Current Status and Problems of "School Governance" Reforms : What Priority Should be given to Teacher Professionalism?(Educational Administration and Community)

Abstract

This paper examines the policies and reforms of the relation between school and community during the last fifteen years from the viewpoint of "governance." In addition, this paper considers theoretical and practical problems of school management, especially focusing on teacher professionalism. Currently, we often come across the term "governance" in discussions in fields such as politics, administration, and management. This concept has attracted attention since the 1980s, and it is still controversial and ambiguous. However, we can say that one of the essential features of governance involves restructuring the relation between the public and private sectors with regard to public services. The phrase "from Government to Governance" has often been used as an important watchword since the latter half of the 1990s, and since then, the New Public Management policy has been implemented in several countries such as England and the U.S.A. We cannot deny the necessity of "governance" in the field of school education, but it is not enough to rely only on the above-mentioned phrase. The question that we have to ask here is how a mutual relationship among several actors, including a public government, should be built or coordinated in order to achieve a desirable form of school governance. In light of the points that have been discussed, we may have to consider school governance from the viewpoints of "school participation/involvement" and "school evaluation." Regarding "school participation/involvement," several studies have focused on "community school," especially on meetings of the school council, from the viewpoint of democracy. Regarding "school evaluation," several studies have proposed that the aims of the system, as expressed in the national guidelines, are not always implemented at school sites. In my view, school governance may encounter difficulties unless a priority is given to teacher professionalism because teaching-learning must be a point of departure for school improvement. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully examine interaction processes between teachers and other actors involved in school governance.