Abstract
Based on the discussions held up to the last meeting, the goal of this session was to examine the original characteristics and requirements of the clinical approach to school management research, and then to consider its possibilities. First. Hirofumi Soyoda showed us an outline map of the relationship between school management researchers and practitioners. What he wanted to emphasize by means of the map was that our research community has built chiefly a one-way relationship with practitioners, while the clinical approach needs it to be a two-way relationship. The next speaker was Shigeru Amagasa, who presented the process and methods of three case studies on curriculum management. One matter of importance he mentioned was the researchers' ability to adopt a clinical approach. He believes that building a closer relationship with practitioners is a prerequisite for this approach. Therefore, we as school management researchers must be able to communicate with practitioners through talking about classroom practices. Masatoshi onoda then commented on Prof. Amagasa's presentation. He argued that the cases he presented were not clinical "studies" but "acts" because Amagasa didn't explain the working hypothesis behind his study. He asserted that even if the clinical approach must be field-oriented. we as researchers need a hypothesis. He added some questions on Amagasa's report. Finally, Yumiko Ono shared her own experiences in the research project on international cooperation in education development. She then pointed out the tasks we face in building a clinical approach to school management research. She suggested that we should find people in the field 'with a foot in both camps' and build a reliable relationship with them. She also proposed that we should gain the opportunity to obtain the knowledge and skills to put fieldwork into practice at an annual conference held by our association. In the discussion, which was much more heated than those that preceded it, we were able to recognize and gain in sight into the importance, as well as the difficulties, of this approach.
