Japanese children’s perspectives on the

1.5 Forms of peer support in the West

Given the complexity and variability of peer support, definitions need to take account of a number of characteristics and interrelated variables. Peer support encompasses a range of activities and systems through which young people can be given training in such skills as mentoring, active listening, conflict resolution, befriending, conflict resolution and the promotion of children’s rights to work and learn in a safe environment (Cowie & Wallace, 2000). In addition, peer support offers a framework within which bystanders can be active in challenging bullying (Cowie, 2011). Even in online contexts, peer supporters can challenge cyberbullying when it happens and can create a social environment where bystanders refuse to collude with cyberbullying (DiBasilio, 2008). Essentially, peer support programmes provide a flexible framework (Cowie & Jennifer, 2008). Cowie and Wallace (2000) summarised the key features of peer support in the West as follows:

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  Young people are trained to work together outside friendship groups. This type of interaction helps to reduce prejudice and foster trust across gender and ethnic groups.
  

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  Young people are given the opportunity through training to learn good communication skills, to share information and to reflect on their own emotions in relationships with others.
  

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  Young people are trained to deal with conflict and to help peers to relate to one another in a more constructive, non-violent way.
  

According to the age groups of the peer supporters and the needs of schools, the systems of peer support vary quite widely. The most common forms of peer support are peer counselling, befriending/buddying, peer tutoring, peer mediation/conflict resolution, mentoring, and group leadership (Cowie & Jennifer, 2008; Nishiyama & Yamamoto, 2002; Cowie, et al, 2002). In terms of the whole-school approach against bullying outlined by Cowie and Jennifer (2008), the forms of peer support are summarised in figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3: Forms of peer support and support levels in the West

(Cowie & Jennifer, 2008)

In peer counselling, peer supporters are trained to use counselling skills (e.g. active listening) to support peers in distress. Usually peer supporters are given a wide repertoire of counselling skills and are regularly supervised by a qualified counsellor, a psychologist or teachers who manage the peer support scheme.
The earliest types of peer support emerged from the counselling model (Cowie and Jennifer 2008), but over time this approach changed since pupils often found it hard to go to a one-to-one counselling-based session and often preferred more group-based activities. Nevertheless, the training in Western countries continues to be strongly influenced by counselling theory, in particular by the principles of client-centred therapy. One of the difficulties involved in transferring this counselling-based model to Japan could be that the Japanese culture is not particularly oriented towards a counselling-based way of resolving interpersonal difficulties. Rather, they place high value on the group-based activities which seem to give a strong influence to individuals through the collective pressure to conform to the norms of the group. This will be explored later in the thesis.
Befriending or buddying is usually described as an approach that builds on the natural helping skills that young people learn through the process of everyday interaction with friends and family (Cowie et al., 2002). Befriending involves training in active listening, assertiveness and leadership to enable peer supporters to offer direct support to peers in distress, but its approach is much more informal, compared to the counselling-based approach (Cowie & Smith, 2010; Cowie et al., 2002). For example, befriending (buddying) often uses a ‘buddy bench’ or ‘friendship stop’ where pupils can go in the playground if they would like peer support (Cowie & Smith, 2010). In peer tutoring, older pupils or pupils of the same age support other pupils with academic work such as reading, writing, and mathematics.
Peer mediation/conflict resolution is a structured process in which peer supporters’ act as mediators to defuse interpersonal disagreements among peers (Cremin, 2007; Cowie & Hutson, 2005; Cowie, et al 2002). Peer supporters are given the training to gain and develop the necessary skills of mediation through the role-playing of typical situations. Peer mediation/conflict resolution needs a follow-up meeting in which participants review the success or otherwise of the solution and acknowledge their willingness to make adjustments if necessary (Cowie & Jennifer, 2008).
Mentoring is usually described as a supportive one-to-one relationship between a younger pupil (the mentee) and a more experienced pupil (the mentor) in school (Cowie, et al 2002). Basically the aims of mentor are to promote heightened aspirations, to offer positive reinforcement and open-ended support, and to provide an arena in which to develop a problem-solving stance towards important life-span development issues, such as career choice (Cowie, et al 2002).
Group leadership concerns the situation where older children, some selected pupils, or pupils in student councils play a role as a group leader in school events, such as a sports festival, school trip or recreational activity. Also they have taken the initiative to run activities for other pupils during the school break, such as lunchtime clubs, circle time, group work etc. (James, 2013). However, in terms of UK’s data (Houlston et al, 2009), most primary and secondary schools were engaged in activities at the individual support level (e.g. befriending, peer counselling, mentoring, and mediation), where less than 10% of schools applied for other forms of peer support (e.g. group leadership) (see table 1.6).

1.6 Forms of peer support in the East (Japan)

These innovative peer support systems appeared to harmonise with the existing Japanese moral approaches as described in section 1.2. Cowie (2009) suggested that Japanese culture provides a good foundation for the peer support in school. As a part of citizenship education, Japanese children are expected to carry out everyday activities to train them in socially accepted behaviours (see section 1.2). Consequently, the Western style peer supports have been modified to suit the Japanese culture (Toda, 2005), in order to create other peer support forms and variations. For example, peer support was applied into existing activities (e.g. clubs) and school events (e.g. sports festivals), and these activities have been developed into the wider community level. Figure 1.4 below shows the forms of peer support and support levels in the East (Japan).

Peer counselling

Peer counselling based on a counselling model, provides one to one support. Through supervision, peer supporters are trained to use counselling skills (e.g. active listening, questioning and responding), which are essential to improve interpersonal problems (Nishiyama, 2004).

Figure 1.4; Forms of peer support and support levels in the East (Japan)


Peer mediation

Peer Mediation is a structured process in which peer supporters’ act as mediators to defuse interpersonal disagreements among peers (Ikejima & Takeuchi, 2011). Peer supporters play a role of neutral third party, to mediate between the two parties children) during school and Lunchtime breaks.

Peer mentoring

Peer mentoring is generally a one to one nurturing and supportive relationship between a peer supporter and other pupils and is often applied to non-smoking and/or stop drinking campaigns (Nishiyama & Yamamoto, 2002).

In Japan, even though scholars and researchers learned the concepts and approaches of peer support from Western nations, Japan has developed their own views and approaches, which harmonise with Japanese culture and was influenced by collective aspects. The following are examples of other types of peer support activities in Japan.
Newsletters (Q&A Hand-out)

Anonymous Newsletters are a unique form of peer support which has emerged in Japan (Toda, 2005; Toda & Ito, 2005). These methods provide children with opportunities to write about their worries anonymously to a team of peer supporters who then circulate their answers in a newsletter for the whole school.

School summit

The nationwide and/or the city-wide lower secondary school summits are organised by pupils a few times per year. The representatives (generally student council members and peer supporters) from each school attend the summits to discuss educational issues and give presentations about their own school’s peer-led activities. Attendees are able to learn from other school activities and deepen the philosophy of citizenship, which influence their own school’s activities (Takeuchi, 2010).

Anti-bullying drama

Anti-bullying drama has often been conducted as a city-wide peer support programme. All actors are recruited from pupil volunteers across the city. The drama scripts are also composed by pupils themselves, which are based on their own experiences in schools. Through the rehearsal activities, pupils from different schools have deepened their friendships and have created pupils’ networks to contribute to other peer support activities. Generally, the anti-bullying dramas have been performed in public theatres and school auditoriums. Not only secondary school pupils, but also primary school children and their parents were invited to attend. Nowadays, DVDs are created for anti-bullying material based on these dramas in some projects (Takeuchi, 2010; Fujikame, 2006).

Fund-raising activities

Fund-raising activities are generally single school-based activities, and particularly in the last 2 years, the activities were conducted for the great east Japan earthquake disaster. Pupil volunteers, holding a donation box, go around within the school to ask for donations of money. Also pupil volunteers go to the shopping street to ask for donations (Kasugai, 2009).

School-based school summit

Some schools organise school summits within their own schools annually. Generally several representatives (peer supporters) from each class are assembled in the large meeting room, and give a presentation about their class’s activities, which contributed both academic and behavioural improvements. The summit encourages attendees to make further efforts in their classes, and also contribute to create positive school ethos.

Peer-led clean-up activities

Both inside and outside school, pupil volunteers pick up litter. Generally the peer supporters encourage pupils to volunteer for it. As a contribution to local community, occasionally pupil volunteers go to shopping streets and the park to clean up litter (Kasugai, 2009).

Greeting activities

Generally peer supporters stand in front of the school gate, and say “good morning” to all pupils and school staff when they arrive at the school. The aim of this activity is to encourage pupils to greet with a smile and a cheerful greeting (Fujikame, 2006; Horiguchi, 2006)

1.7 The features of peer support in Japan

Since the mid-1990s, peer support systems have been actively implemented in schools in Japan. These peer support systems have been facilitated by three groups and include “Taki’s group (led by Mr. Mitsuru Taki)”, “Nakano’s group (led by Mr. Yoshiaki Nakano)” and “the Japan Peer Support Association (JPSA) (led by Mr. Sumio Morikawa)”. These groups strongly support peer support activities and have had great influence on its theoretical developments and its practice in Japan. Especially, the Japanese Peer Support Association (JPSA) is the largest and most influential organization across Japan.

Even though these groups promote peer support activities as an educational approach, they each have slightly different views on peer support practices and theories, and differing attitudes towards training. Thus, there remain some tensions among practitioners eager to promote their own particular style and theory of peer support (Cowie & Kurihara, 2009).
Cowie and James’s (2014), James’s (2012) and Cowie & Kurihara’s reviews (2009), summarise the distinctive features of the three groups as follows:


Taki’s group

Mainly focus on the exchange activities of different grades (recreational activities), which help children to develop their interactive ability with others. The aim of peer support is to allay group fears and anxieties, which corresponds to “Group support level”

Nakano’s group

The core idea of the practice is to create Caring (Sympathetic) community among children. The aim of peer support is to nurture a positive climate in the whole-school, which corresponds to “the whole-school support level”

The JPSA

The JPSA applied the various forms of peer support more flexibly depending on the school situations. This covers all the support levels (individual, group, whole-school, and wider community). The JPSA borrows core concepts from the Western nations, and then modifies them considering the culture’s characteristics.

In Taki’s group, generally the peer support program consists of two parts. The first part of the program involves basic social skills training which cultivate children’s motivation to interact with others. The second part comprises school activities where older pupils help younger pupils (Taki, 2003). Surprisingly, Taki’s group deny the use of counselling theories and skills for the social skills training, and they do not encourage children to do counselling style peer support (Taki, 2009). Taki’s group regards the first part (social skill training) of the peer support programme as warming-up exercises for the helping activities. Even though the training is given to children, the contents of the training are exercises of recreational activities rather than skills training. Taki’s group believe that children can develop their interactive ability with peers through the exchange activities of different grades, which are the activities for helping and looking after younger children. (Taki, 2009; Taki, 2004). Therefore, most helping and supporting activities in Taki’s group are recreational activities in schools, and older pupils always do the activities together with younger pupils.
In Taki’s group, the most important thing for children is to gain a sense of competence through the helping activities. In terms of Taki’s view (2009, 2004), currently children have become less concerned about others because of the lack of play activities with peers. Therefore, children need to learn in an interactive way or develop their social skills through these activities, which eventually develop children’s motivation and ability to have interactive relationships with others. Also Taki’s group has negative attitudes towards counselling style peer support activities, and they believe it does not bring beneficial results to children, rather it gives negative influences to them (Taki, 2004). Taki’s group mentioned that although there are various forms of peer support in the world, their peer support programs can be considered as a Japanese peer support program, which suits Japanese style school activities (Taki, 2003).

Nakano’s group has slightly different views on peer support activities. Regarding their peer support programmes, Nakano’s group have three keywords, “Character formation”, “Caring (Sympathetic) community” and “Preventive intervention” as the fundamental concepts (Nakano, 2006). Nakano’s group regards their peer support programme as a beneficial educational method for all children because it encourages character formation. Therefore, the skills training is generally given to all the children in the classroom, which means Nakano’s group never give the skills training to selected children or selected groups such as peer supporters (Nakano, 2006, 2003). They believe that through peer support training, each child can develop the social skills which eventually form a caring (sympathetic) community which reduces children’s early use of alcohol and their involvement in violence-related behaviour. In this regard, emphasis is placed on peer support programmes, which need to be applied as preventive intervention, rather than reactively tackling the problem issues once they arise. As Cowie and James (2014) discuss in the Western view, peer support seems to act as both a prevention method, and as an interventions, thus Nakano’s practices has, in a sense, a different view on it.

Nakano’s group of peer support practices aim mainly to give a very positive impact on the whole school and improve school ethos. In terms of achieving a safer community (school), several studies in the Western nations (Andres 2005; Smith & Watson, 2004) showed the effectiveness of peer support for improving the whole school. However, these studies generally involved elected pupils who act in the role of peer supporters, thus, Nakano’s group seems to have a unique style in their practice.
The exercise of peer support in Nakano’s group mainly focuses on training itself, and the supporting activities are something to be carried out by children spontaneously. That is to say, in Nakano’s group, supporting activities are not organised as a part of peer support systems. In Nakano’s group, a peer support programme is carried out as a part of the curriculum in school, and the skills training activities are conducted among all the children in the classroom. Nakano’s group consider that the training itself is educationally very meaningful to develop children’s social skills and to facilitate their emotional developments. Through careful and persistent training as a part of school curriculums, children would improve peer group relationships and eventually enrich school ethos and atmosphere (Nakano, 2006). Nakano’s group strongly emphasise the importance of the well prepared skills training, which encourages children’s social skills, and this is a core idea of their theoretical background.
From the discussion above, it is clear that Taki’s group consider a great deal of its supporting activities rather than the training, and their supporting activities are mainly the exchange activities of different grades (helping and looking after younger children). Also in Nakano’s group, peer support programs are regarded as a part of the school curriculum and only the skills training activities are given to all the children in the classroom.
In the JPSA, overseas study training tours (i.e. UK, Canada, US, and Hong Kong) have been actively carried out, and they have learnt various approaches and practices from overseas. These overseas study tours eventually encourage the members of JPSA to apply various types of peer support activities in the schools (JPSA, 2008). In some school practices, skills training is only given to selected children (peer supporters), and supporters are given opportunities to undertake supporting activities. In other practices, skills trainings are given to all the children in the classroom and the children join the supporting activities. Generally, JPSA focus on both training and supporting activities, and after the training, supporting activities are always organised and carried out without exception. This is because JPSA have taken on board other countries’ approaches, and most overseas’ approaches have always carried out supporting activities after supervision and training (Kurihara 2007). However, depending on the school’s needs and situations, the forms (types) of peer support could be flexibly changed (JPSA, 2008). In a sense, JPSA has comparatively more flexible views on peer support systems, and this is the most different point from Nakano’s and Taki’s groups.
Although JPSA, Taki’s groups and Nakano’s group have their own views on peer support programmes respectively, basically all the three groups had applied counselling theories and skills into their skills trainings (even though Taki’s group has negative attitudes toward counselling approaches). Even though there are some different views on the programmes, all the groups have greatly contributed its theoretical developments and practices in Japan. Considering the differences in their theories and practices, it seems interesting and valuable lessons can be learnt regarding difference in how peer support systems influence peer supporters’ activities and children’s behaviours.

1.8 Comparison of peer support used in the West and Japan

Peer support provides a flexible framework, which harmonises with the existing Japanese moral approaches. The figures from the previous sections (section 1.4 and 1.5) that the Eastern (Japanese) model of peer supports cover a wider range of activities, including individual, group, whole-school, and wider community support levels. School activities and schemes have been influenced by the cultural context directly and indirectly, thus it is natural that peer relationships among children have been linked to and/or affected by the cultural values and social contexts (the details of cultural and social influences will be explained in section 2.7).

In terms of exploring the cultural diversity, the work of Hoftstede and Hoftstede (2005) allows us to analysis the children’s emotional and behavioural development considering the cultural dimensions. For more than 30 years, Hoftstede and Hofstede have investigated and discussed the dimensions of culture and their views on organisational culture as an idea system that is largely shared between organisational members. In Hoftstede and Hoftstede’s work (2005), there are four dimensions; 1) power distance, 2) collectivism versus individualism, 3) femininity versus masculinity and 4) uncertainty avoidance. Especially, in terms of a comparison of peer support activities among children between the West and East, the dimension of collectivism versus individualism, appears to be directly linked to peer relationships among children in each nation.
For example, Hoftstede and Hoftstede (2005) uses the individualism index to rank a nation’s individuality. Out of 74 countries, UK is ranked 3rd most individualistic, while USA is 1st, and Canada is 4th. However, Japan is ranked 33-35th and Korea is 63rd. As expected, generally East Asian countries (e.g. Japan, Korea) are often referred to as being strong examples of collectivist societies. Here, an interesting observation is that Japanese educators and researchers have learnt the Western model of peer support schemes, adapted them into their school activities, and modified those considering Japanese cultural contexts.
As figure 1.5 shows, peer support schemes have been developed in the wider community support level in the East. Especially, school summits, anti-bullying drama, fund-raising activities, and recycling activities (collecting cans) are unique forms of peer support which have emerged in the Eastern nations. As expected, these activities were generally driven by peer supporters’ will and passion. These activities have often been conducted in wider community support levels, and allow the peer supporters to work with other schools’ peer supporters.