Panel 1: Global-Local Connections and Networks in Japanese Educational Settings - Changing Identities... Symposium
In recent years, both in K-12 schools and in higher education in Japan, there has been an increasing awareness and focus on the connections between global and local actors, processes, and programs. This panel will explore these connections through attention to the networks which are proposed, created, and put into practice in these various settings. While each of the papers has a specific focus, they share the emphasis on how different actors attempt to use existing and newly created connections, which are often described as international or transnational. At the same time these connections are locally articulated and constrained, and are then used to concomitantly construct processes and programs by which various actors (sometimes in competition) can further their goals, variously described as intercultural, international, and multicultural. Several of the presentations will focus on K-12 schools while others will focus on higher education.
Abstracts of Presentations
Kaori H. Okano (La Trobe University): “Interactions amongst Ethnic Minority Groups in Schooling in Japan: the Global-Local Interface”
One of the globalising forces affecting Japanese education is the influx of migrants and guest workers. Entry of so-called newcomers has not impacted unilaterally but has interacted with the pre-existing practices in relation to oldtimer ethnic minorities (i.e., descendants of former colonial subjects and indigenous peoples). This paper examines these evolving interactions (struggles, relationships and networking) between oldtimer ethnic minorities (and their supporters) and newcomer groups; and demonstrates the global-local interface in two separate domains of education, namely, mainstream government schooling and ethnic schools (currently called “schools for foreigners”). It suggests that networking amongst these groups will guide how multicultural education will be pursued in the future.
Eriko Aoki (Ryukoku University): “Anxiety for the Future, Violence for Intimacy: Immigrant Children’s Life in a Japanese Primary School”
This paper aims at elucidating immigrant children’s life in contemporary Japanese primary schools, by comparatively drawing on Korean and South American children’s experiences through my fieldwork. By so doing, I would like to shed light on immigrant children’s anxiety for their future, on the one hand, and the features of Japanese society, on the other. Korean and South American immigrants contrast with each other while they have many aspects in common. Korean immigrants are old-comers and tend to be invisible to Japanese people’s eyes, while South Americans are new and visible for their appearance, names, languages, and socio-cultural behaviour. Most Korean immigrants think that they will live on in Japan in the future while most South Americans plans to go home after earning enough money; although they tend to come back to Japan repeatedly. Koreans have developed specific industries, while most South Americans are cheap labourers employed through labour delivery companies. There are quite a few Korean immigrants who have become elites in Japanese society and can be role models for other Korean immigrants, while there have not been such figures among South American immigrants. They both, however, have similar experiences legally, administratively, and socio-culturally, due to their being ethnic minorities in Japan. Against these general backgrounds, I would like to clarify how Korean and South American children experience Japanese primary schools.
Julian Chapple (Ryukoku University): “Educating Japan's 'Others': A Possible Population Solution?”
The proliferation and diversification of Japan’s minority foreign population has received considerable academic scrutiny in the past few decades from both domestic and foreign scholars. In spite of this substantial body of research, the Japanese government still seems to view the issue of non-Japanese within Japan as either a passing trend or minor inconvenience while failing to recognize the valuable role that such minorities can play in alleviating the nation’s looming population crisis. This paper examines the Japanese government’s ambivalent (and at times negative) attitude to the presence and education of non-Japanese children in Japanese and non-Japanese schools in Japan. It claims that with greater attention and commitment, enormous benefits could be perceived for Japan in, for example, economic, cultural and societal spheres.
Jerry Eades (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University): “Local Thinking, Global Dreams: Aspirations and Realities in Higher Education in the Asia Pacific”
One result of the globalization of higher education is regional competition between countries and universities to establish themselves as regional education hubs within the Asia Pacific region. The first part of this paper will consist of a regional survey of the types of initiatives currently underway, and their apparent degree of success so far. The second part of the paper draws on my experience teaching in universities with international pretensions in Japan, and the kinds of problems which can arise when academic cultures and methods are juxtaposed within them. I argue that many problems arise because the new institutions were designed with local needs in mind, rather than being tailored to the realities of the international market, but that they will eventually have to adapt internationally or fail. The final section considers the issues of networking and identity, the ways in which these new initiatives are establishing new forms of collaboration in research and teaching and a new breed of cosmopolitan graduates also looking for opportunities in an increasingly globalized labor market.
William Bradley (Ryukoku University): “Administering Networks in Higher Education in 21st Century Japan”
This paper explores the use of policy, often linked with funding and evaluation mechanisms, to create cross-departmental and cross-institutional networks in higher education both domestically in Japan as well as through international exchanges, to enhance the overall reputation and transparency of Japanese higher education. While such networks are potentially advantageous to the individual institutions, they increasingly consume large amounts of academic labor. The paper poses questions about what academic labor in Japanese universities is becoming as a result of such administered policy initiatives at all levels of higher education.