As the ideological pillar of modern Japan's imperial system, the Imperial Rescript on Education was profoundly imprinted on Japan's modern education. But, in fact, multiple alternative proposals for developing modern education were put forth in the mid-Meiji period. One such proposal was the ethics ("rinri") education promoted by the…

This article, which is related to a longer piece to be published in 2023, starts from the point of view that, despite some issues, there may be borrowable ideas in how South Korea and Japan developed their education systems, especially at the outset of their modern periods of educational development. However, in the popular press, and even among…

Despite extensive research on the push-pull factors of student motivation to study abroad, there has been little examination of university academics' and administrators' attitudes as program developers and providers. This research draws upon the literature of sensemaking to investigate how and why Japanese university academics and administrators…

Cultivation (shuyo) is not a translated term. However, neither has it been used consistently since the Edo period (1603-1867). Its "depth" is not visible simply from the "shuyo" theory of the Meiji period (1868-1912). This paper structuralizes the Edo and Meiji periods in synchronicity. In addition, it focuses on the…

Child education and accompanying discourse in the seventeenth-century circles of Constantijn Huygens are thoroughly researched. But while children grow up, parents also learn and not only through their siblings. Some remarks about experiences that Huygens had outside the regular discourse on education can be made. Huygens' correspondence and his…

The first of two volumes dedicated to this little-explored topic, this volume gathers international perspectives to critically assess how Waldorf education has been perceived and discussed in both public and academic arenas. The book thereby challenges the historical concept of Waldorf education as an international movement championing…

The Meiji Restoration (1868) ended the Tokugawa Shogunate regime (1603-1867) and proclaimed the emperor as the supreme power of Japan. The Meiji emperor's reign began abruptly, requiring restoration leaders to construct an emperor-centred ideology of whole cloth. This ideology posited an eternal imperial Japan: a unique, tight-knit community of…

Syed Ross Masood (1889-1937), grandson of the Muslim modernist Syed Ahmad Khan and former principal of Osmania University, traveled in 1922 from India to Japan as Director of Public Instruction for Hyderabad to assess Japan's educational system. In Japan and Its Educational System, a report published in 1923, Masood concluded that education had…

This paper examines the benefits of incorporating ecotourism programs into the adult education curriculum. Social education and lifelong learning ("shougai gakushuu") are terms used to refer to adult education and related activities in Japan. Adult education originated immediately after Second World War with the enactment of the…

This article traces the development of the wartime Japanese curriculum, which was deliberately designed to implement 'Japanese' approaches to science, and its relation to the previously dominant educational approach, learning by doing. It examines the work of Shiono Naomichi (1898-1969), who served as the curriculum and textbook revision director…

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) ran from 2005 to 2014. This study concerns the concepts of Sustainable Development (SD) and ESD. The term "sustainable development" was coined by the Brundtland Commission in 1987 as the key word in integrating environment and development. SD achieved international consensus at…

In the mid-Meiji period, the leading scholar Kato Hiroyuki proposed relying on religion in moral education as he was dissatisfied with the Ministry of Education's inclination towards Western ethics in their reform. Triggered by Kato's proposal, there arose an intense debate over the 'standard' for moral education in the educational circles. The…

Purpose: This paper traces the incorporation of western educational histories in the development of normal-school curricula during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China (1901-1944). It uses publication networks to show how the study of comparative educational history facilitated the international circulation of knowledge in the teaching…

This article explores the relationship between the freedom granted to teachers to shape curricula and the function of national standards. In recent years, many countries have begun to introduce standards-based reforms in education, such as standardized curriculums and high-stakes tests. As cultural diversity within schools increases, the tension…

Building upon the recent English-language scholarship (Kawaji, 2017, Miyazawa, 2015; Hiraoka, 2011) on the Japanese pedagogy movement of seikatsu tsuzurikata ("daily life writing," hereafter referred to as DLW), this essay seeks to locate its significance within a broader global context. It is as much a polemic for why DLW should be…