Inside the learning assemblage: Japanese parents’ views of children’s learning and future possibilities

Abstract

In Japan, as in many other countries, young children’s learning is subject to two major experiences: experience at home and experience in preschool. These experiences constitute the basis on which to formulate understandings about children’s future possibilities. The aim of this study is twofold: to navigate Japanese preschool children’s learning experiences and future possibilities in their families and preschools, as perceived by Japanese parents; and to discuss how learning is imbued in various distinct and interrelated elements of the home and preschool contexts. The study analyses children’s learning through questionnaires of preschool parents in Tokyo and the observations of parent-child and parent-teacher interactions in the preschools. Following from Deleuze and Guattari’s assemblage theory, children’s learning is positioned within a dynamic assemblage of stable, fluid and transformative forces that leads to particular experiences and becomings. Placing parents’ views at the centre of analysis of their children’s learning, the study shows how they conceptualized children’s experiences and their becomings as-and-in children’s learning assemblages.