kawata*edu.hokudai.ac.jp
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Early Child Development and
Educational Practice
Psychology of Education
Educational Psychology
Developmental psychology, early childhood care and education
– Developmental relationship between self-consciousness and awareness of others in infancy and early childhood
– Relationship between human development and educational systems in day care centers/kindergartens
– Coupling of children in infancy/early childhood and those in other age periods (e.g., puberty) during development
– Childcare/child rearing environments
– History of thought on human development
Infants and young children, the self, others, social cognition, emotion, imitation, early childhood care and education, environment, coupling of children in different age periods during development
My research interests are focused on elucidating developmental processes for the dual nature of the self – a mental makeup with seemingly contradictory aspects of self-consciousness and cooperativeness with others. I believe the most distinctive feature of humans is the self-formation process during which they experience becoming “the imagined other.” I think this basic makeup is established within two or three years of birth. I also believe the formation of self-consciousness is a developmental aspect that enables education as a human agency.
Previously, I was also engaged in research on the development of children with disabilities (e.g., autism) based on observations and experiments from their neonatal to early childhood periods. More recently, I have shifted the main focus of my research to more complex, practical areas – those for group childcare (e.g., kindergartens and day care centers), child-rearing support and multi-generational exchanges. In such areas, I am studying theoretical frameworks for comprehensive understanding of (1) physical/spatial, temporal and communicative environments and (2) development of children and adults who grow, play and live in such environments.