Teaching reflective care in Japanese early childhood settings

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to explore the way preschool teachers teach reflective care in Japan. The article builds on a two-month ethnographic study conducted in Japanese kindergartens and nurseries among children aged 3–6 years. The data were analysed using concepts of age and gender. The results show that care in Japan, in contrast to strong discoursers of learning in several western countries, is seen as part of teaching children how to behave in public space together with others. Teaching care tends to be reflectively and thoughtfully planned by the pedagogues. It is organized to teach children self-reliance, using common projects and with pedagogues working with inclusion. Care was seldom analysed in relation to the children's gender but rather in terms of their age or developmental ‘steps’ such as being able to take care of oneself, take care of the preschool space and care for others.

KEYWORDS:

• Care
• reflection
• early childhood education
• Japan
• gender
• age

Acknowledgements

This article became possible by inspirational encounters with children, teachers, parents, head teachers as well as with researchers in education and gender. Too numerous to name each individual, I particularly would like to thank Professor Kiyomi Kuramochi and Assistant professor Chie Nakasawa at Gakugei University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Anette Hellman has a Ph.D. in Education and works as an assistant professor in the Department of Education, Communication and Learning at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research interests include issues related to critical childhood studies such as norm and normality constructions in children's everyday lives and masculinity and care in preschool. She conducted a five-month postdoc study at Gakugei University in Tokyo, Japan. She is the national project leader in Sweden for the ongoing project Learning Spaces for Inclusion and Social Justice: Success Stories from Immigrant Students and School Communities in Four Nordic Countries founded by NORD FORSK.

Notes

1. Or the perspective of the animals, such as the pets in the kindergarten/nursery.

 

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science and STINT under grant number PE 12552.