ガーンディー教育思想における「仕事教育」理念の変遷 : アシュラムにおける教育から国民教育への展開

In India, "work education" has been thought as important in the educational policy after independence. "work education" originated as "basic education" which Mahatma Gandhi advocated as national education in 1937.

The aim of this paper is to clarify the special features of Gandhi's "work education" ideas, paying close attention on how the ideas develop from the educational practice started in the small groups called ashrams into the plan of national education. I used documents written by Gandhi and analyzed the changes between his "work education" ideas during his stay in South Africa and those after returning to India.

This paper has clarified the following things. "work education" idea and Gandhi's interest in national education were already obtained in South Africa. However, this initial form of "work education" was aimed mainly at the post-secondary education which was accessible to only a small group of people. In other words, Gandhi did not associate "work education"with national education. After returning to India, he recognized the serious condition in India, and felt the necessity for national education more than before. Especially, he considered primary education the highest priority of national education, but he opposed the introduction of the compulsory education aimed only for improving literacy which would be a mere imitation of the occidental systems. He therefore introduced the compulsory education which was called "work education" for learning agricultural knowledge or technology and the dignity of labor as education suitable for India whose population was comprised mainly of farmers. That is, the change of his educational thought after returning to India was a process for completing the idea and method of "work education" which were indispensable in order to establish a different compulsory education system unique to India from the Occident.