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This book focuses on the American professional standards for principals and analyzes the changes and background to those standards since they were created in late 1990s. Through an analysis of American cases, it aims to discover issues regarding leadership theory and practice for principals in Japan, and to find new leadership theories and future prospects.
 
In Japan, following a partial amendment to the Special Act on Educational Public Servants in 2016, boards of education, which hold the appointing power, are now required to formulate indicators and training plans for improving the qualifications of principals. In relation to the amendment, this book makes the following two points. First, although The Japanese Association for the Study Educational Administration formulated the “Professional Standards for Principals” in 2009, there is no evidence that boards of education referred to the standards formulated by this association when formulating their indicators and training plans for improving the qualifications of principals. Secondly, both boards of education and academic societies have a tendency to view principal leadership in a functionalist way. Researches on principal leadership in Japan have also been conducted within the framework of an order that positions the principal as a bottom-level manager in the administrative system, with the function of ensuring the realization of the administration’s educational goals.
 
In contrast, since the 1980s in the United States, various discussions have been taking place regarding the nature of education against the backdrop of social and educational issues, particularly the worsening disparity and poverty, and the increasing number of at-risk students. This book attempts to examine in as much detail as possible the history of how, after going through a stage where emphasis was placed on improving academic ability and accountability, ethical and moral ideas, including social justice, gradually became strong in an attempt to overcome poverty and inequality.
 
Furthermore, this book examines how, in the past, principals were expected to manage and guide teaching staffs and other related parties in order to educate high-quality human resources who will contribute to the development of national economy, but, now ,principals have become to be expected to assure a new type of leadership that reaches out to “at risk students” who have learning difficulties due to poverty or other reasons, by tracing the development of the professional standards for principals as they were formulated and revised and analyzing their contents.
 
On the other hand, in Japan, inequality and poverty among children have become major social issues, and how to respond to these issued has become an important issue in educational administration and school management. The leadership and qualities required of principals will require a shift from the managerial and functionalist leadership that has been practiced for many years.　The author believes that the history of debate in the United States discussed in this book provides a new platform for discussion on the state of education in Japan.
 
The significance of this book is that it clarifies the process by which new leadership emerges from the example of the United States, and identifies problems that are relevant to the current situation in Japan.
 

(Written by: TSUDA Masahiro / March 17, 2025)