Estrategia de plaza

student journals, they were required to read about the idea of decentralization of

education as well as rules and responses toward cheating. At the beginning of the session students discussed their journals with partners and took notes about each other and shared different ideas with the class. Afterwards, the students read and reflected on the reading, they discussed similarities and differences between their home country and America regarding the gender of teachers, using their mother tongue in class, and cheating. At the end of class, they broke into smaller groups to explain how the link they posted

connected with the things they spoke about in class.

After noticing that some members were not communicating as well, during the second week of classes, all six students interacted in three different conversations with new members each time. Similar issues to the prior week were still prevalent, but the group seemed to be getting along better than before and interactions were more fruitful. To this end, the teacher-researcher changed a few of the students’ seats to allow them to interact with different members, and looking at the students’ behavior, more members were expressing ideas from the state of Minimization.

Ricky. During the first conversation, Ricky took initiative and asked different questions to Ken. He seemed to have good insight about the school system in Japan, but throughout the discussion he focused directly on Japan and did not seem to know much about other cultures other than his own. This means he was not able to find many

similarities or differences between cultures. In the second conversation, Ricky was asked to check with his partner about the answers he found in the reading. While he was

checking, he was able to express some interesting points about the school system in America and Hungry and noted them while speaking with Karen. Finally, during the third conversation, Ricky was only able to come up with one similar point and one different point about Japanese and American schools in regards to the theme. Nothing about Ricky’s body language changed during this lesson and he only interacted with Japanese students well. As a final reflection, the teacher-researcher found it interesting that Ricky chose to a wear mask during class, although, this is very common in Japan when people are sick. However, Ricky did not appear sick; rather, it seemed as though he was trying to make understanding his English intentionally difficult by wearing the mask. This made it quite difficult to catch any quotes as his voice was too muffled to understand from a distance. Ricky also completed his journal incorrectly, so the data was not very valuable. Instead of comparing and contrasting he tried to just answer the questions in the book.

Ken. When Ken spoke with Ricky during the session, he was very quiet during the first conversation. He was trying to speak about other countries at length in the first conversation; however, he broke into Japanese a number of times. Ken made a lot of good points that related towards similarities. For example, he referenced American

He felt that standardized testing was a problem for both countries and that they were not needed. Additionally, he spoke of cheating in Japan and America and how people are usually dealt with similarly. While checking answers with Louie, he did a great job with cross-cultural communication. The teacher-researcher often found difficulties in

understanding what Louie was trying to say and he used body language to clarifying questions to ensure he understood his partner. Finally, during the discussion task with all of the group members, Ken was able to bring up multiple points about the similarities of educational practices in different countries. Surprisingly, Ken was overly critical of Japanese society. He mentioned that Japanese society needs to take a more active role and allow students to become more creative and critical thinkers. This is likely because he experienced a different kind of educational approach while studying abroad in America and found it more useful for his own learning. In his journal post and link, he focused on comparing Russia, Japan, and America. He not only highlighted differences, but also similarities. He noted, “In America, the majority of teachers are female. All countries considered I think the number of male and female teachers are about same.”

George. Although the first task was to discuss education in different cultures, George spent the majority of the first conversation speaking about phones and Japanese schools with Louie. He did not really focus on issues in other countries. He was more interactive with the other Japanese students in his groups, but he tried more this session to express his opinions. This could be because he was having problems understanding the Chinese students’ pronunciation or tempo when asking and answering questions. Rather than asking for clarification, he just became quiet when he did not understand. However, although he was a little bit hesitant, he was able to act as the group leader in the final

conversation and ask backup questions. He was interested in the term rug dealers, and he wanted to know what it meant related to education. The teacher-researcher was surprised he brought this point up and asked the teacher-researcher directly in front of his group members. This showed some initiative and interest in a complex topic. After explaining the term to him, he asked, “Why do people insulted each other and use a term so negative for people from the Middle East?” During the last conversation, he was able to find three similar and three different points about the Japanese education system in relation to China, America, and Korea. Again, the conversations were very close and seemed friendly. At one point, Louie patted George on the shoulder during one of their conversations.

Unfortunately, Louie misunderstood the journal post directions and although he found a similarity between Japan and other cultures from a universalistic view, his ideas mainly focused on differences.

The similarities between Japan and other countries' education styles are all students (from any country) have the right to study in their mother tongue. Conversely, the difference between Japan and other countries' education styles is the proportion of female teachers. Another countries average proportion of female teachers is about 70 percent [sic]. But Japanese average proportion of female teachers is about 40 percent [sic]. For Japanese female, compatibility of

housework and childcare is difficult. So, in Japan, there are a few female teachers. The website he provided, however, was focused on issues of test taking in Japan alone and explained how to deal with children who cheat on tests. The website also referenced

a lot about entrance exams in Japan, hence, he was, in a sense avoiding the topic from an intercultural standpoint.

Louie. During a majority of the conversations Louie seemed a little bit

uncomfortable interacting with the Japanese students today. Possibly he did not do the reading so he was not sure what to say in order to communicate his ideas. But compared to the previous week, he seemed self-conscious. When students were checking answers about the reading he seemed completely quiet. He was looking at his phone the entire time, and it was difficult to know if he was just distracted, if he was attempting to

translate from Chinese into English on the fly, or if he was just trying to avoid interaction with Ricky. However, he was able to ask questions to others and answer the teacher- researcher’s questions when prompted. Nonetheless, during the last discussion he did better in a small group and seemed to have built a strong bond with George. This was great to see and gave evidence that the method of first contact with another culture helps to break down barriers in this group of participants. During the final conversation, he was able to come up with four similar points and two different points when comparing

educational concepts in America, China, and Japan.

Louie’s journal was lacking a link and he did not take the time to check his grammar, but the content seemed to be focused on an outward looking frame and he was able to find a lot of similarities between countries.

In China, the most schools' funding come from Chinese government. And in most Chinese [sic] senior high school and junior high school, the majority of teachers are female, and the students must wear a uniform. I think the schools in China is

just like these in America, almost 90 percent [sic] of people go to the public school.

Joe. During the majority of class, Joe took a lot of initiative in the discussions. He was constantly interacting with all different members of the group. In conversation with Karen, he used Japanese a number of times and allowed for many long pauses and quiet instances to give her time. He also adjusted his behavior and spoke quietly with her while slowing down his gestures. This proactive mentality continued throughout the session and he was interested in Ken’s answers about the readings. The two were very compatible from the previous session, and this is probably because both came with experiences of different cultures. In the second conversation, they talked at length about similarities and differences of culture. Even during the final conversation, he was able to get Louie to speak more and probed for his opinions. In retrospect, however, he has been observed using Chinese with Louie. Actually, in one instance, the two were overheard speaking Japanese during a discussion. During the final conversation, he was able to list two different and similar points about cultural norms in education. In a sense, he was doing quite well finding not only the differences between Japan and other countries but also the things that linked them together. Although, he did not provide a link, similarities were a theme reflected in his journal where he noted something about all international students in the world. “Now a day, international students come to study in Japan. Each the students have their own mother tongue but, I think they need to study in English as it is part of study abroad.” This was a very interesting concept, and in this way, he was using a form of Minimization through an ideology of universalism.

Karen. She seemed much more prepared during the beginning of the session. She was interacting with Joe and talking about education, but because her voice was so quiet, it was difficult to hear anything she said. For this reason, the teacher-researcher could not detect if she used English during conversations. Her shyness may have been because she was the only girl in the group, or had to do with her personality. In retrospect, more girls should have been added to the group to make her feel more comfortable. However, during this session it was observed that she was interacting better with both of the

Chinese students, Louie and Joe, but she used a majority of Japanese with them when she spoke. During the conversation in the entire group when the topic of discussion was similarities and differences, she did not say anything. At that point, the teacher-researcher thought there was a possibility that she has some form of social anxiety making it very difficult for her to interact in groups. The teacher-researcher tried to observe her worksheet to see if she had written anything on either list, but was not able to read her work from a distance. Also, when Karen’s turn arrived to speak about her link in smaller groups, she did not really provide any details and used a very small voice, speaking for only a few seconds. Looking at her journal and link, she chose to share an article she read comparing American and Japanese schools. It was good to see her starting to focus on things outside of Japan, but the majority of the content was about the differences in ages, grading system, and teaching methods. Additionally, in her post, she mainly focused on the differences between two cultures. She noted, “I think that an American student will neither put on a uniform nor pay money of the textbook can be named as the difference between Japan and United States,” where she was alluding to the fact that Americans do not need to pay for uniforms, because they are not used and textbooks are free. This is

obviously an overgeneralization and she was still using avoidance methods instead of critically thinking about topics.

Session 3: Education, textbooks, and schools. Session three was a split session