MABII PRESENTATIONS
PRESENTATIONS ON CROSS-CULTURAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT TOPICS
To be or not to be: The Urgency of Developing Self-Authority in 2021 (MABII 202101)
What might the world be like in 2025? We are entering an age of complexity and unpredictability. In this Fourth Industrial Revolution (Klaus Schwab, 2016), technological advancement is rapidly changing our world. Through implementation and advancement of 5G, Artificial Intelligence, IOT, genetic manipulation, and robotics, let alone COVID-19, these changes will continue to increase. We have entered a New Normal in which prior guidelines will not hold anymore. Thus, it is imperative that we begin to realize our agency, the ability to take action with self-authority and intent.
By introducing the Five Orders of Consciousness theory of Robert Kegan, Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, this presentation will provide hints on maintaining balance between social and individual consciousness. Specifically, the transition from a third order of consciousness to realizing a fourth order of consciousness. According to Kegan, it is about becoming a “director of your own life.”
Cultivating a Japanese soul and an American Soul: The story of collectivism and individualism (MABII 202102)
Is bicultural identity development possible? What are the advantages and disadvantages of housing two cultural identities? Can individuals maintain a balance of the identities? These are some of the questions that will be discussed in this presentation. Students who attend bilingual and international schools in Japan are given the opportunity of develop two cultural identities; mainly a Japanese identity in a collectivist culture and the western culture identity in an individualistic society. However, are they culturally balanced?
In 1991, Markus and Kitayama in their seminal article Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation and introduced to the world the concept of collectivism and individualism. While giving some real life scenarios of how collectivism and individualism unfolds in a society, the talk is unique because it attempts to discuss how an individual can develop two cultural identities. The Sapir-Wharf hypothesis will also be introduced and examined to inquire how speaking English promotes an American mind and how speaking Japanese promotes a Japanese mind.
PRESENTATIONS ON CROSS-CULTURAL EDUCATIONAL ISSUS
Promoting thinkers, doers, and creators: School girls and boys have the leverage to triumph over the indomitable AI Robots (MABII 202103)
According to Statistica, there are over 4 billion Social Media users. Teens spend over 9 hours in a day in front of screens (Fox & Edwards, n.d.). And the majority of users engage in passive usage by watching their favorite videos or listening to music. With AI and Robotics technology flourishing, educators are more than ever pressed with the urgency to educate students to become individual thinkers, doers, and let alone, creators. In the midst of the rapidly evolving world, the proliferating diversity, and unrelenting, imminent global issues, the question is, “How can we educate students to prepare for this unprecedented scenario?”
Offering insights from Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, Jean Piaget’s concept of an individual as an active learner, Jerome Brunner’s scaffolding, and Robert Kegan’s description of self-autonomy, the audience will have an opportunity to not only to revisit and refurbish their scholarly experiences, but will get a chance to stop, take a deep soothing breath, and look around to construct new ways to view the world, and tackle, prevail, and overcome the predicaments.
Fox, M. & Edwards, E. (n.d.) Teens spend ‘astounding’ nine hours a day in front of screens: Researchers. Retrieved on March 5, 2021 from https://www.wvea.org/content/teens-spend-astounding-nine-hours-day-front-screens-researchers.
How to succeed in teaching bilingual learners: What I learned from teaching at 4 public and private bilingual and immersion programs in Japan and the USA (MABII 202104)
Studies indicate that becoming bilingual can be daunting. Growing up in a world in which the majority of people are monocultural, bilingual individuals are often times looked upon as “incomplete,” “separated,” or “marginalized.” For some people bicultural identity development is a myth.
Having taught at El Marino Language School, first immersion program in the USA, Katoh Gakuen, the first immersion program in Japan, Nishimachi International School, a distinguished Japanese and English bilingual program in Tokyo, and Koka Gakuen Elementary School, a Japanese private school in Tokyo, the presentation will offer tips and tricks on how to develop sound and healthy bilingualism as well as biculturalism. The key to developing a balance biculturalism is understanding one’s heritage and secondary identities. The presentation will tap on our current world that is governed by Cartesian dualistic rules, offer some hints from The Acculturation Theory, Tajfel’s Minimum Paradigm Theory - explaining why we love our own group and hate other groups - and revisiting Jean Piaget’s notion of developing schemas; more specifically, schemas in two cultures.
COMMING SOON
Five Absolute Musts to Know to Become a "Perfect Bilingual"
Turbo Charging English language learning in young children
Meaning of self: Carl Jung, Victor Frankl, and Shimogori
What I found out by being a Harvard Alum Interviewer for prospective Harvard Students
