Studying pre-service early childhood educators' transition into the classroom: A longitudinal international comparative study

2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K02421
• Research Institution: Seinan Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: 門田 理世 西南学院大学, 人間科学部, 教授 (10352197)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: pre-service education / professional development / curriculum / early childhood / in-service training

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

This research will examine the relationship between pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher practices in early childhood education. In inquiry year 1, reviewing the literature, finding gatekeepers and recruiting participants in each country, developing instruments, and conducting pilot studies were planned.
The literature review has been ongoing and prepared to submit to a journal/bulletin. According to the OECD’s Starting Strong Survey (2018), although the contents learned at pre-service training stages are likely to be chosen by preschool teachers, they are not investigated yet. The relevance between these two sectors is still needed to explore, which suggests the significance of this study.
While developing interview/observation protocol and surveys has made little progress since exploration through on-site visits has been hesitant due to the pandemic (banned offer of in-class lessons where the recruitment for the study is expected), discussion with the collaborating researcher has been taking place online and exchanging ideas to catch up on these delays.
Given easing the restrictions for the pandemic, an on-site investigation will be conducted with a bit simplified version of the original research protocols.

Current Status of Research Progress

4: Progress in research has been delayed.

Reason

Due to strict immigration regulations between Japan and the United States during the pandemic, I could not visit my collaborating researcher to advance the research. As the principal investigator in this study, I needed to see the research collaborator and confirm the study details, such as the selection of participants of the study, observing the practicum in the preschool settings, conducting an onsite pilot study together, and further discussion for the method of conducting the research. It is not possible and appropriate to ask the collaborating researcher, who is not the co-investigator, to carry out the essential part of the research. For the above reasons, the study has been nearly half-a-year delayed.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

To make up for the delay in this study, the primary investigator will arrange to conduct a survey of students in Japanese pre-service education in advance and do with US counterparts half a year later. Specifically, I will conduct pilot examinations to identify issues at the practical level in this study through a questionnaire targeting pre-service early childhood teachers and interviews with first-year preschool/kindergarten teachers. If the situation allows, I also plan to visit the collaborating researcher in the US sometime this fiscal year and prepare to implement similar protocols for the US participants.

Causes of Carryover

As an international comparative study, restrictions on traveling between Japan and the US made this study challenging to be productive as planned. To back up this delay,
1)the primary investigator plans to visit the collaborating researcher in the US sometime this fiscal year, conduct several pilot studies in Japan and the US (transportation, honoraria, data collection, and participate in international conferences.
2)expecting to collect the data and analyze it requires several tools, applications, and hardware
3)hiring doctoral students to assist with data collection, filing, data input, and collecting updated pieces of literature.