BRIDGIN THE IMPLEMENTATION GAP: TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION IN ANHUI PROVICE, CHINA

Abstract

With the deepening reform of China's higher education system, teacher professional development (TPD) for education managers has become a key topic at the strategic level. Through a mixed methodology, 327 teacher questionnaires and 42 semi-structured manager interviews, this study deeply explored how policy and institutional dynamics can restrict and promote the implementation of TPD in Anhui Province. The results show that the structural contributing factors include institutional accountability mechanisms; The main obstacles are fragmented policy support, neglect of local needs in standardized training, and differences in urban-rural development. The results show that effective TPD requires the deep integration of national policies with local realities. It is important to note that while administrative TPDs differ from faculty development at an operational level, both are committed to the core goal of enhancing institutional leadership. The important innovation of this study lies in the construction of a validated adaptive TPD design framework, which can effectively solve the problem of regional development imbalance and provide a practical solution for optimizing the differentiated higher education system in China.