This paper elaborates on the question of how education can contribute to happiness. Drawing on and developing further educationalist happiness research, this paper argues that pedagogical institutions follow distinct happiness views, and that they implicitly teach these views. A research approach will be proposed for analyzing pedagogical institutions and practices in regard to their happiness views. This approach will be applied in a cross-cultural qualitative analysis of Outward Bound schools in Japan and Germany. It will be shown that the happiness view of Outward Bound schools can be described in terms of peak experiences. The analysis will further demonstrate that there is no significant difference between Japanese and Germans regarding their view of happiness in Outward Bound, but between Outward Bound instructors and participants of Outward Bound courses. The findings will he related to happiness research in formal schools, arguing that the happiness view of formal schools needs to be considered in plural terms.

Key words: education, happiness, Outward Bound schools, pedagogical institutions