Kindergarten Curriculum Reform in China: History and Studies

The Evolution of family-kindergarten relationship and cooperation in China since 1949Qiying Kong, Professor, College of Educational Science, Nanjing Normal UniversityChinese society has changed a lot since 1949, women with... [ view full abstract ]

The Evolution of family-kindergarten relationship and cooperation in China since 1949

Qiying Kong, Professor, College of Educational Science, Nanjing Normal University

Chinese society has changed a lot since 1949, women with young children increasingly working outside of the home and the number of nuclear families growing dramatically. With these changes and also the change of preprimary education system, the relationship between the kindergarten and family in China has evolved slowly and the evolution shows the following characteristics:

• The role of kindergartens develops gradually by the role of educating children and serving parents equally, in the other word, emphasis that those kindergartens should serve for the parents especially mother who would like to go out for work, into the function that focus more on children education.
• Growing diversity was shown on the form of cooperation of family and kindergarten, which turn from that teacher preach and parents accept to interactions between teachers and parents or parents and parents, even to the combination of online and offline activities in the Internet Era. The form of cooperation of family and kindergarten also shows the characteristic that developed from that parents meet the requirements of kindergarten passively to that both teachers and parents take part in activities as subjects. Also, it shows the development stages that from guide parents, to meet parents’ requirements and finally grow with parents.
• In terms of the content of cooperation, it develops from mainly conservation and imparting knowledge as a supplement into paying equal attention on conservation and education and attaching importance to abilities and behaviors.