Teaching Expertise in Three Countries : Japan, China, and the United States

A comparison of the development of expertise in preschool teaching in China, Japan, and the United States.

In Teaching Expertise in Three Countries, Akiko Hayashi shows how teachers from  Japan, China, and the United States think about what it means to be an expert teacher. Based on interviews with teachers conducted over the span of fifteen years and videos taken in their classrooms, Hayashi gives us a valuable portrait of expert teachers in the making. While Hayashi’s research uncovered cultural variations in the different national contexts, her analysis of how teachers adapted their pedagogy throughout their careers also revealed many cross-national similarities. Younger teachers often describe themselves as being in a rush, following scripts, and “talking too much,” while experienced teachers describe themselves as being quieter, knowing children better, and being more present.
 
Including a foreword by scholar of early childhood education Joseph Tobin, Teaching Expertise in Three Countries provides a foundation for understanding the sequence and pathways of development over the first decade of teaching in three national contexts, demonstrating the value of the field of comparative education in the process.  
 

Akiko Hayashi is assistant professor at Keio University in Japan and the author of Teaching Embodied, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
 

Joseph Tobin is professor of early childhood education at the University of Georgia and the author of several books, including Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited, also published by the University of Chicago Press.