Literacy is a plural and ambiguous concept. This paper illuminates historical backgrounds and ideological functions of literacy, focusing on such three traditions of its connotation, as the instrumental, the interactive and the critical. The following three features are taken into consideration. First, etymologically, literacy has been defined by the opposite meaning of oral culture, but through modernization of society and education it was split into basic skills of reading or writing and common knowledge of cultural heritage. It is critical that the word of literacy originally appeared in an educational journal in the late of 19th century. The tradition has been handed over in the conception of "functional literacy." Secondly, three ideal types of literacy are examined. Henry Giroux differentiated literacy to three ideologies, such as instrumental ideology, interactive ideology and reproductive ideology. The instrumental is most popular in education. This ideology has been proclaimed in educational movement of social efficiency and behavior psychology since early days of 20th century, and is now called as "3R's". The interactive has long history of liberal arts education, and has been elaborated by liberal education and of developmental psychology of cognition. The reproductive has insisted political and economical functions of class, race and gender issues in literacy education.

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Mathematical academic abilities and mathematical literacy is considered from the Japanese and international context. On considering academic abilities and literacy, a framework that grasps those is discussed. There is an ambiguity of the words, 'academic abilities' and 'literacy'. As a measure for overcoming the ambiguity, three levels of curriculum that was proposed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement -IEA- is recommended to use: intended curriculum, implemented curriculum and attained curriculum. Firstly, the change of mathematical academic abilities and mathematical literacy since the Meiji era is summarized focusing on educational objectives and objectives for evaluation of primary and secondary mathematics education. Mathematical academic abilities and mathematical literacy in the Meiji era were composed of computational skills as substantial discipline and spiritual training as formal discipline. Through the scientific spirits by Kinnosuke Ogura and the mathematical considering or methods by Ryoichiro Sato in Taisho era and the mathematical thought by Naomichi Shiono in the beginning of Showa era, ways of mathematical thinking has been aimed after the war and enjoyment of mathematical activities is currently added as objectives. Mathematical literacy has been advocated since the 1980's by a group of Japanese mathematicians with upper secondary and university mathematics education in mind. Next, it is revealed based on the Japanese situation that mathematical academic abilities and mathematical literacy are different as views on mathematics education are different. Mathematics, education and mathematics education have their own views on such, and different abilities and literacy are identified based on the three views. In views on mathematics education by mathematics or education, objectives for its education tend to acauire mathematics knowledge and skills. ln view on mathematics education by such, objectives for mathematics education are to foster abilities and attitudes to think mathematically. It has its view of learning that children create their own. They are also discussed in other countries. In some countries, standards on mathematics processes as well as standards on mathematics contents are set. In the standards on the processes of such, representation, reasoning, communication, connection and problem solving are included. With reference to these discussions mentioned above, methodology for constructing mathematical academic abilities is described based on the view of mathematics education as follows: structuralizing mathematical academic abilities as objectives, systematizing instruction to foster it and concretizing evaluation of mathematical academic abilities. Finally, both content aspects and cognitive/affective aspects are proposed as mathematical academic abilities. bearing both children's growth and social development in mind. Regarding on mathematics content aspect, mathematics expressions and mathematics proof are included. Five strands of cognitive/affective aspects: 'understanding', 'processing', 'thinking', 'using' and 'enjoying' are proposed to foster mathematical academic abilities through learning the content. As future tasks, empirical research on mathematical academic abilities bearing educational values in mind and teacher education are presented.

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This paper is about school education for fostering scientific literacy. Scientific literacy is one of the most important abilities for average people in order to make their own, rational decisions about how they are going to run their lives. school education, especially compulsory education is the first and probably the last opportunity for many citizens in Japan to receive organized science education. The concept of scientific literacy is examined in action using cartoon and joke. Scientific literacy can be defined as the multi-faceted concept which is related to not merely the science disciplines, but also politics, economics, sociology, philosophy and so on. The school science curricula in Japan mainly consist of teaching the body of science knowledge. The other aspects of scientific literacy have been treated in the curricula as mere additional contents. Teaching the body of science knowledge in Japan is highly regulated with the national education standard and the authorized school textbooks. In every revision of the science education standard since the 1970s, the educational contents have been steadily reduced. As a result of such reduction, some fundamental science concepts have disappeared from the school textbooks, especially in the field of compulsory education. This serious situation means that teaching science at many average public schools can not assure many future citizens of their scientific literacy. The intellectual foundation of science education is strongly connected to our historical, philosophical and sociological view of the nature of science. The national science education standards are infused with just such elements implicitly and explicitly. In this paper, the deflected view of the nature of science described on the published guidebook for the national science education standard in Japan is considered by illustrating what happened to the drafts of the national science education standard for grades K-12 in the U. S. Teachers have the important role in enhancing scientific literacy at school. There are many optional subjects in the high school science curriculum in Japan. The high school curriculum tends to provide only fragmentary treatment of some fundamentally important educational contents. Such fragmentary science education in high school threatens scientific literacy of many future school teachers. Similar difficulties have already been pointed out in 1957 on the governmental report. Universities and colleges of teacher education and training must deal with this situation. The general education curriculum for teacher education and training is discussed in this paper.

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The purpose of this paper is to clarify the following argument by H.A. Giroux, a leading critic who represents critical pedagogy developing in the United States since the 1980's. First, the problematic of literacy contains not merely the ability of reading and writing and the appropriate usage, but also the politics of culture. Second, in literacy as a form of cultural politics, it is important to confirm both a politics of differences which acknowledge the presence and its value of the differences between people, as well as a politics of solidarity between diverse people or groups. Finally, the importance of the politics of solidarity should especially be respected in schooling from the perspective of the public. Giroux points out that literacy can never be politically neutral, and it is impossible to separate it from ideological interests which it is inscribed in. He is extremely critical of cultural literacy which is offered by E.D. Hirsch and which represents what Hirsch thinks every American needs to be taught in elementary school. Giroux is critical of it not because it is ideological. He criticize it because it pretends to be politically neutral, and more importantly, the dominant ideology included in it maintains and legitimates unequal social structures which oppresses social and cultural minorities. Giroux's critical literacy shows not only the importance of critical analysis of the dominant ideology, but also the necessity of developing the possibility of transforming the existing society. As Freire and Macedo have pointed out, literacy should be analyzed according to whether it serves to reproduce existing social formation or serves as a set of cultural practices that promotes democratic and emancipatory social changes. Giroux finds the moment of resisting and transforming the dominant ideology in conflicts and struggles between students' own experiences and voices they bring to schools and the dominant ideology in school. In this meaning critical literacy should be treated as a political project that enables to recognize critically the dominant ideology working in people's daily life and to transform it, thus should be treated as a form of cultural politics. In critical literacy as a form of cultural politics it is important to recognize presence and dignity of diverse differences between people and groups in a society. Giroux tries to understand the diverse difference in the complex intersection of social, cultural, economical, racial, and sexual differences. So that Giroux comes to express the problem of differences with his original notion of "border" and stress the significance of crossing these borders. He calls it the politics of difference. The politics of difference, however, needs a politics of solidarity in which issues of diverse differences can be addressed as the public issue. What Giroux aims for is building the politics of solidarity, simultaneously highly sophisticating the politics of difference. From the perspective that public schools should not be geared for soecific students or groups, the latter becomes more important in that it should be a public sphere to empower any kind of student.

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Given "representational activity" as a kind of communicative act that promotes the stability of social meaning, relying upon the transparent relationship between signs and meanings, communication as "constituent activity" tends towards constructing new contexts that are formed as a result of encounters with "others", making it possible to subvert dominant social meanings. Literacy as constituent activity that is realized through the constituent power of the multitude, based on iterability of marks, constructs political space within which a new social meaning can be articulated.

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In recent years, the culture of public schools has been criticized for that it reflects only the culture of the dominant group and devalues the cultures of the minority groups through privatizing them. Public schools have been challenged to become more multicultural based on the idea of such. Focusing on the education of Korean children since the 1950's, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the limits and the transformation of the public and its discussion to justify a group's culture to be publicly valued or devalued in the context of Japanese public schooling. In recent trends, more than sixty local govemments announced official educational policies referring to the importance and the responsibility of promoting the ethnic culture and identity of children despite the denials of the national government on the issue. As such, the education of Korean children has been politically very problematic and the review will give us a beneficial sight on the politics of justice, common good and public values. To achieve the purpose, this paper actually examines governmental opinions shown at the Diet and the notifications, policies of the local govemment and the ideas and opinions of the educators on the relationship between the education of Korean children and public schooling, and analyzes them into three divisional patterns. First, it clarifies the nature of the idea and logic that indicates that the education of Korean children is not a task for Japan. Second, it clarifies the nature of the idea and logic that indicates that the education of Korean children is a public task for Japan but not a task for Japanese public schools: it is the task for Korean separate schools. Lastly, it clarifies the nature of the idea and logic that indicates that the education of Korean children is a public task for Japan and its public schools as well as for Korean separate schools. In conclusion, three main justifying logical reasons putting the education of Korean children within the scope of the public in Japanese schooling were found: 1) to compensate Japan and the people's guilt for Korean colonization; 2) to eliminate discrimination against Korean and guarantee their human rights; 3) to globalize Japanese education. The first logic is the distinctive feature of the case from that of the foreign children of late immigrants. Three points justifying this were classified: 1) the change of the idea and principle of unit of and the right to education; 2) the change in society and social recognition; 3) the change in educational task and expectation as a result of the former two changes.

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This paper attempts to illuminate the process of forming the teacher education curriculum in Japan after the World War II. The traditional study of the history of teacher education curriculum has been constituted only of pointing to the conflict between the academism and professionalism. I would like to address a different perspective beyond this interpretation. This paper focuses on the goals and methods developed by those engaged in the alliance of the schools attached to normal schools. Since facing the existential crisis of the attached schools during the United States' occupation period, the educators of the attached schools began to volunteer to search for the new philosophy and roles of their schools by themselves. They actively sought the information of the curriculum of American teacher education and tried to find the positive role of the attached schools in providing the students with the professional training as future potent school teachers. In order to analyze this process, it is inevitable to scrutinize all obtainable records, including the documents of the attached schools, SCAP records, and interviews with those engaged in the teacher education reform during the occupation period. The staff of the attached schools organized the nation wide alley, called "Zenfuren" for their own existence. They tried to introduce the idea that the attached schools would play more important role for students' professional training not only as educators but also as philosophers experimenting the students' own idea and practices. The phrase "experiment" was emphasized to characterize their philosophy and method as John Dewey, a pragmatist of education. advocated the theory that a school should become a field for experimenting the project of the individual's and society's educational philosophy. Verna Carley, an advisor of CIE (Civil Information and Education) of GHQ (General Head Quarters), was the most important figure as a mission of American pragmatic teacher education. Carley, as a pragmatist mission of teacher education, who enthusiastically emphasized the importance of "professional laboratory experiences" which was recommended by American Association of Teachers Colleges. As Carley advised. Zenfuren attempted to enlighten the attached school teachers with the ideas of the teacher education curriculum. centering the professional laboratory experiences. But Zenfuren gradually shifted their concern to the method of practicum instead of the ideal. The most college professors neglected the ideal of the professional laboratory experiences. As a result, the reform plan of teacher education was realized only partially in the way of creating certain credits such as school observation, which is far behind the ideal of the reform of teacher education curriculum brought by American advisors.

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In pre-war Japan, the post-elementary vocational education system in the fishery occupations consisted of two parts: the fisheries schools under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and the provincial fisheries training institutes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. Few Japanese researchers have paid attention to the latter. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the historical role of the fisheries training institute of Toyama Prefecture which was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, in view of the expansion of the northern-sea fishery rights after the Russo-Japanese War and the amendment of the law for the promotion of pelagic fisheries. We analyzed the employment trends of the graduates as well as the changes of the rules and curricula for the fisheries training institute of Toyama Prefecture. The results were as follows; (1) Until February, 1907, the fisheries training institute of Toyama Prefecture, which has its origin in Nakaniikawa-County Fisheries Study Meeting established by voluntary body in June, 1896, had contributed to fisheries in the local area. (2) After the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the fisheries training institute of Toyama Prefecture dealt with the industrial policies in order to promote pelagic fisheries, and established the pelagic fisheries course in March, 1907. (3) From March. 1907 to March, 1941, the fisheries training institute of Toyama Prefecture, where the pelagic fisheries course was established, had changed from the organization contributing to the fisheries in the local area to an organization that trained competent men who engaged in the pelagic fisheries.

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With the downfall of the Pol Pot regime, Heng Samrin has been appointed as the state council chairman on January 10, 1979 and "The People Republic of Kampuchea" was declared. The Heng Samrin government, through the support of the Vietnam, embarked on establishing of socialistic system. During the Pol Pot regime (1975 until 1979), not only were many intellectuals killed but also the system of producing human resources itself was totally destroyed. Reopening of schools does not mean only the reconstruction and repairing of the destroyed school buildings, but to train many teachers as quickly as possible. Also the training and re-training of the educational administrators were indispensable. Therefore, the problem was how to provide the teacher training centers with qualified instructors and universities with a sufficient number of professors. It had to proceed with re-building of the whole education system, simultaneously in a short time. In this study the process of strengthening with the reopening of the teacher training institutions, expansion, reorganization, and the reconstruction process of the education system in Cambodia after 1979 has been examined. First, examination of the re-establishment of the educational system and Vietnamization, and described the following sub-themes, 1) reopening of the school system, 2) "Vietnamization" in the high school curriculum and teacher education, 3) reorganization of the teacher education system, 4) Vietnamization in education. Then, it examined and analyzed the process of Re-Khmerization. It focused on 1) re-Khmerization in "Normal High Schools", 2) teacher training institution after the withdrawal of Vietnamese army, and 3) educational assistance and the problems of higher education institutions. After the Pol Pot regime, "Faculty of Pedagogy" and "Normal High School" had the responsibilities of training of teachers and educational administrators. For the re-construction of the whole education system, the training of teachers, teacher trainers, and educational administrators were urgently done. But owing to the shortage of important human resources, it was an unavoidable measure to depend on Vietnamese. Also the administrative system was reorganized with the assistance from Vietnam and the Soviet Bloc. This means that the proceeding in the direction of the Cambodian state formation is based on the Vietnamese and Soviet socialism politics theory. In 1987, in accordance with the Vietnamese withdrawal plan, Re-Khmerization process has been promoted. The conversion from socialistic economy to market economy was continuing and proceeded with the reform of the education ideology, and the contents of education as well. With the intention to eliminate Vietnamization. and Sovietnization. Khmer identity has been emphasized. The changing process of Re-Khmerization from Vietnamization in higher education has been introduced but it wasn't easy to implement. The assistance from the foreign countries is thought to be indispensable for the expansion, development of higher education field, though there may be a negative side for Khmerization, influenced by strategies of donor countries.

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[in Japanese]

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