The development of secondary education in Japan after World War II

The basic pattern of contemporary secondary education in Japan was laid down in the years immediately after the Second World War. Secondary education is divided into a lower and an upper stage. The main characteristic of the lower stage is the combination of compulsory subjects and elective subjects. This article shows how the attempt to organise upper secondary education along American lines with comprehensive high schools controlled by elected school boards has given way to a structure more in keeping with Japanese needs. However, co-education in upper secondary schools has taken firm root in Japan. The article concludes with a list of major policy issues in Japanese secondary education today.     

Learning through Meaning Making: Applying Job Crafting in Field Learning

Job crafting makes people’s work rewarding through meaning making. This article discusses the ways in which a field director may use job crafting to address a common challenge in field education. Field placements are based on various institutional expectations; however, many students have preconceived notions of what social work and social work education should be, and they complain that their placements are “not clinical ” enough. Through the application of job crafting, students can reframe their field learning experiences in a meaningful way. Using the case study method, this article demonstrates one way to support MSW students, highlighting common challenges and practices at a large public northeastern university.     

Psychometric properties and optimizing of the Bracken School Readiness Assessment

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - The Bracken School Readiness Assessment (BSRA) has been used in large studies such as the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). Important...     

The Debate on Patriotic Education in Post-World War II Japan

The debate over patriotic education in Japan is marked by power shifts between the two different political groups that have different views of the role of patriotic education. By analyzing the power shift from a historical perspective, this essay makes a point that one of the problems of the debate over patriotic education in Japan is that the debate has never been discussed in terms of the conception of patriotism .     

21世纪人才培养教育课程

一、基本观点 1.准确地判断形势 (1)基于广阔的视野 21世纪,情报通讯技术和生命科学等的科学与技术以前所未有的速度迅速发展,直接联结于世界,情报瞬间即共有,是一个全球化日新月异的时代。以思考伦理道德问题为例,大从宏观宇宙问题着眼,小就微观克隆等遗传因子及细胞问题进行思考,迄今的规范概念和思考方式可以说是不充分、不适当的。     

The Gift of a Warmer Climate: Education for Courage

The aim of this essay is to give hope to those who are in the middle of struggles relating to personal experiences associated with sexual/gendered harassment. In it, Kanako W. Ide inquires into the moral conditions around speaking out publicly about such incidents through critical analysis of the social norms of gender and economy. Jane Roland Martin's gender‐sensitive theory supports a discussion of how contemporary discourses against sexual/gendered harassment are embedded in the norms of a gender‐blind market economy. In seeking an alternative, gender‐sensitive discussion, the gift paradigm is addressed and critically examined. Ide applies the conceptual distinction between “labor” and “work” that informs gift theory to argue for the invisible spirit of the gift as an essence of feminine moral values. The Buddhist idea of altruism as asceticism is offered as a means of developing the concept of “labor” as a gift, and also as a way to conclude the essay by explaining negative incidents in an affirmative gift theory.     

The writing center and international students in a Japanese university: a language management perspective

ABSTRACT

One of the institutional challenges of taking in large numbers of international graduate students is supporting their academic literacy skills. To accommodate a large population of international students, Japanese universities offer various services to support their academic studies and life-related issues, such as hiring international student advisors, offering Japanese language courses, and implementing peer-support programs. As a type of academic support for writing for international students, writing centers have caught the attention of universities in the last decade. To examine the institutional role of the writing center at a Japanese university, this study employs a language management lens to compare the beliefs and interests among administrators, tutors, and international students in improving international students’ Japanese writing. Interviews with the three groups of participants displayed incongruences between the administrators’ interests aligned with institutional goals, the educational philosophy of the writing center, and international students’ language learning needs. The findings point to the tutors' crucial role as language specialists who inform organized language management, and the necessity for collaboration between academic support units and faculty members in providing sufficient academic socialization environments for international students.