School Education and Democratization of Social Consciousness in Postwar Japan.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Kikkawa, Toru; Todoroki, Makoto
- Source
- International Journal of Sociology. Spring1998, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p92. 17p.
- Subject
- *EDUCATION
*DEMOCRATIZATION
*SOCIAL consciousness
*AUTHORITARIANISM
*EDUCATIONAL change
- Language
- ISSN
- 0020-7659
The article discusses about school education and democratization of social consciousness in postwar Japan. In postwar Japanese society, democratization of social consciousness was the objective of educational reforms. In the postwar period the democratization of social consciousness signified the postwar generation's movement away from the old attitudes and beliefs represented by an ideology rooted in the Tenno system, and toward the acquisition of modem ethos i.e. process of reversing and amending this tendency toward traditionalism and authoritarianism. An authoritarian conservatism scale is used as an index of the democratization of social consciousness. The relationship seen between authoritarian conservative tendencies and age in the sample as a whole is primarily attributed to the new and old educational systems, but a direct relationship between age and authoritarian conservative tendencies is not observed in the generation educated only in the new school system. The function of democratization of school education gradually increased. The magnitude of democratizing function of the new educational system is about 1.8 times as large as the one of the old system. The function of the democratization of social consciousness through postwar school education has been sustained for twenty-five years.