Educational reform in Japan and its influence on teachers’ work

The 2002 restructuring of the national curriculum in all Japanese public elementary and secondary schools includes a reduction and reallocation of instructional hours, and the addition of a new “integrated studies” course, with an emphasis on more individualized, cross-curricular thematic projects. This reform comes at a time when a stagnant economy puts increased pressure on a shrinking youth population and on educators to obtain and preserve job security despite school closures and a weakened teacherʹs union. r accountability includes contractual, professional, and moral accountability at a variety of interconnected levels. While the curriculum reform rhetoric frames the benefits of the plan primarily in terms of national and community-level outcomes, the strongest teacher accountability mechanisms seem to occur at the prefectural, school, and individual levels. national and prefectural levels, employment- and training-related mechanisms operate to ensure compliance with policy. At the community level, collegial, and political ties also impact teacher accountability, but in ways essentially consistent with national and prefectural expectations. At the school and individual levels, teacher obligations to administrators, parents, and students begin to confllict with teacher accountability to those at higher levels, primarily in terms of the traditions and expectations challenged by the reform policy.