A great deal has been written about the Japanese education system, giving rise to disturbing stereotypes. Transcending Stereotypes, a collection of articles by both Japanese and American scholars, confronts these stereotypes by delving into the instructional practices, cultural patterns, and early childhood environments that form the basis of the Japanese educational system. Price: $20 (Photocopy)

Discovering Culture in Education will help program planners, teachers, and evaluators as they organize approaches to diversity, frame educational goals, choose alternative curriculum contents, evaluate instructional materials, formulate culturally sensitive forms of evaluation, and develop ways to monitor, evaluate, refine, and document program effectiveness. Price: $20 (Softcover book)

This book contains four chapters that provide teachers with unique ideas and lesson plans for exploring culture and adding multicultural perspective to diverse subjects. The chapters explore the use of objects, literature, film and foreign language instruction as venues for cultural exploration in classrooms. Price: $20 (Photocopy)

This CDRom set is the result of a three-year U.S-Japan elementary school exchange entitled The MARJiS/Japan Elementary School Exchange Network, made possible through a grant from the United-States Japan Foundation. The Final Products are a collection of Japan-related instructional materials for the elementary classroom containing resources and lesson plans on Japanese visual arts such as Sumi-e (Brush) Painting, Hanga (Woodblock prints); musical instruments such as Japanese Taiko drums and the Koto (Japanese stringed instrument); language arts lessons on Japanese folktales and non-fiction texts; social studies lessons on geography, food, and the school lives of children, and more. The final report provides an interactive guide to the three-year exchange with hyperlinks to photos and artifacts depicting the content and nature of this deep and rewarding transcultural exchange between four U.S. and Japanese elementary schools.

Price: $15 for each CD (reproduction, shipping costs)

The Japanese Culture: Old and New video (1990) series is the result of a collaboration between MARJiS, NHK Enterprises and Sogovision (Producers), and All Nippon Airways (Funder). The three videos are:

1. Kabuki: Tradition in Today's World
2. Minwa: Two Traditional Tales
3. Japanese Youth: Junior High School Students Speak

The Kabuki and Minwa videos depict the enduring features of these two traditional art forms in modern Japan. The Japanese Youth video features the voices of Japanese junior high school students reflecting on their school lives. All three videos provide educators with excellent resources to introduce Japanese culture to students.

The entire 3-video series is included on one
video cassette. If you have questions, please call MARJiS at (301)405-7350.

Price: $15 (reproduction, shipping costs)