Contemporary Issues in
Early Childhood

ISSN 1463-9491

Volume 5 Number 2 2004

CONTENTS

[click on author's name for abstract and full text]
 

Editorial

Early Childhood Care and Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: issues and challenges

Last year we put out a call for expressions of interest from authors who wanted to submit articles related to the topic ‘Early Childhood Care and Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: issues and challenges’. We were pleasantly surprised to receive 42 submissions. As a result, we decided to produce two special issues and this is the first of them.

In this issue we have seven articles from the region, representing Japan, Hong Kong SAR (two articles), New Zealand, Singapore, the People’s Republic of China, and India, and colloquia from Brunei, China, and Thailand/Myanmar. In the next issue there will be articles and colloquia from South Korea, Taiwan, Vanuatu, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, and the Philippines. This not only represents articles from a wide range of countries in the region but also indicates the exciting work that is taking place in the field throughout the area.

The first article in this issue, by Joseph Tobin, Mayumi Karasawa & Yeh Hsueh, is entitled ‘Komatsudani Then and Now: continuity and change in a Japanese preschool’. This fascinating article returns to the preschool that was the subject of the original Preschool in Three Cultures Study. Through an exploration of the reflections of teachers and directors the processes of continuity and change in education are examined over the course of a generation.

Next, Esther Chan discusses ‘Narratives of Experience: how culture matters to children’s development’. Esther explores aspects of culture and identifies the ways in which these impact on schooling and views of childhood. She gives us some background on the Hong Kong context and illustrates the ways in which belief systems shape how we view children and the organisation of education. She addresses the relationship between culture and child development, and compares the Chinese theories and viewpoints with the influence of Western ideas in the Hong Kong context.

Judith Duncan writes about ‘Misplacing the Teacher? New Zealand Early Childhood Teachers and Early Childhood Education Policy Reforms, 1984‑96’. She describes the movement in the 1980s to promote early childhood education in New Zealand and then explores the ways in which a new government changed the policies that were being implemented to the detriment of the field and the provision of quality early childhood education and care. Judith talked with teachers in order to gain an insight into the impact of policy on practice and discovered that they felt disempowered by the process, so much so that they described their roles as being ‘overtaken’ and ‘misplaced’ in the reform process. Judith uses the concept of discourse to illustrate the conflicting discourses that were present in her study, which revealed that the dominant discourses represented neo-liberal ideas that were not congruent with the teachers’ early childhood educational philosophy.

In the article ‘It Takes a City to Raise the Children: the 2002 Shouguang City Early Childhood Education Initiative’, Fang Wu, Xingbang Li & Quihong Wei describe an innovation in China, which not only expanded the provision of early childhood services in Shouguang City but also initiated new approaches for the teaching of young children. The story of the implementation of the project illustrates how, in order to be successful, initiatives should be cognisant of the ways in which the school and local community can work with parents to provide the best form of education for their children.

Marjory Ebbeck & Neelima Gokhale report on ‘Child-rearing Practices in a Selected Sample of Parents with Children in Childcare in Singapore’. In this article the results from a questionnaire and observations made in a childcare setting are carefully integrated in order to provide us with an insight into the ways specific practices are conducted and valued by the stakeholders in care settings and in the family home environment. The results of the study indicate that there are both similarities and differences in child-rearing practices between home and care settings. Differences are related to the methods of discipline used and the level of self-help expected from the child by caregivers. It is also felt that the care of the child would benefit from a more coherent approach to parent and caregiver collaboration.

Stella Wai Man Lam & Susan Wright examine the beliefs and practices of early childhood teachers in the area of music education in ‘The Creative Music Curriculum for Pre-Primary Schools’. They focus on creativity in the classroom context and link it to music teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning. They then outline a workshop and seminar program that was designed to help teachers realise the goals of a creative music curriculum. As a result of the feedback from participants in the program, they suggest that pre-service courses need to incorporate creative workshops in order to facilitate understanding about the concepts and skills inherent to the subject area of music in early childhood.

‘Keeping the Infants of Coolies out of Harm’s Way’: Raj, Church and Infant Education in India 1830‑1851’ by Baljit Kaur draws on hitherto undocumented sources to provide an interesting account of infant education in India between 1830 and 1851. Contrary to the widely accepted belief that no early childhood education provision was evident till the twentieth century, archival search dates the advent of infant schools in India to the 1830s in Bengal, contemporaneous with developments in England.

In the first of the colloquia, Rosalind Kitson gives us a rare insight into starting school in Brunei and reveals that parental involvement is not an established practice in the country, since parents delegate to teachers and view them as experts in the education of their children. Next, Lyn Farrell explores an emergent curriculum in China and shares with us a program that focussed on creating new contexts for teaching and learning in early childhood settings in Shenyang. The plight of children caught up in refugee camps is described by Mavis Olesen in ‘The Children’s Education Project: Tham Hin Refugee Camp, Thailand’. Olesen tells the story of how a team of workers with minimal resources provided a basic education for the children in a camp on the Thai–Myanmar border in obviously dire conditions. Olesen notes the importance of establishing good interpersonal relationships in this context and she describes the ways in which they sought to do this in the particular camp where she was working. She also notes why it is essential to provide a context for this by sharing the types of strategies that they used to provide the children in the camp with a basic teaching and learning program. Lastly, Christine Mei Sheung Chan in her colloquium entitled ‘Issues of Preschool Parental Education in Hong Kong in the Twenty-first Century’ examines parental involvement and participation in preschool education in Hong Kong.

A book review completes this issue of the journal. Jillian Rodd examines Children in Society: contemporary theory, policy and practice, which is edited by Pam Foley, Jeremy Roche & Stan Tucker.

Nicola J. Yelland
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Audrey Lim
Hong Kong Institute of Education

Komatsudani Then and Now: continuity and change in a Japanese preschool

In this article the reflections of the teachers and directors of Komatsudani Hoikuen (‘day-care center’) on a video the authors recently made at their preschool are used to explore processes of continuity and change in Japanese preschool education over the course of a generation. The social changes that are associated with changing preschool practices in Japan include: a falling birth rate, women’s changing attitudes about marriage and work, the social isolation of families, a putative decline in the quality of parenting, and a prevailing mood of national pessimism that is closely tied to a long period of economic decline. These factors are discussed in relation to Komatsudani’s minimalist approach to curriculum, to its strategy for dealing with children’s disputes, and to its development of a system of older children helping with the care of infants and toddlers.

Narratives of Experience: how culture matters to children’s development

ESTHER Y.M. CHAN The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong

The focus of this study was to explore the relationship between culture and children’s development, and to suggest that inquiry into narratives is a way of understanding how children live and develop in a cultural sense. The article begins by inquiring into the nature of culture in the Hong Kong context and explaining the ways in which it might affect children’s development. The second part of the article reviews both Chinese and Western theories, and examines what philosophers and child psychologists have attempted to explain and debate regarding children’s development. This inquiry addresses the relationship between culture and various contexts of development (e.g. family, school, and religion) because it is believed that both culture and contexts of development impact on a child’s way of thinking and behaving.

Misplacing the Teacher? New Zealand Early Childhood Teachers and Early Childhood Education Policy Reforms, 1984‑96

JUDITH DUNCAN University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Early childhood care and education services in New Zealand have experienced major policy reforms since 1984. Life history interviews were carried out over a two-year period to obtain insight into the impact of the major reforms on the lives of eight kindergarten teachers. This article looks at the teachers’ own perceptions of the changes and how they often felt ‘overtaken’ or ‘misplaced’ within the reforms. The teachers’ stories are positioned within an environment of competing discourses about education, where newly established discourses worked to relocate or misplace the teachers.

It Takes a City to Raise the Children: the 2002 Shouguang City Early Childhood Education Initiative

FANG WU Howard University, Washington, DC, USA
XINGBANG LI & QIUHONG WEI Shouguang City Bureau of Education, China

Through the 2002 Early Childhood Education Initiative, Shouguang City in the Shandong province of China expanded its early childhood education program to include children below the age of three. The strategies which were applied to ensure the successful implementation of the program included: (1) creating a three-tiered professional development program for preschool teachers to enhance their knowledge and skills in infant and toddler care; (2) opening activity centers for infants and toddlers cared for at home and their parents to provide them with professional early education services; (3) reaching out to families of children cared for at home by offering parental education and individualized consultation; and (4) utilizing local resources in the community to allow more young children access to much-needed learning materials. This Initiative has achieved its goal of raising the community’s awareness of the importance of early childhood education. As a result, parents and teachers in the community have gained knowledge of child development and skills in early childcare, and more local children are receiving quality early education, which has consequently brought positive changes to the entire community.

Child-rearing Practices in a Selected Sample of Parents with Children in Childcare in Singapore

MARJORY EBBECK & NEELIMA GOKHALE University of South Australia, Magill, Australia

This article reports on a study based on interviews with 40 parents in Singapore. The study examined parents’ views about their children’s development and learning, and how these were or were not congruent with the views and practices of the childcare centre the children were attending. Findings showed that, although there were some similarities, there was a great variety of differences between practices at home and at the centre. Differences were apparent in discipline and expected levels of self-help skills. The term ‘behaviour management’ is not well known in Singapore, hence the use of the word ‘discipline’ in the study. The study recommends that increased parent participation at the centre could resolve some of the perceived differences.

The Creative Music Curriculum for Pre-primary Schools

STELLA WAI MAN LAM Hong Kong Institute of Education
SUSAN WRIGHT National Institute of Education, Singapore

This article examines the multifaceted nature of pre-primary music teachers’ and supervisors’ beliefs and practices in music education. It focuses on the general process of creativity (particularly as applied to music education); the classroom setting and how it influences the way music educators approach teaching and learning; and the structuring of music curricula to encourage higher levels of musical thinking in children. The article recommends that regular formal training opportunities in a creative music curriculum should be made available to equip teachers with the skills necessary to integrate music into their current curricula and to improve the quality of education.

‘Keeping the Infants of Coolies out of Harm’s Way’: Raj, Church and infant education in India, 1830‑51

BALJIT KAUR University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

Contrary to the widely accepted belief that no early childhood education provision was evident until the twentieth century, archives date the advent of infant schools in India to the 1830s in Bengal, contemporaneous with developments in England. The Church Missionary Society’s infant schools aimed to educate children (and women) from the lower castes and classes or those in dire circumstances. The main objective was their moral rescue through the spread of Christianity along the lines suggested by Wilderspin. However, the Hooghly Infant School, started with Government backing after much debate, attracted boys from more privileged backgrounds. Despite continued social resistance in India well into the twentieth century to the institutional education of young children, the idea appealed to educated and wealthy Indians, who willingly sent their boys to infant school. This article, drawing on hitherto undocumented sources, tells the story of infant education in India between 1830 and 1851.

Starting School in Brunei: listening to children, parents, and teachers

ROSALIND KITSON Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

This colloquium draws on recent cross-cultural research undertaken in Brunei exploring the transition of the child from home or nursery school to preschool, which is mandatory for all children in their fifth year. Preschool classes are a part of primary schools in the Bruneian education system and are administered by the Ministry of Education. Interviews were held with children, parents, and teachers to gain a comprehensive overview of the reality of the experience from the perspective of the participants. The colloquium concludes with suggestions for culturally appropriate ways to facilitate starting school.

An Emergent Curriculum in China: collaborative tolerance

LYNN FARRELL Shenyang Creative Kindergarten

The concept for the piloting of a contemporary early childhood kindergarten in China was visualised by the chief executive officer of TMC Academy, Dr Chin, in July 2002 when he participated in a Singaporean-led mission to Liaoning Province in China. Shenyang Creative Kindergarten is the result of that concept. It opened for children in September 2003 and had an official opening in April 2004. Two experienced directors, one a native English speaker and the other a native Chinese speaker, lead the kindergarten. Both directors work full-time. The English-speaking director manages and coordinates the educational program while the Chinese-speaking director manages the local, bureaucratic, and administrative needs of the kindergarten. The licensing requirements, renovation of the building, employment of staff, curriculum development, and establishment of physical environments and operational systems were established through the joint collaboration of both directors. This colloquium is a brief narrative of the journey undertaken to date. The journey has been satisfying, rewarding, frustrating, and challenging but the best interests of the child have always been at the heart of the decisions made. It has been a reflective and insightful experience and the team of directors is looking forward to the future and to ongoing change.

The Children’s Education Project: Tham Hin refugee camp, Thailand

In 1997, twelve Karen Burmese teachers brought a Vision Paper to the Tham Hin refugee camp in Thailand. The teachers had recently written this Paper after much consultation with their Mergui-Tavoy villagers, students, leaders, and school dropouts. Over the following five years teams developed a project outlining 10 steps to educational reform, which any village in Burma could use to reform its school system. This article discusses the background to the project and issues related to it.

Issues of Preschool Parental Education in Hong Kong in the Twenty-first Century

This article is concerned with parental involvement and participation in preschool education in Hong Kong. Based on the experience gained from a parental education programme, it is argued that three issues are crucial in the development of parental education: (1) an ecological approach to recognise the nature of parental education; (2) parental involvement as an indicator of school performance; and (3) training teachers or relevant professionals to work with parents from diverse families. In response to the changing nature of families’ and children’s growth and development in Hong Kong, preschool parental education in the twenty-first century has a special mission and vision regarding parental involvement and participation. This article indicates that the empowerment issue of parents and teachers has evidently been addressed by a belief in the notion of ‘people participation for development and improvement’.

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