This study aimed to explore the educational content of kindergartens under the philosophy of American progressive education led by the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association of Hawaii (FKCAA) when integrated into public schools. According to the examination of Calendar, the anuual report published by FKCAA, and Hawaii Educational Review published by the Department of Public Instruction, Territorial of Hawaii, the following three findings were identified. First, kindergarten teachers valued children’s interest. Second, they supported children’s learning through firsthand experience. Third, children were encouraged to develop interests in English language and literature by enjoying books and communication. Although the educational content of kindergartens did not rapidly fit into the elementary school education curriculum, emphasizing language arts education is the backbone of the current American kindergarten education considering academic educational content important for school readiness.

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This study analyzed what work attitudes of early childhood education and care facilities directors are appreciated by nusery teachers using a text-mining software KH Corder. As a result of the analysis, nine types of work attitudes were identified, including “providing child-centered childcare,” “approchable good advisor,” “good listener,” “actively engaging to understand children despite busy schedules,” “ good relationship with parents, teachers and staff,” and “creating better workplace with staff,” all of which were found to be appreciated by nusery teachers. As the support and involvement of directors for nusery teachers and other staffcontinue to be increasingly important, these nine types of attitudes provide a simple yet helpful clue to make better relationship between nursery directors and teachers, emphasizing the importance of always returning to the basics of working with people.

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This study examined the effects of picture book format (paper or digital picture book) and story contents (realistic or fantastical) on young children’s sharing behavior. Forty-eight children aged 4–6 years (M=67.6 months) listened to the storytelling of one of the following four picture books with the theme of “sharing”: 1) paper picture book with a realistic story, 2) paper picture book with a fantastical story, 3) digital picture book with a realistic story, and 4) digital picture book with a fantastical story. Children performed sharing tasks that asked them to share their stickers with the other child, before and after the storytelling. The result showed that the percentage of children who shared five or more stickers with the other child was the highest in the paper book with realistic story group (66.7%), followed by the digital book with realistic story (58.3%) and with fantastical story (50.0%), and finally the paper book with fantastical story group (25.0%). This finding suggests that using both paper and digital picture books could be a good environment for nurturing children’s prosocial behavior.

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Swedish preschools (förskola) offer a helpful transition period called “inskolning” for children during preschool enrollment. However, many children instead attend open preschools (öppen förskola) as a preparatory step before entering preschools. To clarify the role of öppen förskola, we conducted a comprehensive review of its historical background and current situation, and performed field research on how öppen förskola functions to realize a smooth transition from home to förskola. The results revealed that öppen förskola, like förskola, is mainly under the jurisdiction of the education department of each municipality under the Agency of Education. Öppen förskola also provides support for parenting and space for children to play , which is a foundation for development and learning, while adhering to the förskola curriculum. In particular, for parents and children of immigrants and foreign nationals, the education department of each municipality explain parents aboutthe importance of förskola and the significance of school education, leading to a smooth transition from home to förskola.

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This study, comprising two stages, aimed to develop a rubric to score insight (to notice the child’s feelings) and responsiveness (to offer empathetic responses) . In the first stage, a trial survey was administered to interns and entry-level nusery teachers to test a tentative version of the rubric. In the second stage, a modified version of the rubric was used to analyze data from 57 interns and 19 first- and second-year nusery teachers. Weak to moderate but significant positive correlations were observed between most rubric items and nursery teachers’ sense of efficacy, indicating that the rubric is useful as a self-evaluation tool. Furthermore, although statistical test results were only marginally significant (.05 < p < .10) , the results suggested that nursery teachers tended to achieve higher scores than interns on three rubric items and were likely to have a lower sense of efficacy. In summary, the usefulness/effectiveness of the rubric to support new nursery teachers was confirmed and its application to future issues was explored.

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This study sought to clarify preschool teachers’ awareness of the child’s right to be heard. A questionnaire survey was administered to 346 preschool teachers. Factor analysis revealed four factors: “high-pressure relationship,” “polite order,” “relationship that denies the personality of others,” and “arrogant use of authority.” Respondents were divided into four groups according to teaching experience: “young,” “mid-career,” “early skilled,” and “late skilled,” and a two-way analysis of variance was performed. Of 19 items related to actions that infringes on the child’s right to be heard, 12 were found to have significance, in which late skilled teachers felt a stronger sense of discomfort than other teachers. The result suggested that novice preschool teachers who often overemphasize group work tend to infringe on the child’s right to be heard. By contrast, experienced preschool teachers are dedicated to providing multifaceted support accompanied by an operational management perspective and are thus likely to strengthen their awareness of the child’s right to be heard.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify, through a literature review, the professionalism of childcare teachers in residential medical care facilities for children with severe mental or physical disabilities by comparing it with that of teachers working in medical facilities and typical childcare centersas a counterpart. Ten published studies regarding the professionalism of childcare teachers for children with disabilities and those of medical childcare teachers at daycare centers were respectively reviewed. Descriptions of specialty were coded and categorized using the six childcare teacher specialties defined by the Nusery School guidelines. It was found that childcare teachers in the medical care facilities, which provide care to children having difficulty in verbally expressing their feelings, have knowledge about disabilities, develop skills to care for them, and respect their dignity. The results suggested that it is necessary to acquire medical and welfare knowledge and skills related to disabilities in order to find better ways to interact with children with disabilities.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify the process of building relationships with classmates at a nursery school through song play with narrative structure. After conducting a six-month observational study of a class of children under the age of two years, nine representative scenes in which children interacted with each other were extracted from video recordings. We focused on one girl and analyzed situations in which she interacted with other children when playing a nursery song. We identified three processes of building relationships with classmates: 1) acknowledging the narrative structure of the song through interaction with teachers and classmates; 2) actively devoting themselves into the narrative structure and expanding the range of interactions; and 3) co-creating narratives with classmates without intervention of teachers.

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This study aimed to identify how documentation, has been interpreted and transformed in the United States in The Hundred Languages of Children, which has long been contributing to the theory building of early childhood education practices of the Reggio Emilia. Assessments of the first through the third editions revealed that the second edition captured a considerable increase in the description of documentation and an upward trend in practical reviews attempting to use documentation in the United States. The third edition introduced a new term, “pedagogical documentation”, and included studies of documentation as interpreted in a wider range of contexts. These changes in the third edition resulted from substantial shifts in the purpose of this publication to meet the needs of the contemporary world.

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This study describes Sozo Kurahashi’s quest to establish a theory of integrated early childhood education and care (ECEC) practice which was motivated by and involved in the 1926 Kindergarten Order and his own assertion of facility unification. He consciously sought to construct his practical ECEC theory that not only covered both kindergarten and nursery but also overcame or connected two aspects of education and care. His initial effort to establish a uni-essential concept of ECEC failed. Then he focused on practical measures in both education and care and their arrangement in the life of children. He successfully built models that connected these two aspects. However, his models depended on each facility’s purpose and function, causing failure in establishing a unified ECEC practice model under the 1926 Kindergarten Order.

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