Beyond Orientalism in comparative education: challenging the binary opposition between Japanese and American education

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

Abstract This article challenges the common-sense observation that Japanese and American education have been moving in “opposite directions” in recent times. Drawing on postcolonial discourse studies and cultural studies, the article extracts from this observation an Orientalist binary epistemology that continues to set discursive limits on the way Japanese and American observers make sense of each other's education. It is argued that the predominance of this Orientalist binary paradigm in comparative discussions of Japanese and Anglo-American education has resulted in the unfortunate lack of scholarly efforts to take full account of the common global structural changes in education driven by neo-liberal and neo-conservative impulses. As a crucial step towards the critical, reflexive engagement with the continuing colonial legacy, this article proposes a structurally oriented research paradigm that enables us to discuss localised and nationalised differences in education changes within the common frame of global structural changes in economy, state and education. Keywords: Orientalismcultural politics of educationpostcolonial theoryJapanthe United States Notes 1. The curricular reform introduced a 5-day school week and an Integrated Study Period (sōgō gakushūno jikan). Also, the reform further decreased instructional hours and streamlined curricular content for the first 9 years of compulsory education. According to the spokesperson of the reform, these measures had three chief objectives: (1) to shift the focus onto the development of children's ability to learn and think independently, (2) to de-emphasise rote memorisation, and (3) to reduce pressure in children's lives (Terawaki, 2001 Terawaki, K. 2001. 21 seiki no gakko: yutori kyoiku no honshitsu wa koreda. [Schooling for the 21st century: This is the essence of yutori education], Tokyo: Shinchōsha. [Google Scholar]). 2. I borrow this expression from Andy Green's (2000) article. 3. In non-western nations, including Japan, domestic discussion and analysis of the nations' education are necessarily “comparative” because they constantly assess their own educational system with reference to the “global standard” – namely, the latest educational trends in the United Kingdom and United States. This speaks to the fact that educational comparison is necessarily mired in a particular power relationship between nations. For advanced western nations, education in “other” nations is “a subject of anthropological interest … but not the substance from which lessons can be applied at home” (Cummings, Beauchamp, Ichikawa, Kobayashi, & Ushiogi, 1986, p. 297). 4. The conservative crisis-and-success narrative has its critics: see Berliner and Biddle (1995 Berliner, D.C. and Biddle, B.J. 1995. The manufactured crisis: Myths, fraud, and the attack on America's public schools, Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books. [Google Scholar]), Bracey (1996 Bracey, G.W. 1996. International comparison and the condition of American education. Educational Researcher, 25: 5–11. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 2004 Bracey, G.W. 2004. Setting the record straight: Responses to misconceptions about public education in the US, 2nd ed., Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. [Google Scholar]), Buras (1999 Buras, K. 1999. Questioning core assumptions: A critical reading of and response to E.D. Hirsch's ‘The schools we need and why we don't have them’. Harvard Educational Review, 69: 67–93. [Google Scholar]) and Goetz (2002 Goetz, W.W. 2002. Ravitch and reform: Should Left Back be left back?. Teachers College Record, 104: 1204–1228. [Google Scholar]). Japanese critics and scholars ignore these criticisms and present the narrative as the truth. 5. Tobin's cautionary remark is of use here. He states: “When American (or Japanese) write that US high school students enjoy more class discussions, compose more original essays, and experience a more creative overall education than Japanese students, who suffer under their exam-dominated system, they are considering only the top quarter or third of US high schools and high school students” (1986, p. 209).