Transformations between and within a Foreign School and Japanese Public Schools in a Local Community:

<p>This research aims to suggest a new perspective for research and policies regarding foreign schools in Japan by describing the process behind a series of transformations due to contact between a foreign school and public schools in a local community.<BR><BR>The amount of research dealing with foreign schools in Japan has been gradually growing since the late 2000s. Most of these studies have discussed the structural exclusion which many foreign schools face and the necessity for enhanced legislative rights from a macro perspective. While this research is surely important, the studies tend to describe the relationship between the foreign schools and Japanese society based on the static scheme of majority and minority. Here, foreign schools are likely to be represented as vulnerable with their agency overlooked. This perspective can unintentionally invoke paternalism, which in turn can lead to a backlash against foreign schools. A few recent studies have focused on the agency of foreign schools “within” the schools themselves, but the scope has not been expanded to the relationship with local external actors.<BR><BR>To grasp the educational potentials of foreign schools and to seek a more inclusive climate for them in an increasingly multicultural Japan, this paper attempts to clarify the transformations between and within a foreign school and Japanese public schools in a local community by describing the evolution in their relationship and the corresponding consequences while employing the concept of “contact zone” (Pratt 1992). This paper examines the case of a new Korean foreign school, called “T-school,” and three Japanese public schools located in the same school district. The data is based on participant observations and semi-structured interviews with ten teachers of T-school and the three Japanese public schools.<BR><BR>The results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, although T-school and the local Japanese public schools established contact asymmetrically, their contact fostered reflections on existing educational practices, which led to moves to address common educational problems and enrich their own practices.<BR><BR>Secondly, in the process, both sides experienced various transformations. (1) Each school started to regard the other as resources for their educational practices and to change class-teaching contents accordingly. (2) A few of the local Japanese children started to enter T-school. (3) While overall relationships have become closer, a few conflicts among the children have occurred. However, these conflicts have paradoxically reinforced the cooperation among school teachers. (4) Transformations of a higher order have also occurred. For instance, T-school has started a new scholarship system to recruit more local children into the school.<BR><BR>Thirdly, two factors that enabled these collaborative educational practices were uncovered: 1) a community educational organization which has historically existed in this school district and placed a high value on empowerment for minority children, and 2) the proactivity of the T-school in trying to build relationships with the local community that was partly motivated by the desire to realize their educational ideal while dealing with the challenges they faced.<BR><BR>This study is significant as it highlights: 1) a new perspective for regarding foreign schools as “a local school in a shared community” and 2) the need to expand beyond discussions of legislative rights and explore policies to support foreign schools by promoting more community interaction, as shown in this study.</p>