Koreans in Japan: A minority's Changing Relationship with Schools | International Review of Education

Koreans in Japan: A minority's Changing Relationship with Schools | International Review of Education



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Koreans in Japan: A minority's Changing Relationship with SchoolsPublished: March 2004Volume 50, pages 119–140, (2004)
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Kaori H. Okano


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Abstract


Koreans form the largest ethnic minority group in Japan. The present study explores the situation of Korean pupils in Japanese schools by analyzing recent changes in four areas:(1) governmental and school-level policies, (2) school-level programs targeted at Korean children, (3) Korean pupils' academic achievements and (4) their micro-level encounter with schooling. It shows that Japanese schools are now more willing to accommodate special needs of Koreans in mainstream schooling and that Korean students experience schooling more positively than was the case in their parents' generation. The study argues that their relationship with Japanese schools has undergone a significant transformation at least partially because of such changes, even as the shifting nature of the relationship has a long-term influence on Koreans' beliefs about schools. Central government policies are seen as having adjusted in reply to existing school practices, themselves representing a response to classroom reality and local civil movements.


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School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, 3086, Australia

Kaori H. Okano

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Okano, K.H. Koreans in Japan: A minority's Changing Relationship with Schools. International Review of Education 50, 119–140 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:REVI.0000041909.02121.91

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Issue DateMarch 2004


DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1023/B:REVI.00000