This paper reconsiders the concept of “inclusion” by examining conceptions of “totality/wholeness,” while exploring conflicts and dilemmas among various actors across the boundaries between the formal and non-formal in the Japanese public education system. Referencing the process surrounding the enactment of the new law on securing educational opportunities, the notion of “diversity” is examined as it pertains to the conflict between “publicness” in formal schools, which includes ideas related to diversity and heterogeneity (otherness), and “freedom to educate” in non-formal education. Analysis suggests that it is undesirable to establish a definitive boundary between the two; instead, maintaining a form of tentative, intersectional, and responsive boundary would result in more effective understanding of the diverse needs of people who feel marginalized. Based on this, the author explores a theoretical model which withstands such questions of inclusion. From the perspective of the “included party,” which has its own heterogeneous values in relation to mainstream value systems, the author proposes a “responsive wholeness” model in contrast to a “concentric totality” model in order to reexamine the idea of inclusion. Finally, the paper outlines suggestions for reexamining “inclusion” grounded in this model.

This paper focuses on the play, “Pictures of That Summer (Ano natsu no e),” which is inspired by the “Paintings of the Atomic Bomb” project in Hiroshima. Through an analysis of its dramatization, the paper develops a theoretical framework for investigating the generation of the collective memory of catastrophes through works of art. In this light, through interviews, it then examines the experiences of professional actors involved in the dramatization. The actors struggle with the difficult task of constructing a communicative activity which conveys the memories of survivors, in a secondary manner, on stage. The paper discusses the means employed to address this challenge, and shows that intergenerational boundary crossing with respect to the transmission of the memory of catastrophes is supported by the crossing of boundaries between various educational fields, such as schools, museums, and theaters, and between various representations, in oral, pictorial, and theatrical form.

This paper examines the significance and potential of educational practices of evening junior high schools (yakan chugaku). After World War II, evening junior high schools were established for children who could not attend daytime junior high schools, and later those who had not completed compulsory education beyond school age began to study there. After the Act on Securing Educational Opportunities Equivalent to Ordinary Education at the Stage of Compulsory Education was enacted in 2016, new evening junior high schools have gradually begun to be established. This paper provides an overview of the history and present of evening junior high schools and then discusses the case of Osaka Prefecture, where the most advanced emancipatory educational practices, so-called “liberation education (kaiho kyoiku),” have taken place since the 1970s. It focuses on the practice of Kim Hyangdoja, a second generation Zainichi Korean who teaches at an evening junior high school in Higashi-Osaka City. She and her colleagues have sought a way for marginalized people, especially first-generation Zainichi Korean women, to become aware of their historical and social position. We considered the significance of her practice, “Writing my history with photos,” similar to Paulo Freire's literacy education. We clarified that this practice is not only for making personal history, but is also an arena for expressing the identities of different social groups.

Recently, “Team School”(School as a Team) has been proposed as a new image of schools in Japanese educational reform. Team School is an organizational model where teachers and non-teaching professionals (e.g., school counselors and school social workers) collaborate in order to respond to the increasingly complex and diverse issues the school faces. Considering the long history of Japanese schools where teachers alone manage all educational activities for students, this new school model based on more involvement of non-teaching professionals seems necessary for the school to expand support for diverse students as well as to keep education sustainable.

However, there are several issues for the progress of Team School, such as the lack of new professionals and the existing teachers' workstyle. In this article, the author focuses on school-based collaboration for student support as an aspect of Team School and examines the issues for its implementation. To clarify these issues in Japan, the author examines the case of “Safeguarding Teams” in UK schools. Also, findings from the author's field research at a Japanese junior high school are used to examine how to realize Team School and improve collaborative support for students.

This paper inquires into a practical logic of what can be called socially just education in late modern societies, based on a reexamination of critical pedagogy, and clarifies the boundary-crossing nature of this education and the dilemmas that it inevitably entails. The discussion first addresses and reexamines certain oppositional arguments made by the most influential authorities of critical pedagogy, Michael Apple and Henry Giroux, to discern the directionality for a practical logic of socially just education. Second, to underpin the theoretical considerations, the paper refers to Nancy Fraser's concepts of social justice—the politics of recognition, redistribution, and representation—and, by reinterpreting the politics of redistribution based on the theory of cultural capital of Pierre Bourdieu, seeks to construct the vital part of a practical logic of socially just education in late modernity. To complement this model, the paper invokes Gert Biesta's discussion of how schools should teach democracy. Last is an overview of the dilemmas that must be faced when attempting to put socially just education into practice in the late modern era, along with proposed guidelines for tackling these dilemmas.

This study investigates the relation between Viola Spolin's methodology of theatrical education and Konstantin Stanislavski's. It elucidates major similarities and differences between Spolin's theater games and Stanislavski's system in more detail than previous research. This investigation belongs to a research project on the origins of Spolin's games, which have been widely adopted in contemporary education. The present study reveals that Spolin shared several essential ideas with Stanislavski: the application of improvisation to theatrical training, the objection to director-centered production, the emphasis on intuition and spontaneity in the creative process, the evocative function of the theatrical situation/circumstances, the value of emotion and memory for creation, and the concept of energy exchange in theatrical communication. In addition, she introduced several games highly similar to the exercises in Stanislavski's system, for example, Exposure, Space Objects, Gibberish, and No Motion Warm-Up. Spolin presumably adopted, directly or indirectly, at least some of the key concepts and exercises from Stanislavski's theatrical works. However, she refused some aspects of Stanislavski's system: the teacher's privilege of approval/disapproval, the strong emphasis on imagination, the psychological view of emotion and memory, and the inhibition of direct communication between actors and the audience. Instead, Spolin developed several unique ideas for theatrical education, for instance, teachers as fellow players, contact as a way to get out into the theatrical environment, body memory as opposed to mental retention, and audience members as fellow players. The results of this study thus provide the insight that Stanislavski's system had a more profound influence, whether as a positive or negative model, on Spolin's theory and practice than as illustrated by previous studies. In this way, the present study casts light upon a significant phase of the history of theatrical methods in education and contributes to a better understanding of the characteristics and underlying philosophy of theater games.

One of the challenges in substantiating deliberative democracy as a normative theory is the educational challenge of how to cultivate civic virtue, especially mutual respect and civility, in children. The cultivation of civic virtue is not limited to school education, but is also an activity related to family education. However, liberal theorists who advocate the theory of deliberative democracy, based on the dualism of public and private, have limited their discussions to the issue of civic development in the field of public education. This article proposes to understand and compare the many competing theories on public-private dualism, particularly in liberal and feminist spaces. Beginning with an analysis of the work of liberal theorists such as David Archard as well as Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift, and moving on to that of feminist theorists such as Susan Okin, this article examines competing theories on education in school and in the family, to whom the responsibility of education belongs, and where feminist and liberal thought enlighten these debates. This article will clarify the theoretical tendencies and principles of liberal arguments aimed at overcoming the public-private dualism in education, and present a strategy for overcoming the challenges that this theory encompasses by seeking reference points in feminist thought, especially with attention to conception of relational autonomy.

In accordance with the development of technology, the disinformation known as “fake news” has become a global issue, leading to the labeling of these times as the “post-truth” era. Discussion of global citizenship education, intended to shape citizens with critical thinking abilities, is thus essential in this era. This paper, with reference to media literacy research on the basis of its close connection to digital citizenship, examines the possibilities of pedagogy toward moving beyond the dystopian society of digital monitoring.

Regarding the faults of the Japanese compulsory enrollment system, premised on attendance at a specific school, a forward-looking view must be taken on the guarantee of opportunities for general education via non-physical attendance (online attendance) in which physical attendance is not the default. At this time, municipal Boards of Education are called on to “promote the guarantee of diverse opportunities for general education” and “form public school networks,” while prefectures must establish new councils and comprehensive support centers for a continuous guarantee during the school age across a broad area in cooperation with municipalities.