コラム「The Role of Higher Education」

大金 エセル

More than 80% of the respondents in a recent nationwide survey on educational policy said they were worried about declining academic abilities among children. Japanese teachers and schools are no longer perceived of as doing a very good job of educating the young. And there appears to be increased criticism of the curriculum guidelines set forth by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology with 70% of the survey respondents saying they disapproved of the Ministry's policy of yutori or pressure-free education.

Last year, the results of a survey on the academic levels of students in 41 countries by the Program for International Student Assessment indicated that there was a sharp decline in Japanese students’ reading comprehension and math abilities. The study also reported that only half of the Japanese respondents felt their school had taught them things that could be useful in a job or helped give them confidence to make decisions.

As a college instructor, I share these concerns regarding the scholastic level of students and educational policies in Japan. Though as an outsider (read non-Japanese), I feel the need not only to be wary when making any evaluative comments but to allow for the possibility that every society creates its own functions and purposes for higher education. Having said this, I think it is very important to discuss the role of universities in Japan.

In the first of this series of essays by the faculty of the Department of International Business Administration, Professor Dennis Tachiki outlined what the department has envisioned as its educational goals and the specific foundation it has laid to reach these objectives. I would like to write in more general terms what the role of higher education might be in society, making specific references to the situation in Japan along the way.

What mission or goals should universities be charged with? In the received view of schools, institutions are recognized as venues where knowledge and culture is transmitted and given legitimacy. The dominant function of universities is an integrative one - young people are selected and socialized to enter and fulfill different positions in society. In Japan, universities and colleges are cynically seen simply as much needed breathing space for young people caught between a regimented routine of exam-oriented studies and a tough competitive search for employment.

Conventional wisdom on the role of education also positions schools as central to a democratic and egalitarian society. Schools are where all members of society can go for the opportunity to compete for better jobs and a higher standard of living. The public sentiment in Japan appears similar. The Japanese have invested enormous effort, and for those who can afford it, huge financial resources, in order to secure entrance into the right school in the belief that doing so guarantees employment in the best companies.

A critical view (one concerned with issues of power and identity) of educational systems theorizes schools as instruments of social reproduction; schools reproduce existing economic productivity relationships. Those who fail in the system are taught to blame themselves since society through its educational system is believed to provide the necessary opportunity and means for upward mobility. The integrative function of school works at the detriment of other more liberal schooling functions such as promoting the personal and moral development of the individual.

However, other critical stances argue that if there is economic reproduction in schools, it is most likely a very complex and tentative process. Schools are not just sites where individuals contained within an unequal social structure are produced. They can be seen as arenas where both reproductive and transformative tendencies are played out. Individuals can and do resist being put into peg holes.

It is, therefore, important to study the school and the classroom at the level of practice - where on a day-to-day basis, practices, meanings and social relations are negotiated and constructed. Individuals actively respond in myriad ways to the meanings embedded within institutions rather than passively accept such practices. Schools, teachers and administrators must look critically at everyday practices to develop the knowledge and the conceptual tools to begin to see where action can be taken for effective results.

Japan may be moving in this direction. Educational reforms begun in the 1970's and 1980's are becoming increasingly visible. Universities are required to assess their teaching, research and management practices, and a large majority of schools have begun self-evaluations. Faculty development measures to increase the quality of course content and teaching methods are also being put into place and universities are now subject to third-party evaluation procedures.

Universities cannot remain institutions to select people for the sake of state or to produce and maintain inequalities in society. Japan might determine that universities should be more concerned with nurturing the personal growth and discovery of students. Under the reasonable assumption that business and society will eventually benefit from the eventual participation in the workplace of creative and motivated individuals, Japan may decide to promote schools which provide for learning experiences and opportunities in accordance with student interests, needs, and abilities.

Perhaps, it will be found that schools, students and teachers do need to have some yutori - less pressure and more room to grow.

2005年2月掲載