2010 Volume 86 Pages 97-112
In this paper, the author examines how teacher preparation programs have changed since 1990 in relation to the reform of higher education in Japan. In the previous literature, studies on teacher preparation programs have been conducted separately from those on higher education, despite the fact that K-12 teachers are trained at the post-secondary level in Japan. As a result, the impact of recent reforms of higher education on teacher preparation programs has been overlooked.
First, the author identifies the impacts of recent higher education reforms on teacher preparation programs. The marketization of higher education led to a deterioration in relations between teacher preparation colleges and local boards of education. As a result, the contents of the programs came to be increasingly influenced by non-academic ideology and the administrative policies of each local government, rather than by scholarly research and critical inquiries.
Second, the author examines the impacts of recent reforms targeting teacher preparation itself. Through an analysis of reports on reform of the Ministry of Education, the author finds that the policy of reform changed around 2000. The Law on Teachersʼ Licensure was revised toward a standardization of the teacher preparation curriculum, which had once been deregulated in the 1990s.
Therefore, the author argues that both higher education reform and teacher preparation reform deprived many colleges and universities of their autonomy in the area of teacher education programs. As unintended results, the teacher education colleges have been transformed from “educational institutions” which support students with appropriate career guidance, into “institutions of teacher supply” which shape people into teachers in order to guarantee the survival of their own organizations.
The author also cites the necessity of interdisciplinary research to create a bridge between higher education and teacher preparation. For example, this article stresses the need to reconsider the definition of the two key phrases that have been used as the main principles in preceding researches on teacher education since World War II: “Teacher preparation in college” and “openness of teacher preparation.” On the basis of recent research on higher education, as shown in this paper, there does not appear to be a consensus today on the two phrases. For example, the fact that the commonsense definition of “what is college?” has already been lost compels us to re-examine what kind of content is required for maintaining the quality of teacher preparation programs at the college level.
