Kokusai kyōiku kaihatsu no kenkyū shatei (The Scope of International Educational Development Studies - The front lines of comparative pedagogy for realizing a sustainable society)

This book is an attempt to clarify, mainly based on knowledge of Comparative Education, the academic characteristics of International Educational Development Studies, which examines the field of education in developing countries from diverse perspectives.
 
International Educational Development Studies is still a young discipline. It is a new branch of education studies whose accumulated body of knowledge is still insufficient. This means that the discipline offers numerous research possibilities yet to be explored. In recent years, this new discipline has attracted a clearly increasing number of young researchers in Japan, for instance, against the backdrop of a growing interest in the challenges of education in developing countries in Asia, which continues rapid economic growth, and in Africa with its largely untapped potential.
 
This book presents the research themes that have been identified in International Educational Development Studies and the approaches being taken or about to be taken to these themes. The book is a result of the author’s reflections on how education can contribute to realizing a sustainable society, a major challenge for humanity in the 21st century, and more specifically the roles education should play in nurturing future generations to lead this sustainable society.
 
The book comprises two parts. In Part I, the theories and methodologies of International Educational Development Studies are discussed. An overview of the historical evolution in which this branch has come to occupy an important place within Comparative Education is followed by discussions on how the research achievements of International Educational Development Studies can be applied to actual international assistance and cooperation for developing countries in the education field. In this regard, the importance and legitimacy of capacity building and policy evaluation are also examined.
 
In Part II, based on the discussions in Part I and from the perspective that realizing a sustainable society requires developing human resources with a sense of civic responsibility and consciousness, the author introduces the concept of a new approach to education, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). To examine how ESD can be put to effective use in promoting assistance and cooperation for developing countries in education, specific research themes are presented, including citizenship education in Cambodia, the concept of “education as a basic human right” in peacebuilding, and education in disaster reduction and information governance.
 
The author wrote this book in the hopes of contributing to further progress in International Educational Development Studies in Japan and communicating his ideas as a “young” researcher in this young discipline. This is an attractive discipline in that its research scope can still expand into unknown territories, stimulating researchers’ inquiring spirit. It is also a highly appealing discipline since its research achievements can be directly reflected in education policy of developing countries as well as in assistance and cooperation for developing countries in the field of education. The author would be most delighted if the book could vividly convey such fascinating aspects of International Educational Development Studies.
 

(Written by KITAMURA Yuto, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education / 2018)