Do kindergarten teachers’ art skills matter? Evidence from the triangulated perspectives of Chinese stakeholders

Young children participate in various forms of art activities in early childhood education (ECE) settings, such as music, song, dance, drama, visual arts, and crafts. Art education constitutes a key component of many countries’ early childhood curriculum framework, yet it has usually been marginalized in educational practice. In the Chinese ECE context, teachers’ art skills specifically refer to four abilities: piano-playing (弹), singing (唱), painting (画), and dancing (跳). In 2012, the Chinese educational authorities launched the National Professional Standards for Kindergarten Teachers to improve kindergarten teachers’ qualifications and professionalism. Almost a decade on, there is still a paucity of empirical evidence on how Chinese kindergarten teachers receive art skills training and employ these skills in their educational practices. As the first attempt to empirically fill this knowledge gap, this exploratory study surveyed a group of Chinese pre-/in-service teachers, teacher educators, and parents to establish a triangulation of the key stakeholders’ perspectives about kindergarten teachers’ art skills.