This paper explores the direction of local education policy for foreign children in Japan through survey analysis. There is no existing study that expresses nationwide data regarding policies for the education of foreign children in Japan. According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the number of foreign children in need of instruction was 24,840 in 770 municipalities in 2012.

  In this situation, a survey was conducted on local education policy for foreign children in Japan. Subjects of the survey were the superintendents of the boards of education in 1548 cities, towns and villages. Responses were received from 631 boards of education (40.8% answer rate). The survey contents concern the number of foreign children enrolled in public elementary and junior high schools, support for school attendance and support for non-school-attendance, the Japanese language instruction system, support for junior high school students of foreign nationalities to get into high schools, and consciousness of local boards of education on education policies for foreign children in Japan. These are special problems that children of foreign nationalities must face in the Japanese educational system.

  According to the survey, the percentage of municipalities in which foreign children attend school is just below 60%. The percentage of municipalities in which foreign children in need of Japanese instruction attend school is a little over 40%. This means that local education policy for foreign children has become a matter on which many local boards of education need to think seriously.

  Local boards of education send information packets to foreign parents whose child will begin school the following year. The percentage of boards of education using some foreign languages for these guides is 32.7%. The percentage of boards of education that do not hold a meeting for school attendance is 94.9%. The percentage of boards of education that have conducted surveys on non-school-attendance is 12.4%.

  With respect to Japanese language instruction, many boards of education dispatch an instructor to elementary or junior high schools which foreign children in need of such instruction attend. In addition, the percentage of boards of education providing opportunities for foreign children to study their mother tongue is 12.5%.

  The percentage of boards of education that check how many foreign students get into high schools is a little under 20%. The percentage of junior high school students of foreign nationalities getting into high schools is about 80%. The percentage of boards of education holding course guidance for junior high school students of foreign nationalities is less than 10%.

  In such circumstances, what kinds of local board of education carry out a policy for foreign children? Based on the analysis of this paper, policy tends to be carried out as the scale of foreign population becomes greater. Therefore, policies for foreign children depend on the demographic situation of local areas and governments, leading to a difference among local governments. Boards of education in Japan arrange policies for foreign children despite the lack of any clear nationwide legislative guidance. What results is an incongruent and inconsistent situation that is in immediate need of attention.

  Finally, an indication of the future direction of local education policy for foreign children is provided through recent tendencies within and among boards of education. Most boards of education tend to regard foreign children in public schools as policy objects. On the other hand, most boards of education do not tend to consider that they need to grasp the situation of the foreign nationals’ schools in Japan. This means that levels of administration excluding boards of education need to establish and (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  This paper examines the effect of being Catholic on the development of the Fe y Alegría (Faith and Joy) movement in Peru and its rationale for using the term “Popular Education” in the sphere of schooling.

  Fe y Alegría is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) led by the Society of Jesus, which works mainly in Latin America. Father José María Vélaz founded its first school in a shantytown of Caracas (Venezuela) in 1955.

  One of Fe y Alegría’s well-known slogans is “Fe y Alegría starts where the pavement ends, where drinking water does not drip, where the city loses its name”. As this slogan suggests, Fe y Alegría started in a shantytown that was developed by migrants from rural areas. Especially after World War II, many people migrated from rural areas to the outskirts of the cities in Latin America. In these peripheral areas, missionaries preached the catechism to poor people, who were traditionally largely ignored by the Catholic Church. These activities gave birth to the Theology of Liberation in Latin America. Fe y Alegría was born in these circumstances.

  Fe y Alegría provides formal education to more than 580,000 students and has more than 1,120,000 participants in total, including other programs, such as non-formal education and radio programs in 19 countries as of 2012. At present, Fe y Alegría schools are mainly public or subsidized-private, depending each country’s respective historical relationship with the Catholic Church. In Peru, under an agreement between Fe y Alegría and the Ministry of Education, teachers are employed in public schools whether or the school principal is religious.

  Key factors behind the development of Fe y Alegría are its religious, national and international networks. Within its religious network, the Society of Jesus and many other religious congregations have assumed the management of schools. These contribute to the consistent implementation of educational policy among schools. The network of each religious congregation is effective in sharing experiences with members in other countries and to receiving donations from congregations or the country where the religious person was born.

  At the international level, the International Federation of Fe y Alegría (Federación Internacional de Fe y Alegría: FIFYA) holds an annual congress to share experiences, information and ideals. At the national level, each country has a National Office that concludes agreements with each government to receive subsidies. In Peru, the National Office offers teacher training, original curriculum, and supervision by specialists. These mechanisms of support contribute to improve the quality of educational provision.

  The religious network and Fe y Alegría’s international and national networks are interrelated. According to one secular school principal, there is no difference between Fe y Alegría schools led by religious authorities and those headed by secular school principals, because the Society of Jesus leads the network as a whole.

  Considering the development of Fe y Alegría from the perspective of its philosophy, it defines itself as “the Movement of Popular Education and Social Promotion”. Popular Education in Latin America is influenced theoretically and methodologically by the work of Paulo Freire, and is generally considered to be in the field of adult and non-formal education. Popular Education is an educational mode for poor and socially oppressed people, not for the elites. It “raises learner’s political consciousness” for the goal of transforming society. In its philosophy, learners and educators should have horizontal relationships and the learners’ existing knowledge is considered to be important.

  On the other hand, at the International Congress of FIFYA in 2001, Fe y Alegría described Popular Education as being defined by neither type of learner nor method, but (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  Since 1990, promoting citizenship through education was recognized as an important educational issue in many countries. In England, education for citizenship was introduced as one of the cross-curricular themes after introduction of the national curriculum following the Education Reform Act 1988. Later, citizenship education became a statutory subject in the national curriculum for secondary education from 2002. However, in the process of secondary national curriculum review from 2005, there was much debate on how to promote ‘shared’ values among pupils, based on British national identity, through citizenship education.

  This paper examines the discussion over national identity in citizenship education policy in England, focusing on the National Curriculum introductory period. In 1990 the Commission on Citizenship published a report, “Encouraging Citizenship” making recommendations on citizenship education in schools. After that, “Curriculum Guidance 8: Education for Citizenship” was published by the National Curriculum Council.

  The link between citizenship education and national identity under the Conservative government has not received a great deal of attention. Previous work has pointed out a lack of common core of civic principles and values that command national allegiance and are transmitted to students through schools and elsewhere in society. Through an analysis of the discussion of the report, it is shown why it was difficult to find a connection between citizenship education and national identity at that time.

  First, this paper explains the impact of the introduction of the national curriculum in the English context. The aim of the introduction was to raise pupils’ performance. At the same time, the Education Reform Act 1988 brought much authority to the Secretary of State for Education and Science to decide the contents of national curriculum subjects. The decision of the contents in the curriculum became a national policy agenda. In this period, the transmission of British heritage and culture was debated in relation with history, English and religious education. Arguments about national identity have begun, if not been perpetuated, since education for citizenship was incorporated as a new curriculum element.

  Second, from the discussion in the Commission meetings, it is evident that the Commission became interested in legal aspects of citizenship such as the rights and status of citizens when considering the definition of “active citizenship”. During the period from January 1989 to July 1990, the Commission held seven meetings and two seminars, and the Commission Working Party met regularly. The main aim of the Commission was to consider how to encourage and recognize active citizenship in society. At the Commission meetings, it was suggested that as a starting point the Commission should adopt the theoretical framework of T. H. Marshall. Through the review process of legal aspects of citizenship, the Commission faced the origin of citizenship in the British Empire that was beyond the framework of United Kingdom (UK). The Commission’s chairman thought that a legal aspect was essential, and that substantive rights should be made clear as a basis for social and political participation for people in the UK.

  Third, this paper explains that discussion had widened the definition of “active citizenship” to the definition of “citizenship” in the final version of the Commission’s report. The Commission recommended that education for citizenship should be implemented through the framework of international recommendations on human rights education as proposed by the Council of Europe. This suggests that there was a position to recognize the similarity between the principles of the British system and those of basic human rights. The plurality of the legal framework was also admired. On the other (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  This research focuses on gender-sensitive curriculum at Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training (ATVET) colleges in Ethiopia to find out how college teachers implement the curriculum and what factors are affecting its implementation. The study also focuses on what students learn from the curriculum.

  ATVET colleges are senior-secondary level public educational institutions that aim to train agricultural extension workers operating in each village. Agricultural extension is one of the methods of adult non-formal education for farmers to introduce them to new agricultural technologies and information. Since Ethiopia is one of the countries that highly depends on the agricultural sector, accounting for 41% of its GDP and 85% of its total employment, the government considers agriculture to be key for national development and places special emphasis on the agricultural extension system. Agricultural extension is considered the most important tool for improving farmers’ productivity and production. However, the participation of women in agricultural extension is very low because most of the farmers believe that this kind of work is for men. The government therefore developed a gender-sensitive curriculum for ATVET colleges as one of the strategies aimed at making agricultural extension more women-friendly.

  According to officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, the gender-sensitive curriculum consists of three elements: 1) providing a gender and development course; 2) providing gender-related activities through a gender office at each ATVET college; and 3) making classes gender-sensitive by each teacher. However, the teachers can decide the details of the content of the curriculum, especially with regard to making classes gender-sensitive. While the word “gender” contains several meanings, each teacher understands the meaning of gender-sensitive curriculum and implements it in his or her own way according to their personal backgrounds and experiences. Therefore, what happens at ATVET colleges should be analyzed carefully. There is no study focusing on gender issues in education and training at ATVET college. This research contributes to finding out what happens on-site and to enhance the curriculum, which is important to make the agricultural extension more women-friendly.

  In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 teachers at two ATVET colleges, twice per person. The teachers were selected according to the department and subjects taught (nine teachers from specialized subjects and seven teachers from common subjects). The common subjects are gender and development, communication, business practices, and civics and ethical education. Also, group discussions were conducted with 23 students. All the interviews and group discussions were recorded and transcribed with their permission.

  According to the interviews, the teachers implemented gender-sensitive curriculum in different ways, which can be categorized into four groups: 1) providing gender and development as a subject; 2) having out-of-classroom activities for female students; 3) prioritizing female students in each subject; and 4) including gender and female-related content in each subject. What they implement is closely related to their assigned subjects. Gender course teachers implement 1 and 2, specialized subject teachers implement and other common subject (communication, business practices, and civics and ethical education) teachers implement 3 and 4.

  The common subject teachers, including gender and development instructors, tend to discuss what they teach under the name of the curriculum. They believe that it is important for the students to learn gender-related knowledge since they will work for rural women. The teachers portray rural women as oppressed, uneducated, and passive people who must get out of the social (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  The purpose of this article is to consider conflicts of perceptions in education for “living together” in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) by analysing interview data which was collected at high schools in the province of the Western Cape.

  Recently, various studies have been conducted to consider what it means for people to “live together” with others in society. One of the theories these studies suggest is that when considering the concept of “living together” (or the concept of a “living together society”) as the concept which focuses on how to realise “social unity in diversity”, it can only be thought of as a continuing process rather something which can actually be achieved. This is because when trying to respect the differences of people, the possibility of having conflicts in society becomes high; therefore, whenever conflicts arise, the concept of “living together” needs to be reformed. In this sense, the concept of “living together” can not only be seen as a “beautiful” or “harmonious” concept, but as an “unbeautiful” or “disharmonious” one due to the conflict in question. From current discussions on the concept of “living together”, and when analysing education for “living together”, this article focuses on how conflicts appear in the actual practice of “living together” and how they may be solved.

  In order to enhance the validity of studies on the concept of “living together”, it is necessary to consider as many contexts as possible. One such context can be seen in RSA, where the legacy of apartheid is being addressed in the various fields of society.

  In post-apartheid RSA, it has been a challenge to overcome conflicts between different groups of people, particularly those based on tensions that emerged during the apartheid era. In other words, how victims and perpetrators of apartheid can “live together” has become one of the RSA’s most important concerns in the post-apartheid era. Therefore various attempts have been made to resolve this issue, especially in the educational field.

  Amongst all the educational reconstructions in post-apartheid RSA, the introduction of “Life Orientation” as a compulsory subject in the 2000s can be said to be one of the most significant attempts at “living together”. This is because Life Orientation is a new and unique subject in the RSA which deals with actual issues in society and aims to enable learners to know how to exercise their constitutional rights and responsibilities, to respect the rights of others, and to value diversity, health and well-being.

  This article explains that Life Orientation at the high school phase in the RSA can be regarded as one of the most meaningful examples of education for “living together”, because it tries to equip learners with skills that are necessary for realising the principles of the RSA Constitution – ones which emphasise anti-discrimination and social unity in diversity. In order to examine the characteristics of education for “living together” in the current RSA, this article focuses on educators’ and learners’ discourses related to Life Orientation when analysing interview data.

  Interview data was collected at three high schools in the province of the Western Cape in 2012 and 2013. Participants were learners, Life Orientation educators and administrative educators (semi-structured interviews were conducted in English). The aim of the interview was to reveal how education and learning for “living together” are taking place at high schools in the the current RSA by asking questions such as “What do you imagine when you hear the term “living together society?” and “What do you think is the key (or the obstacle) to [realising a] “living together society?”

  This article discusses several results revealed by the above research. Firstly, it discusses a conflict of perception between those who believe that (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  South Sudan obtained independence in 2011 after decades of conflict. This conflict partly resulted from a war against the Arab-led Sudanese government by non-Arab anti-government Africans, i.e. the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). Due to the conflict, the vast majority of people missed educational opportunities.

  In post-conflict countries, it often happens that the new government introduces the new medium of instruction along with replacing the official language. In South Sudan, it was changed from Arabic to English. This move had a great impact on people’s daily lives and school education, particularly teachers. The international community is keen in providing South Sudan with significant assistance, but this has also created an aid-dependency syndrome, particularly in the situation where administrative capacity is considerably low. A high-ranking official in the Ministry of Education confessed during a donor meeting that, “We understand how to fight a war, but we do not know how to provide education. Therefore there are no other ways except to ask for your help.” External consultants have collected essential educational data, and aid agencies and their affiliated researchers have conducted an education sector study. However, independent researchers working in education are very rare because of tight security in the country. Aid-related researchers conduct studies in order to grasp overall pictures of education systems, yet while focusing on quantitative macro data pay little attention to individual schools. Although educational statistics appear to be rich in information, the realities in schools are not as easily measurable. Moreover, there are always limitations in accuracy and validity in such quantitative figures.

  The purpose of this study is to explore the realities of primary education in South Sudan from the perspectives of teachers, students and parents by employing a qualitative approach. We particularly focus on the impact of changing the medium of instruction on the operation and management of individual schools, and people’s behavior towards education. Fieldwork was carried out twice in 2013 for a total period of 4 weeks, which principally covered the four primary schools located in Juba County. Interviews were made among some fifty stakeholders. We also observed the operation and management of schools and the deployment of teachers with particular attention to their working conditions and teaching styles in class.

  This study revealed the following five observations, which have occurred due to the change in the medium of instruction: (1) The emergence of ‘Arabic-pattern’, ‘English-pattern’ and volunteer teachers: Arabic or English-pattern teachers are categorized based on the language taught in secondary schools or/and teacher training institutes. Volunteer teachers, who are employed and paid by individual schools, are all English-pattern. They are expected to teach in the upper-grade classes where Arabic-type teachers cannot teach since the medium of instruction is English. (2) A disproportionate number of deployed teachers and a prevalence of teacher absenteeism: Efficient deployment of teachers remains challenging. Arabic-pattern teachers are limited in their ability to communicate in English. There is often an excess of teachers in urban schools in order for the Arabic-pattern teachers to remain. On the other hand, many rural schools lack teachers and absenteeism is common partly because of the poor public transportation system. (3) The collection of school management funds and the burden of remuneration for volunteer teachers: The government encourages cost sharing in education. Each school needs to employ English-pattern volunteer teachers to substitute for Arabic-pattern teachers. The personnel expenses for volunteer teachers have to be covered by each school and (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)