Historical Changes in the Community and Social Education System in Kaizuka City

Abstract

Kominkan staffing systems have been created as a result of the relationship between the guarantee of residents’ right to learn and the various rights of social education staff. In order to shed light on this relationship, this paper summarizes the historical changes that have taken place in the staffing system, using Kaizuka City as a case study, and clarifies the social education practices and research issues that relate to this system.

As for the relationship between practice and the system, it was possible to grasp the fact that this system of a professionalized staff was created in the midst of criticism of the way social education and Kominkan were managed, the quality of their operations, as well as a questioning of the nature of the staff. Local government labor unions also emerged to promote institutionalization amidst moves to bring about administrative and fiscal rationalization.

However, the system in Kaizuka City has been limited by the internal regulations of the Board of Education and the need to submit to local government ordinances, which has inhibited the stable allocation of social and community education personnel. This system, therefore, is still in flux, and is developing through the pursuit of a guarantee of the right to learn for local residents, and the calling into question the existence of a staffing nucleus.