Walter Dawson

Civic Education in Japan: Political Socialization in the Japanese Middle School Walter Dawson

In the present global age when nations and populations struggle with economic, political, and cultural forces generated by the interplay of domestic politics with the world system, there is increasing interest in the role which civic education can play in creating citizens. This study represents an attempt to investigate the formation of political attitudes of Japanese adolescents within the Japanese middle school as a political microcosm. Fully fifty years since the Allied Occupation attempted to democratize the Japanese education system, the stereotype of the authoritarian Japanese classroom persists. This book presents a more dynamic picture of political spaces where students and teachers negotiate concepts of autonomy and equality during homeroom and student government activities. A new interpretive framework is presented for understanding the subtle processes of political socialization by which educators teach political values and students exhibit agency in resisting or embracing those values. This book should be of particular interest to students and scholars of comparative education, comparative politics, and Asian studies as well as educators and policy-makers.