<Article>Ideal and Practice of “Utilization of Local Resources” in Early Childhood Curriculum Development in Singapore

The Education Guideline for Kindergarten, which has been fully implemented since 2018 in Japan, places particular emphasis on the promotion of “Curriculum Open to Society” that questions the connection with the community and society. In order to give suggestions to Japan's newly-reformed early childhood education, this paper focuses on Singapore as an advanced case in Asia. From the analysis of the early childhood curriculum policy and the field survey, we have followed the actual situation of “utilization of local resources” in the organization and implementation of the early childhood curriculum in Singapore. As a result, it was found that “local resources” in early childhood education in Singapore include not only physical resources and spatial resources, but also human resources, culture, and events, etc. In addition, there are four key factors to lead to the success of “utilization of local resources” in early childhood education were found in this paper. They were (1) a support system established by the government, (2) a cooperation system was built in the local community, (3) parents actually cooperate and participate in educational activities, (4) a perspective to ensure continuity of learning in planning and implementing educational activities