Enacting Moral Education in Japan Between State Policy and School Practice

"Moral education in Japan attracts feverish attention across the political spectrum. Sam Bamkin's outstandingly researched book sheds much-needed light on its realities, from policy to classroom practice."

- Peter Cave, Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Manchester.

"Sam Bamkin's historically-informed ethnography gives the lie to some of the recent rather over-excited commentary about the introduction of a new - often described as 'nationalistic' - moral education curriculum in Japan. By skilfully delineating the multiple levels involved in implementing the new curriculum - from the Prime Minister to the classroom teacher - and demonstrating the multiple positions taken by actors within each level, he has begun to develop a new 'theory of enactment' which provides a very useful model for other areas of policymaking not just in Japan but elsewhere."

- Roger Goodman, Nissan Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford.

"With a lengthy history of controversy within Japanese education, moral education was elevated to the status of a 'special subject' in March 2015. The author delves into not just the policymaking behind this change, but also its enactment at the local and school levels. The investigation reveals a multitude of noteworthy discoveries, foremost among them being the pivotal roles played by 'expert practitioners' owing to their well-versed understanding of the domain. Undoubtedly, this book stands as a commendable contribution to research on education policy and the study of moral education in the Japanese context."

- Masaaki Katsuno, Dean of the Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Japan.

"This book aims to reframe the educational reform concerning moral education in Japan. Instead of viewing it as a one-way execution of policies from the central government to schools, it portrays it as an interactive process involving various actors, including school teachers, the board of education, and moral education experts. Through Bamkin's meticulous examination of this interactive process, we can rediscover that school teachers are not mere executors of policies from the central government but creative agents who generate diverse educational practices based on new values in their interactions with children and colleagues."

- Hiromichi Kato is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Education, Hokkaido University, Japan.