A study on the meaning of founding the Sendai Educational Research Institute during the war years - focusing on the process of establishing the Institute and the contents of the first year activities -

摘要

The aim of this paper is to clarify the process of establishing the Sendai Educational Research Institute,which was a vanguard for other local Institutes for Educational Research in Japan, and its activitiesin the first year.One of the characteristics of local Institutes for Educational Research is to conduct basic and scientificresearches that would become the basis in educational planing according to actual conditions inthe region.Previous studies have revealed that Local Institutes for Educational Research in Japan werefounded under the educational policy reform that placed a high value on decentralization of authorityafter the World War II. However, the Sendai Educational Research Institute had been continuouslyconducting scientific studies in response to the actual condition of children and their communities inSendai, and giving practical trainings to teachers based on the results of the studies even in the prewartimewhen the educational policy was severely controlled by the state.Moreover, Institutes for Educational Research in pre-war time were generally considered as the organizationswhich centered on medical diagnoses and clinical consultation for children. On the otherhand, the Sendai Educational Research Institute, which modeled after Institutes for Educational Researchin Europe and America, aimed to collect basic data in order to improve school education and todevise new educational methods based on them. In this sense, the Sendai Educational Research Institutewas quite unique in pre-war Japan.To realize the project, the mayor, Tokusaburou SHIBUYA and Heizi OIKAWA played importantroles; SHIBUYA proposed the foundation of the Institute and OIKAWA was appointed as the first directorof the Institute. They both emphasized most that education should provide the quality and acquirementas "Citizens" with children in Sendai city, and put in an effort to establish educational methodsfor that kind of education among teachers.Although the first year project was not necessarily accepted to the Sendai city council at the beginning,the project was driven forward by a strong backup from the mayor SHIBUYA.