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Teachers without borders? Supporting minoritized youth and grassroots struggle for justice

Tue, March 27, 8:00 to 9:30am, Hilton Reforma, Floor: 4th Floor, Don Emiliano

Proposal

Teachers across the globe engage in day-to-day struggles for the rights of minoritized youth, often with support from teacher unions and community-led groups. This paper profiles one such teacher, a third generation zainichi Korean permanent resident in Japan, working in Osaka.
The paper sets her account of her life and work within the historical and socio-political context of Korean residents in Japan, addressing the official measures that prevent them from claiming equal rights with their Japanese counterparts (Chee, 1983; Hester, 2008). It considers the structural position of teachers of Korean heritage (Aoki, 2000, Hester, 2000) and traces the development of far-right, populist groups that practice hate speech online and in communities, often targeting schools (Ito, 2014; Yamaguchi, 2013).
I am interested in the meanings the teacher attaches to her own work. As researcher, I am engaging in self-reflection and ‘bearing witness’ (Hansen, 2017) to her life and work. This paper considers how international human rights standards can support struggles for justice in education from the grassroots (Author, 2016; Author et.al, 2010), drawing on learning from ongoing struggles in Japan for ethnic Korean education. It examines the motivations and perspectives of the profiled teacher, situating her work within a specific historical, socio-political and cultural context, to explore the degree to which a discourse and practice of human rights may support students, particularly those with transnational identities.
My interest is in contributing to an inclusive theory and practice of multicultural education and citizenship education appropriate for our global age, one which builds solidarities across differences between people in local communities, within nations and beyond the borders of nations, as part of a cosmopolitan project (Appiah, 2007; Author, 2016; Author et.al, 2003, 2005) but which is also cognisant of teachers’ work. The teacher profile is used to explore why and how citizenship needs to extend its vision of social justice. This is a primary reason building a narrative of a teacher with a transnational heritage.
The paper considers how minoritized teachers inform the education community’s understandings of equity and justice in schools and communities by drawing on their life experiences. It discusses ways in which issues of power, status, ethnicity, and other characteristics impact on the teacher’s work, and how citizenship rights are granted in differential ways. These considerations are crucial in shaping the design of citizenship education.
The teacher profiled presents a cosmopolitan vision and advocates a world without borders. Her vision is nevertheless firmly rooted in the struggles of the Korean minority in Japan. She demonstrates how an exclusively national citizenship education is increasingly redundant.
The teacher’s narrative highlights how professional and political commitments may coincide. Despite structural inequalities, she empowers students to claim their rights. Through the curriculum, she challenges asymmetrical power relations and hate speech, presenting a complex narrative of twentieth century Japanese history and ethnic Koreans in Japan. She offers youth a cosmopolitan vision, to meet the challenges of global citizenship. By recognising both ethical and political dimensions of her role, she provides a solid foundation in empowering youth from mainstream and marginalised communities to work for a just society at all scales from local to global.
References
Aoki, E. (2000). Korean children, textbooks, and educational practices in Japanese primary schools. In: S. Ryang (Ed.), Koreans in Japan: Critical voices from the margins (pp.157-176). London & New York: Routledge.
Appiah, K. A. (2007). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers. New York & London: Norton.
Chee, C-I (1983). Japan’s post-war mass denationalization of the Korean minority in international law, The Korean Journal of Comparative Law, 10, pp.19-52.
Hansen, D.T. (2017) Bearing witness to teaching and teachers, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 49:1:7-23.
Hester, J. T. (2000). Kids between nations: ethnic classes in the construction of Korean identities in Japanese public schools (pp.175-196). In: S. Ryang (Ed.) Koreans in Japan: Critical voices from the margins. London & New York: Routledge.
Hester, J.T. (2008). Datsu Zainichi-ron: an emerging discourse on belonging among ethnic Koreans in Japan (p. 144-150). In H. H. Nelson, J. Ertl , R. Tierney & R. Kenji (Eds.), Multiculturalism in the new Japan: Crossing the boundaries within. Berghahn Books.
Ito, K. (2014). Anti-Korean sentiment and hate speech in the current Japan: a report from the street. 4th International Conference on Sustainable Future for Human Security, Procedia Environmental Sciences, 20, 434-443.
Author (2016).
Author (2017).
Author et al. (2003).
Author et al. (2005).
Author et al. (2010).
Yamaguchi, T. (2013). Xenophobia in action: ultranationalism, hate speech and the Internet in Japan, Radical History Review, 117, 98-118.

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