Japanese journal of adult and community education
Online ISSN : 2435-7669
Print ISSN : 2188-3521
ISSN-L : 2188-3521
Current issue
Displaying 1-11 of 11 articles from this issue
  • Kohei SUGIYAMA, Yuchi YAHAGI, Shinji YOKOTA, Yuhei YAMAUCHI
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 1-14
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      Youth centers are informal educational spaces in which adolescents can spend their time freely while also benefiting from the staff’s educational intentions. This study identifies a practice that can broker relationships between youth and local adults without the compromising the spatial characteristics of the youth center or forcing interaction. To achieve this, a loosely structured drop-in program, instead of traditional lectures or workshops, was designed and implemented. This study was conducted as an action research in collaboration with university researchers and youth center staff, together with the support of graduate students who acted as local adults who have expertise in specific fields.

      The design of the resulting drop-in program involved graduate students engaging in research activities in the free space of the youth center, naturally attracting the youth’s attention. The space design principles included the presence of familiar staff, the visibility of their activities, and open seating arrangements. Activity design adhered to the principles of contributing to graduate research, including potential contributions from youth, the feasibility of being conducted solely by adults, and flexible program execution. This program encouraged focused interaction between the youth and the graduate students, leading to spontaneous conversations concerning future career paths and subsequent visits to university labs. These outcomes indicate that drop-in programs can connect youth with society in the informal environment of youth centers.

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  • Yuwa MATSUOKA
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 15-27
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      This elucidates the process of developing, at the prefectural level, the social education commissioner system that began in 1932 and examines the relationship between the central government, prefectures, and municipalities in the administration of social education in 1930s Japan. In particular, this study focuses on Shiga Prefecture, analyzing in detail how the social education commissioner system developed in this region. Previous research has recognized the diversity of local social education administration in the prewar period and has suggested various formative processes influenced by regional factors. This study employs public documents and local magazines from Shiga Prefecture to clarify how far central policies permeated and were adapted at the prefectural and municipal levels. It also examines the role and impact that local officials had, taking into account how local subjective factors influenced the system’s acceptance. In conclusion, it is revealed that local social education administration in the 1930s was characterized by a structure in which prefectures imposed spontaneity on municipalities. This study thus contributes to the understanding of the characteristics and developmental processes of local social education administration in prewar Japan.

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  • Seira MIZUNO
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 29-41
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      In the context of the growing attention to initiatives supporting children and youth facing ikizurasa (life difficulties), including struggling with school absenteeism, social withdrawal (hikikomori) or being a NEET (someone not in education, employment, or training), discussion of the creation of ibasho, such as youth centers, are gaining prominence. As the number of such places continues to increase, it is essential to offer insights that are based on the practices of staff in youth centers that reflect realities on the ground.

      Therefore, this paper explores how relationships with children and youth facing ikizurasa are built at youth centers, focusing on the creative strategies employed by staff. In participant observations and interviews, two key findings emerged.

      First, in the process of building relationships with these children and youth, the staff experienced challenges, such as a feeling of disconnection or difficulty in communication. To address these challenges, the staff strategically implemented an approach incorporating the use of hobbies and preferences as a tool. This approach is rooted in the unique nature of youth centers as open-access places in which staff strive to create both spaces and bridges for the children and youth who visit.

      Second, analyzing relationship-building through the lens of youth work principles, it became evident that staff flexibly adapted their use of hobbies and preferences in response to the needs of both space and bridge formation. It became clear that this strategy is crucial for overcoming the complex dynamics of building connections with children and youth in youth centers.

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  • Chihei SHIGYO, Emi OTSU, Junko TERADA
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 43-50
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      In discussion of the methodology of ibasyodukuri (that is, how to make a place safe, secure, and comfortable for the youth; Tanaka 2001), scholars have generally focused on the ways in which practitioners are engaging with young people.

      Previous work has assumed the professional expertise of practitioners and centered it. This emphasis, however, unintentionally obscures the fact that (at least) some practices are mundane—in the sense that ordinary people can do them. Thus, an approach that includes ordinary practices from such a viewpoint is lost.

      In this paper, we propose a research program focusing on everyday interaction (such as chitchat and banter) between youth and practitioners and describes the ways that this is achieved through common sense knowledge. The program, following the principles of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, describes the procedures used by the practitioners in and through interaction with youth.

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  • Shigeo HORI
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 51-58
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      The purpose of this study is to identify the positive aspects of Malcolm Knowles’s idea of adult education from the formative days of this idea. Knowles is famous for his elaboration of the idea of andragogy, the art and science of helping adults learn, but little is known concerning his ideas of adult education in their formative days. In the 1950s, Knowles’s idea of adult education revolved around the idea of informal adult education, together with the theoretical help of Eduard Lindeman and Harry Overstreet. The author recognized that the essence of Knowles’s idea of informal education was to create the maturity of people and a mature society through adult learning. Knowles’s functional approach to adult education is applicable to the ideas and practices of contemporary social education in Japan.

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  • Jun YOKOYAMA
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 59-66
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      While Yamana Jiro’s name has traditionally found a place in the study of social education, historical materials concerning him have not been updated for a long period. This paper introduces previously overlooked materials on Yamana that were discovered during the author’s research on modern bonsai culture.

      The featured articles are from Bonsai Gaho, which was published during the Meiji and Taisho periods, and Bonsai, which was published during the Taisho and Showa periods. These articles include Yamana’s perspectives on social education, as they are elaborated in his Shakai Kyoiku Ron (Theory of Social Education). They also illustrated Yamana’s active involvement in the community surrounding bonsai during that era.

      Examining Yamana’s bonsai-related activities, we can reconsider his role as an origin for modern Japanese social education and, by extension, we can contribute to the broader re-examination of the history of social education itself. The most immediate task is to clarify the ways in which Yamana’s educational theories and bonsai theories were continuous and corresponding and to describe the relationship between the two in a consistent manner through the examination of the historical context of the period when Yamana’s articles on bonsai were written.

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  • Eiji TSUDA
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 67-76
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      This article is an attempt to summarize the content of the discussions in the joint research conducted as a project research by The Japan Society for the Study of Adult and Community Education under the theme of “Social Education and Lifelong Learning on Disability” over the three-year period from FY2020 to FY2022, and to raise issues in a developmental manner. Among other things, I will re-discuss the three concepts that were the premise for the project research: inclusion, the social model of disability, and the concept of competence. Regarding the concept of inclusion, I described the importance of a critical focus on the problem of exclusion in social education practice. As for the social model of disability, I described the importance of a critical focus on the dilemma of institutionalizing difference. Finally as for the concept of competence, I emphasized the importance of critical focus on the systemic rationality that tries to reduce human power to something that can be measured. At the end of the article, from these fundamental concepts and research questions, I described the prospects for the development of a new paradigm of social education research and practice on social inclusion.

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  • Noriko IKEDA
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 77-87
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      This study examined the learning process exhibited by citizens in sign language clubs, focusing on the conflicts and changes in perception arising from interactions among participants. The research method involved conducting group interviews with 11 learners who were participating in sign language clubs, in which they were asked for their reasons for participating in sign language clubs, what they have learned, and their conflicts. It was found that, although communication barriers appeared to be a major obstacle, especially for those who had little learning experience, the joy of being able to communicate and the pleasure of interactions with various other participants kept these participants continuously learning. In addition, through interaction with deaf people using sign language, they became aware of the existence of others who are different from them, and they became aware of social issues that were novel to them, which led to learning that broadened their perspectives. While the ways in which sign language clubs are run has been changing due to changes in the social conditions surrounding sign language, it was suggested, that even today, it is important to have a place where people can meet each other to build up a relationship of mutual support in the community.

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  • Ayame SUZUKI
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 89-101
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      This study elucidates the difficulties that are encountered by youth with intellectual disabilities (ID) who are enrolled in a welfare-based advanced course, identifying characteristics of their support. To this end, a field study was conducted at the Y Advanced Course. The caregivers in question recognized that youth with ID lacked skills of daily living skills and were marginalized from society. In response, the caregivers provided support that had three key characteristics: first, it encouraged youth with ID to gradually participate in social life; second, it provided opportunities for youth with ID to make their own decisions; and third, it provided awareness raising among youth with ID of their responsibilities as responsible subjects.

      These results yielded two key findings. The first finding was that the educational content of the special support high schools was biased toward vocational education, which led the users of the Y advanced course to have insufficient opportunities to acquire the skills of daily living. This led the caregivers into conflict, as they sought to provide adolescent education that could foster autonomy, and a significant amount of time was dedicated to improvements in skills of daily living. The second finding was the necessity of provisioning support that incorporates an education welfare perspective into a welfare-based advanced course as a setting for lifelong learning.

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  • Nariko HASHIDA
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 103-116
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      This study focuses on the activities of a UK organization of people with disabilities and their families during the new era of eugenics.

      In the UK, the Abortion Act allows for selective abortion on the grounds of fetal disability, and techniques of prenatal testing have rapidly developed. Noninvasive prenatal genetic testing was introduced for screening test in the 2020s.

      In this context, a campaign called Don’t Screen Us Out (DSUO) was launched by people with Down syndrome and their families. The participants in the DSUO movement developed their position, rooted in their having been treated as equal with other nondisabled people, and began working on court cases to alter the Abortion Act and its treatment of the life of an unborn child with a disability as less valuable than another’s life.

      This group has also worked to raise awareness in the wider community. Some medical professionals and new parents have changed their perceptions and practice in response to DSUO campaigns. Some people in society have also recognized that the provisions of the law discriminate against people with disabilities, and some have become supporters of the campaign.

      This study showed that people with disabilities in the UK have raised their voices against reproductive selection, challenging its widespread use and encouraging people in society to learn and change.

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  • Tomoyuki DOBATA
    2024 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 117-124
    Published: 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

      Over the past six years, the Mirai Tsukuri Daigaku (Creating the Future University) project has been being implemented in home healthcare institutions, allowing collaboration between disabled people and healthcare professionals to develop a learning environment where everyone can learn, regardless of their disability status.

      For its first year, this project focused on lecture-style learning accompanied by external instructors, while in the second year, the participants engaged in team-based research activities that fostered an atmosphere of inquiry into themes that are related to life, such as their own living situations and life paths.

      However, the COVID-19 pandemic led the project to transition to online activities from its third year. During this time, when people with and without disabilities were forced to consider their lives in a new light, a range of learning opportunities opened up, including book clubs, philosophy study groups, movie clubs, and sign language and Ainu language classes, providing a space where participants could learn whatever they wanted to learn.

      With the use of online tools, it became for participants to join from different locations and to participate at their own pace by watching recordings, which led to the formation of a learning community that features diverse participation patterns and levels of engagement.

      The relationship between disabled people and healthcare professionals became transformed into a partnership between equal learning subjects, and opportunities were created for novel encounters among people with diverse backgrounds, including other participants.

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