19At the county-level a typical initial visit consisted of a half day being intro-
duced to the county by the local leadership and being briefed by different offi-
cials. After these introductory meetings structured requests for data were left at the
county offices for completion at a later time and documentary material was col-
lected. After working at district-level further interviews were held at county-level
to gather perspectives on the issues raised by the fieldwork. At the district-level
most fieldwork periods also commenced with a formal introduction by local offi-
cials to the district and its educational development. Similar strategies were used
to collect basic data i.e. standardized forms were explained and left to be com-
pleted and documents were collected. It was possible to get to know district-level
officials well since the research team lived close to the local government courtyard
for the duration of the fieldwork. At school level the pattern of a typical condensed
Map. 1.1 Case study sites in China
1.1 Introduction