Browsing by Author "Bamkin, Sam"
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Item Metadata only Approaching Japanese education in the undergraduate curriculum(2014-08-07) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only Data into words(2013-01-18) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only Doing curriculum reform in Japan: how are new teaching practices developed and disseminated through public schools?(Japanese Studies Association of Australia, 2023-09-03) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only Doing curriculum reform: what allows expert practitioners to mediate policy enactment in Japan?(World Education Research Association, 2023-11-22) Bamkin, SamThis presentation considers the role of professional (educational/pedagogic) knowledge in the enactment of policy during neoliberal times. Education policymaking in Japan, like elsewhere, is changing. Over the past twenty years, the central government has displaced the Ministry of Education as the driver of education policy, including most recently in curriculum policy. However, in Japanese curriculum reform, professional knowledge continues to inform how policy is understood and enacted on the ground, alongside the imperative for performative enactment. My recent research, based on two years’ fieldwork in and around eight schools, questionnaire survey data, textbook databases and elite interviews, shows that expert practitioners can leverage this knowledge to mediate how curriculum policy is enacted in compulsory education. This presentation re-examines these findings from a comparative perspective to consider the particular structural mechanisms in the policymaking process and education system of Japan that facilitate the operation of professional knowledge in policy enactment, and how they are changing. It further comments on the extent to which the Japanese data questions the universality of well-established theory of ‘policy work’ (e.g. Stephen Ball and colleagues, 2012) grounded in data collected in the Anglo-American contexts.Item Metadata only Doing Moral Education: Between State Policy and School Practice(Association for Asian Studies (USA), 2022-03-25) Bamkin, SamMoral education is one of the most controversial areas of Japanese education, and has recently been the subject of reform part of a suite of nation-building policies. However, the basis of knowledge about moral education based on policy studies overlooks the agency and political awareness of teachers and school administrators, who combine scepticism, indifference and appreciation toward aspects of moral education, experienced as everyday practice. Whilst policy debates, curriculum and textbook represent a mature body of research, even baseline studies of moral educating in the classroom or grounded in the teacher's room are scarce. This individual paper explores how teachers and school administrators make sense of moral education and its reform in the space between policy and practice. It aims to better understand (1) what changes are made to moral education practice locally, and how does this compare to the expectations of national policy; (2) how teachers mediate the implementation of national moral education reforms; (3) the changing roles of the boards of education and Ministry of Education in policy enactment; and (4) the theoretical implications for moral education and policy enactment.Item Metadata only Doing moral education: how schools enact curriculum reform in a contentious subject(British Association for Japan Studies, 2022-09-09) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only Enacting Moral Education in Japan: Between State Policy and School Practice(Routledge, 2023-12-18) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only From Enthusiasm to Caution: Remaining Questions Surrounding the New Curriculum(Springer, 2022-06-09) Bamkin, SamIn lieu of a conclusion to the book "Japan's School Curriculum for the 2020s: Politics, Policy and Pedagogy", this short closing chapter expands on some of the remaining questions surrounding the new curriculum and its implications. In particular, despite enthusiasm for the new curriculum and its potential to respond to a certain conception of the new knowledge society, uncertainty and the need for caution arise from the wider policy landscape and overall context of education. Evidence suggests that the new curriculum was drafted in reference to well-established pedagogic principles and genuinely aims for a child-centred education, building on previous attempts by the Ministry of Education. This trajectory of change is adjusted based on the global consensus of a shift towards a ‘new knowledge society’. In doing so, MEXT tends towards a humanistic position on the new knowledge society. Simultaneously however, the curriculum operates in a broader policy context which has incorporated decentralization and performativity mechanisms related to examination results, along with their potential to ‘activate competition’ between prefectures and perhaps at lower administrative levels. Nonetheless, study of the curriculum remains important as a signal of intent of the Ministry of Education, and as a set of guidelines for teachers, school administrators, and educators in local settings. Further research is needed ‘on the ground’ in schools to better understand how these translations are unfolding.Item Metadata only Giving students effective written feedback(Taylor and Francis, 2013-01) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only The Glocal Contribution of Schools to ESD: Who decides?(2023-02-14) Bamkin, SamThe school is charged with multiple and often-conflicting purposes. These purposes change and diverge through time, between regions and within regions. This discussion considers the various types of contributions made by schools to sustainable society, and how they are shaped by national and international governmental bodies, business interests, popular thought, and parental opinion. We will consider: are schools for academic, physical or moral knowledge? Should schools offer the same education for all students? Which bodies influence schools the most and how? How do global affairs shape the local context, and how can the local context make global change?Item Metadata only How Curriculum Reform Happens in Japan: A Multi Layered Analysis(2022-11-26) Bamkin, SamEducation policymaking in Japan is changing. Over the past twenty years, the prime ministerial executive has taken leadership in high-level policy formulation, including curriculum policy. The Ministry of Education has turned to accountability tools to legitimise its work. And local governments have encroached on the independence of boards of education. What is less clear is how new policy structures change the work of teachers and their capacity for the professional interpretation of policy based on pedagogical knowledge of ‘classroom’ practice. Based on 2 years’ fieldwork in and around eight schools, this research examines how the reform of moral education unfolded between 2015 and 2020, from its formulation at cabinet level, to its evolution in the Ministry of Education, to its enactment in schools. The workshop will present findings on how teachers and school administrators mediate policy in the contemporary Japanese education system; and how this informs our understanding of curriculum reform and educational policymaking.Item Metadata only How Do We Select Teachers for Ethnographic research in Schools? The Implications of Heterogeneity(2022-12-04) Bamkin, SamEthnography is not neat, which is both unavoidable and appropriate given its purpose of explaining human behaviour and meaning. One perennial question in ethnographic access and data collection concerns the problem of self-selection bias and its mitigation. The question is important because it underpins the quality of data across a whole project. Bias in data also snowballs along with access and analytical cycles. Whilst theory has developed in some applications of ethnography, studies in Japan's schools often continue to represent teachers as relatively homogeneous. As such, there is little discussion on which teachers are selected as key participants and, implicitly, which are not. This not only detracts from representativeness, but moreover misses the opportunity to see how meaning is constructed. Whilst researching the contested topic of curriculum revisions to moral education in and around Japanese schools, I started to categorise geographical areas, schools, teachers and school administrators. This was initially intended as a methodological tool seeking to reduce various forms of self-selection bias. However, these developed into an analytical tool that supported theory on how meaning is constructed/contested between teachers in schools. Though perhaps it is ultimately unsurprising that tools developed for working with people can develop into tools for understanding people, this session presents theory and some imperfect methods of reducing self-selection bias in teacher selection and their contribution to a theory of policy enactment in Japanese schools, with the aim of prompting discussion.Item Metadata only How not to fix a problem: Misapplications of pronunciation theory(2010-12-01) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only The implications of a 21st century example to neoliberal education policy(2018-03-16) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only In Search of a Second or Third Place(World Scientific, 2022-04-12) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only Japan’s School Curriculum for the 2020s: Politics, Policy, and Pedagogy(Springer, 2022-06-09) Okada, Akito; Bamkin, SamJapan’s school curriculum, revised for the 2020s, introduces new subjects and, perhaps more importantly, a new vision for teaching referred to as 'active learning'. This book examines the social and political realities that provided space for this unprecedented curriculum reform; the policymaking process through which it was refined; its envisaged pedagogy, and the intended and unintended outcomes of the new requirements, both on the ground in each school subject and across the education system. Finally, the book steps back to consider the possible future of ‘active learning’ and direction of the course of study in this decade and the next. This book will be of interest to those researching contemporary Japanese education, education policy, curriculum studies and equality of educational opportunity.Item Metadata only Methodology for researching moral education(2018-08-01) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only Moral Education at Japan elementary school: understanding practice / accommodating policy(2015-12-08) Bamkin, SamItem Metadata only Moral Education at Japanese elementary school(Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, 2016-02-02) Bamkin, SamItem Embargo Moral Education in Japan: Four Strands of Research on Policy and Practice(Springer Nature, 2022-06-02) Bamkin, SamResearch on contemporary moral education in Japan has presented ostensibly contradictory findings. On the one hand, journalism and research have exposed nationalistic motives with direct antecedents in prewar imperialistic indoctrination. On the other hand, planned moral education contributes to the experience and character formation of all Japanese children through every grade of compulsory education. Academic research approaching the school ethnographically has consistently praised the child-centered moral atmosphere and democratic practice of school organization. Moreover, moral education is currently undergoing its greatest reform since its postwar introduction over sixty years ago. While providing an outline of moral education in Japan and some of its contemporary challenges along four strands of research, this chapter identifies two disjoints in research that have led to misconceptions and produced these seemingly contradictory findings. More specifically, current research on moral education tends to study policy through official documents, inviting assumptions about classroom practice, and tends to focus on the curriculum category and dedicated classtime labeled “moral education,” overlooking moral learning elsewhere in the curriculum. On the other hand, studies of the whole curriculum tend not to speak in the language of moral learning. Joining up the dots between strands of research on policy and practice not only overcomes misconceptions to reach a more nuanced understanding of moral education, but also holds theoretical implications. Understanding the broad taught curriculum of moral education in Japan clears the path for studies that contribute to the general theorization of moral education.