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https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/4526
Title: | Is Japanese education the "exception"?: examining the situated articulation of neo-liberalism through the analysis of policy keywords | Contributor(s): | Takayama, Keita (author) | Publication Date: | 2009 | DOI: | 10.1080/02188790902857149 | Handle Link: | https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/4526 | Abstract: | This article builds on the author's earlier work, published in Vol. 28 No. 1 of this journal, that critiqued the Orientalist legacy in Anglo-American discussions of Japanese education. One of the manifestations of this legacy is the prevailing view among the Anglo-American observers of Japanese education that Japanese education is the "exception" to the recent global restructuring movement. This article problematizes this view by exposing a similar but differently articulated structural change in Japanese education over the past three decades. Drawing on cultural studies and critical discourse analysis, the author focuses on the two policy keywords that the Ministry of Education has consistently used by for the past three decades: kosei (individuality) and yutori (low pressure). Tracing the complex histories of articulation and rearticulation of these policy keywords, the author demonstrates how the keywords, which had been associated with progressive political struggles against the Ministry's central control of public education, were mobilized to reconstitute people's common sense about education and thus to naturalize the radical systemic change towards the neo-liberal, post-welfare settlement. In conclusion, the author discusses the implication of the study to the field of comparative and international education, calling for a more critical, reflexive engagement with the field's preoccupation with "national differences". | Publication Type: | Journal Article | Source of Publication: | Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 29(2), p. 125-142 | Publisher: | Routledge | Place of Publication: | United Kingdom | ISSN: | 1742-6855 0218-8791 |
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: | 130202 Curriculum and Pedagogy Theory and Development 130199 Education systems not elsewhere classified |
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: | 939999 Education and Training not elsewhere classified 930403 School/Institution Policies and Development |
Peer Reviewed: | Yes | HERDC Category Description: | C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal |
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Appears in Collections: | Journal Article School of Education |
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