Pedagogy first developed out of the modern school system, which was first established in industrializing Western countries in the latter half of the 18th century. Even today, as typified by the subject-based education and teaching methodologies incorporated into university teacher training curriculum, pedagogy is generally considered to be a study aimed at teacher training and betterment of school education.
In contrast, the Department of Education Studies explores the essence of education while considering all of the behaviors related to human development. The daily activities of people in each era and society are embedded with a variety of developmental behaviors that stem from the framework of school education. The main feature of the Department of Education Studies is that we reevaluate those frameworks in order to explore the rich possibilities of educational knowledge and practice. In addition, the department is unique in that it exploits methodologies of both the humanities and social sciences as well as the natural sciences. We believe that by understanding education from an interest in comprehensive human development, we can provide a more multi-dimensional and multi-layered approach to finding solutions for critical issues facing education.