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The purpose of the proposed presentation is to introduce case studies which aimed to investigate multicultural education practices in two different bilingual education programs, one in the United States and one in Japan. This presentation should particularly benefit conference attendees from with their various educational backgrounds and experiences: from curriculum specialists who develop multicultural education programs to teachers who deal with students from diverse cultural backgrounds.
These studies were conducted in a Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Education Program (JBBP) in California and an English Bilingual Immersion Program (EIP) in Shizuoka, Japan, in the 1998 academic year. The Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program (JBBP) in California consists of 30 % Japanese-speaking students and 70 % English-speaking students. The ethnic/ racial breakdown of the program is : 40 % Asian (including Japanese), 30% White, 11% Hispanic, 6% African American, and 14% Other (Inter-racial). The English Immersion Program (EIP) consists of 95 % Japanese students and 5% students from international / bicultural families. The researcher observed classes (K-6) for two months at each program in order to examine how students learn different cultures -- Japanese and North American culture -- from teachers who have either Japanese or American cultural backgrounds. Classroom activities and interactions between teachers and students were video-taped during the observation. In addition, eight students in the 5th grade from each program participated in interviews which asked about their perspectives of cultural diversity, and their attitudes toward cultures different than their own.
The results of this study indicated that the two schools have implemented very different approaches to teaching an appreciation of cultural diversity. In the JBBP in California, both Japanese- and English-speaking students study academic content in English, learn Japanese language, and celebrate cultural holidays from both Japan and the United States, such as New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King’s Birthday, Girls’ Day, Cherry Blossom Festival, Boys’ Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. Japanese cultural studies, such as ‘origami’(paper-folding), Japanese calligraphy, and traditional Japanese dance are integrated into the curriculum. Both Japanese and American teachers in the two-way bilingual program teach students in a similar way: dividing students into small groups, encouraging students to interact with other students and teachers, and reinforcing the students when they share their ideas. Although students in the JBBP are familiar with Japanese cultural holidays and Japanese traditional culture, they do not know how school children in Japan learn at school, even though the program has a number of Japanese students from Japan.
In the English immersion program (EIP) in Japan, on the other hand, Japanese and English teachers demonstrated different teaching dynamics in their classes. The students in the EIP learn math and science in English with a teacher from North America and language art and social studies in Japanese from a Japanese teacher. The English and Japanese classes in the EIP operate different ways; the American teachers have adopted cooperative, peer-oriented learning styles while the Japanese teachers tend to control all interaction between the students and teachers. The teachers in the EIP intentionally practice their own culture’s teaching styles because they expect their students to understand the cultural differences in learning environments. This variety of teaching styles among the teachers is reflected in the students’ learning styles and thinking processes. The students in the EIP in Japan learn to be flexible in coping with students who have different learning styles and with a variety of interactions between students and teachers other than their own. Most students in the 5th grade of the EIP participated in the 3-week home stay program in the US, which is organized by the school, and experienced learning with American children at public schools in Oregon. Although they found a number of differences between their school in Japan and the schools in the US, all of them said that they easily adjusted to the different system and enjoyed the different learning styles at the schools. In interviews, it was found that students in the EIP are aware of cultural differences in school contexts, and they show an appreciation of the differences.
In the presentation, I would like to generate a discussion to seek how we, educators, can introduce cultural differences into the classrooms, and how we can teach an understanding of multiculturism to students who are going to cope with a global community in the future. Multicultural education is no longer limited only to teaching cultural events and celebrating cultural holidays from different parts of the world.
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