Abstract
The theory on "the right on education of the people," which divides educational matters into two spectrums: the internal and the external, and positions educational administration as the leading force in improving educational conditions, can be deemed as having been the principal theoretical framework taken up in the recent Educational Administration research. With regards to this theoretical framework which takes issues on the role of the state in public education, two arguments in contraposition have been antithetically debated: the theoretical framework questioning the state's character itself instead of disputing on the pros and cons of the state's involvement in education, and the theoretical framework pursuing on how to implement and govern educational administration in educationally effective approaches under the state's given positional authority . In response to the question of "what is the study of educational administration?," my succinct explanation is that the study of educational administration is a theoretical approach conceptualized through school board activities. This is not to say that the study of educational administration is to benefit actual practice. According to Foucault's schema positioning that non-articulated practice generates an environment for discourse, school board activities is an environment for the study of educational administration. The school board system of the United States is based on a spirit of idealist philosophy postulating that educational consensus is attainable among citizens who stand in opposition with general political affairs. This notion led to entail another idealist philosophy validating that, by being selected to serve as a school board member, the individual citizen will experience taking on government duties and hence have the opportunity to enhance public awareness in being a member of a democratic society. Turning to Japan, the most impending deficiency revolving around today's debate on the school board system lies in failing to face the significance of this idealist philosophy exemplified by the school board system.
