This article analyzes the educational function of “Mo Ashibi,” an Okinawan traditional custom. Prior to World War II, midnight feasts known as “Mo Ashibi” were held in fields (Mo). During these feasts, young men and women formed a circle and sang and danced to the music of the Okinawan shamisen. This gave rise to a great variety of folk songs and dances, which were passed on to future generations. Improvisatorially, self-composed poems were recited, and men sparred in the traditional martial arts before the dances began.

  It can be said “Mo Ashibi” had a big educational power by the function which produces culture and cultural communication. Additionally, for a time, the feast had another function which was the only opportunity for men and women of Okinawan farming villages to find a marriage partner.

  The field was an important place where people made friends, and it also had a recreational function. There, the dances, songs, and traditional martial arts were indivisibly connected with the function of finding a marriage partner. The lifestyle reform movement tried to abolish the Mo Ashibi feast. However, as this article shows, the custom persisted until the 1940s in some areas.

  I visited Okinawa several times for fieldwork, questioning the locals about how this ceremony was performed and their experience. My findings indicate that in the absence of Mo Ashibi, it is difficult to pass down the cultural legacy of Okinawa i.e, songs, dances, and martial arts.

  In modern Chinese society, community education has come to mean the development of the three-stage construction of the ward, street, and fundamental community. Previous studies on community education have focused primarily on ward- and street-centered community education. However, this paper, from the viewpoint of the local residents' spontaneity and autonomy, focuses on fundamental community education, which is not the community education led by the administrative staffs, rather an education in which the revolution of residents' own activities becomes the core element.

  This paper discusses two topics. First, I review the previous studies on community education. Second, I discuss the characteristics found through clarifying the conditions of fundamental community education in the analysis of the selected case. The case selected was in one of the model wards of community education, the Tyuusan community in the Kyoko ward, located in Wuhan, China.

  The results show that fundamental community education supports and advances the subjective awareness of local residents.

  Previous studies on literacy have revealed that attitudes and thinking of literates on illiteracy create a sense of inferiority for the illiterates. However, the means of changing those attitudes and thinking remain unexplored. To address this issue, this paper explores UNESCO's recent literacy strategy.

  This paper examines the significance, meaning, and conditions leading to the introduction of “plurality of literacy,” a notion proposed by UNESCO in 2004. In addition, this paper explores the “literate environment approach,” which aims to develop a social environment that encourages literacy practices. By analyzing relevant UNESCO documents, this paper shows that the “plurality of literacy” changes how literacy policies and programs are designed in three ways: 1) their targets shift from illiterate people to all people; 2) their objective is now to create a society that promotes people's use of literacy, not simply to make them literate; and 3) their approaches now involve developing various aspects of the social environment, rather than simply providing literacy education.

  By emphasizing the importance of considering the whole environment, where people practice various literacies, and of promoting the diversity of literacies, the “plurality of literacy” and the “literate environment approach” together suggest ways of creating opportunities of informal and incidental learning that would lead to a change in the way literate people think about literacy and illiteracy.

  The passage of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the G.I. Bill, created a boom for college campuses in the United States. Some elite university presidents worried that an influx of veterans would dilute academic standards. Edwin Broun Fred, president of the University of Wisconsin (UW), expected veterans to become good and patient scholars, because he considered adult learners to be mature and experienced. He wanted to maintain academic quality while accepting the maximum number of eligible veterans. He built a well-functioning university administrative structure and expanded student services to accept veterans.

  Fred believed strongly in the Wisconsin Idea, which envisioned new relationships among university, government, and society. He oversaw the growth of university extension centers, which eventually resulted in the opening of the UW-Milwaukee campus in 1956 and the creation of UW System in 1971. He tried to maintain the university as a human institution, where each individual was equally respected. Adult learners gave him the impetus to demonstrate leadership in university reforms when he faced the political and economic challenges in the postwar period.

  By analyzing records of parent-teacher meetings and “home visits” at Kamisato Primary School in Nagano from the 1930s to the 1940s, this study demonstrates how teachers and parents tried to accomplish a major aim of education i.e., co-operation between schools and families.

  Although teachers lamented parents' lack of concern for their children's education, they began to think of ways to educate not only the pupils but also the parents; this scheme was named “Parents Education” (Fukei-Kyoiku/父兄教育). Moreover, parents realized the importance of schooling and education, especially in the face of the worsening war situation. This development led to a change in their viewpoint toward their children's future and job prospects post graduation.

  It was ironic that parents' concern about education increased and cooperation between the teachers and the families was at its highest during the war. Parents went from depending entirely on the school and the teachers to discussing and cooperating with them to improve their children's daily lives under the severe circumstances of war.