Supporting self-organised professional development in the Japanese context through the Early Childhood Education Quality (ECEQ) initiative

ABSTRACT

The Early Childhood Education Quality (ECEQ) initiative is a pioneering approach toward supporting ongoing, self-organized professional development in the private kindergarten sector in Japan. The purpose of this study is to examine how kindergarten teachers and ECEQ coordinators experience this approach and view the ECEQ process. Online questionnaires were distributed to the teachers of 20 kindergartens that implemented the ECEQ for the first time in 2019 and to the ECEQ coordinators who supported them. The answers from 126 classroom teachers and 15 ECEQ main coordinators were analysed. Results indicate that: (1) almost all kindergarten teachers found the ECEQ experience meaningful; (2) teachers were resistant to holding open classes (work shadowing by colleagues from other kindergartens), but they nevertheless recognized the benefits; (3) teachers reported that the ECEQ enabled them to think about ECEC practices based on the children’s perspectives; and (4) teachers reported that the ECEQ coordinators were supportive in terms of including teachers’ ideas; however, they also felt that the ECEQ coordinators did not provide enough backing for autonomous meetings and in-house workshops after the ECEQ process had been completed. These results indicate both the strengths and difficulties associated with transforming the ECEQ into a system for supporting self-organized professional development.

KEYWORDS:

• Autonomous and bottom-up professional development (PD)
• hope for continuing professional development
• in-house workshops
• open classes
• private kindergartens

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the participants of this survey. This survey was carried out in cooporation with the members of the JPKF. Also, this survey was conducted and analysed with the help of Ms. Satomi Kikuoka, Dr. Miwako Amano and Mr. Keiichiro Yazaki.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT) is encouraging the use of a system established in 2006 called Kodomoen (‘Childcare Center’), which provides unified education and childcare, and an Action Program for Pre-School Education Promotion. These policy reforms aim to promote the integration of ECEC settings in Japan, but responsibilities for the ECEC system remain within the auspices of two ministries. As of April 2020, 55.4% of preschool children in Japan age 3 and older attended a day care center, 36.7% attended a kindergarten and 18.7% a kodomoen. Around 80% of kindergartens are privately run.

2. For details on the ECEQ and this survey, please refer to the following website:

http://www.cedep.p.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/projects/survey-on-the-eceq.

3. According to the Basic School Survey conducted in August 2021, the ratio of the male to female directors of kindergarten and kodomoens in Japan was 40.4% and 59.6%, respectively.

4. A survey conducted by the CEDEP in 2015 (CEDEP in press) showed that in-house workshops were held at 54.3% of kindergartens ‘once every two to three months’ or less, while 80.9% of kindergarten teachers participated in outside training ‘once every two to three months’ or less. In that sense, the surveyed kindergartens introduced in this paper were relatively typical in terms of their level of PD and staff training.

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report. This study was conducted as a commissioned survey of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan called ”Research on enriching pedagogy addressing challenges in early childhood education” in 2020.