The School of Education of Kyushu University was inaugurated in May of 1949. Already since the mid 20th Century it has carved itself over half a century of history, and continues to proceed with its forward march into the new Century. In conjunction with the establishment of Kyushu University under the new university system brought about by the post-World War II Educational Revision, Kyushu University’s School of Education, which had its roots in the Education Course of the Faculty of Letters founded in May, 1925 in the Faculty of Law and Letters of Kyushu Imperial University, was established as an independent School. In line with the fundamental philosophy of the new post-War Japan of a peaceful culture-state founded on the principles of democracy, the School of Education was born entrusted with the historical mission to carry out a new scholarship and education.

Created amidst such a historical setting, the School of Education, in order to support and develop education in the new era, particularly emphasized the training of educational researchers and educational leaders, while additionally coordinating the teacher’s training course newly established post-war at Kyushu University under the Liberatory Teacher’s Training System, designed to train liberally cultured and open-minded teachers. Those involved in the inauguration of the School of Education, moved by the vision of a caring educational relationship between faculty and students geared to cultivate new educational researchers and educational leaders, established a 25-student-per-year matriculation quota system. At the time such a low quota was nationally unparalleled, and yet even now the School of Education quota still remains at 50 students, maintaining the tradition of high faculty-student interaction.

At the time of establishment of the School of Education, there was still only one Education Course, but subsequent years witnessed the establishment in rapid succession of the First Course of Educational Psychology, 1950, the History of Education Course (to become the History of Educational Society Course in 1994) and the Second Course of Educational Psychology, 1951, the Comparative Education Course and the Educational Technology Course (to become the Educational Methods Course in 1963), 1952, the Educational Administration and Finance Course (to become the Educational Administration Course in 1963), 1953, and the Educational Sociology Course, 1954. In this manner the structure which the founders had conceived in order to develop the education and research of “Pedagogy as Comprehensive Science”, came to be complete. And yet, to fulfill the mission of training educational researchers, it was indispensable that a graduate school be formed. This became possible in 1953, only 4 years after the establishment of the School of Education when, consisting of the two concentrations of Education and Educational Psychology, the Graduate School of Education was established, and full-fledged training of the next generation of researchers of pedagogy and educational psychology began.

What has distinguished the School of Education throughout fifty years of history and growth? One feature is the School of Education’s international emphasis in teaching and research. Immediately after its establishment, the School of Education witnessed the formation of Japan’s first university Comparative Education Course, an outcome of the efforts of the School of Education’s founders who maintained that an international perspective in teaching and in research was indispensable to the growth of education in the new Japan. These efforts of the founders flowered in 1955 with the founding of the School of Education Research Institute of Comparative Education and Culture, the mission of which was, “To compare Japan’s education with the education of peoples in all nations of the world; thus to advance survey research capable of contributing to world education.” Subsequently during the next 40 or so years until its abolition and reorganization in 1998 into the Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies?which it helped to plan?the Institute produced major findings in the comparative research of moral education, on the educational culture of Asia and the like, and also, coupled with the Comparative Education Course, carried forth a major role in promoting international comparative research on educational culture, thus succeeding in responding to the mission entrusted to it by the School’s founders.

A further distinguishing feature of the School of Education consists in the fullness of the teaching and research being carried out by the Department of Educational Psychology. In addition to two Educational Psychology Courses founded in the 1950s, the Department added the Group Dynamics Course, 1961, the Educational Instruction Course, 1962, the Psychology of Disabled Children Course, 1975, and the Life-span Developmental Psychology Course, 1992, thereby making it the largest-staffed school in Educational Psychology nationwide. Particularly, the School’s specialists in clinical psychology, centering their work on the research and teaching of disabled children, have attained national and international acclaim for their achievements. Recognition of the work of the Education Clinic, opened in 1954 and staffed by faculty and graduate students from the Department of Educational Psychology, led in turn to the foundation of the nation’s second official institution, the Educational Psychology Clinic, thus completing the structure for full-fledged consultation on psychology and education. Additionally, in 1986 as a result of the track record of these organizations, the first full-blown institute for the research and support of disabled children in the nation, the Clinical Center for Disabled Children, was established in order to promote comprehensive research on the education of disabled children. Later, in 1995, the Center for Clinical Psychology and Human Development was created by integrating and expanding the Educational Psychology Clinic and the Clinical Center for Disabled Children, and high expectations are being placed on the Center’s further development as Western Japan’s hub of training for clinical psychologists (the Center in 2000 became an Annex Facility of the Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies).

At present, society demands that universities are capable of contributing to society, as well as open to the changing needs of society toward universities. The School of Education has enthusiastically tackled the challenges of such community-university cooperation as well as seriously examining the potential of our social contributions. The Adult Education Course was founded in 1966, and annually conducts a course for Adult Education Specialists, thus making a major contribution to the lifelong learning society by training qualified instructors. Furthermore, the School of Education has worked to return the results of our teaching and research to society by actively holding a School-sponsored public lecture series geared toward ordinary citizens. As well, in order to open our School to older and non-traditional students, the Department of Educational Psychology since 1984 has adopted a transfer student matriculation system for mature students, and in 1994 we established a Class II Clinical Psychologist’s License Course in the Master’s Program in Educational Psychology of the Graduate School. In 1996, the School of Education established an entrance examination system for older and non-traditional applicants to the Master’s Program in Education of the Graduate School, and also the School Improvement Course and Adult Education Course, run on a night school system, enhance the training of leaders to be even further able to contribute to the resolution of problems in school education and adult education.

Recently, the largest change to the organization has been the inauguration of the Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies and the Research Institute of Human-Environment Studies. The Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies has its roots in the Graduate School of Education, and was created in April of 1998 to promote multi-disciplinary teaching and research. Further, starting from April of 2000, in conjunction with the university-wide organizational reforms at Kyushu University, faculty belong to the Human Sciences Section, the Education Section, or the Architecture and Urban Design Section of the Research Institute of Human-Environment Studies, as well as simultaneously being responsible for teaching and research in the Faculty of Human-Environment Studies (revised from the Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies) and in the School of Education. Carrying on this tradition of change, the School of Education at Kyushu University plans to strive for even further growth in the 21st Century and to continue to daringly take on challenges.