Beliefs concerning school and learning, a multicultural perspective

grantor: University of TorontoThe present thesis examined the beliefs concerning educational issues, which Japanese immigrant parents, their counterparts in Japan and Canada, and Canadian teachers hold. The thesis consists of two inquiries: Studies 1 and 2. In Study 1, a grounded theory of the beliefs that 6 Canadian teachers and 11 Japanese immigrant parents hold was explored qualitatively. The results indicated that the participants' whole belief system can be conceptualized hierarchically in terms of three layers: the general belief system concerning school and learning (General Belief Layer); opinions regarding learning difficulties (Problem Layer); and opinions concerning actions to take in order to solve the difficulties (Solution Layer). The parents' and teachers' opinions varied considerably with regard to issues in the General Belief Layer, manifested commonality in the Problem Layer and converged in the Solution Layer. The major source of the mismatch at the General Belief Layer was the parental belief that the Japanese and Canadian educational systems were distinctively different and an ideal school system was a combination of the two. In order to examine to what extent migration experience is contributing to such perception and preference, a questionnaire was constructed based on the themes emerging from Study 1. It was administered to Japanese immigrants ('n' = 88) and their counterparts in Japan ('n' = 56) and Canada ('n' = 38). The MANOVA and ANOVA results indicated that: (1) the immigrant parental perception regarding the school systems was significantly different from that of their counterparts in the home and host countries; and (2) the immigrant parents prefer the same type of school no matter in which country they would raise their children. Moreover, planned comparisons revealed that after having lived in Canada for three years, the immigrant parental school preferences gradually came to resemble those of Canadian parents. These results are interpreted within an acculturation framework. Theoretical as well as practical implications are also drawn.Ph.D