Prospects and issues regarding the co-establishment of kindergarten and elementary school teacher training courses

Abstract

This article discusses the integration of kindergarten and elementary school teacher training courses. The purpose is to identify practical issues and inevitable restrictions by describing the construction of teacher training courses under certain legal conditions with consideration of the number of credits. In particular, many universities that handle elementary education courses offer both kindergarten and elementary school teacher training courses because of social trends that connect kindergarten and elementary education. However, the revision of various systems related to the teaching profession from 2016 to 2017 has made it difficult for kindergarten and elementary school teacher training courses to coexist. Meanwhile, junior high school teacher training courses, driven by the “compulsory-education-school” concept, have easily permeated elementary school teacher training courses. Hence, the number of kindergarten and elementary school teacher training courses that should be integrated is expected to decrease. In a practical sense, the principle behind the composition of different teacher training courses has been limited to the minimum number of compulsory subjects for each course because of the limitation in the number of credits. Nevertheless, the specialty that differs from such “cooperation” and “connection” of courses is actively being discussed. In sum, this article highlights the need to deepen the discussion about the substance of teachers’ profession and to design related subjects and curricula.