| The purpose of the present study was to describe and understand the role of education policy in shaping early childhood teacher education in Hong Kong before and after the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997. Specific attention was given to the quality education reform movement that emerged in the early 1990s. Based on the principles of sociocultural analysis and the concept of mediation, policy was viewed as cultural tool, text, and discourse. The present study focused on how early childhood teacher education had changed as a result of the mediated action of teacher educators and how the change of political context might have influenced the ways teacher educators responded to policy. A total of 35 informants, including 10 teacher educators, 8 early childhood leaders, 15 kindergarten principals and child care supervisors, and one policymaker participated in the study. Data were collected through interviews, focus group discussions, and press materials, as well as government and organizational documents. They were then analyzed, using comparative and interpretative approaches.;The findings revealed the lesser-known part of the policy process, that is, the multifaceted interplay of contextual factors, policy initiatives, tensions, and personal agency, leading to the transformation of early childhood teacher education over time. The contextual factors were historical, cultural, institutional, social, political, and economic in nature. In comparison, early childhood educators and organizations were more active than teacher educators in the process of negotiation. Their actions were also more drastic and public. In contrast, teacher educators tended to focus on curriculum matters in their private space. Their involvement in the policy process usually took the form of organizational or institutional position papers. The teacher educators' dedication to program development, together with the enormous speed of policy implementation and greater commitment of resources after the handover, had contributed to the late, but burgeoning, growth of early childhood teacher education in Hong Kong. The voice and identity of the profession, however, were still in an embryonic state. The study offered important implications on redefining the roles of teacher educators, rethinking existing teacher education programs, and restructuring teacher education contexts to facilitate the development of ideological consciousness. |
