“How Are Notions of Childcare Similar or Different among American, Chinese, Japanese and Swedish Teachers?”.

The purpose of this article is to examine similarities and differences between American, Chinese, Japanese and Swedish child carers’ perceptions of childcare.

The results indicate that the child carers’ perceptions in the four countries were related to the cultures of the countries. Swedish and Chinese child carers expressed to a higher degree than Japanese and American child carers that joint childcare was important, and similarly Swedish and Chinese child carers focused more on the importance of gender in connection with childcare. Whereas the group of Chinese child carers was more likely to agree with statements that women should adopt what is described as a traditional role, the group of Swedish child carers agreed the least with statements that women should adopt a traditional role.

Questionnaires were answered by child carers from the four countries; 157 Swedish child carers from Stockholm and Gothenburg answered the questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised 34 statements about childcare, which were divided into five categories, four of which had sufficiently high reliability to be considered as representative for child carers’ perceptions of childcare; gender equality, the role of women, children’s attachment to their mother and joint childcare. The child carers’ relationships to the different factors were analysed and compared across the countries.

Izumi-Taylor, S., Lee, Y.Y. & Franceschini, L. (2011). “How Are Notions of Childcare Similar or Different among American, Chinese, Japanese and Swedish Teachers?”. Research in Comparative and International Education, 6(2), 183-200.