This study investigates the differences and influencing mechanisms of preschool teachers’ curriculum leadership in urban and rural areas under the context of digital empowerment, aiming to provide empirical support for promoting high-quality and balanced development of preschool education in these regions. The research targeted preschool teachers in three typical urban-rural gradient regions within Guangdong Province (core areas of first-tier cities, transitional areas between urban and rural areas, and county-townships). Using a questionnaire survey method, it analyzed the current status of their curriculum leadership across four dimensions: curriculum ideological innovation, design and planning, implementation coordination, and evaluation and reflection. The findings indicate that preschool teachers’ overall curriculum leadership is at a moderate level, with curriculum evaluation and reflection ability identified as the core weakness. Regarding urban-rural disparities, urban teachers significantly outperformed rural teachers in curriculum innovation capability, curriculum evaluation and reflection capability, and overall curriculum leadership. This disparity is primarily attributed to the gaps in technological empowerment, specifically the higher coverage of AI teaching resources and better hardware facilities and technical training in urban areas. However, no significant urban-rural differences were found in curriculum design and planning ability or curriculum implementation coordination ability, possibly because the basic technologies involved in these two dimensions, such as simple courseware creation and regular educational app applications, have been initially popularized in both urban and rural kindergartens. Furthermore, the study revealed that teaching experience significantly influences curriculum implementation coordination ability, with more experienced teachers performing better. Higher educational attainment is associated with superior curriculum evaluation and reflection ability and overall curriculum leadership. Kindergarten scale also significantly impacts curriculum design and planning ability and overall curriculum leadership, with smaller kindergartens demonstrating greater flexibility in AI-personalized curriculum design. This study underscores the importance of bridging the urban-rural digital divide and enhancing teachers’ technological literacy and higher-order technological integration competencies to foster the development of preschool teachers’ curriculum leadership in the digital era.
- Open Access
- Article
A Study on the Differences and Influencing Mechanisms of Curriculum Leadership of Urban and Rural Preschool Teachers under Digital Empowerment
- Cuiwen Li 1,†,
- Ying Liu 1,*,†,
- Yanran Wang 2,†,
- Chun Fu 2,
- Shiwei Hu 3,
- Furong Guo 2
Author Information
Received: 05 Mar 2026 | Revised: 21 Apr 2026 | Accepted: 16 May 2026 | Published: 30 Jun 2026
Abstract
Keywords
preschool teachers | curriculum leadership | urban-rural differences | digital empowerment | artificial intelligence | digital divide
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