ANNOUNCEMENT
The Kansai Modern Japan Group is pleased to announce a talk by Yoko Yamamoto (Brown University).

Date: June 20, 2013
Time: 6:30-8:15
Place: Osaka University, School of Human Sciences, Higashi-kan Room 404. (Directions below) Advance registration is not necessary.

Title: Social stratification and early academic socialization in Japan

Socioeconomic status is one of the most powerful determinants of students' educational processes and academic achievement in Japan as in other societies.
Yet little is known when and how unequal educational processes begin or how they are perpetuated. In this talk, Professor Yamamoto will elaborate educational patterns and processes associated with social stratification from preschool to early elementary periods. Using quantitative and qualitative findings, she will also demonstrate how Japan's "gakureki shakai"
(social order based on educational credentials) shapes mothers' educational expectations and their subsequent variation in ways of supporting young children's education.

Yoko Yamamoto is an adjunct assistant professor at the Department of Education at Brown University and visiting JSPS scholar at Osaka University. Her research interests include education and socialization processes, especially in early childhood. She has also examined educational inequality in relation to social class, gender, and immigrant status. Currently she is involved in two major research projects; 1) Social stratification and first graders' beliefs about learning in Japan and the U.S., and 2) Asian immigrant children's early socialization and educational processes in the U.S.

Conviviality at a nearby pub follows the presentation.
We look forward to welcoming many of you on June 20.

Directions:
The School of Human Scinces is located on the Suita Campus of Osaka University. Please see the access map for the Suita Campus at the following link:
http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/access/
A map of the campus is here:
http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/access/files/map_suita.pdf
The easiest way to reach the School of Human Sciences is the Osaka Monorail. Alight at the Handai Byouin Mae Station, and exit the station, going left down the hill onto the campus. Follow maps and signs to the School of Human Sciences.

Please send questions to:

Scott North
north[at]hus.osaka-u.ac.jp