A Critical Exploration of China’s Double Reduction Policy: Policy Enactment and Teacher Perspectives

This study focused on how primary school teachers understood and enacted the policy in practice within the context of China's Double Reduction Policy. Based on the Policy Enactment Framework proposed by Braun et al. (2011) , this study explored teachers' understanding, experiences, and perceptions of the Double Reduction Policy through interviews with six primary school teachers from diverse educational resource contexts. The study found that teachers' perceptions of the policy are multifaceted. Although the Double Reduction Policy might alleviate educational inequality caused by after-school tutoring, the variations in its enactment across different regions and school contexts may, in practice, exacerbate certain forms of educational inequity. Teachers were limited agents constrained by multiple factors, including school contexts and the different tensions exist. This study also highlighted the tension between policy objectives and China’s exam-oriented culture, as manifested in teachers' ongoing balancing act between reducing student burdens, promoting holistic development, and maintaining examination results. Finally, this study suggested that future policy reforms need to consider schools' actual contexts more fully, provide teachers with adequate support for policy enactment, and take a deeper consideration of China's existing education system to achieve more contextually adaptive policy enactment.