This paper analyzes the contemporary discourse surrounding teacher professionalism and the historical development of teacher policy in Japan, exploring a vision that supports teachersʼ professional development in order to better reform public education.
From the time of the establishment of the modern school system on, teachers were long regarded as non-professionals; however, in the context of the “modernization of education” from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, scientific study on teachersʼ expertise and pedagogy progressed, and teachers came to be viewed as technical professionals. In the 1980s, research into teachersʼ knowledge and thinking progressed, revealing teachersʼ practice as reflective professionals, making high-level decisions in an uncertain practice process. In response to this knowledge, 1990s research on teacher culture and professionalism produced a discourse on complementary teacher expertise as an adaptive professionals easily influenced by social change and political situations, a multidimensional professionals involving the judgment of priorities in a diverse range of work as practices become more complex, and an extended professionals in which educational practice expands both ideologically and physically. In addition, the development of research into teachersʼ emotions and learning has given rise to a discourse on collaborative professionals that extends teachersʼ reflective practice and professional development from the individual to the group. This discourse has led to a discourse on co-creative professionals in which teachers create new value with diverse stakeholders as their practice expands in line with social change.
Based on this discourse analysis, examining the development of teacher education, recruitment and development in modern Japan, it was found that while the immediate postwar regime, which regarded teachers as “cultured people,” was diminished through “modernization of education” aimed at professionalizing teachers, teacher education and development in the 1970s was designed based on the discourse of teachers as technical professionals. This prevented teachers from responding quickly to the “crisis in schools.” Therefore, teacher policies based on the discourse of a reflective profession that takes into account the adaptability, multidimensionality and expandability of teachersʼ practice in the knowledge society were promoted, and now the discourse of a collaborative professionals has been added to this.
However, the discourse of the collaborative professionals is not clearly established at the core of current teacher policies. In defining the qualities and competencies of teachers, the logic that emphasizes the necessity of the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values of individual teachers, rather than collaboration, has been preserved. This logic keeps teachers as the isolated professionals they have been since the era of technical professionals, and also prevents them from transforming into reflective, collaborative, and co-creative professionals. For this reason, pedagogical research must continue to elucidate the substance of teachersʼ reflective, collaborative, and co-creative practices; it has become clear that teachers need to be established at the core of a policy vision that promotes the integrated education, recruitment, and development of teachers as reflective, collaborative, and co-creative professionals.
