“Cave examines the impact of Japanese educational reform policies in junior high schools through a longitudinal, multi-site ethnographic study…. Throughout the book, Cave provides insight into how concepts such as individuality, autonomy, education (guidance), and equity are defined and understood in contemporary Japanese society and how they are enacted in the institution of junior high schools.”

Schools

“A nuanced look at recent efforts to alter the context for teaching and learning in Japan. Not only does Cave’s analysis deepen our understanding of the education system, it also raises some pithy questions about social change in Japan and the tensions that have surfaced as government leaders attempt to convince citizens to adopt behaviors that often clash with established practices.”

Christopher Bjork, author of High-Stakes Schooling

“In this wonderfully detailed ethnography, which draws on over a dozen years of fieldwork—often visiting the same event many years apart—Cave robustly challenges the persistent view of Japanese junior high schools as unchanging institutions that serve primarily to prepare children for a life focused on group rather than individual activity. In doing so, Cave shifts our understanding of some of the key topics not only in Japanese studies but also in anthropology more generally, such as personhood, autonomy, creativity, and how social change both occurs and is resisted.”

Roger Goodman, author of Children of the Japanese State

“Schooling Selves is an insightful longitudinal ethnographic study of how Japanese junior high schools have interpreted, and struggled to implement, national reform policies to promote individual autonomy. Its outstanding feature is the extensive coverage, exceeding any previous studies, of aspects of daily schooling that Cave devotes to examining this process, including extracurricular clubs, the subjects of Japanese and integrated studies, sports days, choral contests, cultural festivals, and assessment. Readers can unpack the complexity and underlying reasoning for the contradiction-ridden policy implementation process through the author’s thick description of everyday schooling; and in so doing, they gain an insight into how individual autonomy, interdependence, and the social whole are conceived by teachers, parents, and students, and in the wider society.”

Kaori H. Okano, La Trobe University

"This book will be essential reading for scholars researching contemporary Japanese education and society and more generally for all those seeking a greater understanding of the phenomenon of educational intensity in Japan and across East Asia. As such, it is just the latest in an extensive and impressive body of work that also includes an earlier volume, Primary School in Japan (Routledge, 2009)."

Comparative Education Review

"Cave’s detailed ethnography, drawing on over a dozen years of fieldwork, makes this book a highly useful contribution to the field of Japanese education. The book offers an insightful evaluation of the educational reform, as Cave reveals how the reform was interpreted and implemented by the teachers in practice. Its outstanding feature is the extensive coverage of different aspects of daily schooling."

Social Science Japan Journal