In April 2021, I founded the Advanced Education Outreach Lab (AEO) at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), the University of Tokyo, and have been running it ever since.
 
AEO serves as a one-stop hub for fostering the next generation and is positioned as one of RCAST's distinctive "interdisciplinary collaboration labs." Working with researchers and students ("student affiliates") from more than 40 academic fields, AEO connects children up through high school with the university. Taking "educational outreach" as its starting point, it aims to develop sustainable, evolving models of inquiry-based learning and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and liberal arts, and mathematics) education.
 
Inquiry-based learning, STEAM education, career education: the education of the future calls for the participation of diverse actors, and coordinators who design collaboration and create rich learning opportunities are indispensable. Yet their work is highly context-dependent and has rarely been examined in concrete terms. What should a "coordinator," the linchpin of multi-stakeholder, co-creative education, look like?
 
Drawing on my extensive hands-on experience at AEO and referring to frameworks such as educational ecosystems and transformative learning theory, this book brings to light the roles and competencies required of coordinators.
 
Moving beyond the conventional arrangement of "teachers who teach and students who are taught," this book is for those taking on the challenge of opening up a new dimension of education, "co-creation," which engages a wide range of actors and fosters interaction among them.
 
At the core of this book is my doctoral dissertation, "Visualizing Educational Outreach Coordinators at a Large National University in Japan: The Structure of Reciprocal Collaboration between Secondary and Higher Education" (Ph.D. conferred by the University of Tokyo in June 2025).
 
This book, however, is not simply a reprint of the dissertation. I worked for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for 20 years, serving in a variety of departments and studying in the United States before becoming involved in educational administration. I later moved to the university, where I have continued to explore the future of education through hands-on practice. Part I describes this background and the questions that grew out of it, sharing the perspective that underlies the research.
 
Part II is based on the dissertation. It examines the intermediary function that drives joint initiatives between secondary and higher education. For readability, the original text has been condensed. Part III then takes the dissertation research as a point of departure, broadens the perspective, and presents a vision for the future.
 
The vision presented in Part III forms the framework for the activities of the Advanced Educational Co-Creation field (Mori Akiko Laboratory), established at RCAST in April 2026. Guided by this vision, the Mori Lab is actively engaged in commissioned research on educational reform, advising on government policies and programs, teacher education, and research supervision.
 
This book also builds on the practices presented in Kyoso suru Kyoiku: Mina ga Shuyaku ni Naru Jisedai Ikusei no Jissen [Co-Creating Education: Practices in Nurturing the Next Generation Where Everyone Takes the Lead] (Akiko Mori and Student Affiliates, Design Egg), which was introduced on BiblioPlaza in 2023, deepening and developing them from a research perspective. I would be delighted if readers would take a look at both books.
 
Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the faculty and staff of RCAST, who recognized the potential of my ideas from their earliest stage, provided a field in which to pursue them, and offered tremendous support and cooperation.
 

(Written by MORI Akiko, Associate Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology / 2027)

Related Info

Advanced Education Outreach Lab (AEO):
https://aeo.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
 
Awards and Grants:
Research Publication Grant, FY2025, Japan Securities Scholarship Foundation
Research Grant, FY2023, Japan Securities Scholarship Foundation
Personnel Exchange Dispatch Program, FY2023, Japan International Cultural Exchange Foundation
 
1st RCAST Award (Director's Commendation), Education Category, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo (2024)
6th Rikajo Ikusei Award (for fostering girls in science), Encouragement Prize, Nissan Foundation (2023)
 

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