Engineering Equality: The Organization of Education Labor Markets and the Distribution of Teacher Quality in Japan
type: CreativeWork
description: This research is an organizational comparative analysis of how the structure of education labor markets affects educational equality. Extant literature on teacher distribution is centered on the U.S. and rarely assesses the influence of organizational structure. My research here addresses these gaps by studying a unique facet of Japan's public education system: jinji idou, a mandatory teacher rotation system governed by the prefectural board of education in which teachers are systematically transferred to other schools in the prefecture throughout their careers. Because jinji idou is absent in private schools, a comparison of the distribution of teacher quality among schools in the private sector with schools in the public sector produces a comparative design that increases my ability to credit jinji idou as a causal condition affecting teacher distribution. My research is motivated by four claims. First, teacher quality is one of the predominant causal variables affecting student performance, outweighing variables such as class size, student background, or spending. Second, there is an unequal distribution of quality teachers in the U.S. that disfavors poor students. Third, this unequal distribution is structurally based—caused by policies that encourage quality teachers to gravitate to affluent schools while less qualified teachers remain at poor schools. Fourth, Japan's public education system is more egalitarian than its U.S. counterpart as determined by the fact that Japanese students have more equal access to quality teachers than U.S. students. Following that, I investigate the organizational structure of education labor markets in Japan: how the careers of educators are managed and the effects this has on teacher distribution. I utilize a mixed-method approach, gathering original quantitative and qualitative data in both public and private schools. Qualitative data provide a detailed breakdown of the formal and informal policies governing this teacher rotati…
abstract: This research is an organizational comparative analysis of how the structure of education labor markets affects educational equality. Extant literature on teacher distribution is centered on the U.S. and rarely assesses the influence of organizational structure. My research here addresses these gaps by studying a unique facet of Japan's public education system: jinji idou, a mandatory teacher rotation system governed by the prefectural board of education in which teachers are systematically transferred to other schools in the prefecture throughout their careers. Because jinji idou is absent in private schools, a comparison of the distribution of teacher quality among schools in the private sector with schools in the public sector produces a comparative design that increases my ability to credit jinji idou as a causal condition affecting teacher distribution. My research is motivated by four claims. First, teacher quality is one of the predominant causal variables affecting student performance, outweighing variables such as class size, student background, or spending. Second, there is an unequal distribution of quality teachers in the U.S. that disfavors poor students. Third, this unequal distribution is structurally based—caused by policies that encourage quality teachers to gravitate to affluent schools while less qualified teachers remain at poor schools. Fourth, Japan's public education system is more egalitarian than its U.S. counterpart as determined by the fact that Japanese students have more equal access to quality teachers than U.S. students. Following that, I investigate the organizational structure of education labor markets in Japan: how the careers of educators are managed and the effects this has on teacher distribution. I utilize a mixed-method approach, gathering original quantitative and qualitative data in both public and private schools. Qualitative data provide a detailed breakdown of the formal and informal policies governing this teacher rotati…
author: Seebruck, Ryan
language: en_US
keywords: Sociology
date published: 2015
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:55:47Z
provider: University of Arizona
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Arizona.

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/594675