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What fuels preschool teacher development: Lessons from China, Japan, and the United States

Preschool teachers are the first educators to shape a child's earliest learning experiences, laying the foundation for their academic, emotional, and social development. Despite the importance of their role in shaping a child's lifelong learning trajectory, preschool teaching as a profession remains undervalued and frequently overlooked—especially when it comes to understanding how preschool teachers themselves grow and improve over time. Moreover, while other education levels benefit from established frameworks for teacher development, early childhood educators are frequently excluded from such discourse, both academically and institutionally.

To better understand and address this challenge, Associate Professor Akiko Hayashi of the Faculty of Business and Commerce at Keio University, Japan, offers a rare cross-cultural perspective on this issue. In this study published online in on May 14, 2025, she delves into how different systems of professional development—shaped by national culture, policy, and practice—either support or hinder the professional growth of preschool teachers in different countries.

Using a method known as video-cued ethnographic interviewing, Dr. Hayashi conducted a longitudinal and comparative study of preschool teacher development in Japan, China, and the United States. This study is a part of a larger research that looks at how teachers change with experience and the factors that help them change.

"The greatest challenge of this research is to provide compelling evidence that preschool teaching is a legitimate profession requiring a specific set of professional competencies. Unfortunately, in the academic world, preschool teaching is not always recognized as a field of professional expertise. This lack of recognition often leads to its undervaluation and a limited level of interest among researchers," says Dr. Hayashi, while elaborating more on the rationale behind this study.

Dr. Hayashi conducted interviews with six preschool teachers—two from each country—first in 2002 at the start of their careers and again in 2015, after they had become experienced educators. These teachers were also interviewed alongside senior mentors, reflecting on their professional growth. She expanded the study with group interviews involving teachers and directors who were unfamiliar with the original participants.

In total, the study draws on the perspectives of 112 educators—37 in Japan, 32 in China, and 43 in the United States—offering a comparative look at how preschool teachers grow professionally across different cultures and systems.

The findings bring to light how cultural norms distinctly influence professional growth. In Japan, teacher development is grounded in hands-on classroom experience and communal learning. Instead of relying on formal training or workshops, most learning happens through hands-on practice and reflection.

A unique practice in Japanese preschools is ennai kenshū, or in-house study groups, where teachers regularly meet to discuss classroom activities and exchange ideas. Guidance is subtle, and professional growth is driven by a strong moral commitment to students and colleagues, not by external rewards.

In China, professional development is more structured and hierarchical. Teachers are mentored, evaluated, and expected to adopt tested practices. Growth is encouraged through rankings, competitions, and formal evaluations, creating an environment where extrinsic motivation plays a major role. The system fosters rapid skill development and career advancement through clear pathways and institutional oversight.

In the United States, teacher development is highly self-directed. Many American teachers expressed concern that top-down efforts to standardize teaching limited their creativity and autonomy. Instead, they often take the initiative to improve their practice through informal methods, such as observing experienced peers, experimenting with new approaches, and enrolling in additional courses.

While some pursue further education to meet job requirements, many do so out of a genuine desire to improve their teaching skills. Although external factors like job security, salary increases, and credential requirements influence their careers, Dr. Hayashi finds that many teachers are primarily driven by a personal commitment to becoming better educators.

Thus, while the collaborative, culturally rooted practices emphasizing group-based learning make preschool teacher development most stable in Japan, the reliance on an individual-focused, extrinsically motivated system makes it less stable in the US. China, with its authority-led, master-apprentice model, falls in the middle, making preschool teacher development moderately stable.

These findings offer valuable insights into how preschool teachers experience and interpret their professional growth. They emphasize that there is no universal model for teacher development. Instead, successful strategies must align with the cultural values and institutional structures unique to each country.

Moreover, as Dr. Hayashi says, "Beyond its academic value, this study also has practical significance. It can serve as a useful reference in shaping education policy—not only in preschool settings but across the broader educational landscape."