Research on the access to high school for Indochina refugee children of Laotian residents

• Inui Miki

  Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

• インドシナ難民定住者の高校へのアクセスに関する研究
• A comparative study of newcomers' enrollment and learning assistance between Japan and US
• ニューカマー進学・学習支援の日米比較調査より

Abstract

Currently, many newcomer students in Japan leave school after compulsory education and their lower advancement rate to high school is presumed compared to the United States'. This research aims to confirm the difference of Laotian children's access to high school between US/Japan and to examine possible resolutions for the resent problems on educational access and leaning assistance of newcomers in Japan. According to the US census (2000), 68% of Laotians obtained high school diplomas. Whereas in Japan-where no census by ethnic group is available-only 38% of Laotian children at Kanagawa, 11% at Hyogo has advanced to high school. So what factors affect these differences? Previous literatures summarized the factors as follows; "structure/system of the school", "family support/environment" and "economic factors." From these thee factors, this research focuses on the "structure/system of the school," First of all, taking a look at the hardware side of "structure/system of the school," Japanese newcomer students suffer in taking high school entrance examinations because they need to challenge the same test as Japanese students. This is similar to Japanese "institutional approach" of accepting refugees, treating them as groups and providing them with the same programs. In the US, on the other hand, open admission system is available which encourage newcomer students to advance to high school. Such system will be necessary for newcomers, in Japan, to stand in the entrance of the society. Second of all, taking a look at the software side of "structure/system of the school" focus only on Japanese language education and disregard cultural diversity could be pointed out as problems. On the other hand, teaching strategies in the US adapts individual needs of new comers based on the students needs such as hiring bilingual teachers, providing mother tongue education and assisting dropped out students. It shares same concept of "individual approach" which is US way of accepting refugees. In fact, current educational support system of newcomer students in Japan is changing and became diversified. As a future task, "structure/system of the school" should adapt to individual needs based on individual approach, so that it will connect to support newcomers' advancement to higher education and improve opportunities of their learning assistance.

Journal

• Journal of Human Environmental Studies

  Journal of Human Environmental Studies 5 (1), 39-44, 2007

  Society for Human Environmental Studies

Keywords

• access to high school
• enrollment and learning assistance for newcomers
• acceptance of refugees

Details

• CRID: 1390282680273988224
• NII Article ID: 130004545655
• DOI: 10.4189/shes.5.1_39
• ISSN: 18837611
• ISSN: 13485253
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed