Abstract:
At present, rural preschool education is still a shortcoming of the national education system in China. Strengthening the building-up of the ranks of kindergarten directors is the key to making-up of the shortcoming.It is prerequisite to clarify the current situations of the professional competence of rural kindergarten directors to strengthen the building-up of the ranks of rural kindergarten directors. As part of the “Research on the Construction of High-quality Kindergarten Directors in China”,a major project funded by Philosophy and Social Science Research Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China, this study developed a questionnaire based on “Professional Standards for Kindergarten Directors”issued by the Ministry of Education of China in 2015, and investigated the professional competencies of 187 rural kindergarten directors. It was found that the professional competencies of rual kindergarten directors is not balancedon different aspects. To be more specific,they are better in optimizing the internal management, leading the growth of teachers and leading the nursery education, while relatively weak in building education culture, adjusting external environment and planning kindergarten development. In particular, the directors of rural kindergartens are the weakest in planning the development of kindergartens and adjusting to the external environment. Therefore, this study recommends that the preschool education law should be promulgated as soon as possible to protect the rights and interests of rural kindergarten directors in professional development, strengthen the access mechanism for rural kindergarten directors, improve the training and promotion system for rural kindergarten directors, and stimulate the motivation for their professional development. We should actively create an environment to support the professional development of rural kindergarten directors, and establish a mechanism in which excellent urban kindergarten directors can provide one-to-one support for rural kindergarten directors in a long-term manner.