城所章子, 酒井朗
『教育社会学研究』 78 213-233 2006年5月
The aim of this paper is to analyze how part-time evening high school students change the self-definitions which they have once constructed, and also to reconsider from a sociological perspective the educational significance of part-time high schools that contribute to this process of redefinition. This paper looks at part-time evening high schools, which have generally been overlooked in the recent reforms of high school education. These schools were established after World War II to serve young working people, based on the fundamental ideology of equal educational opportunities. They contributed to the universalization of high school education. However, in recent years the number of such schools has been decreasing. The students absorbed into those schools have been placed as the bottom of the credentialist hierarchy, and have been analyzed as such in sociological studies. However, part-time evening high schools are unique public educational institutions, organized primarily for a diverse variety of working students both in age and in career. Thus, it is very important to investigate the role they play as educational institutions for adolescents and what actual conditions they are in from a sociological perspective. This also leads to a reconsideration of educational reform. The paper draws the following conclusion: from the narrative of part-time evening high school about how they decided to make a new commitment to their schools and society, it emerged that they use various resources in the process of re-defining themselves, such as the distribution of time, and identity based on schools, occupations and other human relationships. Information also acts as a resource for them. Therefore, this paper focuses on the organization of resources: time, information, and identity (Sandra Wallman, 1984). Moreover the results of the analysis confirm that after entrance into a part-time evening high school, students gain wider choices in their activities as organizing resources. This is peculiar to part-time evening high schools. Therefore, through their personalities, the motives and sense of value of their own social, educational environments is realized as this paper closely analyzes their narratives as a process of absorbing organizing resources. At the same time the following two aspects that exist in the institution of part-time evening high school are obtained. First, there is an opportunity for education to get new relations and knowledge. The second and more important finding is that there are possibilities for self re-definitions as unexpected consequences. (1) Many students gain experience working. This makes them to reconsider the "inside" of the school. (2) There is a process of "symbiosis" which is un-artificial at school. Finally, students need the processes of self redefinitions through various interactions, from which for the first time they can shoulder their 'self-decision' and 'self-responsibility' subjectively. Through its examinations, this paper attempts to present one perspective for reconsidering educational reforms. Accordingly, it is necessary to continue to focus on this issue.