his life
from 15 to 70 as a journey of continuous learning. I love the humility that this
implies; Confucius, despite (or perhaps because of) a life dedicated to learning,
always thought he could learn more, always strived to become his best self”
(Newsletter Sept 28, 2011).

His previous work experience as a study abroad program director gave him a
strong voice that emphasizes the importance of developing students’ life skills and cross-
cultural skills through oversea experience. In his self-description on his professional blog,
he also describes himself as “devoted to experiential education”, which defines his
education philosophy, and dictates what he wishes for the students in the school that he
works for.
106

During the interviews, an administrator and a parent were both able to retell a
same story of the “Li yu tiao long men”
2
- the carp jump over the Dragon Gate, which
they both learned from the head of the school. It was an inspiring moment when the
researcher tried to understand two non-Chinese speaking Caucasian women, who were
making their best efforts to pronounce this phrase in Chinese, it showed how much the
community is receiving, digesting and absorbing from what the head of school was trying
to convey, an ultimately good embodiment of aligned mission and goal. It is hard to
memorize a whole essay of education philosophy, but people love stories, especially
exotic stories, hence they will remember it as well as the hidden message within the
story.
Additionally, the school float in this year’s San Francisco Chinese New Year
parade will render the fable “Carp Jump Over Dragon Gate”, as the researcher was
informed. There is also a beautifully rendered four-claw dragon hopscotch mural on the
ground of the corridor inside the school gate on the preschool campus.
These are just some of the many examples of this biliterate school leader using his
advanced Chinese and profound understanding of Chinese literature and culture to earn
trust from the community in order to mobilize it while at the same time, educating the

2

There
is
a
fable
in
Chinese
culture
that
exemplifies
the
importance
of
“grit,”
called
“Lǐyú
tiào

lóngmén”

or
“Carp
Jump
Over
Dragon
Gate.”

In
the
story,
nine
carp
battle
upstream

against
a
strong
current.

When
they
reach
a
waterfall
called
Dragon
Gate,
they
leap
from
the
water,

turning
magically
into
dragons
as
they
clear
Dragon
Gate
falls.

This,
it
is
said,
is
the
reason
that

dragons
have
scales.

The
fable
represents
the
belief
in
Chinese
culture
that
hard
work
and

perseverance—“grit”—lead
to
success,
for
the
dragon
represents
power
and
success.

It
was
common

to
say,
when
a
scholar
passed
the
highest
level
of
imperial
exam—the
kējǔ—that
he
had
successfully

“jumped
over
Dragon
Gate.”

The
image
of
carp
jumping
over
an
actual
gate
(as
opposed
to
a

waterfall)
is
now
visible
everywhere—in
paintings,
murals,
sculptures.

107

parents. This is charisma, one of the critical ingredients to ensure the success of a
forward-going, change-seeking organization.
Love is in the water. As staff member Bob said, “One of the most important
elements of the school that bounds everyone together in the community is school-wide
events: back to school picnic, assemblies, Chinese New Year Mass Greeting. The PA
tries to put together a lot of events: Halloween, Moon Festival, the Holiday fair”;
however, it seems that there was also something greater that created this deep bond. The
researcher was constantly impressed and touched by the intense and pervasiveness of
attitude of caring and devotion that was infused in the atmosphere on both ZMGJ
campuses during his six visits.
In a 2
nd
grade English class, a student approached the teacher with a confused
look, the teacher hugged him first before answering his question. During classroom
switch transitions, all the students held a fist in the air when walking in the hallway,
which was a technique to remind them of quiet walking in the hallway. A student hugged
a teacher walking by, who was his teacher two years prior.
During recess, there were always teachers available, instead of day care staff,
which is a common practice for many schools to control cost. They tended to the students’
needs (crying, having a rope to be untied, accidents, missing snacks, sad face)
immediately. Most of the times, they talked to students either holding them in their arms,
or holding their hands.
One day, the researcher was admiring the artwork of the students on the wall
when someone hugged him from behind; it was a former student of the researcher who
108

transferred to ZMGJ last year. He hugged him three times and dragged him to his class to
spend time with him.
As an urban school on a busy street, the small playground area for recess is across
street, instead of within the campus. A security guard was stationed there to block the
traffic so the students could cross the street safely during recess. All the students “high-
fived” the security guard when passing by him, and apparently he knew the names of
some students, if not all.
Here is another example of how the school paid attention to the details of student
development, as described by Parent A., “…or sometime, you get invited to the
principal’s office, just to talk about certain issues, such as being bullied. ‘I know you
were bullied, so let’s talk about it’. Not quite assuming the role of counselor, but it is also
saying: we care about you, we provide this great environment for you, so we can help
you.”
During one of the faculty meetings the researcher was observing, sitting next to
him was another visitor who had been the principal for one of the most prestigious
boarding schools on the east coast for the past 20 years. He came to observe and learn
knowledge about how to run a bilingual school, to better serve his mission of building a
similar school in Beijing in 2014.
After spending a day at the school, this is what the old principal said, which was a
perfect quote that expressed exactly what the researcher felt:
I know I won’t be able to steal any teachers from the school, but I really want to
bring some water back, I am convinced that there must be something in the water
fountain that you all drink from makes you all motivated and do the excellent job
you are doing.
109

These examples paint a vivid picture of what the atmosphere at the school looks
like. Though the structure, curriculum, and concrete aspects of the school are critical, it is
also obvious that there is a symbolic charisma that holds the school together and creates
an environment that is full of motivation, care, and bond.
In summary, the second research question asks what the professional community
of the school consists of and how it supports the school’s programs and practices. The
relevant results are best organized through considering the school’s professional
community through a framework provided by Bolman and Deal (2003) that describes
four leadership styles that allow an organization to function and recognize problems
through four perspectives, allowing for adaptability and creative solutions. By organizing
the professional community of the school through the frameworks of human resource,
political, structural, and symbolic (Bolman & Deal, 2003), it is noted that there is a wide
range of members, approaches, and leadership styles that allow the school to function
effectively as it integrates 21
st
century programs and practices. These qualities include
competent leaders, dedicated teams, collaboration, strategic planning, and symbolic
charisma. This combined evidence through four framework lenses provided support that
the school has developed its mission and vision strongly and continuously created an
environment in which the students are learning 21
st
century skills that will allow them to
excel in the future.

110

Research Question 3: What is the perceived impact of the 21
st
century skills on the
culture of the school?
The researcher was able to find evidence through his data collection to document
both direct and indirect impacts the 21
st
century skills have on different stakeholders of
the school. More interestingly, this evidence corresponded to the same themes that
emerged during the data analysis in the first research question. Therefore, it is convenient
and logical to report the results again surrounding the same three themes of Global
consciousness, Embrace Chinese, and responsibility and adaptiveness.
Theme 1: Global Consciousness
A global perspective. Global consciousness is a step beyond global awareness,
which has been a buzzword for many years by now. It does not only stay at the level of
“what- knowing about the rest of the world”. Instead, the students are expected to
understand “why-the rest of the world is how it is.” In the head of school’s words,
“…instead of touching on superficial cultural facts, the students have deeper and more
meaningful interaction with the authentic culture. … and I think it’s the only way they
can get a chance to develop a global perspective, and multiple perspectives, step out of
the country to start with…”
As a result, students at ZMGJ, unlike other children who grew up in the United
States, are not particularly wired to associate language with one’s physical features; they
do not make the assumptions adults often make. For them, it is natural for people with
shared skin color to speak a different language than their own, or even multiple
languages. Due to the feature and location (San Francisco) of the school, the families are
111

truly diverse, not only in racial aspects such as white families with African American
kids, but also in familial structure, such as families with two fathers. It feels incredible
sometimes for adults, when talking to the students here, to see how open minded and
non-stereotypical these young children are, and how fast these young minds are receptive
to the concept of diversity.
Here is one vivid example that the researcher observed during a 7
th
grade social
studies class, and Islam was the topic of that particular lesson. The students were asked to
mark some of the countries on a blank map with a color that indicates the population of
the Muslims in the countries. The teacher gave them two recommended websites that
were trustworthy. A few minutes later, one of the girls started to whiten out an entire
country. When the researcher asked her why she had to undo the work, she said that she
realized the recommended website yielded different information from what the Wikipedia
said, so she decided to go with the trusted website, as the teacher warned and
recommended earlier. While she was grumpily whitening out the mistake, she also
whined “Oh my God!” to herself. Right at this moment, which the researcher was very
lucky to witness, the boy sitting next to her challenged her immediately: “Why not Oh
my Allah?”…
This immediate impact of global perspective on the students’ mind was beyond
expectation of anyone. The researcher was simply and purely amazed and impressed, and
the teacher felt the same when she was later informed about this incident.
One might call this incident accidental or individual case, but the survey result
also confirmed that phenomenon. When teachers were asked: “Students demonstrate
112

mastery in different ways.” 29 out of 31 participants answered with “always” and “most
of the time.”
Parents also had a lot of faith in the incredible changes this type of education
creates for their children’s mind. Parent B. commented,
“In education, we see ZMGJ as a potential stepping stone, to any of all these kids
who are involved, if the kids stay 5,6,8 years, they benefit from the mindset that the
school has put into them, which will allow them to choose what kind of high school they
want to go… if they really want to compete at the global stage, they have to go beyond
regional, they need to go to Sweden, or Finland, or any other Scandinavian
countries…they will probably find it easier to adapt, because the adaptability they have
developed in the past years.”
Indeed, one of the actual benefits of global consciousness is global skills, the
skills with which a student can not only survive in the country they were born and raised,
but also in places they may not be familiar with.
The head of the school reported, “As for our students’ skill development, it’s not
only about China, it’s not only about the language they learned here. Even if they go to
India, go to Europe, or some other countries, they will feel the same level of comfort, and
they will survive and feel ok.”
Life skills abroad. Having a global perspective is not only theoretical talk at
ZMGJ, it is real; the school takes as young as 5
th
grade students abroad, to as far as
China. They demonstrated extraordinary life skills during those trips. Many students have
allergies of some kind, and they learned how to monitor and avoid allergens, and take
113

care of themselves. They did not have any problem surviving even if it was their first
time going abroad without their parents. There has never been a single health related
incident.
While abroad, it is the best time to test their language proficiency in real life
context. When the students are still gradually developing their Chinese vocabulary, they
become extremely adaptive and creative when trying to communicate their message. As
Teacher M. described, “They would try different ways with whatever vocabulary they
already have and somehow it always works in the end. The expression might be longer
than necessary, but it works.”
They did not stop with the language they had been studying; the speed and ease
students demonstrated getting comfortable with a new and exotic language was amazing,
and here is a paragraph of the interview transcription, when the social studies teacher,
Teacher K., a chaperone on one of those trips, explained what she observed during the
trip, “They even picked up some Shanghainese, which is an unintelligible language even
for most mandarin speakers/learners. It was impressive; the head of school was
translating it to me and told me that some of the kids picked up some local dialect. I think
that having two languages already (in your brain), you just pick up languages. The 2
nd

language, the language skills, and certainly the two languages that students had been
using to learn throughout Pre-k all the way to 8
th
grade laid a powerful foundation for
their ability to acquire new languages and without feeling overwhelmed, compared to
adult learners like the teachers… (embarrassed chuckle).”
114

Here is an even more vivid scenario that demonstrated the strong life skills of the
students, as described by Teacher K:
There was this time, when I was personally really terrified when we were crossing
a street in Shanghai…you know what a shanghai street is like… (chuckle) as a
teacher, trying to get 14 kids across the street in a city like that, was really a
terrifying moment. I remember thinking in trying to rally them, they were scared
too, I could tell, but they were banding together, in this way that was very clear
that it was the same trust, the same collaboration they have with each other that
they had in classrooms that was transferred onto this busy Shanghai street, and I
think they knew, that as a group, we go with the flow, and it was the same trust
and I think it really relates to the communication and collaboration. We made it
crossing the street; nobody got hurt or ran over by a moped or anything like that.
It was really one of those moments…the teamwork aspect that we have seen
outside the classroom, outside the country actually, a complete different place,
that I think really speaks to the impact of, one of the facets of our program.
The impact of global consciousness was not only observed in the students’
behavior; it also directly and indirectly influenced the adults in the community as well.
Of course not everyone was able to experience everything that the students did on the
exchange trip, but they might be able to learn through the students’ eyes. When the
students saw the shabby curbside houses in Shanghai, in which probably 15 people lived,
they realized that this is the real China, not a glitzy high rise. So they understood the fact
that even though China’s economy is stronger now, the wealth is still distributed
unevenly. They came back and told everyone else, so that more people, including their
teachers, understood the misled economic situation of China.
In similar ways, parents were also affected when the kids returned home, and
behaved in a certain way that the parents had never seen before. They reflected and asked
themselves of their own habitual behavior or their way of thinking.
115

As a matter of fact, the school already has a highly multi-racial community with
globalized minds to start with. The families tended to have a vision to identify their
children as global citizens, no matter what ethnical and cultural background the parents
came from. When they heard stories of what their children learn in classes, they begin to
think in a different way. Here is how Parent A. expressed and explained her worldly
view, “From an outsider’s eyes…I think it’s very important for Americans looking at the
American education, what do we need for global skill, that we need to have more
understanding of the rest of the world. We are just a player at the table, not the owner of
the table.”
Through evidence mentioned above, it is reasonable to conclude that there has
been direct and indirect impact on both students, as well as adults, of a refreshed global
consciousness within the community.
Theme 2: Embrace Chinese
Chinese values. Most of the Chinese teachers were born and raised in their native
countries, or they lived in very traditional Chinese families in the United States, which
meant they were live embodiment of the Chinese culture. By observing and mimicking
how these adults talk and act on a daily base, students will begin behaving in a similar
way. This is another outcome of being not only immersed in a target language, but also in
the culture.
For instance, respect is a significant value in Chinese culture, as Chinese people
are in general shy away from confrontation, especially when interacting with someone
who is of higher social status or older.
116

Teacher M. suggested, “…they learned how to respect, they know how to be
polite to the elders and teachers, and to be very grateful for what they were given.”
The researcher noticed that students verbally apologized when being pointed out
for minor misbehavior, and students reminded each other of this as well.
ZMGJ has a unique challenge of sharing the building with a French international
school and an international high school. Sharing the space, facilities, and many resources
with them provides a learning experience of cultural differences, global perspective, and
being mindful of how to share space.
Teacher M. explained, “We used to have a lot of conflict, and many due to
cultural difference. The French people, adult and children, are more lively, loud and
straightforward, and not paying attention to the details and manner, while the Chinese are
relatively more quiet, reserved and non-confrontational. To cohabitate in a limited space
is definitely a training process of learning how to be respectful and tolerant to different
cultures and preparing them for the multi-cultural world they will be living and
competing in the future. Now the situation is much better…”
Along the same notion of respect and tolerance, ZMGJ also places an emphasis on
discipline and rules, as how it is emphasized in Chinese culture. Teacher M. further
explained, “Our students are easily identified when being joined by students from other
schools while on fieldtrips. They demonstrate much better discipline and politeness.”
Many of the families at ZMGJ are neither of American nor Chinese ethnic
background, and there are many mixed families; they learn from each other about
different culture and customs on a daily base.
117

“When they have friends from all over the world, they learn all the times.
There are cultural or religious taboos, and students learn how not to touch and violate
them and make people upset. It’s a very important social skill,” Teacher M. emphasized.
Friendship is also a great value in both Chinese culture and ZMGJ culture. Many
of the students had known each other since being four years old, and families naturally
become friends and supported each other, as many of them did not speak Chinese at
home. It is evident that the friendship created among the students is strong and stable, as
they help one another grow.
“In Chinese they say: Making up for one’s short by picking from others’ long.
Our students really picked that up. When you love the friends/classmates you work with,
you work harder and more enjoyably,” Teacher M. added.
Humility is one ethic norm that is highly recognized and encouraged in Chinese
culture, and that has heavily influenced the students at ZMGJ. Teacher M. spoke about
humility:
Because we teach Chinese, students learned about humility, which is something
that is almost absent from American culture. Even though some students are
doing very well in one area, but they will never go to the front of the classroom
and tell everyone, I am great, I am just great.

Adults embracing Chinese culture. In order to make Chinese language receive
the same status as English in a country that speaks predominantly English, strict language
rules and policy are usually reinforced in dual language programs. At ZMGJ, not only the
students are soaked in Chinese language, adults are encouraged to speak it too. Chinese
teachers are expected to use exclusive Chinese during student interactions and as much as
they can beyond that.
118

At both faculty meetings that the researcher observed, the teachers are grouped
according to the native language they speak. Most Chinese teachers felt more
comfortable sharing their thoughts in Chinese, to be translated into English later. The
researcher noticed the immediate benefit of doing so, many classic Chinese idioms,
proverbs were being used and refined by the teachers, such as jiaoxuexiangzhang-
teaching and learning mutually grows on each other; yincaishijiao-differentiate teaching
according to the students’ different strength; xuewuzhijing –never too old to learn;
xuhuairuogu-be as empty-chested (humble) as a wide valley.
This culture of embracing Chinese on campus had more impact than merely on
Chinese-speaking people. During one of the visits, while touring the campus with the
preschool principal, the researcher ran into a lady, who was excitedly talking about
something in Chinese. Later the researcher found out that she is a kindergarten
coordinator, and she comes here every Friday to take this Chinese class offered by the
school and taught by one of the teachers. Because there are so many interests in the
community that parents want to learn Chinese with their child, the school started offering
adult classes for parents and school staff.
Here is Teacher M.’s view on this topic during the interview:
For example, recently when the kids learned Tang Poems in school, they went
home and recited and explained to the parents about the poems, and the parents
were greatly touched and they would fall in love with Chinese poem and
literature, not necessarily language, but Chinese culture in general, try to have a
better understanding of it. For families who sent their children to our school,
obviously, they are more or less fond of or at least receptive of Chinese culture
already. But when they learn with their children and have topics to share with
them, they are in love with Chinese culture on a different level and depth; they
will even sign up for adult classes to learn more about it.

119

During one of the interviews, before answering the questions, the interviewee,
who is a mid-aged Caucasian woman, started asking questions about the researcher, such
as where he was from, where he went to college and so on. The unusual part was not the
questions themselves, but that she asked all these questions in very good Chinese, which
totally caught the researcher off guard. It turned out that she had lived in Shanghai for
five years, and signed up her son with one of the first few immersion programs in China.
Theme 3: Responsibility and Adaptiveness
Autonomous responsibility. When answering the first research question,
different programs and practices that promoted responsibility and adaptability were listed
and discussed, but how can we actually see these results? How do we know?
First of all, the survey data shows a positive consensus on this topic. When asked:
“Students are responsible for their behavior in the classroom” 32 out of 33 participants
chose “always” and “most of the time”.
For example, the dining room is in the basement of in a huge building. Beginning
in 5
th
grade, students manage to go there without supervision and without making noise
and running. They learn more discipline while enjoying more autonomy and freedom,
while teachers do not get involved.
Teacher M. further explained this by saying, “The 5
th
graders constantly remind
themselves that they are the oldest in the elementary school and they are expected to set
examples for the younger ones by behaving to the level of their maturity.”
The same behavior was observed in the younger grades as well. In a 2
nd
grade
classroom, students all have a “cubby”- a portable vertical file holder, to organize their
120

learning materials, so their desks can remain neat and organized. There was a duty list on
the wall that indicated each student’s responsibility for the day, such as cubby checker,
cleaner, homework collector, and door blocker. A poster of “What to do when you are
angry” was also posted behind the door.
During one visit, an interesting incident impressed the researcher. Halfway into
the class, the building started shaking, and all the students immediately went down and
hid under their desks without the teachers giving any command, and it took less than 30
seconds for the class to get back to order when the alarm was cleared. It showed two
things: the school does the drill quite often and that students are well trained about
earthquakes and alert to how to react during an earthquake.
The students are not only responsible in the classroom; it is also consistently
reflected in their personal conduct on a daily base. When they have student visitors
visiting from the sister school in China, students are instructed to find information from
the Internet to introduce San Francisco to the guests. Depending on the students’ level
and capability and preference, students design their own “lost and found” signs using a
flyer, a poster, a role play, or even an animation video clip with voice-over.
Many of the families do not have enough Chinese proficiency and literacy to help
their children with their schoolwork at home, so the students know they have to be more
independent and autonomous, and they practice that skill every day.
Parent A. explained this motivation she saw in her son:
My son hates sitting down to do work, but he wouldn’t miss that extra hour for
anything, oh no, they love it, they get all their homework done, the teachers are
there to help them, guide them, they come home, it’s done, they got help right
121

there, they find it so valuable, they don’t want to go home and struggle, it’s a
social thing too.

In a social studies class, the researcher was impressed that a student, who had
been sick and missing class, was able to answer all the questions that no one else in the
class could. When the researcher approached him after class, his answer was very simple:
“I knew I was falling behind, so I needed to do my own reading and studying before
class.”
The better news is that the impact does not disappear when the students leave the
school. As a matter of fact, they continue to improve those skills sustainably after
graduation when they realize how much they had learned from ZMGJ. During one visit,
the researcher ran into two alumni who had returned to help the music teacher with the
annual winter performance and overheard their conversation. When the music teacher
asked the 9
th
grade student how she is doing in the new high school, the student
mentioned “time management”, and how it was one of the most important and practical
skills that she had developed during her years at ZMGJ.
One teacher that was interviewed shared a letter that she got from a parent of two
children who both went through ZMGJ, and here is what the father said (not verbatim):
“ZMGJ’s nurturing environment that once taught the students skills that help them
navigate the world, now they are in the world, they are utilizing the skills to navigate in a
non-nurturing learning environment, as in a loud and busy public school, that can be
easily overwhelming, but the students already learned how to be themselves and the
attribute to the thinking skills they had developed during the school years at ZMGJ,
through making decision, evaluating situation, and solving problems…”
122

Parent A. also shared a story of how her son integrated adaptability in his
learning, as young as a 4
th
grade student:
My son has a very hard time to write, it’s been an epidemy, but they (the teachers)
have figured out a way to get him figure out his own problem and to deal with it.
They created an entire curriculum for him, last year, so that he could succeed, and
turn around his problem, which was stopping him from writing, which is causing
him to fail. And now, they are allowing him, requiring him to use keyboard ahead
of the class (the class was supposed to do it towards the end of the school year),
but now there is a keyboard at the corner, when others are writing, he can quietly
go and type his work. This is flexibility and adaptability, on the part of the school,
but my son also has to be adaptable to do that. So I consider this, the teachers are
modeling for the students what they need to do in the future…
Adults modeling adaptiveness. Again, the impact of 21
st
century skills was not
only observed in the student body. The researcher was able to find evidence that showed
that the adults were modeling “practicing whatever they were preaching”.
Every organization has a few faster horses, and there will always be resistance as
well; therefore, when talking about new concepts such as adaptability, it has to start with
human resources, as the head of school explained, “We can’t get rid of all those people or
expect them to change completely and catch up over night. But, we just can’t hire
anybody who comes in and tells me they are not ready to try any new technology and
they are happy of how they have been teaching in the past 15 years, and it’s been
working.”
The world is changing rapidly, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for people
to become experts in fields that are constantly updated. This is not exactly a situation of
“the blind leading the blind,” yet it does take some courage and strategies when it is time
to implement, even when everyone is ready to try. The teachers will try new technology
123

before asking the students to be more flexible and adaptable, just as the head of school
recommended:
What claims can we make when we talk about initiatives? We can’t simply ask
them (students) to take some initiatives. But we can model it, we can start with
the teachers. When we walk into a classroom, observe a teacher give homework,
do teachers give choices? When teachers issue challenges, do they give them
different level of challenges? Will they allow the students choose a topic?

Apparently the parents felt the same, as confirmed by Parent A., “You don’t
impart to a child of social stuff…they teach the manner, instead of saying: ‘Susie, go take
some initiatives.’ The teacher would say: ‘Susie, how would you do that?’ or ‘Class, let’s
get into groups, let’s figure it out.’ In other words, the teachers know about flexibility.”
To survive in a fast-changing world and prepare the students to be ready for a
world that we adults don’t even know what it is going to be like, a school needs to
undergo a great deal of adaption. Five to six years ago, the head of school realized that
Bopomofo- the Taiwanese phonetics, is really not making sense for learning Chinese
overseas, and the children were becoming too dependent on the Bopomofo so the school
decided to switch from Bopomofo to Pinyin, the phonetics used in Mainland China.
It was not an easy decision, neither was an easy adaption, as staff member Bob
remembered: “While we still had teachers from Mainland China, HK and Taiwan, it
could be a challenge. However, when the students were sent to China during the
exchange trip, the students weren’t able to read, so we had to adapt.”
The researcher was able to observe such a struggle in action too. It was during the
faculty meeting when teachers were asked to work in different groups to brainstorm and
then report the discussion result on a Google Document, which was an interactive and
124

real time collaborative innovation. There were some technical challenges in the beginning
of the activity: because the original Google Doc was in excel form, so when people start
to type, it deleted what other people had previously done. The problem was fixed almost
immediately, with the replacement and resave of it as a word form.
During the challenge, some older faculty gave the “I toldya…” speech, “we
should have stayed with old-fashioned flip board and white board, then we wouldn’t have
run into issues like this.” This indicated resistance in using new technology. The head of
the school addressed this issue without criticizing them in public, but explained the
reason why it did not work in the first place, how they could avoid running into similar
trouble, and how and why the damage could be controlled (because one of the advantages
of Google Doc automatically saves a copy every 30 seconds, so one could always go
back to a certain document saved at a particular time, so actually no data was lost).
The head of the school also used it as a perfect teaching moment to model
embracing technology, collaborative work, problem solving, and most importantly,
modeling risk-taking, adaptability and resilience.
Fortunately, the parents recognized the school’s effort, and they are supportive.
Parent A. acknowledged this, “…this is flexibility and adaptability, on the part of the
school, but my son has also to be adaptable to that. So I consider this, the teachers are
modeling for the students what they need to do in the future. To me, these are life and
career skills, not to be taught but to be modeled. That requires the school to do a hell
amount of work, to let the teachers know how to model this, and hire and train
outstanding teachers, because this is not a trade we are born with this ability.”
125

The final research question that explores the impact of the 21
st
century skills on
the culture of school can be organized according to the same common themes found in
research question 1: global consciousness, embracing Chinese, and responsibility and
adaptiveness. Through global awareness, life skills abroad, data shows positive
influences on students, parents, and teachers. The atmosphere at the school is one that
encourages embracing Chinese culture; the impact on the school community is found
through the values of respect, tolerance and humility gained by both students and parents
as they adhere to Chinese language and traditions. Autonomous responsibility was also
seen in the students’ behavior, and adults (teachers, administrators, and parents) were
modeling adpativeness so the students were also able to develop that important skill.
Ultimately, these impacts create an atmosphere that allows for forward movement; as the
global economy is developing rapidly, the use of 21
st
century skills will allow students to
move with changing times and they can learn to first experience this within the school,
through its programs, practices, and values encouraged by the staff.

126

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION
Summary of Findings
Research Question 1 and 3. The findings of questions 1 and 3- what are the
practices and programs and how are they aligned with 21
st
century skills, and what is the
perceived impact of 21
st
century skills on the culture of the school- could both be
organized according to three themes. The ideas of global consciousness, embracing
Chinese, and responsibility and adaptiveness were found in the results for these research
questions.
Theme 1: Global consciousness. In classrooms, teachers integrate global
perspectives to lessons, whether it be history, music, or current political events and news.
In addition, the dual language immersion program and international field trips support the
value the school holds on bringing global consciousness to its students. This value is not
only found in the programs, but is meshed within the school’s atmosphere and how the
teachers interact and encourage the students. Observations confirmed a collaborative and
creative approach held by the teachers to create environments that support and encourage
students to think in a global manner and understand different cultures and countries. It
seems that there is a strong value for the school to implement physical practices, as well
as an underlying attitudes and values, of global integration.
Theme 2: Embrace Chinese. The importance of Chinese culture is found
throughout the school through traditional and modern Chinese decoration, celebration of
Chinese holidays and festivals, and integrating traditional cultural and moral values into
the curriculum and daily behavior. As a result, it is evident how Chinese culture plays a
127

significant role in the school for administrators, faculty, teachers, students and parents.
The impact of embracing Chinese culture for the schools is one that brings the school’s
population to a mutual cultural bonding, despite the different backgrounds or origins
everyone arrives from.
Theme 3: Responsibility and Adaptiveness. There are specially designed
programs within the school that display its strive for students to develop personal
responsibility, independent thinking, role-modeling, leadership, and team work. These
characteristics are representative of 21
st
century skills, as they provide students with
personal growth that allows them to adapt to different situations, cultures, and workplaces
with ease. Because these programs and practices encourage these values, students begin
to carry them out naturally, as the researcher observed. It was noted that the atmosphere
of the school reflected the values of the students and teachers; the students carried
themselves with proper conduct and teacher reinforced these values through their own
actions of modeling practical skills. It was also noted that parents even felt the 21
st

century skills carried in the school’s environment.
Research Question 2. Results for the question that ponders the professional
community at the school and how it supports the practices varied and are best organized
through looking at four perspectives of leadership frames as described by Bolman and
Deal (2003) as human resource, political, structural, and symbolic.
Human Resource: “Right people on the bus”. At times, the professional staff at
the school best utilizes a stance in which the head of the school served as a catalyst to
manage a team by support, advocacy, and empowerment. As the head of the school is a
128

‘catalyst’ it was noted that the faculty corresponded well with his style and focus. Results
showed that the school’s professional team, though having various strengths and cultural
backgrounds, all shared the collaborative school vision and were able to best function
with the head of the school as their leader.
Political: “Everyone walks the walk”. It became evident that collaboration and
including relevant stakeholders contributed to the strong foundation that maintained the
school’s success. The head of the school continuously strengthens the structure of the
school by putting together collaborative teams to tackle tasks and improve systems.
Consistent collaboration between teachers was found to be necessary, especially for the
dual language immersion program, where there is limited instruction time for each
language. Parents are encouraged to become active in the school, and are informed of
changes and developments within ZMGJ. In addition, parent education is provided for
those families who have limited knowledge on Chinese language and culture. The
involvement and engaging of the parents into the school’s community shows how the
school strives to have its stakeholders know where their investment in the school for the
children is going, and allows them to be a part of continuous improvement to strengthen
the school.
Structural: Strategic plan with an achievable timeline. Results show that what
held together the school’s team and implanted practices was an organized strategic plan.
Because the school had very clear goals and visions on what they wanted a school with
21
st
century skills to look like, the professional staff used a structured process to
effectively implement the school’s mission. Activities such as retreats, staff restructuring,
129

and continuous review of the mission statement reflect ways in which the staff keeps the
stress of running a strong school under control. It also showed that the team is constantly
looking for ways to improve and provide the best services for students and parents, as
well as keep up with modern, changing times which serves as an essential analogy to the
changing 21
st
century world.
Symbolic: Charisma. Finally, results noted that in addition to everything that was
observable- leadership, teamwork, and strategy- there was an additional inspiration
within the school that was seen through symbolic natures. Because of the head’s
background and cultural experiences, he has served the school with insight, inspiration
and biliterate charisma. Integrating Chinese traditions, such as Confucian values, shows
that the school genuinely respects the symbols and significance of Chinese culture, and
feels that these symbols can inspire the school’s community. Through small gestures,
such as hugs, high fives, and holding hands, it was evident that the school has the caring
and devotion infused in the atmosphere, which was not taught in any lesson, but felt
through bonds and the space that the professional community created for its recipients.
Discussion
The way in which the research questions were structured somehow prohibited the
researcher to further explore two areas, in which the data collected showed ambiguity and
room for discussion.
Technology. Interestingly, the word “technology” and the topic of it were
mentioned multiple times by many interviewees; however, there was a wide range of very
different impressions of the role technology plays at ZMGJ. The participants also had
130

varying expectations and understanding of how technology should be integrated in the
infrastructure and human resources at ZMGJ.
Two administrators and one staff used the word “behind”, admitting the fact that
technology is not an area that the school is excelling in at the moment. Nevertheless, it is
possible that these participants had a much higher level of expectation, according to the
observation by the researcher, and that advanced technology is available and accessible.
Six computers were installed in the library last year and a projector and DVD
player were acquired this year, which created a transition from book-based approach to
multi-media mode. The school added a computer classroom this year to have computers
exclusively for ZMGJ students. Prior to this addition, a computer classroom was shared
with another school.
A few classrooms are equipped with SmartBoard, an interactive whiteboard that
uses touch detection for user input, in the same way normal PC input devices, such as a
mouse or keyboard, detects input. They are mainly used for science, math, MS English
and Chinese humanity, which include language arts and social studies. There are one to
two computers in each classroom. In each classroom, there is a “visualizer”, which can
project any object onto the wall, and most teachers are embracing it. A flip camera in
each classroom is also used to conduct oral interviews and record class activity and
student presentations.
There are two laptop carts that are mostly used in middle school. Before last
summer, the school purchased two iPad carts, each which holds 20 iPads that are loaded
with applications; students have to reserve and use it on rotating basis.
131

The hardware is only one part of the prerequisite of using technology in the
curriculum, we also need software: human resource and programs. ZMGJ has a part-time
computer teacher for each language. The computer teachers work with class teachers to
integrate technology in curriculum activities.
The E-portfolio- a 40 plus page PowerPoint file, which serves a multi-media
progression report to replace the traditional written report cards- has been an important
milestone that the school has achieved. At the beginning of the year, the student will
record a video capturing him or her speaking a few words, and the same is done at the
end. In this way, the parents are very much informed and updated with the progression
with their child’s Chinese learning, along with other areas. It has been piloted in the
preschool site but will eventually be used for upper level as well.
“We also use Scholastic, an online learning tool. The 3
rd
graders are studying
Australia; I showed… from the Internet, this is the first time for me to use technology to
teach. They watch the word while being read…”Staff member Bob explained.
The important part is that most of the people on campus apparently are embracing
technology, as observed in Teacher R.’s reaction, “I was able to use Noah Charts to
observe Tsunami almost real time from computer, to see the energy wave coming cross
the Pacific ocean, without which it’s impossible to do so, it changed the way I teach.”
“… and it’s been such an effort to move things forward, moving towards future,
technology is going to be more and more important,” Administrator B. reflected.
Teacher M. reported, “The students worked in pairs and each pair was given an
iPad to research for information. The comfortable level of the student using iPad was
132

phenomenal and none of them was using it as a toy, as some educators were concerned
about.”
“I am embracing the change, I am able to do it, and I am still learning it
though…” Staff member Bob stated.
“Media and technology skills, we really try to embrace it here as a whole school,
so we’ve got the technology, the iPads, the Smartboards, and everything. What I have
been trying to do is to teach how to search for information that is useful, how to do search
that is not going to waste our time, how to do effective search. I integrate these skills in
the research projects that I do in both 8
th
and 7
th
grade,” Teacher K. commented.
The exciting news is that the school has made concrete steps to improve the
situation. Technology was listed as one of the five areas of focus in the strategic plan and
the effort was recognized and acknowledged by the faculty.
A technology committee was formed last year, and they completed a survey that
asked teachers what they wanted. Teacher R. suggested, “We just did our budget
projection for next year, I think they have the budget to help the teachers with what they
need, but the problem is everyone has a different idea of what should be done. We have a
new IT director now, new computer teacher this year, who is working on the curriculum.
But I think eventually they want to get rid of having a computer class, and have computer
skills incorporated into the core language classrooms. So we will have work stations in
the classroom, or SmartBoards, iPads, laptops…”
133

Nevertheless, the fact is that not everyone is going to think in the same way and
embrace technology to the same level. The good news is that the head of school is well
aware of this and has a plan:
We will face resistance from teachers, as always, there are different work ethics.
That’s why I am using this Prototype approach: We have different pods/cells of
people, initiators, early adaptors, early followers, late followers, and CAVEman-
Colleagues Against Virtually Everything. So just leave them alone, and tell them
it’s ok if they don’t get into the boat now. When they see success from other
people, when they see the majority of people eventually all get into the boat, they
will too.

Yet, while everyone is talking about technology, it was interesting to hear an
unconventional statement by Parent A., which was surprising and thought-provoking,
“Technology, we don’t need to teach them, they are gonna get it anyway. Look at them,
how young they start to play with iPad, which already became the most effective enticing
and discipline tool…”
The head of school actually felt the same way:
“We are experimenting the iPads, we are seeing the challenges already. It’s
designed for a personal device, and it’s totally driven by personal needs. The users decide
and even invent the apps, so we put iPads in the kids’ hands, and let them tell us how
they can use them.”
Adults are also noticing that kids are actually much more capable with technology
than they thought, as staff member Bob explained,“…but in the same time, I notice when
the 2
nd
grader students were given the iPads, they could do it, without the teachers’ help.
It’s so interesting for me to watch, they know enough Chinese to do it on their own.”
Therefore, technology remains a big topic yet needs to be further explored.
134

Assessment. Another question arose during the interview with the head of school,
yet the researcher ran out of time to further explore the topic: assessment. How do we
know we are actually making a difference to these young learners? How are we sure what
we give them is what they need for the world they will be living in? Apparently, we were
not the only one who had the same concern.
Teacher K. reported, “Whenever the 9
th
and 10
th
graders, these graduate come
back, I always want to ask them, how we prepared them, and how they went into the big
wild world, especially if they had been with us for a long time. I want to know what they
took with them from ZMGJ, what are the skills they have, something deeper than the
language skill, not just I was in Chinese level 5, these obvious things…”
Even if we were able to, with research findings, old wisdom, and educator’s
professional and intuitive sense, to narrow and pin down some critical skill sets we feel
more important than others, how could we measure them after giving or teaching them to
the students?
The head of the school answered, “When we see this list of 21
st
century skills, we
realize many of these items are not tangible, and hard to measure, so we educators should
ask our selves, what does it look like? What does flexibility mean? Maybe we should
have a list of items for some of these skills.”
There seems to be waves of wake up calls all over the country, addressing the
need of improving the overall education in this country. Different laws and policies have
been made to assure the quality control of the public education, but most of them are
relying on standardized tests to inform the educators and parents of a general idea
135

whether a school is doing ok or not. However, is that enough? Is that accurate? Is that the
right way? Here is what the head of school thought:
“Yes, we now live in this matrix-obsessed era, people want to see numbers,
especially some parents, ask ridiculous questions, and demand to see not only a score but
where their child stands in a diagram all the time. But sometimes, we need to use
intuition, instead of data, to measure students’ achievement.”
He further posed his point by providing some alternative methods of assessment:
For example, when our 7
th
graders spend a few weeks overseas, it’s a great
opportunity to evaluate them. Not by multiple-choice test of course, but we can
have them describe to us how they feel, when they stay with host families. From
feeling nervous in the beginning to comfortable at the end, it’s not only about the
skill of squatting over a toilet…We can have them write essays, to see whether
they have multiple perspectives. When we have them solve problems, will they
have several approaches, instead of one?

The music teacher, Teacher J., also expressed similar concerns and she elaborated
her thoughts particularly in her field:
Music is something that student will enjoy and benefit from for their entire lives,
although it may not have an immediate tangible result but it will be infused and
integrated into a student’s overall quality. After all, I think 21
st
century skills
should go back to humanity, the teachers should put more emphasis on the
process rather than product. For example, I don’t particularly assess how well the
students play the drums, but I care a great deal about the process, the experience
that the students have interacting with the musical instrument. …These hands-on
experience, in my opinion are all important, it accumulates and distills in these
young minds, we don’t know exactly what are they going to turn into, or see the
immediate result, but I also believe in “cong liangbian dao zhibian- enough
accumulation of something will eventually turn into something else.
Finally, the head of school ended this discussion with an optimistic statement,
136

“It does take faith, maybe even a leap of faith to do what we do at ZMGJ,” which
probably is the mentality that other schools and educators need to adopt at this era when
changes are happening much faster than we are physically and mentally prepared.
Limitations
This study presented several limitations for the research findings. First, there was
very limited time the researcher, as a full time school administrator, could spare to spend
in the school to be studied. There were also limited opportunities for the researcher to
speak with the head of school, who is even busier, to follow up on some topics after the
data collection concluded.
Another factor that might limit the generalizability and duplicability of this
particular research is the fact the school in this study stands as a very special school with
unique programs and curriculum design. Nevertheless, it is about time that public
schools, and generally all schools, need to think outside the box and learn from all
successful education models.
Implications for Practice
Foreign language - Not an option any more. For students to compete in a multi-
cultural world that we are living in and even more globalized world that our children will
be living in, speaking more than one language is becoming not an option but an
imperative. There will be fewer and fewer solo jobs left in the world, and there will be
more and more jobs that require cross-continental and multinational teamwork. Teaching
children a foreign language at a young age not only provides them with a useful tool that
enables them to communicate with a much larger population, then hence makes them
137

more competitive in a global job market, but also gives them a multi-angled and multi-
dimensional perspective plus a much enhanced tolerance of difference and diversity.
Dual language immersion- It works. There have been different attempts
teaching foreign languages at different age, using varied models, but not all program
seem to work as expected. The number of students who are successfully meeting high
standards of foreign language proficiency is still far behind the world norm. Learning a
foreign language requires serious commitment, which includes but is not limited to initial
and sustainable funding, trained and qualified faculty, curriculum redesign and
integration, sufficient allocation of time and creative scheduling, shared community
interest, on top of a future-oriented vision and corresponding effective leadership.
Nevertheless, in recent years, dual language immersion model has been proven to
be effective through many living examples, and is now drawing more and more attention
in the field. This research, with anecdotal evidence, once again has demonstrated positive
outcomes in many different areas, including but not limited to students’ enhanced
cognitive learning ability, with well-developed higher order thinking skills, a multi-
cultural perspective and global consciousness that embraces difference and diversity, in
addition to high level of bilingual ability and literacy, without compromising their
achievement in English, mathematics and other subjects.
Exchange Programs- A step forward, and a step further. Since globalization
became a buzzword a few years ago, now it is rare to see school that completely refuses
to mention it in the school’s mission statement or at least make some attempts to address
elements of it. Nevertheless, it takes much more than superficial talk to truly embrace a
138

globalizing world from a pedagogical aspect, especially in K-12 settings, if it is not
solidly integrated in the curriculum or extracurricular activities.
Building and maintaining a solid, meaningful, and sustainable exchange program
with a school in another part of the world serves as a significant first step. It enables
students to see the world from a completely different standpoint, and gives them
opportunity to share their life and growth with their peers who live a culturally different
life. To make it pedagogically enriching and experientially rewarding requires thoughtful
planning and careful implementation. Successful models include but are not limited to
host-family living experience, true immersion in a local school, academic extension
through teacher led learning projects, and continued friendship and penpal-ship.
Responsibility- Should be and can be taught young. A carefully designed and
successfully implemented dual immersion program not only turns children into bilingual,
biliterate and multi-cultural global citizens, but also develops their sense of responsibility
from very young age. When the parents were “forced” to step back from helping and
“controlling” what their children learn and how they learn (the parents normally cannot
step back on their own), children naturally develop their autonomy and responsibility,
taking care of their homework, the academic, life, and social challenges they encounter
within and outside the classrooms. This autonomous and responsible independence will
benefit the young minds for a long time and make them more curious learners, as well as
harder and smarter workers.
Adaptability- Can be taught but better be modeled. Another byproduct of a
rigorous dual immersion program is a high level of adaptability that students developed
139

through a different set of challenges. There are so many things that are uniquely different
from a regular monolingual school, such as dual language curriculum with creative
scheduling, academic and specialty classes taught by teachers from different cultural and
ethnical background, international exchange programs which includes studying abroad
and living with host families, and so on. To survive such a complex setting from the age
of four or five, students gradually develop a set of strong life skill that includes flexibility
and adaptability, which further equip and prepare them for greater challenges in the
future.
More and more public schools are adopting or at least exploring the feasibility
and effectiveness of dual language immersion program now. I hope the anecdotal
evidence demonstrated in this research could help increase the confidence in educators
decision making, by offering a comprehensive overview of the positive outcomes, in
addition to the language asset that people usually focus on, when thinking and talking
about dual language programs.
Although it may be argued that many positive outcomes were achieved through
the structure and privilege of an independent school and a model of unconventional
curriculum, many basic concept and ideas could be shared with and adopted by public
institutions as well, such as: active and passionate parental involvement, students’
autonomous and adaptive approach of inquiry and learning, a responsible and caring
attitude towards environment, a collaborative and strategic planning and implementation
of school improvement, and a multi-cultural perspective and tolerance that embraces
global consciousness.
140

Future Research
Develop Assessment tools. As discussed in limitation, there is a lack of
assessment tools to evaluate some items in the 21
st
century skill framework, some schools
are relying on leap of faith and intuition to do what they believe would better prepare
students for their future life and challenges. Nevertheless, it is possible to do better than
that. As the head of school suggested, educators, with collaborative efforts, need to think
outside of the box, particularly the box of standardized testing, to creatively develop a
detailed standard for 21
st
century skills. Further down the road, according to the standard,
a customizable curriculum is to be developed, along with correspondingly effective and
accurate assessment tools and rubric to evaluate those historically “intangible” skill sets,
such as flexibility, creativity and adaptability.
Dual language immersion benchmarking. As shared as a frustration with the
administrators at ZMGJ, there is also a lack of proficiency benchmarking among dual
language programs. As of today, there is no particular test that reasonably and accurately
measures the linguistic, literate and communicative ability of students who went through
dual immersion programs.
Most established reliable assessments from both within and outside of the United
States can only test either the proficiency of Chinese as foreign language or as a heritage
language. Simply adopting any of those standardized tests to evaluate dual language
students’ ability is not accurate in the same way as comparing a hurdler to a sprinter or a
high jumper using the same tools.
141

As more and more schools are adopting dual language immersion models, an
association or some form of alliance of all these schools needs to form. One of the main
reasons for such association is to collaboratively develop a set of assessment tools with
detail rubrics, so schools can both benchmark with the standard and among themselves.
Conclusion
As the world continues to change and progress, with rapidly developing
technology and economic globalization, it is clear that future generations will need to
learn how to effectively navigate through this flattening world. Schools are beginning to
recognize this and adapt by integrating 21
st
century skills into the curriculum,
atmosphere, and values of the school. ZMGJ represents a school system that has
effectively integrated global 21
st
century skills into its framework in order to best prepare
its students for success in future endeavors.
The research questions of this study pondered the following: What are the
practices and programs at the school and how are they aligned with 21
st
century skills?
What does the professional community at the school do to support the practices that
promote the acquisition of 21
st
century skills? What is the impact of 21
st
century skills on
the life of the school? These questions were designed to obtain a thorough and integrative
understanding of what it means for a school to have 21st century skills in both physical
frameworks and in underlying values. These questions also sought to provide data that
can provide educators and future professionals with useful knowledge of how 21
st
century
skills impact not only the students, but the community as a whole, and the most efficient
142

ways educators can adapt to the changing world to include globalization perspective in
schools’ vision and activity.
Data was collected at ZMGJ, an independent dual language immersion school,
through consistent on-site observation, interviews, survey, and analysis of school
documents. Results found for the first and third research question were reflected through
three common themes: global consciousness, embracing Chinese, and responsibility and
adaptiveness. Information concerning research question 2 were organized in according to
four leadership style frameworks as described by Bolman and Deal (2003). Reflection on
this data made it clear that the integration of 21
st
century skills was not merely reflected
in curriculum, but was thoughtfully organized into the school’s attitudes, environment,
international education program, and larger community of parents and students. The staff
passionately and consistently sought to draw out globalization perspectives in their work
and this value was passed onto students, who seemed to inherit these values with
genuineness and motivation to succeed. As stated by the head of the school:
Our goal is ambitious: we want to develop a pre-k--eighth grade Chinese-English
dual language immersion curriculum that will serve as a model for the
nation. The study of Chinese language and culture is on the rise nationally, as is
immersion as an effective pedagogy. ZMGJ, as the first school in the country to
embrace Chinese immersion, clearly occupies a de facto leadership position. Our
experience, our talented faculty team and our supportive community now enable
us to "create our place in the world" by producing a curriculum that will not only
serve our students, but also benefit the larger cause of Chinese-English dual
language immersion across the country. In our 30th anniversary year, this
represents a renewed commitment to fulfill the vision of our school's pioneering
founders.

The researcher was fortunate to have walked into ZMGJ at the right moment to
have observed this passionate goal be set and then implicated throughout the school’s
143

practices and mindset. The school’s integration of 21
st
century skills created a place
where students were seen to be growing into global citizens and the impact this global
integration has on them will essentially allow them to excel in the world and adapt to the
changing times with great knowledge and poise. Future research can use this data as a
stepping stone in the larger knowledge of how a rapidly developing world can be
modeled in a school and provide future leaders and professionals in the coming
generations with adaptable skills and global thinking.

144

REFERENCES
Asia Society (2008). Going global: Preparing our students for an interconnected
world. The Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning.

Bellanca, J. & Brandt, R. (2010). 21
st
Century skills: Rethinking how students learn.
Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.

Bolman, L. & Deal, T. (2003). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Business Roundtable. (2005). Tapping America’s potential: The education for innovation
initiative. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved December 6, 2010, from
http://businessroundtable.org/studies-and-reports/tapping-americas-potential/

Chen, M. (2010). Education Nation: Six leading edges of innovation in our schools. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The flat world and education: How America’s commitment
to equity will determine our future. New York: Teachers College Press.

Darling-Hammond, L., & McCloskey, L. (2007). Assessment for learning around the
world: What would it mean to be internationally competitive? Phi Delta Kappan.

Dede. C. (2007). Transforming education for the 21
st
century: New pedagogies that help
all students attain sophisticated learning outcomes.

Dede, C., Korte, S., Nelson, R., Valdez, G., & Ward, D. (2005). Transforming education
for the 21
st
century: An economic imperative. Naperville, IL: Learning Point
Associates.

Friedman, T. (2007) World is flat: A brief history of the Twenty-first Century. New York:
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

High Tech High Organization. (2010). Snap shots for 2010: Design principles and three
integrations. Retrieved December 30, 2010, from
http://www.hightechhigh.org/about

Huber, M. T., & Breen, M. (2007). Integrative learning: Putting the pieces together
again. Carnegie Institute for the Advancement of Teaching. Retrieved December
4, 2010 from http://www.Carnegiefoundation.org/perspectives.

Johnson, P. (2009). The 21
st
century skills movement. Educational Leadership, 67(2), 11-
13.
145

Karoly, L. & Panis, C. (2004). The 21
st
century at work: Forces shaping the future
workforce and workplace in the U.S. RAND Corporation: U.S. Dept. of Labor.

Lemke, C., Coughlin, E., Thadani, V., & Martin, C. (2003). enGauge 21
st
century skills:
Literacy in the digital age. NCREL/Metiri Group.

Lewis, T. (2010). Obama administration to push for NCLB reauthorization. Retrieved
January 2, 2011, from http://www.civilrights.org/archives/2010/02/880-esea-
reauthorization.html

Lindgren, C., & Troy, M. (2001). Using the mars student imaging project to integrate
science and English into middle school classroom. Space Science Institute;
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Martone, A., & Sireci, S. G. (2009). Evaluating alignment between curriculum,
assessment, and instruction. Review of Educational Research, 79(4), 1332-1361.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (2008). School
reform in the new millennium: Preparing all children for 21
st
century success.
Retrieved January 6, 2011, from
http://www.winchester.k12.ma.us/HomePage/StrategicPlan/

Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education:
Revised and expanded from case study research in education. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Meyers, J. (2010). Exploring adolescents’ thinking about globalization in an
international education program. Journal of Research in International Education
9 (2), 153-167.

Metiri Group & NCREL. (2003). EnGauage 21
st
century skills: Literacy in the digital
age. Chicago, IL: NCREL.

Microsoft (2010). Assessment and teaching of 21
st
century skills: Status report as of
January 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2011, from
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/download/press/2010/01-
11ATC21S_WP.pdf

Newton South High School. Retrieved January 12, 2011, from
http://www.newton.k12.ma.us

Obama, B. (2009). Obama in Cairo: Education and Development. Retrieved January 2,
2011, from http://www.america.gov/
146

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. (2005). The definition and
selection of key competencies: Executive summary. Retrieved January 9, 2011,
from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/47/61/35070367.pdf

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. (2007). PISA 2006 Science
Competencies for Tomorrow's World. Retrieved November, 17, 2010, from
http://www.oced.org.

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. (2010). Strong Performers
and Successful Reformers in Education: Lessons from PISA for the United States.
Retrieved January 3, 2011, from
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/50/46623978.pdf

Partnership for 21
st
Century Skills. (2006). A state leader’s action guide to 21
st
century
skills: A new vision for education. Tuscon, AZ: Partnership for 21
st
Century
Skills.

Partnership for 21
st
Century Skills. (2009). Framework for 21
st
century learning. Tuscon,
AZ: Partnership for 21
st
Century Skills. Retrieved November 2, 2010, from
http://www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid
=120

Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Pearlman, B. (2006). Twenty-first century learning in schools: A case study of new
technology high school in Napa, California. New Directions for Youth
Development, 110, 101-112.

Penuel, W., Fishman, B., Yamaguchi, R., & Gallagher, L. (2007). What makes
professional development effective? Strategies that foster curriculum
implementation. American Education Research Journal, 44 (4), 921-958.

PGSIS (2006). The Pennsylvania governor’s school for international studies: 2006
Overview and mission. Pittsburgh: University Center for International Studies.
Rotherham, A., & Willingham, D. (2009). 21
st
century skills: The challenges
ahead. Educational Leadership, 67 (1), 16-21.

Rothstein, R. (2007). Leaving “No Child Left Behind” Behind. The American Prospect.

Sabochik, K. (2010). Changing the Equation in STEM Education. The White House.
Retrieved January 3, 2011 from
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/16/changing-equation-stem-education
147

Seattle Public Schools. (2010). Washington state school of distinction. Retrieved
January 8, 2011, from http://www.jsisweb.com/

Selander, S. (2008). Designs of learning and the formation and transformation of
knowledge in an era of globalization. Study Philosophy Education 27, 267-281.

Silva, E. (2008). Measuring skills for 21
st
century. Washington D.C. :Education Sector.
Retrieved January 12, 2011 from
http://www.educationsector.org/publications/measuring-skills-21st-century

Silva, E. (2009). Measuring skills for 21
st
century learning. Phi Delta Kappan 90 (9),
630-634.

Striano, M. (2009). Managing educational transformation in the globalized world: a
deweyan perspective. Educational Theory, 59(4), 379-393.

Toch, T. (2006). Margins of error: The testing industry in the no child left behind era.
Washington: Education Sector).

Trilling, B & Fadel, C. (2009). 21
st
century skills: Learning for life in our times. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

U.S. Department of Education (2009). Economic Security and a 21st Century Education.
Retrieved December 5, 2010, from http://www.ed.gov/prek-12-reform.

U.S. Department of Education (2010). ESEA Reauthorization: A Blueprint for Reform.
Retrieved December 1, 2010, from
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/index.html

Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap: Why even our best schools don’t teach
the new Survival skills our children need- and what we can do about it. NY: Basic
Books.

Wallis, C., Steptoe, S., & Miranda, C. (2006). How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th
Century. Time, 168(25), 50-56. Retrieved December 14, 2010, from the Academic
Search Premier database.

Webster-Wright, A. (2009). Reframing professional development through understanding
authentic professional learning. Review of Educational Research, 79 (2), 702-739.

White House (2010). Educate to innovate. The White House.

148

Wilson, J. (2006). Twenty-first century learning for teachers: Helping educators bring
new skills into the classroom. New Directions for Youth Development,110, 149-
154.

Wood, G., Darling-Hammond, L., Neill, M., & Roschewski, P. (2007). Refocusing
accountability: Using local performance assessments to enhance teaching and
learning for higher order skills. Forum for Education and Democracy. Retrieved
January 14, 2011, from
http://www.fairtest.org/files/PerformanceAssessments.pdf

Zhao, Y. (2009). Catching up or leading the way: American education in the age of
globalization. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

149

APPENDIX A: Document Review Instrument

Research Question #1: What are the programs and practices at the school and how are
they aligned with 21st century skills?
Data Needs Document What are we looking for?
Curriculum Course offerings
(College prep/AP/IB
offerings)
Interdisciplinary course offerings
World languages
Course descriptions that include:
• Global perspectives
• Civic literacy
• Financial literacy
• Health literacy
• Environmental literacy
Master schedule
Instructional minutes
Interdisciplinary/ team teaching
District curricular
standards
Global perspectives
Interdisciplinary themes
Civic literacy
Financial literacy
Health literacy
Environmental literacy
Textbook adoption list

Year of adoption (outdated?)
Do texts address global perspectives,
issues, or events?
Do texts and literature reflect authors
and titles from a variety of cultures?
Accreditation reviews
(i.e. WASC, IB)
Rigorous curriculum-College Ready
Instructional
strategies
Lesson plans
Action Plan (SMART
GOALS)
group work, Whole Brain Teaching,
presentations, problem-based learning,
inquiry learning, debate
Technology plan
SARC
How are students using technology
How many computers are available for
students and how much time is
allocated for usage?
What other technology infrastructure
is available?
Extra curricular
activities
Student handbook
School website
School calendar and
announcements
SARC

Clubs, activities or programs that
reflect:
• global perspectives
• workforce (career tech)
• international social justice
• student travel/exchange
150

Assessments Benchmarks
Common assessments
Common rubrics
Is there evidence of performance-
based, curriculum-embedded
assessments, problem solving
assessment?
Creative and/or multiple solutions?

Research Question #2: What is the professional community at the school, and how does it
support these practices?
Data Needs Document What are we looking for?
Leadership Staff and Leadership Meeting
agenda
SSC Agenda/ meeting notes
Single Plan for Student
Achievement
Professional development
plan
Vision/mission statement
Evidence of topics:
Core content mastery integrated
with 21
st
century skills.
Critical thinking within the context
of core subjects.
Project-based learning
Inquiry-based learning
Professional learning community
Job-embedded professional
development
Support of collaboration
International travel opportunities
Union contract How are decisions made?
Collaboration Department meeting or grade
level meeting notes
Meeting Schedules/ Agenda
Staff development
plan/school site plan
Evidence of topics:
Core content mastery integrated
with 21
st
century skills.
Critical thinking within the context
of core subjects.
Project-based/Inquiry-based
learning
Performance-based assessment
Curriculum-embedded
assessments Problem solving
assessment
Creative/innovative solutions?
Teacher schedules Common prep periods
Opportunities for collaboration
Union contract What is the agreement about
instructional time, prep time, and
collaborative time
Culture and
climate
California Healthy Kids
Report
School Climate Survey
Evidence of topics:
Core content mastery integrated
with 21
st
century skills.
151

Critical thinking within the context
of core subjects.
Project-based learning
Inquiry-based learning
Professional learning community
Job-embedded professional
development
International travel opportunities

Research Question #3: What is the perceived impact of 21
st
century skills on the culture
of the school?
Data Needs Document What are we looking for?
Students Blank report card Student progress related to:
Critical thinking
Communication
Collaboration
Creativity

• Civic literacy
• Financial literacy
• Health literacy
• Environmental literacy
Student Achievement Data CST data, graduation rates, CAHSEE,
local assessment measures
Community School district vision and
mission
Foundation mission and
description

Is there an explicit partnership with
the local community to prepare
students for college/career?
List of PTA activities
List and description of
booster clubs
SARC, website,
newsletters

Clubs, activities or programs that
reflect:
• global perspectives
• workforce (career tech)
• international social justice
• student travel/exchange
Corporate or business
sponsorship
University relationships
Is there an explicit partnership with
the local community to prepare
students for college/career?
Teachers School climate survey Do teachers value working
collaboratively?

152

APPENDIX B: Observation Instrument

OBSERVATIONS
FRAME/RQ What to Observe
RQ 1
• Goals – are goals
(vision & mission)
visible?
• Are goals posted (also RQ 2)
• Faculty/staff and students’ actions (also
RQ 3)
• Does curriculum in action align with the
goals?
RQ 1
• Instructional
strategies - through
observations you can
observe creativity,
innovation,
communication,
critical thinking,
collaboration (4Cs),
problem solving
• Student talk – what kind of conversations
are students engaging in? low/high
• Use of group work
• Levels of questions (teachers and
students)
• How is technology integrated into
curriculum? Is it used for process and
product?
• Manipulatives
• Type of projects
• Student outcomes (also RQ 3)
• Teacher feedback
• Student participation (also RQ 3)
• Levels of student independence
• How is diversity address – global
awareness
• World languages
• Are subjects integrated?
• Objectives
RQ1
• Extra-curricular
activities
• Who is participating
• What are the options
• Do they develop 21
st
century skills?
RQ 1 • Resources
• What type of resources do you see in the
classroom/school and how they are being
used?
• What types of books/literary materials?
Multicultural? International?
RQ 2 • Observing PD
• Who lead PD?
• How does the PD align with the school’s
focus/vision/mission?
• Faculty and staff interactions
(formal/informal)
RQ2 • Culture & climate • How do students walk into school?
153

• What do transitions look like?
• Interactions between
students/faculty/staff/parents
• Are parents on campus? If so, what are
they doing?
• What’s on the wall? – multicultural,
college, jobs, global
• Organizations (also RQ 3)
• Community (also RQ 3)
• School traditions (also RQ 3)
• School Site Council – how are decisions
made? Collaborative? Do they promote
21
st
century schools?
• How are the front
office/entrance/classrooms organized?
• Is any evidence of concern for the
environment? (Awareness, in action)
When doing the observations use the four frames – use different lenses to do the
observations.

154

APPENDIX C: Interview Instrument
Prior to questioning, the interviewer will give the interviewee a handout on 21
st
century
skills (included below) as a reference.

Possible follow-up questions accompany each interview question.

Interview Question #1: What are the practices and programs at the school and how are
they aligned to 21
st
century skills?
CURRICULUM (Planning)
How does the school curriculum and instructional strategies reflect 21
st
century learning?

1. What technology is used in classroom curriculum?
2. How are world languages a part of the school curriculum?
3. How does the school promote diversity and global perspectives?
4. What interdisciplinary work is done in classrooms at this school?
5. How does the curriculum promote collaboration, investigation, higher-order
thinking, and posing of analytical questions?

What kinds of extra-curricular activities reflect 21
st
century skills?

1. How do extra-curricular student activities include world perspectives?
2. What community outreach programs are available for students?
3. How do the extra-curricular student activities at the school build better citizens?

Interview Question #2: What is the professional community at the school, and how does
it support these practices?
LEADERSHIP-VISION, DECISION-MAKING
What role does leadership play in supporting and developing 21
st
century learning?

1. How does the school’s mission and vision statement and vision influence
decision making at the school?
2. How are these decisions put into action?

COLLABORATION
What does collaboration look like at the school?
1. How often do teachers give common assessments, and what is done once the
assessments are scored?
2. How often do teachers instruct interdisciplinary units?
3. What discussions and activities are evidence of a collaborative staff?

155

Interview Question #3: What is the perceived impact of 21
st
century skills on the culture
of the school?
STUDENTS-BEHAVIOR, BELIEFS, ATTITUDES
What student behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes reflect 21
st
century learning?

1. What enrichment activities are available for students, and how do these
activities address positive behavior?
2. How is citizenship, also known as life skills, taught to students, and how do
students show their life skills?

TEACHERS-BEHAVIOR, BELIEFS, ATTITUDES
What teacher behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes reflect 21
st
century learning?
1. Who promotes positive school culture at your school, and what does that
school culture look like?
2. How is diversity appreciated and celebrated at the school?

COMMUNITY-BELIEFS, SUPPORT, PARTNERSHIPS
What community behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes reflect 21
st
century learning?

1. What organizations partner with this school to offer students internships and
classes outside of the regular school day?
2. How does the community show their support for school programs on
diversity, culture, and customs?

156

APPENDIX D: Survey Instrument

Instruction and Pedagogy 1 2 3
4
Never sometimes most of the time
always

I utilize cooperative grouping
1 2 3 4
I utilize problem-based instruction
1 2 3 4
My instruction involves the use of technology
1 2 3 4
My students use technology
1 2 3 4
My instruction includes global issues
1 2 3 4
I model and encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills
1 2 3 4
Students demonstrate mastery in different ways
1 2 3 4
Students are exposed to different cultures, languages and experiences
1 2 3 4
My instruction includes civic responsibility
1 2 3 4
I utilize multi-modal instructional approaches
1 2 3 4
I primarily use the adopted curriculum
1 2 3 4
I encourage collaboration in the classroom
1 2 3 4
I encourage creativity and innovation in my classroom
1 2 3 4
My assignments require students to demonstrate creative approaches
1 2 3 4

Professional Community 1 2 3 4
Never sometimes most of the time always

158
Professional development sessions help me be a better teacher
1 2 3 4

Professional development sessions address the teaching of critical thinking skills
1 2 3 4
Professional development sessions address the teaching of global education issues
1 2 3 4
Collaboration is encouraged and promoted by the school
1 2 3 4
I play a leadership role at the school
1 2 3 4
Data is used by teachers and administrators to promote best instructional practices
1 2 3 4
My classroom is equipped to meet students’ instructional needs
1 2 3 4
School’s vision and mission are aligned with practices and programs
1 2 3 4

Culture of the School 1 2 3 4
Never sometimes most of the time always

Students are responsible for their behavior in the classroom
1 2 3 4
Students participate in extra-curricular activities that promote vision/mission of the school
1 2 3 4
Parents are involved in school-related activities
1 2 3 4

Students are exposed to different cultures, languages and experiences
1 2 3 4
Students are given the opportunity to participate in out of school activities, such as fieldtrips.
1 2 3 4
Parents share the vision/mission of the school
1 2 3 4

159
APPENDIX E: Survey Result

Questions S Pos.
1. I utilize cooperative grouping 23/31
2. I utilize problem-based instruction * 26/31
3. My instruction involves the use of technology 17/31
4. My students use technology 16/31
5. My instruction includes global issues 16/31
6. I model and encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills * 27/31
7. Students demonstrate mastery in different ways * 29/31
8. Students are exposed to different cultures, languages and experiences * 26/31
9. My instruction includes civic responsibility * 26/31
10. I utilize multi-modal instructional approaches * 27/31
11. I primarily use the adopted curriculum 21/31
12. I encourage collaboration in the classroom * 31/31
13. I encourage creativity and innovation in my classroom * 31/31
14. My assignments require students to demonstrate creative approaches * 28/31
15. Professional development sessions help me be a better teacher 23/33
16. Professional development sessions address the teaching of critical thinking skills 17/33
17. Professional development sessions address the teaching of global education issues 11/33
18. Collaboration is encouraged and promoted by the school 22/33
19. I play a leadership role at the school 13/33
20. Data is used by teachers and administrators to promote best instructional practices 20/33
21. My classroom is equipped to meet students’ instructional needs * 27/32
22. School’s vision and mission are aligned with practices and programs * 28/32
23. Students are responsible for their behavior in the classroom * 32/32
24. Students participate in extra-curricular activities that promote vision/mission of the
school 25/32
25. Parents are involved in school-related activities * 27/32
26. Students are exposed to different cultures, languages and experiences * 32/33
27. Students are given the opportunity to participate in out of school activities, such as
fieldtrips. * 27/33
28. Parents share the vision/mission of the school * 28/33

1) The two numbers in the last column are respectively the number of respondents who
answered “all the time” or “most of the time”, and the total number of respondents who
answered that particular question.
2) The * symbol indicates that more than 80% of the respondents positively answered that
particular question.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract The United States stands unfavorably to other nations on the educational level, as many schools in the U.S. do not acknowledge the skills and knowledge that students need to succeed as global citizens with the increasing global and economic changes. Though some schools in the U.S. have already sounded the alarm and implemented changes to integrate 21st century skills into their existing curriculum, it is unclear how they are integrating these global skills and how effectively the programs are responding to the dynamic changing world. The purpose of this study was to identify the programs and practices that promote the acquisition of 21st century skills at a K-12 school. A qualitative, descriptive single case study was used as the primary research method for this study. Three themes stood out during data analysis: 1) Global Consciousness, 2) Embrace Chinese and 3) Responsibility and Adaptiveness. Leadership style and organizational culture were also observed and discussed through Bolman and Deal’s (2003) four frames, which emphasize the importance of collaborative teamwork, competent leadership, strategic planning and biliterate charisma. This study is part of a thematic group research project on the same topic. By combining and synthesizing the common themes that emerged through data analysis in each of the nine individual school case studies, this project will shed some light on how schools can better prepare students for 21st century.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Preparing students for the future - 21st century skills

PDF

A case study of 21st century skills programs and practices

PDF

A new generation: a new model of education in the 21st century

PDF

The key essentials for learning in the 21st century: programs and practices

PDF

A study of California public school district superintendents and their implementation of 21st century skills

PDF

Emerging practices for a changing world: a case study of 21st century learning

PDF

A study of California public school district superintendents and their implementation of 21st century skills

PDF

Strategies California superintendents use to implement 21st century skills programs

PDF

The process secondary administrators use to implement twenty‐first century learning skills in secondary schools

PDF

A case study on the impact of globalization and multinational corporations on the development of 21st-century skills and educational leadership

PDF

A study of California public school district superintendents and their implementation of 21st-century skills

PDF

Technology practices and 21st century learning: a high school case study

PDF

The impact of globalization, economics, and educational policy on the development of 21st century skills and STEM education in Costa Rica

PDF

21st century teaching and learning with technology integration at an innovative high school: a case study

PDF

The impact of globalization on the development of educational policy, 21st century learning, and education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in Costa Rican schools

PDF

A study of California public school district superintendents and their implementation of 21st century skills

PDF

21st century skills practices and programs: a case study at an elementary school

PDF

A study of California public school district superintendents and their implementation of 21st -century skills

PDF

The role of globalization, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics project‐based learning, and the national science and technology fair mandate in creating 21st‐century-ready students i...

PDF

The impact of globalization, economics, and educational policy on the development of 21st-century skills and education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in Costa Rican schools

Asset Metadata

Creator Qian, Zhilong "Terry" (author)

Core Title Embracing globalization and 21st century skills in a dual language immersion school

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Education (Leadership)

Publication Date 05/08/2012

Defense Date 03/13/2012

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag 21st century skills,curriculum,dual language immersion,Globalization,K12,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Gothold, Stuart E. (committee chair), García, Pedro Enrique (committee member), Hocevar, Dennis (committee member)

Creator Email terryqian@gmail.com,zhilongq@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-37549

Unique identifier UC11290060

Identifier usctheses-c3-37549 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-QianZhilon-819.pdf

Dmrecord 37549

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Qian, Zhilong "Terry"

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA