Teaching or Testing: The Role of the State in Japan
Japan rarely fails to get a mention these days when the inadequacies of Britain's system of vocational education and training are discussed. Whether it is the state-prescribed core curriculum proposed in the 1987 Great Educational Reform Bill, or the standard Ministerial complaint that British employers do not invest enough in their employees' training, comparison with Japan is often explicit. There is a firm belief that in the linkage between Competence and Competition (the title of a much-quoted report a US/ Germany/Japan/Britain comparison published by MSC/NEDO, Hayes et al., 1984), the Japanese have it better.
The Competitive Structure of School and the Labour Market: Japan and Britain
The serious problem in Japanese education today is the excess of competition. Although that helps the high standard of Japanese education, it also brings about many difficulties for young people. The competition in the school system is, in general, closely related to the competition in society as a whole, especially in the labour market. The structure of the labour market has a strong influence on competition in the school. For example, the British segmented labour market divides the competition by occupation, and it helps the diversified structure of post‐compulsory education/training. Meanwhile, in the Japanese labour market, which is characterised by Japanese‐style employment, the competition is little divided by occupation, and this helps the unitary structure of competition in the school. Comparing Japan and Britain, this paper will examine the structural causes of the competition in the school system.
Historias de mi barrio: contemporary art in a community at high risk of social exclusion
Abstract Historias de mi barrio is a piece of pedagogic research aimed at highlighting the way art can articulate the relationship between the educational context and a neighbourhood at high risk of social exclusion. The starting point for this study was to ask whether this type of research, centred around the arts, was suitable in complex contexts and whether it might eventually lead to pedagogic improvement. The results gathered, and indeed the work carried out by the artists and university lecturers involved, together with pupils 6–12 years old and their instructors in a state school, provide evidence of a positive answer – and notably of the necessity of knowing about the socio-economic reality of the student cohort when planning learning projects and of the importance of the arts as a crucial element in education.