This study aims to elucidate characteristics of the practice of kindergarten and the first grade of elementary school among the ‘Taisho’ new education movements focusing on the practice of the “playful learning” method in the schools affiliated to the Tokyo Women's Normal School. Results showed that both grades had almost the same content and “play and daily life” as learning materials and regarded the interest of the children as the most important. The practice of this school, in which the whole school life was planned such as “education by play”, was treated as an important foundation in the period of the basic learning and the period of the self-education. It was suggested that the transition from kindergarten could change by the innovation of elementary school education.

The purpose of this study is to analyze policy the processes of full-day kindergarten in Ontario and British Columbia. The theoretical framework is a constructivist approach of policy analysis. The main finding is that both Ontario and British Columbia have common processes of reaching decisions; that is, policy proposals, making guidelines of early learning, final recommendations of full-day kindergarten and policy decisions. It is suggested that both provinces expand the social trend of full-day kindergarten to ECEC teachers and citizens though this processes. Furthermore, the largest university, the University of Toronto in Ontario and the University of British Columbia in British Columbia deeply influence policy processes in both provinces. In conclusion, these processes in Ontario and British Columbia are involved in making a full-day kindergarten movement across Canada.

This study focuses on ‘pointing behavior’ appearing at around nine months old, which is a major behavior in the preverbal vocal period. It aimed to observe the pointing behavior of nine children under the age of one (five boys and four girls); ‘one-self pointing’ and ‘communicative pointing’ were observed. In analysis, examinations were carried out from three viewpoints: children's age, physical development and verbal development. The results showed differences in children's pointing according to their development. The characteristics of children's production of ‘one-self pointing’ were classified into four categories: aspect, purpose, understanding/naming and others. Up to one-and-a-half years old, results for the purpose category were high; after that, results in the aspect category became higher.

This research focuses on aspects of risk management for childcare facilities' playground equipment. Data is collected through participant observations in a kindergarten in Nagoya, Japan, and interviews with newly employed and veteran teachers. The study elucidates how children should interact with equipment in a safe way that also allows the maximum value to be gained from play. It suggests how teachers should best be supported to achieve this aim. It is pointed out how concepts of hazard and risk in relation to playground equipment differs markedly from other countries. The usefulness is considered of classifying hazard into four types, depending on whether it is intrinsic or avoidable, and on the child's ability to recognize it. Finally, the need for the improving safety management and expertise among teachers is stressed.

This study investigated how young children's “nurturing behavior” toward infants (babies) emerge in the daycare center where 0 - to 5-year-old children interact. Two-five year-olds' behavior toward infants, peers (young children), and adults were categorized in terms of six categories. Results showed that young children's behavior toward infants were more frequently categorized as “touching”, “giving”, and “interaction through an adult” than those toward peers or adults. Therefore, those behaviors are considered as “nurturing behavior” as opposed to infants that started interactions with infants. It suggests that these behaviors are likely to be caused by young children's interests in infants and their desires to interact with and take care of infants.

To clarify that young children's normative consciousness differs from adult values, three-year-old nursery school children were observed continuously until they had finished nursery school. Episodes were analyzed from three perspectives: (1) children's words showing norms without reasons; (2) children showing norms of words for communication; and (3) teachers helping children communicate with other children. Conclusions: (1) children use norms not only to make playmates obey norms, but also to insist or express negative feelings; (2) norms shown by children can be shared among children even if they did not show reasons; and (3) while the teacher supports children's communication according to their growth, supporting words can lead children to perceive linguistic norms such as avoiding use of inappropriate words. More research, including analysis of peer-relations and the teacher's objective, are needed.

The purpose of this research is to clarify how children's expressions through sounds develops in their preschool play. This research is based on a one-year observation of a preschool class for 4-year-olds. It was found that expression through sounds arising from interaction with the environment developed into cultural musical expression by producing sounds through trial-and-error by imitating a pop singer's concert in make-believe play. It is very important for this development that teachers' daily supports helps children's attention to sounds.

The purpose of this study is to depict the process of the career development of ECEC teachers who have experienced migration to Japan as children. Applying Trajectory Equifinality Modeling, narratives of three teachers (ethnic Japanese immigrants from South American countries) were visualized to present their process of career development including their fluctuations in identity. The visualization depicted their thoughts on roles affected by their own abilities “to speak their own native language” and “of empathetic understanding of immigrant children who have similar backgrounds”; and their confidence level in languages might have influenced their career development. Also, the expectation for immigrant ECEC teachers to be good translators has brought too much of a burden on them. Therefore, understanding such difficulties related to their career development may help the immigrant ECEC teachers.

The objective of this research was clarifying the role of childcare facilities in connecting families with society. First, using “a scale to measure support based on childcare facilities”, which Kashiwa, Iwasa and Sato developed (2017), we focused on three factors affecting child-rearing: 1. emotions related to child-rearing; 2. parentchild relationships and 3. marital relationships. Secondly, by focusing on parents whose children go to childcare facilities, especially kindergartens, characteristics of support needs for parents are clarified.

Based on this study, we concluded that social support could improve the emotional states of parents with kindergarteners and helped families maintain good relationships. In order to support child-rearing for society as a whole, it is required that childcare facilities convey the importance of a marital relationships in child-rearing and seek support that mediates family relationships.

The purpose of this study is to analyze emotional changes of users of Regional Childcare Support Center (RCSC) and to clarify what kind of support can be given to prevent parent isolation during child care. I interviewed five users who frequently visited the RCSC and analyzed the data by the Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM). As a result, the data was classified into 4 processes for parents' emotional changes based on complex emotions. In this study, it became clear that users were very sensitive to the words and involvement of others. Since the tension and anxiety of users are hard to see on the surface, it is suggested that 'grasping', 'approach', 'ingenuity' and 'bridging' are necessary for the support of parents at RCSC.

The New Zealand national Early Childhood Curriculum Te Whāriki (1996), has been well supported by early childhood educators. Te Whāriki was updated in 2017 as a response to the current government demand for learning outcomes that can justify the expenditure, and that support continuity of children's learning through to primary school. The updated draft of Te Whāriki, which was released for public consultation in 2016, received widespread feedback from across the sector. This feedback was carefully considered in the preparation of the final document.

This paper focuses on the engagement process followed in the revision of Te Whāriki, and examines an ideal early childhood curriculum development, specifically by analyzing the updated draft, the consultation feedback, the response from the Ministry of Education, and the resulting final document.