Research on the "Tidying-up" Activities of Infants
Research on the "Tidying-up" Activities of Infants
- As the first step in research on "growing children" and "goods and lives of people" -
Chapter 1 Research Overview
1-1 Motive for research
This is a joint research project conducted by Nagisa Tatsumi and Ayumi Kimura, both official members of the Association of Child Environment Studies.
As a professional writer and educator, Tatsumi has been working on the theses, "What is an affluent life?" and "What do household and household chores mean?" Kimura has worked as an educator in an elementary school, preschool and childcare center while continuing his research on the development of children.
Tatsumi is interested in both "goods" as part of one’s lifestyle and the relation between "goods" and people, while Kimura is interested in both childcare centers and preschools as an environment for the development of children and guaranteed quality childcare and play, resulting in the formation of a thesis on "tidying-up" and its importance, in their respective fields of interest. This has lead to the planning of this joint research project.
While registered as university lecturers, Tatsumi and Kimura are more practitioners than researchers. For both, finding such a thesis in this popular research field has a significant meaning.
Each explains their motives for their research below before mentioning the purpose of this research project.
1-1-1 Motive for research (Tatsumi)
What are goods to people? This is a significant thesis that Tatsumi has been pursuing.
Recently, people’s interest in storage skills has increased (*). A new business offering clean-up services and storage solutions to consumers has emerged and started securing customers. Although similar to conventional clean-up services, these services are different in terms of demand.
Members of households (or consumers) now face a significant issue (or challenge) of how to deal with the goods that they themselves have brought into their household or that have been brought in by others.
(*) Moreover, a current increase in interest can be seen in organizing skills as idea and information management skills. Not only is an abundance of information available from the Internet and other sources, but individuals also continue to be the providers of information. This requires skill in selecting information and utilizing the pool of information through, for instance, the control of access routes to necessary information.
In a nutshell, Japanese living in modern times appear unable to find an efficient way to deal with "goods (e.g. means and materials)" and are forced to live their daily lives in frustration.
A common opinion that "In modern times, people are spoiled by goods" is often heard, but this abundance (and variety) of goods in a market economy may not be the problem. Rather, the challenge may be the necessity for people to set their criteria for dealing with goods right from the start in order to be able to select goods to be used and arrange their own house.
The "goods" comprising one's life are not mere objects. In the lives of individuals, "goods are the means to living" and constitute even life itself. In a modern society with a wide variety of goods, "one’s choices represent one’s values in life" and reflect a certain lifestyle.
Tatsumi strongly feels that, for people in modern times to be satisfied with their lives, they need the skill to create such a relationship with goods that reflects their own values in life (or even philosophies).
Against this background, a contemporary but fundamental thesis of "tidying-up" has been created.
Tidying-up can be defined as:
(1) the result of a decision regarding what "I" bring into my house or my living space as well as the constant process of asking oneself whether or not "I" utilize what was brought in (i.e., "I" made a right decision bringing it in);
(2) the process of creating an order (or system) for determining how "goods" that carry a significant meaning as manifestations of one's values in life (or, in a childcare context, manifestations of a school’s educational philosophy) are arranged in the settings of our lives;
(3) the process of creating a cycle (or rules) regarding how the goods are to be dealt with over time, and
(4) the process of creating and maintaining the details of activities (or systems) and activities (or rules) in households and communities such as educational institutions, which involves a certain responsibility (or moral/manner) as a community member.
However, "tidying-up" as a thesis is only acknowledged or received as a momentary target of interest, a somewhat boring aspect of life, or an ordinary issue faced by housewives or people working at a particular workplace. There is no discussion (or idea) as to "what goods individuals should possess in their everyday lives" and "how individuals should create an order and cycle in their everyday lives". It appears that little research on this topic has been undertaken in the past.
In the fields of economics and sociology, there is some research that discusses "the relationship between people and goods," with a focus on "purpose of consumption." Most notable are the concepts of "showing-off" by Veblen and "signs of differentiation" by Baudrillard. However, they approach the issue from the viewpoint of materials and do not really treat the goods as a reflection of a created lifestyle or values in one's life. This may be because the U.S. and Europe have advanced further in their research on "consumption."
Tatsumi finds it rather interesting that the fundamental thesis of "what goods are to people" today appears not as a question in a positive sense, that is, "why one wants to obtain or possess goods" (or desire), but as a question in a negative sense, that is, "why the existence of goods causes problems"
This year, tidying-up is approached in primary research, and some of the hypotheses and issues will be used as a basis for further study.
1-1-2 Motive for research (Kimura)
Today, words such as "let's not waste (or mottainai)" or "eco" have become clichés, but even without these words being expressed, it is extremely important to live and improve the relationship between goods and people in societies with a high level of consumption.
From ancient times until a few decades ago, people utilized goods more efficiently than today. For instance, recycled materials are often excavated from ancient houses and rice paddy fields from the Yayoi period. Food was not wasted and almost all segments of food items were used wisely. People efficiently used goods in their lives. However, it appears that over the last few decades, such a history involving people and goods has been somewhat lost. Naturally, a number of people have joined a resistance to this course of change and continue to make a range of attempts to halt it.
Such events occur not only in adult society, but also among children. Although it has been long argued that people are no longer attached to their belongings, this may be due to the weakening relationship between each good and an individual. Weak connections with communities, changes in household composition, and shifts in society through individualism all prevent people from feeling a strong urge to set and follow rules for collectively maintaining order. This seems to have created a number of problems in providing childcare every day. The ultimate issue among these may be "tidying-up".
Although it has been long discussed, the issue of "tidying-up" in childcare centers has yet to see any solution being widely adopted. There are a number of references and research papers, but as far as the authors are aware, none of these take on a perspective of how individuals create order and cycles in their everyday lives, as pointed out by Tatsumi, a researcher in this particular field. From the viewpoint of childcare environments, further studies are required in regard to most issues such as the effects of psychological environments involving childcare providers, children, and parents, the relationship between the characteristics of children and the arrangement of goods, awareness of storage, and the relationship between forms of childcare and "tidying-up".
The intention here is to take the first step towards an overall thesis of "goods and the lives of people" by understanding the current situation and building a hypothesis through the observation, research and analysis, and interviews regarding the "tidying-up" activities of children in childcare centers.
1-2 Purpose and methodology of research
1-2-1 Purpose of research
Observations, research, and interviews were conducted on the "tidying-up" activities of infants in "childcare centers" where essential primary human activities and field dynamics could be easily observed. There, the real nature of human activities of "tidying-up" was pursued.
Research and analysis will play a role as basic research in the approach towards the theses of "goods and lives of people" and "development of children".
1-2-2 Targets of the research
Infants in childcare centers (mainly in the 3 to 5 year-old bracket)
(1) The reason why infants were targeted
Considering tidying-up activities as human activities, the authors discussed who should be the research target.
Research on the lives of adults would be the least complicated. It is easier to do interviews on adults and to get them to cooperate with the research.
However, the authors find the following problems in adults:
1) in the minds of adults, the idea of "a state of being tidy" has already been formed,
2) the belief that "tidying-up" is "a good thing" has already been formed (also, the belief is that being "incapable of tidying-up" is "a bad thing" or "embarrassing"),
3) it may be too complicated to distinguish the opinions held by various parties (family members in front of the actors tidying-up, "someone" being absent, or the actors judging themselves) affect the tidying-up activities, as well as the ideas mentioned above.
*In particular, tidying-up activities are greatly influenced by the factor of "opinion held by others" as stated in 3). During field research, there were many instances in which childcare providers apologized as soon as the authors opened and started checking inside closed shelves. Also, the authors heard many stating "untidy rooms are too embarrassing to show to guests, so I do not invite guests to my house" (even though the rooms appeared to be more or less clean and tidy).
Therefore, the authors decided to target infants that are less affected by the opinions held by others and expected to observe the essential aspects of tidying-up activities.
The age bracket (school year) to be researched was also discussed.
Tidying-up activities can be observed in those as young as 1 year-old (when instructed to return a picture book to where it belongs, these infants can follow instructions). However, if the criteria include being able to distinguish individual property and shared property, understanding the concept of "tidying-up" and that the activities affect individuals as well as the order of space (rules and moral) and then selecting tidying-up activities, 3 year-olds, at the youngest, or 4 to 5 year-olds, if possible, are deemed appropriate.
In making this decision, the authors took into account general views on development.
1) 3 year-olds: grow to be capable of self-control (control of assertiveness, self-fulfillment, intent, longing and emotion)
2) 4 year-olds: develop from the mental state of "desire" into belief, according to "Theory of Mind". These infants grow into a stage in which desire and belief are understood and are able to accurately predict the behavior of others.
(Source: Nobuko Uchida, Developmental Psychology Keywords, Yuhikaku)
In some childcare centers, same age classes and mixed age (or vertically divided) classes are formed for 0 to 2 year-olds and 3 to 5 year-olds, respectively. In many cases, even though the classes are not vertically divided, 3 to 5 year-old infants are naturally involved with one another during long hours spent in preschool. Given this relationship, as well, the authors decided to observe classes of 3 to 5 year-olds.
(2) The reason why childcare centers were chosen as the study location
For infants, childcare centers are apparently the living space away from their parents and under the supervision of educators.
"Tidying-up" dealt with in this study was constituted by the way in which individuals build and maintain relationships with the goods they are associated with throughout their lives. Schools and public institutions are merely a small part of their lives and thus excluded.
On the other hand, homes can be a study location.
However, at home, infants are greatly influenced by their parents. Toshiyuki Shiomi divides the living environment for individuals into "external environment" and "internal environment" and "external environment" into "physical environment", "expectation environment (under supervision), and "peer environment) (Shiomi, "What is Environment?: Understanding from the basic principle", Child Environmental Studies, Vol 1.No.1 2005.4). However, in modern households that are nuclear families and which see close connections between mothers and children, the internal and external environments for children seem to be under the complete control of parents (especially mothers).
It was expected that the simplest aspect of tidying-up activities would be observed in the childcare centers, a place for children unsupervised by parents to "live" with peers with a variety of desires.
1-2-3 Methodology of research
As a methodology, thorough field research was thought to form a basis. This research was to determine the factors comprising the state of "tidying-up being successful/not successful".
The following 6 childcare centers were chosen as study locations (for a detailed overview, refer to Chapter 2).
K Childcare Center: Kuma-gun, Kumamoto
O Childcare Center: Iruma-shi, Saitama
F Childcare Center: Chigasaki-shi, Kanagawa
H Childcare Center: Nerima-ku, Tokyo
T Preschool: Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido
W Childcare Center: Futtsu-shi, Chiba
(1) Determination of methodology
During the planning stage for research, research was scheduled to be carried out by starting with observation of the tidying-up activities of infants.
However, after visiting K Childcare Center on June 15, 2009 for a test, it was deemed difficult to determine the factors of "tidying-up" through observation of tidying-up activities at the beginning.
The main reason was that tidying-up activities are greatly affected by environmental factors and observing the activities of infants does not reveal whether these activities are natural (intrinsic) for infants or required by the environment.
Upon discussion, it was decided that environmental factors were to be thoroughly checked first and activities observed based on the hypothesis established as a result of analysis. To be more specific, questionnaires for childcare centers (mainly human environment), record of storage status (physical environment), and interviews with educators (human environment) were conducted.
(2) Selection of target childcare centers
Care was exercised not to allow an imbalance in child upbringing environments between the target childcare centers. For instance, targets should not be selected from metropolitan areas or a particular area such as the Kanto area exclusively.
Further, licensed childcare centers meeting the criteria for childcare center establishment were selected as the main target-childcare centers. Reference target-childcare centers selected were childcare centers with government-approved licenses. As tidying-up (state of goods) is deeply associated with the size of living space, it was decided to exclude childcare centers which did not have enough space generally required for living.
In addition, the targets included childcare centers that either Kimuta had visited for research in the past or Tatsumi was involved with. Given that tidying-up is an area subject to a high level of psychological pressure such that "not being able to tidy up is embarrassing", it was assumed that a more natural state could be observed in childcare centers with which the authors had already built a familiarity (this assumption was confirmed in the actual research).
The 6 target childcare centers are referred as follows:
Main target-childcare centers: K Childcare Center, O Childcare Center, F Childcare Center, and H Childcare Center
Reference target-childcare centers: T Preschool and W Childcare Center
The former are all licensed childcare centers. H Childcare Center is public (publically funded but privately operated), while the other 3 childcare centers are managed by a social welfare corporation (privately funded and operated). Although operated under different principles, the childcare centers were considered general childcare centers. Each childcare center had separate buildings and gardens.
The last two were both licensed preschool/childcare centers selected as a reference as opposed to "general childcare center".
T Preschool is a special category preschool that offers experiencing nature and has met the general license criteria as well as the standards specifically required by Hokkaido Prefecture, but it is similar to general childcare centers in terms of establishment standards. Also, under the principle of "educating children to pursue the meaning of birth, living, and death", the preschool endeavors to set a real-life example of "children (or juniors in life) learning by observing what parents (or adults) do" and, for tidying-up, educators "show the way" and encourage children to actively decide what to do rather than forcing them to act. This is contrary to "general" childcare centers where "tidying-up" is a part of childcare. Thus, T Preschool, was selected as a reference despite being a preschool.
As referred in previous research in 3-1-1 (2), W Childcare Center, with a unique approach to "tidying-up," has been a leader in that field, which is why the Center was selected as a reference.
1-2-4 Research team
The research team consisted of the following members:
Research and analysis
Nagisa TATSUMI (author, official member of Association for Children's Environment, and part-time lecturer at Kyoritsu Women’s University)
Ayumi KIMURA (full-time lecturer at Shinohara Gakuen, Director of Association for Children's Environment, and former part-time lecturer at Shiraume Gakuen University and Izumi Junior College)
Research supervisor
Shinichi SENTODA (Research Institute for High-Life, Senior Researcher)
1-3 Results and conclusion of research
This study quite simply confirms that "tidying-up" became a significant problem for childcare centers.
One of the issues is regarding "children's ability to tidy up". The issue is how to encourage children to start tidying-up while letting them play or how to trigger the "tidying-up" activities (with which children are not actively engaged).
Another issue is with regards to a "tidy environment". Childcare providers find it difficult to change the physical environment in a childcare center where children live and providers practice childcare in a "tidy" state. The problem is made complicated when the issue of building design is involved.
In addition, the authors managed to find and organize discussion points (or approaches) that will be further studied.
(1) Is there any relationship between the state of "physical environment" and quality of childcare (or life)?
Tidying-up is an order and cycle of goods used in our lives. It is not surprising that there is a relationship between the feeling that "tidying-up is successful" and the feeling that the childcare performed in that environment is "unsuccessful/successful". The authors wish to develop a methodology to assess along with the testing of the "tidying-up indexes" in (4).
Also, this study led to the thesis of what kind of tidying-up activities children are afforded by their physical environment. This is associated with the "development of children and tidying-up" in section (3), and it is necessary to verify whether a child's tendency to prefer order, such as a preference for lining objects up, leads directly to tidying up.
(2) A discussion on the meaning of "tidying-up" is needed
Normally, no question is raised as to what acts constitute "tidying-up", as the word expresses itself. Field studies start by discussing how the acts are performed or what difficulties are found in the acts.
However, the authors were under the impression that children did not have any idea of "tidying-up". Tidying-up may not be a part of primary human activities. Therefore, the question is why adults feel that tidying-up is important and that not being tidy is embarrassing.
It may be desirable to start an interview with the question of what a "tidy state" is.
(3) What is the relationship between the development of children and tidying-up?
What does "tidying-up" mean to the development of children? Does "Showing the way" help children to develop the idea of tidying-up? Or do adults have to pass on the culture of tidying-up?
Continued observation seems to be the only and most effective investigation process.
(4) Testing of "tidying-up indexes"
This field study provides the understanding that it is entirely subjective whether or not a particular space is "tidy" or not. Here, the authors wish to introduce objective indexes ("tidying-up indexes"). The indexes prepared here are provisional.
The authors wish to continue research using these indexes as highly accurate indexes to assess whether or not tidying-up is successful in the space or who can (or has the capacity to) tidy up properly. It will be possible to use the objective "tidying-up indexes" widely in the assessment of systems, mechanisms, and schemes such as "designing of easy-to-tidy-up public space" or "organizational role assignment for easy tidying-up".