Activity report

Teikyo University Faculty of Education Department of Education and Culture Associate Professor Kaeiko Suzuki

After graduating from university, he taught at junior and senior high schools in Tokyo. After gaining several years of experience, he was involved in local educational activities at the Ministry of Education of the Republic of El Salvador in Central America. After returning to Japan, he went on to Graduate School to further his research on school education in Latin America. He joined Faculty of Education at Teikyo University, where he remains to this day. His research fields include international comparative education, Latin American regional studies, and teacher education, and in recent years he has focused on education in the United Mexican States.

My current research focuses on two main themes. One is a collaborative study of the US-Mexico border region, applying the framework of border studies to comparative education. The other is research focusing on school education and teacher education in Mexico. I originally worked as a middle and high school teacher after graduating from university. However, my interest in education abroad led me to quit teaching and take a position at the Ministry of Education of the Republic of El Salvador, where I engaged in education-related activities. When I visited a school in the mountains, I was surprised to hear the national anthem the children were listening to on the radio not from my own country but from neighboring Honduras. Radio waves have no borders. The village children were naturally learning about and experiencing the culture of their neighboring country. This scene was the starting point for my current research, which combines border studies and comparative education.

Researchers in comparative education have their own "fields"—regions and countries, such as Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and Latin America. Given my familiarity with El Salvador, I have focused my research on Latin America. Many countries in this region share Spanish as their primary language and share many common historical and cultural backgrounds. However, their national governance systems are complex and intertwined, and educational diversity is abundant. Furthermore, their political situations and positions change depending on their relationships with neighboring countries like the United States. For this reason, I believe Latin America is an extremely interesting region for reexamining the meaning of borders from an educational perspective. While there has been active discussion of borders in the fields of political science and geopolitics, borders have received little attention in education, particularly comparative education. However, education is an academic field deeply connected to the functions of borders, such as nation-building, language, identity, and migration. Therefore, I believe border regions and education share a strong affinity.

Borders on maps exist all over the world. In my current collaborative research, experts from Southeast Asia, Northern Europe, and North America are coming together to study the diverse borders in their respective fields. I am currently working on the second-longest border in the world, the US-Mexico border. Due to security concerns and ease of research, I am currently focusing on the area between San Diego, California, at the westernmost point of the US-Mexico border, and Tijuana, Baja California, on the Mexican side. Here, many Mexican children cross the border early every morning to attend school in the US. While junior high school students and older can walk to school alone, parents cross the border with their children in elementary school and younger, dropping them off at school before working in the US and returning home to Mexico in the evening. This lifestyle is not unusual; it is commonplace. The underlying factors are differences in the education system and economic situation. Mexican schools typically use two- or three-shift systems, with students rotating between the same building. Even if students attend school in the morning, they may return home by early afternoon. The shorter the school day and the longer children spend at home, the more difficult it is for parents to go to work. On the other hand, American schools have classes all day, from morning to afternoon. After dropping off their children at school, parents can work in the United States as cleaners or drivers. Because wage levels are also significantly different between the United States and Mexico, working in the United States can earn significantly more than working in Mexico. Furthermore, the United States also relies on Mexican workers, so there is a mutually supportive relationship.

Before conducting field research, I typically understand the situation in the target area through reports and data issued by international organizations, the country's Ministry of Education, and the government. Based on this, I conduct fieldwork by interviewing school district boards of education, principals, teachers, For parents and guardians. In my current research on the border region, I interview people on both the Mexican and American sides. For example, I interviewed people at a McDonald's located immediately after passing through immigration and entering the United States. Despite being in the United States, this place, where Spanish is the only language spoken, is a popular spot for many families who have crossed the border from Mexico every morning. They wake up at 4 or 5 a.m. in the dark, wait in the long immigration line, and finally cross into the United States. Here, they eat a quick breakfast and prepare for school. I also see children coloring in books and elementary school students doing their homework. I visit these tables to learn about their daily routines, school classes, and parents' feelings toward their children. Despite taking a break in the morning, everyone is happy to be interviewed. While students on both sides of the border are cheerful and willing to share their stories, educational environments vary from home to home. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, which closed the border, online classes were conducted across borders. However, many families lacked internet access, and in some cases, schools provided pocket Wi-Fi and devices. In schools on the Mexican side, even those with internet access had teachers unable to distribute teaching materials, so they regularly assigned homework in printouts. These varied responses revealed that even among Mexican students, their learning environments are quite diverse. In addition, in schools on the American side, classes are primarily conducted in English, but separate teachers teach English learners (ELs) in Spanish. An increasing number of schools are employing teachers with bilingual qualifications, and some offer programs not only for language education but also for economically disadvantaged students. This multicultural environment is "normal" in this region, where students live comfortably among people of different cultures, languages, and diverse backgrounds. From our Japanese perspective, this is a very diverse environment.