The Primary Teacher Training Courses in Akita from Late Meiji Through the Taisho Period

Abstract

  This paper deals with the teacher training in primary school teacher training courses in Akita prefecture.

  It was in 1901 that the primary school teacher training course was started to train teachers in Akita. This course became the only course in the prefecture providing fully qualified primary school teachers from 1907, when the other courses for primary teacher training were abolished. This made the teacher training route, with preparatory courses followed by this primary school teacher training course, the main route for providing qualified teachers in the 1900s.

  In the Taisho era, the normal school system was reformed including the primary teacher training course mentioned above. In 1913, the name of the primary school teacher training course was changed to reflect its function more closely. In the case of Akita, the primary school teacher training course was reformed, while the regular courses of normal school were abolished. In this way, the primary school teacher training course gradually came to play an important part in teacher training in Akita, steadily supplying qualified teachers, alongside the normal schools.

  In Akita from 1900 onward, there were three types of teacher training courses: normal school courses; the primary school teacher training courses; and preparatory courses.