This paper serves as the introduction to the special feature articles of the issue “Intercultural Education and Visual Media.” After introducing W. Ong’s concept “Shift to Electronic Visualism Media,” the author emphasizes the need to augment instructional print media with instructional visual media. Accordingly, we must teach children the basic concepts of visual media.

A review of recent studies on intercultural education revealed that visual media are used to record and simulate studies aiming to reduce prejudice and induce attitudinal change. These findings raise two questions: (1) Are there methodologies that have not yet been established to analyze and share data collected from receivers of visual media? and (2) Which topics require further examination in visual media and how do visual, print, and sound media influence consumers? To investigate these questions, the author reviews related studies focusing on children and their responses to visual media.

As visual media produce interrelated messages that combine text, sound, and images, the receiver must culturally infer these collaborated messages. For the receiver to comprehend complex messages from the sender, further research must clarify comprehensive communicative processes. However, it may be difficult to define the precise cause and effect upon the receiver. Instead of checking with receivers to evaluate whether they “accurately or comprehensively interpret senders’ ideas,” the author suggests using rhetorical and semiotic devices to capture how media receivers relate to senders Rhetoric and semiotics may enable us to comprehend the dynamic processes of senders’ expressions and receivers’ interpretation. Since visual media produce a variety of meanings and interpretations, its usage will stimulate diverse perspectives among receivers. These special feature articles will facilitate the expansion and activation of readers’ visual media usage for education and research.

This paper evaluates the methodology of introducing visual media into various classes on cross-cultural education. Specifically, the introduction of two models for instructional design using visual media was proposed.

The “Model for Instructional Design Using Visual Media Materials” was developed to appreciate and analyze visual media in the classroom. This model indicates four patterns of educational targets. Four additional patterns of educational targets on the production of visual media are indicated using the “Model for Instructional Design of Media-related Subjects.”

Materials that can be employed for the appreciation and analysis of visual media are increasing. In addition, the production of various visual media is rapidly becoming easier. Considering the above mentioned changes, it is now necessary to not only reconsider conventional methodologies but also explore new methodologies for instructional design of cross-cultural education.

English education in Japan has long shifted from focusing on grammar translation methods in order to acquire knowledge of English to using communicative approaches regarding foreign language learning as a communication activity.

Foreign language education and intercultural communication education share important goals. For example, current high school and university English education not only adopts methods based on applied linguistics and/or TESL, but also conducts classes based on intercultural communication and intercultural communication training.

This paper describes a college-level English class conducted by the author which focused on intercultural communication education. The author created a video material illustrating cross-cultural interactions between Japanese and American college students, which was used in her English class to develop cultural awareness and cultural self-awareness among the students.

This paper briefly describes the methodology used in intercultural communication training. It then reports details of the author’s English class and describes the methodology used in it. By analyzing the students’ responses to the questions in accompanying worksheets and a questionnaire administered after the class, the author discusses the learning effect of using the video in her class. Murata (2013) introduces two models, “Model for Instructional Design Using Visual Media Materials” and “Model for Instructional Design of Media-related Subjects.” This paper applies Murata’s models to the author’s class to explore how visual media materials can be used in foreign language courses that focus on intercultural communication education.

In this paper, I present practices that incorporate audio-visual materials into educational lectures for international understanding.

The ideal method for international understanding is face-to-face communication among students. At the university, foreign students are valuable for such courses. Therefore, in the classroom, I promote exchanges between Japanese and foreign students through a variety of group activities. However, I cannot provide simulations of international experiences in every topic, such as those involving overseas or returnee students, foreign students living in Japan, and Japanese students studying abroad. Consequently, I discovered that audio-visual (AV) materials are effective to compensate for the lack of face-to-face international experiences. I focus on the contents of the AV materials that I select and edit to verify whether they are consistent with the purpose and theme of the class. This ensures that the materials will hold the attention and interest of the students.

AV materials broaden the outlook of students, reduce prejudice, and raise awareness about unknown societies or cultures. On the other hand, students’ misconceptions might inadvertently be strengthened by stereotypical images of other cultures, as AV materials only partially present the facts. Therefore, media literacy education is also required in teaching international understanding.

Recently, foreign/second language education has been evaluated from the perspective of intercultural education. In other words, it is expected to provide the students with not only knowledge and skill regarding the grammar of a language but also intercultural skills. The term “intercultural” in this paper is based on the Council of Europe’s “Common European Framework of Reference for Languages” (Byram et al., 2002). This concept surpasses encouragement for and respect toward other languages and cultures; it targets the learners’ ability and motivation for building relationships with people of other languages and cultures (p. 7). This paper has two primary objectives: 1) to examine visual media used in Japanese language classes from an intercultural perspective and 2) to describe a case involving the utilization of the theoretical play “Tokyo Notes” to teach a Japanese language course.

This study reveals the differences in child care and education between China and Japan. The third author, a visual anthropology expert, recorded and edited two twenty-minute films that primarily focused on children’s activities in Chinese and Japanese kindergartens. These films were presented to 81 Japanese university students, who then answered a questionnaire. In the questionnaire, the participants provided their impressions of the two films and scored 18 items to evaluate both teachers’ and children’s behavior on a six-point rating scale. In addition, they responded to open-ended questions. The results clearly indicated that participants were aware of the differences between the two countries after they watched the films, in which children in the Japanese kindergarten mostly played spontaneously, while those in the Chinese kindergarten were instructed on many topics by their teachers.

The purpose of this study was to verify whether viewing a documentary film regarding the emotional process in dealing with cross-cultural friction significantly increased the recognition of human experience and resulted in greater cross-cultural understanding between Japanese, Israeli, and Palestinian students.

The 26-minute documentary “As Human Beings” was produced by a university student who closely covered the twenty-five-day 2nd Annual Meeting of the Japan-Israel-Palestine Joint Student Conference (2004). The documentary reveals that cross-cultural friction occurred many times throughout the conference, but in the end, the conference participants came to recognize each other as human beings and to agree to disagree about their beliefs.

The documentary was shown to 284 Japanese university students. They responded to a six-category questionnaire before and after viewing the film. The six categories were as follows: (1) Awareness of the tension between Palestine and Israel; (2) Attitudes of respect toward and understanding of cross-cultural differences and history; (3) Recognition of the importance of recognizing each other as human beings (4) Recognition of the importance of making a living under the same roof; (5) Awareness of the significance of Japan’s international contribution; and (6) Recognition of the importance of language learning. The results revealed that in the case of all six categories, the mean value significantly increased after viewing the documentary.

This paper examines the friendship development between exchange students and Japanese students living in campus dormitories at university in Japan. Three exchange students and six Japanese students participated in this study, with each student being interviewed about his/her friendships. The results revealed that the systematic environment of the dormitory affected their friendship development. The systematic environment includes 1) following the rules in the dormitory such as using nicknames and doing the duties, 2) sharing space in the dormitory such as the kitchen and bathroom, and 3) spending time together through activities such as events and meetings in the dormitory. Under such an environment, the relationships between exchange students and Japanese students changed from “international student and Japanese student” relationships into “friend” relationships. In previous studies, their friendships have been discussed based on the cultural differences including language barrier. However, this study indicated how the systematic environment in the dormitory influenced their friendship development.

The objective of this research is to quantitatively reveal characteristics high school returnees think they have obtained through overseas experience and experience following their homecoming, how the attribute of those characteristics are related to degrees of support the students receive during their stay abroad and support from school upon homecoming and their families, and how the characteristics are affected by them.

In the first part of the research, a factor analysis is carried out to learn characteristics of returnee students obtained through overseas experience. As a result, six key factors are identified; namely, “foreign language ability,” “attitude with a consciousness of an internationally-minded person,” “ability to establish interpersonal relationships,” “international knowledge and experience,” “ability to express themselves,” and “self-awareness of being Japanese.”

In the second part, differences among attributes (school year, sex, length of staying overseas, place of stay, overseas schools, and schools upon homecoming) of the subjects in the six key factors are examined. The result shows that there are no significant differences among the age and sex factors, but factors such as place of stay, length of staying overseas, overseas schools and schools upon homecoming make differences in the characteristics.

In the third part, how those characteristics are influenced by support for returnees in schools upon homecoming and support from their families is analyzed. As a result, when returnees come back to Japan at the age between around thirteen and fifteen, support from families strongly influenced the factors of foreign language ability, ability to establish interpersonal relationships, and ability to express themselves. Furthermore, in the factor of support from schools upon homecoming, notably support from high schools upon homecoming strongly influenced many of the active factors; thus, it is suggested that different degrees of support from the schools upon homecoming affect variations of the recognition of characteristics of returnees.

Power relations between teachers and minority students are noticeably imbalanced, especially in schools within the public education system that are oriented towards the dominant culture. From the viewpoint of intercultural education, this study details an investigation of Japanese language education in night classrooms at a public junior high school with a focus on power relations between teachers and students. The purpose of the present study was to elucidate factors that reduce technologies of power inherent in this relationship; a relationship that can be found even within the relatively peculiar situation of public junior high night schools. Results from my investigation yielded three factors. The first factor is the positioning of the teacher. Teachers with knowledge and skills occupy the central position of authority in a classroom. The second factor is the way in which teachers cope with “resistance” from students. Teachers have the intention of suppressing “resistance,” but this suppression is in itself an effect of the existing power relations in the classroom. The third factor involves the evaluation methods used by the teacher. Although evaluation of knowledge or skill level encourages some students, it can also act to marginalize others. This study details changes in students’ “learning” related to the existing power structures functioning within the school system. An advantage of this study is its originality; a critical ethnographic approach was chosen so that the author’s own teaching experience could be documented and analyzed. Due to the fact that authority was relinquished by the author (the teacher) to become involved in the study, the changes observed in students’ “learning” also served as a means of liberation and enabled the teacher to temporarily relinquish their position as a member of the social majority and participate in the learning process along with the students.