Learning from comparative ethnographic studies of early childhood education and care

ABSTRACT

International comparative ethnographic studies of ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) are difficult to conduct but worth the effort. Comparative studies featuring thick description and polysemic interpretations can challenge taken-for-granted assumptions, expand the menu of the possible, expose the provincialism of national approaches, and illuminate the global circulation of ECEC practices and ideas. Based on reflections on four major comparative international studies I have led, in this paper I describe effective strategies for conducting comparative ethnographic research in ECEC settings, explicate the rationale for doing so, and provide examples of how this approach can impact research, practice, and policy. Issues I address include the rationale for selecting countries for comparison, the formation of a research team, and distributing interpretive voice and power.

KEYWORDS:

• Comparative education
• early childhood education
• ethnography
• globalisation
• power and voice

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joseph Tobin

Joseph Tobin, University of Georgia, USA. Originally trained in anthropology, child development, and East Asian studies, Joseph Tobin has over three decades of experience as a professor of early childhood education. His 1989 book, Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States, introduced the method of video-cued multivocal ethnography. Over the last three decades, Tobin has used variations of this method in leading international research teams in conducting comparative international studies of ECEC programmes. These studies include Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited; Children Crossing Borders: Im/migrant Parents and Teachers Perspectives on ECEC in England, France, Germany, Italy, and the US; and Deaf Kindergartens in Three Countries: France, Japan and the US. Findings from these studies have been published in journals of comparative education, anthropology, and early childhood education.