Comparative Education

In comparison with other initial vocational training models, the dual vocational training system has a distinguishing feature in its governance style, which is known as ‘corporate governance’. This means that the employers' association and chamber (employers' representative) play the main role in the initial vocational training. In principle, public officials at federal and state government level only lay down the fundamental legal frameworks and entrust the implementation of the system itself to self-governance by the employers' association. This works as a dual system on the basis of totally voluntary participation by the employers, who therefore need to meet two conditions in order to make it function effectively. First, to maintain the legitimacy of this style of governance, the employers must offer enough apprenticeship places to accommodate all applicants. Secondly, they must bear responsibility for the cost of in-firm training.

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This paper investigates the potential benefits of citizenship education in multicultural societies with particular reference to a survey conducted in five cities in England in October 2001. It was in 1999 that citizenship education was designated as a compulsory subject in English secondary schools for the first time. Since then it has attracted a wide range of support from progressive teachers, educational specialists and others who had been advocating educational programs to promote ‘global citizenship’ in English schools. In their view citizenship education can give pupils the opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills and values they need to be able to live in harmony in today's global society based on mutual respect for different cultures and religions. This outlook has been heavily criticized, however, by some minority group members, particularly Muslims, who argue that ‘citizenship’ for Muslims cannot be acquired through religion-free education such as citizenship education.

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The 2000 U. S. Census shows that Latinos (residents of Latin American origin) account for 13 per cent of the total national population. In California 32 per cent of the population are Latinos, making them the single largest ethnic minority there and of the 1.51 million EL (EnglishLearner) students in the state's public schools, 83 per cent speak Spanish as their first language. The bilingual education at these schools is thus offered mainly to EL children of Latino background.

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This paper considers civic education (citizenship education) as a system that can be transferable from one country to another. Although civic education in the United States has been the subject of much research, it has hardly ever been analyzed in comparative perspective with Japan and assessed in terms of international transfer. In the past Japanese researchers have often attempted to transfer educational practices in the United States to Japan. In this context, however, international transfer is intended to mean the internationalization of education. Such transfer is an important issue in the field of comparative education since the civic education system in practice in the United States suggests the possibility of transfer across borders and beyond the territorial limits of its originaldesign.

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