保護者と教師のコンフリクト : 対等にモノが言える時代の中で(教育政治の諸相,I 年報フォーラム)

抄録

Nowadays in Japanese schools, including nursery schools, kindergartens, elementary schools, lower secondary schools and upper secondary schools, keeping a good relationship between teachers and parents has become more difficult. The advance of the information society and changes in social structures have been causes of stress for many people. At the same time, from the latter half of the 1990s the Neoliberal political movement has been promoted in the society and educational system. The result of the latter movement has been "structural reform," usually as seen as the weak becoming the victim of the strong. As the society has experienced greater and greater economic inequality, the tendency to turn one's own irritations and frustrations upon the other has become worse. In many industrial fields the demand for an improvement in the quality and content of services has been increasing, and such demands can now be seen for schools and teachers as well. In this context, on the one hand we have the schools, which now have little surplus energy, not to mention a lack of financial support, to deal with these high-level requests from parents, so they are at times caught in a dilemma. Given these changes, we have seen an increase in teacher suicides and cases of teachers suffering from mental illness, notably depression, lately attracting considerable attention as social problems. On the other hand, there is also a problem with traditional ways of thinking. Schools and those who work in them continue to have an authoritarian consciousness, thinking that parents should follow the logic and convenience of schools. Schools thus turn down reasonable requests from parents without good reason. Schools need to respond to these changes of the times and society, accept parents' request, and try to improve school management. In this paper, given the present situation where parents and teachers each actively assert themselves, how can better relationships be created between these two groups? We will examine some of the political prospects and problems by examining: 1 .The causes of difficulties in parents and teachers getting along with each other 2. The suicide of a new female teacher 3. The structure of parents' distrust of the school and bringing a suit against the school 4. The cause of an explosion of troubles between parents and teachers 5. The implementation of a policy for an improvement of the relationships between parents and schools