Quality improvement in early years settings in Hong Kong and England

Choi Wa Dora HO, Verity CAMPBELL-BARR, Caroline LEESON

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

With a growing awareness of the importance of early childhood education, the governments of Hong Kong and England have both increased investment through providing fee assistance to parents for buying services and providing funding to providers for offering ‘free’ places, respectively. Alongside the increased funding of early childhood education, a heightened interest in the quality of early years settings has arisen. This paper aims to develop a framework for comparative studies by addressing the similarities and differences in quality improvement of both systems. Three key issues are discussed: relevance of the quality criteria for assessment, interpretations of the quality improvement mechanism and its use in guiding practice, and the influence of contextual factors in terms of stakeholders' views of the quality process. It is argued that these key issues are fundamental to a framework for understanding different sociocultural contexts and dynamics in shaping the quality improvement of early childhood education. Copyright © 2010 Taylor & Francis.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)243-258
JournalInternational Journal of Early Years Education
Volume18
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2010

Citation

Ho, D., Campbell-Barr, V., & Leeson, C. (2010). Quality improvement in early years settings in Hong Kong and England. International Journal of Early Years Education, 18(3), 243-258.

Keywords

  • Early years education
  • Quality improvement
  • Hong Kong
  • England

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