Legislation for early childhood education: A case study of China

The purpose of this study is to analyze the legislation for early childhood education (ECE) in China with Kingdon's (1995) multiple streams framework (MSF). Document analysis was used to evaluate academic papers and secondary data to explore the problem stream, the policy stream, the politics stream, the opening of the policy window, and the merging of the three streams suggested by the MSF. The results of these analyses indicated that all the stakeholders were willing and indeed ready for the legislation, and according to the MSF, the law should have been enacted. But the opposite is true, indicating that Kingdon's model should be modified to fit in the case of China: the entrepreneurs are critical to policymaking, but the final decision lies with the ruling party of the country. This is because China is a unique society, which follows the rule by law under the rule of the Communist Party of China. Implications and suggestions are also addressed.