MINERVA Sociology Series 66 Kokosei no Shinro, Seikatu to “Kyoikuteki Categories” (High School Students’ Pathways, Daily Lives, and “Educational Categories”: Rethinking Secondary Education in an Era of Uncertainty

This book reexamines the research data and fieldwork conducted by the Osaka University Career Path Research Group (Principal Investigator: Takayasu Nakamura) on high school students’ career paths. Focusing on contemporary issues, we established the University of Tokyo High School Life and Career Path Research Group (Principal Investigator: Takayasu Nakamura) to explore the lives and career paths of high school students through a lens distinct from those of previous studies.
 
Previous research findings were compiled into the work “Processes and Structures of Career Choice” (Editor: Takayasu Nakamura, 2010, Minerva Shobo). However, some 15 years later, the realities have changed significantly. Various reforms have been promoted and implemented at the high school level in response to these structural transformations.
 
This study examines how the emergence of new institutional frameworks, established in various forms in response to this new era, inevitably calls into question their relationship with existing frameworks. New frameworks are often constructed by introducing categories such as system XX, course YY, or stream ZZ. Proposals for new practices or institutions tend to highlight their novelty by identifying categories that are distinct from those already in place. The question that arises, then, is how both students and teachers in high schools navigate a situation in which numerous categories, old and new, proliferate and intermingle. This issue is not limited to recent developments. Rather, it invites us to consider how, even in earlier times, those involved relied on various distinctions around categories such as “school,” “subject,” and “class.”
 
Take “class” as an example: the significance it holds for those involved differs markedly between primary schools, with their homeroom teacher system, and high schools, where subject-based instruction and course selection are the norm. In high schools, “class” may be emphasized in one context, while “subject” or “course” takes precedence in another. Thus, categories with educational purposes permeate our surroundings. These categories, which are not confined to the issue of career choices in high school, can be assumed to shape the awareness and actions of those involved. We term these “educational categories” and analyze their relationship to high school students’ lives and career paths, drawing on concrete survey data.
 
We hope this book will be of interest not only to researchers in the sociology of education and pedagogy, but also to practitioners engaged in high school education and to anyone concerned with educational issues.
 

(Written by NAKAMURA Takayasu, Professor, Graduate School of Education / 2025)