Stakeholder perceptions, play-based pedagogical practices, and family involvement: a holistic model of child-directed play as a kindergarten pedagogy for school readiness in rural areas of China

Abstract

Background: Recently, early childhood education in China has experienced a paradigm shift from early education model to play-based pedagogy. With this innovative context, child-directed play has emerged as a prominent method that prioritizes children's agency in learning and promotes holistic development.
Aims: This research works towards a holistic model of school readiness by analyzing how the transition to child-directed pedagogy in Chinese kindergartens reshapes the perceptions and practices of teachers, parents, and children. From a transformative perspective, the primary aims of this project are to identify the potential ideological convergences and structural conflicts emerging from the shifting social contexts, as well as evaluating the efficacy of child-directed play as a pedagogy with family involvement initiatives in supporting the school transition. This research also intends to explore the predictive relationships between parental perception, structured play, and children's developmental outcomes to determine the core drivers of school readiness.
Methods: This study adopted collaborative action research to explore perceptions and practices of play-based pedagogy and school readiness. Data collection methods included focus groups, interviews, and online surveys. In addition, children's perspectives were examined through an analysis of their literacy works.
Findings: The results showed that stakeholder perceptions largely affirm the positive impact of child-directed play on children's development and school readiness. Adults guidance were identified as crucial elements in supporting children's transition from kindergarten to primary school. However, pedagogical discontinuities and systemic contradictions existed as significant challenges during the process. The quantitative results showed that structured play was a significant mediator between parents education-occupation and school readiness. Both structured play and parent perceptions were significant mediators between family involvement and school readiness.
Implications: This project developed a holistic model which identified a collaborative zone where each individual system, children, educators, and parents, were major contributors for an overarching construct of school readiness, when child-directed play was introduced as a new rule to the triad system. It also provided a methodological framework engaging practitioner with collaborative action research that introduced expansive learning theory as a research tool. The research highly suggested introducing child-initated structured play to existing pedagogy, and implement initiatives for low income families to increase the effectiveness of parental engagement.

Date of Award	15 Jul 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Nottingham
Supervisor	Curtis Green-Eneix (Supervisor) & John Trent (Supervisor)