Decentralization gave local governments greater autonomy in planning and executing education policy. As a consequence, some local governments reduced class size and introduced original curriculum. This paper examined the political and administrative factors in municipalities that enabled some local governments to make original education policy. Following points are made clear in this case study of political and administrative change in Shiki City and Inuyama City. First, mayor played an important role in agenda setting. In Japan, local governments did not have the autonomy in making curriculum and deciding class size. Decentralization gave them autonomy and the mayor became the key actor as the mayor had the authority in making a budget. Especially it is important that the mayor has the power to negotiate with prefecture which has the authority in deciding curriculum and class size. Second, education policy is focused on in local politics. To put it concretely, education policy proposed by the mayor became the subject of heated discussion. Third, the number of inspection mission conducted by the other local governments to both the cities rapidly increased.

抄録全体を表示

The purpose of this paper is to examine the appropriate way of considering 'Competence' in preparing headteachers as a Reflective Practitioner. Recently the concept of competence has gained the attention as a basis of education and assessment. Competence is an ability to perform in the workplace resulting in successful outcomes. This concept comes from the recognition that acquiring academic knowledge and skills is not enough to perform effectively in the workplace. On the other hand, the reflective practitioner model has hold an important place in teacher education. So, whether and how can the concept of competence and reflective practitioner coexist? This paper is structured as follows under this question: Firstly, two main competence approaches in the U.K., Occupational Standards Approach and Personal qualities Approach were outlined, and two problematic assumptions were pointed out drawing on Eraut, M.; those were, 1. reductionism, 2. mastery learning; these neglect (1) the possible use of resources which individual people have, and (2) the possible change of situations. Next, in order to overcome these from the viewpoint of the reflective practitioner, the significance of the Dreyfus' expertise model, which focused on the quality dimension of competence, was proposed. Then, a problem of the model was pointed out; because of an assumption of the persistence of the same situation, it neglects the necessity of continuing learning to develop competence in changing situations and contexts. Then, to compensate that, an idea of 'capability' was emphasized, which was a source of the development and creation of competence. To sum up, what became clear was that the concept of competence and the reflective practitioner can coexist, and in considering reflective practitioners' competence, the viewpoint of lifelong learning, both dimensions of scope and quality of competence, and the idea of capability come to essential. Finally, some issues to be considered in future were noted.

抄録全体を表示