Assumptions and Distortions: Dore on Equality in Japanese Schooling

Ronald Dore’s work on education in Japan centred on themes of selection and equality. In his work on Tokugawa education, Dore presaged some of the emphasis he gave in his later work on quality and social and moral content in modern education. The argument of The Diploma Disease concerned the “late development effect” as a tool in understanding the emphasis on qualification and selection that led to Japan’s postwar examination hypertrophy, and in understanding the distortions and inequities that ensued. “Late ascription”—tracking and determining one’s life chances with a single examination—was one such distortion, narrowing the gate to educational and occupational success, belying the notion that Japan demonstrates a pure “meritocracy.”

预设与扭曲：道尔论日本的就学平等

关键词： 后发展效应；资格；不平等；遴选； 资历证书；现代化；民主。

道尔论日本教育的著作主要集中于遴选与平等方面的主题。在论德川教育的著作中，道尔已经先行讨论了一些他后期研究中所强调的现代教育的质量以及社会和道德内容等问题。 《证书病》提出应该把“后发展效应”作为理解对资格以及遴选的强调如何导致日本战后考试过度症，以及随之产生的扭曲和不平等的一种工具。”后期归属“，即通过一次考试就可以追踪并决定一个人的生活机会——就是这样一种扭曲，它将通往教育成功和职业成功的大门收窄，而这揭穿了认为日本抱持了纯粹的”唯才是用主义“的看法之不实。

Translated from English by Li Guo