Review of Education Development Studies in Recent 20 Years

—Through Contrasting with Educational Studies and Area Studies—

Abstract

This review article analyses the characteristics of Education Development studies in Japan in recent 20 years by comparing articles about education in developing countries published in various Japanese academic journals. The total number of the articles is about 300. The journals we collected are divided into three genres: Education Development studies, Educational studies and Area studies.

The main methods of this review is to clarify the characteristics of articles by applying 15 viewpoints like research target, research area, research purpose and research education level. As a result, it is possible to locate the position and characteristics of Education Development studies in the whole picture of educational researches on developing countries in Japan.

There are some interesting findings. Based on the data we collected, it appears that each genre of study has its own purpose. For example, whether the research is academic driven or mission driven has a strong impact on target area, region and education level. In terms of education research on Africa, higher education has not been explored much by Japanese researchers.

In Education Development studies, there are some implications for future research from this review. One of them is to learn useful insights from the genres of Educational Studies and Area studies. Educational Studies provide important pedagogical viewpoints especially concerning human development. Area studies provide rich micro-level perspectives concerning community viewpoints, history, culture and local context. Of course, “The Journal of International Development Studies” has already plenty of good examples; we are able to utilize these articles as a good guideline for future research.