Centre for Tertiary Teaching & Learning

The aim of this paper is to examine the perspectives of Japanese university students on issues related to intercultural citizenship. The paper comprises four sections. The first section introduces the historical and social contexts of cultural citizenship in Japan, providing a background for the subsequent discussion. The second section aims to set intercultural citizenship within a framework of other available citizenships, using grounded theory to extrapolate a theoretical explanation from definitions provided by students. The third section focuses more specifically on student concepts of the nature and implications of intercultural citizenship. The final section briefly examines the forces which influence the development of cultural citizenship, focusing particularly on the role of education.

The aim of this paper is to examine the various links between national education/national identity and cosmopolitan citizenship in the sphere beyond schools. After discussing the concepts and purview of formal national education and cosmopolitan citizenship, the possible relationships between the two will be examined. It will be argued that in an age of globalization, national education for the general public has a duty to at least co-exist with, and ideally serve the purpose of, cosmopolitan citizenship. Theories as well as empirical examples will be used to support this argument.

In March 2011, a triple earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster rocked northeastern Japan. In this article, the impact of these three disasters on schools, teachers and children will be analysed, with a particular focus on the role of teachers in saving lives and leading communities, and the role of schools as sites and agents of community and citizenship in the disaster situation. The article is structured around four themes, namely, the role of school leaders and teachers, the role of schools as sites of community, changing media representations of children and communities in the wider national context, and the birth of global citizenship as a meaningful concept. Primary data from visits to schools in Miyagi Prefecture and Fukushima Prefecture in Japan in July 2011 and December 2011 are combined with analysis of secondary sources written in Japanese to paint a clear picture of the different roles served by teachers and schools at different points in time during and after the disasters. This provides insights not only into postdisaster communities, but also into the role of teachers and function of schools as agents and sites of community and citizenship in Japanese society.