"Research Findings:" This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the Puhui early education services (PEES) policy in China from the triangulated perspectives of stakeholders using a developed and validated scale. First, applying a stratified cluster sampling method, the Puhui Early Education Services Policy Effectiveness Scale (PE)…

Research Findings: Provision for Learning (PFL) is a composite of indicators reflecting the structural quality of Early Childhood Education (ECE) classrooms such as physical environment, materials, and daily schedule. This study explored profiles of PFL among 118 Chinese rural preschool classrooms based on Space and Furnishing (SF), Curriculum…

At the global level, prominent narratives about improving the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) promote the recruitment of men into the profession. However, comparing across different policy and practice settings demonstrates contrasting expressions and experiences of how men contribute to ECEC. This article presents findings…

The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical discussion on teacher leadership in early childhood education (ECE) in Chinese contexts. Since 2010, the Chinese government has initiated a comprehensive education reform in ECE, with strategies for developing teacher leadership and promoting education quality. However, at the school level there…

Reform initiatives are common throughout the Chinese early years education sector. This paper proposes a conceptual framework of a folk pedagogy of change as a perspective on the systemic barriers to the development of practice which foregrounds some of the tensions within and across these barriers. Our analysis is based on three commissioned…

Early childhood education (ECE) is not given as much attention as primary and secondary education in rural areas in China, and rural preschool teachers lack opportunities to receive high quality and appropriate pre-service and in-service professional training. This study focused on professional development (PD) opportunities available for…

During the 14th Five-Year Plan, preschool education in China will move toward the objectives of quality and balance, and the kindergarten teacher workforce must be formed with sufficient quantity, high quality, and balanced distribution. At present, the scale of China's current kindergarten teacher workforce still does not meet the standards for…

This book provides significant information regarding the policies and provisions for early childhood teacher education programs in universities in fourteen different countries. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is expanding rapidly across the globe with unprecedented numbers of children attending EC centres, requiring the investment in…

In spite of efforts to improve the quality of early childhood education for girls and boys globally, incorporating a gender perspective--particularly in teacher policies--remains a gap, including in China. This inattention to early childhood poses an additional barrier for countries to achieve quality education and the United Nations Sustainable…

Planned instruction is an important teaching form in early childhood mathematics education, but some educators are concerned about its developmental appropriateness. The present study was undertaken to address this issue. One hundred and seven American preschool teachers participated in the study: They watched a video-taped math lesson that was…

Although a quality preschool supports young children's health and safety, "quality" has been defined diversely enough that its delivery has been varied among kindergarten teachers. The current study was the first to examine and compare perceptions of school safety between urban and rural kindergarten teachers. Sixty-seven Hong Kong…

This paper investigates early childhood education (ECE) teachers' self-reported and observed teacher-child interaction quality (TIQ) and the associated teachers' professional competence features using a latent profile analysis (LPA) approach to identify the variations in the quality of classroom experiences in Chinese preschools. A total of 164…

This study compared Chinese kindergarten teachers' values and perceptions of program quality with trained raters' assessments of quality in order to gain insights into effective professional development for improving teacher quality. A total of 284 Chinese kindergarten teachers self-assessed the quality of their classroom teaching and rated their…

The following article introduces an exploratory study that was designed to measure the quality of early childhood education within its ever changing sociocultural context utilizing the Early Childhood Learning Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) in 40 classrooms in Beijing, China. Implications for early childhood teacher education,…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 12th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), held in Sofia and Nessebar, Bulgaria, in June 2014, and papers submitted to the 2nd International Partner Conference, organized by the International Research Centre 'Scientific Cooperation,' Rostov-on-Don,…