著者
井深 雄二
出版者
名古屋大学
雑誌
教育行政研究
巻号頁・発行日
vol.12, pp.73-95, 2003-03

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。
著者
久保 富三夫
出版者
一般社団法人日本教育学会
雑誌
教育学研究 (ISSN:03873161)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.71, no.4, pp.448-459, 2004-12

Recently the systems of teachers' Long-term Study and Self-Improvement (LSSI) have been diversified. It is a desirable reform for teachers to increase the opportunities for LSSI. But the results of developing the systems without principles have thrown them into confusion. The purpose of this study is to identify original conceptions and principles of LSSI in the process of forming the provisions for study and self-improvement of the Law. I will examine the points at which our gaze is directed to discuss present systems of LSSI. The law which has been the grounded law for teachers' study and self-Improvement was enacted and enforced in January of 1949. It was noteworthy the systems for LSSI had been planned during the process of forming the Law. I investigated the three principles in the original conception. (1) The first one was the principle of freedom for LSSI. The demand and approval on person were prerequisites for LSSI in the original conception. As a rule they were recognized to receive the opportunities for study and self-improvement according to their study planning on subject and institutions. (2) The second one was the principle of recognition LSSI as teachers' service. I think that LSSI with the certain length of their service was recognized as teachers' service not leave of absence, but salaries would be partially provided taking the difference between usual service and LSSI. (3) The third one was the principle of the equal opportunities for LSSI. The original systems for LSSI intended to entitle not only excellent teachers but all teachers according to the extent of their service, such as seven years or five years. There are no existing systems of teachers' LSSI on the general ground. The systems of LSSI have not satisfactorily developed from enactment of the Law. In my opinion, the system with certain length of their service would be the most reasonable and realistic to realize these three principles. I would like to show the outline of the medium or long-term plan of reforming the present systems of LSSI as follows. (1) The certain length of their service should be seven years to ten years, aiming at ten years for the present. (2) The demand and approval in person should be prerequisites for LSSI. (3) The term of LSSI should be two or three years. (4) They should present the detailed planand report of LSSI. They should consult with the supporting committees of LSSI (a tentative name) mainly consisting of professors. (5) Salaries should be basically provided in full, even though partial payment could be made under certain circumstances, etc. It is most important, I think, that teachers should research on the systems of LSSI and petition them in order to reform them.
著者
吉田 美穂 Miho YOSHIDA 神奈川県立田奈高等学校 Kanagawa Prefectural Tana Senior High School
出版者
東洋館出版社
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.77, pp.47-67, 2005-11-15

The purpose of this study is to clarify the internal structure and dynamism of teachers' culture and its interactions with the outside world, by analyzing a survey of teachers' attitudes towards teaching evaluations by students, carried out for all public high school teachers in Kochi Prefecture in 2004. Previous studies in the field of educational sociology have pointed out the following properties of teachers as a group, which demonstrate an introverted and pro-status quo nature : exclusiveness, conservatism, nonintervention, and the prioritization of harmony with colleagues. On the other hand, some recent studies in the field of educational administration argue that collaboration between teachers can contribute to the improvement of schools. However these various properties are only described independently, and there has not been sufficient clarification of the relations among them within the reality of teachers as a group. For example, what is the relationship between collaboration and placing priority on harmony? Recent policies for educational reform have aimed at changing the conservative culture of teachers. Unless we have an adequate understanding of the internal structure and dynamism of teachers' culture, however, we cannot decide which strategy is better. There is a need to clarify its internal structure and dynamism. To elucidate the problem mentioned above, firstly, this paper presents the results of an attitude survey conducted by questionnaire targeting all teachers in public high schools in Kochi prefecture. The reason I chose Kochi is that it is one of Japan's most advanced prefectures in the area of teaching evaluations by students, which have been introduced during the past several years in Japan. Secondly, from these surveys, I extract six factors of school organizational culture by factors analysis, and search for causal relationships between these factors and teachers' attitudes towards teaching evaluation by multivariate analysis. Thirdly, based on these findings, I discuss the internal structure of teachers' culture. The paper reaches the following conclusions : (1) The organizational culture of a school has a greater effect on each teacher's awareness or attitudes toward educational reforms than their individual attributes. (2) Collaboration by teachers' groups needs to be divided into two properties : democratic collaboration and collaboration for improvement. (3) Democratic collaboration is the basis for collaboration for improvement, which make it possible for teachers to transform themselves; on the other hand, there is some possibility of it leading to exclusiveness, conservatism and nonintervention. (4) In order to foster collaboration for improvement on the basis of democratic collaboration, there is a need to escape from nonintervention through the building of friendly relationships and promotion of the redundancy of information, and to avoid conservatism and exclusiveness by the achievement of open management with adequate communications between administrators and ordinary teachers. (5) The properties of teachers as a group that have been mentioned in the past, such as exclusiveness, conservatism and nonintervention, should be understood within a variety of dimensions, based on the factors of organizational culture mentioned above, and on this basis, different appropriate strategies should be devised for solutions.
著者
久保田 真功 Makoto KUBOTA 広島大学大学院 Graduate School Hiroshima University
出版者
東洋館出版社
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.74, pp.249-268, 2004-05-20

This paper examines whether the coping behaviors of bullied children can provide effective alternatives to bullying. In addition, the coping behaviors of bullied children are considered to be attempts to modify the stigmatic labels given by gangs of bullies. The subjects are 625 pupils in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. The findings are as follows : (1) The majority of bullied children take actions to cope with bullying in some way, such as consulting with others or trying to solve things themselves. This result suggests that bullied children are not simply nonresistant and passive existence to bullying. (2) There is a close relationship between the coping behaviors of bullied children and the reasons why the bullying ends. This result suggests that the coping behaviors of bullied children can become an opportunity for putting an end to bullying. (3) The number of supporters of bullying and the kinds of bullying affect the duration of bullying, but the coping behaviors of bullied children do not affect the period of bullying. The coping behaviors of bullied children can become an opportunity to end bullying, but do not contribute to an early solution to bullying. These results show that even if bullied children attempt to modify the stigmatic labels given by gangs of bullies, the success or failure is not decided by their coping behaviors but rather by the reaction to these coping behaviors of the children in the area surrounding the bullying. This paper reconfirmed the importance of providing instruction to children in the area surrounding the bullying.
著者
佐藤 全 松澤 杏 Akira SATO Kyou MATSUZAWA 日本女子大学 日本女子大学附属豊明小学校 Japan Women's University Houmei Elementary School attached to Japan Women's University
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.72, pp.95-105, 2003-05-25

In Japan, municipal boards of education evaluate public school teachers, who are local public servants, under plans set by the prefectural boards of education. All of the prefectural boards of education enacted this teacher evaluation system about 45 years ago, but in 2000 Tokyo abolished this system (System I) and adopted a new performance appraisal system (System II). This paper aimed to extract the characteristic and the problem by examining each policy process about System I and System II. For the categorization of the policy process, two models are adopted from the results of research by Michio Muramatsu. One is the vertical administrative management model, followed by unitary influence. The other is the horizontal political competing model, followed by multi influence. The following conclusions were obtained. It is the common feature seen in System I and System II that original motive was not from only educational matters and the prefectural board of education did not accomplish the policy making duty due to the educational bureaucrat including the superintendent. It can be confirmed that the teacher evaluation policy is shifting from the vertical administrative management model to the horizontal political competing model. It was found during the decision process of System II that an administrative staff exercised individual influence power without being buried in bureaucracy. The teacher policy of the prefectural board of education starts on a new evaluation policy though the policy assessment of a present evaluation system is not passed. It is necessary to evaluate the teacher evaluation policy from the viewpoint of offering suitable and good quality teaching to the student.
著者
清水 睦美 Mutsumi SHIMIZU 東京大学大学院 Graduate School Tokyo University
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.63, pp.137-156, 1998-10-20
被引用文献数
1

This paper is an ethnographic study on the teaching practice of an elementary school teacher. Teacher's activities in the classroom are analyzed as strategies which are ways of achieving a variety of goals such as survival, classroom control and so on.In this pape r, I analyze strategies used to achieve teacher's pedagogical goals, which I call them "pedagogical strategies." One of these strategies is teacher's behavior, or more specifically, how the teacher situated himself in relation to the students in order to achieve his pedagogical goals. My informant's pedagogical goals are to create his ideal classroom setting and to understand his pupils. His behavior for achieving these goals in the classroom takes various forms. In my research, I identify five kinds of teacher behavior. The first kind is where the teacher acts as if he is the same as the pupils. The second kind is where the teacher leaves classroom activities up to the students. The third kind is where the teacher disciplines pupils. However this kind of behavior is prevented by a certain dilemma and is left incomplete. The fourth kind is where the teacher coordinates the interests and demands of the pupils or of the teacher and pupils. Through this behavior, the teacher leads pupils to mutual agreement on the content and enactment of classroom activities. The last kind is where the teacher guides pupils in classroom activities.Here, the teacher presents students with activities that are required by the educational institution rather than by teacher or pupil demands. These results suggest that if the teacher tends to avoid stating his demands, teacher-pupil relationship does not have to be oppositional. If we take into account the physical, mental and institutional distinctions between teacher and pupils, teacher-pupil relationship is oppositional. However, by using institutional advantage, the teacher tries to avoid an oppositional relationship between himself and pupils and to behave as if he is equal with the students.
著者
稲垣 恭子 Inagaki Kyoko 滋賀大学 Shiga University
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.45, pp.123-135, 1989-10-01

Traditional research about classroom interaction failed to understand interaction "as a source of meaning", and as a result, could not make clear the significance of the study. Some studies, including Furlong's analysis of interaction set and Woods's study of strategy, are remarkable in that they do not adopt an internalization model and analyse the meanings of the situation-depended actions according to the actor's own purpose or interest. The study by D.L. Wieder on the "Convict Code" is more illuminating. Using the Convict Code, he dynamically analysed the interaction between convicts and their staff in the halfway-house and described the mechanism of the construction and maintenance of institutional order. Based on this S, this paper focuses on the interpretation framework ("Pupil Code") by which teachers and pupils cooperatively interpret their actions and maintain classroom order. Focusing on Pupil Code, I chose one junior high classroom, and analysed the process of the classroom order which is generated and is maintained through teacher-pupil interpretation of their action. The analysis shows that interpretations of classroom behaviors by Pupil Code formulate the teacher-pupil relation which enlarges the distance between teachers and pupils, and that such a teacher-pupil relation constructs the basis of the classroom order. On the basis of premises of previous research, this conclusion, that is, that classroom order is maintained by making distance (not getting close) between teachers and pupils, and that it is ceacelessly maintained through teacher-pupil interaction itself, is paradoxical.
著者
山本 雄二 Yamamoto Yuji 関西大学 Kansai University
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.43, pp.70-83, 1988-10-03

P. Willis's Learning to Labour is one of the most important books in the field of sociology of education. In this book, he attempts to explain how working class kids get working class jobs and why they let themselves. To answer this question, he adopts an ethnographical approach which elucidates what happens to them in school. By setting two classes a priori outside the text (=his ethnography), he takes out some traits of working class culture in which working class kids willingly select manual labour. With his approach, he loses some possibilities of interpretation that lead us to see the text as a whole world in its own right. Therefore, this paper attempts to read the text without setting concepts for explanation such as "class" outside the text. It is contended that this text can be read as a story of self-discipline. Self-discipline can be defined by saying that the temporary self is not a "real self" and that one has to deny oneself to aim at a "real self". Willis's framework of the actors, that is, ear'oles, lads, and teachers may be interpreted in the following manner. Ear'oles, committed to self-discipline, have no concrete culture while lads, being far from self-disciplined, are integrated into a concrete group culture. This difference causes gaps between the two groups in the way they define themselves. Ear'oles cannot define themselves but in contrast lads believe themselves to be complete. Teachers, agents of self-discipline, feel ambivalent towards both ear'oles and lads. The Distinction betwetn self-discipline and two other similar notions -"individualism" by Willis and "internalized norms" by Bowles & Gintis, are made clear in the final part of the paper. Self-discipline, as the ethos of modern education, helps us not only understand the relations among members in school but also causes us to reconsider what modern education is about.
著者
江原 武一 Ehara Takekazu 京都大学 Kyoto University
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.43, pp.56-69, 1988-10-03

This paper seeks to trace the teacher education system since the Meiji era in Japan and clarify the characteristics and pressing problems of present-day teacher education in Japanese higher education. Teacher edutation for elementary school teachers at the higher education level began in 1943, when "The Law for Normal Schools and Higher Normal Schools Amendment" was enacted. It was, however, only implemented after the Second World War under the newly legislated education laws. The idea of teacher education in the postwar period consists of the following three princibles : "teacher education at the university", "the open system of teacher education" and "an emphasis on in-service teacher training". The first principle means that, as a rule, all candidates for the teaching profession are trained in four-year (new-system) universities. The second means that students, both at teachers' colleges and at other general higher educational institutions could obtain teacher's licences, if they obtain the required basic qualifications and credits. The final principle has been emphasized especially after the 1970s. The first two principles have been steadily realized in the Japanese teacher education system in the past forty years. Among full-time teachers at the upper secondary level and below, the proportion of university graduates in 1983 stood at 79.4% in senior high schools, 74.5% in junior high schools, 58.0% in elementary schools, and 9.1% in kindergartens. 78.3% of teachers in kindergartens graduated from junior colleges. We also see that the proportion of non-teachers' college graduates among the full-time teaching staff who entered into those schools in 1987 was 57.3% (four-year non-teachers' college graduates 27.8%, junior college graduates 29.5%). At the same time, however, some pressing problems have arisen. They are (1) the relative degradation in social status of the teaching profession among modern occupations, (2) the difficulty of keeping the balance of supply and demand, (3) the failure to establish a systematic teacher education curriculum in higher education, and (4) related problems such as lower standards of programs compared to those of other professional education. What is needed now for teacher education reform is the development of an educational theory which synthesizes both pre-service and in-service teacher training processes in a broader perspective, making it possible to reconstitute the roles and functions of higher education in teacher education.
著者
永井 聖二 Nagai Seiji 群馬大学 Gunma University
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.43, pp.45-55, 1988-10-03

Since the 1970's, teacher professionalism has been criticized because of its consensual optimism, elitism and similarity to cultural reproduction. In this paper, I comment on the organizational traits of the school, that is, school is an organization which functions with vague organizational goals. In accordance with the traits of schools, teachers are required to conduct their everyday teaching activities, which have vague organizational goals, by their own volition and using their creativity. In addition, it is important to note that the school in Japan must be regarded as integrated not institutionally but culturally through the process of vocational socialization, allocation of resources and manipulation of symbols. In such an organizational situation, teacher professionalism must be reconsidered in relation to its invisible control over teachers based upon teachers' culture. According to this viewpoint, the problem is that the traits of teachers' culture -that is, collectivism as well as egalitarianism, and the paradigm of the school organization may easily congeal. Consequently, in this situation, the invisible control brought about by overemphasizing the autonomy based upon teacher professionalism may lead to a justification of the status quo and preventing innovations to take place in the school.
著者
杉尾 宏 Sugio Hiroshi 兵庫教育大学 Hyogo University of Education
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.43, pp.31-44, 1988-10-03

This paper proposes that the definition of the situation should be a central concept to the sociological investigation of teachers' behaviours and that the theory of the teachers' working process should be built to locate the teachers' educational behaviours in the public educational system within the capitalistic socio-economic structure. The role and role-conflict is negatively examined in terms of its conceptual ambiguity and its human and social model. The definition of the situation proceeds from the classification and categorizing of the immediate events (1st phase) to the evaluation of the 1st phase, and to the planning of the actions and its legitimation (2nd phase). It varies with the actor's orientation of actions (goal, intention, interests at hand), the actor's environment (material conditions, social and cultural structures) and his or her predisposition (identity, commitment, ideology). Sociological studies of teachers' behaviours have focused upon the teachers' perception of the pupils (1st phase), and their planning of actions and legitimation (2nd phase). Teachers' perception of pupils has been considered to be a problem of the teachers' typification of the pupils by H.S. Becker, D. Hargreaves, R.C. Rist, N. Keddie, G. McPherson, P. Woods, and other symbolic interactionists. The teachers' planning of actions has been approached in terms of the strategies by A. Hargreaves, P. Woods, A. Pollard and other new sociologists of education. The teachers' legitimation of their educational behaviours has been approached in terms of the frame, structure and structuring (H. Mehan, A. Edwards, V. Furlong, G.C.F. Payne) and in terms of the front performance or impression management (E. Goffman). In this paper, each aspect of the above described teachers' behaviours is examined and it is suggested that the exploration of the dialectical relationship between the teachers' orientation of action, their environment and their predispositions is needed to approach the process of the teachers' definition of the situation. Finally, it is contended that a macro-approach is needed to place the teachers' educational behaviours in the public educational system, because the teachers' educational behaviours are supposed to lie in the dilemma between the teachers' working process and the process of the man-power production loaded upon teachers by the public educational system.
著者
新井 郁男 Arai Ikuo 上越教育大学 Joetsu University of Education
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.43, pp.18-30, 1988-10-03

This article looks chronologically at the main teacher education related reports and recommendations submitted by government councils (mainly, the Central Council for Education and the Council for Training of Teaching Personnel) after World War II, and, based on an analysis of these reports and recommendations, points out some basic issues. Before the war, the main institution of teacher training was 'normal schools'. After the war, however, the normal school system was abolished and instead teacher training came to be conducted at the university level. It became possible for any institutions of higher education to provide teacher training programs, although universities specifically designed for teacher training were also established. At present, the basic level of education required of elementary and secondary school teachers is four years of undergraduate education, but the government has recently been planning to introduce a higher certificate which requires a master's level of graduate education. This means that the government places an emphasis upon formal education rather than on experience as a main channel of raising the quality of teachers. This principle is also reflected in the plan to abolish the system under which teachers with at least fifteen years of teaching experience can obtain a teacher's certificate of higher level without receiving any formal education at universities. The government, however, has also been considering a tpecial way which certifies those who do not hold regular teacher certificates but have knowledge and skills necessary for teaching. This plan is contradictory to the emphasis on formal education as the main channel for teacher supply. The government considers that the introduction of such a system could activate the ailing schools but it is doubtful. The fundamental issue here is whether teachers need only be knowledgeable in the content of teaching subjects or whether they need special professional education. This question was discussed by the government council formed immediately after the war, and has been debated since. The recent government teacher policy seems to be a compromise between these two extreme stances. It is concluded that more discussion and research needs to be made on this question. Otherwise, the plan to raise the basic qualification of teachers, even if it is institutionalized, will not function properly.
著者
今津 孝次郎 Imazu Kojiro 名古屋大学 Nagoya University
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.43, pp.5-17, 1988-10-03

This paper consists of two parts. The first part describes how the situation of teachers in Japan has changed from 1970's to 1980's. The second part points out what kinds of problems we have concerning the study of teachers. Firstly, the changing situation of teachers can be described from the following points of view: (1) educational expansion which was brought about by a high rate ecomomic growth; (2) pathological phenomena in education such as vandalism, bullying and delinquency which have been criticized by public opinion; (3) governmental educational policies which intend to improve the quality of teachers; (4) a political teacher union, though its menbership rate has been declining, which is against those educational policies; and (5) arguments with regard to teacher role and teacher evaluation. The changing situation demands us reconsider the concept of professionalism in teaching. Secondly, considering that teachers are facing the turning point, we can point out two major problems of the study of teachers. They are as follows: (1) The basic feature of the teaching profession is characterized by "marginality." It comes from a nature of teacher role, that is, the inconsistency between professional and bureaucratic-employee roles on the one hand, and the role of the stranger in the community on the other hand. This marginality is supposed to cause the role conflicts and the loneliness of teachers. (2) Teachers are learners because they have to acquire much more knowledge and skills, and change their attitude toward a new role in a world of rapid change. There are two phases in teacher education. They are pre-service training and in-service training and the latter is more important for teachers as life-long learners.
著者
油布 佐和子 Sawako Yufu 東京大学大学院 Graduate School Tokyo University
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.40, pp.165-178, 283, 1985-09-30

Recently, it has been pointed out that the studies about the process of schooling is very important. Especially since Pygmalion in the Classroom was published, it has been argued that teachers have much influences upon their students. However, in Japan there are few studies that refer to the relevance of teachers' perceptions to educational problems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the formation of teachers' perceptions for the analysis of the Japanese educational problems. First of all, I reviewed some American and English studies which are concerned with teachers' perceptions and their formation. Then I examined the variables which seem to be useful when the educational problems are analyzed. I pointed out the significance of societal prejudice (social consciousness) that shapes the perceptions of students. Nevertheless we couldn't perfectly explain the formation of teachers' perceptions in Japan from the point of societal prejudice. Secondly, I investgated two educational trends that affected the teachers' perceptions: 1) the transformation of school function, 2) specializations of teacher's work. In conclusion, I can consider that teachers' perceptions based on their students' achievements are formed under these educational trends.
著者
山本 雄二 Yuji Yamamoto 京都大学大学院 Graduate School Kyoto University
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.40, pp.126-137, 280, 1985-09-30

There are many articles about the conflicts or dilemmas with which teachers confront. In these studies, conflicts are treated from two aspects: the one is structural conflicts which include status conflict or role conflict (Ambivalence), and the other is conflicts on the level of action (Dilemma). They treat dilemmas, however, just as the restatement of ambivalences, that is, they do not examine the particular features of dilemmas. This paper focuses on the dilemma itself with which teachers confront in the face-to-face situation. Such dilemma should be caused when teachers find out no response from their students (situational dilemma). When one tries to resolve a dilemma in one situation, it might bring out another new dilemma. In some cases, this causes a vicious cycle. There are very few sociological studies on the features of such a vicious cycle and the mechanism by which it is created. This paper analyzes, using the concepts of "situational dilemma" and "strategy," the problematic face-to-face situation and the vicious cycle which comes out in the effort of the resolution of dilemma. Firstly, I describe the features of the dilemma with which teachers confront in the interaction with their students (situational dilemma). Secondly, I explain the significance of strategies teachers use as a means of avoiding such a dilemma. By using the concepts of "situational dilemma" and "strategy" as the core of the study, we shall be able to make clear the process of the reproduction of teachers' alienated situation. Furthermore, it should provide a new perspective for the studies of staffroom culture, occupational socialization and deviance of teachers.
著者
橋爪 貞雄 Hashizume Sadao 愛知教育大学 Aichi University of Education
出版者
東洋館
雑誌
教育社会学研究 = The journal of educational sociology (ISSN:03873145)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.35, pp.60-72, 1980-09-20

The supply of qualified teachers to compulsory education has undergone various difficulties since the end of World War II, and it was especially true during the period of economic prosperity in 1960's. But the situation seems to be changing gradually after this prosperity began to decline in l970's. The consequent "over-supply" of teachers can even be recognized these days. Main factors influencing this "over-supply" may be listed up as follows: (1) The comparative easiness for university graduates to get teacher licences (especially of secondary education) under the present Teacher Licence Law. (2) A steady increase of university graduates applying for government officials including public school teachers. (3) A remarkable raise of teacher salaries in compulsory education was made possible through the promulgation of a special law in 1974. School teachers are now paid more than average local government officials graduated from universities. (4) A longer leave given to female teachers after every child birth. This has made teaching a more attractive and secure job for female graduates. (5) The decrease of younger population expected in the near future and the consequent decrease in the demand for school teachers, although the total situation will be made a little easier by the long-range plan of improving class-size. Recent dicussions on teacher training have been more or less influenced by this "over-supply" as well as by theoretical opinions about education and teaching profession in general. Four viewpoints or trends can be identified in the discussions: (1) That any kind of teacher training should be given by a "university". This means that a teacher training institution must maintain an acadmic standard at the level as high as any other institutions of higher education. (2) That teaching even at the elementary level is a "profession" which can be trained and recruited only in a curriculum emphasizing the inevitable interrelation between academic study and educational practice. (3) That a more strict enforcement of regulations on teacher licences is urgently needed in order to exclude inappropriate teacher applicants. (4) That some "realistic" measures must be taken in response to the recent increase of teacher applicants. These four trends cutting across each other also form different opinions on the division between pre-and in-service training of teachers. Two examples, i. e. the so-called "peak system" in pre-service education for elementary school teachers and the student teaching are referred to briefly.