In this book, Dr. Tsuneyoshi observes the educational approach of two nations, one most often cited as being the home of rugged individualism, and the champion of the free market, the other more often cited as being the most groupist amongst the industrialized societies, known for strong central guidance. He argues that American approach individualizes assistance, is competitive, focuses on the child's cognitive sphere, differentiates its faculty, and each faculty deals with the child in a...

Though there has been much discussion on the academic aspects of Japanese education abroad (e.g., high scores on international tests, lesson study), there has been little information on the non-academic aspects of Japanese schooling. This non-academic aspect is called Tokkatsu (tokubetsu katsudo).Unlike math and reading, Tokkatsu is not confined to a certain period, but extends throughout the school day and even after-school activities — such as school excursions. It includes classroom act...

Globalization is the most common overriding characteristic of our time, with societies all over the world struggling to change their educational systems to meet what are perceived to be the needs of globalization. This book provides an insider's account of how the Japanese educational system is trying to meet that challenge while placing the developments in a larger international context. Distinguishing itself from other books in the same genre, this volume (1) brings in the diversity of i...

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 ...

Chinese students are known worldwide for their accomplishment and ambition, and education is profoundly valued in China. But these facts do not tell the whole story. Intellectuals were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and only recently has a college education been accessible to a majority of Chinese high school graduates. Things are changing rapidly. China’s higher-education system is now the largest in the world, and the number of Chinese students in the United States...

Nonformal Education and Civil Society in Japan critically examines an aspect of education that has received little attention to date: intentional teaching and learning activities that occur outside formal schooling.In the last two decades nonformal education has rapidly increased in extent and significance. This is because individual needs for education have become so diverse and rapidly changing that formal education alone is unable to satisfy them. Increasingly diverse d...

In this volume, eight leading Japanese scholars present their research on profound and sensitive issues facing Japanese society, much of which has not been available to the English-speaking world. Traveling from Japan to engage in a unique forum at University of California, they joined eminent Professors Befu, DeVos, and Rohlen to bring over 50 leading scholars up to date on the global challenges facing Japan and how education has and will play into the reformulation of its identity. Chapt...

This book aims to fill this gap in the scholarship on social education by drawing on the research findings and/or experiences from scholars in eight East and Southeast Asian societies. In this regard the editors of this book hope that it will be a significant addition to the literature, and will shed light on how the social education curricula are constructed and implemented across these societies in response to both internal and external forces. At the same time this book is not a compreh...

n the past three decades, numerous high-tech city-regions have emerged with the rise of new high-tech industries across the world. Many of them have been specifically supported by national technology policies—in developed or developing countries—implemented to trigger economic growth and to enhance global competitiveness at the national and/or city-regional level. These policies have involved the development of high-tech spaces—including research science/technology parks, innovation centre...

The aim of this thesis is to provide an outline to address questions with regard to the transformation of planning in China that has occurred after the 1980s. The research is using “planning evolution” as the main research skeleton. The starting point is to investigate to what extent Chinese urban planning has developed after the opening up and other reforms under the state-led and market-driven modes of Chinese reformation, and to investigate how the different modes and various actors hav...

Aboriginal families and communities are losing their children to child welfare systems at an alarming rate. Such children have very poor futures to look forward to; rejection, abuse and belonging to nowhere are too often the fate of children in care. Academic failure, poor self-esteem and loss of identity accompany them, often right into life on the streets, experiencing lateral violence, homelessness, crime and ultimately jail, where 70 % of inmates are former children in care. This trage...

South Koreans in the Debt Crisis is a detailed examination of the logic underlying the neoliberal welfare state that South Korea created in response to the devastating Asian Debt Crisis (1997–2001). Jesook Song argues that while the government proclaimed that it would guarantee all South Koreans a minimum standard of living, it prioritized assisting those citizens perceived as embodying the neoliberal ideals of employability, flexibility, and self-sufficiency. Song demonstrates th...