Education for Social Justice in East Asia: Perceptions and Practices in Public Schools

Research Project

Project/Area Number	19K14096
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Basic Section 09010:Education-related
Research Institution	Kyushu University
Principal Investigator	陳思聡九州大学, 人間環境学研究院, 准教授 (80733162)
Project Period (FY)	2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
Project Status	Granted (Fiscal Year 2019)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000) Fiscal Year 2021: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000) Fiscal Year 2020: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000) Fiscal Year 2019: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Keywords	social justice education / citizenship education / public schools / East Asia / education policy / education practice / educational discourse
Outline of Research at the Start	This comparative research provides empirical evidence on education for social justice in schools in Japan, China and Taiwan. It explores two key questions: What are teachers’ perceptions of social justice? What are the objectives, approaches, strategies, and challenges about teaching social justice?
Outline of Annual Research Achievements	This project aims to investigate how social justice is interpreted and how social justice education is framed and practiced in East Asian contexts. In the first year, I conducted, firstly, an extensive literature review of social justice theories and research on social justice education and, secondly, a comparative study about social justice education in Japan and China. I also presented a paper based on the study at an international conference in August 2019. An updated version of the paper is currently under review by an international journal. I was able to carry out two fieldworks in this year. In the first fieldwork, I visited two public lower secondary schools in Taiwan, one of which featured education policy and practice that meet the purpose of this research and thus I plan to conduct further fieldwork in the second year. In the second fieldwork, I visited one public secondary school and interviewed a number of schoolteachers from several schools in China.
Current Status of Research Progress	Current Status of Research Progress 2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned. Reason In this year I was able to accomplish a solid literature review, a conference presentation, an academic article, two overseas fieldworks, all of which were in the original plan. But due to the coronavirus outbreak since early 2020, I was unable to conduct more overseas fieldwork to further collect data in the last months of this fiscal year.
Strategy for Future Research Activity	Because of the ongoing travel control due to the coronavirus outbreak, it is uncertain whether and when I can continue my overseas fieldwork in the second year. Also, because of the disruption brought by the outbreak to schools in Japan, it is uncertain when I can start my fieldwork in Japanese public schools. I will resume overseas and domestic fieldworks once conditions allows, while continuing to update the review of relevant literature.