ABSTRACT
The study of moral education reform holds great potential to shed light on the processes of education policymaking and the enactment of reform initiated at cabinet level in Japan. However, its study remains hampered by a dearth of research on how it is planned and taught in the classroom. This chapter draws upon national survey data published over the past thirty years and preliminary interview and observational fieldwork to construct a baseline on moral education practice. After an overview of national survey data, the chapter questions teacher perspectives on the purposes of moral education, discusses how moral education classes were implemented in practice, and explores teachers expectations for the then-incoming reforms. The analysis provides a snapshot of practice just before the reforms arrived at the local context and allows anticipatory discussions on reform with teachers and school administrators.
