The challenge of Equity for Foreign-National Students in Internationalization in Japan

• In Event: Internationalization of education in Japan: challenges and opportunities

Proposal

Internationalization has been a prevalent movement in Japan since the rapid expansion of foreign domestic workers due to declining birthrate and increasing aging population (Boocock, 2011). The primary objective of internationalization is to foster elite leaders and global citizens who have flexible and broad perspectives (MEXT, 2017). The reforms include endorsing study abroad programs and implementing the English curriculum in the Courses of Study. In 2013, primary schools mandated an English-speaking class once per week to stimulate children’s interest toward global citizens (MEXT, 2014). Internationalization reforms in Japan appear to be focusing on mainly Japanese students though foreign-national students still need to enhance their Japanese literacy. The purpose of this literature review is to examine the equity of education that foreign-national students encounter in internationalization educational reforms.
Since the Japanese constitution does not accept immigrants, foreign nationals refer to people who do not have Japanese nationality (Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, 2014). Many foreign-national students lack Japanese literacy and are unable to speak Japanese (Burgess, 2011; Kanno, 2003). As a result, they will be left behind in school. The Japanese as a Second Language (JSL) curriculum has developed in 2001 (MEXT, 2001) and was officially applied to schools where eleven foreign-national populated cities among five prefectures in 2007 (MEXT 2010). The similar curriculum for those students has been implemented in twelve prefectures in 2017 (MEXT, 2018 b). In May 2014, 6,137 public schools recognized enrollment of foreign-national students who need JSL instructions, which has increased by 6.5 percent (373 schools) from 2012 (MEXT, 2016). Although the number of foreign-national populated schools has increased, the rate of implementation of the JSL curriculum has decreased from 86 percent in 2012 to 82 percent in 2014 (Ibid). Not only the implementation rate, but also the quality of qualified teachers was scarce. The MEXT report (2016) notes that only few schools (four percent) emphasize the importance of teacher improvement for the JSL curriculum.
On the other hand, English education for Japanese students has become a part of the Courses of Study (MEXT 2016). In 2018, 92.1 percent of public elementary schools have implemented English classes or activities (MEXT 2018 a). Consequently, internationalization reforms allow Japanese students to have opportunities to become global individuals. They are able to advance their English proficiency in Japanese education, while foreign-national students have less opportunities and face challenges improving their Japanese proficiency. The challenge of internationalization reforms is to reduce gaps of equity in education between Japanese and foreign-national students.
In order to reduce the gap of educational equity, fundamentally, increasing the implementation rate of JSL instructions and providing qualified teachers will support foreign-national students’ literacy. Since 2013, the board of education in the various cities and prefectures has been conducting seminars and case studies for supporting foreign-national students. In 2014, the government started a special track program in public schools for those students. Though these efforts may provide positive views in terms of equity in education, the gaps of equity may still be the main challenge.

Author

• Minako McCarthy, Educational Foundations at University of Hawaii at Manoa