2018 Volume 45 Pages 1-11
I performed a questionnaire survey in a certain prefecture to investigate the actual situation of special support education coordinators in high schools in Japan. This article is written using the analysis of this questionnaire survey.
Most high schools in Japan appoint coordinators. However, the problem is that many coordinators are changed in a short term. The administrators emphasize fitness rather than specialty as the basis for appointing a coordinator. In addition, nearly 40% of all the administrators include an interest in and the will to work for special support education among their standards for appointing a coordinator. There are, however, very few administrators mentioning leadership. Judging from the result of this survey, it appears that coordinators are expected to improve their specialty through the training after becoming a coordinator, because there is a shortage of teachers having a specialty and leadership as well.
Because of their insufficient mastery of a specialty, many coordinators are not trusted by the other teachers in their schools. Many teachers trust the school nurse and the grade chief more than they trust the coordinator and talk. Coordinators themselves notice this, too, and most coordinators are changed before they improve much in their specialty. A coordinator has specialized work, which is often not accomplished because the fixation rate is low. This causes the special support education not to be promoted in particular in Japanese high schools. It is necessary to improve the specialty of the coordinator through the improvement of the training system.
Special support services in high school resource rooms will begin in 2018. The problem is to bring up the person in charge with the specialty as well a coordinator.
