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Copyright of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, Teaching Expertise in Three Countries project is used as an example to show the significance and contribution of international comparative research and to think about the possible implications for policy in early childhood education. The project studied the development of expertise in preschool teaching in Japan, China, and the United States by employing 'video-cued multivocal ethnography' to explore how teaching expertise is defined in each of these countries and what processes help teachers acquire advanced teaching skills. This project has shown similarities and culturally specific notions, in what the participants have to say about characteristics of less and more experienced teachers. These research findings raise issues and challenges in early childhood education that resonate with the situation not only in the three countries but also possibly in other countries, such as problematizing the role of remembering and reflection in professional practice and the value of experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines educational policies toward indigenous minorities in Japan and Canada during the period of nation-building, from the latter half of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. Both Japan and Canada first segregated indigenous children into separate educational institutions and then tried to assimilate them into mainstream society. Beneath these broad policy similarities, however, lie different rationales, with substantially different implications for education and social policy in diverse societies. In Japan, national integration was promoted through a cultural or ethnic rationale, a socially coherent approach that nonetheless allows little room for minorities. Canada approached national integration using a notion of citizenship that both allows considerable space for minorities but is challenged by unity. These two strategies can be seen in two polar models of the state - a civic-assimilationist approach of the 'French model' and an ethnocultural exclusionist model of the formation of the German state. The paper argues for a multicultural pluralist model including both civic and cultural/ethnic identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a letter from the editor of "Comparative Education" concerning the February 2009 issue. The issue discusses the potential and impact of international collaboration in the areas of research, performance assessment, policy formulation, and international development cooperation. Papers in the issue include a paper concerning how international quality assurance and evaluation mechanisms are influencing policy formulation worldwide and a paper about the impact of educational innovations in Japan.

The Japan Comparative Education Society (JCES) was founded in 1965 with its flagship Japanese-language journalHikakukyoikukenkyu(Comparative Education Research) first published in 1975. The organisation currently has around 1000 members, making it the second largest comparative education society in the world. Though JCES members have long engaged in methodological and theoretical debates, their insights are hardly acknowledged in the English-language literature. Drawing on a review of the Japanese-language literature and semi-structured interviews with 25 JCES members, this paper identifies a particular intellectual tradition within JCES, often referred to as the area-studies approach to comparative education. This approach, often practised by JCES researchers specialising in developing countries in Asia, has long constituted the mainstay of comparative education scholarship in Japan. This paper traces the formation of this intellectual tradition, and focuses on its complex relationship with the dominant paradigm of ‘paradigmatic’ English-language comparative education scholarship. The paper shows how ‘other’ comparative education societies – such as the JCES – can be looked to as a resource with which to ‘provincialise’ the way comparative education research is conceptualised in English-language academia, and to cross-culturalise the field of comparative education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using the political-economic analysis of globalisation and education as well as a culturalist approach to education policy borrowing, the paper analyses the role of local actors, specifically, national newspapers and the Ministry of Education, in mediating the potentially homogenising curricular policy pressure of globalisation exerted through the PISA league tables. Using the recent Japanese education policy debate as a case study, the author demonstrates how the Japanese media interpreted the PISA 2003 findings in a way that resonated with the specific cultural, political, and economic context of the time and how the Ministry used the findings to legitimise otherwise highly contentious policy measures. Questioning the conventional interpretation that the PISA 2003 shock caused the Ministry to redirect its controversial yutori (low pressure) curricular policy, the paper reconstitutes the Ministry as an active agent that capitalised on an external reference (PISA) to re-establish its political legitimacy in a time of increasing neo-liberal state-restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines interactions between the global and the local in the context of Japanese mainstream schooling, by focusing on the development of local government policies to manage diversity in schools. This paper reveals how local governments developed education policies in interaction with grassroots professional groups, activists and schools, and by selectively incorporating national policies. These local policies are multicultural education policies but differ in two significant ways. The first is their predominant concern with human rights education, leaving celebration of cultural diversity as a marginal consideration, and the other is the official use of the term ‘foreigners’ in the title of these policies; both of which reflect the pre‐existing local context. The paper demonstrates that new immigrants do not unilaterally impact on supposedly ethnically homogeneous Japanese classrooms, but that the pre‐existing local contexts (national, local and institutional) have mediated global forces in effecting changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper I argue that when a researcher is a research instrument, it is likely that the researcher would develop a heightened awareness of his/her own cultural conditioning, especially in the case of cross-cultural studies. And that such awareness would make him/her realise that one's own cultural background may indeed have an influence on formulating his/her research methodology. The paper is based on my own research project on development cooperation between Japan and Cambodia, whereby I examined the perceptions of Cambodians and Japanese on what an appropriate power relationship between donors and recipients should be. At the outset of my research project, I paid little attention to my own cultural condition and the role it might play in my study, though I was aware that being Japanese I was a cultural outsider in the context of the study. However, through the process of studying both Japanese and Cambodian cultures, I acquired a heightened sense of awareness of my own culture, with its roots in Buddhist and Confucius traditions. Such heightened awareness made me relise that my own culture had indeed played a role in shaping my research methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How evident is democracy within education in Japan, and is current practice different from elsewhere? This paper assesses the perception that Japanese political and educational practices are not fully 'democratic'. The first part examines the Japanese perspective on democracy, and then considers democracy and education in Japan. From a school-based study, the second part discusses examples of class practice concerning decision-making. The paper concludes that democracy is deeply rooted in Japanese history, but not in a form that is readily recognisable to Western observers. Consensus has been more significant than voting. The view that the US administration had a strong influence probably reflects policy rhetoric, not the reality in schools. But this rhetoric may have led to a belief that 'democracy' is not an appropriate term within contemporary Japanese education. However, what happens in Japanese classrooms equates with 'democratic' practice elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeking to contribute to recent attempts to rethink the deepest foundations of the field, this paper offers news ways of contemplating time, specifically its relations to self, nihilism, and schooling. We briefly review how some leading Western thinkers have contemplated time before detailing Japanese scholars who have offered divergent, original, and arguably more sophisticated, theoretical accounts. We then illustrate these ideas by sketching how Japan ‘borrowed time’ following the abrupt political rupture of 1868, showing howLinear Timecame to be disseminated and diffused, largely through modern schooling. Last, we spotlight the nihilism that has arisen as consequence. Our primary aim is not empirical elaboration, however, but instead disclosure of a complex of relations that the field of comparative education has yet to discuss. We offer both the experience-cum-thought of Japan and this complex itself as reconstructive resources for the field which remains shallow in its parochial presumptions and unwillingness to engage ontologically. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A variety of perspectives exist on the evaluation of Japan's educational reform of 2002, which has evolved since the 1980s. However, thus far, little attention has been paid to the emerging influence of civil society on educational policies and practices. This paper shows that the origin of the current educational reforms can be traced to reports prepared by various neo-liberal/conservative business leaders and politicians. Further, it shows their privatization and decentralization principles happen to coincide with the increasing interest of progressive citizens' groups and educators. Their impact on the Japanese education system remains latent, especially as more scepticism grows towards progressivism as a philosophy behind the current educational reform. However, the expanding civil society and new progressive education movements in Japan are trends worth exploring in the context of globalization at the grass-roots level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our internationalizing world, even countries that have had a reputation of being so-called 'homogeneous' are facing cultural diversification within. Though Japan is a country often described as homogeneous or, at least, homogeneously minded, with the inflows of new types of foreigners, it is presently experiencing what has been dubbed the process of 'internal internationalization.' Such new forms of diversity trigger the formation of new social alignments, and challenge existing categories of the Different. This paper takes the Japanese example as a case in point to re-examine the social nature of the construction of difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, the simple assimilation of minority students is gradually being replaced by an emphasis on pluralism and multiculturalism, reflecting increased awareness of the value of cultural diversity. How to allow for cultural diversity, however, remains largely undetermined and controversial in various respects. Japan in particular is experiencing the challenge of cultural diversity, even though the country has often been portrayed as ethnically homogeneous. This paper focuses on the situation of Korean residents, one of several long-time minority groups in Japan, and discusses the significance of Korean ethnic schools in light of socio-historical considerations. Factors affecting the bicultural identity of Korean residents in Japan, and minorities in general, are considered. It is concluded that, although separate schooling for cultural minority students is not usually favoured in western societies, a strong case can be made for recognising the legitimacy of Korean ethnic schools in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the origins and potential effects of the liberalising reform agenda in Japanese secondary education in the light of experiences in the UK with policies such as local school management and school choice. The analysis is based on extensive interviews conducted with Japanese policy-makers, school heads and Prefectural administrators in 1997 in Tokyo and Osaka. The research was part of a joint Anglo-Japanese study, supported by the Japanese Embassy in London, and the analysis here highlights issues of national perspective which emerged in the collaboration between English and Japanese researchers observing reforms in each other's countries. The paper argues that the reform agenda in Japan has two strands. These involve both a necessary diversification of curriculum and pedagogic practices, and an administrative shift towards deregulation and school competition which may undermine some of the traditional strengths of Japanese secondary schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article traces the impact of mass breakthoughts witnessed in the field of education at school and college level in 1960s on education in 1970s in various countries. In Europe, it is largely the "upper secondary" level which is likely to be impacted. The impact in the U.S. is likely to be different from Europe due to various reasons. The paper primarily concerns the mass elites of Europe and Japan. It analyzes how the whole situation might appear to an economist, and how the perceptions of recent and prospective changes are related to perceptions of the nature of people and their variabilities in potentials for learning and productive life. 1960s was a decade of fantastic world-wide expansion in educational establishments, both public and private. Educators offer a viewpoint which is different from economists. For them, one of the more interesting implications of the economist's way of thinking must be with respect to the use of student time even among pupils too young to participate in the labour force. Pupil time is inherently limited, and hence costly.

This article investigates the changing state-university relations in Japan and Malaysia. Its main objective is to identify and examine possible lessons for Malaysia, based on the Japanese experience. Notably, since the late 1970s, Malaysia has been looking towards Japan as a model for socio-economic development (the 'look-east' Policy) and this article was written with the same underlying thrust. Of particular interest in this article is the Japanese experience with the Incorporation of National Universities in 2004. Malaysia has corporatised all state-controlled universities since 1998 but has stopped short of implementing the kind of institutional autonomy, which resulted in precarious state-university relations in Japan. Based on the situation in Japan with regard to incorporation of national universities, what steps should Malaysia take in order to develop a higher education system and higher education institutions that are comparable to that of matured higher education systems? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the structure for higher education opportunities for women through the expansion of Post-war education in Japan. Educational opportunities for women are inseparable related to equality between men and women. At secondary level, education emphasizing sex roles had brought controversies, and a low level of expectations by parents, teachers and society in general towards girls had a grave effect on girls' achievement and choice of course. Since inequality at lower levels decides higher levels of educational opportunities, problems of women's education became conspicuous in higher education. Under the U.S. Occupation Army, there was campaign for an educational reform improving women's status. However, since the reform was carried out under pressure, equality between men and women in Japan was passively accepted without the general consciousness of equality.

In many industrial nations, the processes of transition from education or training to employment are very important. Using Japan as a case study, this article considers these processes from an external perspective. The main criterion used is the issue of stratification within the education and training system. A detailed analysis of the transition process demonstrates that there is little differentiation between school students in Japan, making Japan's a very homogeneous education system by comparison with its international competitors. However, a type of indirect and/or informal stratification results from a ranking system for educational establishments and employers, reinforced by cooperation between individual educational establishments and specific employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the goals and consequences of an educational reform introduced in all Japanese schools beginning in 2002. The Integrated Studies (IS) programme was designed to increase teacher autonomy and to augment student interest in learning. The reform has the potential to alter significantly the way education is organised and delivered in Japan, yet outside the country very little is known about it. This preliminary study of IS provides valuable insights into the effects of the programme at the local level, teachers' views about educational reform, and the Ministry of Education's ability to facilitate change in the schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite overseas' observers praise for Japanese education over the last 20 years, within Japan the school system has become the focus of increasing discontent because of its supposed rigidity, uniformity, and exam-centredness. This discontent has given impetus to a series of educational reform proposals and policy measures during the late 1980s and 1990s. These reforms have gone under the slogan of 'stress on individuality' (kosei jūshi), and are purportedly aimed at encouraging creativity by introducing more freedom and choice into the education system. However, critics have alleged that the emphasis on 'individuality' masks a neo liberal agenda driven by business demands. This article analyses the reform measures and the surrounding debate. It concludes that Japan's Ministry of Education remains cautious in its approach to reform. The main reform measures to date have favoured a progressive rather than a neoliberal direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares Japanese and American teaching attitudes in public schools. Focus of education in American public schools; Focus of education in Japanese schools; Effect of non-academic activities on the values and attitudes of the pupils.

Focuses on middle school education in Japan. Cultural background and school system; Profile of Nanchu; Scope of shido in Japanese schools; Homerooms and extra-curricular clubs; Relationship of education and selection.

Examines the educational system in Japan and the competitive nature of the selection system wherein students undergo a selection process that entitles them to pursue education in a selective school. Conceptual framework; Selectivity score and destination of graduates in senior high schools; University entry of Japanese students; Analysis of data.

Discusses the great educational reform in teacher-education policies in Japan. General features of Japanese secondary school teachers; Job-satisfied teachers; Critical analysis of job-satisfied teachers; Implications for Japanese teachers policies.

The article presents information on the image of the Japanese education in the minds of those in the United States policy circles. In this context, the author of this article talks to a Japanese professor. According to the professor, some in the U.S. admired the Japanese education for its centralized educational policies, its rigid testing and its move towards a national curriculum. Discussing the Japanese education system it refers to a popular role playing game named after the well-known navigator Marco Polo. The author in this article presents a response to Harry Judge, a well-known academician. In his study Judge is playing Marco Polo. The article notes that there is first of all an old and honorable tradition of taking certain features of a foreign culture as a kind of ideal toward which one wants to propel the home culture. According to the author, in the United States and Great Britain alike a certain style of conservativism has held sway in politics and education. The British Conservatives have been more radical and in the short run successful than their U.S. counterparts.

This article presents a response to William K. Cummings, a well-known academician regarding the views he has expressed about the Japanese education in the United States. The author recalls an incident when he partnered Cummings for publishing a book entitled "Educational Policies in Crisis: Japanese and American Perspectives." This enabled the author to discuss extensively some assets and difficulties for the American experts in the Japanese studies. The author of this article states that in the first part of his study Cummings stated that there have been only a handful of specialists in the Japanese education in the United States and than even intellectuals and leaders are not very knowledgeable about the Japanese education. The second part of his study cites seven examples of the American myths relating to the Japanese education. It is pointed out that those myths have originated from some earlier studies of Japan, which stressed differences between the two societies and which were liable to draw sweeping generalizations from insufficient data. Although the author of this article has little objection to the Cumming's comment but he notes that Cummings occasionally oversimplifies.

This article focuses on the perception of the United States on the Japanese education system. In the decade prior to the present study the U.S. business establishment had passed through an interesting cycle in its penetration to Japan. The U.S. elites and educators were largely indifferent to the Japanese education during the period of the early 1980s. It was perceived by the Americans that the Japanese business practices violated the acceptable principles of free trade. These assumption came after when the U.S. business establishment had passed through an interesting cycle in it's perception of Japan. In 1981, for the first time, the U.S. experienced a sizeable negative trade balance with Japan and by 1984 the imbalance had increased to an alarming level. It is further noted in this article that the U.S. Commission on Excellence had highlighted a new dimension of the Japanese economic challenge. According to the Commission, American youth performed poorly on measures of academic achievement compared with the other industrialized nations, while Japanese youth tended to be among the best.

The article focuses on issues related to continuing vocational education and training reform and development in Japan. Internal pressures emerging from the dynamics of the present system calls for the reform of the educational system in Japan. The limited role of vocational education in compulsory education has been examined. The difference between formal schools and non-formal schools has been specified in the School Education Act. The non-formal schools are further distinguished into miscellaneous schools and special training schools. Private sector institutions form the first priority for majority of the students seeking registration in different courses. The most popular courses are related to the paramedical field, closely followed by engineering, cultural and commercial courses. The special public-sector provision forms a very small proportion of adult vocational education. A number of initiatives have been undertaken to accommodate the system of vocational education and training in Japan to a new economic and social environment.

The article focuses on a research study examining the role of yobiko, a supplementary educational system in Japan. It also studies the role of academic tracking in social stratification processes in Japan. The purpose of organizing the curriculum of the yobiko is to enable students to prepare for entrance examination. Specifically, the yobiko as a supplementary educational institution enables high school students failing to pass the college entrance examination to study for an additional year or more in preparation for the next entrance examination. These students are neither high-school students nor college or university students and hence are referred to as ronin students. It is observed that there exists a relationship between the ranks of classes in the yobiko and the characteristics of high schools from which ronin students graduated. The findings of the study suggests that there is a direct correspondence between the tracking system of the high schools and the tracking system in the yobiko. The ronin students' perspectives and plans for college education is affected by the tracking systems developed in the yobiko.

The article evaluates the educational policy that has been adopted in Japan. The employers have long been complaining in Western Europe that the school curricula are too academic and faraway from the world of work. However such employer criticism of the educational system has been absent in Japan. It has been provoking to suppose that Japan's economic success stems in no small measure from the willingness of the educational system to do the very things which European employers urge on their own educational systems. Japanese education is said to be free from the more obvious embodiment of vocationalism as relatively specific skill training which is being pressed on European educational systems. On the contrary the educational system of Japan is notable for its emphasis on a broad academic content.

The article examines the duties of the Ad Hoc Council for Educational Reform in Sociocultural Perspective. The council was established on September 5, 1984 to meet changes in Japan's educational system. It consists of 25 members under the chairmanship of Okamoto Michio. The group was charged in effect with the third reorganization of Japanese education in modern times through an overall revive of the postwar system. Japanese cultural tendencies or orientations that have profoundly affected Japan's adaptation of education were considered.

The article evaluates the entire formal Japanese educational system's engagement in the realities of learning, training and competition in various industries. The general culture of language, contracts, expectations and occupational prospects gives meaning to school systems. School and college systems not only have the supporting power of law, finance and administration, they also positively teach their own importance and reinforce it via examinations, selection or rejection. Cultural tendencies, on the other hand, oftentimes affect curriculum development in Japan.

The article describes the nature of the transition of kindergartens in Japan from home to school education. All preschool facilities must be registered with the local prefectural authorities, and must operate in accordance with standards and regulations specified in national laws. These are based on a set of aims and objectives which include the cultivation of everyday habits necessary for a sound, safe and happy life. Kindergarten teachers use example and repetition as methods of teaching. Daily activities usually encourage development of bodily control in greetings, washing, eating and physical exercises. Duties among children are also distributed in strict rotation. Each child takes a turn to serve, discipline and represent others, so that each child experiences all sides of the interaction.

The article focuses on the internationalization of education and schooling in Japan. Factors affecting the trend towards international cooperation in education include political, economic, industrial, social and cultural activities expanding beyond the worldwide development of means of communication and transportation. The important international agreements concerning education adopted at the United Nations' conventions like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the educational activities of international organizations such as UNESCO are based upon the idea of human solidarity. Actual and ideal factors must combine in advancing internationalization in education.

The article discusses the cultural basis of student achievement in Japan. Culture provides a general design, a covert rationale that underlies the premises guiding human behavior. Members of a culture are usually not conscious of its force, but it gives a direction for their actions and guides every behavioral pattern. Cultural basis of student achievement in Japan is not a unique set of premises influencing student performance in school exclusively, but a reflection of the Japanese cultural orientation. Japanese teachers and parents stress the importance of the social learning environment and emphasizes on the creation of the learning environment.

The article reports on vocational education and training policies in Japan which have contributed to the economic progress of the country after World War II. The obsession of the Japanese with education is manifested in its competitive educational system. About 93% of the students complete secondary school education. Japan also a high degree of centralised control of the educational system. The government is involved in the setup of a framework of industrial training and development, based on the national economic goals.

The article analyzes the Chinese-western scholarly interaction. China has signified its willingness to strengthen ties with western universities and maintain or increase the flow of scholarly exchange. Chinese leaders are confident that their scholars will absorb from the West techniques that will be useful for a modern, independent China. An examination of China's academic exchange with Great Britain, France and West Germany was undertaken, and the exchange policies and programs of the U.S. Canada and Japan in relation to China was reviewed.

The article forecasts the possible educational policies in Japan by 1980s. A brief overview of Japan's educational situation during the past decades were given to help examine the prospective trends in the educational sector. Improvement of educational quality is one fundamental factor which Japan should strive for. Moreover, diversification and globalization of the school system is much needed because the country is expected to intensify its relation and participation in the world community in 1980s.

The article focuses on issues relevant to pressures for shaping the socialization of adolescents and secondary schools to meet the requirements of the high school and college entrance examinations (CEE) in Japan during the period 1976 to 1977. Evidently, CEE is an institutional practice and device used for the social placement of students that functions to reinforce the existing social stratification. Problems arise from the need to combined CEE with the development of independent and critical thinking, creativity and maturity of personality.

The article discusses results of a survey about college aspirations and career perspectives among senior secondary students in Japan. Data was taken from questionnaires given in December 1966 to more than 7,000 Japanese boys enrolled in the final year of senior-secondary school. The analysis has delineated the educational and occupational goals of survey respondents conveying different intentions with regards to college attendance. Results reveal that a big proportion of Japanese boys will experience frustration of their educational aspirations. Findings also show that hopes for college attendance and occupational expectations are linked.

The article examines educational developments and social problems in Japan. Nine years of education is currently compulsory and free in the country. Free text books are slowly extended from the elementary level up through the secondary level. Increasing pressure of numbers of successful high school graduates brings a flow of talent to an increasing range of institutions. Competitiveness at the entrance to the universities having the best job augury has been acute. Meanwhile, the dearth of student supervision may be due to the fact that professors are very busy. Some research-oriented professors pay little attention to student progress.