Tomohiko Mizutani

Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Art and Science, Yamagata University*Profile is at the time of the award.

2025Inamori Research Grants

researchmap

Research topics: A Study of the Functions of Selection and Allocation of Elementary Schools in the Prewar Period ；With a focus on the Chart of Individuality of the Taisho and early Showa Periods

Keyword

Summary: In this study, I question whether schools in the prewar period had the power to change people's life plans. In the prewar period, people's life planning was basically restricted by the land of their birth and family background, and only those in higher social classes were able to leave their birthplace for higher education or to take up modern occupations that were different from the family business that had been handed down from generation to generation. To what extent were schools of the same period able to change this prewar behavior of higher education and employment that was rooted in the land? I would like to elucidate this question by analyzing the individual data of children called “Assessment Chart of Individuality” prepared by elementary school teachers in the Taisho and early Showa periods.

Comment

What social functions do schools fulfill? I am researching this question from a historical perspective. I have been asking what function the punishment that teachers inflict on students in schools serves in the socialization of human beings and the formation of social order. Although punishment by teachers is now negatively interpreted as the oppression of children and the denial of their individuality, historical studies have shown that school punishment has the function of teaching children the importance of understanding their own and others' roles and of working together with others.
In future research, I would like to reexamine the connection between schools and people's life design. Modern schools are said to have been established with the function of selecting people based on their ability and effort and allocating them to society, but there is also the view that this selection and allocation has in reality only reproduced people's original status. Nevertheless, it is difficult to say that previous studies have adequately captured the process of designing people's own futures from their point of view. By analyzing the individual data of children who remain in schools, I would like to reconsider the function of schools in people's life planning.