Enculturation and Socialization

Enculturation and Socialization: How are American schools different from Japan’s?
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As an American student, I have always wanted to travel to other parts of the world to learn how students in other parts of the world learn and how they socialize. Whereas I have never had the opportunity to travel, the Japanese education system has always intrigued me something that prompted me to do a comparison of the Japanese and American education systems. Surprisingly, although the Japanese education model borrowed the American 6-3-3 system during the U.S occupation after WWII there are still many differences between the two systems in relation to enculturation and socialization (Cooke, 2009). First, in American schools, the relationship between teachers and students is often friendly and casual. Learners are encouraged to communicate with their teachers freely from the time they join the elementary school. For instance, the students are asked: “what would you like to do?” The teachers equally value the responses they get from the learners without a judgmental attitude (Tobin & Karasawa, 2009. Conversely, Japan is synonymous with a certain social ladder that is transferred to schools. Therefore, schools in Japan have a certain hierarchy that does not promote a friendly and casual relationship between teachers and students. Communication between the two parties is usually minimal and formal with each side demanding respect from the other. Additionally, American schools have smaller class sizes than Japanese schools.

I also think that American students have more opportunities for socialization than Japanese students given that American students switch classes regularly unlike Japanese learners who remain in one classroom for the entire stay in school.
Scholars argue that these differences can be explained using Hofstede individualist-collectivist theory. In this regard, on the one hand, the Japanese culture is believed to be collectivist, which is characterized by the desire for order, empathy, hierarchy, and dependency. On the other hand, the American culture is said to be individualist characterized by the yearning for success, personal independence, and enjoyment (Kapoor &Wolfe, 1995). Interestingly, the Japanese education system was recently ranked above the American education system which begs the question, why is this so yet American students are encouraged to be more independent than their Japanese counterparts?
References
Cooke, J. (2009). A comparison of Japanese and American education systems. Colección Digital Eudoxus, (18).
Kapoor, S., & Wolfe, A. (1995). American Japanese Students’ Values, Perceptions of American Values, and the Impact of US Television on Such Perceptions. INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION STUDIES, 5, 41-60.
Tobin, J., Hsueh, Y., & Karasawa, M. (2009). Preschool in three cultures revisited: China, Japan, and the United States. University of Chicago Press.