Heritage-Language Education for Japanese Children Living Abroad and the Impacts on Their Ethnic Identity

With consistently increasing globalization, the number of Japanese children living and receiving education abroad continues to grow. Previous studies have compared the Japanese-language abilities of children studying Japanese abroad to those of children living in Japan. However, the author contends that the backgrounds of children studying Japanese abroad vary greatly, as do their learning goals. The former do not necessarily want to learn the same language skills as children who study in Japan. Japanese-language education for children living overseas requires that students understand what they want to achieve in terms of their language ability. This chapter focuses on children who have lived and been educated in multiple countries other than Japan; it discusses their Japanese-language learning goals and the environment needed to support those goals. It also examines their sense of ethnic identity as Japanese and how this relates to their upbringing and language-learning experiences.

Reimagining Multicultural Education Through the Lens of Coloniality, Androcentrism, and Patriarchy

This chapter calls for reimagining multicultural education from the geopolitical location of Asia. Multicultural education in East Asian Pastoral Institute and the Loyola School of Theology, both located within the Ateneo de Manila University, is reimagined, using the hermeneutical lens of coloniality, androcentrism, and patriarchy, which are related to settler colonialism, from the perspectives of the indigenous communities and hierarchy with recourse to the Asian critical feminist theories of two Korean women scholars. The course on leadership has enabled the multicultural community of learners to identity the “lights” and “shadows” in the diverse cultures of their specific contexts while the course on dialogue with indigenous culture and spirituality has encouraged the community of learners to experience epistemic emancipation that enabled them to generate a more context-specific empowering postcolonial theoretical frameworks. More will be done in the future courses to mobilize wisdom and examine settler colonialism for emancipation of the subaltern in Asia.

Translanguaging as a Pedagogy for Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in a Multilingual Classroom

The present study reports on an investigation into the benefits of a translanguaging pedagogy in an ELICOS class as a pedagogical approach to integrate students' complex socio-cultural, multilingual practices and experiences into a classroom learning community. This was explored through semi-structured interviews with five ELICOS students and their teacher over the course of four weeks. Interview questions addressed three specific areas of teaching and learning: (1) teacher perceptions of the pedagogical effectiveness of the translanguaging pedagogy, (2) students' views of the implementation of the translanguaging pedagogy and its benefits for their language development, and (3) students' perceived changes to their self-image as language learners throughout the pedagogical implementation. Findings revealed that the integration of a translanguaging pedagogy created more inclusive and equitable opportunities for students to draw on their hybrid and fluid multilingual experiences and resources to participate more actively in communicative interactions.

Enhancing Student Agency as a Driver of Inclusion in Online Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Learning Content

With advancements in technological innovation, the interconnectedness of the global economies and citizens is now inextricable. Education has been affected by globalisation, opening opportunities for more participation, particularly through online learning. Social cleavages and access for social justice are often addressed through admission-policy reform in the higher-education sector. While this is one aspect of increasing access to higher education, this chapter explores inequality as epistemic injustice in online programmes. Curriculum design and pedagogical approaches that embrace diverse students' epistemic positions enrich the learning experience while including students' realities. Student agency may allow for visibility of diverse students and also provide for the inclusion of their epistemic stances. Student agency can also lead to flexible, inclusive curriculum content. Based on literature, this chapter presents ways in which the student voice may be included in online learning curriculum, pedagogy and learning content.

Multiculturalism in Teacher Education

The concept of multiculturalism has been the subject of many different disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, and educational science with its various dimensions. Considering the distinctive features of the 21st century society, it is seen that global life, multicultural citizenship understanding, and individuals' interaction with different cultural groups and development of positive attitudes are emphasized. In this context, it is thought that teachers play an effective role in developing individuals' attitudes and behaviors regarding multiculturalism from an early age. Therefore, it is necessary for the teacher to gain the awareness of multiculturalism and to strengthen this awareness in the pre-service education process. Within the scope of this chapter, primarily the concept of multiculturalism will be emphasized. Then, the concept of multicultural education and all aspects of this concept and teacher training approaches that are sensitive to multicultural education will be discussed.

Lessons to the “Kyosei” Inclusive Society

It is essential to know that there are various cultures in the world and necessary to understand and respect them to live together, also known as “共生 Kyosei.” Japan is assumed to be a homogeneous society, but there are indigenous people who have consciousness detached from Japan. In recent years, the number of foreign newcomers has also been increasing. Under these circumstances, the importance of mutual understanding of different cultures and languages has been made apparent in the field of education, and understanding the diversity of culture in education is being promoted. In this study, three educational practices targeting schoolteachers and adults in the Japanese community to promote international understanding and multicultural education will be presented and examined. The “共生 Kyosei” practices have been found to help teachers design their multicultural education as well as to help students to understand the cultural diversity and help them to realize how they live together with people who have different social backgrounds.

Racial Socialization and Multicultural Education of Asian Families in the United States

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a dramatic surge in anti-Asian racism in the United States. Asians have been blamed for the pandemic. Multicultural education improves cross-cultural understanding and reduces discrimination. Parental racial socialization is an important facet of multicultural education as parents convey racial and ethnic messages to their children. Yet, little research has documented parental racial socialization in Asian families. To address this gap, the authors interviewed 19 Asians and Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter shows that discrimination experiences start at an early age and have a lasting impact. Discrimination of Asians is related to the perpetual foreigner stereotype and the model minority myth. These impede how Asians understand their racial discrimination experiences and how families discuss race and ethnicity. All parents in the study expressed how critical parental racial socialization was during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest that schools are essential to supporting multicultural education at home.

Science Teacher Education, Epistemic Agency, and Multicultural Education

In order to effectively cultivate epistemic agency for science teachers, candidates require a holistic practice-based approach grounded in a theory of learning teaching. The components of agency included in this discussion represents one approach to preparing science teachers to educate students in a multicultural society. By creating coherency and consistency across a teacher preparation program, the author was able to create learning experiences that systematically guided candidates to develop a science teacher practice that was effective for diverse students. In each of these learning experiences, candidates engaged in focused inquiry, directed observation, and guided practice. Epistemic agency was cultivated when candidates acquired the confidence to make decisions about the nature of teaching and learning problems and the criteria to solve them.

Reimagining Multicultural Education

Multicultural education has actively endeavored to undermine inequalities and imbalances by offering pedagogical frameworks for accounting for and managing cultural diversity. However, foundational literature on multicultural education seems to be dominated by Western scholars, mainly American. This assumption is not in alignment with the objectives of critical education which seeks to stymie power imbalances and grant visibility to less popular individuals along with their cultures, understandings, and perspectives. That is why it is important to ask questions about whether multicultural education has exhibited any signs of seeking to stymie the hegemony of Western episteme in terms of its theory and praxis. This chapter argues that it is necessary to include other epistemologies in multicultural education theory and praxis in order to realize global cognitive justice. The main aim is to make a case for the possibility of further developing multicultural education by integrating other knowledges and ways of knowing.

Educating Rohingya Children and Youth in Emergencies

Rohingyas have been subjected to genocide, and their children have been systematically deprived of basic to tertiary education since 1982. Now that 1.3 million of them have taken refuge in Bangladesh, of which approximately half of them are children, they are receiving education again. Education in the camps is being delivered through formal and informal channels. In addition, while the young children between the ages of 4-8 receive some education, the adolescents are left out. At present, Rohingya children face a two-fold problem (lack of progressive education and access). In this context, this chapter draws key conceptual frames mostly from International Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) members' works. The findings shared in this chapter were drawn from a qualitative research that was conducted for a book project by the author in February 2018 and April 2019 in Bangladesh. The chapter contains the genesis of education in emergencies, Rohingya children and youth situation and challenges in the education sector, and the need for multicultural education for Rohingya children and youth.