Discursive Constructions of Multiculturalism and Multicultural Education in Japan

• In Event: Foucault and Contemporary Theories: Virtual Session

Abstract

This study undertakes novel critical inquiry into pedagogies as reflected in the national textbooks and curriculums of Japan which is facing rapid demographic and immigration changes. Japan has embedded and transformed the concept of multiculturalism in its curriculums. The elastic nature of the immigrant and ideas of belonging in the face of globalization are explored in this study. Politics of multiculturalism inscribed in its system of reasoning in Japan are illuminated to indicate that discourses on multiculturalism and multicultural education engender inclusion and exclusion at the same time. This study finds that the Japanese version of “multiculturalism” makes a binary classification between the so-called Japanese people and foreigners.

Authors

• Jie Qi, Utsunomiya University
  Presenting Author

• Shengping Zhang, Meijo University
  Presenting Author