Hello, everyone! I am Zhao Ruifeng, a first-year Ph.D. student
in our Empowerment Science Lab. I am glad to share the 2022
empowerment summer camp with you.
This year's camp was held online in the afternoon of 27 August.
It is great honor for me and Mengxuan san to serve as the hosts
of this camp. At 2:00 PM, we were formally started into the first
part of this camp stay with a cordial greeting from Anme sensei
and everyone else.
The first part of the camp was speech session. In this part, the
teachers and seniors of Power-up showed their wonderful
presentations. We all benefited from the professional speeches,
the lively discussions, and the clash of ideas. We will live what we
have learned at this camp in the future.
After an hour and a half break and a toast to celebrate, we started
the second part. The second part was a talent show session. In this
part, everyone did not hesitate to show off their best skills. There
were paintings, magic tricks, gymnastics, and even handmade dolls
on display. Everyone in attendance marveled and applauded for
these skills. We were then treated to a short riddle session.
Everyone contributed their wisdom and completed the riddle.
Finally, with the sound of laughter from everyone, we concluded
this year's camp.
We all really enjoyed the camp and look forward to seeing you all
next year!
Hello, everyone! I am Zhao Ruifeng, a first-year Ph.D. student in
our Empowerment Science Lab. I hope you take care of yourself
in this high summer heat. Today, I would like to share with you the
discussion of this online meeting with Sakai Hatue-sensei, Gisyu-sensei,
Noda-sensei, and Ono-sensei from Kokurakita Fureai Childcare Center.
Many thanks to the sensei at Kokurakita Fureai Childcare Center
for giving us this opportunity to facilitate this meeting during a
difficult time. The child care professionals at Kokurakita Fureai
Childcare Center are all professionals with many years of practical
experience, and all of them can be of great help from a practical
point of view. We are very grateful to all those who came to the
conference in the midst of their busy schedules.
On the 16th of August at 11am, we have formally started this
online meeting. The main discussion at this meeting was the
revision of the competency scale and parents/professionals
challenging support scales. The discussion session on the scale
went smoothly amidst Zhu san and Li san's professional introduction
and the contributions of the teachers and seniors present. From this,
I learned more about conservation, which I will be able to live with in
my future research.
In the interview session at the end of the conference, everyone
expressed their views, each from a different perspective. Firstly,
Zhu san asked two interview questions:
1. Have there been any changes or concerns about child development
or the home childcare environment since Corona?
2. Are there any major challenges and ways to overcome them with
regard to infant or night-time childcare in Corona?
Yukiko Ono sensei's view is that more people pay attention to
childcare information in the media and Masks affect communication
with children and language development. According to Yumi Noda
sensei there is no significant changes in the child care environment
and we should continue daily corona measures. In the opinion of
Hatsue Sakai sensei, the number of children admitted in Corona is
reduced meanwhile many childcare workers are challenged in Corona,
we should ensure breaks while working together. Then, Gisyu Sakai
sensei consider practical issues and the goings-on of childcare in
terms of how we should continue to provide quality childcare in the
context of change.
We learnt a lot of practically relevant knowledge from the perspectives
of various child care professionals, which benefited us greatly. The
various professional comments given by the Child care professionals,
who looked at the issues from a practical point of view, broadened our
horizons and at the same time the research work should be carried out
from a practical point of view. In the end, we ended the meeting successfully
and full of rewards.
Thank you all for your participation and let's look forward to future meetings!
Hello, I’m Wang Yanlin, a second-year student of master’s in public
health in our empowerment sciences lab. I hope that you can take good
care of yourself this midsummer. Now I’m very glad to share a precious
learning tour of Seiaien child care center which is mainly for disabled
children and belongs to social welfare corporation Rokoukan with you.
On the morning of August 5th, we arrived at the Seiaien child care
center in Osaka with Anme-sensei. Miyazaki-sensei received us and
we toured the entire Seiaien child care center. The Seiaien child care
center is a three-floor building with an open-air pool on the top floor
and an outdoor garden and swimming pool on the first floor. We were
also fortunate to visit the milking room and the milking process for
infants and young children, the free play room for children aged 1 to 2,
and the process of hand-making stickers for children aged 3 to 5. It is
worth mentioning that children from 3 to 5 years old here will not be
divided into different groups according to their age, but these children
of different age groups will play and communicate with each other.
After that, Miyazaki-sensei and care practitioners shared with us their
insights and suggestions on support for disabled children and inclusion
education for these children. As overseas students, we asked teachers
a lot of questions about the education method for disabled children and
the solutions to the difficulties encountered in the process. Miyazaki-
sensei and care practitioners answered these questions for us one by one.
In the afternoon, we once again discussed with Miyazaki-sensei and the
leading care practitioners the new competency scale currently being
developed in our laboratory. The care practitioners gave some of their
own views and opinions, and Miyazaki-sensei also gave us many examples
of specific situations, which provided us with a lot of inspiration for the
improvement of the new scale items in the future.
Next, Edamoto-sensei came to the child care center. Edamoto-sensei
first told us about the development history of Seiaien child care center
and the concept of childcare that continues to this day. Anme-senei and
Edamoto-sensei discussed "the possibility of combining Empowerment with
the learning method of open dialogue and the possibility of dialogue with
children" as a hypothesis.
Finally, we had the honor to take a group photo with Edamoto-sensei and
Miyazaki-sensei. This visit to Seiaien child care center has benefited us
a lot. I hope we can have more opportunities to learn more about childcare
support in the future!
