著者

片山 悠樹

出版者

日本教育社会学会

雑誌

教育社会学研究 (ISSN:03873145)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.83, pp.23-43, 2008-12-15

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With the universalization of high school education, problems such as bullying, delinquency and other behavior have manifested themselves in high schools. A number of studies aimed at understanding these phenomena and identifying the causes have been conducted, but there are few experimental studies regarding high school dropouts and this area has not been studied systematically. Most of the studies conducted in this area have focused on high schools themselves or the educational system, concluding that dropping out is caused by academic failure or non-adaptation to school. Dropping out is, of course, a phenomenon that cannot arise without schools, so there is a certain validity to seeking the causes in schools. However, it seems necessary to include other factors such as changes in the social conditions surrounding high school students. Existing studies on high school dropouts seem to lack this perspective. In the United States, where high school dropouts have been well researched, the mechanism behind dropping out has been discussed, focusing not only on school education but also on the labor market and the shifts within it. Taking this as the research trend, it is necessary to discuss the impact on the dropout phenomenon of changes in the Japanese labor market for high school graduates. The author believes that further study from this perspective will add new knowledge to the study of dropouts in Japan. The aim of this study is to grasp the mechanisms generating dropouts in Japan, taking the shift in the labor market for high school graduates into consideration. More precisely, it examines the correlation between the acceptance of becoming a part-time job hopper -free-ter- among high school students and the actual act of dropping out with the shift in the labor market as background. The research concludes that dropouts from the first year of high school were not influenced by the acceptance of becoming a free-ter, as typified by responses such as "I want to be a free-ter" or "I don't mind being a free-ter." however for dropouts from the second year, the acceptance of becoming a free-ter did have an effect. This can be interpreted as meaning that in the first year, students do not yet have a clear career path and even if they have favorable views on being a free-ter, it does not necessarily lead to the act of dropping out. However as the years progress and career options become clearer, a free-ter orientation can lead to the actual act of dropping out. It has rarely been pointed out so far, but the mechanism that generates dropouts may differ from grade to grade. These findings pose challenges surrounding the study of the phenomenon of high school dropout.