An Exploratory Study of Principals' Post-Retirement Careers

—A Case Study of Elementary and Junior High Schools in Y Education Office, X Prefecture—

Abstract

As a lifelong study of teaching careers including post-retirement, this paper clarified the areas of 218 principals, who have retired from elementary and junior high schools in the Y Education Office in X Prefecture during the end of the 2000-2023 school year, on how they have participated in the society, made public contributions and achieved self-fulfillment.

Through this exploratory study, we were able to obtain many objective facts by following the subsequent careers of retired principals more extensively and over a longer period of more than 20 years. The findings revealed that as many as 70% of the retirees were pursuing self-fulfillment through various careers, and especially contributing to society in community-based public positions. This suggests that it is important to envision a lifelong teaching career that includes not only a career that ends before and after entering the teaching profession, but also a career of post-retirement. It also shows the potential of post-retirement teachers as a valuable local human resource who can shoulder the educational roles in the society as a whole.