Craig R Willis

School choice for transnational parents in Tokyo

School choice is centred on parents deciding where and how their children will be educated, and this issue is similar – to varying degrees – for parents all around the world. Parental school choice is the authority that parents exercise in making decisions about where their children will attend school, and choosing a particular educational pathway signifies their capacity to respond on behalf of their children and to address concerns about their development. Most parents have a deep commitment to their children’s education since childhood opportunities provide the basis for cognitive learning, health and happiness. Transnational parents want to support their children to the best of their ability. However, cultural, linguistic, economic and other barriers may limit their ability to choose a school in an unfamiliar context. To advance scholarship on transnational families, this article presents a review of the school choice options available to transnational parents residing in Tokyo, Japan.

International family profiles and parental school choice in Tokyo

The concept of being an ‘international’ citizen is one that describes an increasing number of people worldwide. This has implications for the educational experiences of many students, which can be reflected in the school choices made by their parents. As part of this study, ‘international’ parents residing in Tokyo were interviewed and the qualitative data gathered were used to compose family profiles; snapshots of the unfolding of their journeys and experiences that were multidimensional. Interviews elicited from these parents detailed information that contributed to a fuller appreciation of international parenting and transnationalism. This article presents nine international family profiles, followed by a subsequent analysis of the international parents’ selection of schooling for their only or eldest child in Tokyo.

Moment Capacities of Unreinforced Masonry Sections in Bending

Abstract Current unreinforced masonry design relies on limited models of flexural behaviour in the orthogonal and inclined directions, which are partly empirical and do not fully account for the beneficial effects of compressive stress. This paper presents the results of a theoretical and experimental investigation to develop improved expressions for the horizontal and diagonal bending moment capacities contributing to the ultimate wall strength. The new expressions were verified against experimental data and were shown to give accurate predictions of the bending strength for 63 full-scale wall panels, including walls with openings, using the virtual work method of AS 3700.

Earthquake Design of Unreinforced Masonry Residential Buildings Up to 15 Metres in Height

Abstract The paper summarises the results of a displacement-based assessment (DBA) of the seismic capacity of typical load-bearing unreinforced masonry buildings between two and five storeys in height across a range of site sub-soil classes (B to D) and earthquake hazard factors (0.05 to 0.12), covering all of the capital cities and major regional centres in Australia. The study found that the DBA for out-of-plane bending of walls in the top storey of buildings identified far fewer cases of failure than did a traditional strength-based assessment. A similar trend was observed for the DBA for in-plane shear of walls at the ground storey of buildings. The DBA implied, for all practical purposes, that typical walls will have the in-plane shear displacement capacity to withstand the earthquake induced loads and displacements for any site soil conditions, and earthquake hazard factor up to 0.12. This contrasts with the corresponding strength-based calculations, which identified significant numbers of cases where failure would occur.

The Other Side of the Student Story

Apart from occasional parent-teacher meetings, parents rarely have the opportunity to discuss with teachers important matters related to the social and educational development of their children. This parent-teacher divide may be exacerbated in the case of ‘international’ families, where the choice of schools is generally more complicated than it would have been in their home countries (MacKenzie, Hayden, & Thompson, 2003; Pascoe, 2006; Pollock & Van Reken, 2001).

Earthquake Performance of Unreinforced Masonry Residential Buildings Designed to Australian Standards

Abstract This paper examines the earthquake resistance of unreinforced masonry residential structures up to 15 m in height, with a view to identifying the critical actions under a range of conditions. The study considers the wall forces and associated actions due to earthquake loads corresponding to the proposed revision of the Australian Standard for earthquake actions, AS 1170.4. The seismic demands under various conditions are compared with the corresponding seismic capacities given by the Australian Standard for masonry structures, AS 3700. A parametric study was used to examine the effects of a wide range of parameters, including number of storeys, wall geometries, support conditions and openings. The results of the parametric study indicate, for a typical office building and a typical home unit building, the range of conditions leading to earthquake failure using the current design criteria of AS 3700.