オルタナティブ・スクールにおける「自由」と「選択」

デモクラティック・スクールＭの「卒業生」の語りから

抄録

　Since the 1980s, the legitimacy of the existing public school system has been called into question in Japan. In the background, there has been growing interest in how to provide educational opportunities for more and more long-term absentees and children who do not or cannot go to regular public schools (futŌkŌ children).As a result, it is becoming urgent to create new types of education other than the traditional form of school which is organized and standardized by the State.　In response, the various kinds of unrecognized schools established by “citizens”have attracted attention from the mass media as examples of “alternative schools”in Japan. In the recent media discourse, most of these unrecognized schools are represented as a concept of “freedom” or “autonomy” in education for children who are marginalized or excluded from the general school system. However, some sociologists point out that this kind of media discourse poses a risk of overlooking the narratives or experiences of the students in the unrecognized schools because it tends to create a stereotype and glamourizes these unrecognized schools.　Therefore, this paper reexamines the stereotypical image of “alternative schools”, and presents a sociological analysis of the creative potential imbued in the narratives of their “graduates”. This research, based on participant observation and interviews, focuses on the case study of a “democratic school” in Hyōgo Prefecture. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to examine how the “educational” activities in the democratic school are interpreted and evaluated by its “graduates”. Additionally, the significance of this research is to suggest a new aspect of alternative education in contemporary Japan.