In Japan discourse on public education is seriously polarized. Some argue that it is not only important but crucial for public education to cross system boundaries in order to overcome the complicated difficulties that have challenged its sustainability. Others suggest that because of the shrinking of the young population and the budget crisis, the fundamentals of public education are struggling, putting the sustainability of public education itself at risk. These people emphasize the importance of reinforcing inner borders rather than border crossing.

 This paper intends to contribute to resolving this confusion by applying Luhmannʼs concept of functional system differentiation to the historical evolution of public education to find the origins of its antinomy. This historical-sociological investigation will show that the birth of public education as an independent functional system heavily relied on the “infinite theory of human development” that constitutes the unconscious of modern public education.

 The paper first, in order to examine a hybrid situation without an independently functional system of education, focuses on the late 17^th to 18^th century “ancien regime” in France. At this time educational function was embedded in the Catholic Church. The work of the teachers allocated to each parochial district school (socalled “petit ecoles”) was controlled by Catholic priests. However, the trend of anti-Protestantism reform led to a gradual expansion of education focusing much more on the problem of inner faith than on ritual recitation.

 Next we turn to the discussion by Daniel Tröhler of “the educationalization of the world”. He points out that Protestantism enabled a fundamental change in how people interpreted and interacted with the world. People turned to the “educational reflex” to resolve the challenges the world presented them with. Protestant egalitarianism and predestination created for the people an “indefinite theory of human development,” directing their eyes to the perfection of their own inner world. Protestantism founded the underlying ideas of modern education, characterized by an open-ended system without specified goals of socialization.

 The pureness of the education system primed by the “infinite theory of human development”, however, very often prevented the sustainability of education. When the frustrated needs of people who were treated in “egalitarian” ways came to light, public education had to sacrifice its pureness, compromising on specific social goals. Antinomy was also observed in the case of the evolution of Dowa education in Japan.

 The transformation of the public education system has been discussed from various angles since 2016 or so, when the Act on Securing Educational Opportunities Equivalent to Ordinary Education at the Stage of Compulsory Education was enacted. Evening junior high schools, legally underpinned by this law, have been increasing in recent years, taking on more diverse forms as well.

 This paper focuses on school theory around 1970 as the starting point for the transformation of the modern public education system. An English-language edition of the works of Ivan Illich and Paulo Freire was published in 1970, leading to discussions around the world about “deschooling” and “conscientization.” In addition, practices such as free schools, alternative schools, and homeschooling began to spread in Western countries. These theories and practices spilled over into Japan, where education scholars discussed the need to make the public education system more flexible, to change discriminatory school cultures, and to create centers for transformative learning inside and outside schools.

 Around 1970, evening junior high schools changed their institutional positioning to become places of study for those who had not completed compulsory education. This paper focuses on two representative teachers of the 1970s and 1980s, IWAI Yoshiko and MATSUZAKI Michinosuke. Both teachers organized civic movements to establish evening junior high schools, and both formed active connections with learning communities outside of school, such as literacy classes in buraku areas (traditionally targets of status discrimination) and so-called ibasho or spaces for children unable to attend compulsory schooling. The educational practices of evening junior high schools during this period had a cross-border character that went beyond the framework of the typical “school”: they flexibly changed the content of classes according to their studentsʼ needs and worked to resolve the social discrimination issues faced by the students.

 Reevaluation of the above educational practices, conducted in the intersection of deschooling and school transformation orientation, is significant in the context of the ongoing transformation of the public education system and the incorporation of diverse learning opportunities within the system.

 Todayʼs public education promotes the involvement of non-teaching professionals with diverse groups and individuals along with collaboration with various experts, resulting in a transformation of the status and structure of the teaching profession and calling for the creation of ideas about the professionalism of teachers based in the fundamental discussion of school education. The purpose of this study is to show where professionalism of teachers is heading in response to todayʼs issues, through a principled consideration of the perspectives of education and recognition.

 The paper first identifies the characteristics of Axel Honnethʼs theory of recognition. Recognition can be understood in terms of three modalities: recognition in primary relationships, recognition in legal relations, and recognition in community of value. In addition, recognition is understood as an experience of lack of respect, not only when recognition is given, but also when it is not given. Specifically, this includes the deprivation of rights and dignity. In this sense, recognition occurs not only in personal relationships, but also in relations with others in general; structural injustice is latent in misrecognition. Here we see events and experiences in which recognition is involved injustice. Furthermore, Honnethʼs discussion of the democratic public sphere and education suggests that school education needs to maintain an interest in the realization of democratic will-formation and expand the possibility of creating opportunities to enrich interrelationships.

 Next, based on the theory of recognition, Krassimir Stojanovʼs educational argument for recognition was developed from the perspective of human development. Based on Stojanovʼs ideas, children and young people can transcend, for example, the limits of socialization in a particular family, if the structure of interaction in schools is characterized by respect and valuing as recognition and can create rich experiences. Structures of interaction based on recognition are therefore required in schools as a fundamental resource. These schools are important places for shaping experiences towards the possibility of new self-formation.

 Through these discussions, the paper identifies five characteristics toward which the professionalism of teachers today is heading. First, this professionalism of teachers is oriented toward creating educational places that foster autonomy and enrich experiences. Second, the professionalism of teachers is oriented towards engaging with structures that realize childrenʼs freedom. Third, the professionalism of teachers is explored based on professional autonomy. Fourth, this professionalism of teachers goes beyond various conflicts to realize education as human development and educational equity. Fifth is the professionalism of teachers possessed of pedagogy, which is found in the perspective of how social problems are reinterpreted in schools and understood in the context of education.

 Germanyʼs teacher education system, based on a tradition dating back to the 19th century, is rigorous. Candidates obtain teaching qualifications through university studies, probationary work and two national examinations established in the early 1980s for all teacher types. This study provides an overview of trends in teacher education reform in Germany. It focuses on the development of university teacher training courses, clarifying the characteristics and issues thereof.

 Germany is a federation comprising 16 states, each with the power to legislate education. KMK (the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs) was established to coordinate the different educational systems in each state. This study focuses on KMKʼs activities.

 Chapter 1 provides an overview of the report “Prospects for Teacher Training in Germany” produced by the Terhardt Committee organized by KMK, and summarizes the issues surrounding reform of the teacher training system at the end of the 20th century.

 While maintaining the traditional framework of the teacher training system, the Terhardt Report specified issues that needed to be addressed for each of the three training stages: university, probationary period, and in-service training. It also discussed teaching, education, diagnosis/evaluation/advice, and the promotion of school and workplace reform as the core of teachersʼ professional competence.

 Chapter 2 summarizes the reforms of the German university system and changes to teacher training courses based on the Bologna Declara­tion, the impact of the PISA shock on teacher training, and the establishment of standards for teacher training proposed by KMK.

 Chapter 3 explains the “Quality Initiative for Teacher Training” program implemented by federal and state governments to improve the quality of teacher training. A total of 91 projects were conducted between 2014 and 2023 for this purpose. In parallel, “Teacher Training Centers” were reorganized and improved to enhance the status of teacher training courses at universities.

 Chapter 4 describes the current teacher shortage and KMKʼs efforts to address it. Em­ploying unqualified teachers in German teaching systems is difficult. An intense debate is under­way regarding the requisite qualifications and in-service training.

 Finally, after summarizing the improvements to the training system made by the Terhardt Committee, the study notes that the German training system continues to develop within a traditional framework. The weakness of this system is that it repeatedly experiences surpluses and shortages of teachers. However, the system has become more flexible and has developed within this cycle.

 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.

 The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments in educational research in British disability studies, focusing on empirical research based on qualitative research methods, in order to understand the current state and achievements of humanities and social science research into the education of children with disabilities. This study will focus primarily on Disability & Society (DS), a British journal of disability studies.

 A comprehensive review of DS from the first issue in 1986 to 2022 reveals that approximately 150 education-related articles have been published. The paper reviews the major articles therein and discusses the characteristics and trends of educational research in British disability studies. The results reveal that disability studies concerning education have emphasized and relied on the subjective meaning-making and interpretive processes of school stakeholders to deepen their analysis of school reality. This suggests the possibility of and necessity for a research design in relation to children with disabilities in Japan that analyzes the relationships within schools and the interactive relationships among schools and other actors based on the subjective meanings attached to the actorsʼ actions.