What is Human Transformation Study?



Index

1. What subject do you cover in your thesis?
2. How do you research?
3. What meaning does your research have?

1. What subject do you cover in your thesis?

　There are various types of human change and transformation. The most familiar one may be the type of changing process called "development", in which mind and/or body change in a continuous and irreversible manner. However, there are also discontinuous and irreversible changes that can be seen in the traditions of reincarnation through the rites of passage. This type of change may seem unfamiliar, but it has been handed down to this day, although certainly the memory has changed little over a long history, as you can see, for example, from contemporary children's literature such as Michael Ende's "Never Ending Story (Unendliche Geschichte)"(1979) and "Momo" (1973) as well as some animated movie works such as Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" (1999). It would be obvious to all that these works have so-called death and regeneration motifs.
　In addition, when you look back on your life, you may be reminded that you have changed your way of life in a short period because of encounters with important person, illness, family misfortunes, and disasters. Such changes may be likened to "metamorphosis" of insects and amphibians. Furthermore, some people may have had the experience of restarting their lives from the beginning due to job changes, immigration, or rehabilitation. These experiences can be called reversible changes. In this case, the transformation of the way of life is discontinuous, but the changes before and after it may be continuous. There may be another cases where multiple changes occur simultaneously, temporarily or continuously. You can see this type of human change from examples such as junior high school students going to cram school/preparatory school, double schooling, and social graduate students, etc. If you think carefully, you will notice that the changes in our way of life are not simple enough to be reduced to "development". So what are the characteristics and triggers of each change? Needless to say,individual changes are truly diverse. Even so, it may be possible to some extent to categorize the trajectory of changes in human life. For example, similar cues may produce similar trajectories of change.
　In the field of Human Transformation Study, we will explore such diversity of human change and transformation, as well as typify them and compare with each other. When exploring human change, it may be necessary to ask about relationships with experts such as teachers and welfare workers as one of the triggers for that change.
2. How do you research? 　
　
　Then, how do you explore human changes? There are various ways to do this. If you will do retrospective research, you can do literature research on literary works or a philosopher's works, and if you are interested in the present, you can do qualitative research such as interviews and participation observation. However, no matter what method is used, it is necessary to be able to answer clearly the question of why a certain object should be studied in a certain way. Research that cannot answer this question is merely "work", and is not yet acknowledged as a "study".
3. What meaning does your research have? 　

　However, what meaning does such research have in the first place? It would be very rare, if not to say impossible, that outcome of your research directly influences someone's way of life or some practice in the area of ​​education and welfare, that is, that it is directly useful to someone or something. Even if you think that it is useful for someone, you often become a naked king from the perspective of the other person, and on the contrary, it is a nuisance. So we should not demand much from the beginning. But at the very least, I expect you to train your eyes in process of exploration, which lead you to a diffent view of a problem than many others, enable you to focus on a different factor than others, and in some cases help you find a different solution than others. At first, the subject may be a problem that has been held by yourself. And, if possible, I expect you become a researcher who can make it easier for others with a variety of problems to understand how the problem and the way to its solution look in your eyes. The ability to do that will be useful for others, although the way leading there is a long way around.