Japanese teachers consider clean-up time to be the group's responsibility, and they rely on the use of music and encouragement to make clean-up time an appealing activity. The children's positive feelings also may be partially explained by the fact that teachers consider clean-up time to be an extension of play, saving toys and activities for the…

By applying cultural-historical activity theory and expansive learning theory to educational research, this volume illuminates new forms of educational activities as collaborative interventions in schools and communities where learners and practitioners generate expansive learning so that they can collectively transform their activities and expand…

Recently, "Team School" (School as a Team) has been proposed as a new image of schools in Japanese educational reform. Team School is an organizational model where teachers and non-teaching professionals (e.g., school counselors and school social workers) collaborate in order to respond to the increasingly complex and diverse issues the…

This policy analysis will explore the prevalence and purpose of compulsory practical English courses for students across all faculties in universities in Japan. Special attention will be given to English courses taught in two non-English major colleges within a large private Japanese university in Western Japan, which since their inception have…

This article considers the academic and practical implications of culturally responsive teaching and whiteness studies for the studies and practice of immigrant education in Japan. By reviewing what has been found and discussed about the teachers' roles and their privileges in the studies of immigrant education in Japan, I argue that Japaneseness…

There is a hypothesis that Research-Teaching-Study Nexus (R-T-S Nexus) should be developed as an ideal of modern university constantly since its proposition by Wilhelm Humboldt in 1910. Despite given hypothesis, however, it has not been necessarily accepted by the AP (Academic Profession) in the world according to Carnegie, CAP and APIKS surveys,…

In this paper, the trends and issues of teacher education research and practices in Japan are clarified from the viewpoint of the digitization of the educational environment. This will be achieved through a review of the literature and policy documents on recent educational practices and teacher education. Firstly, Japanese teacher education and…

This paper focuses on English teachers in Asia in the context of globalization, the global spread of English and the emergence of English as an "Asian language." It highlights the dilemmas facing these teachers in meeting the growing social demands of English proficiency in a technology-influenced, managerial and neoliberal education…

Between 1918 and 1923, hundreds of schoolteachers disputed with each other. They attended (and some delivered) lectures, read (and some wrote) pedagogical journal articles, and met for study groups. They discussed which pedagogical method was more effective for an elementary school subject known as "composition"…

Numerous researches have demonstrated the enormous role of teachers in achievements of students. Educated and motivated teacher that cares about the success of students devotes more effort to preparing the lesson and thus provides the students better conditions for achieving results. The problem occurs when teachers are not equally qualified,…

As the speakership of English worldwide continues to grow, English language teachers are required to devise ways to prepare their learners for communicating successfully across cultures. As pragmatics is particularly tied up with culture, the ways in which individuals from different cultures will orient to pragmatic phenomena in their interaction…

Innovation is essential for the education sector. The ways in which curriculum decision making is organised reflects different implicit approaches on how educational systems pertain to promote innovation in education. Curriculum holds an outstanding place when seeking to promote innovation in education, as it reflects the vision for education by…

Since the 1980s, school bullying--"Ijime"--has been a major concern of educational policy in Japan. In Japanese schools, homeroom teachers provide guidance for students' psychological and social development, in addition to academic development. Homeroom teachers spend significant time counseling students, visiting their families, and…

This historical paper is an introduction to curriculum thinking in Japan. It discusses contested value frameworks that have exercised professional educators in the light of two "Western" interventions: (1) the modernization initiatives of the Meiji government of the nineteenth century; and (2) the policies that followed Japan's defeat in…

The value of "shibusa," a concept of Japanese aesthetics, is explored for Canadian educators confronted with a "high tech" society. The qualities of shibusa--simplicity, implicitness, modesty, silence, naturalness, roughness, and normalcy--have many implications for the Canadian educator. (SLD)