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“That’s Not Fair!”: Concepts of Fairness in New Zealand and Japanese Early Childhood Education

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Interactions in Early Childhood Education

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Abstract

Using an innovative video-based method, this paper uses the lens of “fairness” to interrogate how interactions in early childhood education are cultural acts. Data is taken from ethnographic research carried out at Kaimai Kindergarten in New Zealand, and Oka Kindergarten in Japan (Burke RS: Bodies in context: a comparative study of early childhood education in New Zealand and Japan. Unpublished PhD thesis, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand, 2013). (Foucault M: Discipline and punish: The birth of a prison. Penguin, London, 1991) has shown how normalising discourses inform how individuals are classified and judged according to fluid constructs such as “fairness” and “justice”. Drawing on vignettes from fieldwork, this paper argues that interactions between teacher, child, family and centre are culturally constructed and normalised according to dominant discourses in each society.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In New Zealand, all centre-based services (except for play centres, kōhanga reo and kindergartens) are known as education and care centres. Kaimai Kindergarten has a morning and afternoon session and caters for children aged between 2.5 and 5 years. All teachers at Kaimai are qualified and registered.

  2. 2.

    In Japan, kindergartens (yōchien) are administered by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, as opposed to childcare centres (hoikuen) which come under the auspices of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Children attend Oka Kindergarten from approximately 9 am until 2 pm each day, and the centre caters for children aged between 3 and 6 years. Like Kaimai, all teachers are qualified and registered.

  3. 3.

    Fictitious names have been given for the two centres in the study.

  4. 4.

    The author acknowledges that term “teacher” can be problematic in the New Zealand early childhood context. However, in the case of Japan, the “teacher” must be addressed as such (sensei), and children are grouped into classes. For the purpose of this chapter, “teacher” refers to the staff of Kaimai and Oka Kindergartens and to early childhood teachers who took part in the focus groups.

  5. 5.

    It should be noted that while the video shows a “typical” day, the footage was actually taken over a number of different days.

  6. 6.

    In New Zealand, two focus group sessions were held in Christchurch and one each in Dunedin, Nelson, Wellington, Napier and New Plymouth. In Japan, sessions were held in Tokyo, Saitama, Osaka, Eniwa and three in Kutchan. Two sessions were conducted in Christchurch with groups from Hiroshima and Nara.

  7. 7.

    A system where status is based on a predetermined factor, such as age, sex or race and not on individual achievement.

  8. 8.

    The academic year generally begins on April 1 with an entrance ceremony and finishes mid-March with a graduation ceremony for children who are moving on to primary school.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

    Rachael S. Burke

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  1. Rachael S. Burke
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Correspondence to Rachael S. Burke .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Education, University of Otago, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand

    Alexandra C. Gunn

  2. Faculty of Education/LFE, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Claudia A. Hruska

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Burke, R.S. (2017). “That’s Not Fair!”: Concepts of Fairness in New Zealand and Japanese Early Childhood Education. In: Gunn, A., Hruska, C. (eds) Interactions in Early Childhood Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4879-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4879-1_9

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