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<p>This study examines how high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is conceptualized and evaluated in China from the triangulated perspectives of key system-level stakeholders, including kindergarten teachers, principals, and education administrators. Using a stratified cluster sampling design, nationally representative data were collected from 908 teachers, 85 principals, and 75 education administrators through the High Quality of Early Childhood Education and Care Scale (HES). Descriptive analyses indicate that stakeholders generally report positive evaluations of ECEC quality, with output quality rated highest and distribution quality rated lowest. Significant differences emerged across stakeholder roles, with principals consistently reporting less favorable evaluations than teachers and administrators, highlighting systematic divergences rooted in institutional positioning. Latent profile analysis identified three distinct evaluation profiles—low (13.3%), medium (27.7%), and high (59.0%)—revealing substantial heterogeneity in how quality is perceived across roles and contexts. Hierarchical regression analyses further showed that urbanicity remained a strong predictor of higher quality evaluations, even after controlling for demographic and professional characteristics. These findings underscore the centrality of equity and distribution in stakeholders’ understandings of quality within a rapidly expanding ECEC system and suggest that dominant Western frameworks, which prioritize classroom-level processes, may overlook system-level and distributive dimensions of quality that are salient in policy-driven contexts.</p>

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Stakeholder Perspectives on High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care in China: Evidence From a National Survey

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月29日

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  • Yifang Wang,
  • Hailan Wang,
  • Youyuan Wang,
  • Xuan Chen

摘要

This study examines how high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is conceptualized and evaluated in China from the triangulated perspectives of key system-level stakeholders, including kindergarten teachers, principals, and education administrators. Using a stratified cluster sampling design, nationally representative data were collected from 908 teachers, 85 principals, and 75 education administrators through the High Quality of Early Childhood Education and Care Scale (HES). Descriptive analyses indicate that stakeholders generally report positive evaluations of ECEC quality, with output quality rated highest and distribution quality rated lowest. Significant differences emerged across stakeholder roles, with principals consistently reporting less favorable evaluations than teachers and administrators, highlighting systematic divergences rooted in institutional positioning. Latent profile analysis identified three distinct evaluation profiles—low (13.3%), medium (27.7%), and high (59.0%)—revealing substantial heterogeneity in how quality is perceived across roles and contexts. Hierarchical regression analyses further showed that urbanicity remained a strong predictor of higher quality evaluations, even after controlling for demographic and professional characteristics. These findings underscore the centrality of equity and distribution in stakeholders’ understandings of quality within a rapidly expanding ECEC system and suggest that dominant Western frameworks, which prioritize classroom-level processes, may overlook system-level and distributive dimensions of quality that are salient in policy-driven contexts.