Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to report outcomes of the study regarding the professional development of a Japanese teacher of English (JTE) helping her to meet the recent national English foreign language curriculum policy in Japan. The policy requires teachers to basically conduct classes in English. An action research framework was used. The participant, in collaboration with the author, went through praxis-oriented cycles built on planning, doing reflecting and revising. Data were collected and analyzed using grounded theory methods. A three-stage coding process led to the emergence of two core themes to encapsulate the data: Existing Positive Disharmonies (EPD), a disruptive zone leading to possibility of change; and Reconstructing Teaching Practice (RTP), in which the participant experienced changes that worked in her lessons. This led to the advancement in her teacher development to meet the demands of the new curriculum policy. The paper demonstrates that shedding light on positive disharmonies within teaching practices was useful in the participant’s professional development helping her to make instructional adjustments required by policy changes. It is plausible that the outcomes of this study may be transferable to teachers working in other similar teaching environments. Accordingly, a model for teacher development is presented to help JTEs and other teachers in their teacher development.
Highlights
In Japan, the recent teach English through English (TETE) policy of The Ministry of Education, Science and Sports Culture for secondary high school Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) has been controversial
The purpose of this paper is to report outcomes of the study regarding the professional development of a Japanese teacher of English (JTE) helping her to meet the recent national English foreign language curriculum policy in Japan
A three-stage coding process led to the emergence of two core themes to encapsulate the data: Existing Positive Disharmonies (EPD), a disruptive zone leading to possibility of change; and Reconstructing Teaching Practice (RTP), in which the participant experienced changes that worked in her lessons
Summary
In Japan, the recent teach English through English (TETE) policy of The Ministry of Education, Science and Sports Culture (hereafter referred to as MEXT) for secondary high school Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) has been controversial. The shock has been intensified because there is a lack of professional development aimed at helping JTEs meet the policy demands requiring a more communicative-based, student-centered classroom environment with social interaction-type learning activities mediated in English (Tahira, 2012). The TETE policy represents a difficult challenge for teacher educators in Japan (Tsukamoto & Tsujioka, 2013) as they try to narrow the gap between expectations of policy planners at the institutional level and what teachers are prepared to implement at the classroom level. Narrowing this chasm is where teacher development must play a role. Getting the participant to reconceptualize her instruction was robustly informed by the field of teacher cognition and the social nature of collaboration in teacher development
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