Development education in Japan : a comparative analysis of the contexts for its emergence, and its introduction into the Japanese school system

Abstract This thesis is in two Parts. Part One consists of Chapters One to Four. Chapter One establishes a definition of the term 'Development Education' as it will be used in this thesis. Chapter Two is a comparative analysis of the socio-political contexts within which Development Education is normally created, and introduced into schools. Chapter Three analyzes the social context of Japan and notes the emergence of Development Education in the 1980s. Chapter Four contrasts governmental intervention in the introduction of Development Education in some countries with the absence of such intervention in Japan. Part Two consists of Chapters Five to Nine. Chapter Five moves the focus to Development Education in the Japanese school system and examines the lack of progress in inserting Development Education into the Japanese national curriculum. Chapter Six contrasts this situation with the example of Life Environment Studies, which were introduced into the postwar Japanese curriculum. In Chapter Seven, the thesis reviews four small scale experiments with Development Education in schools in Japan and Chapter Eight asks why, with the same National Curriculum, Development Education was introduced in these schools and not in others. Finally, Chapter Nine summarizes and concludes the thesis. Thus within the two Parts of the thesis, there are three main themes. The first theme is a comparative investigation of the socio-economic and political contexts which increase the possibilities for the introduction of Development Education in schools. The comparative investigation includes Japan. The second theme is concerned with the difficulties of changing school curriculum in Japan itself. The third theme is the investigation of the micro-politics at school level which may make possible the introduction of Development Education in Japanese schools