A Scenario of Early Childhood Education in ASEAN Community Context

The researchaimed tostudy and propose the scenarioof early childhood education in ASEAN community context by Using Ethnographic Delphi Futures Research (EDFR). The research consisted of three phases. Phase one studied current conditions in preparing the early childhood education management; phase two studied the scenario of early childhood education in ASEAN community context based on the congruence of 21 experts’ perspectives. In the first round, an in-depth interview was conducted by a semi-structured interview format. In the second round, an opinion was asked by a five-point rating scale. Quantitative data were analyzed using median, mode and inter- quartile range. Phase three presented the scenario of early childhood education in ASEAN community context for public hearing. The research findings were as follows: 1. As for the current conditions for the preparation of the early childhood education management for the entry into ASEAN Community, the state had set the following policies: enhancing roles and strengthening the family in children’s learning development, development and preparation of children’s readiness before the primary education. In addition, those concerned have to be well prepared in English and languages of the neighboring countries. 2. The scenario of early childhood education in ASEAN community context had a maximum possibility and a high possibility in 12 aspects. The maximum possibility was found in 9 aspects: 1) Theories on Early childhood provision; 2) Principles for early childhood provision; 3) Philosophy and vision of early childhood education; 4) Purpose of early childhood provision; 5) Early childhood curriculum; 6) Experience based provision; 7) Media and learning sources; 8) Preparation for suitable learning atmosphere and the environment; and 9) Roles of parents and guardians. A high possibility was found in three aspects: 1) Developmental evaluation; 2) Role of teachers and the characteristic of early childhood child in the ASEAN context, and 3) Characteristics of the early children in the ASEAN context. 3. The results from public hearing of the scenario of early childhood education in ASEAN communitycontext showed that the participantsagreed withtheexpertsontheissues of the educational management in the ASEAN context in that the possibility was maximum and high in all aspects. They also suggested that the curriculum for the early children in ASEAN should be designed and developed.