| dc.description.abstract | China's economy has achieved tremendous development in the past few decades, and education policies have been continuously improved according to practical needs. With the socio-economic changes, the teacher-student relationships in China have undergone subtle changes. The purpose of this study is to explore how teacher-student relationships have changed from generation to generation under the modernization process after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The author interviewed Chinese schoolers from different decades: post-1960s, post-1970s, post-1980s, post-1990s, and post-2000s. This study explores the educational experiences of these schoolers and discusses the factors that created significant impacts on teacher-student relationships, e.g., culture influence, family-related factors, economic impacts, education policies, characteristics of various decades, etc., thus to find out the changes and continuities of Chinese teacher-student relationship. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory is applied. The study analyzes changes in teacher-student relationships through Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: individualism dimension, power distance dimension, uncertainty avoidance dimension, masculinity dimension, short/long term orientation dimension, and restraint/ indulgence dimension. This study adopts a cross-generational qualitative approach to understand the changes and continuities of teacher-student relationships by comparing schoolers’ educational experiences among generations. It purports to assess the impact of the change and continuity and to show how teachers contribute to students’ experience from students’ perspective. The author presents some interesting findings, e.g., the power distance between teachers and students is reducing, the individualism degree is getting higher, the uncertainty avoidance degree is becoming weaker, the masculine values are still in a dominant position but the degree is reducing. Also, with the expansion of the gap between the rich and the poor, the distribution of educational resources is becoming increasingly unequal, which may significantly affect the quality of teacher-student relationships in nowadays’ China. | eng |