2015 Volume 41 Pages 70-86
This article examines issues regarding the reform of Japan's board of education system, and the new system in terms of the expertise of the educational administration. This paper focuses on the expertise of the educational administration as it relates to general administrative jobs.
The findings of this paper are as follows. First, the distrust surrounding the expertise of Japan's educational administration has caused the reform of the board of education system. The discussion regarding the reform included arguments about the reinforcement of political control for the educational administration; however, I did not discuss how we could improve the expertise of the educational administration and restore the trust of the educational administration. In the new board of education system, the problems faced by the bureau of the board of education and issues concerning the expertise of the educational administration still remain unresolved.
Second, it is important to examine the expertise required for general administrative jobs. In the field of education reform, there are many professional members of staff in the office. When we discuss the expertise of educational administration, we often focus on the expertise of the professional personnel, for example, superintendents or school education supervisors, etc. There are a large number of general administrative staff members in the bureaus of the board of education; however, nobody has analyzed their expertise in educational administration.
Political and market control are often used to govern educational administration and schools, as well as bureaucracy. These controls sometimes influence education policies and practices; however, they often create confusion for schools, teachers, parents, and pupils. Educational bureaus require self-directing governance, and the role of general administrative jobs in the board of education is important to prevent professional personnel from being self-serving and self-enclosed.
Third, this study examines how local governments in Japan hire and transfer general administrative personnel in the bureaus of the board of education. The results revealed that about a sixth of the prefectures hire general administrative staff personnel in the bureaus of the board of education separately from the governor's offices. Many of the local governments hire general administrative staff personnel in the bureaus of the board of education and the governor's office together.
In the latter case, a few prefectures or big cities make some general administrative staff members put the bureaus of the board of education for many years and make them experts on educational administration. However, almost all local governments keep transferring general administrative staff members in the short term.
We have little knowledge about how general administrative staff members improve their expertise in a specific area. Especially in the field of policies, which includes several professions, the expertise of the general administrative staff members tends to be underestimated. We have to conduct research on the expertise of general administrative jobs.
