International continuous professional development of kindergarten principals and government officials within ECE: A collaboration between China and Norway in ESD

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday III)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Building a sustainable future for our children: comparative studies in early childhood education from China and Norway

Proposal

This empirical research aims to explore professional development of participating kindergarten principals and government officials in an international continuous professional development (CPD) program and introduce a model for international CPD for leaders within ECE in education for sustainable development (ESD). Data are drawn from program documents, training materials, participants’ reflective PowerPoint presentations, reflective journals and interviews conducted with them. Thematic analysis and comparative analysis are utilized to analyze the collected data. The finding indicates that this CPD experience has both confirmed some of their beliefs and practices of ECE and challenged some of their beliefs and practices. More important, the program has facilitated their constant professional reflections. The finding indicates that all the participants think that this international CPD is more productive than many of the CPD they have participated.

Authors

• AiHua Hu, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

• Minyi Li, Beijing Normal University