Exploring Chinese higher vocational college teachers’ perceptions of reading and teaching reading in English

The current article presents the findings of a qualitative study which focused on six Chinese higher vocational college teachers’ evolving understandings of reading and teaching reading in English through a three-month teacher professional learning programme. Methods of data collection included questionnaire, professional learning conversation, classroom observation and reflective practice. Results showed that a skill-based view was the mainstream understanding of reading and teaching reading in English. Through the teacher professional learning programme, however, there was a shift in the participants’ perception from a skill-based to a social-practice perspective of reading and teaching reading in English. Accordingly, the focus of teaching shifted from language to language and content integrated instruction with criticality development as a key component. The findings indicated that higher vocational college teachers were capable of weaving between a skill-based and a social-practice perspective of language and literacy practices while highlighting the need for cultivating a social-practice perspective in order to develop higher vocational college students as whole persons as locally grounded and globally minded citizens with critical minds. A more significant implication was that it was possible to empower higher vocational college students by enlightening teachers through a systematic teacher professional learning programme.