The purpose of the present study is to investigate the actual conditions concerning opportunities and content of the training for kindergarten and elementary school teachers. In this study, subjects were the members of the boards of education in all 47 prefectures, 14 government ordinance cities, and 49 self-governing bodies in Tokyo. 46 of the cities and the prefectures responded to our questionnaire. The feedback rate was 41.8%.
The results were as follows :
First, results showed that the largest block of kindergarten teachers received 10 days training, while data from our last study by Kobayashi & Shirakawa (2006) showed the largest group of nursery teachers received only 1. This showed that kindergarten teachers are provided with an average of 10 times more time to attend training than nursery school teachers.
Second, among 46 cities and prefectures which conducted cooperation training for kindergarten and elementary school teachers, 29 cities provided training for kindergarten teachers and 18 provided training for nursery school teachers.
Third, much of the training for kindergarten and elementary teachers was related to the Childcare Principle found in the curriculums of childcare colleges.
These findings suggest that nursery school teachers have difficulty in attending training. It is difficult to conduct the training of nursery, kindergarten and elementary teachers together. As a result it would be more favorable if elementary school teachers were provided with more opportunities to study early childhood and childcare while they were at college.