CLIL-based SDGs Education: Considering the Relationship between Cultural Diversity and Critical Thinking

Researcher: Yuka Yamamoto

In today's world, there is a demand for English education that aims to develop not only communication skills, but also comprehensive abilities that take a broader social perspective and emphasize intercultural understanding and thinking skills. In this study, we will use the framework of the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLI) educational approach to investigate how learning about the SDGs develops cultural diversity and critical thinking. By exploring whether it contributes to students' acquisition of intercultural competence, we can expect to make a wide-ranging contribution not only to the field of English education but also to the field of general education.

Intra-country inequality in Thailand and Mexico: A multifaceted comparative study

Researcher: Kaoko Sakikawa

Thailand and Mexico have several things in common. Both countries underwent structural adjustment after falling into a foreign debt crisis, and the successful shift to economic liberalization policies attracted foreign direct investment, particularly in the automotive and electrical and electronics industries, leading to economic growth. Although they were actively incorporated into the "global value chain," a cross-border division of labor between processes, they are also both caught in the "middle-income trap," stagnating and unable to join the ranks of developed countries while facing the social problem of large domestic disparities. In this study, we use Thailand and Mexico, which share commonalities but have not been comparatively studied, as examples to clarify the structure of domestic disparities through a multifaceted comparison and to consider what policies are needed to reduce the disparities.

Developing Global Leadership in University Students: Through Facilitation of International Collaborative Learning in the JEARN Youth Project

Researcher: Eriko Katsumata

There is a growing interest in developing global leadership among university students in order to develop human resources who can play an active role in the international community. This study aims to clarify how to deepen learning and improve abilities through practice in developing facilitation skills and global leadership among university students.
The subjects of the research were university students who participated in the "International Education and Resource Network (iEARN)," which promotes online international collaborative learning based on a project connected to the SDGs with elementary school to high school students overseas. The students became facilitators of a project on the theme of war and peace, learning about war and the atomic bomb with children from around the world and thinking about "what is peace?"

Empirical research on the development of Japanese language educational resources for JSL children that contribute to a multicultural society

Researcher: Yusuke Tanaka

As school education becomes more internationalized and diverse, the number of foreign children with roots overseas and children who have returned from overseas is increasing. In this study, in order to realize a symbiotic education where everyone can learn together, we will select the learning terms that are essential for children to learn at school and develop application-based Japanese language teaching materials to learn them, and aim to rectify the educational disparity caused by children's lack of Japanese language ability, and to realize the ideals of the SDGs "Quality Education for All" and its subgoals "Ensure that all children receive a fair and quality education free of charge and graduate from primary and secondary schools," "Ensure that they can read, write and do arithmetic," and "Provide a learning environment in which no one is left behind" from the perspective of Japanese language education research at our university.

Environmentally friendly synthesis of useful organic compounds

Researcher: Ryo Takeuchi

In this research, we aim to synthesize useful organic compounds with more complex structures and various functions from easily available general-purpose chemical raw materials using environmentally friendly molecular transformations that do not place a burden on the environment. Specifically, we focus on 1) environmentally friendly carbon chain elongation reactions from unsaturated hydrocarbons, which are general-purpose chemical raw materials, and 2) environmentally friendly synthesis of optically active heterocyclic compounds, which are raw materials for optically active pharmaceutical ingredients.

SDGs Food Loss Regeneration Project through Industry-Academia-Government-Private Collaboration and Student-Participation Joint Research

Researcher: Kinya Tamaki

This study aims to promote the following activities in order to reduce and utilize food loss, such as post-harvest losses, which corresponds to the upstream supply chain (SC) of food services, and food loss at the retail and consumption levels, which corresponds to the downstream SC.
1) Survey on the causes of food waste in upstream and downstream SCs and the impeding factors that prevent it from being resolved
② Develop new strategies and tactics for reducing and reusing food waste from an SDGs perspective
3) Building a business model for CSV (Creating Shared Vale) that ensures the sustainability of the strategy and tactics
④ Establish an organizational structure for industry-academia-government-citizen collaboration and student-participation collaborative research to address these social issues
⑤ Empirical research at our university: event planning and implementation, public relations activities, research and development and implementation of SDGs food education programs
⑥ Demonstration experiment for social implementation business at our university
7) Raising awareness about the "SDGs Food Loss Regeneration Project" activities.