The attraction of international schools for Japanese parents living in Japan
This article investigates why parents in Japan would choose to place their children in an International School. The reason I have chosen it may seem obvious; my TAB placement is at an international school in Tokyo. Even before I arrived in Japan, I wondered why parents here would choose this type of school for their children. For example, it follows the Ontario guidelines for student learning. Is there something trendy or popular about Ontario’s curriculum I didn’t know about? Is there a benefit for students in Japan to follow a Canadian curriculum? Since starting my placement, I have had many new questions floating around in my head regarding the school, questions like how and why parents decided that this school – or any international school – is the correct choice for their child.
The principal of Columbia International School, my partner teacher, and several other teachers in the school have given a great deal of information about this school’s history and policies. Some of this information explains Columbia’s uniqueness as far as international schools are concerned. The owner’s personal story of adversity and triumph is extremely memorable, but I understand it is not likely the motive for other international schools in Japan. (The owner’s personal story is not something I feel comfortable sharing in this blog, sorry.) This research article helped fill in some of the blanks for me. It has helped explain the view of a sample population of Japanese parents by investigating and documenting each family’s motivation for choosing an international school.
Each pair of parents in the study was given a questionnaire with 16 statements. They were asked to respond by describing how important each factor in deciding to choose an international school. The study used a five-point scale, and also allowed participants to select “not important” or “cannot answer” as additional options. If they chose to respond to a statement with a number, 1=slightly important and 5=extremely important.
The reputation of the school
My children previously attended an international school abroad
The quality of the school facilities
A good impression when visiting the school
A desire for my children to have an international education
Dissatisfaction with Japanese Elementary Schools
Dissatisfaction with Japanese Junior High Schools
Dissatisfaction with Japanese High Schools
Small class sizes
The school’s record of examination results
A desire for my children to be educated in English
A desire for my children to attend college/ university abroad
The recommendation of parents of current or recent students at the school
The curriculum used in the school
I anticipate moving my family to another country
The size of the school
The results from this questionnaire not only surprised me, but surprised the author himself! From my prior conversations with experienced teachers at Columbia International School, I would have surmised that the most important factor on this questionnaire was “A desire for my children to be educated in English.” Having worked and taught in Japan before, I was given this impression time and time again. Learning English in Japan is prized, not only because of the long-term and slightly intangible benefit to the country’s economic strength, but also to the very short-term goals of high school and university entrance exams. There is a large push at almost every age level to have children in Japan become successful at English. I was really surprised to read the results of this study, which placed “A desire for my children to be educated in English” as the fourth most important factor!
The author of this article warns the reader that we must take into account the social and cultural context of these results, which is something which may actually help ultimately explain these results. The author also compares this study to similar studies done at international schools in different countries, noting significant differences, and makes an attempt at their probable causes. It is extremely interesting to note that Japanese parents’ response of placing “A desire for my children to be educated in English” at 4th place overall is lower than the result from similar studies that were done in Switzerland, Argentina, and Israel. Knowing the relative successes that some of these countries have in learning English – particularly Switzerland and Israel – it was even more surprising to me and the author to see the results of the questionnaire from Japanese parents.
The social context of Japan – as suggested by the author – offers other motivations for parents’ choices about an international education, and revealed to me some valuable ideas about the cultural gap that exists between what could broadly be called ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ societies. In the case of this study, Japanese parents ranked three other factors as more important than “A desire my children to be educated in English.” These three factors were:
1. A desire for my child to have an international education
2. A good impression when visiting the school
3. The curriculum used in the school
These three factors support another observation in the study; over 70% of responding parents – those who responded to the follow-up question(s) regarding their future plans and aspirations – planned to send their child for a post-secondary education overseas, instead of enrolling their children in Japanese universities. The author of this study connects what he calls these aspirational(sic) factors as a primary driving force, at the same time explaining why parents would rank “A desire for my children to be educated in English” relatively low.
When following up this questionnaire with personal interviews, the author of this study revealed another significant cultural influence upon this questionnaire’s outcome. Some of the mothers that the author interviewed were quoted as choosing international schools because of the opportunity to build “strong minds” or for a “thinking freedom” that isn’t supported within traditional Japanese public education. As I have heard and seen many times in my experiences in Japan, public schools generally enforce a uniform expectation from its students. Values such as creativity, open questioning from students, and general non-conformity are frowned upon, and at worst are the sources for exclusion and bullying. The author of this article lists cultural influences in the study’s preamble. He mentions that within Japan, there is a current and growing perception of Japanese education as failing in these areas, and by extension, hurting the potential of Japan’s future economic success. With the added testimony of some of this study’s participants, this perception is given much stronger credibility as a source of Japanese parents’ desire to have their children educated at an international school.
Works Cited
MacKenzie, P. (2009). The attraction of international schools for Japanese parents living in Japan. Journal of Research in International Education , 326-348.
It is interesting to think that a select few parents have moved away from the traditional method of education and found importance in helping their children in becoming free minded individuals. If someone had asked me to guess which of the survey questions was ranked the highest, I think I would have gone with your originally guess and picked, "A desire for my children to be educated in English."
ReplyDeleteI really do not know much about the Japanese culture, but from what I discovered in my TSOL course, learning English and teaching English in Japan is an entire business on its own. I was also surprised to find out how difficult it is to get a higher education and how dedicated students need to be toward theirs studies in order to archive.