Local Education (“Kyodo Kyoiku”) in Japan in the 1980s: Focusing on Kagoshima Prefecture

<p> This paper addresses three questions about local education (“Kyodo Kyoiku”) in Kagoshima Prefecture in the 1980s, where various controversies arose over the concept, as follows: (1) What characteristics were included in the idea of local education, and what kinds of educational policies were adopted? (2) What were the ideological arguments involved? (3) What was the experience of local education at the practical level? Although there are studies on local education in Japan, little attention has been paid to the era of the 1980s. Answers to these questions have been found by referring to documents published by educational administrations in Kagoshima and by the Kagoshima Prefectural Faculty and Staff Union. Interviews were also conducted with teachers in Kagoshima schools to understand the practice of local education.</p><p> It was found that in Kagoshima Prefecture, “Kyodo” (local community/region) had been a prime concern for educational administrations since Kaname Kamada was elected governor in 1977. In the 1980s, local education became the foundation of educational policy throughout the prefecture. Official records show that local education was organized by referring to the historical tradition of “Goju Kyoiku” (“education in community”), an ideology borrowed from the Satsuma domain. In school education, local education was developed in “Yutori” (“time for relaxation”), which was introduced with the revision of the Courses of Study in 1977, and in each subject.</p><p> It has been documented that the Kagoshima Prefectural Faculty and Staff Union criticized this series of changes in policy. The issues they raised were (1) top-down managerial character, (2) uncritical acceptance of tradition, and (3) connections to nationalism. However, at the practical level, the teachers of the Union did not reject the idea of local education. Practices of local education were organized at the community level by utilizing the system, based on the ingenuity of teachers in each region. Thus, the confrontational structure was unclear at the practical level. In this way, local education acquired multifaceted values which went unrebutted and continued to dominate till later times.</p><p> By positioning the case of local education in Kagoshima Prefecture in the 1980s within the larger history of Japanese education, this paper explores the controversies about the ideologies guiding local education. These controversies preceded the later debate over the relationship among local education, patriotism and nationalism.</p>