Early childhood teachers’ perceptions of professional competence in China : the transition from initial teacher education to beginning teaching /

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Student Theses

2023

Zhou, Quan

Thesis

Teachers tip the scales. In China, teachers in early childhood education (ECE) settings have been counted as having relatively low educational attainment. The less chance of receiving systematic initial teacher education (ITE), the slighter possibility for ECE teachers to cultivate their professional competence. Even worse, beginning ECE teachers’ transition from learning in the ITE stage to beginning teaching in ECE settings is struggling. This study has focused on beginning ECE teachers’ professional competence in the transition and the driving forces behind it.This longitudinal study contains two rounds of interviews with the same group of beginning ECE teachers in Mainland China. The research purposes were to explore (1) beginning ECE teachers’ perceptions of their professional competence and relevant influential factors in ITE, (2) their perceptions of their professional competence and the relevant influential factors in beginning teaching in ECE settings, and (3) the emerging developmental patterns of professional competence and exposing significant influential factors in the transition. All these qualitative data sufficiently met the research purposes.This research explored beginning ECE teachers’ professional competence from four domains: cognition-related competence, teaching-related competence, social-related competence, and child-related competence. The influential factors were identified from individual, institutional, and contextual perspectives to interpret the developments in these competence domains. The research findings are productive. (1) In the ITE, the four domains were interpreted from knowledge acquisition, teaching fulfillment, interpersonal exposure, and devotion to children. Correspondingly, the influential factors in ITE were the leading force for shaping the variation in the initial development of professional competence, yet individual and contextual factors had been relatively less identified. (2) In beginning teaching in ECE settings, the developments in the four competence domains were perceived from practical usage, teaching efficiency, authentic applications, and pragmatic support to children, respectively. Correspondingly, this progress resulted from combining individual, institutional, and contextual efforts. (3) The developmental patterns of professional competence emerged in the transition, summarising as the tendencies of practicability, flexibility, applicability, and authenticity. Developmental levels of “surviving, takeoff, thriving” emerged within each pattern (except the social-related competence). Correspondingly, the emergence of each pattern was the synthesising outcomes of individual, institutional, and contextual factors.This research contributes by formulating an integrated competence framework. By presenting the four professional competence domains in ITE, those in beginning teaching in ECE settings, and building links between the two settings by summarising developmental patterns of professional competence. As well as identifying the different influential factors in the ITE period, combined influential factors in beginning teaching in ECE settings, and synthesizing all the influential factors to scaffold the transition. As a result, the integrated competence framework portrays the whole picture of beginning ECE teachers’ professional competence in the transition in China.The integrated framework elaborately teases professional competence in different stages, making the developments coherent and consistent within the longitudinal stages. It enriches the understanding of beginning ECE teachers’ professional competence by telling the stories along with the transition. It even expands the interpretations of professional competence by creatively involving influential factors in the framework, which makes the competence developments traceable and sustainable. Predictably, this research contributes to a more in-depth understanding of the beginning ECE teachers’ professional competence. Furthermore, it might provide some insights when there is a need to publish policies or regulations on professional competence standards. Finally, it makes suggestions for practitioners in the ITE, ECE settings, and other educational stakeholders

LG51.H43 Dr 2023eb Zhouq

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/JdUThxtu