The Impact of University Organizational Culture on Publicly-funded Teacher Trainees' Intentions to Teach in Rural Areas

Ling Xia^1,2Rong Zhou^1*

• ¹Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou, China
• ²Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China

The teacher shortage in rural areas has become an important issue in China as well as internationally.To address this issue, the Chinese government has implemented Publicly-funded Teacher Education Program to provide talent reservoir for rural education. However, the effectiveness of this policy still needs improvement, as students in the scheme lack enthusiasm for rural education and are reluctant to teach in rural areas. Therefore attracting publicly-funded student-teachers to rural and remote locations requires targeted intervention during pre-service teacher education. In so doing, this research examines the impact of university organizational culture as well as professional identity of rural teachers on publicly-funded teacher trainees' rural employment intentions. Employing a convenience sampling method, 1108 publicly-funded normal students from three local universities were surveyed. The findings from the structural equation model highlighted the significant role that university organizational culture play in promoting publicly-funded teacher trainees' rural employment intentions. Additionally, professional identity of rural teachers significantly predicts the student-teachers' willingness to teach in the rural school and plays a significant mediating effect between the university organizational culture and publicly-funded teacher trainees' rural employment intentions. Finally, the practical implications of these findings for pre-service education are discussed.