Cram Schools in Japan: A Study of the Relations of Ideology and Contradictory Practice.
In Japanese culture, there is a tradition of scholastic "excellence" about which there is a considerable amount of contradictory information. One such issue is the purpose and processes of such supplemental educational practices as "cram schools." This paper will define what "cram schools" are, and offer some competing rationalizations concerning the history of their existence and the contradictory perspectives of the purpose, benefits, and social costs of such supplemental education. This paper will argue that the education system itself is not specifically responsible for the existence of cram schools; but rather, that the presence of these schools can be traced through a variety of cultural and historical beliefs about the role of the family; that is, how particular ideological values are structured into family values, and how concepts of "success" and are directly traceable to the paternalistic ideologies which structure the family, in terms of family-role. 11 pgs. 20 f/c. 7b.
