Early Childhood Policy and preschool quality: Lessons from diverse Chinese contexts

Abstract

Government educational policy sets benchmarks for preschool quality and a large body of research from developed and developing countries indicates that there is a positive relation between preschool quality and child outcomes. This paper will consider relations among educational policy, preschool structural and process quality and early child development in Hong Kong and Mainland China, highlighting conceptual and methodological issues surrounding the measurement of quality in varied cultural contexts. It will (i) illustrate how the increased focus on both quality and equity of access to quality in government policy has led to enhanced preschool structural quality in Hong Kong and in Mainland China; and (ii) highlight cohort differences in observed preschool quality and early childhood development. Drawing upon decades of empirical research, studies from Hong Kong will show how preschool quality mediates socioeconomic gaps in school readiness while research conducted in China will be used to illustrate both the relation between preschool quality and child development over time and secular trends in early child development.