The theme of the 2014 annual research project was what sort of perspectives in Intercultural Education Research should be taken to interact with practice and change within the actual situations in the field. Two questions drove our research: “how does Intercultural Education research look at and consider of the concept of practices?” and “how can those perspectives change fields?” At the symposium we tried to consider the same practice from three perspectives in diverse fields: multicultural early childhood education, human rights education, and research in NPOs. The themes of the four presentations were as follows:

(1) Yazawa, Etsuko: A Report on Yamato Pre–school “Nihongo Hiroba”: Preschool Education for Children and Support for their Parents with Different Language Backgrounds

(2) Yamada, Chiaki: Considering Intercultural Education Generated through the Interaction of Theory and Practice: From the Viewpoint of the Articulation between Pre–School Education and Elementary School Education

(3) Tabuchi, Isoo: What Sort of “Look” is Needed to Move Educational Situation from the Perspective of Human Rights Education

(4) Notsu, Takashi: The Process of “Field Generated Research” by the Participation in NPO

The results show the possibility of a new formulation of intercultural education with field–generated knowledge by the interaction with diverse perspectives.

We report on the pre-school project undertaken collaboratively by Yamato City NPO Asociación Japonés Peruana (AJAPE). In the paper, we highlight its origins, framework, class activities, and its articulation with elementary schools. AJAPE started a pre-school in 2009 and continued in 2010; however, considering the importance of undertaking an enterprise in cooperation with an NPO and a regional administration, we applied for the Yamato City’s system, which proposed to start a ‘pre-school’ as a collaborative project in 2011.

The primary purpose of Nihongo Hiroba is to provide children and parents with information about school life in Japan and to develop the child’s communication skills in easy Japanese. It also aims to foster their abilities to actively participate in educational activities and to cultivate their attitude for understanding and valuing cultural diversity.

In 2013, the pre-school was implemented in the afternoon for 4 months, from November to March, 3 times a week and 2 hours per session. Seventeen children participated, with different language and cultural backgrounds, such as Peru, China, the Philippines, and others. Fourteen of the 17 children went to neither a kindergarten or a nursery school. Our purpose was to help children to increase their experiences and vocabulary to communicate with others through class activities and inspection. By completion of the course, the children, who formerly could not communicate in Japanese, were able to use easy Japanese. Finally, we made a report of each child’s experience and sent it to the elementary school where the child attends.

This paper is intended as an investigation of intercultural education generated by interaction of theory and practice by analyzing the practices of Yamato pre-school called “Nihongo Hiroba” for students who are not used to Japanese culture. In this paper, based on extended fieldwork and interviews with teachers in Mie Prefecture I describe their anti-bias approach, and consider educational practices from the viewpoint of articulation between pre-school education and elementary school education.

Teachers of “Nihongo Hiroba” prepare fully worked-out plans using first graders’ textbooks, modified for non-Japanese students. On the other hand, in Japan, the experience of playing and learning in a cooperative manner is very important for linking pre-school education and elementary school education.

The findings on intercultural education dealing with early childhood highlights the following three points: 1) for researchers and educators, it is important to learn from what is going on in activities at school, i.e. the wisdom created in practice; 2) both pre-school and elementary school teachers need to devise ideas on how to transfer students from pre-school to elementary school smoothly; 3) majority students also need to learn how to accept different people, i.e. create an understanding each other and fostering of tolerance.

This paper focuses on the importance of the development and implementation of ‘A Pedagogy of Intercultural Education’ within the Japanese mainstream education system.

Beginning with an overview of the papers presented at the Symposium the paper highlights the positive results achieved by the ‘Yamato pre-school Japanese learning forum.’ Following this, the paper defines ‘Human rights’ and ‘Human rights Education’ in the context of ‘Intercultural Education.’

The author then draws on his own educational experience as both a high school teacher and his current position as a research professor to illustrate why intercultural education programs are so necessary, and how they can be effectively organized and run through the set-up of parent/child support groups.

The author states strongly that while continued research into this area of education is very important, it is essential that those conducting research are ‘actively’ involved in the process of development and the many associated supporting activities. Only in this way will effective intercultural education programs be successfully implemented in schools.

This paper discusses the necessity and method of “field generated research” based on participation with an NPO that supports a multicultural community. The paper begins by outlining, two reasons for using an NPO as a participation field site; (1) Since NPOs serve an indispensable role for foreigner in multicultural communities, such research allows for an examination of contemporary condition. (2) Since NPOs are basically an open and networked organization, an outsider could participate easily. The paper then considers two methods of “field generated research,” based on the author’s fieldwork experience with the NPO: (1) “sharing of field notes” is a proposal in which the researcher plays the information provider’s (informant) role and shares the information among the people in the field; (2) “joint descriptions of field notes” is a proposal which two or more persons write one set of field notes together and describe deep contents. Finally, for the further development of “field generated research,” the importance of intentional self-reflection of the participants in order to see the field objectively, and a consideration of the significance of involving various participants are discussed from the viewpoint of a synergistic effect.

This article reports some of the results presented at the symposium of the 35th annual meeting of Intercultural Education Society of Japan. From the viewpoint of developmental life span, the research highlighted the ways and contents of support by the nursery school teachers, school teachers, and volunteer groups towards residents in Japan with foreign backgrounds. It had three basic questions: (1) How does the support vary through the stages of development of people with foreign backgrounds? (2) Does the support differ by the difference in social or cultural backgrounds of those people? (3) Does the support differ in some Eastern Asian Countries like Taiwan, Korea and Japan?

The results were as follows: (1) In all stages of development, it was important for the supporters to cooperate and work as a team. (2) The most weighted supports varied in different stages of development of those with foreign backgrounds. To give some health support and a sense of security were indispensable in infancy. To assist learning of Japanese, school subjects, and some basic customs of lifestyle were most weighted in the childhood. To back up their preparation for high schools or universities and to help their formation of self-identity were highly required in adolescence. In early middle age, the counseling support of the family relations and experiences to become parents were necessary. In later middle age, employment and medical support were important. (3) Different from Korea and Taiwan, Japan lacks the continuous supporting institution which could follow-up the long-term development of the supported, and which could cover all the family members of the supported. (4) Japan should realize those opportunities which Taiwan and Korea have already introduced for “the switch of standpoints”, where the supported could have an experience to play a role of the supporter.

Because of increased population mobility brought about by globalization, the number of international marriages in Japan has been increasing steadily. 80% of such international marriages involve a Japanese man and a foreign wife. Among this group, Japanese men and Filipino wives account for 20%. As the number of marriages involving Japanese husbands and Filipino wives increases, some of these women find themselves facing various problems including domestic violence. This study aims to examine the problems of domestic violence and divorce among Filipino wives based on research conducted in an urban part of Okinawa prefecture.

I conducted semi-structured interviews with four Filipino wives living in city A. Previous studies have shown that there are 9 forms of domestic violence among couples of the same nationality. In the case of the four Filipino wives in this study, I found evidence of the kind of domestic violence which occurs in same nationality marriages—“economic violence,” “psychological violence and verbal abuse,” “flaunting men’s privilege,” “social isolation,” “physical violence,” “forceful demands, threats and intimidation.” The peculiar forms of domestic violence Filipino wives suffered were “violence using their legal status” and “cultural violence.” Furthermore, the Filipino wives living in city A experienced two further forms of domestic violence—“domestic violence by the husband’s relatives” and “alcohol fuelled violence.” These two peculiar forms are caused by the traditional family system and the drinking culture in city A. In order to support these Filipino wives living in city A, it is important to understand the peculiar economic, social and cultural context of Filipino wives, as well as the social and cultural problems associated with city A. In conclusion, a flexible support system for these Filipino wives needs to be constructed.

Vande Berg et al. (2012) argue that what makes a study abroad program successful is to identify learning outcomes and design the program in a way that participants can attain these results. However, learning outcomes in overseas education are diverse and therefore not yet systematically organized. Looking at this issue, this paper aims to categorize learning outcomes of a short-term study abroad program by employing the categorization of the “Significant Learning” theory by Fink (2013). Also the implementation of Fink’s course design in which “Significant Learning” can be achieved is introduced. Additionally, a suggestion is made for a new approach to learner-centered educational design by reconstructing Fink’s course design. The learning outcomes employed for categorization in this paper are the data of the student-perceived learning which are elicited from learning reflections recorded in e-portfolios of the students during their two-month study abroad program. In this study, the students’ learning was categorized by “Human Dimension,” “Caring,” and “Learning How to Learn” in the taxonomy of “Significant Learning.”

Psycho-educational cross-cultural education based on the AUC-GS learning model was provided to Japanese students, and its effect was investigated. The educational program entailed three steps, namely culture-awareness (Awareness: A), understanding cross-cultural contact (Understanding: U) and coping with different cultures (Coping: C). In addition, it included two levels, i.e., culture-general (General: G) and culture-specific (Specific: S). Thus the education program was organized across six cells, comprising ten parts. Fifteen lectures, which lasted for 1.5 hours each, were offered to Japanese university students, and the responses of nineteen participants were analyzed. Findings revealed that in the AG cell, the participants’ awareness to different cultures had been enhanced through the cognition map exercise. In the AS cell, their awareness regarding the existence of certain cultures, including their own, had improved. In the UG cell, the knowledge and understanding concerning what happened in cross-cultural situations had improved in general, owing to the simulation game. In the US cell, an understanding related to adjustment and maladjustment between certain cultures had been developed, via analyzing the movie that was screened. In the CG cell, explanation and interactive conversation as the general mode of corresponding in cross-cultural contact had improved, owing to the use of the culture-assimilator and role-play. Finally, in the CS cell, participants had learned culture-specific behaviors for certain cultures. On the whole, participants who were interested in learning utilized the experiences like exercises, and benefitted from the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional impact of the education. Further, cells were found to have cumulative effects, and exerted a combined function.