The Quality of Compulsory School Teachers in Japan: An Analysis of Quantitative Investigations of Teachers’ Professional Development in 2011-12

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate a hypothesis about why there are no regional gaps in the quality of Japanese teachers based on the data of a 2011-12 quantitative investigation of public primary school and middle/junior high school teachers in three prefectures located in different regions. Based on this survey, the hypothesis put forth in this paper has been confirmed. The results indicate that interactions among colleagues in Japanese primary and middle/junior high school teachers’ teaching lives are homogenous and that the quality of experience related to professional development as a teacher is constant in 3 prefectures, regardless of the region in which their school is located and of differences in the jurisdictions’ boards of education. In other words, the professional development environment is standardized. Thus we can guess that there is a certain level of teacher competence regardless of region. The standardization of the environment of teachers’ professional development and the teacher competence can be cited as a characteristic of the Japanese teaching profession. If this is the case, Japanese children are guaranteed a certain level of education no matter what region they live in and can attain a certain level of academic abilities. This is presumably one reason why Japan achieves high scores on international academic ability surveys.