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This paper aimed to summarize trends in educational policies, pedagogical research, and educational practices concerning communities and schools, and to clarify the practical matters of school-based community development, especially practical development and issues concerning collaboration between communities and schools, with a focus on school management councils and community schools. To this end, we examined trends in educational policies in terms of collaboration between communities and schools. Next, we explored trends in pedagogical research and educational practices from three perspectives (educational methods, educational administration, and social education), and their regional development and issues. Then, from the perspective of collaboration between different types of schools and between schools and local communities, we investigated discuss two local practices (Waki-Cho in Yamaguchi Prefecture and Niseko-Cho in Hokkaido) that promote advanced practices through the establishment of school management councils. Finally, based on the field research, we examined the significance of these practices and future topics.

This study aims to clarify the significance of practices aiming for inclusive childcare including music using multiple languages in a four-year-old class by doing fieldwork. It is meaningful for young children to participate in group activities including music in childcare, both as music education and as inclusive activities. This study considers the meaning of childcare practices that include music in a four-year-old class in which inclusive childcare is practiced at Kindergarten M, a public kindergarten in Hiroshima. The author, as an “active participation,” performed fieldwork at Kindergarten M for six months. The data were based on the participant’s observation of the activities in the four-year-old class and interviews with the class teacher. The scenes of singing activities involving greetings in several languages, which were held every morning in the four-year-old class, were then extracted as episodes. They were described, focusing on the meaning of these practices for Girl A, who had foreign roots. The analysis of the episodes clarified the transformation process of Girl A’s expressive behavior in the activities and the bonding process between Girl A and a Japanese child who gained interest in English through the activities. Based on the analysis, it is considered that, in addition to the effects of this practice as music education, music functioned as a medium for building interrelationships among children. Moreover, the potential of music in inclusive practice was proved to form inclusive childcare while combining these effects. Conversely, through the analysis, difficulties to describe practices using music in childcare were identified.