The term “democracy” has been widely used in postwar Japanese educational administration literature, yet its precise meaning has remained ambiguous. There is even a tendency to use “democratic” and “democracy” to describe whatever the writers deem favorable. Such widespread and rather unthinking endorsement is problematic for the study of educational administration as a scholarly discipline. Given that democracy is a broad and often controversial concept, it requires thorough academic analysis. To address this, the paper examines the relationship between educational administration and democracy, focusing on the early postwar theories of Seiya Munakata, a pioneering figure in the field’s development in Japan. Through a critical reconstruction of his theories, this study discusses how the concept of democracy can be redefined within contemporary educational administration research.

First, the paper distinguishes two distinct research interests in the relationship between educational administration and democracy: democracy in educational administration and democracy by educational administration. The former investigates how education should be governed in relation to democracy, such as the relationship between elected officials and education boards in municipalities――a relationship that reflects the tension between democracy and expertise. Conversely, the latter has been largely neglected in the recent literature, though there are studies on sovereignty education and citizenship education. However, Munakata’s initial theory predominantly aligned with the latter interest and pursued the former only in connection with it, emphasizing the realization of democracy by educational administration. Although the two interests have since diverged, the paper explores the possibility of reconnecting them.

Next, an analysis of Munakata’s usage of “democracy” reveals temporal changes and conceptual ambiguities. The primary cause of these ambiguities stems from his failure to clearly distinguish between democracy as a decision-making procedure and democracy as the quality of outcomes produced by such procedures. Munakata’s scholarship was deeply concerned with the democratization of Japanese society. However, after witnessing that procedural democracy did not produce the expected outcomes （“democratic view of education” in his words）, he began to prioritize the instrumental view of democracy instead. This raises the question of whether Munakata was, in fact, an advocate of “epistocracy”――rule by experts or the knowledgeable―rather than “democracy,” rule by the people. It is argued that his theory had an epistocratic inclination, rooted in his instrumental view of democracy. Despite this conceptual tension, he sought to determine whether and how the procedural democracy could be reconciled with the quality of outcomes. This unresolved tension remains a significant question for contemporary research in educational administration.

This study aims to organize and reconstruct how the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion have been discussed and interrelated in school system studies since the 1990s.

First, we examined the discussion regarding the recognition of diversity in the Japanese school system. The first issue was how to interpret the stratification of diverse learning places. The second issue was whether to respond to individual diversity through institutional diversification or in the “common education” setting. Regarding the first issue, the study clarified that even if there was a possibility of stratification, it was likely to be justified if it was “another place of learning” for children with difficulties. Regarding the second issue, evidently, there are divergent positions on whether a “common education” setting is essential for learning the ethics of symbiosis.

Second, we examined how these issues have been addressed in the debate on inclusion in the school system. In those discussions, responding to individual diversity with a continuous “another place of learning” and rethinking the nature of the regular school/classroom had to be pursued simultaneously. The study clarified that the boundary between “another place of learning,” and the regular school/classroom had to be constantly reviewed.

Finally, in the discussion on equity in the school system, we examined what activities and actions “constant review” implies. This means that the adults and children around them not only respond to the obvious needs of the child with difficulties but also try to hear the voices that are difficult to express. It also intended to allocate resources to enable a review of learning places and the educators’ own involvement based on their needs and the voices they heard. It also reviews structural injustices and dominant cultures at the group level.

The first implication of the above discussion is the need for the majority and those in power to listen to the voices of those who have been disadvantaged because of their heterogeneity and diversity within individual schools and organizations. Second, there is a need to consciously create opportunities to learn about the ethics of symbiosis and constantly review the system of inclusion once it has been decided, rather than regarding it as absolute as there is always the possibility of stratification when the response to their voices is institutionalized.

The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the professionalism required of teachers in the context of recent reforms in teacher supply and demand, teacher training, and school governance, from the perspective of democratic educational management.

With the emphasis on individualized and optimal learning and the need for collaboration between schools and other institutions, the number of stakeholders involved in decision-making in schools will increase. It is becoming increasingly difficult to ensure the appropriateness and fairness of the professional judgments made by teachers through conventional, democratic decision-making procedures alone. Therefore, I focused on the “risk” response, which emphasizes deliberation by various stakeholders, and deepened our discussion of issues and research perspectives for maintaining the appropriateness and fairness of professional judgment by teachers with reference to related discussions.

First, some issues related to school decision-making were discussed. Taking a cue from the trend at school sites regarding the mandatory establishment of school management councils, I pointed out that the tendency to emphasize the use of outsiders to support schools rather than consultation to adjust the values and interests of various stakeholders may lead to neglect of democratic decision-making in educational administration and school management, and ultimately to a neglect of professionalism by the teaching profession.

Next, I focused on the debate within and outside of pedagogy on how to deal with “risk”, which is often discussed in relation to “deliberation” and examined the significance and problems of “deliberation” which developed between the teaching profession and various stakeholders from the perspective of ensuring “fairness” in risk recognition and risk assessment in the midst of the demand for individual optimization.

Based on these discussions, I discussed the current issues that educational administration should face in relation to the professionalism required of the teachers.

What I aim to emphasize in this paper is that under today’s policy trends, which call for “personalized and optimal” education, there may be situations in which “deliberation” among the parties involved is necessary but difficult to establish. In such an environment, if we refer to the discussion on how to respond to “risk” to ensure appropriate decisions based on the expertise of the teaching profession, the question is how to “accept” and respond to “risk” distributed among people, and decision-making based on “deliberation” among stakeholders is essential. In other words, decision-making based on “deliberation” among stakeholders is essential. It is a tentative conclusion of this paper that people’s agreement is not necessarily supported by “authority” within the organization or a certain scientific basis. If so, the mission and identity of educational administration as a “discipline” in considering the professionalism of the teaching profession can be found in how elaborately it captures the “politics” that exist among the various stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the role of the district central office in creating democratic schools by analyzing the transformation of the duties and the contents of professional standards for principal supervisors in the United States. In this paper, the word democratic school is used for referring to a school which is supported and defends the concept of American democracy. Recently, American democracy has been facing critical situations and the spread of disconnection has posed new challenges to the public schools. In such situation, how can a district central office create democratic schools?

This paper addressed the following three issues. First, I confirmed the meaning of American democracy and reviewed the latest topics on the crisis situations concerned with it, especially by focusing the movement after the 2010s. Second, I reviewed the meaning and contents of the concept of instructional leadership and clarified how the relationship between the principal and principal supervisor was being built to achieve the shared idea of improving and enhancing the quality of the teaching and learning that students would have taken. Third, I discussed the issues to create democratic schools in the United States by analyzing how the contents related to cultural diversity which is one of the important components of American democracy would have been understood and valued in the duties and the professional standards for principal supervisors.

This paper clarified the following three points as results of the analysis. First, since the 2010s, the whole of society and the public education system in the United States have lost the flexibility and tolerance with diversity, particularly cultural diversity. It is a challenge to American democracy which is a fundamental value and principle in the United States, so it is an important issue on teaching and learning in a school and educational administration how to overcome such critical situations. Second, while the role of the district central office as a lever for whole district improvement had been paid attention to, the expectation on the principal supervisor who has a role to supervise the principal (s) has been raised. The keys of their supervision are adapting a job-embedded approach and making Community of Practice (CoP) of principals. Third, there is a coherent idea through the entire system. The idea of the importance of exercising instructional leadership is shared by each professional standards for teachers, principals and principal supervisors. This will make it possible to develop initiatives throughout the system with unity.

However, as a result of the analysis, it is suggested that the current professional standards would be inadequate in terms of responding the situational change surrounding American democracy. In order to overcome disconnection and create democratic schools, it would be a challenge for the public education system in the United States to respond to the diversity with various backgrounds, which is not limited of the minorities.

The purpose of this paper is to reexamine, in what sense, the recent rise of deliberative democracy can be said to imply the legitimacy of educational policies, referring to Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson's deliberative democratic theory.

There has been renewed interest in historical and democratic issues such as the creation and practice of “decent politics (subject)” related to participatory and deliberative democracy. In the political course of the postwar economic growth, Japanese educational administration has given priority to bureaucracy and professionalism rather than to responsibility to respond to layman control over the legitimization of education and educational policies. In modern liberal pluralist society, however, democratic politics must tend to deal with moral disagreements. There has been criticism of the self-righteousness, closeness, and formalism of educational administration, and calls for educational administration and governance open to society. As political citizens are emerging and growing up, the problem of the legitimacy of educational policies arise: “What kind of educational policies should be decided by whom and how?”

In previous studies, while paying attention to “power-based politics” related to educational administration, by focusing on accountability, participation, deliberation, and moral disagreement, “decent politics” as a democracy emphasizing communication has been sought and examined from the perspective of “educational legitimacy.” In considering the issue of the legitimacy of education and educational policies, I would like to restrain as much as possible the idealistic redefinition of educational identity to “decent politics”, paying attention to understand the realities and dynamics of educational politics. This paper, therefore, focuses on Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson’s deliberative democratic theory and democratic education which approach “decent politics”, paying attention to the problems of “power-based politics” inherent in educational communication itself, and reexamines what implications can be obtained for the issue of educational legitimacy in policy deliberation.

I would like to examine the legitimacy of educational policies, referring to their deliberative democratic theory which proposes a provisional, minimum democratic values setting for policy deliberation, distancing itself from value-neutral proceduralism and value-oriented constitutional democracy. If deliberative democratic theory has its origin in providing educational power with deliberation to relativize irrational and asymmetrical power-based politics, and if the dynamic of political values — for example, reciprocity, mutual respect, nondiscrimination, and nonrepression — for conscious social reproduction of our societies is left unquestioned, the feasibility of “decent politics” related to democratic decision-making of educational policies would recede, and it would also weaken democratic fairness of educational policies.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the policy transformation of the concept of Resource Room through an examination of the process of institutionalization of the Resource Room in 1993 in relation to integrated education. The general findings of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in its Concluding Observations report on Japan, released on September 9, 2022, noted with concern the persistence of segregated special education for children in Japan from the perspective of inclusive education, the fact that it makes education in the regular environment less accessible, and the presence of special-needs classes in regular schools. Japan currently has what can be called a Japanese-style inclusive education system, which is based on a special-needs education system and adopts a system to enhance “various places of learning with continuity,” such as regular classes, Resource Rooms, special-needs classes, and special-needs schools. This means that for future discussions on inclusive education in Japan, it is essential to focus on the interpretation of the concept from the historical process of the Resource Room system.

This paper examines the following sources for the historical background of the Resource Room system. First, the Tsujimura Report (1969), which was the first to publicly mention Resource Room instruction; second, the 1971 report (46 Toshin) issued by the Central Council on Education; and third, the Extraordinary Council on Education, which was established in 1984 at the request of Prime Minister Nakasone.

The results of the study revealed the following:

First, regarding the establishment of the system of Resource Room, the Ministry of Education, in response to the Tsujimura Report (1969), envisioned the prototype of the system in its 1971 report (46 Toshin). However, what actually promoted the establishment of the Resource Room system was the Extraordinary Council on Education's adoption of a curb on “excessive integrated education” and its recommendation for the enhancement of the Resource Room system.

Second, the arguments for Resource Room system regarding integrated education shifted from one year to the next. While the Tsujimura Report (1969) referred to the educational effects of integrated education rooted in educational values, the Extraordinary Council on Education shifted the issue to the expression of opinions on the integrated education movement that was actively being developed at the time. The Extraordinary Council on Education ultimately reached the conclusion that “excessive integrated education” should be politically suppressed. This means that the ambiguity of the concept of Resource Room, which could be taken as the direction of integrated education, was made to act as an explanatory keyword for the suppression of the integrated education movement. This conclusion indicates that the concept of Resource Room has been transformed into something quite different from what the Tsujimura Report once meant in the mid- to long-term, educational sense, namely, a political means to control the claims and actions of children with special needs regarding their educational placements.

This finding, which clearly demonstrates the significance of focusing on Japan's unique historical and political background, provides insight into the recently emerging issue of the differences between the concept of Transformation of the Concept of “Resource Room” in Postwar Japanese Educational Administration inclusive education as presented by international organizations and that of Japan's inclusive education system.

The number of non-attending students has been increasing in recent years. Although special schools for non-attending students play a significant role, as their number is limited, they have little impact on solving the problem of guaranteeing educational opportunities for non-attending students. Therefore, using Y Junior High School in X-city as a case study, we clarify the factors that contributed to the establishment of the school and the perspective which led the Board of Education to take the initiative in the process from the viewpoint of its leadership in forming a consensus with the residents regarding the establishment of the school.

In X City, the integration of A Elementary School and B Elementary School was promoted, and opinions were raised regarding the use of the A Elementary School building as a school facility, as a local community, and as a cultural exchange facility. The reasons for this were that A Elementary School had long functioned as a place for community interaction and a center for disaster prevention and that the closure of A Elementary School would lead to concerns about public safety in the area. The Board of Education consulted with residents and carefully discussed the situation regarding the school and the use of the site. After consulting with the residents, the Board of Education decided to use the former A Elementary School building as a “place of support. Based on the above, when the Board of Education made the final decision on consolidation, it heard opinions from the consolidation preparatory committee of representatives from both communities and implemented a trial practice. In other words, the X-city Board of Education took the initiative in reaching a consensus based on the local community's intentions and in making a decision based on that consensus.

The X City Board of Education established a special non-attending schools based on the high rate of non-attendance in the area and the “idea” of the superintendent. In other words, the former Superintendent of Education, D had a positive view of children as a driving force for social change and recognized that such children could be connected to society through special non-attending schools. If the role of special non-attending schools, which is now expected to be expanded, remains “one of the options” for supporting non-attending students, their impact on solving the problem of supporting non-attending students will be extremely small. In other words, special non-attending schools are expected to play a role in spreading innovative and flexible measures as special non-attending schools to other public schools in response to the public school system that does not guarantee appropriate education to all students, as indicated by the existence of non-attending students. The Board of Education, as the establisher of the school, is required to position and give significance to the special non-attending schools as a means of promoting public school reform.

It has become important to consider the way of school governance that repositions students as active participants in the decision-making process. While previous studies on student participation in foreign countries have explored the philosophies, principles and systems, we need further investigation on how students are actually positioned in the governing process, how much their participation has an impact on the decision-making, and what kind of conditions are necessary for the effective functioning of student participation.

This paper uses the case of Local School Councils (LSCs) of Chicago Public Schools in the United States to identify the realities and challenges of student participation, as well as possible determinants of students' influence on decision-making. Each LSC consists of the principal, faculty, staff, parents, community members, and in high schools, a student representative. As a specific example of the analysis, the study focuses on the decision-making at LSCs on whether to keep or remove the School Resource Officers (SROs) in their schools.

Specifically, the cases of two high schools were compared. In High School A, the student representative and most of the students wanted to abolish the SRO, but the LSC decided to keep the SROs. In High School B, although the position of student representative was vacant, the LSC tried to respect students' voices as much as possible and decided to remove the The Influence and Challenges of Student Participation in the Local School Councils in Chicago Public Schools in the U.S. SROs. There are a couple of different possible reasons that account for this difference: first, how discussions in the LSCs are structured and controlled by adults, second, the attitude and involvement of the principal, teachers, and other adults to support and react to the student voice, and third, the school climate that had been accumulating for a long time.

These imply that the influence of student participation is highly dependent on adults, who have more power than students in their power relationships. How adults create atmosphere and environments, how they encourage students' voices during discussions, and how they respond to students' opinions all affect how much students can have an impact on the decision-making process. In addition, daily interaction and relationships between students and adults, as well as school culture and climate may also influence the effects of students' participation. Therefore, simply inviting students to participate in school decision-making may not guarantee their voices being fully respected and taken into account. More research is needed to empirically elucidate the various possible consequences of student participation systems and practices, and the conditions for enhancing their effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the changes in the implementation of disciplinary actions for public school teachers in different local governments from the 1990s to the 2010s, focusing on the number and severity of the disciplinary actions.

Each local government holds the discretionary power to discipline public school teachers, and each locality currently operates its own disciplinary action system based on its own standards. In the past, disciplinary actions were decided on in reference to previous cases and examples from other local governments, but since the 2000s, each local government has developed and frequently revised their own disciplinary standards. As a result, there are now differences in the standards of each local government, which may have resulted in variations of disciplinary practices among them. This paper collects and compares the number and severity of disciplinary actions and the number of teachers in each year from the 1990s and 2010s.

The results show that in the 1990s, the ratio of disciplinary actions to the number of teachers was low, and the ratio of the most serious disciplinary action, dismissal, was low, indicating uniformity. On the other hand, the 2010s saw an increase in either the ratio of the number of disciplinary actions to teachers or the ratio of dismissals to the total number of punishments. This suggests that local governments have been punishing teachers more severely, but to varying degrees, and this has widened the differences in the disciplinary practices.

The changes in the disciplinary practices can be classified into five categories. (1) local governments where excessive punishments had been given in the past but minor punishments decreased due to the establishment of standards, (2) local governments where dismissals had not been given in the past but they began doing so due to the establishment of standards, (3) local governments where severe punishments increased relative to the reduction in penalties for speeding violations, (4) local governments where suspensions or salary reductions were few, with a tendency towards lighter punishments for specific reasons, which were corrected by the establishment of standards, and (5) local governments where the number of teachers who violate the disciplinary standards has increased due to the policies set by the local leaders and ruling party.

These changes indicate that the bias that had existed in the past has been alleviated because of the clarification of the severity of disciplinary actions for various types of misconduct through the establishment of the disciplinary standards. On the other hand, today, we find that the number of minor punishments is more uneven among local governments in terms of the ratio of the number of disciplinary actions to the number of teachers. This may be due to the fact that individual circumstances are more easily taken into account in cases with minor assessments, and local governments have more discretionary power to exercise. Nevertheless, there is no objective standard for how individual circumstances should be taken into account in assessment in any of the local governments. Since each local government has its own standard for disciplinary actions, it is accepted to a certain extent that the existence or inexistence of disciplinary actions and the severity of disciplinary actions may differ even in similar cases. However, the current situation in which the ratio of the number of disciplinary actions to the number of teachers differs greatly in cases other than dismissal may violate the principle of equality. Therefore, it can be said that centralized administration is required to establish a standard to prevent excessive exercise of discretionary power.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the operational realities of public correspondence high schools in “widely dispersed” municipalities, where population decline and school consolidation are progressing, and to clarify their functions and limitations.

In Japan, the high school enrollment rate exceeds 98%, and universal high school education is advancing. However, the number of high school entrants has decreased, leading to the reorganization and consolidation of public high schools. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on correspondence high schools when envisioning the future of high school education. This is because correspondence high schools, which do not require regular attendance, play an important role in ensuring educational opportunities in “widely dispersed” municipalities facing significant challenges.

For this study, I selected X Prefecture, a representative “widely dispersed” municipality, and analyzed the initiatives and operational realities of A High School, the only public correspondence high school in X Prefecture. X Prefecture consists of 179 municipalities, with a large geographical area and uneven population distribution, leading to wide commuting distances for full-time high schools and a trend toward smaller school sizes. In this context, A High School is collaborating with 32 partner schools to conduct educational activities. It has also developed initiatives in partnership with other programs and external organizations.

Given this situation, it can be noted that A High School functions to ensure and include educational opportunities for high school aspirants with diverse needs scattered throughout X Prefecture. In other words, as the only public correspondence high school in X Prefecture, A High School, guarantees educational opportunities for students dispersed across various locations through its various initiatives.

However, A High School faces two main limitations:

(1) The initiatives of A High School are significantly influenced by the trends in high school education policies focused on full-time high schools within X Prefecture.

(2) The legal conditions governing public correspondence high schools are still insufficiently developed.

Specifically, the regulations for teacher allocation are less stringent compared to full-time high schools. Given the increasing number of students with diverse enrollment motivations, such as those who have dropped out of full-time programs or have experienced school refusal, the current situation at A High School highlights the fact that the allocation of teachers to public correspondence high schools is not just a correspondence-specific issue but a pressing challenge for ensuring broader high school educational opportunities. Based on the findings of this study, it is necessary to establish a new high school education system that includes diverse learners, beyond the traditional model based on regular attendance.