Graduate Student Research Symposium 2026

This research investigates how Place-based education in Okinawa/Shima-based education can transform contemporary Japanese-based educational practice in a decolonial context. Drawing on the literature review of the historical background of education in Okinawa and oral interviews and fieldnotes, this research will discuss how Shima-based education impact Okinawan people’s relationship with land, community, and identity. This paper critically examines the ways in which “Okinawa” has been framed through existing Japanese institutional structures and interpreted through external perspectives, often silencing or marginalizing local voices. By attending to the legacies embedded in the place of Okinawa—its histories, memories, and cultural inheritances—this study explores how education in contemporary Okinawa reflects and reinforces these dynamics. Through an analysis grounded in decolonial theory, the paper discusses how education can serve not only as a site of critique but also as a space for imagining decolonial futures for Okinawa.