Reimagining “American Culture”: Japanese college students read the world of Chicanxs at the juncture of a paradigm shift

Abstract

This case study examines how preservice teachers make meaning of “American culture” while being cognizant of personal bonding between a Japanese ex-inmate and the community he connected with in prison—whom he refers to affectionately as his Chicano homies—in the college course “Culture and Languages of the United States.” The study explores a more transformative pedagogical approach and aims to raise awareness of the preservice teachers regarding: how a knowledge of self in a sociopolitical sense enables their teaching to be more accessible and relevant to their students, and using counternarratives to widen the teachers’ worldviews to create more inclusive teaching practices and rebuild equity and justice in education. This study examines how preschool teacher candidates at a Japanese university discussed Chicanx culture and how it was relevant to them reflecting and questioning the practice of equating the term with “American culture.”

Keywords:

• Identity
• funds of knowledge
• counternarratives
• cultural modeling

Acknowledgement

I am deeply indebted to Jessie Pool for our engaged conversations during these challenging times. Thank you for your faith.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kako Koshino

Kako Koshino is an associate professor of Education at Tokyo University and Graduate School of Social Welfare in Japan. Her research interests are concerned with Whiteness and education and critical consciousness. Her most recent published article “Tempted by Whiteness?: Linguistic Capital and Higher Education in Japan” features in The Journal of Educational Foundations. She also wrote the chapter entitled “Campus Racial Climate and Experiences of Students of Color in a Midwestern College” in the edited book Race, Equity, and the Learning Environment: The Global Relevance of Critical and Inclusive Pedagogies in Education.