Asian Perspectives on Teacher Education

Shin'ichi Suzuki, Edward R. Howe

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781317988014
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Research into teacher education is dominated by Anglophone literature, with the inevitable result that teacher education in non-English speaking regions of the world largely remains unexamined. This book fills the gap in the existing literature and comprises twelve invited contributions from an international panel of educationists. To provide the reader with a clear structure, the book offers a detailed introduction and afterword which brings together the various themes examined in each chapter. The contributions offer perspectives on teacher education in the Asian region, perspectives which, until now, have been missing from contemporary debate on teacher education. Presenting research from Australia, Japan, the USA, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and Vietnam, this book examines the varied situations teacher educators experience in their own countries; in so doing the researchers identify resonances and dissonances in comparison with the dominant Anglophone research literature on the same subjects.

This book is an important contribution to the comparative study of teacher education in the first decade of the twenty-first century, giving a voice to an important sector of the international community of teacher educators.

This book was published as a special issue of Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy.

Teachers’ role in the transition and transmission of culture

Yuri Ishii^a and Mari Shiobara^b

^aFaculty of Education, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi, Japan; ^bMusic Education, Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan

Globalisation is proceeding in every aspect of human activities and school education is also influenced. The most obvious influence may be the emphasis on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) education. The acquisition of ICT skills, however, is not so profound when considered in the light that so many countries are sharing exactly the same views on the introduction of ICT into their school curriculum. What is caused by globalisation is not just the diffusion of ICT skills, but also the spread of the values that regard ICT as an important element of school education.

A similar symptom exists in music education policies in Asian countries. There are some common trends, which indicate that certain values are now shared among music education policies of many Asian countries. These are an emphasis on the purpose of education as the development of children’s total human quality rather than mere transmission of skills and knowledge by rote learning, the encouragement of a learner-centred approach, the introduction of authentic assessment, the integration of existing subjects, and the assertion of cultural specificity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how these values are adopted in music education policies and how they are influencing music teachers in Asian countries. Through the discussion, the paper argues that the recent policy shifts in these countries reflect their desire to catch up with the global trend of educational values rather than to respond to the realities faced by teachers in their respective countries. The paper also argues that the emphasis on cultural specificity has doubled music teachers’ tasks in many Asian countries because teachers now have to cope with two different types of music, western music as a global common musical language and their traditional music as the source of their national identity.

Trends in Asian music educational policies

Many Asian countries have experienced curriculum revisions since the 1980s and there are common features in their policies. One such feature is their emphasis on education for the development of children’s total human quality. The emphasis can be found in policies for music education, too.

The purpose of music education, though the wordings are slightly different, in both Thai and Hong Kong¹ curricula links music education with creativity, the ability to analyse and appreciate music, and self-expression (Tanaka et al. 2006). The Japanese curriculum refers to expression and appreciation for the sake of developing students’ sensibility (Monbusho 1998). In the curricula of the Philippines and Taiwan, music education is expected to contribute to ‘the total development’ and the development of a ‘well-rounded character’, respectively (Tanaka et al. 2006). The philosophy of the Malaysian curriculum aims at the holistic development of intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced individuals, and the objectives of music education include items such as the development of self-expression, creativity, the value of cooperation and a positive attitude toward trying as well as those more directly linked with learning music (Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia 2002). The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is currently trying to shift from exam-oriented education to quality education and music education is expected to enrich children’s emotional experience and develop aesthetic sentiments of a good quality in them (Nishizono and Dong 2003). That overlaps with the total development of children’s personality. The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is also moving towards education that ‘cultivates fully each learner’s personality and creativity’ (Ministry of Education Republic of Korea 1999, 169) and music is expected to raise children’s quality of life through total human development (Murao, Go, and Park 2003).

The emphasis on education for children’s total development is linked with the promotion of learner-centred education. In the current music curriculum of Japan, children’s learning through their own experience is emphasised more than before (Ishii, Shiobara, and Ishii 2005) and the current curriculum of the People’s Republic of China includes respect for children’s individuality and the importance of a co-workable teacher–student relationship (Nishizono and Dong 2003). The South Korean curriculum published in 1997 states that musical learning must be based on musical experience and students must be given opportunities to give presentations. In the area of understanding music, students are expected to develop creativity, the ability of problem-solving through participation and the ability of self-learning (Murao et al. 2003). In Thailand, although not specifically about music, the National Education Act in 1999 clearly states that ‘teachers, instructors and administrators must change their roles from guiding and knowledge transferring to helping, promoting and encouraging learners in acquiring knowledge’ (Pitiyanuwat and Anantrasirichai 2002, 7).

The third example is the introduction of the concept of ‘authentic assessment’. A distinction drawn by Gipps between performance assessment and authentic assessment is as follows:

Authentic assessment implies that the assessment is authentic to the learning activity we wish to promote and/or that the context of the assessment is authentic rather than artificial. Authentic assessment is always performance-based … so it is in effect a special case of performance assessment. (Gipps 1996, 259)

Assessment in Asia used to be synonymous with summative assessment for the purpose of the comparison and selection of students. Nowadays, policies demand performance-based authentic assessment that is useful for the improvement of individual students’ learning.

The Philippines employs self-assessment by students after every lesson (Tanaka et al. 2006). This is expected to facilitate two other forms of assessment by teachers: formative assessment and summative assessment. The curriculum of the PRC encourages formative and summative assessment (Nishizono and Dong 2003) and the use of various types of assessment such as students’ self-assessment, students’ mutual assessment and assessment by a third party (BEING.Org.cn 2005a, 2005b). In the assessment, not only knowledge and skills, but also attitudes and eagerness are supposed to be assessed clearly and objectively (Cheng 2005). In Hong Kong, assessment includes formative assessment such as immediate responses to students’ performances and compositions as well as summative assessment that is accomplished mainly through final examinations in listening and performing (Tanaka et al. 2006). The Malaysian national curriculum explains that assessment will help students to raise their standard of achievement and teachers to prepare appropriate lessons (Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia 2002). It suggests various ways to carry out the formative and summative assessments during course work and exam periods. Some examples are: interviews, demonstrations, quizzes, multiple-choice tests, discussions, portfolios, reflection and reports. The South Korean curriculum states that the assessment result should be used for the improvement of teaching and the assessment should take various forms (Murao et al. 2003).

Emphasis on clear and objective assessment is shared by Taiwanese and Japanese policies. Taiwan has introduced competence indicators for the ‘arts and humanities’ (Tanaka et al. 2006). Since Japan has switched from an assessment based on students’ relative performance to that based on their absolute performance, teachers are now expected to have clear criteria that should be used for the assessment and devise clear ways to assess children based on the criteria. The assessment must cover the following points that are prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Science: interests, eagerness and attitudes; musical perception and devices for expression; skills for expression, and ability for musical appreciation (Monbusho 1996).

The integration of the art subjects as part of curriculum integration is also a feature often found in contemporary Asian curricula. For example, South Korea adopted the integrated curriculum in the first two years of primary education for six- to eight-year-olds in the 1995 curriculum revision (Murao et al. 2003). It integrated conventional subjects into five groups including Korean language and mathematics as two independent subjects. Music is mainly taught in the group that includes art and health education as other elements (2003). Thailand adopted the integrated curriculum policy in 1990 and divided conventional subjects into five areas in primary education, five subjects in lower secondary education and nine subjects in upper secondary education (Pitiyanuwat and Anantrasirichai 2002). Music was integrated with other conventional subjects into the area of ‘character development’ at primary level, the subject of ‘personality development’ at lower secondary level and the subject of ‘art’ at upper secondary level (Pitiyanuwat and Anantrasirichai 2000). After the revision in 2000, the curriculum was reorganised into eight subject groups of learning and music was included in ‘art’ with other areas of art (Pitiyanuwat and Anantrasirichai 2000). Taiwanese primary and lower secondary school curricula integrated music with visual art and drama as the ‘arts and humanities’ learning area in 2001 and now upper secondary school curricula is moving in the same direction (Tanaka et al. 2006). In the Philippines, the fourth to sixth years of primary education, which is for nine- to 12-year-old children, has an integrated subject consisting of arts, physical education, home economics and livelihood education. Secondary education has an integrated subject that includes physical education, health and music (Marinas and Ditapat 2000; Tanaka et al. 2006). In the current curriculum of the PRC, while music exists as an independent subject, an integrated subject ‘arts’ that includes music, art, drama, dance and film is also provided (BEING.org.cn 2005a, 2005b).

Japan has not introduced an integrated art subject but the possibility of the integration of music and art into something like ‘self-expression’ has always been discussed among policy makers since the 1990s (Shiobara and Ishii 1998). Indeed, the period of integrated studies was established in 1998 in order to promote the learning of interdisciplinary themes and the element of music education can be included, for example as a part of the learning of local cultural heritage, if a school so chooses.

Besides the features mentioned above, there is also a common trend of the assertion of cultural specificity in Asian countries. As a subject that deals with musical culture, music curricula directly reflect this assertion. In Asian countries, national identity in music education has been maintained in a different way, through the use of locally composed western-style pieces with lyrics in local languages. The recent trend indicates that this approach is no longer enough for the assertion of national identity. During the 27^th International Society for Music Education (ISME) World Conference, a panel discussion was held on how teaching local traditional music is encouraged in music. The handout distributed at this discussion can be summarised as follows:

• Thailand: Thailand is the strongest in traditional instrumental teaching in each of the local cultural instruments … schools have Thai traditional musical instruments for music classes.

• Malaysia: the curriculum includes music of all cultures in Malaysia … In secondary school, traditional ensembles like Cak Lempong and Gamelan were made compulsory for students who choose music.

• The Philippines: Philippine music in its three mainstreams is present in the primary and secondary school curriculum.

• Taiwan: the localisation policy to include elements from 13 indigenous languages as well as Mandarin in 1993 and 1994 is reflected in the music teaching materials, mainly singing and music appreciation materials.

• Hong Kong: the government pushes the Chinese music very much by curriculum reform and in-service training since 1997.

• Japan: Japanese music has been more positively introduced into music classrooms since 2002 (Tanaka et al. 2006).

By ‘more positively introduced’ in the Japanese curriculum we mean that it includes actual instrumental playing, or at least touching instruments, in lower secondary schools. This represents a great difference from the previous curriculum that remained at an appreciation level (Ishii et al. 2005).

In the PRC, the music curriculum has stressed national identity since the 1990s. A national objective, written in 1992, is ‘to ensure that students learn the superior national musical productions of our country’ in order to nurture ‘their sense of national dignity and pride’ (PLC 1997, 78). Subsequently, in the primary school curriculum that was in effect in 1997, out of 143 pieces of music for appreciation, 32 pieces were traditional Chinese music and many of the songs were Chinese folk songs (Nomura and Nakayama 1997). The new curriculum announced in 2001 succeeded this policy. For example, fundamental educational principles for lower secondary school curriculum include ‘treasuring national music’ and the contents for appreciation include Chinese national music and folk music (Cheng 2005).

The South Korean curriculum emphasises its national musical heritage not by the number of the pieces of traditional music, but by inserting features of Korean music into pieces (Murao et al. 2003).

The implication of the policy trends

There is more than one message in these policy trends. The most obvious one is the shift of the whole meaning of school education from education for the sake of qualification to education that is meaningful for the development of each child’s personal qualities. In many Asian countries, school education has been criticised for its exam-oriented, teacher-centred nature that resulted in children rote learning. The most well known examples may be Japan, South Korea and the PRC. Even in music education, which is relatively free from exam pressures, cramming knowledge and skills have been practised. The emphasis on education for children’s total development is meant to remedy the defects of such exam-oriented education. In order for education that supports children’s total development, children need to be enabled to learn depending on their own interests and capabilities. Hence the encouragement of learner-centred, process-oriented teaching methods and performance-based authentic assessment for the purpose of helping children’s learning.

Besides the necessity to solve the actual problem of rote learning, the shift from exam-oriented education to education for children’s total development has an implication of a shift from developing country status to industrialised country status, too. As Dore (1976) writes, education for qualification and rote learning have been regarded as features of a developing country. So, it is natural if policy makers of Asian countries regard such features of their educational system as something to eliminate and aim at education for children’s total development as their target.

The integration of subjects also has a double message. On one hand, it is closely linked with the implementation of a learner-centred approach that should allow children to learn according to their interest without being restricted by subject boundaries. At the same time, it also means adopting the trend started in Europe and the United States. The integration of music education with other subjects in particular with those of art subjects has been discussed among Anglo-American music educationists since the late 1970s. They have supported the view of the arts as a unique form of knowledge proposed by philosophers such as Langer and Dewey. For example, Abbs defines music, literature, drama, visual art, dance and film as constituting a generic community of knowledge united by the process of making, performing, presenting and evaluating. He believes that through participating in these artistic processes children develop a special kind of perceptual understanding that leads to artistic knowledge (Abbs 1987). This kind of argument is often used for the justification of a place of music in a common curriculum along with the other art subjects. Lawton (1988) states that the aim of music and arts education is to develop students’ understanding of the various ‘meanings’ that constitute the living culture. In the United States, music curriculum guidelines proposed by the Music Educators National Conference are partly presented in the National Standards for Arts Education (Consortium of National Arts Education Associations 1994) along with dance, theatre and visual arts education. Thus, these common features can be interpreted as Asian countries’ effort to adopt what they consider the global standard of good school education.

Finally, the common trend of the assertion of traditional musical culture is based on the global trend of multiculturalism. When Japan introduced music education into schools in the late nineteenth century, it tried hard to westernise its musical culture in order to be admitted as a member of the modernised world. After the defeat in World War II, it again chose western classical music as the goal of music education. This history of Japanese music education reflects the values of that time when western culture was regarded as the ultimate form of human culture. This view started to change only after the importance of cultural diversity was recognised by the Ministry of Education in 1959 (Monbusho 1959). Since then, the emphasis on multiculturalis...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Abstracts
• Introduction
• 1. Teachers’ role in the transition and transmission of culture
• 2. Alternate routes in initial teacher education: a critical review of the research and policy implications for Hong Kong
• 3. Teacher education in a global context: towards a defensible theory of teacher education
• 4. Educators in American online universities: understanding the corporate influence on higher education
• 5. Developing a ‘feedback cycle’ in teacher training: local networking in English education at Keiwa College
• 6. Gender inequality among Japanese high school teachers: women teachers’ resistance to gender bias in occupational culture
• 7. Teacher induction across the Pacific: a comparative study of Canada and Japan
• 8. Reform of teacher education in China
• 9. Early childhood teacher education in China
• 10. English education and teacher education in South Korea
• 11. Development of primary English education and teacher training in Korea
• 12. Educational reform and teacher education in Vietnam
• Afterword
• Index