Teaching Expertise in Three Countries: findings and policy implications from an international comparative study in early childhood education

ABSTRACT

In this paper, Teaching Expertise in Three Countries project is used as an example to show the significance and contribution of international comparative research and to think about the possible implications for policy in early childhood education. The project studied the development of expertise in preschool teaching in Japan, China, and the United States by employing ‘video-cued multivocal ethnography’ to explore how teaching expertise is defined in each of these countries and what processes help teachers acquire advanced teaching skills. This project has shown similarities and culturally specific notions, in what the participants have to say about characteristics of less and more experienced teachers. These research findings raise issues and challenges in early childhood education that resonate with the situation not only in the three countries but also possibly in other countries, such as problematizing the role of remembering and reflection in professional practice and the value of experience.

KEYWORDS:

• International comparative study
• preschool teachers
• teaching expertise
• teaching experience
• ethnographic interviews
• professional development
• Japan
• China
• the United States

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Akiko Hayashi

Akiko Hayashi is assistant professor at Keio University in Japan and the author of Teaching Embodied and Teaching Expertise in Three Countries, published by the University of Chicago Press.