Empirical Study of Parents’ Perceptions of Preschool Teaching Competencies in China

Abstract

Parents play an important role in children’s education. Parents’ expectations and evaluation of kindergarten teachers could foster the collaboration between kindergarten teachers and parents. However, parents’ voice has largely been ignored in empirical research. The purpose of the present study is to reveal 3 - 6 years old children’s parents’ perceptions about 1) the importance of new kindergarten teacher standards and 2) their perceptions about kindergarten teachers’ mastery of these standards. In this study, considering China’s new Kindergarten Teacher Professional Standards (2012) has been defined and implemented recently. China is used as a case based on a survey of 423 parents. The results show that “respect” and “love” to children are the most important competencies. Parents speak highly of teachers’ mastery levels. Both parental expectations to their children and family involvements are significant impact factors to parents’ cognition and assessment of kindergarten teachers’ competencies.