The purpose of this work is to explore the roles of education and language in
the creation of Japanese cultural identity. Education means first "schooling," but it also
expands to include all cultural learning. In the attempt to unravel the inter-relationships
of abstract concepts such as education, culture, identity, language and Japan, our
understandings are necessarily influenced by our own education. Attempts by the
educated elite of one culture to understand other cultures constitutes an intellectual
conflict of interest that questions academic conventions, such as objectivity.
In this work, I interweave expository and narrative chapters in an attempt to
create a new "methodology" or "approach" to the study of culture, which I call cultural
hermeneutics. The autobiographical chapters present an ongoing self-reflection upon
my developing understanding of Japan. I have studied and taught in Japan for many
years, and my increasing familiarity with things Japanese has gradually moved me
beyond the boundaries of previous identities, and into spaces that once separated me
from Japanese culture, involving me in the formation of new hybrid cultural identities.
After an introductory chapter, the dissertation is split into three parts. The first
part deals with the challenges of cultural hermeneutics as a methodology. The second
part examines how the languages of Japan and foreign language education in Japan
influence the formation of Japanese cultural identities. The third part explores how
ideological debates, such as those about education, nationalism and
internationalization, play a role in forming cultural identities.
I conclude that identities are constantly contested by voices from both within
and without the "imagined communities" of cultures. This contest is in progress even
before we come to study "Culture." Because change is inherent to living cultures, and
because lived experience is so abundant and complex, the knowledge we inherit about
cultures is always incomplete, and full of prejudice and misunderstandings. We can
never arrive at final understandings of cultures, not even our own. Nevertheless, it is
important to continue conversations about cultures because they can lead us to form
deepened understandings, and because these conversations ultimately contribute to
greater self-understanding.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9928 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Bailey, Arthur Allan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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