Building Potential Educational Reforms for Forced Migrant Children - Kyoko Ichikawa

COMMUNITY SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY-ENGAGED CURRICULA FOR 21ST-CENTURY EDUCATION The Reconstruction Design Council of the Japanese cabinet secretariat, in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, submitted the report Towards Reconstruction: “Hope beyond the Disaster” to the prime minister in June 2011. [...] In Otsuchi Town, a learning process was facilitated to enable the passing on of the local dialect and the traditional lives and culture of the local people from the community elders to the younger children. [...] University students are mostly engaging from outside the community, and are drawing on the wisdom of the local elders and learning alongside the children. [...] The involvement of university students was made possible with the support of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and the author was one of the driving forces behind this initiative. [...] The earthquake and the nuclear power plant accident have brought to the fore not only serious issues such as the damage caused by the disaster and the response to radiation, but also the challenges facing every region and community in Japan, such as the declining birth rate, the aging population, the rapid depopu- 96 lation, and the exhausting of industry.