Part 1: Learner autonomy in Japan, past and present

Learner autonomy
and education

reform in Japan:
Asking the students
Ellen Head
Poole Gakuin University
ellenkobe@yahoo.com
About Ellen

I have taught English in Japan since 2000, and at Poole Gakuin University since2005. In my research I am interested in how the microcosm - autonomy within theindividual - relates to the macrocosm - autonomy in society.

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Acknowledgements

This paper could not have been written without the generous cooperation of many
people. First and foremost, Okumura Eiko took on the task of orally translating
about 100 student surveys from Japanese to English, while I transcribed the results
and asked questions about the terms used. Eiko gave her students time to do thesurvey in class, which partly accounts for the care with which her students wrote
their replies. Her influence on the students also shines through their words. I am also

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deeply grateful to Matsukawa Kazuko and Nishiyama Fumiko, who asked their students to do
the survey at home, and spent time discussing the results with me. Teachers from the LD SIG,
from TC, and from Sakai City Summer Seminar also wrote responses to the survey.I received
a lot of encouragement from them as well as from the professors at the university where I
teach, who spent long evenings discussing yutori kyouiku. Chris Hood of Sheffield University,
my supervisor for the MA Japanese Language and Society, provided invaluable support fromthe inception of the project. Miki Kohyama read and commented on an early draff as well as
sharing various relevant notes and stories with me at the retreat. Brad Deacon offered very
helpful comments at a later stage. Kashiwada Tadashi helped with some of the translation andalso kept an eye on the Japanese media for news about education. Last but not least - thanks tothe students for answering the survey.
Abstract

Japanese Government policysince thelate 1980s hasincreasingly come to articulate the need tofindways ofdeveloping students' creativity, independence, and individuality. The policyofyutorikyouiku,
or"relaxed education," brought abouta reduction in theschool week and wassupposed togiveyoung
people timefor broader experience of lifeand learning, as opposed to the exam-focused curriculum
offormer years. However, manycriticized yutori asgivingtoo much freedom. More recently, various
other reforms have been implemented, particularly in relation to English language education.
However, there has been little consultation with students or teachers during the process of reform.
Startingfrom the premise thatthe right to belistened to is a pre-requisite for developing autonomy,
I decided to investigate a sample of students' views on issues related to independent learning andautonomy. In this chapter I willpresent a briefhistorical survey of the concept of learner autonomy
in Japan, followed by a detailed look at the results of a survey of over 100 university students about
their views on developing independent learning.

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The most unusual thing about this school... was the lessons themselves.. .At thebeginningof the firstperiod the teacher made a listofall the...questions to bestudied in thesubjects thatday. Then shewould say "Now, start with anyof these you like." ...So study
was mostly independent, withpupilsfree togo and consult the teacher when necessary.
(Kuroyanagi, 1996, pp.56-7).

I have been processed only as apiece of data and numbered... I think thatchildren don't
look as if they are thinking much butactually they are thinking about many things bythemselves. (First Year Student, Japanese University).

Madogiwa no Toto chan (The Little Girl at the Window) is the story of an alternative school,
Tomoe Gakuen, which was established in Japan in 1937. Kuroyanagi Tetsuko, a former pupilof the school, offers us a fascinating picture of a school where students were encouraged
to develop skills for independent learning. In Kuroyanagi's account the classroom has the

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potential to be a place of liberation and a cauldron for social and spiritual development. Thisschool was not unique in the Taisho era (1912-26). According to Okano and Tsuchiya, Tomoe
Gakuen was just one of a number of schools influenced by the libertarian ideas of the "New
Education" movement:...the proponents of New Education (Shin Kyouiku) .. .urged schools to respectchildren's individual characters, initiative and creative capacities.. .Besides numerous
existing schools that adopted the New Education approach, experimental private
schools were established by individuals such as Masatarou Sawayanagi (Seijou School
in 1917) and Motoko Hani (Jiyuu Gakuen in 1921) (Okano & Tsuchiya, 1999, p.23).
The reader may object that Tomoe Gakuen was a private elementary school and as such is
not to be compared with state secondaryschools which are the subject of the second quotation,and she would have a point. Tomoe Gakuen is introduced here simply to remind us that there
is an alternative to the "processing"kind of education described by the student in the second
quotation.

The rhetoric of the Japanese education ministry espouses the view that school should be aplace for developing individuality and creativity. The 1998 University Council Report states
that:

Higher education must emphasize the cultivation of the "ability to pursue one's own
ends". That is the "ability to independently respond to changes, voluntarily seek a fu
ture theme and judge the theme flexibly and comprehensively with a broad view". Cul
tivation of such ability should be based upon the elementary and secondary educationthat aims at cultivating the "ability to learn and think independently" (MEXT, 1998).
The Japanese government is engaged in on-going reforms of the education system. The
pace of reform has gained in intensity particularly since the 2002 Strategic Plan to Create
Japanese Speakers with English Abilities. What is the background to the plan? What will be its
consequences?

One factor which is relatively little discussed is the opinions of the young people who willbe the next generation of parents and teachers. In this paper I will explore education policy inJapan through a unique lens: the views of university students of English. To put the students'
opinions in context, I will first outline the history of education reform since the Meiji era, andlook briefly at some of the problems which have made reform seem urgent. I will then explain
the methodology and context of the survey which I have carried out with the assistance of
three other teachers. Sincethe interweaving processes of education, personal development andinstitutional reform are complex, dynamic and on-going, there will not be much in the way ofa "conclusion." The focus will be on what kind of understanding of autonomy is revealed by
the students surveyed, and how they view the education system in which they have developed.
I hope that readers will accept the data (i.e. the students' words) as a catalyst to their own
thinking and conversations with students and colleagues.
A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO EDUCATIONREFORM IN JAPANIn Japanese history, we can find signs of tension between those who think that education

should be for the individual, and those who think it should be for the state or for society, as far
back as the Meiji era. If we take a look at the 1872 Education Law (Gakusei) we can see that the—MoreAutonomy You

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government at that time embraced both nationalistic and individualistic rhetoric. The 1872
law set out the idea that schools would play a role in creating a "rich nation and strong army"(fukoku kyouhei) and "increase in production and founding of industries" (shokusan kougyou).
It seems something of a paradox that the new education system was also supposed to do thefollowing:1) Eliminate feudalistic barriers and open educational opportunities to all citizens.

2) Consider the individual's success in life and enlightenment as the goals of study andeducation (Okano & Tsuchiya, 1999, p.15).
Inoue Tetsujiro, commenting on the education law in 1899, explains it in the following way:
Each person (kakuji) is one element of a nation (kokumin) and the nation is made upof each person. Individual and nation are indivisibly bound (Inoue cited in Tanaka,
2004, p. 185).
The ultimate purpose of the law may have been to create a strong country, but the process
also had an impact in terms of spreading Western ideas about developmental education.
Schools used American textbooks translated into Japanese, and foreign experts were
employed as advisors and teachers. In the period between 1872 and 1939, the pendulum swungback and forth several times between forms of schooling that emphasized duty to society, andforms that emphasized the cultivation of individuality (Okano & Tsuchiya, 1999, pp.13-24).
It seems to me important that when we look at teacher and learner autonomy in Japan today,
there is at least a possibility of discovering continuity with pro-autonomy attitudes in the past.
Linicome (1995) writes of the influence of American developmental education on Japanese
educationists in the Meiji era. Following Linicome's analysis, Aspinall comments as follows:
Developmental education...did not die out altogether because of its usefulness in
assisting in the creation of good classroom practice...when the Americans arrived
in Japan in 1945 there was already in existence a legacy of educational doctrine
very similar to their own. Indeed, Linicome argues that the 1947 passing of theFundamental Law of Education represented the transformation of developmental
education from heterodoxy to orthodoxy (Aspinall, 2001, p.23).
Education was seen by the Occupation authorities as the key to building a democratic
state. Hence the new education law emphasized respect for the child's individuality, equal
opportunities, the need for social education, and teacher autonomy in conducting their classes.
A few years after the implementation of the Fundamental Law of Education, the Japanese
government reasserted control over school textbooks and over schools through local Boards ofEducation. In the 1950s and 60s, education focused on creating a productive state and "catchingup" with the West.
Education reform became a key issue due to the rise of social problems such as assaults onteachers, bullying, and absenteeism during the early 1980s (Hood, 2001, pp.150-157). Althoughsuch incidents were still relatively rare compared to other countries such as the United States,
they attracted a lot of media attention as a phenomenon previously unknown in Japan. It wassuggested that the focus on rote memorization was makingschool stressful and irrelevant to
the lives of many pupils. A school survey in 2000 showed that the percentage of students who
said they could "mostly understand" their lessons was less than half, and the number decreased
as students progressed through the system, from 48.2% in elementary school, to 39.5% injunior high school and 33.9% in senior high school (Hood, 2001, p.131).

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Yasuhiro Nakasone, Prime Minister froml983-7, initiated changes which resulted in 1992 in
the shortening of the school week and in the adoption of so-called"relaxed education" (yutori
kyouiku) as the official policy for state schools. The word yutori means something like"roomto breathe." It is sometimes associated with "integrated study" (sougouteki gakushu), a period
in the curriculum devoted to experiencessuch as listening to a speaker from outside school,or doing voluntary work. Yutori was intended to produce a change from a teaching style thatfavoured memorization, to one that encouraged exploration and discussion (Monbusho, 1995,
cited in Hood, 2001, p.124). Since this style is more time-consuming, curriculum content was
reduced for all levels in the curriculum cycle from 1985-1994, and again from 1998-2003. One
can see hovtyutori kyouiku might, in theory, encourage learner autonomy, by giving students
time to deduce principles or rules for themselves rather than requiring them to memorize an
overwhelming amount of content.
However, there were two problems; first, as many teachers had not been trained to teach ina style appropriate to deductive learning, many were not able to change their methods. Second,
students were still being assessed by tests which generally focused on rote memorization, andso there was pressure for teachers to spend class time on preparation for tests. So perhaps
it was not surprising that the reforms did not achieve success immediately. Tests of 450,000
elementary and junior high pupils in 2004 showed a slight improvement in some skill areas.
The percentage of students who said they liked studying rose from previous years (for example,
45.3% of fifth grade primary students liked studying, a rise of 5.5%). There was, however, one
area in which children's skills had supposedly declined; writing essay questions in their mothertongue. ("No Sign of academic decline seen in tests", TheDaily Yomiuri, 2005). However, yutori
kyouiku has been blamed in the press for the lower levels of attainment by Japanese students
on international tests such as the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment, inwhich Japanese 15-year-olds ranked fourteenth for reading skills in their mother tongue, andsixth for mathematics in 2004, compared with eighth for reading and second for mathematics
in 2000 (MainichiDaily News, 2004). Recently both the public and politicians have called for a
return to "basics" in education. While politicians such as the previous Minister of Education,
Noriyama Noriaki maintains that yutori kyouiku was not a mistake (AsahiShinbun, 2005), it
seems likely that a return to "basics" will imply a more traditional, less libertarian approach.
Education reform in Japan is at a key juncture at the present time, 2006. Since the generalelection victory by the reigning Liberal Democratic Party in September 2005, the government
proposes to revise the Fundamental Law of Education, and has the majority to carry throughchanges which would have been impossible at any other period since 1947. Changes are likely
to focus on increasing the control, particularly in the area of moral education.

So far I have described three main periods of reform: the first; the modernizing wave in the
Meiji era, the second; the supposedly meritocratic system created in the wake of the American
Occupation, and the third; Nakasone's efforts at reform, which are connected to the present
reforms by ideology and even by personnel, since the previous minister of Education, Kosaka
Kenji, was Nakasone's secretary in 1986.

Problems in the Japanese education system?
It is time to take a closer look at the problems of the education system. In TheJapanese HighSchool: Silence and resistance, Yoneyama argues that bullying and school-refusal are related toa lack of autonomy in the lives of both students and teachers. Yoneyama draws her evidence
in part from two volumes of writings by children who have a history of school refusal, which
she calls toukoukyohi children. Their writings were gathered and published by an educational

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psychologist, Ishikawa et al. in 1993.The writings show clearly how their experience of schoolis an experience of autonomy deprivation for some students:•

The principal is the king•The deputy is the minister•

Teachers are soldiers•

The boss in the class is the village head and we are commoners.

•

We cannot decide anything.
(Fukuhara, in Ishikawa et. al, 1993, p.287, cited in Yoneyama, 1999, p.61).

This student has a dramatic way of articulating his experience but his feelings are echoedby many others in Yoneyama's study. Yoneyama's other evidence is from a comparative surveyof high school students in Japan and Australia. In response to the statement "Teachers treat
me with respect," 50% of the 500 Japanese students replied "Never," as opposed to 12% inAustralia. In response to "It is easy to discuss problems with a teacher," 72% responded "Never"in Japan, as against 22% in Australia. This is in sharp contrast to the warm teacher-student
relationships observed by others such as Le Tendre (1996). Yoneyama suggests that while themajority of teachers are caring and make great efforts to be fair:
Teachers work in a structure that leaves little room for autonomy, with the consequencethat their role often becomes merely that of "regulation enforcement agents"(Yoneyama, 1999, p.168).

Yoneyama is one of the most outspokencritics of the educationsystem. What is fascinating
about her work is that she insists on givinga voiceto young people who have actuallyexperienced Japanese schools. Some might argue that she foregrounds those whose experiences
have been problematic. Nevertheless, her conclusions are disturbing. This is particularly sowhen we relate her ideas to current theories about autonomy and language learning. According
to Little (2004), the development of autonomy is closely related to, if not a prerequisite for, thedevelopment of communication skills.
... autonomy in language learning and autonomy in language use are two sides of thesame coin (the communicative dimension) (Little, 2004).

In other words, having autonomy involves becoming able to say what one wants to say;having the opportunity to speak(and be heard) is part of the process of coming to know
and own the words of a language.Although much effort has been put into reforming English
language education in terms of training personnel, developing curricula,textbooks andtests,there seems to be a gap between the ideals expressed at the top of the system and theexperienced realities at the bottom.
Asking the students

Why a surveyof teachers' and students' opinions about learner autonomy?
We can see that there is a degree of conflict between the policies outlined in the 2002 Strategic
Action Plan and the Vision for Universities in the Twenty-First Century, and the situation inschools and universities as criticized by authors such as Yoneyama.
It therefore seems worthwhile to investigate the views of the stakeholders at grassroots- teachers and students. Many foreign teachers are skepticalabout the action plan, yet it isuncontestable that there are pockets of change - of which the present volume represents
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one. Government investment in projects like"Super English High Schools" and teacher
training programs, collaboration between the Ministry of Education and Japan Association
for LanguageTeaching (JALT), suggestthat the future is hopeful for English education andmaybe for learner autonomy, too. However,the views of Japanese students regarding their own
autonomy have not received much attention. As Usuki & Murphey argue:.. .learners need to have a place for speaking out and having their own opinions
listened to... asking students to express their opinions about their autonomy might
be a vital step in the process of building both autonomy and language skills (cited in
Markova & Rogers, 2004, p.211).
Fauzia Shamim, a university professor of English in Pakistan, has pointed out that learners'
resistance or acceptance of change is an important factor in implementing any innovation:
The role of learners - perhaps because they have low status - is by and large ignored inplanning and decision making concerning the introduction of an innovation
thevast majority of teacher training and orientation programmes in relation to learnertraining programme before an innovation is introduced suggest that learner acceptanceof a proposed change is largely taken for granted (Shamim, cited in Coleman, 1996,
p.110).

The opinions of those who are studying English at university in Japan now, some of whom
have already decided that they want to be teachers, seem pertinent in terms both of giving a
deeper understanding of the present, and of what shape the future might take.
Methodology

The format of an open-ended survey was chosen in order to encourage respondents to thinkof their own words and to obtain maximally diverse answers. The students' responses werethen analyzed to see what patterns emerged. As a researcher I was interested in both the overall
pattern of the responses and also the patterns within a singlerespondent's answers. An openended survey was therefore more suitable for my purposes than a multiple choice instrument
or one with a Likert scale. The survey was carried out on a total of 117 students between
October 2005 and March 2006.The first 40 surveyed were first-year students of English at
a Japanese four-year women's university. The class teacher provided an oral explanation in
Japanese, and most students wrote their answers in Japanese, taking a 90-minute class period.
Most wrote just over a page, but severalwrote two or even three pages. The results weretranslated into Englishand looked at to find the trends across the whole group, as wellas theconfigurationswithin each individual student. It proved easyto find underlying patterns (forexample, agreement/disagreement with a proposition such as "Tests are fair") which could becounted to givean overall proportion of students sharing similar views.1 Where a student's
answer was not clearly aligned with the others, it was left out of the tabulation, but included in
the discussion. The same method was used to analyse answers taken from other groups later.
In January 2006, answers were obtained from another two classes taking a teacher's license
course at the same women's university (60 in all, of whom 30were in their second year and 30
in their third year). In addition, participants also included 12 students on a literature courseand 5 studentson an elementary school teacher's license course at two different four-year
universities in western Japan. Five university teachers (two with experience in high schools)
were also surveyed. The teachers' answers have not been included in the tallies of results

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but were useful when thinking about the interpretation. All the students' responses wereanonymous. The questionnaires were numbered so that the reader can see when the same
respondent is quoted more than once.

Before looking at the students' responses, it maybe helpful for the reader to have a glanceat the questionnaire (see MAYA! website for Appendix2A). The questionnairewas designed
to lead from "easy-to-answer, less personal/controversial" questions to "more personal/
controversial" questions. In the discussion of the results below, I have generallyfollowed theorder of the questionnaire, but some questions elicited more detailed and interestinganswers
than others, so the discussionwill concentrate on these. Occasionally students provided
information in response to one question which was illuminating in the discussion of another.
In such cases, the answers have sometimes been cited out of order.

Before undertaking the survey, I was expecting to find certain configurations within
individual respondents' answer-sets. For example, it might make sense for a student who
replied that Japanese students did not develop autonomy (question 1) to say that the teacher
should take management decisions about the class (question 7). However this kind of
configuration occurred rarely. Students also presented points of view that I had not thought of,such as the idea that it is not possible to encourage autonomy in school.
1. Do students subscribe to a stereotype of the "passive Japanese learner"?
Question 1. Do you think Japanese students develop independent learning skills?Why? (orwhy not?)
Yes /It depends on person

Only a few develop
independent learning skills

No

Teacher trainees

Other

Teacher trainees

Other

Teacher trainees

Other

33 (Yes: 20/

20

3

10

19

20

Depends: 13)
Total=13

Total=53

Total=39

Question 1 was intended to see whether the respondents subscribed to a stereotyped view of"Japanese" students as passive and lacking in independence. There was a significant difference
between the students on the secondary school teacher's license course and the others, with ahigher proportion of the aspiring teachers seeingthrough the "trick" question and answering
either "yes" or "it depends." One reason for this might be that these students have had a positive
experience of education themselves. It is also likelythat they were influenced by their teacher,the textbook, Murphey's Language Hungry1 and the methodology she selected, which involved
intensive group collaboration and presentations.
A few students mentioned that this was a time of crucial change:
1.85 Qu 1[The education system] encourages it [independent learning] but it is not really rooted.
This is an era of trial as to whether they can encourage it or not.
1.57 Qui

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In education conversationis becoming more valued and the tradition of rotememorization of grammar is disappearing so there will be more people who like
English and want to learn it independently.
Some seemed to equate the study of English with "autonomous /independent" learning:
1.46 Qui

I think they will [become independent learners] because whether you like it or notthere will be more occasions where you have to speak and listen to English in the
future. So English is going to be introduced at elementary level...
Many of the first-year students were positive about their own development of autonomy:
1.6 Qu 1

It's good to study from your own power. Then you do twice as much as if you just dowhat you are told.
1.12 Qui...If you study your own way of studying I think it is more efficient to learn and if you
find a good textbook or exam practice book, the effectis much greater. Then if you
have questions you can ask the teacher. I think studying independently is the best way(jibun de benkyo suru noga ichiban it).

Of those who answered "it depends," 13 said that if a student has their own dream or goal
they will develop independent learning skills. Some,but not all,thought that they themselves
were such people.
1.34 Qui

Japanese students are not autonomous learners. This may only be true for people only
like me, since I don't have a goal or dream. If you have your goal, and will to study
towards it, you are different.
Over a third said that it was difficult for Japanese students to develop independent learning
skills for various reasons. Some placed the blame for this on the education system:
1.2 Qu 1

The roots of the modern education system are said to be in the Meiji era. Students
should learn hard from great teachers they respect. This kind of idea started then. Now
too, this attitude exists,so our learning becomes passive. Also the future is a cause ofanxiety, so they don't want to study. The desireto study (gakushuu iyoku) is reduced. So
many children don't want to learn.
2.4 Qu 1

At present elementary and junior high students have no idea of preparing (yoshuu).
They are studying homework givenby teachers. For that reason Junior High students
don't develop the ability of being independent learners.
The word "passive" was mentioned by four students while another five talked about being
forced to study. These replies recall the criticism of the system in Yoneyama's study of highschools discussed above.

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Acouple suggested that Japanese culture in thewider sense is inimical to autonomy.
1.25 Qui

Many Japanese students wouldn't do it bythemselves. I think generally Japanese are too
sensitive to the eyes of othersor just to others. Onlya few people will takethe initiativeby themselves (sekkyokuteki niyaro).
1.1 Qui... We don't have a sense of being an individual but a strong sense of groupconsciousness (dantai ishiki) meaning that if no one else is studying I won't study
either.

2. What do students think makes someone decide to become more autonomous?

Students wrote about having goals, the influence of friends and parents, life-circumstances, andpersonality. Nine students wrote of feelings of interest, enjoyment or curiosity:
1.45 Qu 2

When you have a feeling of liking or enjoying something.. .the English literature class
was a requirement and at first I didn't enjoy it, then I gradually understood and cameto enjoy it. Then I started reading more books or listening to the lecture more seriously
and taking notes.
One student who found studying could become a kind of "virtuous circle" of personal
growth:1.85 Qu 2

When you really felt your growth, it means when you were able to do what you couldn't
do before, you understand what you didn't before, and feel pleasure, then you want tokeep on trying your best. On the other hand, if you don't feel your growth, you start tohate it or feel like giving up.
Fear of being left behind, or feeling their lack of knowledge (muchi) compared to others, wasa recurring pattern, mentioned by eight students:
1.48 Qu 2

When people around me are much better at English than me I get anxious and try tocatch up. It's for myself, of course.
1.52 Qu 2

Friends' influence gets strong when I feel I don't want them to do better than me(maketaku nai) or I want to be that person [who is doing well]. Other than that,
longing (akogare) for others, for example if that is the way to get closer to the person
you're longing for, it would be a big chance.

Only three said that educational experiences made people autonomous, and of these, one
seemed to equate autonomy with "doing any study at all":1.59 Qu 2

As long as your study progresses you will have a better understanding of English and its

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Learner a u t o n o m y and e d u c a t i o n r e f ormculture and it will make you want to be autonomous. But the real motivation is when

you are cornered (seppatsu matta). I'm talking about myself. For example, I have to do
my presentation tomorrow... then I will study, but only in that situation.
One admitted that she was influencedby the questionnaire:
1.38 Qu2

After readingthis sentence I decided to studyindependently.
3. Do students think the school system encourages pupils to make decisions for themselves?
Question 3: Does the Japanese school system encourage students to make decisions forthemselves, about learning and/or about other things such as club activities?
Yes, about elective subjects
Teacher trainees
14

Total= 21

Other
7

Yes, about clubs
Teacher trainees
6

No

Other
16

Total=22

Teacher trainees
28

Other
20

Total=48

Two aspects emerged from the answers: the potential for students to make decisions about
elective subjects, and club activities.
2. HQu3

When I was an elementary, junior high and high school student I was crammed. But
when I was a High School student we made decisions for ourselves in some events forexample the culture festival, chorus competition and school trip.

Almost half the students felt they had been encouraged to make their own decisions aboutsome aspects of school life. But others (six students) said that the process of decision-making
was only apparently democratic:
1.81 Qu 3

People tend to see freedom but don't like to choose. The system on the surface seems toencourage freedom and choices,but inside it is nothing like that.
1.83 Qu 3

Not yet. The relationship of teachers exerting control on students still lingers. From myexperience, students' requests or opinions will be considered only if convenient or easy
to carry out, otherwise they will be excluded.
Many had a sense of being at the bottom of an oppressive hierarchy:
1.29 Qu 3

The Japanese education system consists of doing what you are told from above (Uekara iwareta koto suru dake de). "They" don't understand the present situation at all(Genjo o nanimo wakate wa inai).
Group work, usually thought by teachers to foster autonomy, was said by this student to be
negative for autonomy.

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1.29 Qu 3

There is a lot of group work and that means thenecessity of self-decision isdecreased.
Elective subjects were not generally perceived as encouraging autonomy because after the
initial choice of the subject, the course was dictatedby the teachers.
2.6 Qu 4

The number of classes are increasing and that's a burden for students. Yutori meanstheythink theydon't have to learn independently. They choose electives and are nottaking the initiative apart from that.
1.80 Qu 3

Legally [the system] encourages student-decision-making, but in realityit is not as
intended. Evenwith electives, you have first come, first served, so you can't take yourfavourite teacher's classes.

4.What do students think of yutori kyouiku (relaxed education)?

The issue oi yutori kyouiku provoked an outpouring of feeling, perhaps because this generationof students has experienced life "before and after"yutori kyouiku was introduced3. Even
students who had little to say on other topics wrote several lines, some as much as half a page.
Over 83% of the students' answers reflected negative opinions (in two cases apparently gained
from a recent TV news item). At least 20 students linked yutori kyouiku with the drop in school
standards (gakuryoku teika).

Question 4: Now yutori education is being discussed a lot. Is it connected withindependent learning? What do you think oi yutorikyouiku Why?
yutori kyouiku is goodyutori kyouiku may be good
if implemented differently

yutori kyouiku is bad

Teacher trainees

Other

Teacher trainees

Other

Teacher trainees

Other

11

7

7

11

27

36

Total=18

Total=18

Total=63

It is worth remembering that the term yutori kyouiku refers both to the reduction of theschool week, and to the more relaxed teaching style which was supposed to result from thereduced learning targets, which were implemented from 1998-2002. Many of the students whoviewed yutori negatively interpreted it as relating solely to the reduced school week. Many said
that the yutori policy was not being implemented correctly. The following comment shows thatsome schools apparently did not reduce the targets in line with government guidelines:
1.72 Qu 4

Yutori kyouiku is misunderstood and is conducted in a misunderstood way. (Machigattayarikata deyutori no imi mo machigatte uketorarete ita)... We have Saturday and
Sunday off but more homework and even though the class time is cut, the content
to be learned is not reduced...I had a hard time...high school used to be six classes
a day but became seven classes a day.This proves that yutori kyouiku became simply

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cramming (tsumekomi kyouiku). Giving one day off then giving more homework is not
an appropriate environment for tellingstudents to find out what they want and study iton their own.

1.59 Qu 4... It's the opposite of what yutori kyouiku is said to be. People tend to escapeto theeasier or more fun situation. The purpose oiyutori kyouiku might be connected toindependent learning but.. .1 don't think we are now following the principle oiyutori
kyouiku...When we had class on Saturdays,it was OK. We enjoyed life. Students will
study when they are forced to study a bit (chotto gurai yarasareteiru to iu kanji no hou
ga benkyo wa suru mono da).
One student said that the reduced school week meant pupils were not getting psychologicaland pastoral support:
1.54 Qu 4

On the surface (tatemaejou) it is supposed to be related but I don't think yutori isa good system, personally. True, as we have two days off we can go to learn aboutsociety but in reality we play games... Not only that, we have more classes per day,so
we have to study more. Also the psychological aspect of children should be covered(kodomotachi no seishinteki na men mo cabaa shita ika nakereba nara nai).

One student pointed out that it was difficult to change the style of teaching and learning towhich every one had become accustomed:
1.42 Qu 4

I think [yutori] is related [to independent study]. Because oi yutori, scores got lower.
This is becausebefore the yutori kyouiku system, the relations of teacher and student
were such that the teacher simply teaches, the student is just being taught. So changing
this systemsuddenly to yutori kyouiku doesn't change the students' passive attitude(ukemi noshisei) to being taught, and students don't know how to learn of their own
volition (mizukara manabu).

Others mentioned that many students attended juku (cram schools) on weekends tosupplement, which would make society unfairfor thosewho couldn't afford juku.
1.34 Qu 4... a part of the time previously spent at school is goingto be spent at home and thattime won't be spent on autonomous learning. To spend the time more effectively thestudent will go to juku then it will take more money than you needed before. So I thinkyutori kyouiku is important but equally important is to give education on how to use
your freedom (yutori).

This student identified herself in question 1 as "someone who doesn't have a goal."Yet she
was perceptive about the need for a framework for developing autonomy, perhaps because it
was the very thing her education lacked.More disturbing, three or four students felt that yutori
would create anti-social behavior:

1.47 Qu 4. ..Yutori kyouiku could contribute to the increase in juvenile crime (kodomotachi no hanzai).
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However, over half of the students who are aspiring teachers were more positive about

yutori. A few of the others also felt that yutori was working as intended:
1.26 Qu 4

Easy. I think it is connected and I thinkyutori kyouiku is very good. The reason is that
it will make students feel like studying, rather than the feeling of being very tense(literally, the spaceof being very tense: piripiri shisugita kuukan).

Among those who were more positive about yutori, there was still a feeling that as amethodology it needed fine-tuning.
1.2 Qu 4

I agree with yutori kyouiku. There are problems but integrated study is important.
People think it is a problem that yutori is lowering academic ability but I'd like people
to find some improving measures to make yutori better than it is now. For example
the class should be smaller for example, less than thirty. Fifty is too many. But this isalso connected with a money problem. Youcould leave this to each prefecture. But I'dlike people to work on it. I agree with yutori kyouiku because I think it will bring out
students' potential (kanousei).
This student made an interesting distinction between apparent autonomy and realautonomy.

1.2 Qu 6

In yutori kyouiku they say students are really constructing the class and at first glance
it looks like the students are taking the initiative but actually the teachers are leadingthem into it, so in the end both the students and the teachers are making the class.

She doesn't regard this as a bad thing, as elsewhere in her answers she is in favour oi yutori
kyouiku. She is describing what could be called the scaffolding for autonomy.
Student insights into the relationship between autonomy and yutori kyouiku

Students seemed to have various ways of understanding "independent study." In some cases
they associated it simply with studying to pass a test rather than studying for the joy of doing
so or to develop one's own ideas. Two students said that the willto do this could not be taught
and did not need to be taught in school, as it would arise naturally from "experience." It wasinteresting that these two did not see the classroom as a facilitating framework for this kind ofexperience. But both of them were firmly in favour oi yutorikyouiku.
1.20 Qu3

Being an autonomous learner is not a thing to be taught at school. Those who want
to study more should be autonomous. For those who don't want to study introducing
autonomous learning strategies doesn't mean anything.
1.20 Qu4

I think yutori kyouiku is very good. If you have class from Monday through Saturday
you won't have time for even reviewing. I think it may be important to have time ofyour own.

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1.26 Qu 5

Not need for it [autonomy] to be taught. I think that is something you will not acquireby being forced. Rather I think you will acquire it through various experiences.

Another student was critical oi yutori kyouiku but suggested that it was beneficial forchildren's social development.
2.4Qu4

Japanese students have definitely lessknowledge now because oi yutori kyouiku. Butthat hour oi yutori increases their opportunities to get in touch with the community solearning ability as social power (shakai ryoku toshite nogaku ryoku).

5.When do students think autonomous learning should be introduced?

The majority of students who answered (over 37) thought that autonomous learning should be
introduced at elementary school. Many expressed the idea that children were impressionable
and so it would be beneficial for them to pick up the habit of actively engaging with theirlearning at an early age.
1.45 Qu 5

If [elementary school children] learn autonomous learning while they have noknowledge about it, they take that as natural, and even if they don't [consciously] thinkthat way it will become part of their habit.
One student referred to her own experience as a child:
1.58 Qu 5

I did independent learning when I was at elementary school. We were allowed to study
anything but we had to show the teacher our notes. At the beginning I didn't knowwhat to do so I repeatedly did a calculation drill that I wasn't good at. Since we wereshowing our notes to the teacher, this kind of learning can't be said to be perfectly
independent, but because of this system I did a little independent learning at juniorhigh. For these reasons I think it should be introduced at elementary school.
One first year student had a very clear idea of how to stimulate children's learning:
1.27 Qu 5.. .First the elementary pupils should be given enough time for thinking. Then at thevery last, the teacher will give examples. It's important that it should be introduced
after the pupils practiced their own ideas first, because if it's introduced first then thechildren will be biased {senyukan ni torawerete) and that introduction will hamper
their imagination.

However, 18 students thought that junior high was a more appropriate level to start thinking
about autonomous learning. Here is one response typical of that group:
1.2 Qu 5Autonomous learning should be introduced at junior high because doing a good job inwhat one is told to do or things given is a base of group work in society. So this training

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should start at junior high...
Eleven said autonomous learning should be introduced at senior high. Many of this groupconnected autonomy with the added motivation that comes when students think about their
future job or university entrance. There seemed to be a correlation between these students'
conception of autonomy as simply "studying on one's own,"and their feeling that it was
inappropriate for younger students.
6. Who do students think should control the class?

Question 6 is about the balance of power in the class.This seems to me a crucial aspect ofautonomy in the classroom and therefore the most important question of the whole survey.
When I discussed this issue with one colleague, he told me, "Students want to be told what todo." However, the students' replies showed that this is not always the case:

Question 6. Who do you think should control the class? Who should make decisions
such as "who should go in the same group"? "what are we going to study?" The teacher?
The students? Or both teacher and students together?
Teacher

Both (or "depends on age")

Students

Teacher trainees

Other

Teacher trainees

Other

Teacher trainees

Other

4

6

8

11

42

30

Total= 10

Total=19

Total=72

This question produced more consensus than any other. Seventy-two gave variations on theanswer "the students and teacher should work out together what to do." Many students thoughta teacher should provide the initial framework for the class and some of the energy to move it
forward:1.86 Qu 6

The teacher should move the class on, but the students should give their opinions.
1.68 Qu 6

The teacher should offer many choices and students should choose from between
them.

1.70 Qu 6[The class should be] student-centered. The teacher should take students' opinions into
consideration, and balance them, and decide the content and the groups.
A couple had experienced being consulted by their teachers over classroom issues:
1.12 Qu 6

First the teacher should express what they want to do and propose their plan then theyshould ask if the students have a different opinion. The problem is it's difficult for them

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to tell teachers if they want different content or method directly so they should write
something on a paper without names and make a box for the letter. Actually when I
was a high school student we did this. As for groups first the students should decide. Ifthey can't then the teacher should do it, but respecting the students' opinions.

There was a degree of consensus that teacherswere responsible for the initial planning, but
students were responsible for providing some of the energy to "move the class forward" and forproviding modifications to the plan. Responses were divided as to who should make decisions
about groups, and who should "lead,"with many wanting the teacher to take responsibility.
1.10 Qu 6

The teacher should control, when choosing groups, if the students are reluctant to
do it. In the beginning, the teacher should decidewhat and how to study and thenafterwards ask the students.

Eleven said that the students should have the most sayin conducting the class (two of these
specified "at university" however). Only 10 said that the teacher should be the main source ofcontrol.

1.77 Qu 6

At first I thought both but the teacher has a higher level of English and should know
better than students how to do and what to do, so she should direct the students .. .if

the class is interesting, students will have a strong will to learn of themselves (Mizukara
manabu).

Relevant here is the distinction Earl Stevick makes between "control" and "initiative" (1980,p.17)4. Stevick divides control into two aspects, first, structuring of the learning activities,
and second, giving information about how a student's performance approximates to that of anative speaker. He believes that the teacher should exercise control when defined in this way,
but suggests the desirability of structuring the class in such a way that students can take theinitiative:

The "control" provided by the teacher may lead the students to exercise their"initiatives" in ways that involve cooperation and mutual interdependence...improv[ing] the likelihood that a feeling of community will arise within the class(Stevick, 1980, p.26).
One inference that can be tentatively drawn from the replies to the questionnaire is that
although students may not show from their behavior that they would like a larger share in theovert decision-making process in the classroom, it seems that the majority in this sample would
indeed like a bigger share. I had anticipated a correlation between favorable attitudes to yutori
kyouiku and the belief that students should take a part in controlling the class, but this did notmaterialize.

7. What do students in this sample think about being evaluated by tests?
Question 7 probes the respondent's degree of sophistication in terms of educational experienceand theory, as well as the extent to which they accept the existing status quo. In the wider
context of the debate about education, testing has been seen as being responsible for an alleged
lack of autonomy in Japanese students:

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The selection-oriented, competition-based education system virtually killed all self
expression, individuality, creativity and critical thinking (Horio, 1988, p.337, cited in
Yoneyama, 1999, p.147).

The issue of assessment is deeply connected with autonomy because learning to evaluate
oneself is part of functioning as an autonomous learner. The respondents to the pilot survey
were all university students. As such, the majority were veterans of the test-orientated school
system, and could be expected to have strong views about it.

Question 7. "Exams are a fair and accurate way to assess students." Do you agree? Whyor why not? Have you experienced other methods of assessment such as continuous
assessment? If you have,which methods did you prefer?
In favour of exams

In favour of multiple shortexams plus other methods

Not in favour of exams

Teacher trainees

Other

Teacher trainees

Other

Teacher trainees

Other

18

12

14

16

26

6

Total= 30

Total=30

Total=32

Of those who answered, about two thirds felt that exams were unfair if used as the solemethod of assessment, while about one third thought exams were useful if combined withother methods such as reports and average grades for participation. This reflects the fact thata growing number of university teachers are using continuous assessment, whether by giving
multiple short tests or other "packages."
1.25 Qu 7

Many Japanese students wouldn't study at all unless they had a test. On the other handa test gives a feeling of being forced to study so the students will just learn by rotewith no understanding. So tests aren't a good method either. Grading by turning in
assignments and attendance [is an alternative]. I experienced it in one class.
Five students said they had never experienced alternative methods of assessment. Of thosein favour of tests, the most articulate justified their views by saying that tests were needed toprovide a motivation for study. The following student's answer reflects her acceptance that tests
are part of an established order almost like the changing seasons:1.19 Qu7

I hate all tests but there should be tests so the (meri hari ne) tempo of relaxation andtension is kept... If the students are evaluated only by average, then the atmosphere
will be too relaxed (darakeru). After the final test then the long vac(ation) is easy tounderstand and the joy of the end of term is bigger I think.

It is interesting that she perceives"being relaxed" as negative for study. Similarly one of theteachers I interviewed, a juku teacher, reported that although he remembered little from theswotting done in his university entrance exam days, he felt the experience had been valuable
because he had learned more than if he had not been forced to push his boundaries. In contrast
he remembered clearly information learned while studying for a presentation at elementary

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school. But it was not possible for him to perceive that experience as equally valuable ineducational terms.

Five students expressed the idea that a good grade needs to reflect a students' attendance andcooperation rather than simply their academic performance.
1.21 Qu 7

It's unforgivable only to evaluateby test. If someone who never attended got higher
marks in the exam while someone who never missed a class got a low score, it would be
unfair.

One student mentioned that tests were unfair because they only measure performance on
a givenday, which might be the most obvious answer mentioned by students in the West.
But several feltthat there werethingsthat could not be measuredby tests. This feeling wasparticularly noticeable amongst those who aspired to be teachers.
2. 8 Qu 7

I agree [with exams]. But to assess students only by exams is wrong. There are abilities
that cannot be assessed by exams.
The most passionate writing came from a firstyear student, already quoted above:
1.2 Qu 7

I have been evaluated only by tests. On the surface exams look the best, simplestandclearest wayto measure students' power. However becauseI have been processedonly
as a piece of data and numbered I came to think that other evaluations are needed.

I think that children don't look as if they are thinking much but actually they arethinking about many things by themselves for example, take electricity. From theparents' point of view "Youleft it on again,"from the children's point of view "I left
it on because the light collected a lot of insects outside the window."Therefore byevaluation each child's sensitivity and perception or process of making an effort, willencourage children to study more and growappreciation in them, so they feel they arebeing watched over. That will make a real connection with teachers.
This student wrote elsewhere that she wanted to become a teacher. Her answer shows that

she is sensitive to the issue of invisible or "covert" participation.Shetakes an example fromhome life rather than school, but her example highlights the differences in thinkingbetween
the adults whose priorityis to save money, and the child, whose priority is not to getstung.This
example makes a neat metaphor if wefollow it through.The child is apparentlypassive but
actually watchful and engaged. Children's underlying reasoning often remains unarticulated andunnoticed by adults.The student draws our attention to the marginalization of those who are
not holders of power. Atschool there are similar issues of power and the need for the powerful torespect the views of those lowerthan themselves in the hierarchy. Yoneyama cites several cases inwhich discipline problems were exacerbated by the teachers' refusal to listen to the students:

Teachers punished them when they tried to explain whythey misbehaved. Only
one asked them why (Kamata, 1984, cited in Yoneyama, 1999, pp.67-8).
Asking whyand listening deeply to the answer could bringabout a real connection. Institutionalized
testing, forthestudentquotedabove and manyothers, isperceived asan instrumentof hierarchicalmanipulation, which, althoughsometimes necessary, isdeleterious to real connection.
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What kind of understanding of learner autonomy is revealed from student
responses t o the questionnaire?

Even researchers on the subject of autonomy sometimes talk in terms of a journey from a"false" understanding to a "true" understanding of autonomy (Stewart, 2003, p.48). We could
expect the students to be influenced by the examples in the questionnaire and by the way thesewere presented by the teacher. One factor which came across clearly from many of the replies
was the growth some students had experienced due to the methods and beliefs of their teacher.
While for some, their idea of autonomy is restricted to doing routine actions without being
told, others reveal a more complex and helpful idea of autonomy developing from personal
growth and interaction with others:
1.41 Qui

Individual study seems to generate in people's relationship/interaction (tsukiai) andinformation within a group. There is no individual study without a clear target.
1.49 Qu 2

There must be some people, like me, who don't want to be taught, but will lose interest
even more when we are told. Therefore when I see my friends making efforts to be
independent, I might make the same effort and then when I study what I want to study,
it will lead to being independent.
The teacher who taught these students told me she made a point of discussing teachers' andstudents' roles with the class early in the course. She pointed out that the teacher generally has
more experience but is in no way intrinsically superior to the students. Some of the student
responses show that they absorbed this way of looking at the roles of teacher and students:
1.45 Qu 6

I felt the teaching side also have to learn from the point [made by the] being taught
side (oshierugawa mo oshierarerugawa no shiten kara gakushuu shiteika nai to ikenai toomotta).

A few of the students seemed to interpret autonomy as being selfish or childish. The
following comment was uniquely pessimistic:
1.46 Qu 4

In the long term there won't be many environments where I can choose what I wantand by doing my own things I could be a nuisance to the people around. Giving yutori
kyouiku at an early stage won't be a good influence in life.
This student's comment recalls the debate about "Moral Education" in Japanese elementary schools. In Japanese Moral Education Past andPresent Kahn (1997) suggests that, "Theappearance of Western style individuality is for outside consumption" (1997, p.132). He assertsthat the Japanese government wants to be seen as encouraging individualism by the West, whilestill adhering to Confucian values, according to which the group takes precedence, for use
inside Japan. One example he gives is of an elementary school textbook which shows a pictureof rabbits playing gamesin the park, pickingthe flowers and trampling the flower-beds (bad),while the human children sit neatly on their rug (good). The lesson is,"Do not be a nuisanceto others" (Kahn, 1997, p.141). This student seemed to have learned that lesson all too well.
Her response reminds us that Moral Education is one of the controversial elements which is
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likely to be strengthened when the Fundamental Law of Education is revised. Given the context
of wider social change such as the aging population and the changing employment markets
which mean that jobs are no longer guaranteed for life, this generation of students is faced witha particularly pressing need to work out a compromise between individual autonomy and theclaims of society.

Conclusion: to keep asking questions
Carrying out this pilot survey of students' opinions about educational issues produced diverse
answers, many of which showed unexpected insight into the development of autonomy. The
students' self-imagewas by and large not passive, their attitudes were often vigorously andthoughtfully critical of the status quo. At a time when Japan is changing and the generation
gap widening faster than ever before, it seems important to be wary of essentializing
Japanese culture and systems pertaining to it, even when official discourse invites us to do
so. In a field study of Japanese identity, the anthropologist, Sugie Takeyama Lebra notes
many of her interviewees have spoken about the generality of Japanese culture while statingthat they themselves were exceptional (Lebra, 2004, p.258). The prevalence of such "selfexceptionalisation" seems to throw into doubt the whole project of creating cultural constructs
generalized across a nation without regard for age or regional difference. I hope that by asking
students for their opinions about their learning and their autonomy, we can create more space
for a future which is not pre-determined by the stereotypes of the past.
Notes

1. David Silverman's account of tabulating qualitative data was helpful. See Silverman, 2001,
p.41 andpp.48-50.
2. The text-book used was Language Hungry! by Tim Murphey The book is a guide toautonomous learning strategies that can be implemented by the student on their own,such as listening to music, and adopting a positive attitude, risk-taking and so on. Students
were asked to choose a chapter of the book which they would read in a group. This work
continued over several weeks as students struggled to understand the book and in manycases translated it together. Eventually they did a presentation based on their chapter, tothe other students of the class. The presentation formed part of their grade, together withgrades from a mid-term and final test and one assignment. Several students mentioned the
textbook in their questionnaire answers.
3. Changes in the school timetable and curriculum were phased in between 1992 and 1998,
but the exact pattern varied from school to school. Some private schools did not reduce thetargets to be learned, which may account for the comments made by one student thatyufon
became "cramming."
4. Many thanks to Brad Deacon for suggesting that I read Stevick on this topic.

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Critical Reader Response i

Naoko Aoki, Osaka University
I am a teacher educator. I have been telling my students to try to understand learners incontext, both in their personal history and in the socialworld they currentiy live in. Ellen's
noble effort to understand Japanese university students reminds me of many issues that mystudents and I face in our practice. First comes language. Many language learners do not havethe capacityto talk or write about issues teacher-researchers are interested in. Evenwith very
advanced learners, what they say in their second language may not be the same as what theywould sayon the same topic in their first language (Pavlenko, 2006). This is an area in whichteacher-researchers who share their first language with learners have far more advantage thannative speaker teacher-researchers. Native speaker teacher-researchers haveto either makedo with whatever learners offer in their second language or rely on an interpreter unless they

speakthe learners' first language, which makes claiming trustworthiness of data and single
authorship problematic. Secondcomes experience. Even if a teacher-researcher shares thefirst language with her learners, she often belongs to social groups different from those of thelearners in terms of age, gender, and social class, for example. Understanding someone's lived
experience requires bracketing (van Manen, 1990), or shelving one's own beliefs and frame ofthinking. This is easilysaid, but difficult to implement. An insight into the learners' lifeworldoften unexpectedly comes from something a learner does or says out of the research context.
Research, however, cannot rely on serendipity. We need some mechanism in our research
process to ensure that we are not trapped by our preconceptions. A long-term involvementwith research participants, rapport, semi-structured interviews which allow participants
to talk beyond the original questions a researcher poses, analyzing data not according topredetermined theoretical categories but by starting with it to create categories as groundedtheory recommends (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), and getting researchers' interpretation checkedby research participants all contribute to that purpose. I know Ellen speaks Japanese. If she had
sat down with a group of students who she is close to, talked through her questions in Japanese,and analysed the discourse of their talk not according to her questions but according to thestudents' perspectives, I wonder if the findings would have been different.

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Critical Reader Response 2

Steve Davies

Reading Ellen's thought-provoking paper, I was reminded of the results of a different surveythat was designed to find out what, exactly, a sample of junior high school students enjoyed
the most about their English lessons. Somewhat surprisingly, instead of the predicted, "group
work," or "talking in English," the majority of these students wrote that their favorite activity
was, "copying English words from the blackboard." Similarly, Ellen's data, drawn from a large
sample of students, reveals a startlingly perspicacity about the difficulty of reconciling thebasic premise of autonomy (as Ellen defines it) - "being able to decide what I want to learn,
and planning how to learn it" - with the constraints of the exam-driven, pressure-cooker
Japanese school system. Indeed, many of her respondents voice a distinct uneasiness about
too radical a re-distribution of power in the classroom; preferring, instead, a more flexible
approach in which teachers lead, but crucially acknowledge the voices of their learners in thedecision-making process. Perhaps, we might envisage this process as part of the interlanguageof autonomy, part of a developing learner awareness that both sustains and resists change.
Nevertheless, despite this acceptance of the need for more negotiated learner outcomes, yutori
kyoiku, the government initiative that aims to liberalize education, provoked mixed reactions
among her respondents. Significantly, many of them felt that the policy, rather than creating
more freedom to pursue individual learning targets, simply resulted in more instruction during
the week to make up for lost time at the weekend. In addition, there was an acknowledgementthat unmotivated learners might use any free time to play rather than to study. This, in turn,suggests the need for more focused training in the use of learning tools - such as journals - thatcan be used to encourage more effective time-management skills and to establish a goal-setting
agendum. In closing, Ellen's effective entextualization of learner voices, skillfully woven into areflexive research narrative, stimulates critical reflection rather than concrete conclusions - andthis seems particularly appropriate given the disputed nature of her key constructs - autonomy
and education reform.

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