Abstract
This study analyzes Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
(MEXT)’s ins titutional philosophy on teacher training. As proposed by Aoki (2021), institutional
philosophy is a basic idea shared by the entire organization. Hargreaves and Shirley (2012)
divided national education policy into four phases : the quantitative expansion phase, the
second phase for improvement based on the principle of competition, the third phase for
improvement by setting standards and goals, and the fourth phase that respects the autonomy
of schools and teachers.
MEXT’s institutional philosophy on teacher training and teacher development has focused
primarily on supplying teachers quantitatively and providing training opportunities for teachers.
Once quantitative assurance of teachers and training opportunities was achieved, the Ministry
intended to promote training based on the independent judgment of boards of education,
schools, and teachers, rather than reform based on the principle of competition as in other
countries. In other words, MEXT has an institutional philosophy of reform in the first and third
stages.
There was a time when the Central Council for Education sought to respect the autonomy
of teachers, but in reality, measures related to the formulation of standards for teacher training
are being developed. The teacher license renewal system was initiated as part of the measures
seeking standards, but it was abolished when it began to impede the quantitative supply of
teachers. This is believed to be due to MEXT’s strong institutional philosophy, which aims to
secure a quantitative supply of teachers. MEXT has not gone so far as to adopt an institutional
philosophy of respecting the autonomy of schools and teachers.
https://ror.org/007h0zf03 
