The question of how to create a common framework for teaching (a science of the art of teaching) has often been a topic of discussion. As a result of Lesson Study, such a framework has emerged in Japan for science education. Outside Japan, however, creating a common framework for teaching has appeared to be far from easy. This article focuses on…

This article aims to build a frame of reference to reconsider the meaning of knowledge in line with collective value formation and to regain lost popular knowledge in comparison with paternalistic or scientific knowledge. Following a brief introduction of Japanese social education and a critical/creative review of Freire's concept of…

Claims regarding Western neo-colonial domination over scholarship in Comparative and International Education (CIE) have recently commanded much attention -- for example in a 2017 special issue of the journal "Comparative Education Review" (CER) on the theme of 'contesting coloniality.' Stressing their marginal 'positionality,' the…

Drawing on the recent critiques of the global knowledge economy of social science research, this article explores possible ways in which the Japanese education research communities can reposition themselves in the wider international education research community. The premises of this discussion are that there exists a global structure of academic…

Neo-institutionalist theory of global "isomorphism", or so-called World Culture Theory (WCT), has been much debated in comparative education. One notable feature of the debate is that the vast majority of its participants belong to a handful of closely knit comparative education communities. Ironically enough then, a debate that…

During the Second World War, the Luftwaffe ran a maximum security prisoner of war (POW) camp called "Stalag Luft III," which imprisoned captured Allied air force servicemen. The story of the 1944 escape from Stalag Luft III is one of the most famous stories of the Second World War as described in the firsthand written account and…

This paper explores the convergence and divergence in the discourses and practices of comparative education in Japan, North America, and Greater China. Research demands, institutional settings, and social and historical background determine the nature of the research discussed and practiced in each place. Some particular patterns were identified…

The present paper explores the issue of writing in a foreign language as a pedagogic process that may produce a radical subjective transformation. Drawing on Bernstein's notions of the "pedagogic device" and "discursive gap," the paper explores the epistemic make-up of language and the way it has been normalised by academic and…

This article examines a case of what Olssen et al. (2004) call "managerial oppression" set in a faculty of international studies of a Japanese university. Japanese universities have, in recent times, been facing the financial pressures of a falling birthrate and dwindling enrolments. To remain solvent, some universities have had to…

Japan is known to be a country that manicures its socio-cultural borders. In this article I will examine discourses regarding openness, closedness and cultural diversity in relation to policies and practices that draw heavily on mythologies of English language as an inroad to greater openness and diversity. To do this I will examine two English…

This article challenges the common-sense observation that Japanese and American education have been moving in "opposite directions" in recent times. Drawing on postcolonial discourse studies and cultural studies, the article extracts from this observation an Orientalist binary epistemology that continues to set discursive limits on the…

Lesson study in Japan, the practice in which teachers work collaboratively and reflectively with colleagues on improving their classroom teaching, has recently attracted attention internationally as an effective means of teachers' professional development. Although lesson study is very useful for helping new teachers join the profession and for…