'TEACHING AND LEARNING ACROSS AN ETHNIC DIVIDEJ (Robert MOOREHEAD) TEACHING AND LEARNING ACROSS AN ETHNIC DIVIDE: PERUVIAN PARENTS AND A JAPANESE SCHOOL

My fieldwork at Shiroyama 1 public elementary school began dramatically, as Mr. Nakamura, a Japanese teacher in his fifties, explained his views on Latino cultures. "'Nasta manana ' tte wakaru, " he asked me. ("Do you know 'hasta manana ' [until tomorrow]?")2"Perujin mo hurajirujin mo, ratenjin dakara, shigoto shinai shi, jikan mo mamoranai. Itsumo 'hasta manana ' da " ("Peruvians and Brazilians are Latino, so they don't work, and they don't value time. It's always hasta manana.") "Raten-kei dakara, " he explained. ("It's because they're Latino.") Amid national and local public policy discussions of developing Japan into a multicultural society, the difficulties of communicating with foreign parents who speak little to no Japanese often frustrate Japanese public school teachers. As frustrations mount, teachers also complain that these parents are not acquiring Japanese language and culture quickly enough and are remaining too foreign. In contrast, foreign parents complain about the structural constraints that limit their ability to effectively interact with the school, despite their desire to be more involved. Based on ongoing research, this case study uses examples from parent-teache