日本における早期英語教育の導入に関する政治的言説の分析 : 1970年代～臨教審第二次答申までの動向

The aim of this study is to historically investigate political discourse made on English language teaching for children. This study particularly focuses on political discourse in and outside the Japanese Diet from the beginning of the 1970s up to the publication of the second report by the Ad Hoc Council for Education in 1986. In order to grasp policy-making processes in this period, this study adopted John Kingdon’s “Policy Window” model, which is based on the notions of three “streams”: a Problem Stream, Policy Stream, and Political Stream, and their coupling, which leads to an opening of a Policy Window. Particularly, this study analyzed the Political Stream, which is one of the dominant determinants of policy formation in English language education. In order to grasp the characteristics of political discourse, this study conducted two surveys: an analysis of the Diet minutes and an analysis of newspaper articles on English language education. Through the examination of these sources, this study has reached two major findings: (1) the Diet saw the largest number of statements in the late 1970s, which might reflect politicians’ increasing interest in English language teaching for children, and (2) there were a number of other “actors” which might have influenced the report of the Ad Hoc Council for Education, alongside discussions that took place at the Diet. More specifically, these other actors were the LDP’s Education Division, which took actions to change the educational situation at that time, and policy entrepreneurs such as political figures or business communities. After discussing these findings, this study concludes that there should be more research on the interaction of such actors and that we need to further analyze the networks organized by them in the process of policy formation regarding English language teaching.