儿童教育外文翻译文献
(文档含中英文对照即英文原文和中文翻译)
原文：
The Role of Parents and Community in the Education
of the Japanese Child
Heidi Knipprath
Abstract
In Japan, there has been an increased concern about family and community participation in the child’s educat ion. Traditionally, the role of parents and community in Japan has been one of support and less one of active involvement in school learning. Since the government commenced education reforms in the last quarter of the 20th century, a more active role for parents and the community in education has been encouraged. These reforms have been inspired by the need to tackle various problems that had arisen, such as the perceived harmful elements of society’s
preoccupation with academic achievement and the problematic behavior of young people. In this paper, the following issues are examined: (1) education policy and reform measures with regard to parent and community involvement in the child’s education; (2) the state of parent and community involvement at the eve of the 20th century.
Key Words: active involvement, community, education reform, Japan, parents, partnership, schooling, support
Introduction: The Discourse on the Achievement Gap
When western observers are tempted to explain why Japanese students attain high achievement scores in international comparative assessment studies, they are likely to address the role of parents and in particular of the mother in the education of the child. Education mom is a phrase often brought forth in the discourse on Japanese education to depict the Japanese mother as being a pushy, and demanding home-bound tutor, intensely involved in the child’s education due to severe academic competition. Although this image of the Japanese mother is a stereotype spread by the popular mass media in Japan and abroad, and the extent by which Japanese mothers are absorbed in their children is exaggerated (Benjamin, 1997, p. 16; Cummings, 1989, p. 297; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992, p. 82), Stevenson and Stigler (1992) argue that Japanese parents do play an indispensable role in the academic performance of their children. During their longitudinal and cross-national research project, they and their collaborators observed that Japanese first and fifth graders persistently achieved higher on math tests than American children. Besides reciting teacher’s teaching style, cultural beliefs, and organization of schooling, Stevenson and Stigler (1992) mention parent’s role in supporting the learning conditions of the child to explain differences in achievement between elementary school students of the United States and students of Japan. In Japan, children receive more help at home with schoolwork (Chen & Stevenson, 1989; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992), and tend to perform less household chores than children in the USA (Stevenson et al., 1990; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). More Japanese parents than American parents provide space and a personal desk and purchase workbooks for their children to supplement their regular text-books at school (Stevenson et al., 1990; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). Additionally, Stevenson and Stigler (1992) observed that American mothers are much more readily satisfied with their child’s performance than Asian parents are, have less realistic assessments of their child’s academic perform ance, intelligence, and other personality characteristics, and subsequently have lower standards. Based on their observation of Japanese, Chinese and American parents, children and teachers, Stevenson and Stigler (1992) conclude that American families can increase the academic achievement of their children by strengthening the link between school and home, creating a physical and psychological environment that is conducive to study, and by making realistic assessments and raising standards. Also Benjamin (1997), who performed ‘day-to-day ethnography’ to find out how differences in practice between American and Japanese schools affect differences in outcomes, discusses the relationship between home and school and how the Japanese mother is involved in the academic performance standards reached by Japanese children. She argues that Japanese parents are willing to pay noticeable amounts of money for tutoring in commercial establishments to improve the child’s performance on entrance examinations, to assist in ho mework assignments, to facilitate and support their children’s participation in school requirements and activities, and to check notebooks of teachers on the child’s progress and other school-related messages from the teacher. These booklets are read and written daily by teachers and parents. Teachers regularly provide advice and reminders to parents, and write about homework assignments of the child, special activities and the child’s behavior (Benjamin, 1997, p. 119, p. 1993–1995). Newsletters, parents’ v isits to school, school reports, home visits by the teacher and observation days sustain communication in later years at school. According to
