森のようちえんの遊びにおける子どもと保育者の相互行為に関する研究 : 保育者の教示的無関心という視点から

The purpose of this study was to analyze the interactions between children and teachers at a “forest kindergarten” in Japan from the perspective of the teachers’ indifference, which attitudes of adults towards children as practitioners rather than learners and organising their participation in activities, based on the Hunter-Gatherer Childhood Model. The study then clarified the early childhood education and care practices that nurture children’s spontaneous learning through play in the natural environment. The research method focused on the observation of practices at a forest kindergarten, and the analysis method examined the interactions between children and teachers.
Analysis of the ‘child-teacher’ adjacecy pairs showed that the following three patterns dominated the number of occurrences of the interaction.:the [justification-acceptance] pair (8), which is a reciprocal action in which the child expresses his or her view and the teacher accepts the child’s opinion; the [change of framework-question] pair (7), which is a reciprocal action in which the child performs a new act different from the previous one and the teacher asks a question about the act (7), a mutual action in which the child performs a new act that is different from the previous one and the teacher accepts the behaviour of the child [change of framework - acceptance] pair (6).
During play times at the forest kindergarten, children and adults participate in activities from the same standpoint in a natural environment that cannot be manipulated. As a result, children’s opinions for play are more likely to be reflected in the activities. Furthermore, in a natural environment such as a forest, there arises a need for adults and children to face each other as individuals, transcending the teacher–pupil relationship, which may be where the roots of independent learning lie.