Abstract
In Japan, since the 1980s, free schools have been a hotly-debated subject concerning the diversification of education as a new form of school as opposed to the existing standardized public education system. For example, in the review literature of sociology, free schools in Japan have been considered ‘alternative’ schools which desire to be separate from both national and local administrations, and strongly aim at realizing ideas such as ‘freedom’, ‘autonomy’ or ‘individuality’ in education for Futoko children (students who do not attend school). However, these arguments have completely overlooked other free schools which cooperate with the administration, in favor of free schools which are truly eager to resist the existing school system. Therefore, through participant observation and interviews, this study examines the process of everyday practices in a very small-scale free school which hopes to cooperate with the Japanese Board of Education in Kyoto City. The survey objective is to reconsider the possibility of establishing various educational forms in terms of ordinariness beyond the framework of the existing public education system. The results suggest the following: 1) The small-scale free school in my survey, which is situated in financially and politically poor conditions, cooperates with the Japanese Board of Education in Kyoto City in its everyday practices in order to maintain its own educational policy toward the various needs of students, although it might seem to be in subjection to the public education system: it can be assumed that other free schools having financial and political difficulties may also choose similar practices in order to survive just like the school in my case study;2) The policy of the free school is to provide students with a chance to make friends with other students and staff in order to encourage the students to acquire social skills or social capital;3) The students can be considered to be dependent on others and to live in comfortable circumstances in an insecure world outside the current public education system. This result refutes the arguments saying that students in free schools behave independently. In summary, this research suggests that it is significant to reconsider the possibilities of educational activities truly open to children and youth in terms of everyday practices, in order to search for various forms of alternative education.
