%0 Journal Article
%T Governance and Expertise in the Teaching Profession: An Analysis of Contemporary Japanese Educational Reforms
%A Hirofumi Hamada
%J ECNU Review of Education
%@ 2632-1742
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/2096531119853085
%X This article examines the Japanese teaching profession¡¯s position on current school governance reforms in Japan and the difficulties teachers are facing as the reforms progress. This article describes how a policy for developing teacher quality standards tends to suppress teacher independence while increasing the heteronomy of the teaching profession. The article discusses how Japan can meet its goal of ensuring ¡°expertise in the teaching profession¡± by referring to the relationship between ¡°professionalism¡± and ¡°publicness¡± in the theories of occupational sociology. Expertise in the teaching profession is based on a mixture of academic and practical knowledge. The term ¡°educational professionals¡± should be interpreted to include both ¡°researchers¡± and ¡°practitioners.¡± A sustainable governance mechanism for the Japanese teaching profession should be built on a four-way relationship among researchers, practitioners, citizens, and government administrators. This study provides a critical review of a broad-reaching educational policy and proposes a new approach for restructuring the governance of the Japanese teaching profession
%K Autonomy
%K Japanese education reform
%K shared governance
%K teaching profession
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2096531119853085