A Study on Education Support for “Newcomer” Children

ガイコクジン センモン シエンイン ノ ニューカマー キョウイク シエン ニカンスル イチコウサツ

タテ, ナホコ

Tate, Nahoko

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ キョウイクガクケイ

Department of Education, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

This paper aims to examine the problems in and potential of education support for foreigners. Since the 1980’s, the number of newcomer children in public schools has increased, as has the number of teachers assisting their education. While numerous studies have been conducted on education assistants from varies backgrounds, foreign teaching assistants have drawn little attention. Most of the studies targeted Japanese assistants, while few studies exist on foreign teaching assistants. In this paper I focus on Chinese education assistants and analyze the problems in and potential of teaching support for foreigners by drawing on her getting engaged in schooling. The fi ndings from this study show that a person who can connect cultural and social capitals that potentially existed or were gathered is valuable when providing education support to newcomer children. In short, it is possible for foreign teaching assistants to assume an important role as a “connecting point.” However, a few words of caution need to be provided. First, there need be other staff members in the school, who can understand situation of foreign teaching assistants. The other is that there should not be any change in the power asymmetry between Japanese and Chinese teaching assistants, even though Chinese assistants become regular staff members in the school.