Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
Editor and Book Reviews Editor: John Edwards (St Francis Xavier University, Canada)
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Volume: 20 Number: 6 Page: 532–547
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Thinking of School and Learning in a Multicultural Context: A Comparison of Canadian Teachers and Japanese Parents
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Hiroko Yokota-Adachi and Esther Geva
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Using semi-structured interviews, the present study examined a grounded theory of the beliefs that teachers and Japanese immigrants hold regarding schooling and learning. The results indicate that the participants'
whole belief system can consist of three layers: the general belief system concerning school and learning (General Beliefs); opinions regarding learning difficulties (Problems); and opinions concerning
actions to take in order to solve the difficulties (Solutions). The parents' and the teachers' opinions varied considerably in the General Belief Layer, showed commonality in the Problem Layer and converged
in the Solution Layer. No parents attributed the learning problems to lack of effort; this result is inconsistent with the Japanese parental attribution theory reported in the literature. Theoretical as
well as practical implications are discussed.
© Multilingual Matters 1999
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