Preschool Federations as a Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Early Childhood Education in China

Abstract

Teaming a strong preschool with less-developed, rural, or newly established preschools is an effective strategy to promote quality. Since 2015, Shanghai has sought to improve preschool education quality through collaboration. Guided by the “3A2S” theoretical framework, this study evaluated the development and effectiveness of preschool federations in the city using a mixed-methods approach. First, document analysis was conducted to depict features of preschool federations in Shanghai, which identified three main features. Next, a survey study including 702 stakeholders was conducted to assess the evaluations of preschool administrators, teachers, and parents of the effectiveness of preschool federations. Finally, an interview study including 15 stakeholders was conducted to triangulate the findings of the survey study. Results revealed that the stakeholders highly approbated the preschool federations, but parents’ evaluation was significantly lower than that of other stakeholders. Finally, the sustainability and affordability of the preschool federation policy are discussed herein. Implications for policy development and preschool management are also presented.

1. Introduction

The school federation has been extensively explored in European and American contexts in the past decade as a strategy to promote improvement and equity through “federations” and “chains” of schools [1,2]. However, school federations remain a relatively under-explored area in China, as there is a noticeable absence of empirical exploration of their impact on the quality and sustainable development of preschools. In particular, the last decade has seen a paradigm shift in China, from the competitive school development model to the comparative one. Thus, the emphasis has shifted from school-based management to school cluster development [3]. In addition, the national educational authorities have promoted preschool federations to encourage the public preschools (which usually have good quality and ample resources) to play the leading role and to help transform the weak preschools [4,5]. This is treated as a national strategy to tackle the “3A” problems of early childhood education in China: accessibility (undersupplied kindergarten), affordability (expensive tuition), and accountability (poor quality) [6,7]. As the pioneer of educational reform in China, Shanghai has solved the 3A problems, and thus endeavored to improve the overall quality of preschool education [8]. Therefore, preschool federations have been established rapidly in Shanghai, a super-mega city having a population of 24 million and 16 administrative districts. However, this top-down policy has not been thoroughly reviewed and empirically examined; thus, its sustainability and effectiveness have not yet been confirmed. To fill this research gap, this study was dedicated to evaluating the effectiveness of preschool federations in Shanghai from 2015 to 2021 through a mixed-methods study, guided by the “3A2S” framework [9,10].

1.1. Preschool Federations in the World

The concept of “grouping” originated from economics studies. In the 1960s, Theodore W. Schultz and Gary Stanley Becker jointly proposed the human capital theory, laying a foundation for education industrialization and promoting the rise of group schooling [11]. However, education groups were rare in the 1960s [12]. Since the 1970s, many networked and chain educational organizations arose in countries and regions where private education was more developed. These included Apollo Education Group, founded in the United States in 1973, and Beaconhouse, founded in Pakistan in 1975 [13]. Later, in the 1980s, the inability of the government to meet the demand for quality education led to an imbalance between supply and demand. The market economy started to play a role in education, attracting many enterprises to invest in the education industry. Private education groups were then established, thus further promoting the combination of education and group management [12].

In the 1990s, education groups started to boom. The number of domestic education groups increased, and transnational education groups emerged [14]. Subsequently, education groups in China were born, starting from the private education section. With the promulgation of the Decision on Accelerating the Tertiary Industry and Running Schools by Non-governmental Sectors, private education groups began to emerge in the vocational education sector [15]. In the late 1990s, preschools in China also started to explore group management. The first preschool federation, Tomorrow Preschool Federation, was founded in Beijing, China, and was privately run [16].

At the end of the 20th century, the study of education groups, including preschool education federations, emerged [17]. It became popular in the early childhood education sector to set up large education groups around the globe. Public schools also became the main body of education groups [18]. Furthermore, with the reform and development of the market economy, private education groups became popular in China, especially in the more developed southeast coastal areas [12]. Since the beginning of the 21st century, China’s education groups have been mainly in the compulsory education sector and run by publicly owned organizations. The central government in China plays a leading role in guiding and planning school federation management. In contrast, the provincial governments promote the practice of school federations by sharing high-quality curriculum resources, ensuring fiscal investment, supervision, and assessment of education quality. School federations in the early childhood education sector also attracted great attention in multiple cities in China.

In general, there are six broad modes of federations around the globe: (1) cross-phase federations, consisting of two or more schools of different phases, such as a primary and a secondary school; (2) performance federations, consisting of two or more schools, some of which are low performing and others are high performing; (3) size federations, consisting of two or more very small or small schools, or a small school and a medium-sized school; (4) mainstreaming federations, consisting of one or more special schools combined with one or more mainstream schools; (5) faith federations, combining two or more schools of the same religious denomination; and (6) academy federations, consisting of two or more academies run by the same sponsor within a federation or chain [2]. This study will explore whether the six modes are implemented in preschool federations in China.

1.2. Preschool Federations in China

From the late 1990s to the beginning of the 21st century, private education groups in China began to emerge. As one of the main forces of private education, preschools also started to explore group management to promote balanced and quality development of preschool education. During this period, the Asian financial crisis spread to China, and the government initiated a new round of institutional reform and restructuring. One of the moves was to reduce the burden of the state-owned enterprise and institutions by closing down, suspending, or merging many preschools attached to these enterprises and institutions. This resulted in a rapid loss of quality preschools but also an emergence of new models for preschool development [19]. In this context, ten kindergartens in the Haidian District of Beijing merged to establish the first preschool federation in China, Tomorrow Preschool Federation, and began to try out the collaboration of preschool management [20].

From the beginning of the 21st century to 2010, with the rapid economic growth, the need for balanced and quality preschool education also reached a new level. However, regional, urban–rural, and inter-school differences have also become an obstacle to the development of balanced education, which prompted China to accelerate the search for new forms of educational organization. Against this background, many regions started the exploration of preschool federations. However, during this period, the practice of preschool federations mainly focused on the mode of one preschool with multiple sites [21,22].

Since 2010, to promote the further development of preschool education, as a response to the need for quality preschool education, several provinces have explored other forms of preschool federation, incorporated preschool federation running into their local Action Plan for Three-Years, and promulgated relevant notices on the reform of preschool education federations. For example, Shanghai launched a policy with the aim that quality preschools should enhance the quality of other preschools in the same community [23]. In 2020, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces followed suit accordingly. Accordingly, the preschool federation has been widely implemented in China to reach the full potential of high-quality preschools. In addition, several new models of preschool federation have been explored, such as “same-phase federation”, “cross-phase federation”, “entrusted management”, “multi legal person joint management”, and “single legal person and multi preschools management”. These mark the prelude to the high-speed development of preschool federations in China. In summary, preschool federation in China is defined as a collaboration of preschools by sharing the schooling philosophy, management model, curriculum, and teaching staff, to drive the development of relatively weak schools, rural schools, and new schools, so that member schools can gradually grow into new quality schools, thus expanding the coverage of quality education resources (Source: http://edu.sh.gov.cn/zcjd_area_3439/20200706/0015-xw_84632.html accessed on 9 June 2022).

1.3. Effectiveness Evaluation of School Federations

The existing references about the effectiveness of school federations generally focus on their impact on student outcomes. One quantitative study in the U.K. using the National Pupil Database (NPD) in 2009–2010 showed that school federations significantly affected overall student performance [1]. Another study on performance federation also found that alliances between low-performing and high-performing schools seem to have the greatest impact on student achievement [24]. Apart from student outcomes, school federations open up opportunities for teacher professional development, career opportunities, and sharing of teaching practice and innovation [25].

Effectiveness evaluation research on preschool federations in China, however, tends to use case studies to summarize lessons learned. The findings have been non-conclusive, with some showing that preschool federations were effective, whereas others found that they were not [26,27,28,29]. School federations expand the coverage of high-quality educational resources, promote the growth of low-performing schools, and alleviate the unequal distribution of educational resources [26]. They also boost faculty mobility, nurture institutional culture, and share high-quality curricula, thus improving the teaching quality of all schools in the group [27]. Furthermore, school federations change the vertical organizational structure of the traditional single schools and innovate the school management systems [26]. However, the internal governance of the school federations may also become chaotic when the boundaries of rights, responsibilities, and interests of different subjects are unclear [28]. The problems of inconsistent management philosophies, inconsistent phases of development, and inconsistent management rights and responsibilities among schools in the federation further exacerbate the effectiveness of management [12]. Moreover, the informal system, which consists of common cultural cognition, network relationships, community consciousness of social members, mutual respect, trust, identity, and conscious cooperation and participation, is needed to unify the form and spirit of schools in the federation [29].

An organization cannot survive and develop without the support and influence of its stakeholders, despite different positions in the organization and roles in the common goal. A study examined the school federation for education improvement in China based on interviews with 20 stakeholders from institutions, including educational authorities, the lead schools, and member schools [30]. Findings revealed that the stakeholder interactions had been hindered by the lack of policy coordination within and beyond the education reforms. It was concluded that a collective institutional context was needed to foster the shared values and trust between all stakeholders, and to promote the sustainable reform of the Education Groups to ensure education equity and quality. A quantitative study of principals and teachers found that the school federation has achieved initial results and is highly recognized. However, there is still room for further improvement in the construction of the teacher support system and the overall organization and management of the federation [31]. Another study showed that school administrators and teachers had a higher rating of each specific aspect of preschool federation and the overall effectiveness of schooling. Policy guarantees and student literacy are link variables with low mean scores but a significant impact on the overall school performance, which should be given full attention [32].

The school federation is a new pattern for schools operating to expand high-quality education resources because stakeholders of preschool federations, governments, preschool managers, teachers, and parents have the most direct and rich perceptions of the development and effectiveness of preschool federations. Therefore, exploring the views and needs of these interest groups can provide a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the development of preschool federations, give an objective explanation of the current situation of the implementation of group school operating policy, and further promote the sustainable development of preschool federations.

1.4. The Current Study

The existing studies on preschool federations in China are qualitative and thus cannot provide conclusions about the federations’ effectiveness. Furthermore, stakeholder evaluations of school federations have rarely been conducted. The preschool federation is a dynamic and inter-relational space that develops from mobile and dynamic relationships, which are transformed and modified, inviting the complexity of the actions of the people who inhabit it [33]. After the promulgation and implementation of a policy, the understanding of the policy by different stakeholders will be differentiated to a certain extent. As stakeholders of preschool federations, managers, teachers, and parents have the most direct perception of the education situation. They will participate in the preschool federation in various forms from the perspective of their own interests, and thus influence the preschool federation. Furthermore, the transition from policy research to policy formulation to practice is like a black box, and policy evaluation is like a key that can open this black box [34]. Each perspective in policy evaluation is a light cast into the black box of the problem, and the differences in perspectives from different subjects can help to analyze the effectiveness and difficulties of preschool federation. To fill these research gaps, the current study employed a mixed-methods approach to understand the features of preschool federation development in Shanghai, a city dedicated to piloting educational reforms in China. The school federation started from primary and secondary education in four pilot districts of Shanghai in 2014. Later in 2015, the city expanded this trial to all the districts and incorporated the formation of a preschool federation. As a result, three relevant government guidelines were issued to guide the development of school federations: Implementation opinions of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission on Promoting balanced development of High quality and Promoting District-oriented, and Group School Running and Shanghai New High-Quality School Cluster Development Action Plan for Three Years. By the end of 2021, there were 190 school federations covering 1136 schools in Shanghai. On the contrary, the development of preschool federations started late compared to those in primary and secondary education. The first preschool federations were set up in 2015 and quickly expanded to 41 preschool federations across 10 of 16 districts in 2022. The full list of the preschool federations can be found at the website: http://sd.shlll.net/ (accessed on 8 June 2022). This large-scale natural experiment of preschool federations in Shanghai has provided a valuable chance to examine its effectiveness in a Chinese context.

The “3A2S” theoretical framework is a useful framework to examine the sustainability and affordability of ECE policies: “Accessibility” measures whether every child at the age of 3–6 can easily attend a preschool nearby; “affordability” measures whether every family can easily afford the tuition fees and whether families in need can have some exemptions; “accountability” measures whether the extra fiscal input is available to improve education quality; “sustainability” measures whether the policy is sustainable and supportive to the development of ECE; and “social justice” measures whether children from various socio-economic backgrounds can benefit equally from the educational resources. The current study focused on the sustainability of the preschool federation policy. Accordingly, the following research questions guided the current study:

• What are the features of preschool federations in Shanghai?
• What is the effectiveness of preschool federations perceived by the different stakeholders?

This study hypothesizes that stakeholders’ evaluation of the preschool federation’s effectiveness is relatively high, and there are differences among different stakeholders.

2. Methods

An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was utilized in the current study. Quantitative data provide an objective understanding of the features of preschool federations in Shanghai and the effectiveness of preschool federation perceived by different stakeholders, whereas qualitative data triangulate the findings of the quantitative data and provide an in-depth understanding of the results [35]. First, document analysis was conducted to understand the course of features of preschool federation development in Shanghai. Next, a survey study including preschool administrators, teachers, and parents was used to evaluate preschool federation effectiveness from different stakeholders’ perspectives. Finally, interviews with preschool administrators, teachers, and parents were conducted to triangulate findings and further understand stakeholders’ evaluation of preschool federation effectiveness.

2.1. Document Analysis

We used the keywords “preschool education” and “preschool federation” to search and retrieve relevant documents on the government portal of the Ministry of education of the people’s Republic of China (http://www.nhc.gov.cn/ accessed on 14 March 2022) and the portal of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (https://edu.sh.gov.cn accessed on 14 March 2022). Then, based on the basic principles of comprehensiveness, authority, and relevance, the following criteria guided our document selection: (1) the content of the documents should be related to the development of preschool federations in Shanghai; (2) the documents should be issued by the central government, Shanghai municipal government, or Shanghai regional government; and (3) the documents should be issued between 2001 and 2021, which was the explosive stage of preschool federations. Consequently, twenty-one documents were selected for data analysis. A list of the documents analyzed is included in Appendix A.

2.2. Survey Study

2.2.1. Survey Participants

Convenience sampling was conducted to select questionnaire participants in this study. Seven preschool federations from five districts in Shanghai were purposefully selected to represent different kinds of preschool federations in Shanghai: some were established when Shanghai carried out the pilot of group school running, and some were newly established in recent years. Moreover, these preschool federations involve different districts of Shanghai. A total of 702 questionnaires were sent, all of which were retrieved, including 54 valid questionnaires from preschool leaders, 309 from teachers, and 339 from parents. The demographic statistics of the participants are shown in

Table 1. Participants of the survey study (N = 702).

Characteristics	Categories	Role			N (%)
		Preschool Leaders	Teachers	Parents
Educational attainment	High school diploma and below	0	0	14	14 (2%)
	Associate’s degree	1	24	52	77 (11%)
	Bachelor’s degree	51	277	223	551 (79%)
	Master’s degree	2	8	47	57 (8%)
	Doctorate degree	0	0	3	3 (1%)
Nature of preschool	Public	52	301	335	688 (98%)
	Private	2	8	4	14 (2%)
Preschool level 1	Unrated preschool	5	22	5	32 (5%)
	Second-level preschool	0	6	16	22 (3%)
	First-level preschool	36	191	195	422 (60%)
	Model preschool	13	90	123	226 (32%)

¹ Preschools are evaluated and rated according to the “Assessment of Early Childhood Quality of Shanghai Preschools” manual. According to the manual, model preschools should score above 90, first-level preschools should score 80–90, and second-level preschools should score 70–80; some new preschools have not yet been evaluated and thus are unrated.

.

2.2.2. Measurement

The Shanghai Preschool Federations Evaluation Survey (SPFES) was used to evaluate the approbation degree and effectiveness of preschool federations according to different stakeholders. The questionnaire was developed based on the Guidelines for Quality Evaluation of Preschools in Shanghai (Trial Version), Measures for Supervision and Evaluation of Universal Preschool Education in County Areas, and Bourdieu’s Social Capital Theory. First, according to Bourdieu’s capital theory, we focused on inter-school connections and cooperation in the three types of capital in developing the item pool. Then, according to the Measures for Supervision and Evaluation of Universal Preschool Education in County Areas, the content of the social approbation survey should include the effectiveness of the county-level government and relevant departments when implementing education equity policies, promoting quality resources, and sharing and improving the quality of education, which helped us classify the factors of policy approbation. Finally, according to the Quality Evaluation of Preschools in Shanghai (Trial Version), the factors of preschool federation effectiveness were classified. The Quality Evaluation of Preschools in Shanghai (Trial Version) evaluates preschool in terms of six aspects: preschool management, care and education management, care and education implementation, health care, team construction, and preschool conditions. Based on the above theories and documents, a panel of experts, including two early childhood researchers, reviewed and gave suggestions on the questionnaire, resulting in an initial survey with 46 items.

Next, a pilot study was conducted with 146 teachers from 17 preschools belonging to one preschool federation (see

Table 2. Participants of the survey pilot study (N = 146).

Characteristics	Categories	Educational Attainment			N (%)
		Associate’s Degree	Bachelor’s Degree	Master’s Degree
Nature of preschool	Public	19	118	1	138 (98%)
	Private	1	6	1	8 (2%)
Preschool level	Unrated preschool	2	2	0	4 (3%)
	Second-level preschool	0	1	0	1 (1%)
	First-level preschool	9	66	1	76 (52%)
	Model preschool	9	55	1	65 (44%)

). They rated the 46 items on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted in SPSS. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy, with a value of 0.904, and the statistically significant Bartlett’s test of sphericity, χ²(1035) = 15,200.41; p < 0.01, confirmed the suitability of conducting EFA. Results showed a two-factor structure of the questionnaire, explaining 84.75% of the total variance. As the factor loadings of questions 8 to 12 in the original questionnaire were overlapping and were greater than 0.5 at the same time, these 5 items were removed, leaving the questionnaire with 41 items.

The two factors were named Approbation Degree of Preschool Federation and Effectiveness of Preschool Federation. Internal consistency reliability analysis was performed and the Cronbach coefficients were satisfactory (α_approbation = 0.881, α_{effectiveness} = 0.9698, α_overall = 0.966). MacDonald’s omega reliability of the questionnaire was satisfactory (ω_overall = 0.963; ω_approbation = 0.871; ω_{effectiveness} = 0.962). Given the nature of the items, we further grouped the items into six second-level indicators and conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in Amos. The model fit indices were satisfactory (X²/df = 4.124, RMSEA = 0.068, IFI = 0.912, TLI = 0.900, CFI = 0.912) (see Figure 1 for CFA results).

CR values of the six dimensions were greater than 0.7, AVE values were greater than 0.5, and construct validity and convergence validity were good (see

Table 3. Construct validity and convergence validity.

Factor	CR	AVE
Factor1	0.9786	0.9197
Factor2	0.7069	0.5255
Factor3	0.8221	0.5165
Factor4	0.9896	0.8802
Factor5	0.9631	0.7419

), confirming the factor structure of the questionnaire. The six second-level indicators were named: Approbation Degree of the Policy, Approbation Degree of the Federation, Preschool Management, Quality of Education and Care, Staff Development, and Preschool Conditions. The final measure with specific items is shown in Appendix B.

2.3. Interview Study

2.3.1. Interview Participants

Purposeful sampling was used to select interview participants from seven preschool federations in five districts in Shanghai. Interviewees included 3 government officials, 4 preschool leaders, 6 preschool teachers, and 2 parents, resulting in a total of 15 interviewees. The demographic information of the interviewees is displayed in

Table 4. Participants of the interview study (N = 15).

Interviewee	Affiliation	Position	Gender
L1	Preschool Education Department	Government official	Male
L2	Educational Development Institute	Government official	Male
W	Preschool Education Department	Government official	Female
S	P Federation	Principal of a preschool	Female
H1	D Federation	Principal of a preschool	Female
Z	Z1 Federation	Principal of a preschool	Female
L	P Federation	Head of the Teaching and Research Section	Female
T	D Federation	Teacher in a core preschool	Female
X	N Federation	Teacher in a core preschool	Female
Y	N Federation	Teacher in a core preschool	Female
H2	R Federation	Teacher in a member preschool	Female
X2	Z2 Federation	Teacher in a member preschool	Female
C	S Federation	Teacher in a member preschool	Female
R	P Federation	Parents	Female
F	S Federation	Parents	Female

. Each interview lasted 45 to 90 min, and the process was recorded, transcribed, and analyzed.

2.3.2. Interview Protocol

A semi-structured interview was conducted with the participants. As a result, the interview protocol was developed based on the approbation degree and perceived effectiveness of preschool federations by different stakeholders, and modified according to the different parties of stakeholders. The interview protocol is included in Appendix C.

2.4. Procedure

First, document analysis was conducted to understand the features of preschool federation development in Shanghai and to summarize different models of the preschool federation. Then, for the large-scale survey study, the preschool principals were first contacted and introduced to the purpose and procedure of this study. After their approval, the teachers and parents from these preschool federations were briefed and invited to participate in this study. Next, all the participating leaders, teachers, and parents received a link to an online questionnaire platform, “Wenjuanxing” (Questionnaire Star), to complete the questionnaire. This survey aimed to understand the preschool federation’s effectiveness from different stakeholders’ perspectives. Finally, the interviewees were selected from the survey participants through convenience sampling. Preschool principals invited the selected preschool teachers and parents to participate in the interview study. Their contact information was given to the research team after their consent was granted. Interviews with government officials were conducted after the research team contacted the section chiefs of the Preschool Education Department.

2.5. Data Analysis Plan

In document analysis, all relevant documents regarding the preschool federation in Shanghai were searched, collected, selected, and identified from the website of the educational bureau of the local and national government. Snowballing was also applied during document searching when relevant documents were found in reading. Second, the information and statistics were extracted from the collected documents and summarized according to the content in NVivo. Several tree nodes were formed after several rounds of reading and analyzing. Finally, we formed three dimensions according to the tree nodes.

In the survey study, descriptive analysis was conducted to understand the stakeholders’ overall evaluation of the preschool federation. Then, ANOVA was conducted to analyze the differences in approbation degree and perceived effectiveness of preschool federation among stakeholders, following the SPEFS scale. Finally, interview transcripts were coded and analyzed to verify the findings of the survey study with the help of the structural framework of the questionnaires.

3. Results

3.1. Features of Preschool Federations in Shanghai

The coding results of the document analysis are displayed in

Table 5. The coding results of document analysis.

Dimensions	Total Number of Reference Points for Each Dimension (%)	Tree Node under Each Dimension
Government guidance and federation autonomy	76 (27%)	Preschool autonomy, administration-led (19) Incorporate into the regional three-year action plan and the 13th five-year development plan (6) Strengthen organizational leadership and implement school group running policies (51)
Running model of preschool federation	18 (7%)	cross-phase federations (3) same-phase federation (15)
The feature of each district	183 (66%)	Promote the collaboration of public and private preschools (2) Improve the system construction and the management level (61) Promote curriculum sharing and construction (42) Promote teacher mobility and staff development (45) Conduct preschool federation assessment (18) Strengthen fiscal support (15)

. Document analysis showed that there were three distinct features of the development of preschool federations in Shanghai: (1) balance between government guidance and federation autonomy, (2) same-phase federation and performance federation dominate the preschool federations, and (3) each district has its own characteristics. First, the balance between government guidance and federation autonomy drives the development of the preschool federation. The local government of each district formulates its featured policies to promote the formation of a preschool federation, and participates in the formulation of the federation plan, constitution, three-year action plan, and annual assessment standard to ensure the standardization of preschool federations. Federation autonomy, by comparison, is given to the structure innovation and internal management in each of the preschool federations.

Second, same-phase federation and performance federation dominate the preschool federations in Shanghai. Most of the federations consisted of schools in the same phase, such as preschool federations, primary school federations, and middle school federations. There were only a few exceptions of cross-phase federations, such as Xingzhi Education Group, which consists of preschools, primary schools, and middle schools. In addition, performance federations formed by quality preschools and weak preschools mainly utilize the resources of quality preschools to promote the development of relatively weak preschools, rural preschools, and newly established preschools. There are three subtypes of performance federation: (1) a quality preschool and several preschools in the region form a regional school partnership; (2) a famous preschool forms a federation with a newly established preschool in the same district; and (3) a leading urban preschool and a rural preschool form a federation.

Third, each district has its own characteristics. All districts in Shanghai make their plans as to whether to promote school federations, how to promote school federations, and to what extent. Thus, there are differences in the size and structure of member schools: some are groups with public schools only, whereas include both public and private schools. The strength of policy support and depth of political participation also differ: Some districts have a full range of regulations relating to school federations, from the process of federation formulation and operational guidelines to curriculum sharing, teacher exchange, and professional development, in addition to resource sharing. In contrast, some districts are rather loose regarding federations and only evaluate if low-performing schools have upgraded. The policies on financial support and staffing also vary across districts.

3.2. Stakeholder’s Approbation Degree of Preschool Federations

3.2.1. Overall Approbation Degree of Preschool Federations

Descriptive analysis showed that the overall score of stakeholders’ approbation degree was 4.20 (SD = 0.69), of which the approbation degree of the policy was 4.30 (SD = 0.82) and the approbation degree of the preschool federation was 3.97 (SD = 0.71). After converting the raw approbation degree into a percentage, the overall approbation degree was 84%, the approbation degree of the policy was 86%, and the approbation degree of the preschool federation was 79%. The Ministry of Education’s Notice on the Issuance of the Measures for the Supervision and Evaluation of Preschool Education Universalization and Inclusiveness in County Areas states that the social recognition of preschool education must be higher than 85% to reach a universal and inclusive preschool education. Based on this standard, the stakeholders’ overall approbation degree and approbation degree of preschool federations have not yet reached 85%.

In the interview, the stakeholders mentioned, “As long as the ‘Zhijiang’ brand is hung, parents are very convinced” and “Preschool federation met the needs of the people”. It further supported that the preschool federation has effectively improved the quality of preschools, alleviated the phenomenon of “school choice fever”, and promoted the equalization of high-quality educational resources. The coding results of the interview are displayed in

Table 6. The coding results of interviews.

Dimensions	Total Number of Reference Points for Each Dimension (%)	Tree Node under Each Dimension
Approbation degree of the policy	46 (12%)	High-quality education to alleviate the “school selection fever” (16) Education equity to promote the balance of educational resources (11) Education quality to improve the quality of group school running (19)
Approbation degree of the federation	33 (9%)	Promote the development of preschool education effectively (21) Be willing to participate in group school running (12)
Preschool management	71 (19%)	Improve the organizational structure and promote the standardization of management (16) Formulate a three-year action plan and improve the collective constitution (19) Share expert resources and improve management ability (36)
Staff development	87 (23%)	Build a learning community and jointly manage staff development (19) Share theoretical educational knowledge (27) Share practical educational experience (42)
Quality of education and care	114 (30%)	Curriculum guidance (14) Curriculum sharing (63) Curriculum co-construction (24) Share health care experience (13)
Preschool conditions	25 (7%)	Adequate staffing and reasonable personnel structure (16) Improvement of hardware equipment (9)

.

3.2.2. Differences in the Approbation Degree

The means and standard deviations in overall approbation degree, approbation degree of the policy, and approbation degree of the preschool federation by stakeholders are shown in

Table 7. Mean, standard deviation, and ANOVA results of approbation degree.

Dimension	Leader M (S.D.)	Teacher M (S.D.)	Parents M (S.D.)	F	η2	LSD 1
Overall approbation degree	4.49 ± 0.64	4.33 ± 0.70	3.90 ± 0.61	42.91 ***	0.327	1 > 2 > 3
Approbation degree of the policy	4.61 ± 0.74	4.53 ± 0.85	4.05 ± 0.75	35.07 ***	0.220	1 > 3; 2 > 3
Approbation degree of the preschool federation	4.37 ± 0.66	4.13 ± 0.74	3.76 ± 0.71	33.83 ***	0.139	1 > 3; 2 > 3

¹ 1 = leader, 2 = teachers, 3 = parent. *** p < 0.001.

. Converting the raw scores into a percentage, the leaders’ overall approbation degree was 90%, teachers’ overall approbation degree was 87%, and parents’ overall approbation degree was 78%, indicating that parents’ overall approbation degree had not reached the country’s target level of 85%.

One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to explore the differences in the approbation degree among stakeholders. According to the survey, a statistically significant difference in mean score existed between at least two groups of stakeholders (F(df = 2) = 42.91, p < 0.001). The LSD test for multiple comparisons found that the mean value of approbation degree was significantly different between preschool leaders, teachers, and parents (see Table 7). Parents hold a relatively low approbation attitude towards preschool federations.

Interviews with parents showed that parents’ understanding and feeling toward the policy are still distant. For example, some parents mentioned, “I don’t know enough about group schooling at the moment.” Furthermore, according to the qualitative data, parents in different possession of quality educational resources hold a different opinion about preschool federations, as parents claimed, “Preschool federation can improve the management level of preschools, but the quality of early childhood education depends on the love and personal qualities of teachers” and “There’s no obvious feeling yet”.

3.3. Stakeholder’s Evaluation of Preschool Federation Effectiveness

3.3.1. Overall Evaluation of Preschool Federation Effectiveness

Survey results showed that the overall effectiveness evaluation was 4.21 (SD = 0.60), of which preschool management was 4.47 (SD = 0.67), quality of education and care was 4.18 (SD = 0.63), staff development was 4.26 (SD = 0.65), and preschool conditions was 3.91 (SD = 0.62). After converting the raw effectiveness evaluation scores into a percentage, the overall effectiveness evaluation was 84%, preschool management was 89%, quality of education and care was 84%, staff development was 85%, and preschool conditions was 78%.

Based on the Shanghai standard, preschool quality has been effectively improved. Interviews with stakeholders further substantiate such improvement: “We invite professors and famous practitioners to give lectures on classroom management” and “Some of the preschools are going to be upgraded to first-class or model schools. The teachers are forming a learning community with the chairman of the group taking the lead”. It can be seen that preschools in the federation improve each other and share common prosperity. Nonetheless, stakeholders frequently pointed to the problem of preschool conditions, which also received the lowest rating compared to other dimensions. Stakeholders pointed to the shortage of human resources and uneven basic conditions. For example, a preschool leader complained, “From a management point of view, the pressure on us is great because we do not have extra people to specialize in grouping these things”.

3.3.2. Differences in the Overall Evaluation

The means and standard deviations in overall effectiveness, preschool management, quality of education and care, staff development, and preschool conditions by stakeholders are shown in

Table 8. Mean, standard deviation, and ANOVA results of overall evaluation.

Dimension	Leader M (S.D.)	Teacher M (S.D.)	Parents M (S.D.)	F	η2	LSD 1
Overall effectiveness evaluation	4.26 ± 0.50	4.24 ± 0.62	4.10 ± 0.60	61.03 ***	0.950	1 > 2 > 3
Preschool management	4.64 ± 0.58	4.55 ± 0.70	4.38 ± 0.64	7.09 ***	0.084	1 > 3; 2 > 3
Quality of education and care	4.32 ± 0.57	4.25 ± 0.66	4.11 ± 0.59	5.83 **	0.041	1 > 3; 2 > 3
Staff development	4.47 ± 0.56	4.36 ± 0.67	4.15 ± 0.63	11.48 ***	0.454	1 > 3; 2 > 3
Preschool conditions	3.61 ± 0.40	3.79 ± 0.49	4.07 ± 0.71	25.80 ***	0.826	3 > 1; 3 > 2

¹ 1 = leader, 2 = teachers, 3 = parent. ** p< 0.01; *** p < 0.001.

. Converting the raw scores into a percentage, the leaders’ overall effectiveness evaluation was 85%, teachers’ overall effectiveness evaluation was 84%, and parents’ overall effectiveness evaluation was 82%, indicating that teachers’ overall effectiveness evaluation and parents’ overall effectiveness evaluation have not reached the city’s target level of 85%.

One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to explore the differences in the effectiveness evaluation among stakeholders. According to the survey, a statistically significant difference in mean score existed between at least two groups of stakeholders (F(df = 2) = 61.03, p < 0.01). The LSD test for multiple comparisons found that the mean value of approbation degree was significantly different between preschool leaders, teachers, and parents (see Table 8). In particular, except for preschool conditions, where parents had a higher rating than preschool leaders and teachers, parents rated lower in overall effectiveness evaluation, preschool management, quality of education and care, and staff development.

Interviews with parents explain: “I think that after the group operation, preschool activities are more diversified, which benefits both children and parents. But the question is how to make all parents in the group feel the same for improvement in preschool management and facilities.” It can be seen that parents have a positive perception of the immediate and visible changes coming from grouping but a low perception of the long-term, invisible changes in the organization’s inner workings.

4. Discussion

4.1. Features of Preschool Federations in Shanghai

In the Implementing Opinion on Promoting Quality and Balanced Development of Education, District School Running and Group School Running by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission in 2015, the city government suggested that local counties and districts should promote preschool federations after Y, X, Z, and J districts had taken the lead in establishing pilot zones for preschool federation. To date, the sixteen districts in Shanghai differ in their pace of promoting the preschool federation system due to the two-tier management system that centers on urban education. Nonetheless, all districts in Shanghai can decide if they carry out the policy of preschool federation depending on the status quo and the characteristics of local education, leaving room for district autonomy [8]. Same-phase federations dominate the preschool federations in Shanghai, which proved more effective than cross-phase federations. Compared with the cross-phase federation, it is easier for same-phase federations to share educational resources, such as curriculum resources, management experiences, research findings, and teachers’ interflow within the federation.

The management of member preschools in each federation went ranged loose to closely cooperating. The Implementing Opinion on Promoting Construction of Close-Knit School Districts and Groups released in 2019 provided an infrastructure for closer collaboration in teaching and researching, facilitated the exchange mechanism, improved the arrangement of teaching staff, and promoted the management to engage in closer cooperation [36]. For example, the J district forms an incubation mechanism for federations by setting up an internship site for student teachers, thus promoting the sharing of teacher resources. According to the interview, members from local federations will set up a mechanism for co-setting curriculum structure, co-training teaching staff, and sharing resources. Furthermore, implementing the 1 + X management organization structure is conducive to promoting a closer interaction within a preschool federation. Thus, the P district formulated the assessment plan for preschool federation development, with “1” being the core preschool. To date, the development of preschool federations in Shanghai is rapid and remarkable, and sets a good example for other cities to follow.

4.2. Approbation Degree of Preschool Federations in Shanghai

Survey results showed that stakeholders’ overall approbation degree of preschool federations is relatively high in Shanghai. Stakeholders generally approved of the policy itself, but the approbation degree of the preschool federations was not as high. This finding shows that stakeholders perceive that the group school running policy can promote educational quality, but the problems in education cannot be completely solved in a short time. In each preschool federation, everyone wants to maximize their access to quality educational resources and good educational environments. This leads to the reality that stakeholders’ educational needs cannot be met immediately under the existing educational supply conditions [37]. Furthermore, preschool federations started relatively late compared to compulsory education in the city and are still expanding; thus, more time is needed for the policy to take effect.

Interviews with stakeholders further indicated that the stakeholders largely acknowledged the value of this school-running model of coordinating the strength of the allied groups to promote the co-growth and development of member schools. Furthermore, this school-running model conforms with the developmental trend of education and teaching reform in China, increases the allocation and integration of high-quality educational resources, and achieves positive social benefits. This finding conforms with existing studies in the Chinese context that group preschool running is the best way for preschool to grow, and has irreplaceable advantages over individual preschools. In preschool federations, the quality preschool sends teaching and management teams and backbone teachers to member preschools so that the quality preschool’s teaching pedagogy and management philosophy can be implemented in member preschools, and thus eventually improve the overall quality of education preschools [16].

Furthermore, the differential analysis showed that parents had a relatively low approbation degree towards preschool federation compared to preschool leaders and teachers. The reasons for such incongruence among stakeholders are twofold. First, the degree of parental participation in federation governance not only directly affects the governance of the federation, but also determines the credibility of preschool federation governance [29]. Therefore, harnessing the wisdom and energy of various stakeholders becomes indispensable in improving governance structure and the modernization of governance capacity. However, despite the general trend of parental involvement in preschool management, parents are indirect participants of the preschool federation regarding their breadth and depth of participation. As one parent in the interview pointed out, “I think the preschool federation will benefit both parents and children, but the challenge is how to make parents feel that there is a profound change in preschool management”. This finding conforms with existing evidence that parents are often absent from the governance of many school federations [29]. Second, parents from the high-performing and core preschools and those from the low-performing and member preschools hold different opinions. Thus, parents from low-performing preschools believed that joining a federation with a prestigious preschool would improve the teaching quality of their preschool and provide an opportunity for their children to receive a high-quality education. In contrast, parents from high-performing preschools worry about diluting high-quality education resources and feel deprived. The purpose of establishing preschool federations is to promote the overall quality of preschool education through the radiation of high-quality resources. Therefore, parents are expected to feel the “sharing, building, and benefiting of high-quality education”. Despite the differences, parents share a common goal for high-quality education, which is resolved by a more balanced educational system, which can meet parents’ demand for quality education for their children [38].

4.3. Effectiveness and Sustainability of Preschool Federation in Shanghai

Survey results showed that stakeholders’ evaluation of preschool federation effectiveness was generally high, especially in terms of preschool management, quality of education and care, and staff development, all of which sustain the solid development of preschool education. In terms of preschool management, federations provide opportunities for communication and exchange among the preschools within the group and close interaction between preschools, which enhance the effectiveness of preschool management. In the federation, preschools can share and discuss their special activities and excellent experiences, which help the preschools progress in management together; furthermore, quality preschool exports leaders and teachers to member preschools and bring management wisdom to the member schools [16]. Furthermore, a hierarchical management mechanism is set up in the group, with a group council and secretariat established to improve the organizational structure and promote management standardization. Usually, the core preschool plays a leading role, and the management personnel forms a learning community to build a “shared pool of management wisdom” to complement each member’s strengths and form a shared management system to achieve a win–win situation [16]. This infrastructure provides a base for the sustainable development of grouped preschools.

In terms of the quality of education and care, federations can gather the strengths in the curriculum of each member preschool to co-construct a strong curriculum within the group [3]. The federation serves as a platform for teacher training, exchange, and research, through which the quality resources of each preschool can be integrated and reconstructed [17]. For example, by carrying out special observation activities, preschools in the same federation can analyze and discuss the specific operable methods suitable for the actual situation of each preschool, which provides a practical guarantee for each preschool to implement what they learned [39]. As a preschool manager mentioned, “ One of our member schools in the federation does a good job in nutritional analysis in health care, and so our health care workers go to that preschool to learn”. Furthermore, curriculum co-construction encourages member preschools to jointly create high-quality courses for the whole federation, while also deepening the school-based curriculum of each preschool [17].

Regarding staff development, federations eliminate the “barriers” to sharing theoretical knowledge and practical experience in education among different preschools. Teacher professional development training, seminars, and academic forums are channels to expand teachers’ knowledge system as a group. Teachers’ practical experiences are shared through the demonstration and observation of teaching activities, the sharing of backbone teachers in classes, and the sharing of curriculum resources. Furthermore, a larger professional learning community is formed by a flexible teacher mobility mechanism that allows teachers to form pairs of co-development. Teachers in a stable working environment are prone to burnout, and therefore teacher mobility can revitalize teachers, stimulate teacher development, and promote educational equity to some extent [12]. As a result, the federation encourages exchange among teachers by carrying out various ways of teacher mobility, such as multi-directional mobility, reciprocal mobility, and mobility of the three major childcare staff groups (health care workers, child care workers, and nutritionists), to strengthen the quality teacher team [17]. All these measures may facilitate the sustainable development of the preschool federations.

However, this study found that the stakeholders evaluated the preschool condition as relatively low. This indicator describes the space and furnishing, and the staff structure, of a federation. The low evaluation might be due to the lagged development of the “hardware”. The lack of a policy guarantee mechanism has affected the motivation of federations to upgrade their hardware [28]. The reason behind such conditions is the different fiscal policies among districts in Shanghai. According to the current group school running policy, the main initiatives are to strengthen the preschool management and staff development and improve the quality of education and care, so the focus in the policy implementation is also on these aspects. However, the preschool condition is sometimes ignored, resulting in the low condition. Interviews with stakeholders further indicated that some districts allocate extra funds for group schooling, whereas others focus more on top-level design such as planning and constitution. Therefore, when a federation is formed, some local governments will provide each member preschool with appropriate hardware support to ensure that the hardware facilities of each member preschool can meet the standards of demonstration preschools. Other local governments, however, do not provide financial support, so differences in hardware facilities between different campuses remain. As a teacher mentioned in the interview, “When our preschool was selected as a model school this year, we still had to borrow a lot of hardware equipment from other member schools because we lack those resources”.

ANOVA analysis showed significant differences between preschool leaders, teachers, and parents in the four sub-domains of effectiveness evaluation. This corroborates evidence that stakeholders perceive preschool federations from different perspectives [40]. Preschool leaders and teachers, as direct participants and practitioners in the group preschool running, had a deeper feeling about the change brought about by the school federation. Teachers, whether in a single preschool or a group, as long as they are provided with a platform for learning and development and are given reasonable salaries and benefits, will be relatively satisfied with group preschool running [16]. With the support of powerful federation resources, the preschool leaders and teachers in the federation have directly gained many benefits and thus recognize the value of the federation [41]. However, parents’ participation is relatively limited, which is a prominent problem in early childhood education [42]. In particular, parents, as indispensable stakeholders in the effectiveness of group school running, are not directly involved in the grouping process and thus feel less strongly about the change in effectiveness before and after grouping. As group preschool running is still in the exploratory stage, more attention has been paid to creating the internal school governance structures, ignoring the introduction of the external governance force and constructing an external governance mechanism [29]. It shows that the preschool federation is not a “panacea” for all the problems in education, and all factors should be considered [7]. Together, the current study’s findings indicate that the preschool federation policy is sustainable, given the sustained external support from the government and the internal growth of the preschool federations resulting from internal governance infrastructure.

5. Political and Practical Implications

The current study has important political and practical implications. First, the preschool federation proved to be an efficient reform measure to improve overall education quality more widely, according to the Shanghai experience. Second, preschool federations are established on the voluntary basis of each school and under the government’s leadership. Government should strengthen policy support and improve conditions for preschool federations. Implementing the preschool federation policy is inseparable from the guidance and resources of these departments. In particular, the improvement in hardware facilities needs strong financial support from the government. Furthermore, the government needs to strengthen top-level design, provide clear guidance and operational policies, and provide a good policy environment for effective coordination and integration of multiple resources within the federation. Third, an efficient mechanism for sharing high-quality resources within the group is needed for the member schools to effectively coordinate, integrate, and adjust multiple resources to achieve a balanced development of the high-quality federation. The preschool federation should promote resource sharing from one-way output to two-way interaction, focusing on the development and utilization of the member preschools’ existing material resources, human resources, and other potential resources to form a complementary model. Under the two-way interaction mode, it promotes the negotiation between the “outside-in” supply and the ”inside out” demand, meets the needs of the preschool and parents, and ensures the effectiveness of resource output and improvement in the quality of the preschool federation. Fourth, parents should be motivated to participate in the federation as indispensable stakeholders.

The limitations of the current study are worth mentioning. First, this study evaluated preschool federation effectiveness from the perspective of preschool administrators, teachers, and parents, but lacks the perspective of children, which is invaluable in measuring the effectiveness of preschool federation and requires further research. Second, there are different school-running models of preschool federations, but this study has not conducted a comparative study of the effectiveness of different modes. Therefore, long-term follow-up research is needed to further explore the differences between different models in order to promote the sustainable development of preschool federations.

In conclusion, the development of the preschool federation in Shanghai is remarkable, and displays three important features. Furthermore, stakeholders’ evaluation of its effectiveness is relatively high, which supports our research hypothesis and provides valuable lessons for improving education quality and sustainable development. More efforts, however, are still needed to continuously promote quality early childhood education for the next generation’s sustainable development during the post-pandemic period.