Reflection On Practice And Way To Optimize

The importance of early childhood education(ECE)to individuals,families and the whole society has become the common understanding of all countries around the world.Early childhood educational policies(ECEPs)are playing an unignored and even dominating role in drawing up developmental plans and guiding practice for ECE.The current policy texts,discourse and the research achievements of ECE has promoted the process of its practice in China;nevertheless,the ongoing "time-efficiency" pattern and the following negative influence are still not deeply alerted.The logical starting point of this dissertation is the juxtaposition and unity of "time" and "space",from which,a deep reflection on the time-dominated practice of ECEP and an attempt to bring "space" back to the researching fields of ECE are presented.This dissertation consists of three parts: introduction,main body(five chapters)and conclusion.In the introduction part,the author mainly introduces the origin,purpose and significance of this research,the current research situation,the research methods and the possible innovation and deficiency.The first chapter is about the concept of policy space in ECE and the theoretical basis of this study.This chapter employs analogy and analysis between the history,general connotation,characteristics of the concept of space and the properties of ECE itself,thereby proposing a research framework consisting of policy space generation,presentation,reflection and optimization in terms of ECE.Furthermore,the relevant theoretical basis provides a solid foundation for further analysis.The main theories to support this research are social space theory,policy sociology and post-colonial theory.From three different perspectives,they arrive at a consensus that relations,such as social,power and international relations,are constructive and political.Moreover,the criticism of the adverse consequences,caused by various relations,deepens the understanding of social justice,and the way to realize it.The second chapter traces the formation of policy space in ECE.Based on the research framework,the evolution trajectory of policy boundaries since China's reform and opening-up is examined in this chapter.It is divided into four stages: exploration of new policy space(1979-1995),original policy space(1996-2002),space specification(2003-2009)and sustainable expansion(2010-now).The spatialization of policy and the politicizing of space differ in characteristics in different historical periods.Thus,the history of policy space in ECE is an epitome of the history of the whole society and educational development.The third chapter,from the perspective of practical presentations,analyzes the current dilemmas of policy space in ECE.Policy space in ECE is a constructive process,in terms of which,it builds the boundaries of diverse relations.This chapter presents the problems of policy space in ECE from the four dimensions of geographical spatial relations,government-social-market relations,"emotion-reason" relations and cultural relations.The fourth chapter reflects on the reasons resulting in the ongoing patterns of policy space in ECE.It is the social and historical contexts,governance paradigm transformation of ECE,and the western influence that construct the policy space patterns in ECE.The fifth chapter aims to trace the direction for policy space in ECE to stick to in the juxtaposition times of opportunity and risk.This chapter claims that the ECEP should establish the basic value orientation of educational policy,rethink the educational globalization trends,deepen evidence-based academic researches on ECEP,and improve educational policy practice,so that a new practical path could be paved.The conclusion is the general summary of the study and a rest of this dissertation,however,it is also a new starting point for the future following-up research.In summary,the research transplants the idea of discovering spatial state in a historical timeline into ECE field,which make up the limitation of over reliance on policy rationality and ignorance of irrational factors.The research on policy space in ECE is a new perspective,and also a research field which needs to be excavated deeply.