Sparked by the confluence of accelerating domestic transformation and increasingly explicit impacts from "globalization", the Japanese education system has undergone tremendous changes during the turbulence of the past decade. This volume, which brings together some of the foremost scholars in the field of Japanese education, analyzes…

As the title of this book suggests, how one understands, perceives and experiences democracy may have a significant effect on how he/she actually engages in, and with, democracy. Within the educational context, this is a key concern, and forms the basis of the research presented in this volume within a critical, comparative analysis. The Global…

For decades Japan has remained at or near the top of international assessments of student learning; and in the past decade, students in Japan have become more engaged in learning. However, the government aspires to improve learning outcomes even further. "Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education: Lessons from PISA for…

This book examines the implications of postmodern culture for adult education through a review of modernist culture and education and a comparative account of modernist and postmodernist culture that is configured as a set of six tensions in three domains: belief (situatedness and ambiguity); individual identity (determination and control); and…

This book examines and illustrates the process of transforming school-to-work into real learning for real work. In chapter 1, guidelines are presented for designing project-based learning programs that are both academically rigorous and grounded in community and workplace realities, and the attempts of three very different high schools to develop…