Areas of Expertise
- Curriculum Studies
Keywords
Early Childhood Education, Educational Policy, Multicultural/Multilingual Education
Research Methodologies
- Qualitative Methods
Research Levels
- Early Childhood
Research Overview
My research interests reflect my personal experiences as an immigrant, a preschool teacher, and an English learner. My goal as a researcher is to contribute to the establishment of a learning environment for preschool-age children where their linguistic and cultural backgrounds are accepted and taken as assets with respect. I focus on the anthropological aspect of bilingual education and ECE policy as a means to fulfill the goal.
Languages: Japanese
- Umezawa, K. (2025). Juntos effort to preserve children’s bilingualism in English-dominated language landscape. Global Education Review, 12(1), 27-45.
- Umezawa, K. (2025). Promising Yet Challenging: Ethnographic Insights On Head Start Teachers’ Language Policy Negotiations In New Immigrant Settlements. International Critical Childhood Policy Studies Journal, 12(1).
- Umezawa, K. (2025). The Conocimiento process: A transnational educatorʻs Conocimiento journey. Journal of International Migration and Immigrants.
- Umezawa, K., & Kurosawa-Arakaki, E. (2024). The power of child-created texts and puppetry in nurturing preschoolers’ social and emotional development. Young Children.
- Umezawa, K., Lyn, S., & Yu, S. (2025). Reflectivity in Video-Cued Multivocal Ethnography. In Park, G., Lee, S. H., Moroz, O., & Yazan, B. (Eds.), Qualitative research designs in language teacher education: Methodological challenges and reflexivity narratives. Routledge.
- Umezawa, K., & Kurosawa-Arakaki, E. (2024, November). Magic of Puppetry. Paper Presentation at Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
- Umezawa, K., & Henward, A. (2024, March 12). Foregrounding the Local in Comparative Early Childhood Public Policy Research. Formal Panel Session at Comparative International Education Society Annual Conference, Miami, FL.
- Umezawa, K., & Villar, T. (2023, September 9). Aiming 50/50: A case of Head Start classroom in New Immigrant Settlement Area. Paper Presentation at Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Annual Conference, Manchester, UK.
- Umezawa, K., Park, E., & Han, S.A. Montessori in three cultures. Comparative international research project about the Montessori curriculum in Sweden, Japan, and the U.S.
- Umezawa, K. Head Start language policy in Hawai’i. Anthropological investigation of Head Start language policy and its implication.
- Reconceptualization of Early Childhood Education
- National Association for the Education of Young Children
- American Anthropology Association
- Comparative International Education Society