Values, Risks, and the Shaping of Kindergarten Rules in Japan

Abstract

The relationship between values, risks and rules is of the central interest in this study. Through engagement with values and risks, this paper seeks to obtain an understanding of rules in the context of Japanese kindergartens, one that is underpinned by teachers’ and children’s perspectives of desirable and undesirable learning behaviours and outcomes. Values education and risk society theory are employed as the theoretical basis to conceptualize the topic. The analysis from teachers’ interviews, teachers’ questionnaires and children’s interviews shows how values, risks and rules are foregrounded in teachers’ and children’s perspectives, building a case for the idea that rules reinforce values and prevent risks in children’s learning.