Socratic Teachers and Confucian Learners: Examining the Benefits and Pitfalls of a Year Abroad

This paper explores the interplay between Western conceptions of education and students fromother educational traditions,most specificallyJapan, through the lens of the author’s practice in internationaleducation.He examinesmodels of the private and public spheres and public discourse advanced by Hannah Arendt and Jurgen Habermas in relation to the purpose of education, and discusses the transferabilityof these concepts to cross-culturalcontexts, through ananalysisof the nature of the public and the private in Japanese society. Finally, the paper urges international educators to take responsibility for the message they send exchange students by providing the mediation necessary to put their exchange experience into the proper context.