| 内容 |
In April, 2018, dotoku (moral education) became official subject in elementary school, and it will join regular curriculum in junior high school from 2019. The subject has provoked a great deal of controversy. Some people take a new dotoku course as revival of shushin (moral training in prewar time) and concern that the new course risks inculcating some of the same value. On the other hand, others argue that there is a need for the new system of moral education in this modern society in which diversification of values caused by technological revolution and globalization are proceeding. However, this debate is not enough to understand the actual situation of this new course. This study conducted interview and class observation in Katano municipal Kozu elementary school in Osaka and examined implementation of this new course and investigated its actual challenges, issues, and concerns in the field of education. The result showed that the new dotoku course makes children to think about values and discuss the values for themselves rather than to inculcate the values. Nevertheless, there are still risks of inculcating values depending on textbooks and teacher’s experiences and skills. |
| 講評 |
Congratulations to the Stevenson Seminar members of the graduating class of 2019! This year’s graduation theses covered a broad range of “globalization, education and culture” issues, spanning topics of ethics in curricula, environmental awareness, fashion, sustainability, concepts of beauty, shutaisei, overseas study, and adventure. Methodologies were nearly as diverse, including the use of text (primary and secondary), qualitative interviews, questionnaires, and field observations. Befitting a university and department that value the moral dimensions of education, nearly all of the theses share an explicit or implicit focus on conscious. In addition, each paper includes an original component, demonstrating the students’ ability to work with new topics or take a new approach to a familiar theme. Also, apart from the normal challenges of researching and writing, each student used at least a few non-Japanese-language sources, and all students wrote their papers in English, evidencing both language ability and tremendous effort. The end result is a collection of papers that have contributed to the growth of the students in terms of both technical skill and intellectual development, and of which the seminar should be proud. |
