Japanese Students’ Expectations of Minorities to “Cover” Their Differences: An Analysis of Student Learning in an Intercultural Education Course

• In Event: Access, Emergencies and Social Justice

Proposal

Introduction: With growing acceptance of diversity in many parts of the world in recent decades, minorities are less likely to be expected to change or hide their stigmatized traits. However, according to Yoshino (2006), they still live under pressure to downplay those traits to fit into dominant norms. Yoshino calls this assimilative pressure "covering demands" by drawing on Erving Goffman’s (1964) concept of "covering." Assimilation is often seen or practiced as an escape from discrimination, but as Yoshino contends, it is the effect of discrimination rather than an escape from it. Covering demands are dominant groups’ expression of their superiority over subordinated groups and deserve critical examination and dialogues.

The importance of teaching about power and privilege to students from privileged groups is increasingly recognized in Japan and elsewhere (Deguchi, 2016; Goodman, 2011). However, the issues of covering demands have received scant attention in educational research and practice.

Purpose: In this roundtable presentation, we present our preliminary analysis of students’ responses to a case study implemented in an intercultural training course at a leading Japanese university. After providing an overview of the course, we discuss how the students, who are predominantly Japanese, accept or justify covering demands placed on an ethnic minority character in the case scenario. Based on student comments in class, reflection papers, and follow-up interviews, we share our analysis of where their learning about privilege and inequality was stalled, and we invite the audience to share their insight for further development of our teaching and research.

Course: Intercultural Training for Future Educators is an undergraduate-level course at a national university located in a major provincial city in Japan. The course has been offered twice so far to 20-24 students from varying fields of study. Following classes on intercultural communication, the course introduces topics relating to power and privilege, including social position, Japanese privilege, discrimination, and education for social justice. Besides readings and lectures, the course incorporates many interactive and self-reflective activities.

The abovementioned case study is implemented in a later part of the course, in which students discuss the issues of privilege and inequality in intercultural contexts. Two classes are allocated to the case study activity.

Study and Preliminary Findings: We have compiled student comments on the case study from class discussions and short reflection papers written at the end of each class. We have examined those comments to understand how Japanese students view covering demands in the case study. Our preliminary analysis reveals their uncritical acceptance of covering demands as necessary for social unity, to protect minorities from discrimination, or to gain support from the Japanese, instead of questioning unequal power dynamics between the majority and minority groups. We are currently planning to interview some students and ask them to elaborate on how they applied their learning about power and privilege in class to the case study. In doing so, we week to find out how we can foster more critical learning and dialogues in the course.

Authors

• Hanae Tsukada, Hitotsubashi University

• Yuki Watabe, Tohoku University