Teacher’s Professional Development in Rural Preschools in Guangzhou: Conditions and Challenges

Rural preschool teacher is a disadvantaged teacher group in China. The weak teacher quality constrains the development of rural preschools. This research empirically explores the status quo and bottlenecks of the professional development of rural preschool teachers in Guangzhou. The findings show that: first, rural preschools generally have insufficient educational resources and their teachers have high level of pressures. Second, low teacher salaries and high mobility restrict the improvement of education quality. Third, the professional development paths for preschool teachers are relatively limited. Fourth, the forms and contents of on-the-job training are limited, and the training opportunities are unevenly distributed. Based on empirical analysis, this paper proposes the following reforms to refine the path for the rural preschool teacher professional development: first, strengthen government responsibility and improve teacher training system; second, optimize the content of teacher training with the support from teacher training university; third, improve the on-the-job training system in preschools