Research On Path Innovation Of Effective Supply Of Puhui Preschool Education In China

Since the “Suggestions on the Current Development of Preschool Education”was released by the State Council in 2010,there has been significant developments and remarkable achievements in China’s preschool education.Furthermore,great transformations took place between supply and demand of preschool education.From the supply side,the gross enrollment ratio of preschool institutions in 2022 was 89.7%,of which 89.55% were children in Puhui kindergartens.The former issues about“difficult or expensive kindergarten admission” has gradually evolved into “hard admission for high-quality public kindergarten” and “high tuition for high-quality private kindergarten”.The objectives of widespread access as well as safe and high-quality development of preschool education supply for all have yet to be fully realized.From the demand side,on the one hand,the adjusted birth policy since the18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China only delayed but not altered the declining trend of new-born population,thus that the total demand for Puhui preschool education is no longer rising.On the other hand,with the rising levels of urbanization and the overall life quality,families with preschool-aged children are showing a growing demand for preschool education that is not only of high quality but also well-rounded and balanced.In order to meet the development goals of “popularizing quality preschool education” and “establishing a preschool public-service system that is well-balanced,logically distributed in both urban and rural areas” by 2035,the future supply of preschool education needs to be more balanced.In particular,the supply of Puhui preschool education still needs to improve the quality and make structural improvements,in order to achieve a sufficient,well-organized,and high-quality effective supply through path innovation.Therefore,focusing on the path innovation practices of local governments in pursuing the effective supply of Puhui preschool education,this dissertation follows the pragmatic research paradigm of eclecticism guided by the system theory,takes innovation theory and governance theory as the research foundations,and employs mixed-methods approach such as literature analysis,system analysis and event history analysis as research tools.Starting from the three dimensions of Puhui preschool education supply,the subject,form and object,and aiming at the weak points,weak links and vulnerable group,typical cases are selected for the in-depth analysis of the specific process involved during the local government path innovation,including the promotion of “Village Early Education Center”,the legalization of micro-miniature kindergartens in urban area,and preferential provision for special preschoolers.Furthermore,this dissertation explains how innovative behavior constantly adjusts and evolves with the internal and external elements of system during the process,reveals the characteristics of the effective supply of Puhui preschool education and the influencing factors of corresponding path innovation and constructs the path innovation model of the effective supply of Puhui preschool education.The research findings and innovations of this dissertation are as follows:To begin,through the analysis of the individual micro-level cases,and based on354,000-word of interview transcripts and 718.1MB of literature materials mainly in written form which obtained through field observation,provided by respondents and retrieved by researcher,this study provided an in-depth descriptions of the practice processes by local governments in China to realize the effective supply of Puhui preschool education.These path innovations were inspired by various factors including the social organizations cooperation,the market demand responses,or the government-oriented fairness,thus leading to three innovative patterns: the embedded path innovation pattern dominated by exogenous method innovation,the primary path innovation pattern characterized by endogenous product innovation,and the foundation-oriented path innovation pattern emphasizing integrated service innovation.As a results of those innovations,the current achievements are: multipolar supply landscape,flexible supply forms,and expanded supply objects.Secondly,in the event history analysis of 886 data records in the “region-year”panel datasets,this study categories the influencing factors for the local governments’ path innovation behaviors into two major aspects: regional endogenous elements and external institutional environment.The interplay of factors,each with different characteristics,will prompt various types of innovation behaviors.(1)Political,economic,social and technological factors,such as regional economic development level,education fund investment level,population size,population density,service level that represents government service awareness,information level that represents sensitivity to external innovative knowledge,researchers in universities and colleges as think-tanks and other,have complex and nonlinear impacts on different types of path innovations that are emerged in response to different needs.(2)Owing to the“pilot” innovation style and the work methodology of “from pilots to broader localities”,the traditional effective methodologies from the China Communist Party,a situation in which path innovation could be steadily promoted from the bottom up to consolidate achievements and expand,and also could be theory-guided from the top down to sum up experience and create an exemplary system is formed.(3)Path innovations for the effective supply of Puhui preschool education are more likely to occur in the northeast and western regions,due to that it addresses the direct and urgent needs of the locals,especially in areas that are under developments.Furthermore,based on the comprehensive analysis of typical characteristics of cross-case study,this dissertation explores the key elements of path innovation as following: beginning with the precise assessments of the inequity between supply and demand of regional preschool education,the core value of improving the situation is defined and followed.And then solutions of one or several aspects of innovation including ideas,role positioning,organizational system,behavior patterns,and corresponding standards should be systematically designed which can evolved along with the innovation process.Together with the results of event history analysis,this study proposes that the path innovation for the effective supply of Puhui preschool education needs to adopt a methodical approach including establishing a systematic assessment of supply,rationalizing the operating frameworks with multiple stakeholders and aligning with the changing law of supply and demand,to achieve the goal of reshaping the external environment of the supply system from the innovation-driven perspective,and optimizing the internal structure of the supply system under the inspiration of the good governance theory.Finally,combining the systematic analysis of the above data,methods and results,this study tends to construct a path innovation model for the effective supply of Puhui preschool education in China,as following: The sociological and individual demands of preschool education are the primary driving force.The three major suppliers,government,market and social organizations need to engage in a mutual learning,adaptation and cooperation way with the consensus of “serve the people” and “meet the needs of the people”,and act in a non-linear and complex way on the imbalance between supply and demand with the impacts from external institutional environment and regional endogenous factors.Through creating new “production methods”,developing new “product characteristics” and expanding new “service markets” for the embedded,institutionalized and gradient path innovations,the effective supply of Puhui preschool education in China can be eventually achieve.