In this work, I consider how the meaning of schooling has changed as the process of societal “individualization” increased. Through reinterpretation of the changes in the framework through which the “reality” of schools is given meaning, this essay seeks to reconsider the focus on “individualization” that characterizes the school system today.
From the mid-1970s, schools began to lose the foundation upon which the very meaning of their existence was predicated, and it was a process in which the fictional character of schools emerged as a societal problem. However, more than just a problem of the school system, it was in its essence a reflection of the contradictions inherent in the “individualization” of education. The questioning of the legitimacy of the school system served to further weaken the school as a socialization mechanism, and also weakened the social consensus on education. In conjunction with this process, school reforms that emphasized “individuality” and “diversity” were introduced to schools, but these reforms had the effect of further fictionalization of the individual by thrusting the schools as well as the individual into market competition. These changes may have brought the slogans of “egalitarian personalization” and “self-realization, ” but in reality the contradictions of the so-called meritocracy were simply swept under the carpet. The school system served to justify short-term and nearsighted decision-making; yet the school system itself was considered a social imperative. As the foundations for the existence of the school system began to change, the school system, previously regarded as a pillar of society, began to lose its sense of identity. Amidst these changes, the issue of schools as a place in which to learn self-socialization as a means to cope flexibly with the subsuming forces of the market is becoming more salient.