Early childhood teacher education: An international/transnational experience

Abstract

It is common knowledge that Australian universities have become active players in the international education market since the 1980s. Partnerships have taken myriad forms, many of them brokered through agents. The focus of this study was a product of the relationship between a multinational agency and two universities, one in China and one in Australia. These universities both offered early childhood teaching degrees. It was agreed students from China would study for two years in their home country and then transfer to Australia for two years, graduating with a dual degree. Other aspects of the initiative have involved lecturers from Australia visiting China to teach into the undergraduate early childhood degree. Lecturer visits commenced in 2013 and the first cohort of students arrived in Australia in 2014. To evaluate the project a case study, consisting of participant observation and interviews with stakeholders, has been conducted. This chapter reports on the interview data from the perspective of key participants in both universities who were instrumental in designing the initiative and implementing the proposal. Transcripts have been organised according to emerging themes. Findings have highlighted policy and implementation aspects of the program with discussion in relation to implementation challenges, benefits and future activities to promote sustainability of the partnership. The data and findings in this chapter have been divided into two parts, part 1 covers the Chinese part of the study and part 11 reports on the Australian experience.