Message from Dean

One way of describing a teacher’s job would be to say that it involves making children aware of the importance of learning, and of how enjoyable learning can be. In order to be able to transmit this knowledge to children effectively, teachers need to acquire specialist know-how and skills.
The Faculty of Education of Kagoshima University has as its goal the cultivation of teachers who possess a high level of practical skills, with a perspective that embraces the whole of Kagoshima Prefecture (which extends for 600km from north to south), and capable of providing education on outlying islands and remote communities, of teaching in schools with small class sizes, and of teaching multiple grades at the same time. Starting from the 2017 academic year, the Faculty of Education has been working to cultivate the teachers that contemporary society needs, with the establishment of courses for elementary level education, secondary level education, and practical skills education. We also provide extensive opportunities for in-classroom teaching practice, starting with school experience activities (elementary school and junior high school) in the first year of the four-year teacher training program, and continuing right through to the fourth year. Students also have additional participation opportunities, including observation and hands-on training activities in schools located on outlying islands, guidance activities in small schools, and learning support volunteer opportunities, etc.
The education provided by the Faculty of Education is supported by the ancillary schools attached to Kagoshima University (including a kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school and special education school) and affiliated schools (Tagami Elementary School and Ishiki Junior High School). In addition, a Graduate School of Education was established in the 2017 academic year.
In the future, it is to be hoped that that, through close collaboration between the Faculty of Education and the Graduate School of Education, we will be able to cultivate the school teachers who are needed in this new era, and who will be able to implement teaching in line with the requirements of children at different stages of development, while making effective use of the social function of schools. Over the four-year period that students spend in the Faculty of Education, let us all work together to build a teaching profession that enables children to learn happily, and that builds schools where children feel happy to be.