Today's situation of public education is intricated. There are various controversies about this situation. The main polemics are discussed along the confrontation between conservatism vs. liberalism, neo-liberalism vs. radical democracy, and globalization vs. multiculturalism. This article clusters several concrete problems concerning public education into three problem syndromes which correspond to controversy mentioned above. This article tries to articulate the new phase of the publicness of the school to the problem syndrome which is derived from the special needs of the children. They are abandoned from their family and deprived of communicational skills. H. Arendt was one of the theoretical pioneers concerning this problem. She geared her attention to the lonely people (die Verlassenheit) by her own experience. But she did not integrate this real problem to her unique concept of the public, which was permeated by the heroic image. This difficulty can be solved from the perspective of the system theory of N.Luhmann. His concept of "inclusion and exclusion" and "dignity" are fruitful. He mentioned that every individual is susceptible to be excluded from the functionally systematized society. The excluded people tends to retreat from the situation concerned in order to secure their dignity. They need to be paid attention by the public opinion and by the other person. The essential part of the publicness of the school is the possibility to widen the range of their self-expression. It is the process of recovering their dignity.

View full abstract

Mentoring programs have been rampant since 1980's especially in the U.S. Based on the evaluation studies of the effectiveness of these programs, mentoring programs have been reformed and evolved. Despite the proved effectiveness of mentoring programs in various countries in the world, educational studies in Japan have been almost indifferent in mentoring and the mentoring programs. Through analyzing the evolution and the effect of the mentoring program in the U.S, this study examines the significance of the mentoring programs as a support for the linking life-long development. The linking life-long development includes two dimensions. On the one hand the mentee is supported and advised by the mentor, which as the same time promotes mentor's life-long development. On the other hand mentoring experience of such supportive relationship is linked to the next generation through the mentee who wish to repay the mentor's kindness he/she had received by being a new mentor. The practice and the proved effectiveness of those mentoring programs provide precious insights for a provable partnership among community school, and business for a program linking life-long development in Japan.

View full abstract

Education researchers have taken notice of "Schools as Communities" as the alternative to the bureaucratic control of schools in the United States. The activities of the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) are regarded as building "Schools as Communities" in the U.S. However, few of them have researched into what is viewed as "community" in the CES, and what kinds of activities realize it. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of community in the CES, through the analyses of the CES's philosophy, and of its reform activities about school's organization and schedule, curriculum, and evaluation. In the first chapter, the author shows how CES started and developed. CES is the organization encouraging school reform based on its philosophy, Common Principles, which Theodore R Sizer showed in his book, Horace's Compromise. Common Principles contains the ideas of making schools smaller and of "exhibition, " which evaluates the mastery of students' learning. These ideas are based on Sizer's experience as a teacher and a principal. CES was founded in 1984, and it has affiliated about 1, 200 schools by 2000. In the second chapter, the author analyzes the reform activities of CES, and evaluates their significance in today's reform movement in the U.S. There are three aspects in its activities. First, CES has developed the curriculum focusing on students' minds, and created school's organization, schedule, and evaluation system, that are suitable for its curriculum. Second, CES has spread the way of reform mentioned above, through CES's workshop aimed to create the collaboration among teachers and schools. Third, CES has executed collaborative inquiry, which is the action research carried out by researchers and teachers of affiliated schools. These activities characterize not only CES's reform approaches connected each other, but also the multiple collaborations, i.e., teacher's collaboration, school's collaboration, and the collaboration between schools and CES. These characteristics are the significance of CES's activities in today's reform movement. The issue we have to take up here is how CES's activities are related to the notion of "Schools as Communities." In the third chapter, the author clarifies the ideas of "Schools as Communities" in Common Principles, through the analyses of Sizer's educational thought. Sizer regarded making school smaller as the way to encourage collaboration between teachers and parents, and to build teacher's community. He expected students to become members of "community of learners, " through student's collaboration. And he advocated the concept of "community of learners, " which is characterized by teachers' and students' using the "habits of mind"-some intellectual abilities to inquire, and by persistent rethinking the aims and means of learning. Based on Sizer's thought above, CES's idea of "Schools as Communities" can be viewed as building "community of learners" in small schools.

View full abstract

Since perestroika, as a consequence of the concomitant glasnost (dissemination of information) for the field of education, we have begun to gain free access to a great deal of the information that had remained closed to the public until now. With this trend, we are also provided with the information about Makarenko that had been unknown to us, and lively discussions have followed from it. The aim of this paper is to investigate, in light of the documents that have become available in recent years, the relation between A. S. Makarenko and his "Pedagogical Poem, " on one hand, and the film "Road to Life", on the other. This has been known in Japan as a cinematic interpretation of Makarenko's pedagogical practices. "Road to Life" has long been regarded as a film based on the model of Makarenko's pedagogical practices, especially on that of his work "Pedagogical Poem." It was produced as the first Soviet talkie film in 1931, and received the Best Director award in the first Venice Film Festival. The film was also a commercial success and went on to be shown in Japan in 1932. Because the subject of the film was the reeducation of juvenile delinquents and orphans, and also because it commemorated F. Dzerzhi-nsky, "Road to Life" has been identified with Makarenko's pedagogical practices. It vividly depicts the process in which the juvenile delinquents and orphans are reborn through labor education at the commune, and this too made the film, as it were, a double-image of Makarenko's "Pedagogical Poem." Another reason this film was identified with his practices is that the English and the German translations of the "Pedagogical Poem" were published with the title "Road to Life". In Britain in particular, the publisher gave the book the same title as the commercially successful film in order to increase its sales. Moreover, German researchers of Makarenko such as Herman Nohl also associated "Road to Life" with the "Pedagogical Poem." In Japan, where the knowledge about Makarenko came not only from the Soviet Union but also by way of Germany, "Road to Life" was identified with the "Pedagogical Poem" for a combination of these reasons. Still another reason these two works were seen in the same light is that the founders of the commune after which the film "Road to Life" was modeled were purged under the Stalinist regime, and that the information about the commune became concealed from the public. G. G. Jagoda and M. A Pogrebinsky played important roles in the founding of this commune. It was conceived to commemorate Jagoda, and established and operated by Pogrebinsky as the general president under Jagoda, and by F. G. Melihov as the manager. The official name of the commune is "Bolshev Labor Commune Named in Honor of G. G. Jagoda, Attached to the National Commissariat of Internal Affairs." Bolshev Commune became known to a wide public through the two books written by Pogrebinsky, Labor Commune Attached to the United State Political Admission (1928) and People's Factory (1929). Furthermore, it was The Bolshevians (1936), a collection of documentaries edited by M. Gorky, that made the Commune even more famous. In this book, Gorky gave high praise to the activities of the Commune and Pogrebinsky as its leader. However, under the Stalinist regime, Jagoda was arrested on April 3, 1937 on suspicion of killing Gorky and others by poisoning, and executed by shooting in March 1938. Hearing the arrest of his former superior, Pogrebinsky committed suicide on April 4, 1937. After this series of incidents, the journal Red Virgin Soil (Issue 7, July 1937) published a book review of The Bolshevians signed by its editorial department. The review severely denounced Jagoda's enterprise and activities related to Bolshev Commune.

View full abstract

In the rapidly changing world of adult education in Japan, we need to return to the fundamentals, and then, we need to consider the detailed studies about adult educational reform during the early postwar period. Citizen's Public Hall was instituted in the early postwar period as a link in the chain of adult educational reform and symbolizes its newness after the war. The aim of this paper is to clarify the process of the formation and institutionalization of Citizen's Public Halls from 1946 to 1953, focussing on the Citizen's Public Hall of Kota Viliage, Aichi Prefecture. This paper consists of the following. (a) A preface, describing the purpose and method of this study, (b) an explanation of the adult education movement's administration in the early postwar period in Aichi Prefecture - focussing on the formation of Citizen's Public Halls, (c) a description of the adult education movement's administration in the early postwar period in Kota Village, Aichi Prefecture - focussing on the formation of Citizen's Public Halls, (d) an analysis of the formation, management and activities of the Citizen's Public Hall of Kota Village, Aichi Prefecture in the early postwar period, and (e) the conclusion. The conclusion includes the following points The Citizen's Public Hall of Kota Village, Aichi Prefecture was a model for other Citizen's Public Halls, especially, from the viewpoints of the establishment and equipment, educational finance and steering committee.

View full abstract