AFFECTS of YOUTH and SCHOOLING in JAPAN by Yuko
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PERFORMING “THE OTHER” AND BECOMING DIFFERENT: AFFECTS OF YOUTH AND SCHOOLING IN JAPAN by Yuko Kawashima A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Yuko Kawashima 2017 Performing “the Other” and Becoming Different: Affects of Youth and Schooling in Japan Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Yuko Kawashima Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning University of Toronto Abstract This dissertation explores how Japanese youth experience their senses of self through looking into drama/theatre classes in secondary school. To consider the issue of “multicultural coexistence” in Japan with the idea of multiple belongings and the liberation of youth, I explore the ways, if any, in which young people are involved in a radical repositioning or internal qualitative transformation in a productive and affirmative manner, as well as what factors prevent those transformations from occurring. Applying Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts such as “becoming” and “affects,” I especially examine the experiences of acting or performance, in particular the practices of “mimesis,” which refers to embodying the image of “the other” through imagination. The analysis is based on one year and five months of ethnographic research with high school students at a school in a cosmopolitan but relatively economically deprived area of Tokyo. The narratives emerged from observation in drama classes and in-depth interviews with journal writing and assignments, utilizing a methodology of postqualitative research. As seen through repeated patterns of being stuck, the analysis reveals how the identity category of ethnicity/nationality as well as the notions of “Japaneseness,” “kyara,” and “school caste” rigidly function to territorialize youth, blocking possibilities for them to become otherwise. Reconstructing the gender hierarchy, silencing of the girls’ desire for masculinity, and normalization of the boys’ rejections of femininities formed other patterns. Affects fluctuate with different constellations of possibilities and constraints. The assemblages of femininities and masculinities, and particularly the respective positions within those, form a significant ii component of the affective experiences of youth at school. Considering pedagogical aspects, which might have restricted those experiences, I also sketch several points for drama pedagogy to deepen role-playing or acting as a testing ground where new relationality with other bodies is tried out. This study contributes to the educational research that sheds light on the complexities of the affective experiences of youth at school. iii Acknowledgments I am truly grateful to my supervisor, Doug McDougall. Without your understanding, care, and encouragement, I would never have been able to walk through this long PhD journey. Thank you so much for your full support to make sure that I did not fall apart especially while I was far away and buried in other commitments. I really appreciate your navigation of the institution in which systems are very different from what I had been used to. I also would like to thank David Booth for the sincere care and compassion that enabled me to get everything done and for being genuinely involved in my work. My earliest experiences of listening to your stories as a drama educator as well as of dancing with you at the conference held in Jamaica were especially memorable. Thank you for welcoming me to the world of drama education and for encouraging me to pursue it further. Without many conversations with and work experience as a research assistant of Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández, I would never have been able to find the way to even start this research project. Thank you for being a mentor and for your inspirational intellectual guidance. I have learned a great deal from your rigorous dedication to your work. I am thankful for the way in which you have continually challenged me to keep thinking and be critical through thoughtful questioning. I also would like to thank my external examiner, Belarie Hyman Zatzman, for the encouraging and supportive comments through careful readings. I won’t forget the feeling of being shaken with new insights when I first read your comments on my dissertation. To my internal examiner, Tara Goldstein, thank you for your provocative questions on the day of my thesis defense, which I would now love to pursue throughout my career. This dissertation was greatly formed through academic intellectual exchanges at OISE. Through courses and seminars, it has been an honour for me to join the discussion and listen to the stories of scholars who spoke with passion and integrity to improve the world of education iv with hope and openness. The conversations and class discussions with my first advisor, Kathleen Gallagher, especially influenced my thinking a great deal. I would also like to thank all my OISE friends, collaborators, and office mates for sharing experiences and stories full of joy and excitement as well as headaches and heartaches from the real struggles of being a PhD student. Many thanks especially to Yuko Bessho, Leah Burns, Kate Cairns, Kimberly Bezaire Gava, Esther Leung, Lydia Menna, Miwako Nogimori, Burcu Yaman Ntelioglou, Jaddon Park, Kirk Perris, Miwa Takeuchi, Chie Tanaka, Elena Toukan, and Alice Wong. I would also like to thank my Toronto friends for playing tennis and poker as well as having lunch and dinner, which provided me with much-needed distractions. For the last six years, my colleagues and friends, the artists/educators/researchers who worked together on the project with Furano Group and the HATO project have supported me to contextualize my ideas in the context of Japan. Thank you for your insights and deep understanding and encouragement for my work, sharing passion for drama and education in Japan. I would like to especially thank my boss and friend, Kuniya Shibaki. I really appreciate your tremendous support, care, and trust. Without them, I would never have been able to keep trying out new challenges to generate my ideas. Also, thank you to the “Yashima group” members for day-to-day great food and laughing out loud, which I needed to refresh myself during the writing process. To Simon John, thank you for your continuing generous support as not just an editor of this long thesis but also as a reader who shares the difficulties of completing a PhD, crossing different languages and national borders. I really appreciated your care and your critical, insightful, detailed comments throughout the whole writing process. I cannot thank you too much. To Dorian Nicholson, thank you for your skilful, final editing and proofing of this dissertation. v I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the students who were willing to share their lives and stories. Thank you for your interest in my work, for your wisdom in growing up, and for having a fun time together. You are a great inspiration for me to become a better educator and researcher. To the teachers, thank you for welcoming me to the school, letting me observe your classes, chatting, and sharing your thoughts. The experiences at Akane High School were extremely rewarding and a privilege. I will never forget the time we spent together. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, both educators, who brought me into the field of education. There will never be enough words to express my thanks to you for your continuing support and care. To my father, Hiroshi Kawashima, thank you for believing in me with warmth and sharing laughs all the time. My mother, Kumiko Kawashima, taught me the life of having a career as a woman, and your wisdom is great inspiration. To my sister, Saori, thank you for your intelligence and patient understanding, and to all the members of the Kawashima/Saitō/Nanya clan, thank you for always providing me a place to come back to. vi Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Research Context .............................................................................................................. 5 Liberation through engaging with difference .......................................................... 5 Japanese youth and studies of self-formation .......................................................... 9 School as a place of youth’s affective experiences ............................................... 11 Places of drama/theatre for self-formation ............................................................ 13 Outline of the Thesis ....................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2: Theorizing Becoming Different in Performance .............................................. 22 Becoming: Beyond Subjectivity ...................................................................................... 22 Becoming and affect .............................................................................................