A qualitative study of the current transformation to rural village early childhood in China: Retrospect and prospect Bi Ying Hu a, *, Sherron Killingsworth Roberts b,1 a Early Childhood Education and Child Development, Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomas Pereira, Taipa, Macao, China b University of Central Florida, 4000 University Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816, USA By far, literature regarding Chinese preschool education has focused on kindergartens in urban settings, despite the fact that the majority of Chinese live in rural areas (Hu and Szente, 2009; Shi and Niu, 2007; Zhang and Zhou, 2005). The People’s Republic of China maintains a so-called ‘‘urban–rural two system’’ meaning that the Chinese government’s strategic planning prioritizes urban areas for economic development while rural development is to support the urban economy, resulting in the long-term neglect of rural ECEC (Tang, 2005). Moreover, to catalyze economic reform in the 90s, the government implemented a policy privileging urban economic zones. This policy has promoted uneven industrialization and urbanization among different regions in China (Law and Pan, 2009). As a result of this major transformation, the disparity between urban and rural education, overall, and ECEC, in particular, quickly widened. Given this ongoing reform, this study seeks to fill that gap by providing empirical evidence based on a qualitative study of three Chinese rural village government-owned, privately operated Youeryuan that were initiated in the spirit of improving the quality of rural early childhood education. In order to better understand the current context, this paper will first provide the historical background related to the development of rural village Youeryuan, as well as issues related to current teacher qualifica- tions, preschool curricula, and pedagogy in China. Then, the data from three current rural village Youeryuan will be shared and analyzed. 1. Introduction The phrase ‘‘one country, three worlds’’ best depicts Chinese preschool education (Luo and Chu, 2008) which serves children ages three to six through programs called Youeryuan. On one hand, China has an increasing number of elite, world-class urban Youeryuan. On the other hand, dilapidated buildings in rural village Youeryuan are in such poor shape that roofs may collapse, and millions of Chinese children have no access to ECEC (Zhang and Zhou, 2005). Fortunately, as China increases in international political and economic power, it aims to build a harmonious society, which according to President Hu, is ‘‘a society of democracy and rule of law, fairness and justice, and sincerity and fraternal love’’ (cited in Cai, 2008, p. 25). Indeed, fairness in education is the cornerstone of building a harmonious society (Cai, 2008). In 2010, committed to addressing educational inequity, the Ministry of Education declared the goal of furthering preschool reform with a focus on addressing the urban–rural disparity. However, the Chinese government is challenged to decide its role International Journal of Educational Development 33 (2013) 316–324 A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Rural Kindergarten Preschool education China Early childhood education and care (ECEC) A B S T R A C T By far, literature regarding Chinese early childhood education and care (ECEC) has primarily focused on Youeryuan in urban settings. Youeryuan is the everyday Chinese term used for ECEC programs serving children ages three to six, which does include the U.S. version of the kindergarten year. This paper will refer to Youeryuan rather than the Western definitions of preschool or kindergarten so as to maintain authenticity. Furthermore, this paper will focus on the history and development of rural Youeryuan based on a qualitative study of the government-owned, privately operated Youeryuan that represent the current reform initiatives in early childhood in China. Through teacher and administrator interviews, onsite observations using ECERS-R, and school documents, the lead author immersed herself in rural Youeryuan as part of a larger ethnographic study in China in the midst of economic and educational transformations. The findings of this study revealed themes related to increased government investment, improved school policies, the lack of instructional materials, curriculum and instruction issues, local government support for professional development, administrative support for instruction, and the need for mentoring for teachers. ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +853 8397 8741; fax: +853 2883 1695. E-mail addresses: hubiying@umac.mo (B.Y. Hu), skrobert@mail.ucf.edu (S.K. Roberts). 1 Tel.: +1 407 823 2016; fax: +1 407 823 3839. Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Journal of Educational Development jo ur n al ho m ep ag e: ww w.els evier .c om /lo cat e/ijed u d ev 0738-0593/$ – see front matter ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2012.04.006