Minorities and Education in Multicultural Japan: An Interactive Perspective

✍ Scribed by Ryoko Tsuneyoshi, Kaori H. Okano and Sarane Boocock (Editors)

• Publisher: Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group)
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 285
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This volume examines how Japan’s increasingly multicultural population has impacted on the lives of minority children and their peers at school, and how schools are responding to this trend in terms of providing minority children with opportunities and preparing them for the adult society. The contributors focus on interactions between individuals and among groups representing diverse cultural backgrounds, and explore how such interactions are changing the landscape of education in increasingly multicultural Japan. Drawing on detailed micro-level studies of schooling, the chapters reveal the ways in which these individuals and groups (long-existing minority groups, newcomers, and the ‘mainstream Japanese’) interact, and the significant consequences of such interactions on learning at school and the system of education as a whole. While the educational achievement of children of varying minority groups continues to reflect their places in the social hierarchy, the boundaries of individual and group categories are negotiated by mutual interactions and remain fluid and situational. Minorities and Education in Multicultural Japan provides important insights into bottom-up policy making processes and consciously brings together English and Japanese scholarship. As such, it will be an important resource for those interested in education and minority issues in Japan.

✦ Table of Contents

Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Illustrations......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Notes on contributors......Page 12
1 Introduction: An interactive perspective for understanding minorities and education in Japan......Page 14
Part I: Long-existing minorities......Page 40
2 Long-existing minorities and education......Page 42
3 The schooling of buraku children: Overcoming the legacy of stereotyping and discrimination......Page 57
4 Schooling and identity in Okinawa: Okinawans and Amerasians in Okinawa......Page 90
5 Ethnic Koreans in Japanese schools: Shifting boundaries and collaboration with other groups......Page 113
Part II: ‘Newcomer’ groups......Page 140
6 The “newcomers” and Japanese society......Page 142
7 The ‘new’ foreigners and the social reconstruction of difference: The cultural diversification of Japanese education......Page 162
8 Schools, communities, and ‘newcomer’ children: A case study of a public housing complex......Page 186
9 (Mis)managing diversity in nonmetropolitan public schools: The lack of state-sponsored support for ‘newcomer’ children......Page 204
10 The kikokushijo: Negotiating boundaries within and without......Page 226
11 Concluding remarks: Implications for educational research and reform......Page 255
Appendix 1: Article 26 of the Constitution of Japan......Page 272
Appendix 2: The Primary School Course of Study Guide 2008 (Shogakko Gakushu Shidoyoryo Kaisetsu, Sosokuhen)......Page 273
Appendix 3......Page 274
Index......Page 276