This blog post provides two examples of how my researcher positionality intersects with those of participants, and challenges traditional stereotyped expectations of power relations in Chinese early years education (ECE). In China, the researcher–participant power relations are not much reflected on by Chinese researchers in education – all the more interesting seeing that the country is traditionally perceived as highly hierarchical (Xu, 2019).
This blog shows how participant-dominated power relations in education research can be neutralised by certain factors, such as professional work experience, research topics and academic qualifications.
My first example is from a public kindergarten serving low social economic status (SES) families in a disadvantaged Chinese area. In traditional Chinese Confucianism, older women with experiences of childbirth and nurturing have a say in ECE’s affairs (Fei, 1948). This is particularly obvious in disadvantaged areas, the ‘rural society’ (Fei), where social networks are maintained by guanxi relationships – where respecting and obeying elders is a requirement (Fei, 1948).
However, as a young and non-local woman with neither experiences of childbirth nor nurturing, and thanks to my professional working experiences, I was able to have equal conversations with the older women of the kindergarten (the headteacher and deputy headteacher were both in their 50s). When I first met them, I worked as a trainer at a Chinese nationally renowned ECE research centre, to conduct teacher training workshops in their kindergarten. They felt that my workshops could help them to solve difficulties they encountered in daily ECE practices.
