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Education in Contemporary Japan

Education in Contemporary Japan

Education in Contemporary Japan

Inequality and Diversity
Kaori Okano, La Trobe University, Victoria
Motonori Tsuchiya, Kobe University, Japan
April 1999
Available
Paperback
9780521626866
£34.00
GBP
Paperback
GBP
Hardback

    A balanced introduction to and examination of contemporary Japanese education. While the postwar system of schooling has provided valuable ingredients for economic success, it has been accompanied by unfavourable developments such as excessively competitive exams, stifling uniformity, bullying, and an undervaluing of non-Japanese ethnicity. This book offers up-to-date information and new perspectives on schooling in contemporary Japanese society, and uses detailed ethnographic studies and interviews with students and teachers. It examines the main developments of modern schooling in Japan, from the beginning of the Meiji era up to the present, and includes analysis of the most recent reforms. It develops a new picture of the role that schooling plays for individuals and the wider society. Essential reading for students and educators alike.

    • Up-to-date, includes analysis of the most recent reforms
    • Provides a balanced depiction of the benefits and flaws of the Japanese education system
    • Draws extensively on ethnographic studies and participants' own accounts as 'insiders'

    Reviews & endorsements

    '… a re-examination of Japan's education system is timely, and Ikano and Tsuchiya's book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of this complex topic … One of the great strengths of this book is that it examines closely the ways in which various protagonists in the education process interact …'. JRAI

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    Product details

    April 1999
    Paperback
    9780521626866
    288 pages
    229 × 152 × 16 mm
    0.43kg
    14 b/w illus. 11 tables
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction
    • 1. Analytical frameworks: schooling and the society
    • 2. Development of modern schooling
    • 3. Students' experiences of schooling I: social groups
    • 4. Students' experiences of schooling II: minorities
    • 5. Teachers' experiences of schooling
    • 6. Problems and reforms in the 1980s and 1990s
    • Conclusion.
      Authors
    • Kaori Okano , La Trobe University, Victoria
    • Motonori Tsuchiya , Kobe University, Japan