2009 Volume 51 Pages 2-12
Education in Japan has been going through a process of decentralization since the 1990's. This reform should include the establishment of autonomous school management, because educational services to children are provided through schools directly, not the board of education. From this viewpoint, it has been necessary to set up autonomous school management to arrange some of the following conditions: i. Transferring the authority of school management from the board of education to each school. ii. Reconstructing the inner organizations of each school for effective management. iii. Setting up a participatory system of parents and local volunteers in school management. In setting up autonomous school management, changing the domain of authority of educational administrative agencies is inevitable. This should relate to the review of the concepts on educational administration and school management. Though there have been many arguments about the concepts of educational administration and school management up to now, these rarely address the position of school management in the total system of public education. In this paper I have attempted to state the position of school management in the total system of public education using the concept of public educational administration. Public educational administration consists of educational policy, educational law, educational administration, school management and other components. It is very important to set up autonomous school management in order for the concept of school management to mean the management of the unit school in the total system of public educational administration. Under these circumstances, the study of public educational administration focused on how to set up autonomous school management should be developed.
