Presently, most military disputes and conflicts around the world are caused by opposition between and among different races. Based on this fact, the global community undertook an important activity for the factor removal of opposition from a race during local revival following a dispute. In later years, human rights education that aims at enhancing mutual understanding among races as a countermeasure has been given increased importance. Promotion of human rights education is included in many international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which requires the constitution of each signatory country to prioritize human rights and law revision and declares that human rights education be carried out through public education. It may be said that the necessity of human rights education is perceived by various countries around the world. In the present study, the methodology of human rights education and the process by which how human rights and the concept of dignity is learned are considered.

  In the study of international human rights (international human rights method), “the universality of human rights” is one of the important problems that has been a topic of debate for many years. There is no solid evidence that the laws and social situations of each country have changed in light of the Declaration. When human rights education is discussed in light of this, it may therefore be considered necessary to question “the universality of human rights.”

  The purpose of this article is to compare the contents and method of human rights education from a) a perspective that does not attach great importance to “the universality of human rights” and b) a perspective that attaches great importance to the same. The article also considers what kind of differences the comparison will yield, and what the potential implications of this difference are for the content and method in human rights education of other nations.

  In Chapter 1, details concerning the inclusion of human rights education in public schools in Thailand as part of the human rights movement spearheaded by private organizations such as NGOs are clarified. It is shown that an increase in attention to human rights in Thailand on the part of women and minorities, and an increase in the number of people who agree with the movement promoting human rights education have reached new heights.

  In Chapter 2, two human rights interpretations in Thailand are compared in considering a case where human rights education had been practiced by the state education from the start. Next, the contents of two courses in the Associated School Project (ASP), a collaborative project among UNESCO, the Ministry of Education and a private school (R) are analyzed.

  In the ASP schools, structured teaching materials put forth an opinion in the form of a question to the students, followed by a discussion. However, it is difficult for us to insist that all aspects “universal” rights, such as women’s rights, are always universal. There may therefore be room for debate as to whether a lesson plan that uses such induced material is appropriate.

  In private schools (R), the importance of “diversity” is taught by conveying that some aspects of minority cultures are more advanced (i.e., advantageous) than those of the nation’s majority. However, whether students in Bangkok presently have many chances to meet minority or disabled persons in Thailand is uncertain. Moreover, the possibility of bias toward the side that holds power is high when there is a great difference in the balance of power between a certain group and other groups with regards to mutual agreements of people having different ideas. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  Personal multilingualism is required as a response to changing social and cultural realities associated with globalization. Governments have therefore focused on multilingual education policy for their peoples. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the characteristics and challenges of multilingual education policy in Kazakhstan, focusing on the policy of “Trinity of Languages”.

  Firstly, this paper provides an overview of the historical background of multilingual education policy in Kazakhstan, dating back to the Soviet era, and then shows the main principles of multilingual education policy established after gaining independence. Although not reflected in daily reality, multilingual education based on the principle of “education in the mother tongue” was pursued during the Soviet era. My primary sources on the history of Soviet language education policy will be language and education policies adopted during this period, such as the 1938 “Decree on compulsory Russian learning in schools of national republics and autonomies”, the 1959 “Regulations for 8-year schools” and the 1973 “Law on Education”. An examination of post-independence multilingual education policies will be conducted based on official statements concerning language and education, such as the Constitution (1995), the Law on Languages (1997), the Law on Education (1999) and the National Obligatory Educational Standard (2002), as well as on education policy papers such as the “Conception of general secondary school educational contents” (1993), the “Conception of ethnocultural education” (1996) and others.

  An analysis of the above mentioned documents reveals that succession of the Soviet idea of guaranteeing “education in the mother tongue” entails understanding the wide social recognition and use of the Kazakh language. On the other hand, the necessity to rise to the challenges of globalization requires the fostering of multilingual competency. This problem is addressed by emphasizing the importance of Kazakh, Russian and English language skills and appeared in 2007 in the form of the “Trinity of languages” policy.

  The emergence of Kazakhstan’s “Trinity of Languages” policy in the beginning of 2007 led to significant change as reflected in current multilingual education policy. This paper describes the background of the policy’s rationale and adoption. The strategic paper of this policy, the “Conception of the Development of Multilingual Education in Kazakhstan”, was prepared by Karaganda National University as the leading institution for the implementation of the “Trinity of Languages” policy and was approved by Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan in fall of 2008. According to this conception, Kazakh, Russian and English will serve as languages of instruction for different subjects: Kazakh for subjects in the Kazakh language and literature, Kazakh history and geography; Russian for the Russian language and literature, and English for world history and the sciences. The shift to those three medium of instructions is planned to take effect in 2012.

  An existing gap between the ideas of the “Trinity of Languages” policy and the realities of multilingual education is brought to light. This gap results from a shortage of teachers with multilingual abilities and the severe conditions of teaching foreign languages in the rural areas of Kazakhstan. At the same time, the challenge for the “Trinity of Languages” policy also includes the linguistic problems of ethnic Kazakh returnees, the descendants of Kazakhs who fled from famine and forced collectivization in the 1930s. These citizens have little or no knowledge of written Kazakh and, what makes them more vulnerable, of oral or written Russian. The shift to three media of instruction might hold negative consequences for returnees’ successful social reintegration into Kazakhstan. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  Malawi is located in the Southeastern part of Africa. Due to the extreme poverty that Malawi faces, a large number of international organizations conduct various aid projects in the country. After gaining independence in 1964, the quality of educational inputs in Malawi has greatly improved year by year, however the internal efficiency of schools and the quality of outcomes have shown a tendency to decline in recent years. The question arises as to why such a contradiction occurs in Malawi.

  This study suggests that changes in teacher training policies are a leading cause for the deteriorating situation in Malawi education. In order to verify this hypothesis, field work was carried out with particular attention paid to change in two variables: motivation and the social status of teachers. This study furthermore based its findings on an analysis of SACMEQ (The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality) data to verify the hypothesis.

  Free Primary Education Policy was introduced in 1994 in Malawi, whereby the government aimed to expand and increase the number of teachers through changes in the teacher training course. The following are three revisions that the government implemented in order to promote and manage an increase in the number of pupils: 1) shortening of the teacher training period; 2) shift in teacher training institutions from university-based to school-based training (for positions in primary courses), and 3) reduction in the quality and number of criterion for admission into the teacher training course.

  When this teacher training policy was initially adopted, policy interpretations reflected a rough-and-ready approach by the Malawi government which did not carefully consider the motivation of existing teachers and increased attention given to a short term vision of cost-effectiveness based on the decisions of many international organizations as well as underlying national financial problems. While this policy change succeeded in increasing the number of teachers, it did not bring about quality improvement in education services.

  Field work conducted for this paper has also made it clear that with the implementation of changes in the teacher training policy, a decrease in the level of social status as well as the motivation of teachers has resulted. A vicious cycle results, whereby the reduction in the quality and number of criterion for admission into the teacher training course leads to the reduced social esteem of teachers. Existing teachers become jealous of new teachers, who graduate from the easier training course, leading to decreased motivation to teach in public primary schools and, by extension, a reduction in the quality of public school teachers and the lessons they teach. Pupils then develop a desire to join private schools or extra-lessons which are conducted by teachers after school or on weekends, just as teachers themselves are attracted to private schools and engagement as teachers of extra lessons.

  All told, the quality of public schools, especially at the primary level, suffers as a result of the introduced reforms. In fact, over 40 percent of target parents considered in this study indicated that if we had had enough money, they would like to let their children transfer to private school, and 78 percent wish to let their children join extra lessons. Interestingly, it also became clear that parents pay attention to not only the academic performance of their children, but also to their human relationships at school. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  This paper explores new research perspectives in educational science by comparing biographical methods in Germany and Japan. New insights resulting from this investigation enable a critical and deeper analysis of modern education.

  Critical discourse regarding educational reform and school problems has been ongoing for many years. To consider these issues thoroughly, some authors have analyzed modern education itself with regard to its origin, history and development. Comparative education research and studies into pedagogical phenomena in foreign countries can also lead to interesting and important insights, because these research fields are able to show clearly the characteristics of modern educational thought and systems by extracting parallels from different educational phenomena. To extend this scientific possibility, it is necessary to handle not only theories of comparative study itself but also those of respective methods on the basis of research questions. Thus, this paper will explore different methods of biographical research in Germany and Japan, in that biography contains one’s life in the reflection of modern education. By comparing these two different research methods some new research perspectives can be expected to be found.

  To date, there has been little academic discourse or cooperation in the field of qualitative, biographical research methods between Germany and Japan. In Germany, pedagogical biographical studies have been pursued since the 1970s, while in Japan education research by means of biography or life history has been promoted since about 2000. However, by analyzing these two contrasting academic characteristics, some thematic or methodological insights can be provided in the particular field of education studies. These may contribute to a critical consideration of modern education using a specific methodology.

  The development of methods of biographical research in the field of sociology is taken as the basis of this comparison. Similarities can be observed in the developmental processes of these qualitative methods up to the 1970s, when biographical methodology experienced a “renaissance” following the methodological stagnation caused by mostly quantitative research interests in the 1950s and 1960s. After that, however, this kind of qualitative method developed differently in each country, due to contrasting relations with Anglo-American theories and methodologies as well as with the oral history approach.

  On this basis, the methods of biographical research in education science have been extended. The main two parts of this paper compare these in terms of the following aspects: (1) how biography is grasped from the point of education science, and (2) how open-ended interview methods and interpretation of the transcription are structured. In the second part, two typical interview methods will be addressed: the Life Story Interview in Japan and the Narrative Interview in Germany.

  Looking at biography from the perspective of education science, in Japan a common interest is found which reflects education practice in schools. This tends to treat the teacher as a typical research object. Led by some British authors, case studies have attempted to understand holistically teachers’ practice by reading their life histories of public and private life in Japan. On the contrary, German education science sets the biographical aspect as a main focus in modern education theories. As with the case of research in Japan, practical themes play a central role in each case study, as do attempts to categorize and theorize pedagogical phenomena. In both countries, occupational or professional socialization of teachers is often taken as primary themes. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)