THE JAPANESE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Online ISSN : 2187-5278
Print ISSN : 0387-3161
ISSN-L : 0387-3161
Special Issue: The Concept of Education Reconsidered
From a System of Knowledge Distribution to a Platform of Knowledge Creation : Reexamining the Concept of Education(<Special Issue>The Concept of Education Reconsidered)
Atsushi MAKINO
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2010 Volume 77 Issue 4 Pages 371-384

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Abstract

So far, education has been defined as a social system of knowledge distribution, but defining education as a system is becoming more and more irrelevant, because individuals' behaviors and the social structure that underlie this definition have drastically changed. Education is taking on the aspect of an ecological platform on which various kinds of operation systems of knowledge creation grow. We have stopped seeing ourselves as "Me" among a group called "We," based on what we have in common with others. We no longer regard ourselves in terms of our commonality and equality, i.e., belonging, to others. In other words, each of us has launched a personal reflexive project in search of who We are, and who We are not, but who the special Me is. The reason why we have so far claimed that our access to knowledge be guaranteed like others' was that we wanted to access the greater views of the world or history shared with others, i.e., greater narratives. By sharing such narratives with others, we have tried to position ourselves in relation to others. However, this is no longer what we are looking for. Today, everyone exposes themselves. It is in this explosion of self-expression that we see the emergence of a We who excessively expose ourselves to others, and it is there that we feel Me to be connected to We. What is more, this exposure of Me is deeply involved with changes in social structure today. The Japanese society has worked in a system that positioned the nationals (citizens) in a space as residents, where the administrative district, the school district, and various associations and organizations overlapped in the same community. The typical example was chonaikai, or neighborhood association. An autonomous body as it was, chonaikai shared its space with the school district and other community activities such as senior citizens' clubs, women's associations, social welfare councils, and volunteer fire companies. Living in this space as citizens and participating in these community activities as residents, people had inevitably positioned themselves in such a space, i.e., in relation to others, and thus identified their being. However, recent reforms of administrative structure have dismantled this type of multilayered social structure of community organizations, undercutting people's sense of belonging. It is now hard to tie people's minds down to their community. As a result, people see the world less and less through their relation to others. The world is no longer what is already there, but what is realizing in each of us. In view of such reflexive moves of individuals turning from the collective We to the isolated, scattered Me, we have to rebuild once again We who have already had to be connected with each other for the sheer reason that we are isolated and scattered. We find this logic working in various cases of learning, such as adults who start learning on their own initiative, find themselves again, and open themselves to relations with others, or in lifelong learning bases that train and develop new actors who work on helping isolated individuals connect to each other in a local community. This also requires education to change itself from a system of knowledge distribution to a platform that creates knowledge and, in that process, connects Me to We in multiple ways.

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© 2010 Japanese Educational Research Association
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