Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Primary School English Teaching Reform in Japan

Abstract

In Japan, following several other English language education policy reforms, English language instruction was formally introduced to the elementary school curriculum as a subject in 2020. This change affects not only elementary school pupils but, perhaps more drastically, elementary school teachers, who are now required to teach English as a subject in their role as homeroom teachers. This paper reports on a study of Japanese teachers of English enrolled in in-service training workshops, and examines the degree to which the teachers feel prepared to implement the new curriculum, the challenges they may face in their classrooms, and the degree to which they feel these workshops help prepare them to implement the curriculum changes. The findings suggest that while many of the participants perceived that there was a necessity for the policy changes, they recognized how their agency may be constrained due to a variety of factors at the micro- and macro-level. A concerted effort at the level of policy planning, teacher training, and curriculum design is needed to help teachers develop their professional identities to enable the necessary changes.