This paper critically analyses how the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region has tackled the issue of preschool quality over the past 30 years. Although early childhood education is not part of the publicly funded education system, there is almost universal preschool attendance among three to six year olds. The government regulates, monitors and evaluates early childhood services, and has taken numerous steps to improve the quality of early childhood provision. However, a paradox lurks within government policy. On one hand, the facility-focused and provider-focused regulatory standards for the operation of preschools have been faulted for being too lax; but, on the other hand, policies and incentives have clearly improved the quality of preschool education. These include measures to support the upgrading of serving kindergarten teachers and an emphasis on quality assurance. The implementation of enabling policies is essential to ensure that all children have access to high-quality early education and care.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430601078644]

Confronted with the rise of a new group within its organization, Small World, an international Christian kindergarten in Hong Kong, is being forced to reconsider its boundaries. The trend towards more applications to international schools by Hong Kong Chinese, adds an extra dimension to the already extensive cultural diversity among the kindergarten's staff, students and their parents. Describing the appreciation for cultural diversity amongst staff and parents, the strategies that are used to maintain harmony and the motives that (Hong Kong Chinese) parents have for participation in the school, it is argued that only one effect of globalization on the macro level can be identified on the micro and meso level, namely indigenization. The article shows how parents, staff and the organization all try to adopt attractive or useful elements of foreign cultures without giving up their own culture, and subsequently foster multiculturalism in an attempt to reach their goals, these being the cultural competence of their children for Hong Kong Chinese parents and success for the organization. The resulting demand for the incorporation of extra foreign elements in the curriculum is forcing Small World to reconsider its boundaries.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Business Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13602380500135901]

This article discusses the sources, processes and impact of the quality assurance policy implemented in Hong Kong preschools. Regarded as a sort of policy alignment between the subsystems of pre-primary, primary and secondary education, the introduction of a quality assurance policy has been directly and indirectly transforming the settlements in the preschool context. The first section of this article examines the main shift in policy direction shaped by the global movement of supranational organizations and the local agenda of educational reform after 1997. The historical review of the changing parameters in the preschool field is provided in the second section as a backdrop for later discussion. The third section analyses how the local governance of education is subtly transforming the settlements in the preschool field. The fourth section discusses how the quality assurance policy is mediated with school-level realities. It is argued that the top-down approach adopted by policy-makers should be critically re-examined in the policy process in order to ensure the quality of preschool education.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430600563836]