In our research field, basically no one gives you research theme and research method. What you are provided with is only guidance (?) using the so to speak "grazing" method. This method has been experienced by myself (Fujikawa), at graduate schools both in Japan and Germany. I think such method is necessary to avoid the reduced reproduction of research activities. Each student explores the theme of his/her own choice, but as long as he/she chose it, he/she "takes full responsibility for his/her own research", no matter whether he/she is undergraduate or graduate student. That is our research style common to all members of our research field. In that sense, both the academic advisor (professor) and this research field are merely "steps" or "perches" for you to carry out independent and original research. Therefore, it may be necessary for you to have both thinking flexibility and will strength to carry out research in this field.
If you are interested in education, no matter what theme you choose, you
will end up being involved in human change/transformation to some extent.
So you don not have to get caught up in the words "Human Transformation".
First of all, please ask yourself what you can't help but think about,
what you want to know, and what question you want to find an answer to.
Your research theme may be included in your answer to these questions.
Some people may find no answer no matter how much they ask themselves.
However, it may be that you just cannot be aware of and verbalize the concern
that is sleeping in the bottom of your heart. In such a case, it is a good
idea to have discussion with professor and/or other students. It is also
a good idea to start by reading the books and papers introduced by them.
You may be able to find a good theme that you feel "this is it!"
However, the best way to find a research theme may be to just jump into
the field of educational as wll as welfare practice without considering
the difficult things such as what and how to study (framework of research,
etc.). There is something like “Beginner's Luck” in research activity,
and as you gain experience, you may lose sight of various things. On the
contrary, there are some things that you can see just because you are an
amateur. For this reason, it is recommended in research field of Human
Transformation Study, to be involved in the field of practice regardless
of whether you carry out literature research or field research. Some fields
will be introduced to you by students and/or academic advisor (professor)
and you will be accompanied by academic advisor (professor) on the first
visit. In any case, those who expect your academic advisor (professor)
tol give you a research theme or method are at least unsuitable for our
research field. University students can “study” and no longer need to “learn”.
Is there any meaning in mass-producing graduation theses like pressed,
like "Kintaro candy"?
Once the research theme is decided, collection of literature will begin.
The purpose of collecting previous researches is at first to enrich your
knowledge, and ultimately to find originality of your research. Compared
to decades ago, this task has become much easier with a web search system.
Therefore, you must do everything to the point where you can make a proud
face ("Doya-Gao"). Of course, you will be given advice on how
to search them in our seminar, but it is also recommended to participate
in briefing sessions held at the library. In any case, the key at this
stage is what kind of search keyword to choose. Ask your academic advisor
(professor) and/or senior student about what keywords are appropriate.
The documents hit by keyword search can basically be obtained somohow.
If you want relatively new academic papers, you can directly download them
by accessing them from within the university (I think you can get nearly
80% of them). Academic papers that cannot be downloaded can also be obtained
through the library in a week or two, but in some cases there is a charge
although not so expensive. However, the latest academic papers cannot be
searched and obtained on the web. If you are doing research that competes
for newness, it is necessary to refer to academic journals published by
domestic and foreign academic societies related to your research theme.
Please consult your academic advisor (professor) first about it. If you
search for books on campus, of course, it is easy to obtain them. Some
books that are not on campus can also be ordered through the library. We
recommend you to purchase books if they are the core of your research.
But in the case where you want expensive high-volume books such as complete
works, please ask your academic advisor (professor) about how to get them..
Please do not hesitate to search overseas books and papers. Especially
if you will go to graduate school, be sure to obtain overseas literature.
Other than collecting materials by the search system, there is also a
solid way (so-called "formula of potato vine"), namely the way
to collect materials based on the literature list at the end of books and
papers that you have read. Materials cited frequently in multiple books/papers
are important materials, which of course you must obtain. So do your best
to get them. It is recommended to make a list of collected materials using
Microsoft-Exel. If you set Items such as “editor/author”, “title (main
title and subtitle)”, “publisher”, “journal name”, “publication year”,
“published page (for academic papers or papers involved in collenction)”,
“remarks”, etc., you can easily change the order later, and it will be
easier to make a “reference list” to be attached to the end of your graduation
thesis. It is convenient to write a memo in the item "remarks"
about each content or an idea that you got when reading it. This work is
quite troublesome, but if you neglect it, you will suffer just before you
submit your graduation thesis.
Let's read the materials that you have collected. Even if they are books/papers
with difficult content, if you go on challenging to read them deeply and
many times, you will eventually get used to reading. Since our memory is
limited, we will of course forget the contents of materials you have read.
I (Fujikawa) often read the same material three to four times. As you read
through a lot of materials, you will be able to get some important ideas
(inspirations). The idea that you get while reading is something that is
remembered somewhere in your mind, but it is quite difficult to remember
where (from which book or paper) you got the idea. These small ideas will
be important guidance threads for writing text, and they also become finally
the source of taste of your graduation thesis. Not to forget them, it is
recommended to write a memo (keyword or diagram) in the margin of the paper
copy or to use the item "remarks" in the above-mentioned Exel
file.
If you come here, it is like you have completed more than half of work for your graduation thesis. Here is the most fun process. Let's structure a lot of ideas that you have been stored in your head without being organized. Structuring is, in essence, logically assembling. Since the steel frames as parts of building are already made, you only have to pull up and fix them with bolts. The production of parts is quite difficult and requires a lot of effort, but the assembly work is fun because you can see the results of your efforts little by little. At this work, please be carful not to forget to make a clear distinction between your own opinion and the knowledge obtained from previous researches. Be sure to carefully indicate the source of knowledge obtained from previous researchs.
When you structure your thought content, the most important thing is "question". First and foremost is the Research Question. Let's define what you want to clarify in your graduation thesis in simple and concrete form. If the research question is said in terms of architecture, it corresponds to foundation work. If you do not have a solid foundation, at some point your paper will collapse. You assemble the steel frame parts manufactured up to that point one by one on a solid base. The parts were made of the knowledge and ideas (inspirations) that you have gained during the process of reading materials. At each turning point of the assembly work, namely, each time you finish writing one section or chapter, you stand on the steel frame you have built up so far, take a deep breath and look around, and ask which part you should use next. In that case, it is important to "return to a lid (an amateur)" and ask questions honestly and simply. By accumulating these questions, you will eventually be able to see the whole picture of the building called graduate thesis. Papers with appropriate questions for each section or chapter are easy for readers to understand.
The questions to be set for each chapter or section should be straightforward and concise, but when you are devoted in assembling work, your discription and argumentation will end up being unfriendly to the reader. In other words, the sentences will become hard to read so that only the author him/herself or those who have some knowledge of the subject covered in your paper can understand. Aren't you fooling yourself with a lot of jargon that in fact even you yourself don't understand well? We tend to wear armor of difficult words to hide our weaknesses and lack of confidence. If you notice that it has happened, please re-read the materials you have collected, or read the introductory books and encyclopedias without hesitation and shame. Because that is what I mean by "responsible for our own research".
Now, at the turning point in the process of structuring your thoughts, please use the time of seminar to discuss with your academic advisor (professor) and other students. And please make corrections to your manuscript before you forget what was discussed in the discussion. By accumulating these stages, a paper will naturally be created.
At the phase of finishing the thesis, it is important to associate the
"introduction" with the "conclusion". What matters
most is to make sure whether you have properly answered the research questions
in the conclusion part. If you have done that, check the Japanese expression
of the whole thesis. Is't the sentence too long? Do the subject part and
the predicate correspond in each sentence? If you cut one sentence into
short pieces and connect them together by using conjunctions, the sentences
will be easier to read and grammatical mistakes will be avoided. Is there
any typographical error? It is not easy for you to notice your own mistakes,
so it is a good idea to read with other students. Finally, create a literature
list. This work itself is not so troublesome if the above-mentioned Exel-file
is made. Please check that the materials (books and papers) cited in the
text are listed in the literature list without fail.
It is a feature of this graduate school that there are various fields
of human sciences including educational science in one school. It is also
important to make the best use of this blessed learning environment and
actively utilize knowledge and methodologies in other fields of research.
It is important to ask what educational research can be carried out only
at this graduate school, not at any graduate schools. It may be a research
that actively adopts statistical methods, or conversely, a research that
reveals hidden assumptions in statistical research results. It may be a
philosophical study of education that incorporates the latest achievements
in the field of science, etc. Various original researches are possible
depending on your effort. Of course, we welcome orthodox research, but
I also expect unconventional researchs that can bother me.
Students from research fields other than education must have read at least
a large number of textbooks related to educational principles used in the
teaching training program, introductory books on educational philosophy
and history of educational thought, etc. before examination and entrance.
In the case of changing major field, even if you have “learned” the basis
of educational science and passed the entrance examination, it would be
too late to start searching, collecting, and reading materials for your
master thesis after entering the graduate school. If you had not already
started preparing in your undergraduate years, you would not able to submit
a master's thesis two years later. If you are carrying out a field research,
you need to have learned the basis of the investigation method and (ideally)
narrowed down the scope of the investigation. In any case, it is assumed
that if you are going to take a graduate school examination, you have already
learned the above-mentioned things during your undergraduate years (see
“I. For undergraduate students”) and you should start writing your master's
thesis immediately after admission. It takes a lot of work to complete
a paper in just two years. In addition, If you are planning a field research,
there are things you need to be aware of. In our research field, Human
Transformation Study, a field research that cannot clearly explain why
the subject was selected and what meaning it has to take up the subject
is regarded as mere “work”, not aknowledged as a “study”. Conversely, a
field researche that has throughly covered previous researches related
to its central theme until it reaches saturation and is designed with a
wide range of pedagogical backgrounds to be able to answer above-mentioned
questions are evaluated extremely high. Of course, the same thing can
be said about reseach carried out by only text reading. In the process
of study, It is also needed to go on asking, why you study about a person
or historical event, what meaning it has to study on it, whether its outcome
is too clumsy compared to the effort you spend on it (namely, is it a wasteful
detour), and whether it isn't research for research (self-purposed). Of
course, I will not completely deny the value of "research for research".
Rather, we place the highest value on outstanding research that does not
raise the above questions. However, if you are not convinced that your
research has such highest value, you should be able to explain the meaning
of your research to anyone in an easy-to-understand manner.
In order to make your research in graduate school unique and different from others, it is important to clarify your research theme, research question, viewpoint, and methodology. For that purpose, as already mentioned above, it is necessary to thoroughly collect and read deeply the previous researches pursuing similar theme. In addition, especially in graduate school, it is necessary to have sufficient knowledge of the latest research results. For advanced research related to education, it is recommended at least to check related papers in the following journals and collections of papers: (1) The Japanese Journal of Educational Research, edited by Japanese Educational Rsearch Association; (2) Studies in the Philosophy of Education, edited by Philosophy of Education Society of Japan; (3) If dealing with history of thought, The Forum on Modern Education, edited by History of Educational Thought Society (4) Although it is not the latest, Annual Report of Education, edited by Naoto Morita et al., Seori-Shobo.
However, our research field, Human Transformation Study, does not put
waight on the boundaries between educational science (pedagogy) and other
discipline. Rather, we aim to dismantle existing boundaries and redraw
them. To this purpose, it is necessary to utilize research methods and
research results other than educational science (pedagogy). If you are
aiming for original research that has never existed before, you will need
to find and refer to academic journals that represent the research area
closest to your research theme. From here on, there are challenges for
each graduate student him-/herself. In the field of Human Transformation
Study, we recommend "away matches". In fact, there are several
graduate students who have joined the academic conferences other than educational
science (pedagogy) and made presentations even if they are Away. It is
also important to develop new object of field research, although you must
be able to explain the value and meaning of the object to be taken up.
In study on basis of text reading, using the legs can also be important.
If you use materials that are too old to be searched on the web, you will
need to visit archives in each area.
In order to broaden your perspective and carry out internationally acceptable
research, we place emphasis on overseas academic journals. In English-speaking
countries, there is (5) Journal of Philosophy of Education (Academic Journal;
Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain). In the German-speaking
area, there are the following representative Journals: (6) Zeitschrift
für Pädagogik (Academic magazine) , (7) Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft
(academic journal; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft) ,
and (8) Paragrana (Academic journal; Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Historische
Anthropologie). In addition, there are also (9) historical anthropological
series published by the Center for Interdisciplinary Anthropology (Academic
Books), and so on.. Some of the articles published in these journals can
be downloaded from the website. There is no reason to not read overseas
literature because there is no longer the time when we had to go to universities
and libraries overseas to collect literature. The university also has a
system to support study abroad, so if you are carrying out research dealing
with overseas person or events, be sure to study abroad actively. Rather,
if the research target or methodology is overseas, it is natural to study
abroad. If you take the opportunity to study abroad for a long period,
we do not prevent you from leaving our research field, but we are willing
to send you out. In addition, if you can obtain an environment more suitable
for your research in other university in Japan (not only overseas), we
will support you for taking exams at other graduate schools. You can use
our research field as a "perch". In any case, I would like you
to keep your eyes for outside of the research field so that you will not
overtrust yourself with your excellence and grow roots while continuing
to live a comfortable life as a graduate student.
