Education

The Graduate School of Human Relations' Education major began in 1961 with the creation of the master's course, and the Ph.D. program was established soon after in 1963. The word "education" is often taken to mean the general preparatory education for future life provided by institutions such as elementary and junior high schools. However, since its inception, the Education major has focused widely on the various activities involved in character formation, conducting theoretical, historical, empirical, and experimental research. We also aim to develop the abilities of researchers and educators who possess skills in these areas. In other words, we deal mainly with the fields of philosophy of education and its history, history of education, comparative education, and educational psychology.

The main research topics under philosophy of education are theoretical studies regarding educational theory and research methodology, as well as studies of European and American education philosophy. Research in the history of education focuses mainly on the history of education in Japan. The field of comparative education looks at education systems, schools, and further education and involves global comparative analyses on these topics. Finally, in educational psychology, we conduct specialist training in each field in parallel with research on the formation and support of human high-level cognition. This includes research on the crossover points with closely related fields such as cognitive science, behavioral genetics, and cultural psychology. The Graduate School of Human Relations is particularly active in research regarding conceptual development, language acquisition, expertise, and individual difference, with our research results being highly anticipated both within Japan and overseas.

Be that as it may, we believe human research from the viewpoint and mindset of education to be the most important thing. The unique character of this major comes from students and staff working together to share and build upon this idea.

The classes in this major are mainly taught by our faculty members from the Department of Letters or Teacher Training Center, but we also have classes taught by academics from other departments and research facilities at the university, or by external lecturers from other universities and research institutes. International exchanges are also actively implemented. Class formats include lectures, seminars, and practical, experimental classes. Students studying educational psychology in particular are expected to expand their research capabilities through experiments and the acquisition of statistical processing skills. Furthermore, we have established the Mita Society for Educational Research (Mita Kyoiku Gakkai), a research organization formed mainly around graduate students with alumni and faculty as members, too. This organization promotes mutual learning through the exchange of research information, and additionally holds research presentations and publishes a journal.

FacultyEducation

Sakurako AyaiProfessor, Faculty of Letters

  • History of Educational Thoughts
  • History of Education in France

Masaharu Kage Professor, Teacher Training Center

  • Educational Psychology
  • Motivation
  • Learning and Instruction
  • Evaluation and Reflection

Aki Sakuma Professor, Teacher Training Center

  • Curriculum&Teaching
  • Teacher Education
  • History of teaching in the U.S.
  • Women's history

Keiko FujisawaProfessor, Faculty of Letters

  • Educational psychology
  • Developmental psychology
  • Developmental behavioral genetics

Hiromoto Makabe Professor, Faculty of Letters

  • Theory of cultivation
    ("Bildungstheorie")
  • History of educational thoughts in modern Germany
  • Art and music Education in the Weimar Republic
  • bauhaus and the cultural and philosophical History in the Weimar Republic

Yoshimitsu Matsuura Professor, Faculty of Letters

  • Comparative and International Education
  • Comparative Studies and History of Colleges and Universities
  • Intellectual History of Higher Learning and Education
  • History of Education in the United States of America
  • Theory and Practice in Educating Education

Aya Yamanashi Professor, Faculty of Letters

  • History of Japanese Education
  • History of Japanese Adult, Social Education