2016 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Teaching and Representing Minority Issues in the Curricula: A Comparative Study of Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom
| Project/Area Number |
16K04621
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| Research Institution | International Christian University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
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| Keywords | Textbooks / Minorities / Sociology of Education |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Thus far in the research I have been able to hire a research assistant who copied and entered into a database social studies textbooks from Japan from 1989-2016. The materials have been coded based on minority groups, amount of information presented in texts, and the tone (neutral/historical/motivational, etc.) of the entries. The second element of the research is interviewing teachers in areas that serve particular minority groups. In this regard, I have been able to conduct preliminary interviews with teachers, and have received contact information for teachers in other areas, but I was not able to set up interviews for all of the areas I had hoped to. I have also purchased books on minority education in the US, the UK and Japan, along with sociology of education texts on politics and textbooks. I was also able to visit the US and conduct some preliminary archival research in the library of the school of education at Michigan State University in the United States. I was able to begin my writing, but at this point the materials remian too incomple to make any broader claims or share the work with a wider audience. I have also been networking with other academics (within Japan and elsewhere) at academic conferences to try to informally share the work.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
I have been able to hire a research assistant to help with the data collection and input. This has allowed me to focus on setting up the interviews and preparing to meet with the various teachers.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I will be going to the UK in September and have started setting up interviews there. I will start by gathering textbooks in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University and then travel to Manchester to interview teachers. Following this, I will be go to the US in January-March to do carry out that part of the research project.
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| Causes of Carryover |
I was not able to interview as many teachers as I had originally planned. As such, I did not encumber the costs of traveling. In addition, I did not purchase as many books as anticipated.
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| Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget |
I will be making use of the aditional funds to conduct the bulk of the research travel in the upcoming year. I will be going to the European Association of Japanese Studies in Lisbon, and then on to Manchester, UK, where I have been in contact with educational specialists and expect to hear soon on the dates/number of interviews.
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