Global Trends and Primary English Education Policy in Japan
Yamato, Kayo (2024)
Yamato, Kayo
2024
Master's Programme in Social Science Research
Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-11-22
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-2024110810042
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-2024110810042
Tiivistelmä
World society theory considers the world a single society with a shared world culture. It attempts to explain a phenomenon in which nation-states have commonalities in their national policies. The domestication process explains how nation-states adapt global ideas and trends to local situations. According to these theories, proposals from international organisations and international rankings promote the dissemination of global ideas and trends. However, how do nation-states understand and discuss the ideas and trends without those proposals and rankings? This thesis focuses on this question and investigates discourses regarding a global trend of early English education in discussing the introduction of primary English education in Japan in 2011. Keywords related to the international community were categorised into four groups, and the discussion topics in which the keywords were mentioned were categorised into four groups. This analysis shows that even though there are no direct recommendations or rankings, nation-state actors used information about the situation in other countries, the performance of Japanese people in the international community, and language proficiency test results to recognise global trends and justify policy reforms.