学校改革を支援する自治体教育行財政改革 : 高知県における教育改革の施策形成過程に着目して(地方分権政策下における自治体と学校,I 年報フォーラム)

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A recent report of the National Institute for Educational Policy Research has revealed that most teachers and principals recognize educational reforms as inadequate for the actual situations of their schools, which they view as happening too fast to control. Kikuchi, author of this research, notes that teachers and principals feel there is injustice in the policy-making process/This paper will, therefore, focus not on content, but on the process of educational reforms. It will address features of recent educational reforms, the reasons why teachers are unwilling to accept these reforms, and future subjects to consider in the educational reform process. To do this, the paper will examine the Tosa no Kyoiku Kaikaku (Educational Reform in Kochi), launched in 1996, as a case study. In Kochi, there were serious conflicts for decades between the Board of Education in the prefecture and the teachers union. Moreover, parents had a distrust for public schools. Because the first aim of this recent reform was to dissolve conflicts and such distrust, we can consider that it, too, has been part of the process of the reform of educational administration. Points of the reform include the following: (1) A conference for discussing the educational agenda through organization of the Tosa no Kyoiku Kaikaku wo Kangaeru Kai (Committee to Think About Tosa's Educational Reform) was organized. Members from various local fields (representatives of parents, business circles, teachers unions, principals, local boards of education, and so on) joined this committee. (2) A follow-up Committee, independent from the administrator, checked the proceedings of the reform. (3) The Board of Education in the prefecture deliberately communicated with stake-holders and periodically met teachers' unions. (4) The Board of Education endeavoured to practice disclosure in its activities. Although these processes prompted disclosure in terms of educational administration, there were also other aspects of the particular policy-making process to consider. These included that: (1) There were a few cases where the Board of Education largely decided the policy without proper accounting or consultation; (2) There were also a few cases the Tosa no Kyoiku Kaikaku wo Kangaeru Kai did not treat, although the Board of Education placed them as parts of the education reform; and (3) The Board of Education did not communicate enough with other stake-holders, especially in the process of planning for the second period of educational reform in Kochi. The Board of Education's power in the policy-making process thus became larger. We can recognize from this research that there are both two types of closed style, as well as a style of disclosure, in the policy-making process for educational reform in Kochi. One of the closed styles is the old bureaucratic one, while another is a new one named NPM (New Public Management). A research report produced by Urano tells us that many teachers working in Kochi have ambivalent attitudes towards educational reform. We can consider their attitudes as reflections of the ambivalent features of the policy-making process. What, then, should be the focus of "reforming" educational reform? On the one hand, the Board of Education, it would seem, needs to endeavour to disclose more in general. Part of people, including teachers, wish to join the policy-making process more, to have an active share in it, partly because they feel empowered by reform. Although the NPM theory prefers performance accountability to process accountability, stake-holders are often more concerned with process accountability. On the other hand, the Board of Education needs to expand school autonomy. This school autonomy means not a decentralization of executive power but empowerment to solve problems at every school. Children and parents really wish to solve the problems in their schools, while teachers wish to join reforms based on each and every particular school. In Kochi, the Prefectural Board of Education should seriously consider formation of Hirakareta-Gakkodukuri-Suisin-Iinkai (Open Committee on School Disclosure), which could function as a medium for solving problems at all schools.
2003-10-17

著者

平塚眞樹
法政大学

学校改革を支援する自治体教育行財政改革 : 高知県における教育改革の施策形成過程に着目して(地方分権政策下における自治体と学校,I 年報フォーラム)

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