Description

Professionalizing teaching has been promoted in many countries for many years. The Japanese Government has also pursued a policy of professionalizing teaching since 2002. At the same time, however, it has advanced new policies that restrict the human rights of teachers, narrowing their professional autonomy and worsening their working conditions. How can these two policies be pursued without contradiction? How is the concept of “teaching as a profession” advocated in Japan?

In this presentation, I answer this question by focusing on how the Japanese version of the concept was imported from the West and subsequently transformed in a non-Christian setting in the 19th century. It was formulated by a national action to create a strong centralized nation-state in Asia, but also in the transnational interaction of European, American, and Japanese educational leaders.

Firstly, the current Japanese teacher policies as well as the data of teaching conditions are shared.

Secondly, the early Japanese concept of “teaching as a profession” is explored by examining the ideas of Mori Arinori, the first Minister of Education. Mori claimed that teaching had to be a Japanese religious profession in order to safeguard children’s morality. For him, this meant educating the following generations to be obedient to their holy nation.

Thirdly, Mori’s images of education are shown to be consistent with those in the United States where he studied as a diplomat. These images were shared not only with US leaders such as Horace Mann, but also with Prussian and French leaders of the era. In both countries, both the holy calling theory and profession theory included nationalism, which aimed at education for the nation. However, while the sacredness of the republican polity was admired based on the ideas of individualism and liberty in the United States, the sacredness of the imperial polity was admired by the apotheosis of the Emperor, the unbroken imperial line for ages eternal in Japan.

These historical origins of the concept of teaching suggest why the professionalization of teaching in Japan has been advanced by forces who hoist the flag of national particularism, and by a government that supports this view. This implies that the professionalism of teaching does not always connote democracy or the human rights of children/teachers.

Dr. Aki Sakuma is a Professor at the Teacher Training Center, Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. Her research interest are curriculum studies, teacher education, professional development and policymaking in education, comparative history of teachers and teacher preparation, and gender studies in education. She has published many articles and books, including The History of Teacher Education in 19th Century America: the Dilemma of Feminization and Professionalization of Teaching (University of Tokyo Pres, 2017), which won the Raicho Hiratsuka Prize. She has been serving as the Executive Board member of the Japanese Educational Research Association, National Association for the Study of Educational Methods, the Japanese Society for the Study on Teacher Education. She is currently working on the global history of the concept of teaching profession from a gender perspective, including The Origin of Teaching as a Profession in Japan: A Transnational Analysis of the Relationship between Professionalism and Nationalism in the 19th Century.

Organized by the Initiative for Education Policy and Innovation at the Centre for the Study of Global Japan, University of Toronto.

Lunch will be served to registrants of this seminar.

Description

For a long time, Germany and Japan have been characterized as Civilian Powers. Civilian Power refers to international actors who prefer non-military methods to military methods as a means of resolving international disputes. However, Germany and Japan are now shifting their foreign and security policies against the backdrop of recent upheavals in world politics, in particular the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. How, then, have the foreign policies of Germany and Japan shifted, respectively? How similar and how different are the developments in Germany and Japan? This lecture provides an overview of the trajectories of German and Japanese foreign and security policy from a historical perspective and examines the implications of recent shifts.

About the Speaker

Takumi Itabashi is a Professor of International History at the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo. He received Ph.D. from Hokkaido University in 2008. Before joining the University of Tokyo, he taught at Seikei University. He also spent two years as visiting scholar at the University of Cologne. His research topics include German history, contemporary German politics and the history of European integration. He is the author of Overcoming the Division 1989-1990: The Challenge of West German Diplomacy Over Reunification (Tokyo: Chuokoron-Shinsha, 2022) (in Japanese). The full list of publications can be found at the following link. https://researchmap.jp/read0143167/?lang=en

Moderator:

Phillip Lipscy, Director, Centre for the Study of Global Japan, Munk School

Organized by the Centre for the Study of Global Japan, University of Toronto. Co-sponsored by the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, University of Toronto.