Competing Forces: Government Policy, Teacher Education, and School Administration in Hong Kong Early Childhood Education

The ecology and development of Hong Kong early childhood education is molded by the continuous and dynamic interactions between major stakeholders: government, school administrators and teacher educators. Hong Kong early childhood education is driven by three forces: policy, advocacy, and quality. These diverse forces compete with each other to become the dominant discourse in the field. Over the years, the voice of a particular force became more prominent than the other after an intricate interactions and negotiations between the different parties. This paper reviews the development of Hong Kong early childhood education policy from 1930s to present and examines its impact from the perspectives of teacher educators and school administrators.