Name

Yi Yang (楊藝)

Position

Lecturer, Department of Education Studies, Academy of Wellness and Human Development

Academic Qualifications     

BEd (First Class Honors), East China Normal University

MEd (Dean’s Honors List), The University of Hong Kong

Ph.D., The University of Hong Kong

Academic & Professional Experience

1/2023-Present              Lecturer, Hong Kong Baptist University

3/2022-1/2023               Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Hong Kong

1/2022-3/2022               Part-time Lecturer, The University of Hong Kong

 

Broad Areas of Interest: My general research interest lies in the bioecology of early childhood education. I am interested in how contextual factors shape young children’s learning and experience across early childhood education settings, families, and communities, especially for children from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.

 

Publications

Corresponding author*

Rao, N., Yang, Y., Gong, J., Su, Y., Pelman, M., Sun, J., Zhang, L. & Zhou, J. (2025). Regional disparities in family environment, preschool quality, and early school attainment in China. International Journal of Early Childhood, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-025-00418-4.

Yang, Y.* (2024). Reciprocal relationships between parental involvement and academic performance in early adolescence: A two-year longitudinal study in China. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1-14.

Yang, Y.*, Rao, N. & Sun, J. (2024). From pre-service preparation to professional development: Early childhood teachers’ learning experiences, early childhood education quality and child development in China. Early Education and Development, 1-23.

Rao, N., Yang, Y. & Bala, M. (2024). Early childhood care and education: Landscape review 2010-2022. UNESCO, Paris.

Rao, N., Yang, Y., Su, Y., & Cohrssen, C. (2023). Promoting equity in access to quality early childhood education in China. Children, 10(10), 1674. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10101674

Yang, Y.*, & Rao, N. (2023). The status, pathways and discourses of professionalism for early childhood education teachers in Chinese policies. International Journal of Educational Development, 99, 102760. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102760

Liang, R., Yang, Y., & Van Leeuwen, K. (2022). Mobile phone parenting in work separated Chinese families with young children left behind: A qualitative inquiry into parenting dimensions and determinants. Child & Family Social Work, 28(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12936

Yang, Y.*, & Rao, N. (2021). Teacher professional development among preschool teachers in rural China. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 42(3), 219-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2020.1726844

Rao, N., Umayahara, M., Yang, Y., & Ranganathan, N. (2021). Ensuring access, equity and quality in early childhood education in Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar: Challenges for nations in a populous economic corridor. International Journal of Educational Development, 82, 102380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102380

Zhang, X., Lau, C., & Yang, Y. (2021). Shyness and social-emotional development among Chinese children: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Infant and Child Development, 30(6), 1-34.  https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2265

 

Conference Presentations (Refereed)

Yang, Y., Dong S., & Rao, N. (2023). How does community influence cultural capital reproduction: Observations from the China Family Panel Study. Poster presented at the 2023 Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Dong, S., Yang, Y., & Rao, N. (2023). No Evidence Supports the New “Useless Education Theory”: Analyses of Chinese Parents’ Educational Aspirations. In Dong, S. & Tang, X. Understanding the Now and the Future: Parental Cognitions About Child Development, Education, and Rearing. Symposium presented at the 2023 Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Yang, Y., Su, Y., Perlman. M, & Rao., N. (2022). Home and preschool influences on early achievement in China: A three-year longitudinal study. Poster presented at Development 2022: A Canadian Conference on Developmental Psychology.

Yang, Y. & Rao, N. (2021). ECE teacher professional development experience, classroom quality, and child development in China. Poster presented at the 2021 Society for Research in Child Development Virtual Biennial Meeting.

Yang, Y. & Rao, N. (2021). Regional variations in preschool teachers’ induction and mentoring experiences in China. Poster presented at the 2021 Virtual AERA Annual Meeting.

Yang, Y. & Rao, N. (accepted). Urban and rural differences in preschool teacher professional development in China. 26th Biennial Meeting of the Interantional Society for the Study of Behavoural Development.

 

Others

Rao, N., Yang, Y., & Ranganathan, N. (2022, Mar 4) Measuring equitable access to early childhood education in Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar. South Asia @ LSE. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2022/03/04/measuring-equitable-access-to-early-childhood-education-in-bangladesh-china-india-and-myanmar/

Academic & Professional Activities/ Consultancy/Community Services

Individual Specialist for The Second World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (WCECCE) in Tashkent, 2022

Peer Reviewer

·        Acta Psychologica

Child and Family Social Work

Early Education and Development

Early Years: An International Research Journal

Frontiers in Psychology

Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education

Nature: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

Oxford Review of Education