Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education

This course is taught by Gary Mukai and Hideto Fukudome, with an engaged assistant by Kanako Kusanagi.

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the field of international and cross-cultural education with a focus on the mission and work of the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), Stanford University, and the mission and work of the Center for Advanced School Education and Evidence-Based Research (CASEER), the University of Tokyo.

• SPICE serves as a bridge between Stanford University and K–12 schools and community colleges by (1) developing multidisciplinary curricular materials on international and cross-cultural topics; (2) conducting teacher professional development seminars to encourage the internationalizing of curriculum; (3) offering distance-learning courses with a focus on international topics; and (4) conducting educational research on international topics. Like CASEER, SPICE collaborates with universities, prefectural boards of education, schools, and other organizations throughout Japan.

• CASEER seeks to collaborate with universities, educator-training institutes, prefectural boards of education, schools, and other organizations throughout Japan. Based on the principles of actual practice, comprehensiveness, and collaboration, CASEER has carried on its research traditions aimed at solving actual problems in school education, based on a cooperative relationship with the Division of Professional Development of Teachers. CASEER focuses on activities, lectures, and other events that have the aim of improving the professional quality of educators and promoting improved school-development policies.

Through a combination of lectures (including guest lectures) and theoretical and applied readings and activities, the course aims to accomplish the following: (1) introduce students to University of Tokyo and Stanford University scholars and practitioners and other educators who are engaged in work related to international and cross-cultural education; (2) compare U.S. perspectives on international and cross-cultural education with those in Japan and China; (3) engage students in various instructional strategies; (4) potentially contribute to SPICE’s website on topics related to international and cross-cultural education; and (5) encourage students to consider graduate studies, post-doctoral research, and visiting scholar opportunities at Stanford University and other universities in the United States.

Class topics and readings will include culturally relevant curriculum, teacher professional development, girls’ empowerment, multiple perspectives and curriculum, multiple intelligences, internationalizing online teaching, and ethnic studies.

Various instructional strategies will be utilized in class, including oral histories and storytelling, a gallery walk, participation in a teacher professional development session, a flipped classroom, small-group work, panel discussion, and web-based activities.

Note: This course was conceptualized with the University of Tokyo President Teruo Fujii’s vision, UTokyo Compass, a statement of the guiding principles of the University of Tokyo that is titled “Into a Sea of Diversity: Creating the Future through Dialogue” in mind. President Fujii’s vision emphasizes the importance of diversity and inclusiveness and focuses on the need to build a democratic society in which each individual can live with respect. It is the firm belief of the instructors of this course that the cultivation of these qualities in youth is essential for realizing such a vision.