Abstract
Current research into teacher evaluation highlights its essential role in evaluating teachers’ instructional practices, thereby further improving teacher and educational quality. While teacher evaluation has been discussed in China, especially in Eastern China (developed/advantaged regions) and at the educational levels of K-12, there is a lack of conceptual and empirical research on this topic within the context of early childhood education (ECE) in Western China (underdeveloped/disadvantaged regions).With this mind, and in recognition of the significance of school leaders as facilitators in the evaluation process, this study investigated both teachers’ and kindergarten leaders’ perspectives regarding the concepts, typical approaches, purposes, perceived strengths, weaknesses and unintended consequences of teacher evaluation, and potential strategies for improving teacher evaluation in an area of Guizhou Province, China. The exploratory-confirmatory sequential mixed methods research collected data via online questionnaires from 151 teachers and semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers and four kindergarten leaders in the selected public kindergartens. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses of the quantitative data and thematic analysis of the qualitative data were rigorously applied to interrogate the data set.
The findings indicated participants’ generally lower involvement in teacher evaluation activities and the frequencies of their participation. Moreover, teacher evaluation was understood as a “teacher performance system” and “self-evaluation system”. Teachers primarily acknowledged formative purposes of evaluation, but evaluation approaches were mostly conducted for summative purposes in these kindergartens. Additionally, teacher evaluation was perceived to be positive for the improvement of teachers’ instructional practices, as well as serving as a vital supervision function for teachers to perform better in their work. However, the major weakness of current teacher evaluation was identified as a lack of meaningful feedback to support teachers in tailoring improvements in their practices after the assessments. The unintended consequences of teacher evaluation included two main aspects: 1) a lack of explicit and customised evaluation framework based on this particular educational context; 2) a potential increase in teachers’ workload. Furthermore, one specific strategy in which current teacher evaluation could be improved is by providing more external training opportunities for teachers. There is evidence that additional reforms for both policy and practice to support teacher evaluation are required. Future research also needs to focus at the wider contextual and educational levels to improve teacher quality and overall quality of ECE in underdeveloped/disadvantaged regions of China.
Keywords: teacher evaluation; early childhood education; teacher quality.
| Date of Award | 17 Oct 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Simon P Brownhill (Supervisor) & Rob Gruijters (Supervisor) |
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