1. Chinese Newcomer Students' Career Perspectives and Career Choices in a Lower Track High School in Japan: Transformative Processes through Support Activities for Them.
- Author
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Hirosaki Junko
- Subjects
CHINESE students in foreign countries ,HIGH school students ,NEWCOMERS (Sociology) ,VOCATIONAL guidance ,HIGH schools ,EDUCATION - Abstract
This paper describes, in the context of their surroundings, the process through which high school students who came from China in and after the 1970s (Chinese newcomers), rebuild their hopes for the future, which were at one point destroyed by their coming to Japan, and make career choices. Chinese newcomers originally have their own life plans, based on school education and their life experiences in China. Coming to Japan is an interruption of their plans for the future. How do they rebuild a future outlook and pursue a desired career in Japan? It seems that, because newcomer students are at a disadvantage in terms of Japanese language, they are not able to maximize their academic ability, and tend to enter low-level high schools. How does this affect their school life and their academic career? And what kind of support do they need? This paper considers this issue, using the case of Chinese newcomers who were assisted by career counseling activities, at a lower track public commercial high school. The following two points are made clear. First, through their school experiences in China, the Chinese newcomers were imbued with the value that studying should come first and that grades are everything. They had an achievement based future outlook, under which future happiness is seen to depend on good grades and a high academic background. While they wished to go on to university, they were confronted by the anti-school culture in the high school, where studying is not highly valued, and came to feel friction, conflict, and denial. Their desire to go to university declined. In other words, school life in the high school did not offer them a way to achieve what they want in the future. Secondly, university student volunteers helped newcomer students to regain the hopes that they had lost after entering the commercial high school, and encouraged them to go on to university. Student volunteers acted as role models, embodying the pro school culture that Chinese newcomers originally had, and encouraged them to continue to be diligent and to make efforts. Specific information on universities given by teachers is also an important source for making the career choice to go on to university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
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