Abstract
In this paper,I have researched whether nursery teachers of multicultural pupils are aware of a multicultural environment. For example, (1)aware of differences between Japanese and Brazilian pupils, (2)have ways of dealing with differences, (3)if they feel any psychological burden as a result of focusing on the multicultural nursery environment.
Most of the nursery school teachers were found to feel differences between their Japanese and Brazilian children. One reason is that most of the differences, in addition to being more likely to occur often,must also be managed immediately. Because of this,the teachers had already developed many solutions and strategies for dealing with the differences as they arose.
The nursery teachers felt the daily childcare difficult,but had positive feelings and attitudes of acceptance toward the Brazilian children.
Two factors which helped to make this possible are the presence of interpreters and,the fact that the interpreters did not merely translate language, but also helped the teachers understand the role of Japanese-Brazilian culture. I found that such interpreters deepened the teachersʼunderstanding, and helped them to deal well with the problems which arose during the daily care.
Yet another factor has helped develop the childcare policy of the nursery school concerned. The school has officially incorporated both natural and multicultural philosophy into all aspects of it childcare.
In sum, even though nursery teachers felt the situation difficult,they found that the support of an interpreter along with a clear multicultural philosophy helps them to carry out positive multicultural childcare.
