A Study on the Concept of self-education in Japan after the World War II : Self-education and Self-education Movement

As has been pointed out, in order to trace the modern development of public educational system, it is indispensable for us to enquire the concept of self-education. In this respect, the self-education is the very important key concept to understand what the essence of education is. However, it is regrettable that the concept of self-education is not always clear. For example, one defines self-education as activities to expand possibilities of his development through his self learning. Another defines self-education as the ethical development after having formal school education. Furthermore, self-education is considered an origin of education. Considering in such ways, it is innevitable to say that there are many concept of self-education. In order to elude this confusion, first of all, we must put in order the various concepts. In this paper first I tried to make clear the origin of its confusion especially in Japan after the World War II. And I can show the main reason why we have been confused the concept of self-education with self-education movement. So. to make a clear distinction, I took up the self-education movement of the workers especially represented in the age of industrial revolution in England. The movement that the workers educated themselves and pushed foward that plans for their children, was based on the fruits of self-education of human development in every worker. In order to understand the fact of self-education, we have to study the means of every worker\u27s education itself. After a few comments on these problems, I attempt to suggest a way to study how the self-education takes place in human development or education