The Institutionalization of Higher Education Research and the Sociology of Education:

Abstract

The requirements for the institutionalization of academic disciplines generally include the establishment of an academic society for researchers, posts at higher education institutions, training systems for researchers, and job positions for trained researchers. Twenty years after the founding of academic associations for research on higher education, Japan has now established the institutionalization of the discipline. However, when compared to other academic disciplines, the institutionalization of higher education research has been given only limited resources. There are only four graduate schools that train higher education researchers. As a result, the knowledge and expertise of the researchers are limited, and their perspectives are often biased. In addition, the government-related organizations that deal with higher education policies and the administration and institutions of higher learning tend to hire traditionally-trained and -oriented researchers. This academic climate constrains the development of higher education research and poses complex problems and conflicts of interest. This paper will consider the role of the centers for innovation in higher education research with respect to broadening and improving the perspectives of higher education researchers. The differentiation in higher education research weakens any perspective that might capture university students in their personal development and makes it difficult to understand the higher education system, which is a sub-system in society, when compared to primary and secondary education, the world of work, and the role of qualifications. Furthermore, before the academic societies on higher education were established, goal-oriented research that is useful for university reform was stronger than curiosity-driven research. Pedagogy has a strong place in the national education system. Also, reforms premised on higher education research tend to be reforms that have been based on policies that had been formulated by the government. As a result, a trend where university administrators embody the government's policy has come to be called "reform" without taking into account reforms that faculty and academicians plan and promote independently. In order to support educational management not by faculty but by administrators, there are neither presentations of objective research nor even any presentation of research chosen solely because it supports the desired for conclusion.