ABSTRACT
This chapter represents an analysis of teachers' gatherings: both formal meetings and informal "get-togethers". It examines two sets of issues related to such gatherings and their organizational context: the place of such assemblies in the ordering and control of, and conflict management in, institutions of early childhood education; and the relation between the forms and purposes of such assemblies and wider Japanese cultural notions of small group activities. The local school boards and the Japan Teachers' Union arrange pedagogical seminars that many attend. The chapter suggests that some of the power of preschools in Japan to achieve their goals is related to the ability of teachers to rely on existing cultural models of organizing in order to proffer care to children. Japanese organizations have been subjected to many intense examinations bent on delineating their cultural character or quality.
