The purpose of this paper is to consider the reconstruction of the guarantee system for general education opportunities by distinguishing between "matriculation " and "attendance."

 The children of Japanese citizens are guaranteed the right to general education based on the duty of their parents to have them attend school (so-called Article 1 schools) as stipulated by the School Education Law. In this situation, it is assumed that children will attend school. Therefore, there is an institutional "pitfall" in which the right to education is not guaranteed if the child does not attend school.

 Special schools for chronic absenteeism are efforts to deal with school absenteeism within the framework of "Japanese-style public education" through special provisions in the curriculum. However, only students who are chronically absent can enroll in these schools, while other children are not eligible for this special curriculum.

 During the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 on, online learning and lessons have become widespread. For example, in Kumamoto City, online lessons have been distributed to students who are chronically absent.

 In this situation, the 2021 report of the Central Council for Education states that ICT should be positioned as the future foundation of school education in the future, and that it is necessary to promote a hybrid of face-to-face instruction and remote/online education. Based on the above situation, if a chronically absent student attends a school class online, handling this as attendance in their cumulative guidance record means that they have attended a class at school (online "attendance"). Therefore, a priority should be placed on establishing the conditions under which attending online classes is considered attendance.

 In addition, online (ICT) education in children's native language and culture can be a powerful way to ensure general educational opportunities.

 Even given the declining birth rate and population, rather than having smaller schools cling to standard (suitable) class and school sizes based on attendance at a specific school, a more active discussion will be called for based on organizing the ICT (online) educational environment and realizing various forms of learning groups which make use of this environment to guarantee diverse educational opportunities.

 This paper argues that a new system guaranteeing general educational opportunities is called for, separating matriculation and attendance and relativizing attendance at specific schools, in place of the existing system based on compulsory matriculation at Article 1 schools.

 Under this system, municipal boards of education would be required to relativize attendance at specific public schools, allow online attendance, and create and guarantee diverse educational opportunities through networking of public schools. The paper concludes with a proposal that prefectures establish "General Education Opportunity Guarantee Councils and Comprehensive Support Centers (tentative)," responsible for wide-area networking of public school networks in each municipality and for support for solving various problems and collecting and providing information based on these networks.

 Japan's compulsory education system, which assumes that students attend officially designated schools stipulated under Clause 1 of the School Education Act, has been shaken as a result of the increasingly widespread use of online learning tools due to the onset of COVID-19. There are two different responses to this. One is the opinion that children's individual educational needs can now be more easily met. This is driven by heightened expectations toward defining the form and space of learning in a way which takes into account the needs of students at high risk of exclusion from the regular school system. The other response is that ranking students using the unidimensional indicator of ‘scholastic ability’ has become prevalent, leading to the escalation of tracking in public education. There is a concern that more and more children are placed in disadvantageous situations as a result of the academic pressures brought about by standardization and ranking based on ‘scholastic ability.’

 This paper seeks a way to prevent the escalation of tracking in public education while increasing the possibility of meeting individual educational needs, bearing in mind that the shift towards online modes of education in the new normal is an irreversible trend. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the format of a public education system inclusive of children in socially disadvantageous positions.

 The following three points became clear through considering the discussion around the Act on Securing Educational Opportunities enacted in 2016 and analyzing how free schools create an inclusive community of mutual support in practice.

 The first is the need to distribute resources in a way that takes into account the ‘compelling needs’ deriving from children's individual characteristics and backgrounds. In order to prevent rampant commercialization of the educational landscape, where service providers drive parents' requests and preferences, it might be wise to provide official recognition and financial support to the organizations which implement education responsibly and with attention to children's ‘compelling needs,’ regardless of whether they are officially designated schools. This can also be an effective means of preventing the escalation of tracking in public education.

 The second point is the importance of making regular schools and classrooms more diverse and inclusive spaces. If the compelling needs of the child can only be met by schools outside the framework of officially designated schools, the phenomenon of a multi-track public education system will be further aggravated. Even regular schools within the official framework must re-examine class sizes and number of teaching staff as well as including more staff members who are not positioned as teaching staff, in order to fulfill the compelling needs of some students.

 The third point is the creation of a community where children with a high risk of exclusion from school education can learn and study peacefully without undue concerns. It is necessary to create an environment where adults can also share ‘a sense of incomplete understanding’ while engaging with children, such as building a system where multiple teachers and staff are regularly involved with a single class.

 This paper examines the actual circumstances of the recent teacher shortage in public elementary and middle schools in X Prefecture. Although the teacher shortage has been reported before, few prior studies have investigated it empirically.

 With the cooperation of all five branch offices of the Prefectural Board of Education, data was collected in three ways: 1) a questionnaire survey in June 2021 of the branch offices, 2) three interview surveys in July 2021 of the administrative officers at the town level, and 3) 2019-2021visiting surveys of the X Prefecture branch offices and the municipal Boards of Education of four towns.

 First, the questionnaire surveys clarified the actual numbers as of May 1, 2021 in three stages. 1) As the first stage, 1,971 positions for full-time teachers-with-tenure were unfilled. 2) Teachers-without-tenure were recruited in the second stage, but 150 positions remained empty. 3) Part-time teachers were recruited in the third stage, still leaving 115 positions empty. 4) In the end, each school was required to manage by themselves. This survey also made it clear that the teacher shortage increased in each term because more and more teachers left on maternity or sick leave, with no substitutes. This suggests that the first national teacher shortage survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in July 2021 should have been re-designed, because it focused only on the conditions of the first term.

 Second, the paper found that the teacher shortage had been increasing in this prefecture since 2018, caused by multiple factors on the micro/meso/macro levels at each stage. 1) Four factors were found in the first stage. (1) Although teacher numbers were strictly determined by national law, the government had not revised these figures for 41 years. The local government had additionally decreased the figures in order to prepare for a future teacher surplus based on declining birthrates. However, teacher demand rose due to the increase of children with special needs. (2) Administrators were cautious about hiring teachers-with-tenure. While the number of teachers could not exceed the set amount, hiring was risky because of the greater number of small and transient special education classes. (3) Fewer applicants were taking the employment exams. Teaching itself was not as attractive as before. (4) More teachers were taking maternity leaves, and for longer periods. 2) The shortage in the second stage was caused by the lack of teachers-without-tenure. Few teachers were on the candidate list because most of them were already hired with tenure. 3) The shortage in the third stage was caused by the teacher license renewal system which began in 2009. Many licenses had expired.

 Third, the effects of the shortage were examined. It caused overwork among teachers, because each school had to cover 3.91 teachers' absence as a team. The paper also found that 60% of current teachers had less than ten years' experience, which is likely to have negative effects both on the quality of teaching and the professionalization of teaching.

 The request for "school closures throughout the country" issued in response to the spread of COVID-19 severely restricted children's rights to learn and grow and develop, without legal, scientific or procedural justice. Children are vulnerable and therefore easily deprived of their rights in times of disaster. The purpose of this paper is to examine the basic framework and theoretical background of Disaster Risk Governance (DRG) with the aim of placing children's rights and intentions on a basis of crisis management in school education.

 Measures against unknown infectious diseases sometimes severely limit our rights and freedoms; it is thus important to guarantee and compensate for restricted rights and freedoms and to be accountable to persons undergoing this restriction. In this respect, the request for "school closures throughout the country" imposed a unilateral and enormous burden on children and caused a great infringement of their rights, without any remedial measures. In addition, school administrators complied with unfounded requests and implemented the simultaneous closures without acting on their guaranteed autonomy.

 DRG refers to the development and implementation of disaster crisis management, more specifically crisis prevention and avoidance plans (crisis control/risk management) from a medium- to long-term perspective, and measures to minimize damage when a crisis occurs (crash management), through horizontal and bidirectional interactions among various people. From a different point of view, it is a denial of unidirectional crisis management on the part of public authorities.

 The theory of DRG is based on two perspectives: understanding disaster through constructionism and emphasizing democratic decision-making. The former means that the presence and degree of damage caused by natural phenomena are affected by individual vulnerabilities. In other words, "vulnerable people" such as women, children, and people with disabilities etc. are more likely to be affected than those who are not, and the extent of the damage is often enormous. Thus, DRG argues that the participation of vulnerable people in governance, reflecting their rights and intentions and managed by democratic decision-making, enhances the resilience of society as a whole to risks.

 Application of the above basic framework to the crisis management of school education is an effective way to ensure children's learning and their growth and development. Children, who are vulnerable to disasters, tend to be ignored by adults. For this reason, crisis management focusing on the rights and intentions of children is required. In crisis management of school education based on DRG, it is necessary to focus on the rights and intentions of children in planning and implementing both crisis control/risk management and crash management. To that purpose, it is also necessary to activate the autonomy of school administrators, who are close to children and the community.

 The purpose of this paper is to analyze the theory of personality and cultivation(shuyo) as a science developed by Yujiro Motora (1858-1912), a professor of psychology at the Imperial University of Tokyo, in the early 20th century.

 At that time, incilinations toward national idealism had become decisive through Tetsugaku-kan incident of 1902. This incident originated from the government's criticisms as anti-nationalist of the liberal theory of motive of British ethicist J.H. Muirhead, one of the most famous ethical theories regarding the modern individual. Motora along with leading scholars of philosophy and ethics, argued in a statement denying the government's points that Muirhead's theory discussed the nationalist and liberal self-formation. However, there was a significant difference between Motora and the others. They praised self-formation based on nationalist idealism centering on the concept of personality and the concept of shuyo for adolescents, whom they called on to become the nation's ideal individuals. Against this, Motora tried to construct the theory of personality and shuyo in empirical psychology. This paper focuses on two theories of his which have not been addressed in previous historical studies of educational thought, and clarifies three points through observing his papers of these theories: The Theory of Motivation(1903), Science and Shuyo(1904), and The Relationship between Religion and Science in Shuyo(1906).

 First, Motora's theory of personality discusses the psychological effects of personality in harmony with intellect, emotion and will. This is significant in two ways. One is the philosophical and ethical criticism of Kant's idealistic self-formation(autonomy) which focuses only on will. The other is the format of the empirical and scientific discussion of personality. The latter, the empirical and scientific viewpoint, was important in Motoraʻs reference to the issue of uncertainty in precognition in Muirhead's theory of motive. It was in fact inevitable for Motora's construction of empirical and scientific ethics from the perspective of empirical positive psychology.

 Second, Motora's theory of shuyo shows self-formation in empirically and emotionally understanding knowledge through practical experiences such as interaction with others. There are two key points: his view of knowledge and the background of this theory. Motora argues that there are two types of knowledge: scientific knowledge and philosophical knowledge, both of which can enable reliable predictions with scientific rationality and empirical practicality, and thus overcome the problem of uncertainly in precognition. Also, he constructed this theory against two backgrounds: the criticism of nationalist idealist self-formation and the conflict between scientism and romanticism. Empirical self-formation was the challenge he posed as a new type.

 Third, Motora's theories of personality and shuyo suggest the existing of self-formation different from the ideal self-formation as the subject in service to the nation and science, as in determinism. In other words, his theory was an attempt to shift from self-formation based on transcendental (non-empirical) ethics such as Kantian ethics to empirical self-formation based on psychology. His attempt was also aimed at building empirical psychology centered on the interrelationship between philosophy and natural science, not scientism (psychologism).

 The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics and historical significance of the arts and crafts education at Jiyu Gakuen in terms of the promotion of fabric art by incorporating sewing into art. To this end, the paper focuses on the relationship with the trends of contemporary art movements.

 Jiyu Gakuen was founded in 1921 by Hani Motoko and Hani Yoshikazu, in the midst of the Taisho New Education Movement, as a girls' school not based on the Girls' Higher Education Law. With the educational philosophy of “life is the same as education,” learning was to take place throughout school life, including life in the dormitory and so on; arts and crafts education was established as a unique educational practice therein. Murakami (2015) and Murakami (2016) have clarified the process of the establishment of arts and crafts education, but its historical significance in the history of education has not been fully examined. Therefore, this paper focuses on the fact that the arts and crafts of Jiyu Gakuen included aspects of fabric art, including sewing, and examines their characteristics and historical significance based on the philosophy of Hani Motoko as well as that of the art lecturer Yamamoto Kanae, the curriculum, and the relationship with contemporary art movements.

 Here are three things that have become clear.

 The first point is that Motoko's philosophy of fusing "life" and "art" was behind the establishment of arts and crafts education at Jiyu Gakuen. Yamamoto's philosophy, which realized the above in terms of art education, emphasized designs passed down from peasants' visual art.

 The second point is that the arts and crafts education at Jiyu Gakuen was characterized by its positioning of textile arts such as dressmaking, weaving, and embroidery in sewing education and fabric art as the manual work of women.

 The third point is that while the arts and crafts of Jiyu Gakuen are related to and similar to various overseas contemporary art movements, they can be positioned as a women's arts and crafts movement in Japan because of their characteristic of fabric art.

 The purpose of this paper is to present a perspective that relativizes the “necessity” associated with developmental theories in pedagogy by examining the contingency theory of Mori Akira (1915-1976) in his theory of human development from the perspective of the contingency theory of his teacher, the philosopher Tanabe Hajime (1885-1962).

 The issue of contingency has been a subject of much debate since ancient Greek philosophy. Kuki Shuzo discussed contingency as the negation of necessity, an argument I believe to be also important in pedagogy: the developmental theory of “postwar pedagogy” links child development with social progress, taking for granted the necessity of both. It is contingency that goes unnoticed in this view. This paper examines the problem of necessity associated with developmental theory in postwar pedagogy by focusing on Mori Akira's theory of contingency and examining it from the perspective of his teacher Tanabe Hajime's theory of contingency. This study clarifies the genealogy of ideas between Tanabe and Mori, providing a new perspective on the subject of “Kyoto School Pedagogy” in recent studies of the history of educational thought.

 Based on the above, the discussion in this paper proceeds as follows. First, Chapter 1 examines Tanabe's theory of contingency and purpose, focusing on his correspondence with Kuki and his subsequent theory of contingency. Chapter 2 then examines Mori's theory of contingency and purpose, focusing on his later work, Ningen Keisei Genron (The Principles of Human Formation). In this way, the paper clarifies that their common horizon of thought is “contingency and destiny.” Finally, Chapter 3 clarifies the similarities between Tanabe and Mori as well as Tanabe's uniqueness, and then discusses the pedagogical possibilities derived from their thinking. This is an attempt to discover the significance of the concept of contingency as opposed to the necessity associated with developmental theory, the problem posed by this paper.

 The above discussion will ultimately lead to a perspective for relativizing the necessity associated with developmental theories in pedagogy from the perspective of contingency, enabling a reconsideration from this perspective. Based on the horizon of contingency clarified in this paper, it will be possible to expand the problem of contingency not only in the Kyoto School but also in philosophy and pedagogy. This paper is no more than the first step in the Kyoto School Pedagogy's transference into other academic fields.

 The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of “horizontal develoment” in Oumi-Gakuen (a prefectural facility for orphans and children with intellectual disabilities) from 1946 to 1970, focusing on group formation in practice.

 The paper consists of the following sections.

 1. The practice of vocational education at Oumi-Gakuen in its early days

 2. The practice focusing on the developmental stage at the early 1960s Oumi-Gakuen

 3. The practice of “mixed formation” in living groups at the late 1960s Oumi-Gakuen

 The first section of this paper examines cooperation between children with and without intellectual disabilities within vocational education, in particular the practice of the Department of Ceramics. Through this practice, staff perceived cases similar to “horizontal development” even in the early days of Oumi-Gakuen. In addition, they found “horizontal development” within group activities.

 The second section considers group instruction for the children with severe disabilities, showing that staff began to grasp “horizontal development” through this practice. Furthermore, it is shown that “horizontal development” could be seen in ordinary friendships among the children. Conversely, researchers made the point that guaranteeing several heterogenous group activities for children is essential for “horizontal development”.

 Third section analyzes the introduction of “mixed formation” focusing on the relation to “horizontal development”. The practice of “mixed formation” is different from previous practices because it is clearly focused on “horizontal development”. Through this practice, staff estimated that friendships between children were more significant for “horizontal development” of children with disabilities than guaranteeing several heterogenous group activities. In addition, “horizontal development” is shown to contain another meaning: that of coming to confront the discrimination against children with disabilities cooperatively with others in the practice of “mixed formation”.

 The purpose of this paper is to examine how the voices of children were listened to and positioned in the movement for enabling children with disabilities to attend regular schools, focusing on “Educational rights movement” of Shiyo Gakuen, then an institution in Shiga Prefecture for children with severe intellectual disabilities.

 The staff of Shiyo Gakuen argued that it was a human right for children to be allowed to attend regular schools. They perceived the “cry of the heart” of the children in the movement as a “wish” to go to school and be educated in the same way as children without disabilities, claiming that attending of children with disabilities would transform education itself. This paper also shows that the unique ideological background which claims that people “exist” as human only when “belonging” to society may have been formed through listening to the voices of children with disabilities.

 After the children entered school, the staff requested teachers to let children with disabilities and without disabilities study together in the same classroom. The movement developed involving teachers in the school and listening to the voices of the children from each standpoint. Moreover, the voices of children without disabilities learning “together” with children with disabilities were also heard and positioned in the movement by the staff of Shiyo Gakuen.

 The paper found that listening to children's voices during the movement as a means of embodying the implementation of the rights of children with disabilities was greatly influenced by the context of the whole movement and changes in social conditions as well as the listener's views of rights and education. At the same time, especially in terms of the voices of children with disabilities, regarded as the “starting point,” the movement itself may have developed and deepened as a result of repeated listening.

 Elsewhere, the paper also found a potential in the relationship between children in the records of Shiyo Gakuen which did not fit in the context of the movement. The children without disabilities may have listened to the voices of children with disabilities and showed thinking and action close to today's “social model” of disability. This suggests that children's relationships in the movement for enabling children with disabilities to attend regular schools include the potential to grow as a group and to learn and grow “together,” not just in the context of guaranteeing the human rights of children with disabilities.

 The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of a publicly systematized gifted education system based on the function of gifted education in Mongolia. Gifted education can be done outside the framework of the public education system. Thus, the publicly systematized gifted education system involves a complex paradox related to educational equity and excellence, two concepts which have a complex relationship concerning the quality assurance of education. Therefore, the study analyzes systematized gifted education in Mongolia and its function in the public education system. The study concludes with a look at the implications for Japan.

 In Mongolia, gifted education has been carried out through “intensive courses,” established in general education (K-12) schools and the academic “Olympiad” since the 1960s. The intensive course is a legally accepted gifted education structure primarily embedded in the public education system. In addition, the national Olympiad system is an official examination scheme funded by the government and conducted among 12 academic subjects at the national level over three stages of selection. As of 2019, approximately 13% of the students in Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital, are enrolled in intensive courses, showing the popularity of the program.

 To the best of the author's knowledge, no previous research has addressed the function of gifted education in Mongolia. Hence, the study analyzed various official documents and statistics on gifted education, archive materials from the General Archival Authority of Mongolia, curriculum and entry guidelines for intensive courses in public schools. In addition to document analysis, the study conducted interviews with the parties concerned regarding the actual practices of the Olympiad and intensive course.

 The findings showed that the most distinctive structure of the Mongolian education system is a single-track system that integrates elementary, junior high, and high schools together. Thus, there is no selection or re-allocation mechanism according to students' ability within the secondary education system in Mongolia. Therefore, the intensive course selects students with high performance, and further the Olympiad discovers gifted students.

 Overall, the Mongolian gifted education system is based on social needs rather than individual needs. Historically, the intervention of state authority in gifted education has been significant, with gifted students perceived by the state as a human resource. The system also undertakes the role of fostering the elite. These are the disadvantages of publicly systematized gifted education. On the other hand, the significance of systematizing gifted education in the public education system is its financing under the public education budget. Thus, gifted education is not affected by students' economic backgrounds, and it is possible to find gifted students from all over the country. In addition, the system guarantees them the opportunity to further develop their talents in public education. This can serve as a model for a school education system that responds to diverse individual needs without weighting egalitarianism. Gifted education in Mongolia offers alternative possibilities for gifted education practices in order to redefine equity and excellence.

 This study aims to clarify the type of relations between the staff and children in learning support programs which make “learning” and “ibasho” compatible, and the implications thereof for the education of children with social difficulties.

 In many studies, “learning” and “ibasho” are considered binary oppositions in terms of their educational purpose. Therefore, the highlighted dilemma is that it is difficult to achieve both “learning” and “ibasho” in the same place. Contrarily, to examine the conditions for compatibility, this study reconsidered “place” as dynamic, mutually proactive relations between staff and children. Instead of “learning” and “ibasho,” which are reminiscent of static places, we employed the concepts of instrumental function (instrumentality) and consummatory function (consummation) as the analytical framework. Additionally, this study relies on participant observation of learning situations and interviews regarding community-based educational space for immigrant children who are likely to be excluded from school education and whose issues are likely to become more serious.

 The analysis of the data shows that instrumentality and consummation can be compatible in a single learning situation when pedagogical relations are established so as to create a connection between care and purposeful action. These pedagogical relations can be established when children and staff are in dialogue, always settled in the “now” and “staying together,” acquiring the perspective of “we” and sharing a common purpose. Children and the staff flexibly set “our purpose” to the acquisition of consummation or instrumentality, and staff thus place significant value on children's autonomy while presenting the value of learning. The accumulation of these learning situations highlights the process by which immigrant children acquire high self-esteem in learning. However, when the exclusionary aspect of care emerges, community-based educational spaces can become exclusionary for immigrant children.

 Based on the above, it is evident that learning support programs for children with social difficulties can promote both “learning” and “ibasho” by establishing staff-children pedagogical relations that create a connection between care and purposeful action. Moreover, children with social difficulties can gain the resources to acquire school values through learning in learning support projects. In other words, potentially, they will be included not only in the community-based educational space but also in the educational system.

 The remaining issues in this study are as follows. First, it is necessary to consider whether the purpose of the staff can be reframed to consider the perspective of children in their care. Second, it is essential to clarify whether the discussion on the pedagogical relations that create a connection between care and purposeful action, as mentioned in this paper, can be applied in the context of subject learning in school education.

 The purpose of this paper is to discuss compromises between “diversity” and “unity” in school education, through examination of a case study in the Republic of South Africa (RSA). Specifically, the paper conducts a qualitative study on the perceptions of an education department official and teachers who have involved in a senior high school compulsory subject called Life Orientation toward the phenomenon of strengthening the “national standard” (introducing the national examination and national textbooks, etc.). The paper thus attempts to point out the practices which could be used to enhance the discussion on exploring compromises between “diversity” and “unity” in school education.

 Semi-structured interviews were employed as the study method, conducted in January, March, May and/or August 2019 with one education department official (an education specialist) and six teachers involved in senior high school Life Orientation in the Western Cape Province of the RSA.

 Based on the results of analysis and of a comparison between the interviews and foregoing studies, this paper points out three major findings. First of all, it points out the aspect in which, even though school education in the RSA had reached the stage of entrenching a national examination and establishing national textbooks for Life Orientation, the perceptions of the subject teachers were still largely focused on the “diversity” of learners in front of them; thus the reinforcement of “unity” through the national examination and textbooks was mostly perceived negatively. Second, the paper notes the aspect in which teachers in RSA school education were attempting to promote “diversity” and “unity” at the same time through being critical or negative toward top-down procedures in education and inclined to question the authorities whenever needed. Third, the paper suggests the following two points which were not mentioned in foregoing studies. One is that the teacher training organised by the provincial education department may have been perceived by the teachers not only as a place to learn about the teaching/learning contents of the national curriculum – not just as an opportunity to reinforce “unity” -- but also as a place for networking with other teachers – as an opportunity to promote “diversity.” The other point is the aspect of the distinction between the education department official and the central government created by the former.

 In conclusion, this paper states that one aspect of the current RSA is the promotion of simultaneously achieving “diversity” and “unity” by the education department official and teachers with critical/reflective attitudes towards school education. Furthermore, it suggests the hypothesis that critical attitudes toward the “dominant culture” – not the “universal culture” – based on attention to “diversity” in society could be a key to enhanced discussion on compromises between “diversity” and “unity” in school education.