Competitor or ally japans role in american educational debates

Chapter 2: A Look at the Other Side of Japanese Education :Student Responsibility and Learning Chapter 3: Coping with Diversity: The Achilles' Heel of Chapter 5: Work Roles and Norms for

R EF EREN C E BOOKS IN INT ERNATIONAL EDU CATION

V OLUME 45

GARLAND R E F E R E N C E LIBRARY OF S O C I A L S CI ENCE

COMPETITOR OR ALLY? JAPAN'S ROLE IN AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL DEBATES

EDITED BY

GERALD K. LETENDRE

I~ ~~ o~~~~n~~~up

This edition published 20 II by Routledge:

2 Park Square, Milton Park Abingdon, Oxon OX 144RN

Copyright© 1999 by GeraldK.LeTendre

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available at the Library of Congress

Competitor or ally? : Japan's role in American educational debates / edited by GeraldK.LeTendre.

Chapter 2: A Look at the Other Side of Japanese Education :

Student Responsibility and Learning

Chapter 3: Coping with Diversity: The Achilles' Heel of

Chapter 5: Work Roles and Norms for Teachers in Japan and

the United States

Chapter 6: "The Dark Side of .": Suicide, Violence and

Drug Use in Japanese Schools

v

Chapter 7: International Comparisons and Educational

Research Policy

Conclusion : Resilient Myths: Are Our Minds Made Up About

Tables and Figures

Fig 2-1 Management statements in Japanese and

American classes 31Fig 2-2 Teacher encourages students to express support,

disagree or elaborate on other students' remarks 37Fig 2-3 Teacher external reward statements 39Fig 2-4 Teachers' lesson-framing statements 40Table 5-1 Weekly Time Allocations of Japanese and U.S

Middle School Teachers 88Table 5-2 Time Distribution for Specific Academic Tasks by

Japanese and U.S Middle School Teachers 89Table 5-3 Time Distribution for Specific Student

Guidance/Activity Tasks by Japanese and U.S

Middle School Teachers 90Table 5-4 Staffing Patterns in the U.S and Japanese Middle

Table 6-1 Suicide Rates Over Time for Japanese Youth (per

100,000) by Age Ranges 109Table 6-2 Suicide Rates by Gender in Selective Nations

Death by Suicide per 100,000 Population for

Youth Aged 15-24 109Table 6-3 Bullying in Japan 114

vii

The process of developing a book from a set of conference papers can

be a long and convoluted one We would like to thank Thomas Rohlen ,Harold Stevenson and Nancy Sato for their input in developing thismanuscript, and Cindy Fetters and Judy Harper who worked to typeparts of the manuscript Marie Ellen Larcada, formerly of GarlandPress, provided direction for an early draft of the manuscript And wewould especially like to thank Ed Beauchamp for his support andguidance

The idea for this book originated in the American EducationalResearch Association symposium "Comparison or Competition: TheUse and Misuse of Japanese Educational Data in the AmericanContext," in which the principle authors of this book took part aspresenters and discussants The overall conclusion of the symposiumwas that to a large degree discussion of Japanese education in theAmerican research context is still belabored by stereotypical notions ofthe Japanese and Japanese society; is heavily biased in favor ofquantitative studies, even those with widely acknowledgedmethodological flaws such as the SIMS; and is more and more a policy

or political issue in which statistics , divorced from the social context,are used as "evidence" in ways that prevent an accurate picture of Japanfrom emerging

ix

Merry White

Why do so many Americans seem to have something to say aboutJapanese children? From theNational Inquirer-gossipmonger of thesupermarket checkout lines-which ran a story about Japaneseeducation moms, to leading political satirist Gary Trudeau, everyonewants to talk about Japanese students But, at the same time that somewriters are exalting Japanese educational values, others in the samepopular media write lurid stories about bullying, juvenile suicide,robotized minds and stifled imaginations

American and Japanese writers over the past 25 years have offeredmodels, mirrors and cautionary tales of Japanese childhood andschooling The Japanese classroom has been a focus, even an obsession

of commentators associating education with national security Thisobsession has equally affected cartoonists, supermarket tabloids and,more recently it appears, some leading educational research journals inwhich, for example, the results of the Third International Math-ScienceStudy are debated using reference to U.S and Japanese culturalparameters The contradictory and inflammatory views that typifycoverage of Japanese students or schools reflect American divisionsand confusion over educational priorities and goals These views alsodemonstrate how research data can be (and often has been) used andmisused in the discourses on both Japanese and American education topromote a range of reform agendas American attention to Japan hasreflected our international and domestic concerns about globalcompetition and the frustrations of a generation of young workers whowill not do better than their parents But these concerns were sometimesburied under an overarching feverish attention to the success of

xi

children in a country that is just about as far away from the UnitedStates (culturally and geographically) as you can get.

Of course, these cycles of attention and concern have not alwaysbeen characterized by distortion, projection or denial of appropriatepriorities There are certain giveaways which can cue the reader to thepresence of biased reporting: the use of absolutes such as "all Japanesechildren," unsubstantiated claims or correlations such as "examinationpressure has caused a rise in juvenile suicides," references to a mythicalideal or archetypal norm in one society that is contrasted with down-to-earth realities in the other In each of the three waves of engagement Iwill discuss below, there have also been clear, well-researched pieces

on Japanese realities which critically assess the constructions whichAmerican researchers and policy makers tend to place on Japaneseschools and students

With proper acknowledgment of the complexity and contradictionsthat any serious treatment will generate, let us call these three types orstages of reaction to Japanese education the "wow!", "uh-oh" and asJoseph Tobin notes, "yes, but " reactions "Wow" refers to thegape-mouthed amazement with which stories of exceIIence in testresults, classroom management, and family-school cooperation werereceived in the United States in the 1970s when Japan's economic

"miracle" first came to center stage in the international media "Uh-oh"describes the reaction of those concerned with Americancompetitiveness in the face of apparent Japanese superiority Finally,

"yes, but " allows for the positive aspects, putting them in context

as weII as noting downsides-an admiring but qualified response.These three periods roughly correspond to the three decades in whichJapanese education has developed a high profile in America, in theseventies, eighties and nineties

Japanese education has stimulated envy, fear and pity in Americansfor some time: wartime propaganda tended to focus on fear (Japaneseadolescents training to be kamikaze pilots) and postwar reports oftenfocused on pity (children packed 50 to a classroom in half-bombedbuildings) Since the take-off of the Japanese economy in the 1970s,envy appeared in the "wow!" stories of Japanese school success Thesetended to focus positively on classroom order, high test scores and onthe moral value and political priority given to education in Japanesesociety Openly curious, the writers of these stories asked if thiscentrality could be attributed to the traditional Confucian equation of

Introduction xiii

learning and virtue, or to the practical long-term focus then thought to

be enabling the development and continuation of the economicmiracle?

In the 1980s, these stories had become legends A new awareness

of the "problems" posed by Japanese "superkids" created suspicion,and the tone of many articles became darker, more suspicious, and mostimportantly, flaw-finding Japan watchers were alerted now to thethreat Japanese success seemed to pose to American interests RichardLynn (Lynn, 1988) found, in a now questioned study of IQ scores, thatJapanese children had, on average, eleven points over our own, fuellingAmerican insecurity over our "failing schools." The Japaneseassumption that education matters was now represented by someAmerican observers not as a focus on children's development but as anational strategy for economic dominance Our rust belt, our children 'sfaltering scores and low high school completion rates, and the headlines

of symptoms of social disorder were seen as part of a zero-sum game inwhich the success of Japan was at our expense The "uh-oh" period hadbegun

I will indulge in personal history here, chronicling the three modes

of attention as they have affected my own work in this field I had beeninterested in Japanese education before it was making newspaperheadlines: my undergraduate anthropology thesis in the early 1960streated student-teacher relationships in Japan from the Meiji period tothe postwar years, and in my doctoral dissertation, I examined theeducational dislocation of "internationalized" Japanese children.Attempting to correct the confusion and distortions of trade war

exaggeration and stereotyping, I wrote The Japanese Educational

Challenge With an eye to the market that hype could then muster,

however, the publisher insisted on using the word "challenge" in thebook's title, and I was instantly seen as a player, a combatant, andabove all, an apologist It was difficult then to be objective or neutral,

as you were seen as a "cultural relativist" (or worse, one who aids andabets the enemy) if you were not negative about Japan and positiveabout America One angry woman called in to a Detroit talk show onwhich I discussed Japanese schools to scream at me, "Lady, love it orleave it!"

These responses were not simply limited to the talk-show viewingaudiences of the United States The 1987 bilateral study of Japaneseand American education-initiated by an agreement between Japanese

Prime Minister Nakasone and U.S President Reagan-was based onwell-researched data, but still reflected observers' predilections whichtended to crystallize or typify the education-viewing trends of the 1980s(U.S Department of Education, 1987) This project asked observers inAmerica to look at Japanese schools and Japanese educators to

investigate their American counterparts The result was mutual akogare

(envy, yearning), but focused on very different aspects and segments Japanese observers envied American higher education, which they saw

as demanding more of students Americans liked the engaged,

"progressive" psychosocial environment of Japanese elementaryschools Neither saw much to emulate in the other's secondary schools.Americans saw in Japan regimentation and rote learning in exampreparation; Japanese saw here social chaos and juvenile violence,inequality and lack of academic standards

The outcome of these experiments in cross-cultural investigation ofeducation showed the tenacity and power that stereotypes of schoolshad in both nations Observers simplified the "other:" each societyseemed to the other to be a monoculture, and differences in conditionsand results were ignored In spite of the evidence presented before theirvery eyes, however, commentators in Japan exalted the individualismand creativity supposedly encouraged in America, and only a few oneither side of the Pacific wondered where in fact these things actuallyhappened in school Similarly, American admiration for Japanese orderand basic skills belied the data Japanese researchers had offered,ignoring evidence that children were slipping through the cracks, losingground in the race and staying away from school in large numbers Itwas as if the observers had failed to read the extensive literature onschools in each country, or failed to spend much time in the schoolsthemselves The power of the stereotype that Finklestein (1991) notes,appeared to overpower any balanced analysis on either side of thePacific

That nervous "uh-oh" period now seems not only one of extremes,but a period characterized by increasing incorporation of polarizeddepictions of Japanese education that reinforced preexistingstereotypes There were national policy "wake-up calls" such as the

1983 report A Nation at Risk, concerned about our "rising tide ofmediocrity" (U.S Department of Education, 1983: 5) which implicitlyframed American school failure in an international context There wasalso some stimulating , and serious, attention paid to important issues

Introduction xv

and the orderly collection of reliable data Our folie a deux, however ,

colored the application of that data: Japanese writers tended towards aromantic view of U.S educational philosophy and Americans dreamed

of motivated, well-behaved children It is evident that Japaneseeducation is not as uniformly excellent, and American schooling not asunredeemably disastrous, as the rhetoric of that period would indicate.And the research conducted even in the heat of that era allowed us thenext, more complicated and nuanced view

What we have learned is that American schools are in fact capable

of producing children ready for employment, and that not all Japanese

children make it to an elite university We have come to see a range ofexperiences and effects in both America and Japan, and to mark thepowerful impact of class differences, racial inequality, poor distribution

of resources , the politicization of family, and the bureaucratization ofthe classroom in both societies Self criticism-which had been labeled

"whining" in the American 1980s-has begun to motivate many in theUnited States and Japan, just as Sputnik had mobilized Americaneducation in the 1950s The legacy of such cross-cultural explorationhas been an increased awareness of the areas in which Japanese andAmerican schools are not meeting the expectations of the generalnational population

By the mid-1990s, then, American interest in Japanese educationhad broadened and deepened Yet American assumptions had hardenedand deepened as well Even as knowledge increased , American viewsexpressed in the media and even some scholarly journals becameadamant The catchphrases of the media exhibited more complexity, but

one centered on the skepticism that we had anything to learn from

Japan At conferences and in the media you could hear statements like:

"They're good at science and math, but are they creative?" "It' s the 240school days a year that does it." "If you had a Japanese mother, you

could do it too." "Japan is a homogeneous country and they are allmiddle class: of course it's easier for things to work there." Thesepopular conceptions implied that underlying social and structuraldifferences were at the root of our children's differential ability toperform well in school Some commentators used a quick-fix approach

to educational change in the United States, all it would take isincreasing time in school or borrowing the rich Japanese curriculum.However, the shift away from exotic cultural explanations (Confucianhierarchy and virtues; groupism and selflessness) to more

comprehensible data did allow for a grounded comparison which hadnot been available in the more essentialist discussions of the past.

We are thus now in the "yes, but " mode described earlier, inpart because the trade war rhetoric has declined (and with it, thepolarized attention to Japan), and in part because Japan is now seen aspart of a larger world beyond the U.S.-Japan relationship After thebursting of Japan's bubble economy, the fact that Japanese children still

do better than ours is set in a different context In the larger view,Japanese educational issues can be viewed in comparison with the bigquestions of competence training, moral education, the transition fromschool to work, classroom management, gender equality and evenmulticulturalism which affect schools and children in other countries.The "yes, but " issues are, or imply, large questions of relativityand universalism: they integrate rather than polarize; they canencompass the views of both outsider and insider, and they permit theexamination of culture not as impediment to modernization or dead-endexplanation for differences, but as an active, changing source ofsolutions to issues faced by all teachers, parents and children However,the rest of the sentence has tended to be "yes, but would you send

your child through the Japanese system?" The next generation ofresearch and commentary should get us beyond the action, reaction andsynthesis chain to comparison and does more than correct the excesses

of past views

Western observers are now more in concert with Japaneseresearchers and commentators, and better able to compare Japanese

writers are transcending the nihonjinron (the Japanese essentialist and

somewhat narcissistic discourse on their identity), and theencapsulation of things Japanese within a notion of the uniqueness ofJapanese society Observers in Japan have also been able to get beyond

the combination of self-criticism and akogare of the individualism and

creativity they assumed were being taught in American schools Theyare looking beyond the high-profile, "news boom" status givenbullying, delinquency, school avoidance, internationalization andschool regulations in their own system to a more integrative structuralapproach to educational change We're both ready for the next steps

in international comparative testing, to add richness to the discussion.The essays contained in this volume treat several aspects of thediscussion of Japanese education as a construction of Americanprojections and themselves demonstrate new, more sophisticated andnuanced work in the field What aspects of Japanese schooling andlearning get noticed in America and why? Why are we interested in testscores, and what do we make of them? These are the questions thatframe Gerald LeTendre's work In attending to Japanese domesticculture and priorities, LeTendre also engages the debate withinAmerica as revealing basic fault lines in our own thinking about access,content and outcomes in schooling.

The essay by David McConnell analyzes one aspect of educationwhich Japanese critics are keen to address: internationalization.However, McConnell turns this trendy buzzword into a more subtle

"yes, but " critique of the problem he calls the "social organization

of diversity" in Japanese education Locating his focus in theimplementation and reception of the JET program in local schools, helooks beyond stereotypes to the more complex topic of the relationshipbetween education and social integration

Hua Yang compares American and Japanese middle schoolteachers' duties in the execution of tasks in terms of time and balancebetween the prescribed curriculum and other tasks of teaching andrelating to students The contrasting perceptions and concepts of theteacher's role are thus given context beyond the oversimplified images

of previous observers, who emphasized devotion to the central

academic curriculum rather than commitment to a wide range ofnonacademic activities in schools The deceptively simple point, that it

is the structural and organizational differences in our schools that count,opens comparison to factors beyond the essentialist, black-box notions

of culture that have driven them to date

The social and moral aspects of schooling are also important, andhave also been misunderstood, as we see in Tsuchida and Lewis' paper

on the cooperation and responsibility that students have in their ownlearning The nature of discipline in Japanese education, often taken byAmericans to be a harsh regimen, is here analyzed as emerging fromstudents' own intrinsic motivation, rather than practices or beliefs based

on external rewards or punishments, the latter an American, not aJapanese, formula for organization and control

Again taking on American stereotypes about the darker side ofJapanese education and youth, Zeng and LeTendre treat our propensity

to find the worm in the enemy apple, thereby relieving the concern overour own problems through a deflection to Japan-bashing Zeng and

LeTendre offer perspectives and data, which complicate, and thus

make more interesting and reliable, the relationship between schoolingand psychosocial pathologies in America and Japan Shimizu's subtleand detailed treatment of achievement and teaching technique in theJapanese classroom is given context in fundamental values andsocialization, and allows us to see the close connection betweencognitive and emotional development in Japan through the experience

of the student Finally, Baker and LeTendre show that Americanreactions to Japan have powerful similarities with the ways in whichGerman and Russian educational systems have been treated in the past.Looking ahead to a next generation, perhaps one without anycatchphrase to sum it up, we have some examples of topics which havebroadened and deepened over the decades of mutual viewing, questions

of effort and (or versus) ability in achievement, individual versus grouplearning, external discipline versus child-generated social controls; andnarrow academic success versus access to opportunity through abroader definition of achievement or worth These perennial topics inthe U.S.-Japan comparisons can now receive new illumination, and aregiven grounding in more diversity, with more variables at play Differences in family background (class, occupation, income,educational history) have been thought to be less important in Japanthan elsewhere, as open access through educational testing was thought

Introduction xix

to level the playing field In addition, the presumption of homogeneity(racial, cultural, and ideological) made all discussions of economic andsocial distinctions seem irrelevant in Japan, and the monolithic imagewas parlayed abroad and at home

One example of evidence which will help break up the image of amonolith is that which Harold Stevenson has recently cited in a recent

lecture: that the effort =educational achievement =occupational success model said to guide Japanese child-rearing is evident onlyamong families who can afford the luxury of a mother as full-timeeducation coach Working-class mothers it is said, value differentsources of achievement, seeing as key innate talent rather than a

mother-constructed home environment, including juku and tutors, as

creating academic success Complicating this view, however, is the fact

that many working-class families disproportionately invest in juku

(cram schools or exam prep schools) and other educationalenhancements: the results are not yet in on class distinctions ineducation culture However, it is clear that looking at the social class,regional, and other distinctions guid ing educational thinking andpractice gives a more nuanced view of diversity in Japan, contradictingearlier views of a homogeneous, middle-class society engaged in auniform culture of the pursuit of success

Similarly, we now have evidence of diversity of classroomtechniques and organization in Japan, as well as a range of goals andpractices among teachers Some teachers use the "harmony" model,attempting to downplay adult intervention, activate peer learning andminimize differences between students Others, alert to the issues ofviolence and bullying, work under a monitorial, top-down approach,trying to structure behavior through enforcement of detailedkosoku, orschool regulations This is, of course, related strongly to the level onthe academic ladder as elementary school classrooms can to somedegree avoid the harsher aspects of exam preparation and afford theluxury of peer-focused social and cognitive learning, while secondaryschools anxious to maintain a place in the status hierarchy of schoolsplacing students in good colleges may resort to monitorial teacher-ledinstruction Still others influenced by the Kansai-based dowa educationmodel (dowa education refers to educational programs organized for

descendants of Japan's burakumin-a group that was highly

stigmatized and persecuted in the medieval period), try for a "diversity"

approach, which would enhance the self-esteem of minority childrenand encourage the idea that difference need not be deviance

Diversity, in fact, is one of the education topics now dominatingopinion-makers' columns and getting ongoing, in-depth coverage ontelevision Some schools are now "multicultural" and in some bilingual

teachers are in demand due to the rising numbers of Nikkeijin These

people are workers of Japanese heritage who have returned to Japanfrom Latin America, particularly Brazil, in order to take advantage ofthe higher Japanese wages This immigrant population, though stillvery small, has a profile undeniably confusing for Japanese: they are

"Japanese," they are needed workers, and yet they are cultural aliens, atest case for the new "internationalism," a test case too for the cherishedpremise that Japanese education provides equal opportunity, if notoutcomes, for all In the 1970s, the elite but "wounded" foreign-educated returnee children caught the public attention as they struggled

to become mainstream Japanese, they were very different from theworking-class Brazilian Japanese, but were still outsiders (White,1988).Itmay be that these new outsider-Japanese, unable even to speakthe language of their ancestors, and representing not eliteinternationalists but rather working class globalization, will ironicallyhave more clout to move the system than the well-placed returnees

In the 1990s, risk, peril, and a focus on anticipatory rather thanremedial strategies have dominated the Japanese media The futurelooks complicated, diverse, and most of all, frighteningly unpredictable

to Japanese observers One predicted issue is the crisis that will comefrom the decline in births over the past two decades The current (andfaIling) rate is lAO children per family , below replacement rate, andthis demographic shift toward an aging population has created a sense

of social crisis In education, planners anticipate (and teachers already

experience) a population of hitorikko (only children) who will need

different pedagogical theories and classroom practices to ensure thatthey grow up well socialized to cooperation, sharing, and the other

values of shiidan seikatsu, or group life In addition, teachers have to deal with the pressures to succeed placed on hitorikko by two parents

and four grandparents Schools must plan now for a decreasedpopulation of children, smaller classrooms, or consolidated schools aswell Also, as young graduates have now given evidence of a desire for

a wider range of choices and more freedom in their work life, manyleaders and commentators see the demise of the reconstruction model

Introduction xxi

of work of the 1950s, and of the "economic animal" and "corporatewarrior" employee identities as a basis of continuing economic success.Teachers and schools must also acknowledge the children whomight not make it to a middle class life; not just the universityaspirants Those who are school-avoiders are now identified earlier andthere are special schools for them.' Bullied children are provided withtelephone hot lines, counseling and quite a lot of media attention.Structural impediments to open access are being dismantled: the

seemingly fixed-in-stone gakubatsu , or academic clique, and

connections between prestigious universities and high-statusemployment are now at least obscured, if not eliminated A high schoolinto compulsory schooling, there reducing the tracking pressure injunior high schools, has been on the reform agenda since theOccupation's Education Mission recommendations after the war (Wray,1991; Tsuchimochi, 1993)

While most of the directives emanating from reform committeesand councils are noted by their vague good intentions, "giving toppriority to instilling respect for children's individuality" and

"increasing opportunities for education, humanization of the

educational environment" (Japan Times, April 24, 1986) there are also

more concrete proposals for improving academic content, competence,the psychosocial environment of the school and the ultimate lifechances of the children who pass through the system

Over the past decade, more American education researchers haveemerged with strong cultural and linguistic background in Japan Thefourth wave of interest, less splashy but perhaps yielding more reliableinformation because of researchers' increased sophistication andlinguistic ability, as well as the benefits of longer views over time, willthus provide us with more solid comparisons between Japan and theUnited States The use of data on cognitive skills, classroommanagement or schooling outcomes ought to be more subtle and lessinflammatory

Maybe now we can tend to the difficult issues schools, teachers,families and children contend with and understand them both inorganizational and cultural terms-from a systems approach as well asfrom experiential data Further, perhaps our negative and remedialreactions can be replaced with more positive, anticipatory approaches.Without the mobilization of a sense of crisis such as that created bycompetition, however, we will have to motivate research, and its

funding, through a longer-term view of policy and outcomes.Educational research has always been closely associated with practice,the experience of the classroom, and reform, and this close tie cancontinue to support the work of the fourth generation of study ofJapanese education.

We're thus well on our way past "wow!," "uh-oh," and "yes, but" stages However, the establishment of a deeper synthesis of thepolitical, economic and psychosocial factors in learning that affectJapanese teaching and learning has yet to gain much hold, even inacademic debates We continue to explore both the changing andtimeless human conditions that we all experience, and the identity-conferring cultural encoding that motivates, supports and makesmeaning for both Americans and Japanese Hopefully, this volume willhelp to push the dialog onto a more sophisticated and beneficial level

NOTES

1. Tokyo Schule, a private subsidized school for children who haveavoided school in a Tokyo suburb has no rules and attendance is voluntary ; itappears to have a great success rate in keeping students in school

COMPETITOR OR ALLY?

International Achievement Studies and Myths of Japan

Gerald K LeTendre

In the age of detente and post-cold war realignment of the late twentiethcentury, emphasis on economic and educational competition haveattained a status in the popular consciousness which parallels theemphasis placed on military and colonial expansion in earlier periods.'Modern nations are believed to be engaged in relentless economiccompetition in the international markets, and education is regarded as acountry's basic form of defense In the United States, Japan inparticular has been depicted as a major competitor; depicted withimages of ruthless expansion and limitless consumption (Wolferen,1989; Fallows, 1989; Johnson, Tyson, Zysman 1989).2

In this era of concern over national competitiveness, quality ofschooling is assumed to be an essential component in assuring asociety's survival Education is the means by which the nation-state canproduce a skilled workforce, a dynamic business leadership, and a host

of scientists who will make discoveries that can be adapted and sold asnew innovations in the global marketplace Education, such reasoningassumes, gives a country the "edge" to successfully compete in anincreasingly competitive world

Competition in education, a theme that pervades this book, is mostfrequently reduced to competition on international tests in both themedia and scholarly literature When looking at Japan or other nations,much effort has gone into creating, distributing and analyzing theresults of standardized tests with large samples that compare studentperformance where the nation is the primary unit of analysis The firstmajor attempt to carry out such a study, the First International

3

4 Gerald K LeTendre

Mathematics Study (FIMS) in the 1960s, was followed by manysubsequent attempts to create universal measures of studentachievement that would be meaningful across a range of nations Mathand science were the areas first targeted, as both share a commonsymbolic notation and logical sequence that helps to minimize contentand linguistic differences In addition to many smaller studies, theFIMS has been succeeded by the Second and, most recently, ThirdInternational Math-Science Survey as well as by the InternationalAssessment of Educational Progress Unfortunately, despite the bestintentions of the scholars that organized these studies, the use of testdata in the popular and academic press has been largely guided by areductivist logic that assumes de facto connections between schoolquality, test scores and economic performance This line of reasoning(which has been critiqued in part by Jaeger, 1992 and Atkin and Black,1997) contains the following causal links:

1 Good school systems increase human capital (i.e betterworkers, business leaders and inventors)

2 Increased human capital gives a nation an economic advantage

in the competitive world system

3 The quality of a school system in producing this human capitalcan be measured by the average standardized test scores of itsstudents

4 Nations whose students have higher test scores have betterschools

5 Nations with higher test scores will tend to out compete others

in the world market

Despite the plethora of assumptions in the logical flow of thesestatements, not to mention the problems of definition of concepts andthe operationalization of variables, this set of propositions appears tomotivate or inform a great deal of writing and thinking in the area ofeducational reform National educational reform movements that havebeen backed by both government officials and educators (e.g GOALS2000) clearly promote this reasoning by emphasizing that America will

be "first in Math and Science" in the world by the turn of themillennium While the overall reform efforts of GOALS 2000 aremanifold, this "mantra" of being first in the world-which has been

endlessly repeated in the media and on the political circuit-is based on

an unproven logical chain that implies that test scores effectively meanbetter schools, which in turn mean a more productive and hencecompetitive national economy

INTERNATIONAL TEST SCORES AND POLITICIZATION

This logic is also a politicizing force which pushes educators andcitizens alike to see themselves as inferior or superior to other nationsvis-a-vis the test score data Some nationally recognized scholars havegone so far as to purport that comparative test scores in general (andcomparisons with Japan in particular) are being used by groups hostile

to American public education in order to attack the public schools(Berliner, 1992; Berliner and Biddle, 1995) Others argue, that theUnited States isn't doing that badly in international comparisons(Westbury, 1992; Bracey, 1996).3In mounting a "counter attack" thesescholars have critically dismissed studies such as Stevenson and

Stigler's (1992) The Learning Gap because it shows that Japan is

"doing better" than the United States

As White notes in the introduction , such studies appear to be part

of a reaction against an earlier rush of media coverage that depicted theJapanese educational system as an academic paradise Thesereactionary efforts, however, have not served to introduce balance intothe scholarly or popular dialog, but have only served to furtherpoliticize the debate by promoting negative stereotypes of Japaneseeducation and implying that serious scholars of Japan have missedcrucial information Authors (such as Gerald Bracey, Iris Rotberg andeven David Berliner)-who have most vehemently criticized the use ofinternational test scores-have been widely cited in the popular pressand have undoubtedly had a significant effect on the general impression

of comparative education among a wide lay audience (c.f Gallo 's

article [1996] in Better Homes and Gardens) In arguing about

technical points of the test score data (see Bradburn, Haertel, Schwilleand Torney-Purta, 1991, for a clear, detailed and balanced discussion ofthe issues involved in cross-national sampling), authors such as Bracey

or Berliner ignore the mass of ethnographic and sociological data onJapanese schools which provides context for the test score results.Rather than rejecting international test score data, Torney-Purtaand others have argued that we need to re-think the basic logic of

6 Gerald K LeTendre

comparison (see Bradburn, Haertel, Schwille and Torney-Purta, 1991 orByrnes and Torney-Purta, 1995) Around the world, educationalsystems have become more and more similar over the past few decades(Boli and Ramirez, 1990) This means that most countries have a basicpool of educated labor that can easily perform the tasks needed inmodern , highly automated factories There is little evidence to suggestthat increasing elementary math or science scores will make the UnitedStates more competitive with Thailand or Malaysia in attracting hightech factories The basic assumptions between human capital andeducation outlined above are not supported by current research incomparative education

International achievement data, however, provide informationabout basic levels of academic achievement Ifsuch data are used incontext with other data (such as national levels of poverty, measures ofegalitarian access to education, national curriculum objectives), thenthese data do indeed provide useful measures of how well nations aredoing (compared to each other) Ifwe use international achievementtests to assess, for example, how well countries are doing in providing ahigh quality science curriculum to 4th graders, then the United Statesappears to do well-this is a high curricular priority and United States'students have a high mean in 4th grade science achievement However,the same measures would show that only four grades later, the UnitedStates' performance is mediocre compared to other nations Furtheranalysis is then needed to identify the relationship between curricularaims, success of implementation, instructional choices and studentoutcomes (see Baker, Le'Tendre, Benavides and Yu, 1998)

JAPAN AS COMPETITOR: THE ARGUMENT

Unfortunately, the use of international test scores has not been subject

to such careful scrutiny in the general educational press, and studiesrelating specifically to Japan have been actively used to demonstratethe "problems" of international comparison In the past few years, the

pages of prominent practitioner and research journals such as Phi Delta

Kappan and Educational Researcher have been the site of an intense

debate over Japanese education, international test scores and how tointerpret what these means for Americans and American schools(Baker, 1993, 1997; Bracey, 1996, 1997; Westbury, 1992; 1993)

Recent exchanges in Educational Researcher (a journal read by

scholars, administrators and practitioners alike) have, again, served tofurther polarize the debate-making it appear that all who haveexpressed critical opinions of American education must be in a "pro-Japanese camp " Over time the exchange has moved from debate topolemics with the unfortunate result that most recent articles totallyignore the vast body of research literature on Japanese education.For example, in the case of Westbury and Bracey, substantialarguments are forwarded that make little or no reference to the mass ofethnographic data on Japanese schools or classrooms compiled over thelast 10 years by Western researchers These authors ignore the rich andsystematic data that allow more penetrating insights into theactualization of curriculum in schools, cultural assumptions abouteducation, and teacher work roles and the organization of learning Inrejecting test score comparisons, these and other authors fail tochallenge the underlying assumptions of the current debate, and hencetend to promote , rather than deflate, the very educational myths theyseek to destroy (Berliner and Biddle's 1995 book is an excellent case).The authors, some of international stature, who have weighed in onthe comparative test score debate, make substantial arguments about theoverall educational condition of Japan which rest on implicitassumptions about the causal links between schooling, studentmotivation, academic achievement and the overall ability of researchers

to assess accurately Japanese performance The underlying logicpresented in these works is, to use Bracey's own terminology , a data-proof ideology (1996: 10) These works presume that international testscores should not be used because they are "flawed," but if they areused, America comes out pretty well anyway The logic fits together in

a circular form that confirms that Americans are doing fine after all Ihave summarized this politicizing logic as follows:

1 Japanese and other Asian nations have high scores ininternational tests because only the best students take the test(Westbury, 1992; Berliner and Biddle, 1995)

2 While Japanese and other students in Asian nations are greattest-takers, Americans lead the way in creativity and problemsolving (Berliner and Biddle, 1995: 32,54)

8 Gerald K LeTendre

3 In reality, Japanese schools are rife with oppression, violenceand malaise, and Asian teachers rely on rote learning andmemorization (Berliner, 1992:1-3)

4 American researchers never see the "dark side of Japan"because the Japanese hide it from them (Bracey, 1996: 7-8)

5 Researchers falsely attribute an emphasis on effort in Japan andability in the United States or assume more effective teachingstrategies in Japan (Bracey, 1996: 8-9)

6 America is doing just fine compared to Japan; we just think wearen't (Bracey, 1996; Berliner and Biddle, 1995)

In the rest of this chapter, I address the above points by reference

to qualitative studies of Japanese education published in the Englishacademic press in an effort to debunk the implicit causal links andprovide a more complex, and hence problematic depiction of Japanese

education Using only English-language material readily available at

most research libraries which provide loan service, I seek to provide thereaders with summary of research that investigates the social or culturalfoundations upon which attitudes toward school and learning are based

1 Japanese scores only show the best students

Stedman (1994) accurately discusses the sampling problems that haveplagued international test projects (ibid., 25) However, he notes thatmany nations had enrollment rates in mathematics classrooms similar

to those in the United States, and in terms of overal1 enrol1ment inschool , enrollment in compulsory education is close to 100 percent inboth the United States and Japan, thus making arguments that Japan issomehow selecting only its best students to be tests a specious one.Official statistics record that over 95% of middle grade studentsadvance on to high school in Japan which suggests that more studentsstay in school in Japan than in the United States In fact, thecomparative literature suggests that through ninth grade, Japan 'ssystem is more inclusive and provides more opportunity to learn, acondition that Berliner and Biddle argue is the "single most powerfulpredictor of student achievement" (1995: 55)

Japanese education is compulsory through the end of middleschool or junior high school , roughly equivalent to our ninth grade

Repeated studies of early education in Japan have failed to find anyevidence of tracking or academic discrimination at the pre-school orelementary level (Hendry, 1986; White, 1987; Sato, 1991; Peak, 1991;Lewis, 1995) On the contrary, Japanese teachers appear to make everyeffort to include all children and move the pace of each lesson at aspeed that most can follow (Schaub and Baker, 1991) Unpublisheddoctoral dissertations (Fukuzawa, 1989; Yang, 1993; LeTendre, 1994)report no evidence of academic tracking in the middle grades, a findingconsistent with Singleton's (1967) original ethnography of Japanesejunior high schools.

Up until age 14 or 15 then, the vast majority of Japanese childrenare enrolled in public education.f The schools appear to provideexcellent opportunities to learn, and academic tracking is minimal or

nonexistent While juku participation (Rohlen, 1980; Stevenson and

Baker, 1992) provides an extra-school form of academic differentiation,and may indeed increase pressures on children and young adolescent toperform academically, existing scholarly work challenges the idea thatJapanese classrooms are drill-based places of learning: an idea alreadywidely disseminated in the general academic press (Stevenson andStigler, 1992; Sato and Mclauglin, 1992; Tsuchida and Lewis, 1995).While previous studies undermine the supposition that only thebest students are taking the tests, ethnographic investigations ofJapanese schools, however, do identify curricular practices that beardirectly upon the international test debate Given the nationalcurriculum outlines and the standardizing effect of the entrance exams,Japanese students tend to focus on a smaller number of topics than doAmerican students This is a key point in both Westbury (1992) andBracey's (1996) argument, yet, surprisingly neither author makes use ofstudies that would help support their claims as well as add significantdepth to their depiction of Japanese schools

The question of sampling for tests in Japan is more complex at thesecondary level, a detail ignored in much of the literature Rohlen'swork on high schools (1983) vividly depicts the range of high schooloptions in Japan, clearly describing for the naive reader the elite private

"feeders" into elite colleges and nonacademic high schools that producethe majority of the line workers and lower-tier service workers Okano(1993) describes these schools in detail, and demonstrates that manystudents at this level are more interested in getting a job and makingmoney than studying for an entrance exam These findings, which

10 Gerald K LeTendre

portray a vastly different side of Japanese education than that typicallydepicted in the media are barely mentioned, yet are corroborated byrecent doctoral studies (Kinney, 1994; Trelfa, 1994)

Rather than depicting the "dark side" of Japan , various detailedstudies show that like virtually all industrialized nations, Japan hasproblems with educational tracking and economic opportunity Theabrupt and rigid tracking which students experience after nine years ofcompulsory schooling has been critically analyzed in the academicliterature, with some scholars suggesting that the system functions in ameritocratic way (Kariya and Rosenbaum, 1987), while others,including myself, argue that elements of ascribed social status playarole (LeTendre, 1996; Okano, 1995) Japanese education is rigidlytracked in the secondary and post-secondary levels and sociologicalstudies have found evidence that there may be persistent, if small,effects of social background on students' academic and occupationalattainment (LeTendre, 1996) Selection of student subjects in futureeducational studies must pay much closer attention to the stratification

within the Japanese system and report the types of schools picked for

inclusion

2 While Japanese and other students in Asian nations are greattest-takers, Americans lead the way in creativity and problemsolving

The "child-centered" nature of Japanese classrooms has beendocumented in the literature on preschools and elementary schools(Hendry, 1986; White, 1987; Peak 1989; Lewis, 1995; Tsuchida andLewis, 1996) These studies, mostly long-term ethnographic worksconducted by independent researchers fluent in Japanese at differenttimes and in different areas of the country, support the hypothesis thatJapanese classrooms at the elementary level de-emphasize rote learningand instead emphasize hands-on activities , problem solving, higher-order questioning and the creative application of materials learned.Particularly within the field of mathematics, elementary schoolteachers in Japan, as explicitly compared to United States classroompractice, place more emphasis on student reasoning and allow for morecreative problem solving on the part of students (Tobin, Wu andDavidson, 1989; Lee, Graham and Stevenson, 1996; Stigler, Fernandez,

et aI 1996) These studies record a widespread emphasis on creative

problem solving in both mathematics and science courses in Japaneseelementary schools Moreover, Japanese teachers appear to provideequal access in terms of students' opportunity to learn One study thatspecifically compared socioeconomic differences in elementary schoolpractices did find subtle differences in the presentation of the curricula(Sato , 1991), but overall the presentation of material in Japaneseelementary classrooms appears to be highly consistent across a wide-range of schools (Sato and Mclaughlin, 1992).

As students move from elementary through the middle grades andinto high school, Japanese classroom practices become more drill-oriented The earliest published ethnography of Japanese junior highschools (Singleton, 1967) notes that the ideal of classroom behavior isone where students "sit quietly with rigid posture" (p 35) More recent(unpublished) accounts of Japanese junior high schools suggest that thisrigidity may have waned (Fukuzawa, 1989; LeTendre, 1994), and thatthe strict adherence to behavioral norms documented by Singleton arelikely related to the rigid educational practices typical of teacherseducated in the old teacher training schools (shihan gakko). Althoughschool rules, and the enforcement of these rules, appear to take centerstage during the middle grades (c.f Fukuzawa, 1989;Yang, 1993;LeTendre, 1994) it is not clear how actual classroom practices change.While school rules and exams may restrict adolescent behavior inschool , this does not appear to affect the individuality and creativeexpression of Japanese teenagers outside of school White (1993)suggests that Japanese high school students are urbane and discrimin-ating consumers, but also suggests that marketing forces in Japan pro-duce powerful fashion trends Rohlen (1983) notes that students have awide range of creative interests and hobbies that they actively pursue

The relative impact of juku-which are more accessible in urban

than in rural regions-may be a more significant factor than grade level

in determining the instructional practices of teachers Stevenson andBaker (1992) suggest that those students enrolled in exam preparationcourses can significantly improve their educational chances Many

Japanese teachers perceive the juku-which are not regulated by the

Ministry of Education-to be a major source of pressure on youngadolescents.Itmay be that "cramming" is more characteristic of the

juku than the public schools

The problem of creativity, problem solving and test taking is onethat demands awareness of the cultural milieu of both nations The

12 Gerald K LeTendre

legitimacy of tests in Confucian-influenced Asian countries means thattests and testing are viewed in distinctive ways (see Amano, 1990 andmost recently Zeng, 1996) The creative process in traditional arts inJapan emphasizes a pattern of slow learning that begins in a foundation

of repetitive tasks (Singleton, 1989; Hare, 1996) How students in eachnation view the creative act and its relation to schoolwork is asignificant and exciting area for further comparative study Moreover,the impact of high stakes tests like the Japanese high school entranceexam offer a way to study unintended consequences of such testing The current reform efforts to create national standards or national tests

in the United States would benefit from a more detailed look at whatreally drives educational practice in Japan

3 In reality Japanese schools are rife with oppression, violence and

malaise

Despite contentions by Bracey and Berliner and Biddle that Japaneseschools and teachers are reported in glowing terms in the United States'media, recent media stories most often focus on Japan's problems:bullying, adolescent suicide and mental stress Japanese education, inthe popular press, tends to be portrayed in either glowing or excoriatingterms Japanese students are either bright, talented and motivated ordepressed, bullied and suicidal Articles by Sanger (1993) andWeisman (1991) to cite two examples, note the school pressures,violence and resurgence of militarism in Japanese schools In fact,

Berliner and Biddle open their work The Manufactured Crisis

(ostensibly a work about American education) by laying out a dramaticportrayal of the dark side of Japan Bracey repeatedly cites Schoolland(1990) whose compendium of media stories frequently refer to thesuicidal atmosphere created by Japan's exam "hell." Even the issue of

Education Weekdedicated to "Schooling in Japan," notes the pressures

of "exam hell."

"Exam hell" (shikenjigoku) and the "academic advancement war"

(juken sensa)are terms used in the Japanese media to dramatize thepressures faced by students The exams have been a perennial topic ofinterest, and every spring newspapers publish statistics and storiesabout the competition to enter college Many Japanese and Westernscholars have noted the problems caused by excessive competition foracademic degrees (Dore, 1976; Rohlen, 1983) and the fact that limited

routes of social mobility make academic competition more intense.However, the stereotypical image of Japanese schools as oppressive is

an unsubstantiated rhetorical device that links exam stress with images

of militarism and conformity This image has largely been circulated

through Schoolland's sensational newspaper clippings (Shogun 's

Ghost) which links school-deaths, the reintroduction of the national flagand oppressive treatment of students in a haphazard way The actualstate of Japanese classrooms, and the debate over conformist education

in Japan, runs much deeper

The real problems of conformity and conflict in Japanese educationare accurately portrayed in works that deal with Japanese students whotry to return to Japan (White, 1988; Goodman, 1990) Rather than amilitaristic and oppressive school system, these works depict a schoolsystem that is highly organized and patterned Overall, teachers andadministrators are concerned with the education of the child or youngadolescent, but expectations for students become highly uniform orstandardized And, significant pressure to conform is generated bypeers who appear quick to ridicule those whose accent is too good orwhose manners aren't "Japanese." The conformity, thus, appears farmore similar to the pressures faced by young adolescents in U.S.schools depicted by Everhart and others (Everhart, 1983; MacLeod,1987; Eckert, 1989)

When one individual violates the group's norms for performance inJapanese schools (as illustrated by White, 1988, who described astudent whose English pronunciation was so good, he was ostracized byhis peers), the individual is targeted by peers for not molding him orherself to the group (see also Shimizu's chapter in this volume) Teachers have relatively little power to intervene because they havesituated themselves not as arbitrators of student standards but as leaderparticipants While teachers in other cultures could categoricallyadmonish students for failure to accept nonstandard behavior, Japaneseteachers are described as also being swayed by the feelings of the class.The causation then shifts from schools controlled by violent teacherswho kill students (as portrayed in Schoolland) to schools whereteachers and students cannot break out of highly interdependentrelations

The difficulties of Japanese returnees (kikokushijo) further

illustrate the problems that teachers and peers have in dealing withstudents who do not share the same standards of behavior The analysis

14 Gerald K LeTendre

by Goodman (1990), and White (1988), of the returnee issue displaysthe racial consciousness and racial prejudices that pervade Japaneseschools and society in general

Okano (1993) has argued a that teacher's concern for the student isexpressed in a "maternalistic" way which she strategically opposes toviews of the Japanese school system as being "paternalistic"-that is,rule bound and militaristic Kotloff's (1996) description of classprojects in an elementary school eloquently depicts the emotional web

of relations that Japanese teachers actively foster However, within thishighly organized system, students who do not act according to expectednorms tend to be viewed as disruptive to the group's balance Studentswho have difficulty socializing, whether due to personality traits or due

to the fact that they have spent a long time in another culture, may besubject to bullying, ostracism and eventually develop a dislike ofschool or even a refusal to attend As students progress in school, thesetendency appears to increase, so that the initial emphasis onconsideration for others becomes an obsession with not "being differentfrom" others

This does not exonerate teachers from responsibility in limitingbullying, nor does it make the conditions faced by socially isolatedstudents any less onerous, but it does make remedying the problemmore complex The pressures to compete on exams and to perform well

in school are melded with the social pressure to be part of the group:the work group(han) ,class(kumi),grade(gakunen) or school(gakko)

Student social life is largely organized around these formal divisions,and teachers organize events which reinforce the solidarity of thegroup This is, of course, considered necessary to pass on Japaneseculture, just as restricting prayer and religious proslytization isconsidered necessary in U.S schools In the same way, in attempting toimplement these cultural ideals, the school system generates problems.Many individuals in Japan feel restricted or stifled in terms of theirindividual expression; many individuals in the United States feelrestricted or stifled in terms of their ability to have their religious valuestaught in schools

More productive research would come from a study of studentswith one Japanese parent, those who are not "Japanese" but "mixed"-

a designation that means they are ineligible to attend the Japaneseschools abroad There is a strong racial consciousness in Japan, and thisconsciousness is tied in with the fact that school is believed to be both

about academic achievement and the molding of a child's identity inJapan The school's function in creating an identity has been noted byother ethnographic researchers (Hendry, 1986) In the ensuing decades,Japan will face continuing problems as children continue to go abroadwith their families , as more foreign workers come to Japan , and asexpatriate Japanese (such as Japanese Brazilians) continue to return toJapan A study of how these students fare would provide powerfulmaterial for comparison with the experiences of ethnic and linguisticminorities in U.S schools.

Finally , aggregate data on suicide, bullying and school-violence(see LeTendre and Zeng, chapter 6 this volume) suggest that Japan'sadolescent are far less troubled and schools more safe now than in thepast While academic competition has remained high in the post-warperiod, the "high rate" of adolescent suicide, one of the most persistentmyths about Japanese schooling, has continued to drop, and in recentyears, has dipped well below U S levels when comparing overall ratesfor male adolescents Despite recent dramatic portrayals of bullying inJapanese classrooms, this problem actually seem to be on the decline.Japanese schools are not oppressive, deadening places There are arange of schools and school climates that would surprise readers whohave only read glowing reports of educators back from a short visit(cf

Ravitch, 1986) or writers with an ax to grind (Schoolland, 1990;Woronoff, 1991; Herzog, 1993) The continued reference, inmainstream scholarly journals, to such highly biased, and in the case ofSchoolland, poorly researched, pieces is disturbing and hinders anyunderstanding of the real conflicts and problems in Japan

4 American researchers never see the "Dark Side of Japan"because the Japanese hide it from them

The myth of Japan's "dark side" goes hand in hand with the depiction

of Japan's educational establishment as engaging in a conspiracy todelude the outside world about the true state of its educationalpractices This view of Japan as a conspiratorial nation-that is "Japan,Inc.," one vast network of companies, agencies and schools that work

to advance Japanese interests while hiding Japan's problems-has beencommon fare in the last 20 years (Woronoff, 1991; Fallows, 1989,1990; and Wolferen, 1989) Several authors (Young, 1993; Bracey,1996; Ohanian, 1987) have published works in mainstream educational

In his 1996 art icle Bracey makes the overstated claim thatAmerican researchers are steered only to the "best" schools in Japan ,and cites only one article-an impressionistic piece by Ishizaka(1994)-in an attempt to undermine the credibility of the long-termcomparative work conducted by Stevenson and Stigler." However, work

by Bracey, Westbury, as well as popular pieces by Wolferen, Fallowsand Woronoff are devoid of any reference to the substantial body ofwork on the problems of juvenile delinquency in Japan (Rohlen, 1976;Wagatsuma and DeVos, 1984; Sato, 1991; DeVos and Mizushima,1967) One of the classic studies of Japanese society that they simplyoverlook is Wagatsuma and DeVos' study of lower-class life in Japanthat explicitly deals with problems faced by lower-class students inschool In addition to these major works, there are a host of morespecialized pieces such as Sato's (1991) study of juvenile delinquency

in Japan's motorcycle gangs

Bracey's limited knowledge of the field makes it easy for him todiminish the work undertaken by Stevenson, Stigler and others.Although he does cite part of the extensive corpus of work conducted

by Stevenson and his group, he concentrates on only one work, The

Learning Gap , which was specifically written for a very generalaudience This willingness to believe in a vast conspiracy that aims todistort the educational picture in Japan reveals the political sub-text ofBracey 's work and the work of others The reasoning goes that becauseStevenson and his colleagues do not excoriate Japan, they are "soft" onJapan, visiting schools that "only the government wishes them to see"(Bracey, 1996:7) On the other hand, by the same contorted logic,media reports or the work of writers like Wolferen (whose expertiseappears to lie more in the area of journalism) are given more

In actuality, American and Japanese researchers have long beenaware of the problems of entry into Japanese schools and have taken

great pains to accumulate evidence from the schools in the loweracademic tracks and lower socioeconomic areas of Japan A significantand lively debate goes on within the field about whether Japaneseeducation is a meritocracy or not (c.f Cummings, 1980; Kariya andRosenbaum, 1987; Ishida, 1991; Tsukada, 1991; Stevenson, 1992;Okano, 1993) Strong evidence has been advanced by both sides(LeTendre, 1996) An important point that is missed by Bracey andothers who venture into the debate with little knowledge of the field isthat researchers have had access to Japan's poorest neighborhoods andschools The findings of these researchers can be used to recommend ordiscourage the use of certain Japanese educational practices , but thesestudies are more important for the information they provide about thedifferent ways in which Japanese use education to combat socialinequality, and how well their programs work.

Two interesting examples of this are Sato's (1996) piece onelementary classrooms and Okano's (1993) book on school-to-worktransitions Both researchers had entry into schools in poorneighborhoods Both observed classrooms where student scores onstandardized tests were probably in the lowest quintile, perhaps eventhe lowest decile in the case of Okano Both found problems, yet bothfound a remarkably vibrant school culture, extremely dedicatedteachers and a system which still worked to get the vast majority ofstudents on to the next level of schooling

Sato and Okano's work are corroborated by unpublished pieceswhich, obviously , the general research audience would not have easyaccess to (e.g Kinney, 1994) Yet it is precisely because their findingsare corroborated by other studies that they have validity in the field ofJapanese studies.Itis likely that Ministry of Education officials do try

to steer researchers to schools that do not have serious problems," butthis predilection affects only those researchers (cf Ravitch, 1986) whocome to Japan on short visits, have no Japanese ability, and aredependent on officials to provide entree into the schools

Scholars of Japanese schools such as Stevenson, Rohlen , Lewis,Singleton, Okano and others have developed long-term contacts inJapan (often with left-wing scholars who are critical of the Ministry ofEducation) and developed their own entree into the schools Working inschools with comparatively low rates of academic achievement (as inRohlen, 1983; Okano, 1993) or where there are high rates of violence

or juvenile delinquency (Rohlen, 1976), these researchers provide rich,

18 Gerald K LeTendre

descriptive information which counters attempts to paint the Japaneseeducational system as some imposing monolith closed to foreigninvestigators

5 Researchers falsely attribute an emphasis on effort in Japan andability in the United States or to more effective teaching strategies

in Japan

One of Stevenson and Stigler's main points in their book on the UnitedStates and Japan is that, comparatively speaking, the Japanese placemore emphasis on effort than on ability They argue that attributions ofability in Japan suggest a concept of intelligence or ability that is fluidrather than crystal Effort cannot only affect performance, in theindigenous beliefs, but can actually change ability

This finding is vigorously attacked by Bracey who argues thateffort is just as important in the American context Others note thatAmericans have long been critical of their schools, and that Japanesecomparisons simply fuel a cultural predilection to denounce pubicschooling While the historical tendency for Americans to criticize theirschools has been clearly documented (Tyack and Cuban, 1995), theargument advanced in literature around international tests lacks thesophistication of Tyack and Cuban's analysis and simply ignores awide range of data, both anthropological and psychological , that findsthat the Japanese do have different conceptions of ability and effort andthat effort is a central, driving concept in Japanese education

As early as 1966, psychologists began to publish the results ofstudies of mother-child relationships and their impact on achievementmotivation in Japan (Caudill and Weinstein, 1974) These studiesshowed persistent patterns of interactions that contradicted prevailingpsychological theories (DeVos, 1973:180-181) This material suggested

a culturally distinct pattern of child-rearing that inculcated lowindependence training with a high emphasis on academic success: "Onelearned to aim at high standards of performance as a quasi-religious act

of persistence in education exemplifies this point In primary and lowersecondary education, Japanese teachers place great emphasis onchildren's persistence and effort Middle school age students, inparticular, are taught that success on the exams comes from building upone's ability to persist and endure via long hours of study and repeatedpractice of the exams.

These attributes are remarkably fixed in nature Earlypsychological studies noted some persistence of Japanese patterns inJapanese-Americans (DeVos, 1973) Subsequent detailed analysis ofparental patterns of attribution have revealed that Japanese-Americanparents do indeed have significantly different patterns of associationbetween effort, ability and academic outcomes (Sato, 1987) Thesestudies suggest that Japanese do "put more emphasis on effort" becausethey tend to see the relationship between effort and intelligence indifferent ways This is not to say that many Americans do not alsovalue effort, but large segments of the United States' appear to beconvinced that effort in schooling makes little difference Ethnographicstudies of working-class and ethnic minority students document thewidespread belief that effort in school simply won't matter (Wolcott,1967; Everhart, 1983; MacLeod, 1987)

6 American is doing jnst fine compared to Japan; we just think wearen't

If a critical attitude toward public education has been around inAmerica for "over a century" (Bracey, 1996: 10), then the Pollyanna'scredo of "Morning in America's Schools" must have been around forjust as long Americans are simultaneously critical of the publiceducation system , yet quite proud of their local schools However, acritical attitude toward public education is not confined to the UnitedStates Many Japanese are also critical of their education system What

is unique to the United States is a concerted effort to dismiss thesystematic comparative educational data, both qualitative andquantitative, that has been gathered over the past few decades Suchdata, which are readily used in most industrial nations to guideeducational policy, show depressing trends in the general schooling andhealth of American adolescents compared to most European nations(see chapter 6 for details)

20 Gerald K LeTendre

Berliner and Biddle make a powerful point that Americans do tend

to assume schools are the solution for every social problem Tyack andCuban (1995) make a similar point, but they take a more complex view

of school reform and social change While schools cannot solve all ofthe problems of U.S society, there is every indication that publicsystems of education can be improved Comparative educational datacan help policy makers to determine what areas of education arelacking or sub-standard in comparison to other areas However, furtherdata and analysis are needed to determine if school reform is the bestmeans of improvement

For example, comparisons of international data show that in terms

of test scores , America does well in some areas, poorly in others Weare generally good in reading, but average to poor in mathematics.However, in fourth grade science, the United States excels Usingnational rankings based on international test score data to conclude thatAmerican public schools overall are doing poorly or well isunsubstantiated As Stedman and Jaeger have noted , and this pointbears remembering, general social conditions such as poverty or familystructure, appear to explain a significant percentage of the variation ininternational student achievement

Theseanalyses strongly support the conclusion thateconomic factors,coupled with family structure and stability, predict substantialportions of between-nation variation in math and sciencetest scores.They also support the conclusion that classroom instructionalvariables predict but trivial portions of the variation in nationwidemean test scores among students in industrialized nations (Jaeger,

1992: 124)

The point is that student achievement or other indicators of schoolperformance are tied up in the social and economic structure of thenation and affected by national policy goals If the United States wishes

to increase average student performance on math and science at theeighth grade level, several policy options could be considered Onewould be to teach more math However, if classroom instructionalvariables expla in little of the variation in student performance, then theUnited States might be better off pursuing a national policy ofequalizing resources between school districts or even pursuing nationalpolicies aimed at reducing unemployment Japan has systematically

pursued such policies in the post-war era The task before us is tofurther refine our analysis in order to more clearly determine whichfactors are impacting student performance.

The Third International Math-Science Study is a crucial step in thisdirection One reason why classroom instructional variables may havelittle predictive values is that the measures have been of poor quality-

a possibility that Stedman and Jaeger do not mention The TIMSS study

is replete with a variety of new measures that address student'sopportunity to learn-a way of measuring what portion of thecurriculum students were actually exposed to, as compared to the ideal

or intended curriculum Furthermore, the TIMSS database containsqualitative studies of three nations (Japan, Germany and the U.S.) thatallow an examination of the cultural expectations for school, teacherand learner in each society

Disentangling the effects of classroom practice from overall schoolculture or national patterns of resource allocation requires complicatedanalysis of high quality data Dismissing comparative data because itmay be used in ways that are "critical " of U.S education would be atragic waste

DISCUSSION

Bracey , Westbury , Berlin and Biddle and others do make substantive

points in their papers regarding the technical interpretation of

international test score data.Inother pieces, David Baker and I havealso argued for a cautious and judicious use of this data (Baker, 1998;LeTendre and Baker, 1998) However, most authors and othereducational leaders who have written pieces about Japanese educationand international test score data have done so without bothering to readthe vast qualitative literature on Japanese schools and teachers Thisgap of knowledge has fueled the politicization of all Japanese data asresearchers dismiss important findings International tests are limitedmeasures of educational success and productivity, and they must becarefully interpreted against a line of research that takes into account agiven country's history, culture, and political priorities

The result of the continuing acrimony and debate over internationaltest score data, unfortunately, has only served to politicize the field ofeducational research The overall result has been the furtherance ofideological debates that are divorced from the most accurate sources of