Young faculty members play a crucial role in China's private colleges and universities and are pivotal to the development of high-level private educational institutions in the country. This research conducts in-depth interviews with three young faculty members from Chinese private colleges to explore the challenges they encounter. The study reveals that young faculty in private colleges face issues such as low salary levels, limited academic backgrounds, inadequate research proficiency, and difficulties in enhancing their teaching capabilities. An analysis of these challenges points to factors such as low personal motivation for advancement, insufficient support from institutions and government, limited student enrollment in private colleges and universities, and inadequacies in teacher training mechanisms. In response, this study proposes several recommendations to foster the professional development of private colleges and universities in China. Firstly, the government should extend support to private educational institutions. Secondly, colleges and universities should enhance faculty treatment and refine their training mechanisms. Thirdly, individual faculty members should pursue doctoral studies to enhance personal capabilities, including research and teaching skills.

Jiayi Wu. Nurturing Teaching Talent: A Focus on Young Faculty Professional Development in Private Colleges and Universities of China. Frontiers in Educational Research (2023) Vol. 6, Issue 19: 42-50. https://doi.org/10.25236/FER.2023.061908.

[1] Fan, W., & Qi, Z. (2021). On Young Teachers’ Career Stuckness and Policy Support at Non-governmental Universities. Heilongjiang Researches on Higher Education, 39(9), 6-14. 

[2] Wang, R. (2021). Research on the professional development of Young Faculty of Ideological and Political Courses in Private Colleges -- a Case Study of Hainan. Modern Communication (05), 31-33. 

[3] Mottier, V. (2005). The interpretive turn: History, memory, and storage in qualitative research.

[4] Yiyong, Y. (2022). Open innovation development of private colleges in China. 

[5] Lin, J. (1999). Social transformation and private education in China. 

[6] Xia, J., & Wu, J. (2020, December). Predicament of Building Excellent Teaching Staff in Private Colleges from the Perspective of “Ideological and Political Theories Teaching in All Course”. In The Second International Symposium on Management and Social Sciences (ISMSS 2020) (pp. 330-335). Atlantis Press.

[7] Zhou, H., & Zhang, M. (2017). Strategy of strengthening high-level private universities with talents. . Journal of National Institute of Education Administration (02), 23-27. 

[8] Lu, W., & Li, T. (2020). Out of the misunderstanding of system absorption: the path transformation of enhancing the professional attraction of teachers in non-profit private colleges and universities. Journal of Higher Education (10), 62-68. 

[9] Attride-Stirling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative research, 1(3), 385-405 

[10] Thomas, J., & Harden, A. (2008). Methods for the thematic synthesis of qualitative research in systematic reviews. BMC medical research methodology, 8(1), 1-10.

[11] Chen, X. (2008). The new development of qualitative research and its significance to social science research. Educational Research and Experiment (02), 14-18.