Implications of Studies of Early Childhood Education in Japan for Understanding Children’s Social Emotional Development

Implications of Studies of Early Childhood Education in Japan for Understanding Children’s Social Emotional Development

Preschools in Japan, as elsewhere, are key sites of child development, socialization, and enculturation. A series of ethnographically informed studies of Japanese preschools have identified and explicated approaches to early childhood education that are very unlike those of preschools in other countries. Many of these features of Japanese preschools that have been identified by ethnographic researchers challenge Western notions of early childhood education and care and child development. These features include high student/teacher ratios; low-intervention by teachers in children’s disputes; an emphasis on group-mindedness and collective over individual forms of social control; a prioritization of social development and a de-emphasis on academics; the cultivation of the experience and expression of feelings; and an emphasis on teaching children to adjust their behavior to contexts.