A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF THE CURRENT SITUATION OF EARLY CHILDHOOD ART EDUCATION IN THIRD-TIER CITIES IN CHINA

Abstract

Art education is essential to early childhood education and plays a vital role in developing self-confidence, social skills, critical thinking, and divergent thinking. The art program in kindergarten is the primary way of art education for young children; it aims to make them love and feel the beauty of art activities. The literature search shows many problems with early childhood art education in China. The problem is that teachers did not achieve the desired effect on arts education pedagogical practices in actual classroom settings; meanwhile, the art teachers need to realise that their art literacy and skills are superficial. This study focuses on early childhood art education in third-tier cities in China. It aims to investigate the current state of implementation towards preschool art education while exploring the issues that exist in it. A case study approach was used in this qualitative study to explore the reasons behind the not sufficient implementation of preschool aesthetic education. Semi-institutional interviews with three art teachers from different kindergartens revealed that public and private kindergartens had unreasonable art curricula, outdated teaching models, and teachers' lack of art skills and knowledge. Based on the findings, the researcher makes targeted recommendations. Furthermore, this study has a gap in the literature on this area and contributes to the academic research on early childhood arts education.