Diversity in Japanese Education CRITICAL NEW LITERACIES: THE PRAXIS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING (PELT) Volume 5 Series Editors: Marcelle Cacciattolo, Victoria University, Australia Tarquam McKenna, Victoria University, Australia Shirley Steinberg, University of Calgary; Director of Institute of Youth and Community Studies, University of the West of Scotland Mark Vicars, Victoria University, Australia As a praxis-based sequence these texts are specifically designed by the team of international scholars to engage in local in-country language pedagogy research. This exciting and innovative series will bring a dynamic contribution to the development of critical new literacies. With a focus on literacy teaching, research methods and critical pedagogy, the founding principle of the series is to investigate the practice of new literacies in English language learning and teaching, as negotiated with relevance to the localized educational context. It is being and working alongside people in the world that is at the core of the PELT viewpoint. The Praxis of English Language Teaching and Learning series will focus on inter-culturality and interdisciplinary qualitative inquiry and the dissemination of “non-colonised” research. Diversity in Japanese Education Edited by Naoko Araki Akita International University, Japan A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 978-94-6351-057-8 (paperback) ISBN: 978-94-6351-058-5 (hardback) ISBN: 978-94-6351-059-2 (e-book) Published by: Sense Publishers, P.O. Box 21858, 3001 AW Rotterdam, The Netherlands https://www.sensepublishers.com/ All chapters in this book have undergone peer review. Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2017 Sense Publishers No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Internationalization of Education: Non-Junjapa: Transnational and Transcultural Identity 1 Yuko Sato 2. Internationalization of Education: Junjapa: Aspirations and Dilemmas 13 Yuki Wada 3. Japanese Students’ Experiences of the Internationalization of Education in Japan: Being Regarded 31 Naoko Araki and Kim Senior 4. Building Global Citizens: Narratives of Young Japanese on Overseas Volunteer Service and Global Citizenship 43 Charles Kowalski 5. Diversity on a Global 30 ‘World Studies’ Program 65 Scott Browes 6. Challenging the Myth of Homogeneity in Japan in First-Year Writing 83 Paul Chamness Miller 7. “We Have All Been Here Before”: Old and New Multicultural Reflections on Banking Education in a Japanese University 103 Mary Frances Agnello 8. Hidden Diversity in the Classroom 117 Joe Sykes 9. ‘This is a Banana’: A Retrospective View on Learning to Teach Language through Drama in Japan 131 Jo Raphael About the Authors 147 v YUKO SATO 1. INTERNATIONALIZATION OF EDUCATION: NON-JUNJAPA Transnational and Transcultural Identity INTRODUCTION Internationalization is a further complication to identity and realization of the limits to categorization. We can no longer associate ourselves within a simple categorical identity. Our identity exists as a series of reactions and feedback we receive from others such as families, teachers, and institutions. International experience allows individuals to question the need for categorization of nations or cultures. It allows us to unleash ourselves from invisible burdens or frameworks assigned since the very second of our birth. Realization of diversity through internationalization and transnationalism allows rebirth into a new existence with a wider vision and unlimited possibilities. GROWING UP I was born in Yokohama, Japan, to two Japanese parents who are both artists. Until 4th grade in elementary school, I was enrolled in a private girls’ Christian school where moral teachings were highly valued based on the Bible and divine services. In school, I was taught with very strict discipline to be a charming and loving lady based on religious and traditional Japanese customs: to be passive, obedient, and sophisticated. But those teachings never seemed to work for me. I was a weird kid at this strict Christian school, who always got into trouble. No matter how early I left home, random things such as plants and flowers on the street or interestingly shaped clouds distracted me and I was almost always late to school. My parents were called to school multiple times because I read novels and comic books during class. My grades were fair but never great. My grade book would always have comments like, “she has potential but she doesn’t try hard enough.” As for education at home, my parents had somewhat contradictory teachings. My mother was assertive and dominating in decisions within the household. I spent most of my time with my mother at home. She taught me with strict rules and discipline; told me to become socially successful. However, she was the one who decided to send me to a private girls’ Christian school instead of a more academically competitive and socially diverse public school as my little brother. I remember asking her why N. Araki (Ed.), Diversity in Japanese Education, 1–11. © 2017 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved. Y. SATO my brother and I were going to different schools, I remember her telling me that because I am a girl, she wanted me to be yasashii (優しい nice and kind). I realize now that her teachings seem to reflect her own conflicting feelings about women being successful at work as well as being a caring mother. My father, on the other hand, had a contradictory teaching method. I remember a day when my father was called to school because I was reading a book in class. After a meeting with my teacher, he took me to a manga kissa1 (漫画喫茶) and told me that I should be proud to be passionate about something that I love. Years later he told me that he wanted us to nurture latent personality and potential we are born with and not to live by the expectations forced upon us by society. When I was ten, my parents divorced and my mother, younger brother, and I moved to Seattle, Washington, for my mother to study art therapy. Although it’s becoming more common nowadays, divorce is still not widely accepted in Japan. From traditional perspectives, it was unimaginable for a single mother of two children to decide to move to a foreign country to attend school. When we moved to the United States, my mother started by attending ESL courses at a local community college. Her main aim was to complete an art therapy Master’s degree in the United States. We were supposed to be in Seattle for a year or two but ended up staying for over a decade, and my mother ended up earning a PhD in Psychotherapy. When we moved to Seattle, I was thrown into a completely different school environment. In the traditional Japanese educational environment, school years are decided by the age of students, classroom’s seating arrangements are always in rows facing the teacher, and students are taught to be passive and quiet. In contrast, in the U.S., the school where I went had specialized classes for ESL students. Students from different grades were assigned to classes based on their English fluency. I had older and younger classmates. Classrooms were decorated with pictures and maps of different countries, and students interacted with each other, and the teachers and students actively interacted. I remember feeling uncomfortable at first because it looked more like a kindergarten and classmates seemed less serious about learning at school than the ones I knew in Japan. The most difficult change for me was to adjust myself into the new learning environment where I was expected to be more expressive. I was trained to be quiet, obedient, and a good listener in Japan. Classes in the United States were mostly interactive and it took me a while to be able to even try to raise my hand in class. Not only did I have to learn to speak in English, I also had to learn to speak my own thoughts in class. This was the most challenging part. BECOMING AMERICAN As the time passed, I eventually became able to enjoy the freedom and flexibility of this American education. I liked how classrooms were arranged differently depending on the classrooms and that we were able to interact more freely with classmates and teachers. The individualistic and talent-oriented education gave me different types 2 INTERNATIONALIZATION OF EDUCATION: NON-JUNJAPA of learning opportunities than I would ever have had in Japan. Even though I was still in ESL, I was able to join in with older classmates for Math class. I was chosen to draw and paint on the school’s front door due to my artistic talent. I still felt incompetent in English language skills but these experiences and opportunities gave me self-confidence. By the time I was in the 9th grade, I was able to join regular classes with other local English-speaking students. Even though I was still very quiet in class, I started to join class discussions and interact more with other students. As I learned how to speak fluently in English, I felt a stronger urge to assimilate into American life style. I dressed in a certain style, hung out with local friends, and I even started to adjust my accent trying to sound as native as possible. Because I was fairly successful at it, some teachers expected that I also could write well. These expectations became a real pressure and resulted in lower grades in classes when assignments were mainly focused on writing. This negatively affected my confidence and motivation for learning. As I hit my teenage years, I became aware of myself falling into an identity crisis. I felt a gap between my Japanese tiger2 mom and my American- Japanese immigrant identity. Because of my mother’s strong beliefs and attachment to Japanese education, she took me to Japanese Saturday School (hosyuukou 補習校) every week. I studied Japanese language and followed the Japanese school curriculum using the same authorized textbooks used in schools in Japan. I felt like an outcast at the Japanese Saturday School because of my family structure, with a single mother being a fulltime student, whereas most Japanese students had both parents living with them. Their fathers often worked for a Japanese company and mothers stayed at home full-time to look after the children. When I travelled to Japan during a holiday, I started feeling that I no longer belonged there. Japan became a foreign country to me, and at the same time I still felt excluded and challenged as an immigrant in the U.S. I also began to recognize my sexual orientation and gender identity. I felt that I simply could not “pass” any of the categories I was supposed to “fit in.” I ended up quitting the Japanese Saturday School at the 10th grade and became unable to properly attend classes in high school. Making sure not to let my mother know, I skipped school quite often and just wandered around town. When I realized that I could not graduate on time, I decided to try again. With the help of a teacher and a school counselor, I found a way to receive high school credits with an alternative method. I enrolled in the Running Start program in the district where I lived. This program allowed the 11th and 12th graders to attend community college courses while they were enrolled in high school. Students were able to obtain more credits in less time. The learning environment was also different from the local high school where I used to attend. Students were expected to study individually and there was less interaction in class. I felt more comfortable being in this environment surrounded by adults than with chatty, loud, and distracting teenagers. Because of this program, I was able to graduate high school on time. I enrolled in a local community college instead of four-year university because of my family’s financial status and my bad grades from high school. The community 3