Kyung Ok Lee

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 5-7, 2011

D. Jean Clandinin , M. Shaun Murphy , Janice Huber

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 9-31, 2011

Our current narrative inquiry focuses on understanding the experiences of Canadian children, families, and teachers in an era of growing standardization and achievement testing at the same time as the lives of children, families, and teachers are increasingly diverse. In this paper, through narrative inquiry into a journal entry written by a mother, both her and her young daughters tensions with school curriculum making become visible. Through inquiry into the tensions experienced by this child and mother, and the many children, families, and teachers with whom we engaged in this study, we see that in addition to school curriculum making, another place of curriculum making, familial curriculum making, is also shaping childrens identity making, their writing of a curriculum of their life. Familial curriculum making is the curriculum making in which children engage with members of their families and communities. Attending to the tensions children and families experience as they move between these two places of curriculum making, familial curriculum making and school curriculum making, shapes possibilities for new relationships, new responsibilities, and new tensions in the curriculum making of teacher education.

Narrative inquiry, Familial curriculum making, School curriculum making, Tensions, Life curriculum writing, Teacher education

Kiyomi Akita

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 33-43, 2011

This paper consists of three parts. The first part is about the current social context in regards to the turning point of ECEC systems. The low birth rate and the diversification of educational and child care needs call for changes in the current system. The second part is about the historical changes of the Japanese curriculum. The reasons why the curriculum was revised and what points were considered in the revision were introduced. The last part discusses the current situation; the present curriculum revised in 2008 and what direction our system is moving towards. The case of school-based curriculum as a bottom-up curriculum is presented in order to improve professional learning communities.

Everyday-Life oriented curriculum, Revision of National Curriculum Guidelines, School-based curriculum, Designing the new system

Junko Miyahara

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 45-57, 2011

Inclusion is about everyone. Inclusive Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) therefore requires valuing and respecting the unique needs of every child, and to include all children regardless of their characteristics and backgrounds. While Education For All (EFA) Goal 1 calls for action on expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have had a positive impact on every young childs rights to survive and thrive, progress in achieving equity and reaching the most disadvantaged children and their families is rather slow globally. The policy imperative has been accepted, but subsequent action-operationalisation-has been difficult to achieve. This paper attempts to discuss regional perspectives on inclusive ECCD by introducing some noteworthy initiatives that address children in disadvantaged circumstances and points to inclusive elements of ECCD. It further suggests the need to generate more evidence specific to the country and to the region on what works in order to influence policy action and practice improvement.

Early childhood care and development, Education for all, Asia and the Pacific, Inclusion

Hyung Sook Cho , Hyun Sook Lee , Kun Hee Lee

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 59-79, 2011

This study intended to analyze ke111y competencies of domestic and foreign kindergarten teachers, to find out the contexts, and to explore the direction of teacher policies. The study analyzed domestic and foreign web sites and literature related to key competencies of kindergarten teachers, organized them, and extracted characteristics and common elements of each country. Based on the findings, the direction of teacher policies on the basis of teacher key competencies was presented. First, kindergarten teacher key competencies and child key competencies should be linked and responsibilities of kindergarten education should be reinforced. Second, key competencies should be developed based on teacher career cycle. Third, verifying a total system of teachers based on kindergarten teacher key competencies is necessary. Fourth, constant monitoring systems for checking on future societies and studies on key competencies are needed. Fifth, it is necessary to vitalize a "learning community" for teacher educators who are responsible for educating "good teachers" that the times demand. Lastly, expanding a preferential policy for "good teachers" and system developing in order to share "good lessons" are necessary.

Key competency of teachers, Early Childhood Teachers

Ji Won Kim

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 81-106, 2011

The purpose of the current study was to gain a better understanding of the educational practices of Korean mothers in relation to their children`s school readiness. Two groups of Korean mothers with different levels of economic, social, and cultural resources filled out a questionnaire, were interviewed, and participated in a group discussion. The study found that Korean mothers educational practices for their children`s school readiness are socially and culturally constituted within the context in which the mothers reside. Accordingly, their economic, social, and cultural resources combined with their beliefs about school readiness play an important role in their educational practices at home and away from home. The higher SES mothers, in comparison to the lower SES mothers, were more eager to utilize their social and economic resources as capital for their childrens educational benefits. The higher SES mothers also emphasized their long-term educational purpose when they engaged in educational practices for children upon school entrance more than their counterparts. Also, the results revealed that the parents` different levels of economic and social capitals were associated with their selection of kindergarten/daycare and the decision on academic redshirting (holding children out of school).

School readiness, Parent practices, Social and cultural captical, Parent beliefs

Myn Gyun Kwon

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 107-128, 2011

This study was designed to describe how preschool and kindergarten children made sense of a story by analyzing their responses to plot, theme and characters. This study proposes that childrens character understanding is closely related to their understanding of plot and theme. Ninety four preschool and kindergarten children and sixty four college sophomores participated in reading aloud and responding to activities from the book, The Tunnel by A. Browne (1989). The participants were individually interviewed about how they understood the literary elements. The interview questions were developed with reference to Lehr (1991), Roser, Martinez, Fuhbrken & McDonnold (2007), and Sloan (2003) in order to understand childrens understanding of plot, theme and character. Transcribed responses were coded in traits related to plot, theme and character. The responses of the college students were used to understand the adult point of view on literary meaning making. From the present study, it is evident that young childrens meaning making of literary elements is different from adults. Further, it is different even among young age groups. When a childs age gets to 5, his/her understanding of character becomes more merged with events and plots, which are similar to that of an adult. However young childrens understanding of psychological or internal aspects of character, of which understanding guarantees sense of theme and plot remains to be developed later. From this study, it seems reasonable to suggest that plot and theme becomes comprehensible through deeper understanding of characters.

Literary meaning making, Plot, Theme, Character

Mi Hwa Park

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 129-149, 2011

This qualitative case study explores how early childhood teachers transform their identities into specific instructional strategies that scaffold constructive emotions in the classrooms. Two early childhood educators were observed, interviewed, and videotaped in their classrooms. The findings reveal that the participants employ their identities in constructive ways to implement instructional strategies for emotional scaffolding. They performed self-reflection, identifying what they saw as "constructive" or "uncostructive" characteristics for scaffolding children`s emotions in their particular contexts. Each participant`s awareness of self-identity allowed her to create more successful engagement, helping both teacher and student. The findings suggest that teachers` awareness of their identities may expand their capacities for effective decision making and enhance their emotional scaffolding practices.

Identity, Emotional scaffolding, Early childhood teachers

So Young Sung

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 151-162, 2011

The purpose of this paper is to examine the origin of parent education as exploring Elizabeth Harrisons contributions to it and to rethink knowledge, principles, and forms of parent education. Harrison is one of the most influential kindergarteners for parent education in early childhood education. She engaged in a wide variety of activities and services related to parent education and involvement, led parents into child education, and brought childrearing and parenting to mothers attentions. Harrison focused on nationalization of parent education. Present parent education should focus on developing localized parent education programs reflecting the different needs and concerns of diverse families and parents. As reemphasizing Harrisons vision of parent education, parents should be reconsidered as "co-worker" or a "partner" in the education of children. This paper will provide the key concepts of parent education with insights on current issues of parent involvement.

Parent education, History of early childhood education, American history

Soo Won Lee , Hyun Jin Kim

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 163-178, 2011

The purpose of this study is to explore how young children use multimodal forms of literacy across two different genres: scientific reports and anti-bullying rhetoric posters. Multimodal forms of literacy indicate a varied repertoire of reading, writing, communicating and thinking actions, such as drawing, gesturing, and making models. Applying Bakhtins notion of genre as a certain range of rules to multimodal forms of literacy, we conducted a case study with five Korean American kindergarteners in the Midwestern United States. From analysis of their drawings and narratives, two themes emerged: First, the children used multimodal forms by referring to other multimodal forms that they experienced within particular genres Second, multimodal forms functioned as leverage for expressing their emotions, which strengthened their voices. Based on these findings, we suggest pedagogical implications for literacy education in early childhood teacher education. Multimodal forms of literacy can serve as effective alternative tools for children`s expression and teachers` assessments.

Multimodal forms, Kindergarteners, Genres, Bakhtin

Kyung Hee Kim

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 179-202, 2011

The purpose of this paper was to train teachers and peers to increase social interactions of children who had been identified as having a lack of social interactions in an inclusive child care center. The four focal children who were identified by teachers as lacking social interactions, four teachers, and four classes of peer children participated in two interventions. Training on naturalistic teaching strategies with teachers and training on social skills with peer and focal children, and a combined intervention was implemented. A multiple probe design was employed to examine effects of the interventions during free choice play period. The results of this study indicate that focal childrens mean percentage of social interactions increased after the interventions. This study may contribute to issues of training teachers on teaching strategies and children on social skills in an inclusive class for promoting social interactions with children with disabilities.

Young children, Inclusive class, Social interaction, Social skill, Train teacher, Train peers

Hey Jun Ahn

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 203-220, 2011

The cultural context of play in young children should be examined in order to recognize the unique cultural properties that are reflected in childrens activities by teasing out intercultural and intracultural variation in childrens play. Although the acknowledgement of culture is crucial in understanding childrens play behaviors, the context of play has not been fully understood. The predominance of Western culture in traditional play theories and studies resulted in a deficit model. There have been efforts to conduct studies on childrens play in relation to cultural variables and these studies were presented. With knowledge gained in those studies, culturally relevant theories and practices can be developed. The purpose of this article is to review a few studies that examine cultural context of childrens play and to present research methodologies in cultural research on childrens play. With a heightened awareness of culture, teachers of young children may be better prepared to pay attention to how children develop through play within cultural contexts.

Play, Culture, Research methodology

Kyung Eun Jahng

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 221-241, 2011

Problematizing prevalent psychological/behavioral- and/or interpersonal-level discussions of race in early childhood, this paper investigates how race plays out in young American childrens peer culture and reproduces the adults world. Drawing on Foucaultian conceptual tools, the paper employs critical discourse analysis to analyze childrens conversations for a period of six months and addresses how race functions as part of the grid of intelligibility. I view childrens peer culture as a site where social inequality is reproduced through the function of a performative race. The paper concludes with suggestion of a strategic use of race, pointing out how simple avoidance or repression of race could perpetuate this racialized society by making its discursive power more invisible.

Race, Children`s peer relationships, Critical discourse analysis, Foucault

Hyun Seo

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 243-263, 2011

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of an emotional fairy tale-based conceptual class model on young childrens linguistic competence and to provide basic information for developing effective teaching and learning methods. The subjects of this study were 40 young children in two five-year-old classes of H Kindergarten in G City, and they were divided at random to an experimental group (n=20) and to a control group (n=20) Aconceptualclassmodelwithactivitiestellingemotionalfairytaleswas applied to the experimental group, and the control group had activities telling ordinary fairy tales. The childrens linguistic competence was measured using the test sheet developed by Jang Yeong-ae (1981) and revised and supplemented by Park Ae-ja (1996). According to the results of this study, linguistic competence was significantly higher in the experimental group who experienced emotional fairy tales through the conceptual class model application. In addition, among the sub-factors of linguistic competence, vocabulary, verbal comprehension, and verbal expression were positively affected by the conceptual class model application in the experimental group. These results suggest that the application of an emotional fairy tale-based conceptual class model may be utilized as a new teaching-learning method for enhancing linguistic competence in the field of early childhood education.

Conceptual class model, Linguistic competence, Emotional fairy tale

Youn Sun Lee , Yoo Jin Shon

DOI: Vol.17(No.1) 265-282, 2011

By reviewing literature about diverse approaches to multicultural education in the Western context, this study made an attempt to rethink what multicultural education in the South Korean contexts should be. South Korea is a relative late-comer in the implementation of multicultural education because of the low influence of ethnic or racial diversity. According to a study of multicultural education policies in Korea (Lee & Kyun, 2009) for students with culturally diverse backgrounds, adaptation is highly emphasized by providing them with Korean language classes. For native Korean students, prejudice reduction and tolerance toward others are clearly promoted. Sleeter (1996) argues that reducing prejudice or taking assimilationist approaches are not what multicultural education developers intended, but it is nevertheless a common interpretation. Critical approaches to multicultural education might give an opportunity to reconceptualize culture and diversity and reconsider social problems. We need our own political understanding of societal structures which produce inequality, social injustice, discrimination and oppression. Without inviting both students and teachers to engage in critical reading of the world, curriculum can be superficially multicultural as Derman-Sparks (1989) calls "tourist curriculum." In the rhetoric of Korean multicultural education, issues of equality and social justice should be discussed as much as issues of race and ethnicity are discussed. Racial issues are important; however, we have our own current issues. We need to consider democratic ways of welcoming labor immigrants, marriage-immigrants, North Korean defectors and Chosunjock.

Multicultural education, Sleeter and Grant, Critical Approaches to multicultural education