I take up recent remarks by Teruhisa Horio about school student disaffection in Japan and see echoes of this in Britain. In that country the traditional school curriculum of discrete largely academic subjects is often taken to be one cause of the problem. I review justifications for it but no sound ones appear to be available. We need to understand how this kind of curriculum came into being and to see whether there were once more adequate reasons for it. Its beginnings lie the educational project begun by the sixteenth-century French philosopher Ramus and his successors, notably Alsted and Comenius. These and others broke away from the prevailing idea that education should focus largely on classical authors and their texts, replacing this with a reordering of knowledge and its transmission within easily assimilable disciplines and subdisciplines based on a single logical method of arranging ideas. The new approach to learning, with its emphasis on discrete areas of knowledge and strict timetabling so that no minute was wasted. was especially prized by radical protestants, especially Calvinists, for whom a comprehensive understanding of God's creation was a necessary condition both of personal salvation and of realising God's purposes on earth. I show how these ideas were promoted in puritan England by Hartlib and Comenius in the mid-seventeenth century and became the basis of dissenting education at the end of that century when the dissenters were excluded from public life. The paper follows the progress of the 'modern' curriculum into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The rationale which lay behind this curriculum in its early days became progressively eroded and is now non-existent. We need radically to rethink how we plan the curriculum. This should begin with a careful consideration of what the aims of school education should be and then ask which vehicles are the most suitable to realise these aims.

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This paper examines the significance of social network and social capital in youth transition from school to work, with a focus on both instrumental and expressive aspects. In recent years the transition of Japanese young people has changed drastically, similar to young people in other industrialised countries. The individualisation of transition has proceeded and collective guidelines or public systems have become less helpful. Thus, their transition has begun to depend more on their social networks and social capital. For young people who cannot help undergoing an insecure and uncertain transition, the instrumental aspects of social networks and social capital are important in their search for job. Few studies, however, have discussed their expressive aspects in great detail. This paper attempts to illustrate the importance of expressive aspects seen in more young people who are afflicted with serious mental problems as a result of their insecure and uncertain transitions. This paper analyzes the cases of six females from the most insecure group in our sample. These freeter girls have local networks composed of members in insecure employment situations with similar characteristics. The instrumental resources these networks provide are minimal, but the expressive aspects of the networks make them valuable sources of relationships for its members. They share sentiments, ventilate frustrations, reach understanding on issues and problems, and affirm each own as well as the other's worth and dignity. The research findings also indicated that young people in middle to late adolescence rely more on these networks than they do their families. We must pay attention to young people who have little support from their parents in either the expressive and instrumental aspects to sustain the expressive aspects of their networks.

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History and social studies textbooks have often been the object of heated political debate in various countries, since they relate directly to issues of national identity and citizenship. This article analyzes how "foreigners" are portrayed in two versions (the 2000 and 2006 versions, date of issue) of the best-selling elementary social studies textbook in Japan. How "foreigners" are portrayed, reflects how non-foreigners, in other words, "Japanese," are understood. The study categorized the sections containing key terms and themes that were relevant to foreign/foreigners (see article for exact list). Based on a content analysis, the results were broken down into 8 themes (plus "Other"), and their patterns were analyzed. The major findings were that (1) despite the image of Japanese as having a monocultural image of themselves, the image of ethnic Japanese and Japanese society in the textbooks was actually very diverse in terms of region, climate, landscape, occupation, etc. ; (2) images of coexistence were also present, but the objects of coexistence were dominantly of two kinds-first, the coexistence of Japanese with nature, and second, the coexistence of Japan with foreign countries through trade ; and (3) in cases that the "foreigners" did appear in the textbooks, the image shifted according to the context in which it was discussed, and there was a missing link between the different meanings. In other words, when the context was contemporary Japan (3^rd -5^th grade), "foreigners" were portrayed as visitors who came and left, and the key concept was "internationalization." When "foreigners" were discussed historically (first half of 6^th grade), or were discussed in relation to welfare, peace, human rights and discrimination, they were assumed to be the permanently residing foreigners in Japan (the Koreans and Chinese in Japan). The article analyzes the implications these findings have for a more multicultural and pluralistic Japanese self-image.

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Since the Meiji Restoration (1868), Japan's educational studies first began by receiving theories of practical education from the UK and U.S. Later, together with the political trends around 1890, there began a trend towards receipt of German educational studies. Along with the spread of elementary education, there were experiments with building school educational studies based on Germany's Herbart educational studies. Development of various types of educational practices began in the 1920s under the name of Taisho period progressive education, along with systematization of scholarly educational studies. Sukeichi SHINOHARA (1876-1957) is noted as the most important pedagogist of this period. Around 1930, systematic education theories appeared which are still studied today. However, during wartime from 1940 on, these education theories faced the problem of separation of theory from practice. That is, on the one hand, educational studies must ensure its scholastic aspect as theory. But on the other hand, it was in danger of being held captive to the militaristic ideology it was forced into, which was the foundation of education practice during wartime.

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This paper examines the development of educational theory in Japan from 1945 to the present in five time divisions: (1) postwar "new education" and its critics (1945-52); (2) revisionist educational policy versus the people's education movement (1952-61); (3) the formation of "postwar pedagogy" as a self-reflection of the educational system (1961-79); (4) the exposure of the structural limitations of postwar pedagogy (1979-92); and (5) "post-Cold War pedagogy" (1992-). The aims of the paper are: (1) to redefine "postwar pedagogy" as a concept with substantive rather than simply temporal boundaries; and (2) to situate contemporary educational theory in historical perspective by describing "post-Cold War pedagogy." An analysis of "postwar pedagogy" and "post-Cold War pedagogy" reveals that educational theory has continually played the role of self-reflection upon the educational system. In this sense, while educational theory is dependent upon on the educational system, it has also, through reflection, participated in the shaping of the system.

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The question explored here is this : Is curriculum for the 21st century best organized around the traditional disciplines, or is there a more promising alternative? The answered offered is that our best option is to stretch the disciplines from within, push back the boundaries now separating them, and ask how each of the expanded subjects can be designed to promote new aims for the 21st century.

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Meeting the diverse needs of young people who are coping with such problems as delinquent behaviors or poor academic performance is an urgent issue today. This paper aims to demonstrate the benefits of introducing intergenerational mentoring activities into educational programs for supporting "at risk" adolescents by highlighting some innovative and effective methods. Among various types of mentoring activities, this paper will focus on ones in which older adults take on the role of mentors. The significance of mentoring activities in which older adults give emotional support to at risk adolescents has been recognized since the late 1980s in the United States. An important component of this type of "intergenerational mentoring" initiative involves establishing a sense of mutual trust between the older adult mentors and the at risk youth mentees. This paper consists of the following parts. Firstly, the author will describe the rationale and some of the societal factors that are contributing to the emergence of the mentoring activities for at risk adolescents in contemporary society. Secondly, the author will describe key characteristics of intergenerational mentoring activities designed to support at risk adolescents. The primary focus will be on lessons learned from an intergenerational mentoring program called "Across Ages" which is operated by Temple University's Center for Intergenerational Learning. In analyzing this model program, the author will focus on challenging issues related to how the mentor role is constructed and how the mentors function in the context of program goals to produce benefits for the participants. Finally, in concluding this paper, the author will point out that such intergenerational mentoring endeavors not only expand informal helping resources for at risk adolescents but also help in establishing a circulative mentoring process that has implications for the enrichment of the lives of people of all ages in the community.

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This paper examines an alternative view of teacher education that enables teachers to redefine their image and mission in the changing society of Japan. This vision is inspired by and draws upon the educational and philosophical thoughts of nineteenth-century American writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and contemporary Harvard philosopher Stanley Cavell. The paper first clarifies the nature of bewilderment regarding teachers' professional identities, basically following the changes accompanying the end of the era of modernization efforts. Recently, teachers have been forced to yield their historically secure and respected positions in their communities, because not a small number of people have begun to doubt the validity and efficiency of school education and teacher education. The article therefore examines the necessity and possibility of an alternative approach to teacher education, which reclaims space for teachers philosophical questioning about their lost identities as well as the mission and practice of teacher education itself in an age of crisis for teachers (and students). Finally, the archetype of teacher education is unearthed from a correlation between Cavell and other writers on whom his moral and educational theories are based, namely Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The philosophical interplay of these philosophers shapes the view of teacher education as a creative place in which teachers can question their roles. It is not questioning in the form of irresponsible criticism by someone isolated from society, but it is rather a voice of awakening, a voice that challenges the language in which one dwells, and an expression of social transformation from within. This portrait of teacher education conversely brings light to the rediscovery of what makes teachers teachers: a creative commitment to the society, in which teachers work through their language.

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We reported the major findings of our research based on our own academic achievement tests towards elementary school and junior high school pupils in 2002. We then pointed out the fact that the differences of achievement between social groups have been expanded. Nowadays, that issue is seen to be one of the most serious educational problems in contemporary Japan. Although the differences of various educational outcomes such as academic achievements or educational aspirations between social groups are always emphasized, it is surprising that they seldom discuss about the ways in which those differences could be made smaller. I myself have been exploring the issue in these several years. In this paper, I will describe the progress and the future directions of our academic exploration on this particular educational issue.

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