著者

金井 香里

出版者

東京大学

雑誌

東京大学大学院教育学研究科紀要 (ISSN:13421050)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.43, pp.245-254, 2004-03-10

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Based on an in-depth field research conducted at two public primary schools located in the Kanagawa Prefecture, this article explores two Japanese teachers'ways of representing an ethnic minority(i. e., a "newcomer" and a "second generation newcomer" respectively). It has been pointed out in the former studies that the cultural differences of ethnic minorities are invisible in the Japanese schools and that teachers tend to treat the difficulties/failures these minorities go through as individual issues, i. e., his/her own personality and/or the family circumstances, rather than social issues. It is true that teachers have such a tendency. However, it is necessary to analyze how such attribution occurs in the teachers'thinking processes because it is also true that the teachers must have obtained some information of ethnic minorities'cultural/historical backgrounds such as nationality, birthplace, the parents'home country, etc. In this article, it is analyzed how the knowledge about the backgrounds of an ethnic minority influences a teacher's cognition of the behaviors of the child's. For the analysis, the author focuses on the two modes of representation in a teacher's thinking: one mode of representation concerns individual characteristics of a child; the other informations about the child's cultural/historical backgrounds. In conclusion, it is suggested that teachers use strategically the knowledge of ethnic minorities'backgrounds(i. e., nationality) in the daily interaction with the children in the classroom.