Mobile agency and relational webs in women’s narratives of international study

Higher Education - Internationalisation and forced migration are rarely thought about as related phenomena in higher education (HE) literature. Internationalisation is associated with movement,...     

Teacher education and its reform in contemporary Japan

This article aims to describe the general framework of the teacher training system and its recent reform in Japan. As elsewhere, Japanese society is moving into an era of mass higher education provision. Since initial teacher training is provided by universities, the reform of teacher training is a part of the higher education restructuring that is also under way. At the same time, Japan is facing educational problems in compulsory education. The Educational Personnel Training Council of Japan is recommending reforms, which attempt to create a new type of teacher to cope with these educational problems. This opens the way for the Japanese state to develop more direct control over the curriculum and assessment of teaching staff in universities. The Ministry of Education is attempting to develop new control methods of 'Evaluative State' strategies. The reform of teacher education system exemplifies this shift.     

Unraveling the process and meaning of problem-based learning experiences

This paper investigates the process and meaning of problem-based learning (PBL) that students may experience. The Project Cycle Management method was taught and utilised as an instrument of PBL at a Japanese women’s college over a period of 5 years. The study closely examined what and how students learned in PBL from the perspectives of cognitive, social, and internal aspects. Despite the relative ignorance about the internal aspect of learners in previous research, the results of the study revealed that the internal aspect is inseparably linked with the other two aspects, and the three of them simultaneously undergo their own changes in the PBL process. That is, meaningful learning experiences seem to be no less importantly affected by the feelings or internal aspect of learners than by cognitive and social counterparts. Then, beyond knowledge building and skill acquirement, PBL may have contributed to broadening learners’ perspectives and promoting their personal development. In this regard, PBL can be defined anew, from an angle different from that of previous research, as learning that can generate rich and varied emotions in learners concurrently as they face problems, enable them to acquire subject matter knowledge and relational skills through dialogue, and eventually guide them to the threshold of personal transformation.     

The teacher as a ‘colony’: a case study of agentive responses to ‘colonising’ education policy in Vietnam

Neo-liberal educational policies that are being implemented globally work to foster competition among schools and teachers, as well as among children. In this situation, teachers must often come to accept the dominant representations of curricular policy developed by higher authorities. In this study, a case study design is used to describe how one school in Vietnam shifted away from this state of ‘colonisation’ by reforming the school under the framework of lesson study for learning community (LSLC). This paper subsequently argues that there is a need for school-level policies that democratise school culture and practices, resisting the negative impacts of colonising policies.     

Problems on primary school-based in-service training in Vietnam: A case study of Bac Giang province

In Vietnam, despite the introduction of a new curriculum based on a child-centred education approach, there exist many problems and challenges in the educational process. To overcome these problems, the Vietnamese and Japanese governments have been conducting an in-service teacher-training programme, including school-based observation and reflection of lessons as a major activity. This study investigates the problems encountered in these schools. The results reveal that (1) the lesson is extremely fast-paced, (2) teachers tend to evaluate their colleagues and students, (3) teachers need to learn about how to learn and (4) promoting dialogue among teachers is considerably challenging.     

Peers’ perceptions of Japanese returnees

Many studies have examined the reentry process of Japanese children raised abroad. Results suggest that “feeling different” is a key factor in describing their experiences. These studies, however, were based only on self-reports of returnees. The current study examined returnees’ peers’ perceptions and the factors that affected them. Results indicated that the returnees’ peers’ perceptions could be summarized by two factors: “advantage” and “difference/disadvantage.” Those who had studied abroad and who had known many returnees had a balanced perspective of the returnee experience. Women were more likely to perceive advantages while those who were older were more likely to perceive differences/disadvantages.     

In search of the public and the private: Philosophy of education in post-war Japan

The focus of this paper is on Japanese philosophy of education in the post-war period. We begin with a historical account, concentrating on developments in ideas and their interrelation with policy, and then go on to discuss aspects of the contemporary scene. Central to our concerns here are the ways in which there has been an impoverishment of the public and private realms, especially with the collusion of private and national interests under the sway of neo-liberal and neo-conservative ideologies. We conclude our discussion by identifying some current trends in Japanese philosophy of education, highlighting ways in which new developments in the subject may lay the way for restoring and enhancing the relationship between the private and the public.     

Actor‐network theory of cosmopolitan education

In the past, philosophers discussed cosmopolitanism as a normative ideal of allegiance to humanity as a whole. A debate among social theorists, however, has examined cosmopolitanism as an incipient empirical phenomenon: an orientation of openness to foreign others and cultures. This paper introduces actor‐network theory to elaborate the social‐theoretical conception of cosmopolitanism. In light of the actor‐network theory of cosmopolitanism, the paper proposes cosmopolitan education that aims to foster in students three dispositions: to extend attachments to foreign people and objects; to understand transnational connections in which their lives are embedded; and to act on these attachments and understandings to effect transformations across national borders. Through this three‐fold cosmopolitan education, students will grow to be citizens of the world who traverse national borders dialogically by virtue of their transnational attachments, understandings, and actions.