According to James A. Banks, director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington, the definition of multicultural education encompasses a wide range of elements to take a part of multicultural education and say that it is multicultural education, as has been seen in the history literature of multicultural education as having been variedly defined in the past. In its historical background, it is said that multicultural education is the opposite of global education in terms of focusing on minorities, because these issues are still unresolved from the democratic ideals of indigenous Native Americans, Mexican Americans, Black communities, and women's rights in the United States. In Teruji Ando's Journal of Education (1981), there is a description of global education. "You can find a 'global approach’ and a 'global awareness.'  According to the Dictionary of Educational Terms, the global approach is to see the world as an interacting whole in an approach to various problems. Global awareness is defined as knowledge and understanding outside oneself or one's own country or culture. And the adjective "global" seems to be generally translated as "earthly" or "global". From these meanings, it is impossible to immediately determine what global education is, but at least we can infer part of its meaning.  Global education goes beyond what is called international education, and the Becker Anderson Report (1969) set forth a new view of international education. The significance of this report is that it focuses on (a) the Earth as a planet, (b) humans as a biological species, and (c) international organization as a level of human social organization, and in order to achieve these goals, it clearly states the ability to know phenomena well, the ability to make analytical judgments, the ability to make normative judgments, and the ability to motivate action. In the past, there has never been a more clarification of the objects and abilities of international understanding. Another significance of the report is that it uses the expressions "global perspectives" and "global interdependence" for the first time. Since then, scholars of international education have been fond of using these words, which had a profound effect on the 1974 UNESCO Recommendation." In other words, the development of each country and region and the development of technology have led to the proliferation of human travel, and economic development has led to the reshaping of economic and social structures centered on countries with strong economies, and it has become necessary to understand this in terms of education rather than in this global environment, where the circulation of money has flourished on a global scale, and I believe that the idea of international education is associated with the development of the world economy. 

　On the other hand, multicultural education is based on an unequal environment in the United States in the 1920s, and educators and researchers of African descent reaffirm their own ethnic history. Some people have challenged the white-centric view of history that exists in the United States, and the idea of multicultural education has arisen since the 1970s. As I mentioned at the beginning, there are still too many definitions of multicultural education to be defined. This is because multicultural education develops differently from global education. As a result of the development of global education on a global scale, the idea that such a thing is necessary for education has naturally emerged. Multicultural education focuses on minorities and socially vulnerable people who deviate from such global ideas, and in a sense, it can be said to be the antithesis of the majority. Moreover, multicultural education in the United States and multicultural education in Japan are born differently. According to Shuhei Ogawa, "In Japan, individual research has progressed due to the 'discovery' of newcomer children as a major object of multicultural education, and research has been subdivided into Japanese education, mother tongue education, identity issues, and out-of-school. In my opinion, even if you only promote multicultural education, if you do not understand the essential multicultural education, you will only encourage "let's cooperate and live together with people from different cultures", and as a result, discomfort with different cultures Without changing to empathy, it leads to a sense of compulsion to close and accept the discomfort, and it is imagined that somewhere there is a possibility that the balance of each other's minds cannot be achieved. On the other hand, cross-cultural rifts can occur, and I think it is necessary to promote multicultural education, especially international multicultural education, as soon as possible. 

　The Third Culture Kids advocated by writer Ruth Van Reken and sociologist David C. Pollock are certainly newcomers who will grow in society in the future. Third Culture Kids (TCK) is a culture in which the culture of the country where the parents were born is the first culture, and the culture of the country where they currently live is the second culture, and between these two cultures, they do not belong to a specific culture and have their own unique living culture. It shows children who will create a third culture. Historically, the people who immigrated to the United States are indeed third-culture kids, but they have already established this third culture as a nation as citizens of the United States, but the TCKs that are now recognized as words are children who are creating their own third culture at the individual level. The children in Akio Fujimoto's "Where I Return" are based on a true story. It depicts the process of Myanmar children born in Japan and raised in Japan (second culture) who try to accept their nationality (their parents' first culture) while feeling uncomfortable with their home country of Myanmar and struggling. In the film, after that, it has not yet been portrayed, but I know them well. The language chosen in junior high and high school is English, and students will receive an English (third culture) education. In other words, I think that they will also have to live between cultures and have their own culture. And my three daughters are also TCKs. The eldest daughter was born in Japan, grew up in Africa, was educated in Myanmar, and holds master's degrees in France and the United States and a Ph.D. in the United States. The second daughter was born in the United States, has Japan citizenship, grew up in Africa, was educated in Myanmar, and earned a master's degree in the United States. The third daughter was born in Japan, grew up in Myanmar, studied at high school in Japan, and earned a master's degree in the United States. They were still Japan people, but they were educated in Africa, France, and Myanmar, and eventually finished their final education in the United States. Naturally, they create their own third culture and live their lives. He grew up in the midst of multiculturalism and still lives today. It is natural that the culture is different from that of people who have lived only in that country with one nationality. Although the education of the children of the TCKs has not yet been academically suggested, I am convinced that the multicultural education that I have advocated and practiced since 2003 is an education that seems to be necessary for the next generation of children of TCK. It is said that TCK will inevitably increase more and more from now on. The population of TCK at the time of the name Rieken and Pollock and today continues to grow, not decrease. By acquiring international multicultural education, TCK children can increase their self-affirmation and self-evaluation, and even if they are troubled by the ambiguity of their identity for a while, they should be able to play a role in connecting their respective multicultural societies by learning international multicultural education. 

 Furthermore, multicultural education, which is the opposite of global education, is also included in people in such environments as developmental disabilities, functional disabilities, withdrawal, refusal to attend school, neglect, domestic violence, etc., if minorities are considered. Increasingly, multicultural education cannot be defined in a single word, but on the contrary, it is not something that can be defined, but it can be shaped by region, theme, and field, so it is optimal for building education that fits real life.

 If global education emerges as a result of universality, and multicultural education can be considered as respect for individual cultures, pointing out the unfair universality, I believe that it is desirable that global education accompanying global development and multicultural education that focuses on minorities who are being forgotten in the midst of it are opposite, but mutually complementary. From this point of view, he advocates the term international multicultural education. We propose that the international multicultural education we advocate is truly a two-way education that leads to the complementarity of global education and multicultural education.

 International multicultural education encompasses the direction of bidirectional thinking between macro and micro, starting from a global perspective, while at the same time understanding the self through individual introspection and self-awareness, and developing perspectives on others, society, and the world starting from the self. This is an educational approach that bridges the self and others, domestic and international, and fosters multifaceted perspectives and comprehensive thinking skills. It is an education that does not unify different cultures into the same culture, but rather cultivates the advanced knowledge and skills necessary to respect each culture, accept individual differences, and maintain social harmony at the same time, no matter how few cultures there are. 

 However, culture is not limited to race, but also encompasses various differences and diversity, such as gender, health status, religion, and social class. From the above, in multicultural education, the definition of culture does not only refer to the culture of a country or region, but also focuses on the individual cultures of individuals. Individual cultures are both individuality and individual characteristics, some of which are born and others that appear acquired. The basic idea of multicultural education is to lead individuals to understand their own cultures, have a sense of self-affirmation, respect those around them, and respect each other's dignity. In layman's terms, it is also about refraining from doing things to others that you do not want others to do, and refining your awareness and sensibility, such as being in the other person's feelings and position, is also a necessary element of multicultural education, just as you can notice microaggressions that can hurt people without knowing it. In a sense, individualistic thinking is a stance that you are yourself and others do not interfere with each other, and it may be good in that you can maintain each other's culture. However, on the other hand, if there is a tendency to share and spread discomfort with things different from oneself rather than limiting oneself to individuals despite their stance of not interfering with each other, it will cause considerable trouble to those who feel uncomfortable. By noticing it or not, you can ease the distortion of your relationships. However, it is also true that there is an opinion that there is no freedom to think about the other person one by one and limit yourself to expressing the emotions you felt at that time. The achievement of multicultural education is to be able to put yourself in the other person's shoes and at the same time be honest with yourself and respect the freedom of expression, while gaining a sense of balance that avoids hurting the other person as much as possible. 

 Bullying, adjustment disorders, understanding neurodiversity, and other problems are more likely to be solved in the course of multicultural education. In fact, in my early childhood and primary education, I have witnessed how multicultural education has resulted in the presence of neurodiverse children and students. Graduates who focus on regional disparities in scientific development and aim to become medical schools in order to minimize such disparities, graduates who aim for the Faculty of Education that such multicultural education is necessary in developing countries, graduates who want to build a method that can equitably exchange multiculturalism and wish to go to a university that is researching such things, I have not yet produced many graduates, such as graduates who think about whether they can gain the understanding of those around them about ADHD, which is said to be a gray area for adults through their works, and graduates who have doubts about the socially vulnerable and the world economy that creates regional disparities and want to study economics to see if they can do something for countries abandoned by the world economy. I believe that understanding the norms of multiculturalism and boldly tackling regional and global problems is a sign of leadership. Also, in my own parenting, my three children are recognized as neurodivergent by those who work and study with them. In order to improve work efficiency and proceed smoothly with projects, international organizations especially require human resources with high EQ. It is no exaggeration to say that those who have high EQs and demonstrate leadership are almost always neurodivergent. In this way, people who can understand multicultural education are desired in the international community and local communities, but I think that the current situation is that they are not developing because it is not possible to define multicultural education in a single word as to how such people can be nurtured.

 Based on the above, international multicultural education is an educational approach that encourages students from all backgrounds to enjoy equal learning opportunities, transforms differences from others with different cultures, values, and different aspects into empathy, and fosters the perspective of multicultural coexistence and coexistence. This education provides students with the knowledge, the ability to live, skills, and attitudes necessary to cultivate the ability to respect diversity and act humanely and equitably, like neurodivergent, with the perspective of a global citizen. 

 The International Multicultural Education Promotion Association has a mission to promote diversity and inclusion in society and reduce discrimination and prejudice. Provide programs and resources to help students from different cultures and backgrounds receive equal benefits from education, promote empathy and understanding, and raise awareness as global citizens so that we can truly achieve multicultural coexistence. This does not mean that there will be no conflict. Conflicts will exist but at IMEPA, we ensure that we can always find a resolution with one another with the underlying idea that we all belong to one humanity. Nurturing education for all, empathy and understanding, and raising awareness on global issues will help society as a whole to become a more inclusive and equitable place, to achieve multicultural coexistence, and to encourage organizations that provide such similar support. 

Based on my past achievements, the International Association Multicultural Education Promotion Association presents five approaches to international multicultural education that I started in 2003.

1. Integrated education that is comprehensive and includes interactivity in various fields

2. Education that promotes social and emotional development in human relationships

3. Peace Education Including Conflict and Resolution

4. Multicultural Multilingual Education

5. International multicultural coexistence and coexistence education on Earth and space (including ecosystems)

 The philosophy and philosophy of international multicultural education are based on nine educational values, which are the pillars of the method. For more details, I will explain the whole picture and method at another time.

 As mentioned above, we have been planning to open a facility in Myanmar for practical research on international multicultural education since 2003, and the Yangon Early Childhood Development Center was opened in Yangon on January 31, 2004 as a facility with multicultural education teacher training that can provide international multicultural education multilingual education. In order to intentionally create an environment for TCK, we decided to provide multilingual education and an environment where multiculturalism is understood as a matter of course in early childhood, which is called sensory time, which is the limit period called sensory time, which will be the most affected in human development. 

　Ages range from two and a half to five-year-olds. The subjects were Myanmar nationals, Japan nationals, dual nationals of various countries, or TCK, but 60% were Myanmar nationals.

For multiple languages, we selected Burmese, English, and Japanese, created immersion time for each language, prepared teaching materials in a setting where the children would not feel uncomfortable, and conducted an implementation survey. The survey period is the first step from 2004 to 2007, and trend surveys on the following contents will be conducted.

1. Students will be able to understand languages other than their mother tongue.
   Speak in a language other than your native language to see if you can understand it.

2. You can be interested in things in cultures you don't know.
   Provide food and toys from a strange culture to see if you can eat or play with them in the same way as traditional foods and toys.

3. You can play well with children who speak different native languages.
   Let children play freely with children whose mother tongues are different to see if they can play without being able to communicate with each other.

4. Mother tongue also develops.
   Ask your parents to see if they learn words in their native language that they don't teach at home.

5. The sense of self-affirmation that comes with independence becomes stronger.
   Conduct behavior in restaurants and public places through interviews with parents.

1. After six months of attending kindergarten, 90% of the children spoke in a language other than their mother tongue and replied in the language in which they were asked instead of replying in their native language. However, on the other hand, the percentage of 4–5-year-olds reached 90% by about 9 months. The younger the person, the easier it was to understand languages other than their mother tongue.

2. Six months after going to kindergarten, create such an environment.
   Eat meals that you don't usually eat as usual.
   No matter where the toys are from, all kindergarten children start playing without any discomfort. In addition, it was effective to teach how to play.

3. At the beginning of the kindergarten, there were individual differences, but after four months of attendance, all the children were communicating and playing with each other. There were some words that were spoken but could not be determined what language they were.

4. Almost all the children have learned new words that are not taught at home. At the same time, they also conveyed the language of a different country, so it seems that the parents had a hard time understanding the meaning of the words.

5. From what parents say,

• Compared to children of the same age, they are able to eat calmly in restaurants and take them to public places, but they are less shy and independent than children who go to other kindergartens.

• Khayay kids can also choose their own clothes, and they can choose one or the other smoothly, and when they are asked why, they get a clear answer.

• They are also kind to people and tend to worry about whether they are okay with people who fall.

• Trying to read the feelings of the parents.

• It is easier to understand parents' explanations than children sent to other nursery schools or kindergartens.

• When go shopping, if parents make a promise before going shopping, parents don't make much of a mess with Khayay kids, compared to their siblings who sent to other kindergartens.

• Compared to other siblings and neighborhood children who sent to other kindergartens, Khayay kid is able to play alone and is good at devising things.

• At home and elsewhere, if parents explain well, they will have a high level of understanding.

 There were other opinions, but the parents' opinions were mostly positive.

 As a result of the above three-year trend survey, we decided to expand the education because the children who received multicultural multilingual education were excellent in many respects such as social, emotional, language skills, independence, and compassion.

 In 2008, he opened The Khayay International School, a kindergarten for children aged 2 to 5. Five-language education was launched. Burmese, English, Japanese, Chinese, French. Teachers of each language subject were Native Speakers in their own language. 

• It was a surprising achievement that no children lost their mother tongue and that there were children who developed their mother tongue further and learned at least two of the other four languages.

• In addition, even if a child who understands the idea that "it is natural to be different and does not have to be the same" and wants to make it their own way enters the school, after 3-4 months, the child also learns from his friends that he or she cannot play together by doing what he or she wants, and also learns that he can get along with everyone, and chooses what he or she wants to do and what everyone wants to do in the situation.

• Even when a four-year-old child was admitted with underdeveloped speech, after six months, he was able to say "mama" and began to feel like a friend, and he was observed to be close to his friend when he was sad.

• It is very interesting to note that as a result of the decision to accept mildly autistic children while limiting the number of children, both mildly autistic children and children with Asperger's syndrome gradually became accustomed to the group and began to understand themselves as friends. What was even more interesting was that the children who spent time with children with mild autism were initially confused by their behavior, but after a month, they behaved in accordance with the child, tried to communicate with them, and tried to play with them. Originally, there may be a system of acceptance of kindergarten children in this way, but under the policy of multicultural education, this attitude can be affirmed and further developed, and it can be said that it naturally leads to social and emotional development. The reality that multicultural coexistence that can be achieved in early childhood cannot be achieved by adults is in education up to now, and I think that education up to now has focused only on emotional development without being aware of multicultural education. Social and emotional development is an essential factor in multicultural education. Multicultural education can be aware of this, and by doing so, by being aware of this, I see it as an example of how multicultural education can further develop the state of instinctively wanting to communicate and play with anyone in early childhood.

• At that time, there were children of 21 nationalities, and it was an incredibly peaceful and heartwarming moment to see them create a way of communicating in various ways, and then use it well and play together, rather than communicating in any language.

• One year after attending the kindergarten, the mother of a child whose mother tongue was Chinese was struggling to see that she did not speak Chinese (mother tongue) at home at all and talked in Burmese with the servants of the house and the electrician who came from outside, but at the kindergarten, the child mainly spoke English, spoke Chinese with Chinese friends, tried to learn Japanese, and could pronounce French well. Two months later, she started speaking Chinese again at home, and to her mother's surprise, she was able to speak Chinese better than before, using Chinese words she had never used before. Although this phenomenon does not occur in all children, there have been many other reports from parents that they have become able to speak their mother tongue better. I believe that there is considerable potential for the development of mother tongues through multilingual education.

 In addition, as a teacher training for international multicultural education, Myanmar teachers (adults) were conducted in Myanmar. People from the seven participating countries (Brazil, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Japan, Myanmar and New Zealand) are also eligible. Since Myanmar people had no particular overseas experience and no contact with foreigners, we dared to co-organize a camp in such an environment with a peace education organization. The theme is Overcoming Boundaries In other words, in the process of multicultural education from the micro to the macro, the theme is how to overcome the obstacles and problems within oneself, the obstacles and problems between oneself and others, and the obstacles and problems between oneself and society. Furthermore, from the macro to the micro, we will derive what can be done locally about global problems.

1. Encourage self-awareness of obstacles and problems in the camp of multinational groups so that students can rediscover their own culture while understanding the culture of difference. It leads to self-affirmation and self-evaluation.

2. By presenting the problems of each culture, discussing them, and thinking about solutions together, you will learn how to overcome the problems between yourself and the other person. In addition, when people from different cultures talk about a single theme, and as a result, they understand the differences and the same parts between themselves and the other person and think about how they should act when they understand each culture.

3. We will take up problems that have not been solved in the world, discuss them, and jointly search for solutions together. We will also verify whether such a solution is possible in each country.

4. This multinational group organizes and develops short-term peace education programs with children between the ages of 8 and 15 (selected from Karen, Kachin, Shan, Mong, Kaya, Burmese, Rakhine and Chin peoples, selected from the rich, moderate, and poor in social class, and from public, private and international schools). Even practice. We will hold a reflection meeting to think about our own roles and our roles in the group.

 As a result, Myanmar teachers, who had perceived foreigners as scary, realized that foreigners were also human beings, and became more confident in talking to foreigners. All participants realized that the gap between highly developed countries and developing countries was too large, and discussed what they could do to achieve this, and considered what each country could do. In addition, a group of children from different social backgrounds has succeeded in transforming their discomfort into empathy through teachers from a multinational group.

 From the above, Myanmar teachers also began to have a sense of self-affirmation and a strong sense of mental independence. Self-esteem increased.

 Based on the above past achievements, we have provided multicultural multilingual education from 2 years old to 15 years old (3rd year of junior high school) for 20 years from 2003 to 2023 and have achieved results. In addition, teacher training has been temporarily suspended since 2013, but as teacher training, multicultural training has been conducted every year and two international camps have been co-hosted to provide multicultural education to teachers.

 In December 2022, we established the NPO International Association for the Promotion of Multicultural Education in order to be able to provide the international multicultural education that we have cultivated since 2003 as an NPO in Japan. Since the February 2021 coup d'état in Myanmar, there has been an ongoing struggle between a government run mainly by elected parliamentarians before the coup d'état and a military junta that was subdued by force through a coup. The mental exhaustion of the people is severe, and many people are mentally broken. However, if the economy is not revived, poverty will spread further, so it is very difficult to carry out economic activities somehow, but economic sanctions are imposed by countries that oppose the military regime. Schools that have practiced multicultural education cannot escape the influence. This is because each family is severely impoverished. The International Association for the Promotion of Multicultural Education is making efforts to provide scholarships so that students can enjoy multicultural education. No child should face the lack of education even in times of crisis. It is education that must be maintained in the face of crisis. The reality is that there is still a long way to go. However, while we mainly focus first on providing multicultural education in Myanmar, we are also developing other activities that promote multicultural education in Japan and other parts of the world. 

 Based on the above, the business activity schedule from December 2022 to March 2024 is described in the business activity plan on a separate page.

 The above shows what it is like to be an international multicultural educator about multicultural education and international multicultural education. If you agree with us or have any opinions, please contact us. We are striving to never erase the light of education at educational institutions that have been implementing international multicultural education since 2004. We would appreciate your support.

Thank you for reading to the end.