Research Findings: A total of 4102 childcare center teachers were recruited to examine a moderated mediation model of the relationship between teachers' adaptive caregiving beliefs and professional competence, using caregiving sensitivity as a mediator and organizational support as a moderator. Results indicated that (1) childcare center teachers'…

Research Findings: A growing number of stakeholders in early childhood education (ECE) rely on self-assessment to assess and improve the quality of ECE. In this systematic review, we investigated the reliability and validity of self-assessment in ECE, summarizing findings from 27 publications. We meta-analytically synthesized findings from 25…

The objective of the research was to analyze the scientific production regarding accident prevention in early child rearing institutions. An integrative literature review, referring to the years between 2011 and 2021, whose research was carried out in May 2021 in seven information resources, raised the following issue: it was found that not all…

The critical developmental implications of childcare centre teachers' caregiving sensitivity have been extensively documented. More efforts are pressing to identify antecedents of such sensitivity and elucidate implicated mechanisms. This study examined the association between socioeconomic status and caregiving sensitivity among Chinese childcare…

International pre-service teachers (PSTs) can struggle to engage with Professional Experience (PE) communities in an Australian Early Childhood Education context. This qualitative case study examines three first-year Chinese international PSTs' PE in different early childhood settings in Australia. Framed by Bourdieu's analytical concepts, this…

A growing number of toddlers are attending childcare institutions as part of China's establishment of its infant-toddler childcare service system. However, there is limited empirical evidence available regarding the quality of these childcare services. The purpose of this study is to investigate the quality of teacher - child interactions in…

This study investigated children's cooperative problem solving (CPS) behaviors during play in classrooms and associated influencing factors (school, age, and gender) in a Chinese kindergarten and U.S. early learning center. Four- and five-year-old participants (n = 39) were from one Chinese kindergarten and one U.S. center. They were video…

Mental State Language (MSL) is language that refers to individuals' inner states, including terms relating to "emotion," "desire-&-preference," "perception" and "cognition." This study explores the nature of eight Chinese educators' MSL in their interactions with infants during structured and free play.…

Research Findings: Driven by the universal two-child policy, the childcare services in China have stepped into a new era after 3-decade of neglect. This national study investigated the accessibility, quality, and administration of childcare services for children under age 3, by establishing a triangulation of survey, interview, and classroom…

This paper discusses whether practitioners' gender subjectivities influence pedagogies and practices in early years education and care (EYEC) settings and whether an increase of men's participation can improve gender diversity in EYEC. It draws on poststructuralist theories, understanding gender as the product/outcome of the social formation of…

This paper explores the impact of gender on the employment of men in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres through the voices of male and female early childhood teachers (ECTs) working in China. Gender imbalance in the ECEC workforce is a global phenomenon, and there has been little research about it in countries such as China. This…

Parental beliefs about play and learning are part of the "belief-context" of early childhood development and can thus make a key difference for the child. Previous studies have focused on cross-cultural comparisons, and therefore have neglected intra-cultural variations. This study sampled 163 Chinese mothers with children aged two to…

The notion of agency is being used with increasing frequency in early childhood policies, replacing traditional assumptions about young children's immaturity and their role as mere recipients of adults' arrangements. Agency is thus both an educational aspiration as well as a signifier of a strong rights-based political commitment to countering…

Most qualitative studies in international education take place in a single site in a single nation. When studies are of more than one country, they most often use more quantitative than qualitative approaches. Beatrice and John Whiting conducted the most systematic of comparative cross-cultural studies of child rearing in their "Six…

China's education system has grown increasingly complex, creating the need for an annual critical review of the education system by China's top scholars. The "Blue Book of Education," as it is known in Chinese, has gained a reputation for offering the most penetrating perspective in China on educational reform and development. In this…