Besieged? : Rethinking of the Power of Educational Policy Community(Reconsidering the Autonomy of Educational Manegement)

Abstract

This article investigates why educational administration bodies in Japan receive criticism for being highly independent from local governors or governments, when educational administrations are more dependent on governing bodies than police and firefighting administrations. Until recently, in the field of educational administration, it was regarded as axiomatic that educational administrative bodies are highly independent from local governments. However, we find the following: (1) The independence of the educational administration is lower than that of the police and firefighting administrations. A person who is appointed superintendent of education may either have teaching experience, or be an administrative officer within a governor's bureau. In contrast, only police officers may become chiefs of prefectural police headquarters, and only fire department officers may be appointed as a fire chief. Additionally, the number of personnel exchanges between governor's bureaus and secretariat of education boards is larger than those between governor's bureaus and either prefectural police headquarters or fire departments. Therefore, educational administrations are more dependent on local governments than police firefighting administrations. (2) Educational administrations have more posts for branch office heads (principals) than police administrations (chief of police station) or firefighting administrations (fire station chief). Educational administrations thus have more positions and policy resources within local governments. Though educational administrations are not actually highly independent from local governments or governor's bureaus in terms of personnel management, especially at the levels of branch office head positions within local government, they receive severe criticism from local politicians and heads of government. The notion that these bodies are highly independent may result from primarily considering educational administrations in terms of boards of education, which themselves exist as administrative committees independent of a governor's bureau.