Speaker
Description
English education reform in Japan has long sought to orient classroom teaching toward more communicative goals. The national policy framework for English education in Japan—including recommendations of the Central Council for Education, revisions to the Courses of Study, university entrance examination reform, and related initiatives —emphasizes students’ ability to interact, present ideas, and communicate appropriately across a range of purposes and contexts. Yet national policy does not enter classrooms unchanged.
What happens when nationally shared goals enter a highly differentiated high school system? Beginning with a brief overview of how communicative goals are articulated across school levels and linked to university entrance examination reform, this session turns to the stratified public high school system in Japan. Within this system, schools differ substantially in academic orientation, student populations, pathways to higher education, institutional priorities, and available resources.
Drawing on previous research into policy implementation and school stratification, together with a qualitative case study of two public high schools, the session considers why a common national policy may lead to markedly different learning experiences for students. The two cases offer a close-up view of how these structural differences combine with the material realities of schooling—including large classes, aging facilities and equipment, limited supplementary materials, and competing curricular demands—to shape what teachers and students are able to do and, consequently, the forms of communicative English teaching that are possible in each school.
Taking public high schools in Japan as its point of departure, the session raises broader questions about how shared policy goals are reshaped by differentiated education systems and the material conditions of schooling. Looking back on successive reforms, it invites us to consider how such goals are interpreted and experienced across different educational contexts. It also encourages us to reflect on how our positions within an education system, the conditions in which we teach, and the expectations placed upon us shape our students’ experiences as well as our own perspectives and practices as English language teachers.
Sunao Fukunaga is a professor in the Institute of Liberal Arts at Kyushu Institute of Technology, located in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka. Her research in the field of language planning and policy centers on the implementation of English education policy in high schools, with particular attention to educational inequality and the relationship between policy and classroom practice. She is also interested in technology-supported writing instruction that promotes more equitable participation in academic research and publishing among multilingual researchers.