With regard to the optimal form that education should take in the 21st century, the importance of nurturing global citizenship is recognized in many countries around the world. Despite differences in the details of educational challenges facing the most, less and least developed countries, all share in their respective national context the important challenge of educating students to be responsible citizens in today’s globalizing society. This paper attempts to clarify and analyze trends in the debate on global citizenship education that has taken place thus far within and outside Japan, with specific reference to matters concerning intercultural education.

The paper briefly summarizes the concepts of global citizenship education and reviews relevant studies already conducted in Japan and abroad. This leads us to reconfirm the significance of cultivating global citizenship in connection with human resource development that is responsive to today’s ever-changing society and the resolution of disputes, environmental problems and various other global agenda. Noting that the movement to promote global citizenship education has brought about changes in curricular content and teaching methods, we point out that a shift is taking place in teaching/learning mode toward more progressive approaches.

Based on the above review, we survey the debate on global citizenship education by international organizations, especially UNESCO, and examine how it has been perceived. As a result, we clarify that global citizenship education has mainly been discussed from two standpoints, i.e.,(1) whether the global community should target specific results from the promotion of global citizenship education, and (2) whether individual learning outcomes should be given importance in the practices of global citizenship education. Finally, we point out the role intercultural education can play in exploring these questions and that further improvement to global citizenship education will grow in importance in the future.

The object of this article is to cosider the increasing social trend of intercultural migration and the educational matters brought by this trend from the viewpoint of the concept of global citizenship. For this purpose, I reconsidered conceptual frameworks to understand intercultural migration under the current transnational circumstances. Although the intercultural migration was traditionally seen as one directional, in which there was a departing country and another arriving country, more and more studies now consider it as bi-directional. I attempted multi-layered grasping of intercultural migration and repositioning of migrants as the subject of social change.

Second, I discussed the relationship between intercultural migration and global citizenship. I examined how the characteristics held by people with prolonged cross-cultural experience, the intercultural literacy and the intercultural tolerance discussed in society, might relate to global competences. I showed the necessity of more social perspective in examining these abilities than the usually expected individual levels of perspective.

Third, I proposed three future tasks in educational practices from the perspective of the development of global citizenship: (a) addressing global topics and current real issues in the society; (b) promoting constructive learning; (c) increasing opportunities for students to relate to and collaborate with others.

Today in the era of mass migration, “citizenship” does not only mean a nation, but also it means a membership as a component of the society. In that mean, it is difficult to define “global citizenship” and the meaning of “citizenship” can be fluid. This paper focused on the diversified people’s strategies beyond national borders and clarified some perspective for analysis of “global citizenship”.

Traditionally, a nation-state requires national integration and economic development, and a national education system has taken an important role for both functions. In the process, its government’s leadership has a great influence and the nation is required to follow the national policy, which sometimes raises friction and conflict. On the other hand, nowadays, more people in general can move around beyond national borders easier than before, and individuals have a strategy to choose their way of life. As a result, there are the new fluid concept of “citizenship” based on people’s demands appeared while the traditionally solid concept of “citizenship” remains valid as a foundation of nation-state.

These two concepts reflect a reality of migrant people. Compared with the nation as the majority groups, the migrant people are always regarded as the minority groups as a uniform group. This framework of majority and minority based on essentialism is regarded as fixed and their relationship cannot be changed. However, the reality of migrant people seems to be different. Taking some cases of foreigners in Japan, migrants are always trying to choose their mobility “path” by their decision of positioning themselves in the society in a positive manner.

Considering these new perspectives of migrant people based on constructionism, the concept of the human resource called “Global Jinzai” in Japan has two perspectives. From the government perspective, it is required to get some skills that are useful for the society. On the other hand, “Global Jinzai” from an individual strategy perspective can be analyzed based on individual awareness of social relationships. The characteristic of tie with the host society is very important, and it formulates “global citizenship”, however it is not unchanged but can be changed in the context of social interaction among people.

Japan is facing the urgent problem of developing “Global Citizenship.” It needs to increase the literacy and training to establish independence for citizens and inhabitants.

This article will discuss the measurements in the perspective of the improvement of “conversational” skills and expansion of “social adoption” of foreign residents in cross-border (global) communities whether the nationality is Japanese or not. The data is based on the results from a five-year longitudinal study of foreign women married to Japanese men in the Foreign Sparse Area, based on the situation of such a globalization of Japan. On the basis of the results of this longitudinal study, I address the improvement of “conversational” skills among community-based Japanese speakers (despite the difference of nationality), and the expansion of “social adoption.” What is more, to take action to foster Global Citizenship in the local community, I put the following points (1)–(4) in perspective.

(1) Cooperation with local supporters: sociability

(2) Effective use of Conversations and communication opportunities like OPI: Developing a base for social participation

(3) Improvement of “conversation skills” and activation of their sociability: towards more durable and wider capacity

(4) Tests to improve dialogue/conversation skills of Japanese language users as well as to expand their sociability

Based upon the above mentioned from (1) to (3), in the future, it will be increasingly necessary to provide cross-border conversation opportunities between Japanese native speakers and non-Japanese speakers, as well as to maintain and activate language environment. As a part of environmental maintenance, national and local governments are expected to cooperate with each other to develop a test to measure communicative competence that could encourage communicative skills and lead to an expansion of sociability, instead of just measuring linguistic competence and literacy.

This paper is an attempt to describe the process of personal growth caused by intercultural contacts experienced by Japanese teachers who were sent to overseas schools on the REX Program. Further, it refines the definition of the term ‘intercultural adaptation’. Twenty-six incumbent teachers who had taught Japanese at local schools in 8 different countries were interviewed. The Interpretive Approach was adopted because, in such a study, it is important to know how the interviewees understand and interpret their experiences. By using the Modified Grounded Theory Approach, the appraisals and emotions the interviewees had when they encountered cultural differences while abroad were analyzed and category analyses were done of how such appraisals and emotions contributed to their personal growth.

As a result of their overseas experiences, the guest teachers showed two kinds of changes: “guests’ changes”, which are based on their positive appraisals and emotions towards their hosts’ cultural norms and practices, and “guests’ enforced changes”, which are based on their negative ones. It was also found that when the “guests’ changes” were coupled with “self-reflection”, these often led, first to the “deepening of human understanding”, then to a “sign of biculturalism”, and finally to a “setting of new goals”, which was a route to their “personal growth”. On the other hand, “guests’ enforced changes” did not lead to their “personal growth” unless the guests took their emotionally hard experiences as a “negative model” and changed it to a positive model. From the above, it was concluded that if guests expect to attain a “personal growth” from their overseas experiences, “guests’ changes” are the most important, and one consequently needs to be aware that there are two kinds of intercultural adaptations based on the guests’ appraisals and emotions.

The first purpose of this study is to determine Korean mothers’ educational values, expectations for their children, and child rearing attitudes. The second purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of educational values, expectations for the children of Korean mothers on their rearing attitude. A questionnaire survey was conducted of 126 mothers of children in elementary school who live in Seoul and its surrounding areas (Gyeonggi-do Province).

Resulting from the factor analyses on mothers’ expectations for their children, four factors were extracted: “Global tendency”, “Excellent record”, “Disciplined attitude” and “Rich experience of playing”. In addition, as rearing attitudes, six factors were extracted: “Conformity”, “Tolerance for freedom”, “Empathic understanding”, “Control”, “Overprotection” and “Inconsistent rearing”.

The multiple regression analysis on how the mother’s educational values and expectations for their children had effects on rearing attitude indicated that “Excellent record” had an effect on “Conformity”. “Social norm (negative)”, “Rich experience of playing” had an effect on “Tolerance for freedom”. “Obedience”, “Independence”, “Mother’s level of education” had an effect on “Empathic- understanding”. “Specialty (negative)”, “Learning motivation”, “Socialization”, “Global tendency”, “Excellent record” had an effect on “Control”. “Teacher leadership”, “Global tendency”, “Excellent record” had an effect on “Overprotection”. “Mother’s level of education( negative)” had an effect on “Inconsistent rearing”.

Consequentially, this study found that Korean mother’s educational values, expectations for the children and mother’s level of education are the factors that affect their child rearing attitude. Particularly, it is suggested that education values that emphasize private education, expectations involved with children’s performance, and the rearing attitudes affected by these factors should be improved.

This paper shows the effectiveness of Japanese discourse ability in promoting discussions in English between Japanese native and non-native speakers at a graduate school seminar using English as the main means to communicate. The research was conducted such that two discussions at the seminar were compared: one was between a Japanese professor and a Japanese student speaking in Japanese and the other was between a Japanese professor and an international student speaking in English. The results showed that the Japanese student discussed in cooperation with the professor; this style of discussion is called the Kyowa style. Consequently, the student’s problem was clarified and then resolved in the process of the discussion. Conversely, the international student’s discussion, which did not adopt the Kyowa style, did not proceed smoothly. The utterances of the student and the professor often overlapped, and they did not understand each other well. To avoid this problem, Japanese language education at the elementary level should teach international students who are performing research activities in English that native speakers of Japanese have their own communication style—Kyowa—and they may use this style even in speaking English. Moreover, to promote interactive discussions in English during seminars, Japanese professors and students also need to understand the differences between their communication style and that of international students. Japanese language education is responsible to provide Japanese professors and students this knowledge. Thus, in this manner, Japanese language education can contribute to university education using English as a common language.

This paper explores support methods for language minority families. Language minority parents have difficulty raising children, but parents can fully educate their children through their mother tongue if children keep the language. From a language ecology standpoint, it is said that an environment where parents can fully use the power of their native language can make a better environment for their child’s development. All parents, including minority parents, love their children, which can contribute to the education of their children.

This case study is on two elementary school students and their mothers, who participated as native language supporters at an L1 class. In the study, with the encouragement from a Japanese supporter, the two mothers explained the themes of the texts: family bonds and parents’ love for their children, referring to their own experience of raising their daughter. From a language ecology standpoint, the analysis of the conversation and writings showed that the mothers could enthusiastically speak their mind through their mother tongue. It also showed that the response from the children brought out the mothers’ valuable words and their love for their daughters, indicating that the language ecology between a parent and child comes from a relationship with mutual encouragement. Additionally, the two children’s L1 proficiency arose from the continuous L1 classes. The love shared by mother and child will potentially contribute to the development of their personality.

The results illustrate that a social environment be should made available, where parents can raise their children by making the most of their mother language, and where children can continue to learn the language with which they can connect with family.