Conservatism in education gained crucial support when the Kyōgaku Seishi, or the Imperial Will on the Great Principles of Education, was drafted by Motoda Nagazane, a lecturer attached to the Imperial House in 1870. It stressed the strengthening of traditional morality and virtue to provide a firm base for the emperor. Thereafter, the government began to base its educational policy on the Kyōgaku Seishi with emphasis on Confucian and Shintōist values. In the elementary schools, shūshin (national moral education) was made the all-important core of the curricula, and the ministry compiled a textbook with overtones of Confucian morality. Establishment of nationalistic education systems
With the installation of the cabinet system in 1885, the government made further efforts to pave the way for a modern state. The promulgation of the Meiji constitution, the constitution of the empire of Japan, in 1889 established a balance of imperial power and parliamentary forms. The new minister of education, Mori Arinori, acted as a central figure in enforcing a nationalistic educational policy and worked out a vast revision of the school system. This set a foundation for the nationalistic educational system that developed during the following period in Japan. Japanese education thereafter, in the Prussian manner, tended to be autocratic.
Based on policies advocated by Mori, a series of new acts and orders were promulgated one after another. The first was the Imperial University Order of 1886, which rendered the university a servant of the state for the training of high officials and elites in various fields. Later that year orders concerning the elementary school, the middle school, and the normal school were issued, forming the structural core of the pre-World War II education system. The ministry carried out sweeping revisions of the normal school system, establishing it as a completely independent track, quite distinct from other educational training. It was marked by a rigid, regimented curriculum designed to foster “a good and obedient, faithful, and respectful character.” As a result of these reforms, the rate of attendance at the four-year compulsory education level reached 81 percent by 1900.
Together with these reforms, the Imperial Rescript on Education (Kyōiku Chokugo) of 1890 played a major role in providing a structure for national morality. By reemphasizing the traditional Confucian and Shintō values and redefining the courses in shūshin, it was to place morality and education on a foundation of imperial authority. It would provide the guiding principle for Japan’s education until the end of World War II. Promotion of industrial education
Ever since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the national target had been fukoku-kyōhei (“wealth accumulation and military strength”) and industrialization. From the outset the Meiji government had been busy introducing science and technology from Europe and America, but it nevertheless had difficulties in realizing such goals.
Inoue Kowashi, who became minister of education in 1893, was convinced that modern industries would be the most vital element in the future development of Japan and thus gave priority to industrial and vocational education. In 1894 the Subsidy Act for Technical Education was published, followed by the Technical Teachers’ Training Regulations and the Apprentice School Regulations. The system of industrial education was in general consolidated and integrated. These measures contributed to the training of many of the human resources required for the subsequent development of modern industry in Japan. Arata Naka Nobuo Shimahara Education in the 20th century Social and historical background
International wars, together with an intensification of internal stresses and conflicts among social, racial, and ideological groups, characterized the 20th century and had profound effects on education. Some of the changes that had far-reaching effects were the rapidly spreading prosperity but widening gaps between rich and poor, an immense increase in world population but a declining birth rate in Western countries, the growth of large-scale industry and its dependence on science and technological advancement, the increasing power of both organized labour and international business, and the enormous influence of both technical and sociopsychological advances in communication, especially as utilized in mass media. Other pivotal changes included challenges to accepted values, such as those supported by religion; changes in social relations, especially toward versions of group and individual equality; and an explosion of knowledge affecting paradigms as well as particular information. These and other changes marked a century of social and political swings toward a more dynamic and less categorical resolution. The institutional means of handling this uncertain world were to accept more diversity while maintaining basic forms and to rely on management efficiency to ensure practical outcomes.
The two World Wars weakened the military and political might of the larger European powers. Their replacement by “superpowers” whose influence did not depend directly on territorial acquisition and whose ideologies were essentially equalitarian helped to liquidate colonialism. As new independent countries emerged in Africa and Asia and the needs and powers of a “third world” caused a shift in international thinking, education was seen to be both an instrument of national development and a means of crossing national and cultural barriers. One consequence of this was a great increase in the quantity of education provided. Attempts were made to eradicate illiteracy, and colleges and schools were built everywhere.
The growing affluence of masses of the population in high-income areas in North America and Europe brought about, particularly after World War II, a tremendous demand for secondary and higher education. Most children stayed at school until 16, 17, or even 18 years of age, and a substantial fraction spent at least two years at college. The number of universities in many countries doubled or trebled between 1950 and 1970, and the elaboration of the tertiary level continued thereafter.
This growth was sustained partly by the industrial requirements of modern scientific technology. New methods, processes, and machines were continually introduced. Old skills became irrelevant; new industries sprang up. In addition, the amount of scientific—as distinct from merely technical—knowledge grew continually. Researchers, skilled workers, and high-level professionals were increasingly in demand. The processing of information underwent revolutionary change. The educational response was mainly to develop technical colleges, to promote adult education at all levels, to turn attention to part-time and evening courses, and to provide more training and education within the industrial enterprises themselves.
The adoption of modern methods of food production diminished the need for agricultural workers, who headed for the cities. Urbanization, however, brought problems: city centres decayed, and there was a trend toward violence. The poorest remained in those centres, and it became difficult to provide adequate education. The radical change to large numbers of disrupted families, where the norm was a single working parent, affected the urban poor extensively but in all cases raised an expectation of additional school services. Differences in family background, together with the cultural mix partly occasioned by change of immigration patterns, required teaching behaviour and content appropriate to a more heterogeneous school population. Major intellectual movements Influence of psychology and other fields on education
The attempt to apply scientific method to the study of education dates back to the German philosopher Johann Friedrich Herbart, who called for the application of psychology to the art of teaching. But not until the end of the 19th century, when the German psychologist Wilhelm Max Wundt established the first psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig in 1879, were serious efforts made to separate psychology from philosophy. Wundt’s monumental Principles of Physiological Psychology (1874) had significant effects on education in the 20th century.