Minorities and Education in Multicultural Japan


Book Description

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.




Multiculturalism in the New Japan


Book Description

Like other industrial nations, Japan is experiencing its own forms of, and problems with, internationalization and multiculturalism. This volume focuses on several aspects of this process and examines the immigrant minorities as well as their Japanese recipient communities. Multiculturalism is considered broadly, and includes topics often neglected in other works, such as: religious pluralism, domestic and international tourism, political regionalism and decentralization, sports, business styles in the post-Bubble era, and the education of immigrant minorities.




Japan's Diversity Dilemmas


Book Description

Japan's Diversity Dilemmas: Ethnicity, Citizenship, and Education reveals how Japanese society is now in the midst of dramatic transformation brought on by demographic change and globalization. Foreigners are coming to Japan and many more will come in the near future to meet the demands of an economy that needs workers to compensate for an extremely low birth rate. The ramifications of this influx of foreigners into a society that has based its identity on a mythical ethnic purity are enormous. This book examines the effects of globalization on both new and older ethnic communities. It shows the ways in which minorities, in particular Koreans, are changing their conceptions and practices regarding nationality. It explores issues of human rights and emerging conceptions of citizenship in Japan. It also looks at how forces of globalization are affecting the state ideology of homogeneity and how a new image of diversity and multiculturalism is slowly developing. Several authors focus their attention on implications for education in citizenship education, ethnic education, and international education. Japan's Diversity Dilemmas is not just about minorities, but addresses issues of diversity that impact Japan as a nation in three areas: ethnicity, citizenship, and education. As the population diversifies, the linking of ethnicity and citizenship is being challenged and education is a battleground where these struggles occur. This collection of papers by an interdisciplinary group of authors helps readers to understand Japan's evolving conceptions of the nation and its attempts to balance tensions of unity and diversity. 'Japan's Diversity Dilemmas looks at precisely the kind of issues that need examination and discussion, as Japan stands on the cusp of potentially huge demographic and social changes. This collection of studies will enrich and inform classroom and public discourse and those who follow these issues will find this book essential." -Sharon Noguchi, San Jose Mercury News and former Fulbright Fellow, University of Tokyo




Japanese Education in an Era of Globalization


Book Description

This volume documents the significant changes that have occurred in Japanese schools since the collapse of that nations economic bubble. Before the recession, Japan was the country that most others sought to emulate due to its students performance on standardized tests. Now, however, a different and more complicated picture of the Japanese education system emerges. This book places Japanese education in a global context, with particular attention given to how their education system is responding to changing expectations and pressures that emerge from rapid social change. Chapters written by respected scholars examine issues related to equality, academic achievement, privatization, population diversity, societal expectations, and the influence of the media, parents, and political movements. The research in this book will provide valuable lessons for policymakers and practitioners facing similar challenges.




The Palgrave Handbook of Race and Ethnic Inequalities in Education


Book Description

This comprehensive, state-of-the-art reference work provides the first systematic review to date of how sociologists have studied the relationship between race/ethnicity and educational inequality over the last thirty years in eighteen different national contexts.




Japan's Minorities


Book Description

Despite a master narrative of cultural and racial homogeneity, Japan is home to diverse populations. In the face of systematic exclusions and marginalization, minority groups have consistently challenged the subordinate identities imposed by the Japanese majority. Japan's Minorities addresses a broad range of issues associated with the six principal minority groups in Japan: Ainu, Burakumin, Chinese, Koreans, Nikkeijin, and Okinawans. The contributors to this volume show how an overarching discourse of homogeneity has been deployed to exclude the historical experience of minority groups in Japan. The chapters provide clear historical introductions to particular groups and place their experiences in the context of contemporary Japanese society.




Internationalising Japan


Book Description

In the twenty-first century, the concept of internationalisation remains a crucial tool for understanding the dynamics of globalising processes. It draws attention to the dimensions of conscious action in inter- and trans-national phenomena, connecting globalisation with individuals’ experience of everyday life. This book explores how internationalisation is imagined, discussed and operationalised in Japan and surrounding countries. The chapters focus on educational, leisure and cultural activities, fields which are often overlooked in favour of economic and political developments in the literature. The conclusion reflects on the concept of internationalisation and assesses how it is likely to develop in Japan in future, taking into account the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011.




Insights to East Asia: Bridging the Past and Present (UM Press)


Book Description

The East Asian region continues to experience rapid transformation, revealing both dynamic changes as well as unresolved issues. This innovative book is a valuable resource in understanding the extent to which countries in East Asia are confronting old and new challenges. Similarly, at the regional level, the book tackles the trials in consolidating East Asia as a region. Within this context, Insights to East Asia provides an introduction to a wide ranging array of issues, actors, and institutions interacting inside and outside the region. The book reflects the diverse ways in which state and non - state actors are responding to numerous concerns. The complexity of issues is unravelled through an informed analysis of contemporary concerns that include the development of East Asian regionalism, impact of China’s foreign aid on Timor Leste, the competition from Chinese manufacturers to their South Korean counterparts, protracted North Korean denuclearisation, the influence of pressure groups in Japanese politics as well as the dilemma of an emerging plural society in Japan. By reflecting on these key issues, students, scholars and policy practitioners will nd that the book engages readers to think critically of the ever-changing East Asian landscape.




The Palgrave Handbook of Race and Ethnic Inequalities in Education


Book Description

This authoritative, state-of-the-art reference work builds on its first edition to provide a cutting-edge systematic review of the relationship between race/ethnicity and educational inequality. Studying 25 different national contexts drawn from every inhabited continent on earth and building upon material from the earlier edition, the work analyses educational policies, practices and research on minority students, immigrants and refugees. The editors and contributors explore principal research traditions from countries as diverse as Argentina, China, Norway and South Africa, examining the factors promoting social cohesion as well as considerations regarding the use of international test score data. Seamlessly integrating findings of national reviews, the editors and contributors analyse how national contexts of race/ethnic relations shape the character and content of educational inequalities, and deftly map out new directions for future research in the area. Global in its perspective and definitive in content, this one-stop volume will be an indispensable reference resource for a wide range of academics, students and researchers in the fields of education, sociology, race and ethnicity studies and social policy. Chapter 20 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at SpringerLink (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-94724-2_20)




Second International Handbook of Urban Education


Book Description

This second handbook offers all new content in which readers will find a thoughtful and measured interrogation of significant contemporary thinking and practice in urban education. Each chapter reflects contemporary cutting-edge issues in urban education as defined by their local context. One important theme that runs throughout this handbook is how urban is defined, and under what conditions the marginalized are served by the schools they attend. Schooling continues to hold a special place both as a means to achieve social mobility and as a mechanism for supporting the economy of nations. This second handbook focuses on factors such as social stratification, segmentation, segregation, racialization, urbanization, class formation and maintenance, and patriarchy. The central concern is to explore how equity plays out for those traditionally marginalized in urban schools in different locations around the globe. Researchers will find an analysis framework that will make the current practice and outcomes of urban education, and their alternatives, more transparent, and in turn this will lead to solutions that can help improve the life-options for students historically underserved by urban schools.




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