The Educational Reform Movement and Changes in the Career Path Consciousness of Students in Japanese Senior High Schools
The Emergence of New Selection and Distribution Mechanisms
2001 Volume 68 Pages 167-185
Details
2001 Volume 68 Pages 167-185
The objective of this paper is to explore changes in selection anddistribution mechanisms, using data collected through questionnaire surveysconducted in two prefectures in 1997 and 1999.
Many studies have pointed out that Japanese senior high schools havefunctioned as mechanisms for selecting and distributing students accordingto their academic achievements, measured by single criterion.
Under these circumstances, the current educational reform movement, which emphasizes diversification and individualization in upper secondaryeducation, aims at the following four objectives:(1) to provide students witha wide range of options, enabling them to study in accordance with theirinterests, concerns and career paths, in order to diversify the criterionson which their judgements of school quality are based;(2) to diversify thecontent of education in accordance with students' interests, concerns andcareer paths in order to enhance their incentives to study;(3) to recommendthat student determine their career paths in accordance with their owninterests and concerns, lest their post-school plans should be determinedby “school rankings”; and (4) to eliminate evaluations that vertically rankpost-school plans or occupational careers.
While this educational reform movement raises many questionswhich must be scrutinized, among them, great importance must be placedon evaluating its influence upon the selection and distribution functions ofsenior high school education. Therefore, this paper attempts to explorewhether senior high school students experience the reorganized schoolingirrespective of their school rankings and how the reorganization affectstheir attitudes toward studying and their post-school plans.
The major findings are as follows:(1) it is the students attendinglower-middle-ranking and low-ranking schools who are most influencedby the recent reorganization and reform of secondary schooling;(2) thereorganized schooling at the lower-middle-ranking and lower-rankingschools or courses provides students with satisfying learning experiences;and (3) while recent curricular changes at upper-ranking and upper-middlerankingschools or courses seem to enhance the aspirations of theirstudents, those at lower-middle-ranking and lower-ranking schools lowerthem.
This paper hypothesizes that these changes imply the emergence ofsegregated selection and distribution mechanisms which are characterizedby the institutionalization of a “Cooling-Out” mechanism in the publiceducational system.
