Within the last decade, the pressures of implementing state mandated early learning guidelines and meeting the requirements from federal, state and local agencies, have taken their toll on many preschool programs. In the present study, preschool programs were given a chance to voice their opinions about how curriculum standards and other external mandates were directly and indirectly influencing curriculum planning, teaching practices, and child activity. A brief survey was sent to 90 preschool directors in a region in Massachusetts, 28 directors completed this survey. A sample of nine directors, from the survey respondents, volunteered to be interviewed. In two separate interviews the researcher asked a series of questions to obtain data from the participants. These interview questions focused on how the participants made sense of the mandatory integration of early learning standards and other external mandates into their preschool program and their concerns based on their role as a preschool director. The results of the study revealed that external guidelines set forth by the state and federal government were a great concern to the preschool directors. These directors agreed that curriculum mandates were necessary yet the amount of work, time and expenditure needed to meet the demands of these mandates could be quite overwhelming. Concerns were particularly relevant in the areas of obtaining or maintaining NAEYC accreditation and the push for a standardized curriculum and/or a standardized assessment tool. To recieve specific types of funding, a program must be using a standardized assessment tool. Many funding sources also require that a program be accredited by NAEYC. The financial and physical expense of both of these requirements was prohibitive . The results were analyzed with respect to child development and early childhood education principles. The findings indicated that curriculum mandates focused primarily on young children’s cognitive development to the detriment of social and emotional competence. The findings also indicated that children were being pressured to spend more time on narrow academic skills and less time on play. Yet play has been found to provide children with opportunities to interact socially, express and control emotions, and develop symbolic thinking skills (Nicolopoulou, 2010).

近年來國內對學前教育研究之焦點漸跳脫課程與教學、教師與幼兒等範疇，而對學前教育組織(幼稚園、托兒所)或組織領導者(園所長)的關切亦日趨重視，亦顯現園所長對幼兒園教學品質的關係。本研究旨在探討台灣幼托園所長教學領導知覺及其相關因素。本研究採問卷調查法進行資料蒐集，問卷調查對象以台灣北、中、南、東四區共計7539公私立園所之園所長與教師為母群體，採分層隨機抽樣方式進行，對園所長與教師分別發出754份問卷，園所長部份回收400份(回收率53.05%)，教師部份回收395份(回收率52.38%)。研究工具乃依據De Bevois(1984)、Murphy(1990)、李安明(2001)、及McEwan(2003)之理論與架構為基礎，經專家審題及預試結果，修正發展成適於國內幼教領域使用之「幼托園所長教學領導問卷」。問卷回收後以SPSS 12.01套裝軟體進行資料分析。資料分析方法主要採敘述統計、信度分析、因素分析、t考驗、單因子變異數分析及薛費多重比較法，作為資料處理方法。本研究之主要發現如下： 一、 幼托園所長教學領導內涵包括五層面，包括：形成與傳遞園所教學目標、確保課程與教學品質、營造良好學習氣氛與工作環境、促進教師專業成長以及賦權教師。 二、 幼托園所長與教師對「幼托園所長教學領導」知覺程度皆非常高，且無差異。 三、 在幼托園所長部份，不同「年齡」、「服務年資」、「園所地區」、「園所性質」、「園所規模」者對「幼托園所長教學領導」知覺程度有所差異。 四、 在幼托園所教師部份，不同「園所性質」、「園所規模」之幼托園教師對「幼托園所長教學領導」知覺程度有所差異。 最後依據本研究結果分析與結論，對於幼托園所長、幼教行政機關與規劃園所長研習單位以及後續研究者提出具體建議以茲參考。 / Recently, the research focus of early childhood education has gradually put more emphasis on preschool directors in Taiwan. Much research has shown that preschool directors play a key role in preschool quality, and that their leadership also has an impact on preschools. Some scholars had emphasized that preschool directors’ leadership consist of two parts: administration leadership and instructional leadership. Somehow, there was gradually more research on administration leadership, but still very few on preschool directors’ instructional leadership. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to understand the awareness of preschool directors’ instructional leadership between preschool directors themselves and preschool teachers in Taiwan. In addition, the study was also done to identify the background factors that would influence directors’ and teachers’ awareness of directors’ instructional leadership. This study was executed using a questionnaire survey. A sample population of 754 public and private preschool directors, along with 754 teachers, participated using the survey tool, Preschool Directors’ Instructional Leadership Questionnaire, which was developed by researcher according to literature review. 400 questionnaires (effective return rate is 53.05%) were returned by directors, and 395 (effective return rate is 52.38%) by teachers. This study reports four major findings: (1) Preschool directors’ instructional leadership includes 5 dimensions:(a)To frame and communicate the school’s instructional goals; (b)To ensure learning and teaching quality; (c) To build a positive learning and working climate; (d) To promote teachers’ professional growth; (e) To delegate authority to teachers. (2) Both preschool directors and teachers had very high-degree awareness of directors’ instructional leadership. And there was no difference between the directors’ and teachers’ awareness. (3) Different age, working experience, school area, school type, and school scale have influenced preschool directors’ awareness of their instructional leadership. (4) Different school type and scale have influenced preschool teachers’ awareness of directors’ instructional leadership. Keywords: awareness of instructional leadership, preschool directors、preschool teachers、kindergarten and preschool