Implicit Cultural Beliefs and Practices in Approaches to Early Childhood Education and Care

ABSTRACT

Countries have implicit cultural beliefs and practices about early childhood educationwhich they tend to undervalue and which, as a result, are endangered. The Preschoolin Three Cultures Revisited study includes examples of such implicit cultural beliefsand practices in Chinese, Japanese, and US preschools. The paper argues that earlychildhood practitioners, policy makers, and scholars should give greater value tothese cultural beliefs and practices and think of them as national treasures and as endangerededucational ecology which it is our responsibility to protect and pass on tothe next generation.