Reflective Practice as Professional Development: Experiences of Teachers of English in Japan 9781783096985

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Reflective Practice as Professional Development

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION Series Editors: Professor Viv Edwards, University of Reading, Reading, UK and Professor Phan Le Ha, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA Two decades of research and development in language and literacy education have yielded a broad, multidisciplinary focus. Yet education systems face constant economic and technological change, with attendant issues of identity and power, community and culture. This series will feature critical and interpretive, disciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives on teaching and learning, language and literacy in new times. Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION: 52

Reflective Practice as Professional Development Experiences of Teachers of English in Japan

Atsuko Watanabe

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS Bristol • Blue Ridge Summit

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Watanabe, Atsuko, author. Reflective Practice as Professional Development: Experiences of Teachers of English in Japan/Atsuko Watanabe. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, [2016] | Series: New Perspectives on Language and Education: 52| Includes bibliographical references and index. LCCN 2016031380| ISBN 9781783096978 (hbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783096992 (epub) | ISBN 9781783097005 (kindle) LCSH: English language—Study and teaching (Secondary)—Japanese speakers. | English language—Study and teaching (Secondary)—Foreign speakers—Japan. | English teachers—In-service training—Japan. | English teachers—Self-rating of—Japan. | Education, Bilingual—Japan. | Japan—Languages. LCC PE1130.J3 W35 2016 | DDC 428.0071/052—dc23 LC record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/2016031380 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-697-8 (hbk) Multilingual Matters UK: St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK. USA: NBN, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA. Website: www.multilingual-matters.com Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com Copyright © 2017 Atsuko Watanabe. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned. Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services Limited. Printed and bound in the UK by the CPI Books Group Ltd. Printed and bound in the US by Edwards Brothers Malloy, Inc.

Contents

Acknowledgements

ix

1

Introduction and Preface: Embarking on the Journey of Reflective Practice The Aim of the Study My Story Overview of the Book

2

Designing a Better Way to Learn about Teachers and Professional Development Reflective Practice as Professional Development Choice 1: Use a case study approach Choice 2: Use my position as an outsider strategically Choice 3: Accept that teacher cognition is accessible only indirectly Reflective Practice and Data Analysis Summary

17 20 21

Situating My Study: Reflective Practice in the Japanese Context The Case of Mr Sato, Pilot Participant

23 23

3

Reflective Practice in the Japanese Context Hansei: Self-Critical Reflection Tatemae and Honne: Japanese Conversational Conventions/Putting the Group before the Self Kotodama: The Spirit of the Word The Japanese Participants and the Reflective Interventions Journal entries Journal writing in the Japanese context Interviews

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1 5 6 6 10 12 14 15

26 29 32 34 35 38 39 40

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Contents

Class observation Summary

43 44

4

The Reflective Continuum Review of the Participants and their Reflective Themes Five Ways of Reflecting: A Working Taxonomy Description Reconfirmation Hansei Reinterpretation Awareness Conclusion

45 48 49 49 51 53 56 57 58

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Reflective Practice and the Consolidation of Professional Identity: Cases of the Novice Teachers Professional Identity Ken: Moving from Student Perspective to Teacher Perspective Speaking in front of a class Being stricter with students Kyoko: Teacher Role to Teacher Identity Expanding her students’ perspectives Sara: Expanding Professional Identity From ‘cold teacher’ to ‘expanding students’ world’ Summary

61 62 63 65 67 71 73 77 78 82

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Reflective Practice and the Consolidation of Professional Identity: Cases of the Experienced Teachers 83 Yoko: Gradual Reshaping of Professional Identity 83 Mr Sato: Perplexed with his Professional Role and his Identity 90 Naomi: Becoming Aware of her Mission 93 Whole person education 94 Miki: Established Philosophy of Teaching 97 A strong sense of agency 97 Multifaceted teacher identity 98 Conclusion 100 Exploration of professional identity throughout the career 100 Trajectory of teacher self: From role to identity to mission 102

Contents

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Teachers’ Awareness and Understanding: Exploring Teacher Cognition Teacher Cognition: Tacit, Complex and Dynamic Ken: Reinterpretation of ‘Atmosphere’ on Learning and Teaching Kyoko: Teacher Cognition and Professional Goals Teaching individuals vs. a group Reconfirmation of her goal as a teacher: Developing students through English study Sara: Expanding her Teacher Cognition Different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools Bring the world into the classroom Good environment conducive for effective teaching Yoko: Becoming Aware of Contradictions and Avoidance Finding contradictions among my themes Avoidance of what I do not want to be involved in Naomi: Learner Belief and Teacher Belief as Dynamic Constructs Miki: Becoming Aware of Contradiction and Compensation Contradiction in approach to discipline Becoming aware of compensation in ‘the use of the worksheet’ Conclusion Expanding teacher cognition through the practice of reflection Becoming aware of contradictions, avoidance or compensation Beyond the comfort zone The Reflective Interventions: Creating a Space for Expression Focus Groups as a Reflective Intervention Challenges of the focus group Journal Writing as a Reflective Intervention The three stages of writing Challenges of journal writing as a reflective intervention Interviews as a Reflective Intervention Reading interview transcripts

vii

105 106 108 112 112 113 116 116 117 119 120 120 121 123 126 126 129 132 133 134 135 138 140 142 143 144 152 153 155

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Contents

Individual differences in the interviews Conclusion 9

Implications for Professional Development Opportunities for Japanese Teachers The Action Plan: Japanese with English Abilities Teacher Training Seminars to ‘Brush up’ English Reflective Practice for Teacher Development Conceptualisation of Teacher Development: What is Teacher Development? My Own Professional Development as a Researcher

References Index

157 159 162 162 164 165 167 170 175 184

Acknowledgements

This book came into being through the efforts and support from numerous people, to whom I will always be grateful. First, I would like to thank the participants in my doctoral thesis study, who gave meaning and significance to the research upon which this book is based. My sincere appreciation must also go to Shirley Lawes, who advised and supported me through this long, and at times, arduous path. I am also grateful to Alex Moore, Terry Lamb, Masao Kanaoka and Ken Tamai, for their invaluable comments on my doctoral thesis; and to Sandra Gillespie, Audrey Morrell and Yukiyo Nishida, for their continual moral support. In the process of writing this book, I would like to express my gratitude to Shirley Lawes, John Fanselow, Sandra Gillespie and Noriko Sugimori, all of whom discussed the manuscript with me and helped me to clarify my ideas. I remain particularly indebted to Deryn Verity, who helped me to find my voice in the manuscript. In addition, I would also like to thank Anna Roderick and Kim Eggleton for their encouragement and patience in turning the manuscript into a book. Finally, I am indebted to my family for their unconditional support and understanding all these years, in particular, to Hironaga Suzuki, Tsutae Watanabe, Kazuko Watanabe, Naoko Ochi, Megumi Nakazawa, Kiku, Sasha and Baru. Last but not least, I must express my heartfelt gratitude to my late father, Mitsuo Paul Watanabe, who inspired and championed me to embark on this journey of reflective practice. Atsuko Watanabe

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1 Introduction and Preface: Embarking on the Journey of Reflective Practice Because we are forced to…. A teacher’s response to the question of why she and her colleagues attended the Ministry of Education’s professional development seminars

This book narrates my exploration of reflective practice as a novice researcher studying seven (one participant in my pilot study and six in the main study) in-service high school teachers of English in Japan. At the time I embarked on the study in 2007, reflective practice, which is generally understood as a form of teacher development that takes place through close examination of one’s own experiences and ideas in teaching, had received little attention in Japan. I planned to be as sensitive as possible to Japanese cultural conventions, while at the same time trying to avoid influencing the expression of the honne (real intent) of the participants and to distinguish reflection from the familiar Japanese practice of hansei (which is typically translated as negative reflection and is widely used in industry, education and other professional contexts). In the event, my exploration of reflective practice turned out to be very different from what I had originally expected. Beyond cultural conventions, I learned the importance of simply being a sensitive researcher (Mann, 2011). Studying human activity, I learned, did not happen through being a detached researcher who ‘objectively’ observed the teachers’ engagement in the study of reflective practice; rather, my interaction with the participants became an important factor in their reflective process. In addition, I found that cultural sensitivity meant considering local political and historical contexts, which are crucial to the introduction of any new approach. My journey through the study of reflective practice has its origin in a specific sequence of distressing experiences in my professional life. In the spring semester of 2003, I found myself facing regular difficulty in my English language classes at the university in Tokyo, Japan, where I worked. I was often nervous and tense and unable to teach good lessons, and I did not feel comfortable interacting with my colleagues. I knew something was bothering me but I could not quite pinpoint what it was. One night, frustrated, I sat in front of a computer and started writing questions to myself in order to find out what was bothering me; after about 10 rounds

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of questions and answers, I began to see the cause of my anxiety: I was in the process of applying for a tenured position at the university and this was influencing my teaching and communication with my colleagues. Identifying the cause of my stress did not solve all my problems at that time, but my tension was soothed by knowing that I had a legitimate reason to be nervous. I was amazed to find that a seemingly obvious cause of stress such as applying for promotion could be so hard to recognise, and, perhaps even more surprisingly, that the simple activity of asking myself questions could raise my own awareness so much. I did not know at that time that this self-inquiry was a well-established concept known as ‘reflective practice’. In the summer of 2003, a colleague and I were asked by our English language programme to lead compulsory one-day teacher training sessions for in-service public junior and senior high school teachers of English in Japan. These sessions were organised by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) under the action plan Japanese with English Abilities, launched in 2003 to foster the English abilities of Japanese nationals. My colleague (I will call her Hitomi) and I were asked to lead two sessions on the topic ‘How to teach writing’ to mixed groups of junior and senior high school teachers of English. Simply put, the sessions were a total failure. The participants were reluctant to speak up and seemed unmotivated about being there. They were hesitant to engage in the activities that we had planned, and they were reluctant even to move their chairs into small groups to talk with other teachers. Even when they did talk, they did not want to speak in English. So, not surprisingly, the sessions did not achieve even half of what we had hoped to accomplish. That one day of ‘training’ remains among the most difficult and traumatic professional experiences that I have ever had. After completing the sessions, Hitomi and I were both exhausted and, to be honest, surprised at our failure. Discussing the experience on the train that evening, we considered a number of questions: Why weren’t the teachers motivated? Why didn’t they seem interested in what we had to say? Why were the junior and senior high school teachers placed together for these sessions? Why did the education centre choose such a general topic – ‘How to teach writing’ – for these relatively diverse groups? Why were we, language teachers and not teacher educators, tapped to lead the sessions? (The education centres, located in each prefecture, are under the administration of MEXT.) We first concluded that the education centre, and thus we, as the workshop leaders, had not been well prepared for the compulsory seminars, given that they were conducted as part of a new and unfamiliar scheme, namely the aforementioned action plan, Japanese with English Abilities. The education centre was under severe time constraints to design the curriculum and find trainers willing to hold sessions just five months after the plan was

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announced. This pressure, we thought, may have been one reason Hitomi and I, who were not teacher trainers, had been asked to lead the seminars. Another reason for the failure of the sessions was probably our position as university-level instructors. Viewing English language instruction from the perspective of the university classroom made it difficult for us to create a rapport with teachers who worked in junior high and high schools. Our university may have made this rapport particularly unlikely, as it is unusually supportive of English language education. We were teaching in a programme where English was used as the sole medium of instruction and communication in the classroom. We were quite unfamiliar with the contexts in which these teachers worked, and with the different pedagogical roles assigned to them. In Japan, junior high schools and high schools are typically considered to be stepping stones to the next higher tier, either in education or work; teachers are deemed responsible for the success of their students’ progression. Teachers at the university level, on the other hand, do not assume such responsibility, being primarily associated with academic support rather than students’ career paths. Hitomi and I had of course reviewed the government-approved textbooks used by most of the schools in which our seminar participants worked (all textbooks used in public schools in Japan have to be examined and approved by MEXT), but without experience in the junior or senior high classroom, we were not familiar with or sympathetic to the wider contexts in which they worked. Their roles as English teachers, their teaching schedules, the wide variety of students they taught and the time they were required to spend on extracurricular activities were simply not on our radar. After the session, some participants told us, ‘This is a good idea but we don’t have time for something like this’. As a rule, the reactions we received from the participating teachers in general confirmed our belief that there was a huge gap between what we offered and what they felt were their needs. Not surprisingly, the dismay I felt after this experience led me to contemplate what I, a teacher of English at college level, could have offered to junior and high school teachers of English. In 2004, Hitomi and I were again invited to be teacher trainers in the same programme. Eventually, we conducted teacher training seminars for five years until 2007. After 2004, some changes were implemented, such as dividing the participants into junior high school teachers and senior high school teachers, and changing the topic of the sessions to ‘How to motivate students’, a topic with more general interest for teachers from diverse contexts. These changes, along with more thorough preparation on the part of Hitomi and myself, seemed to result in more active participation by the teachers. However, we still found the teachers reluctant to engage deeply. To gauge their sense of investment in the training, I started our sessions in

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2005 by asking the teachers the reasons for their participation, expecting responses along the lines of ‘teacher development’. However, the most common response was that they participated ‘because we are forced’, or because ‘the authorities told us to’. Beneath the teachers’ semi-humorous responses lay a profound reluctance to engage with us and a powerful sense of demotivation from being compelled to attend our seminar. Our informal findings that day echo the results of a questionnaire of in-service teachers conducted by Ashdown (2002: 124), which showed that 84 out of 112 teachers held negative experiences and impressions associated with in-service teacher development courses. Indeed, Ashdown was able to identify four categories of negative feelings about compulsory professional development events: they undermine a sense of professional autonomy; they are time consuming; they are isolating in that they tend to separate participants from their usual colleagues; and they are frustrating. Hitomi and I recognised all four of these reactions among the participants in our sessions. We speculated that such emotional responses might be attributed to the underlying assumption of teacher training in Japan, namely that knowledge is bestowed upon practising teachers by the trainers, regardless of the participants’ own possibly lengthy and always richly complex experiences as professionals. We began to wonder if there could be a way to provide professional development that would tap into the expertise of the participants. My thoughts went back to the self-inquiry that had helped me identify the roots of the severe anxiety I felt when under pressure from the tenure-earning process. Could self-directed questioning (and answering) be beneficial for teachers? When teaching does not go well, we teachers cannot always identify what is not working; we just know that something is not going well. Generating our own answers from questions that we ask ourselves may not necessarily solve all our teaching problems; still, the process could perhaps help to identify potential causes of difficulties and challenges, a crucial first step for professional development. So, I turned to the existing research, and came across the wellestablished term reflective practice. For the seminars in 2006 and 2007, I suggested that reflective practice be the topic for our teacher training sessions. We led two one-day sessions entitled ‘Teacher development through reflective practice’, in which the participants were positioned as both the owners and the providers of knowledge. Our experiences in these two years were quite different. We were able to give the participants an opportunity to develop their teaching through exploring their own thoughts, beliefs and values, that is, looking at teaching through the lens of teacher cognition and teacher identity. At last, Hitomi and I had uncovered at least one answer to the question of what we, university teachers of English, could offer our participants. We were not bestowing knowledge

Introduction and Preface: Embarking on the Journey of Reflective Practice

5

upon the teachers, but introducing them to a way of studying their own practice through reflection that they could continue doing well after our seminars had finished.

The Aim of the Study This book is based on a subsequent research study that I conducted to illuminate the relatively novel area of incorporating reflective practice as a development tool for in-service English teachers in Japanese high schools. Through a qualitative, multiple case study approach, the study attempts to answer my primary research question, ‘How does reflective practice work as a professional development tool for in-service high school teachers of English in Japan?’ In the examination of the main research question, the following subsets of questions are also addressed: • • •

What does it mean for Japanese high school teachers of English to reflect? What kinds of interventions can be effective in helping Japanese high school teachers of English to reflect? What are some individual differences and similarities among teachers in their engagement in reflection and what implications does that have for the wider implementation of reflective practice in professional development programmes?

I conducted a pilot study between September 2006 and March 2007, asking one public high school teacher of English, Mr Sato (pseudonym), to engage in weekly journal writing and monthly individual interviews and class observations. Informed by the findings from the pilot study, my main study was conducted from September 2007 to March 2008 with six Japanese teachers of English (Ken, Kyoko, Sara, Yoko, Naomi and Miki, all pseudonyms) who taught in public high schools. These participants engaged in a variety of interventions under my direction, including focus group discussions, individual interviews and journal writing. The purpose of these interventions was twofold: providing opportunities for the participants to engage in reflection and providing a source of data for me to analyse. To emphasise the aim of their design, I call these opportunities ‘reflective interventions’. The data were analysed in ways that highlighted both cultural and individual factors and perspectives. With regard to specific cultural perspectives, I drew upon my personal knowledge of Japanese culture and attempted not to influence the honne (real intent) of the participants while at the same time I tried to keep them from engaging in hansei (self-critical reflection), two cultural variables which I discuss in greater detail in Chapter 3.

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My Story At the onset of the study, I tried to maintain ‘objectivity’ as a researcher; however, as is often the case with qualitative research, the study evolved and the importance of my own interactions with my participants emerged. So, I think it is relevant to give my own story here. I was brought up and educated in Japan. My substantial learning experience in the United States started as a high school exchange student for one year and continued as an undergraduate student. I earned a BA in psychology from a university in the United States. As a psychology major, I was particularly interested in the ideas of Carl Rogers, and his client-centred approach. After obtaining my BA, I wanted to pursue my study of psychology in the United States to become a counsellor, but my parents urged me to return to Japan, so I enrolled in an MA Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) course at an American graduate school which had just launched a satellite campus programme in Tokyo. I started teaching English and taking graduate courses at the same time. After obtaining my degree, I taught at various universities as a part-time teacher, and became a fulltime teacher in 1997 at the university where I currently teach and obtained tenure. At the time I embarked on the present research study, I had about 20 years of experience as a teacher of English, mostly at university level. My teaching has been influenced tremendously by what I learned in my MA programme, especially Fanselow’s (1987) idea that teacher trainers do not train teachers how to teach, but that teachers learn through selfobservation of their teaching practice. Due to my continuing interest in reflective practice, I enrolled in a doctoral programme in 2005 to conduct a more formal investigation of how reflection could be relevant to the Japanese educational context. This book is based on my doctoral thesis, Reflective practice as a tool for professional development of in-service high school teachers of English in Japan.

Overview of the Book Chapter 2, Designing a Better Way to Learn about Teachers and Professional Development, introduces my research study design with a brief introduction to reflective practice within teacher development, highlighting the important contributions of reflective practice to the field: teachers are acknowledged as legitimate owners of their knowledge; teacher cognition contributes to professional development; and reflection is recognised as a productive form of professional development. The chapter elaborates on three specific choices I made: using a case study approach, using my position as an outsider strategically and accepting that teacher cognition is accessible only indirectly. It then positions the three reflective interventions (journal entries, focus group discussions and individual interviews) within

Introduction and Preface: Embarking on the Journey of Reflective Practice

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the reflective practice literature. Finally, it discusses how incorporating the participating teachers’ own insights by asking them to select their own reflective themes is a significant element of the research design. Chapter 3, Situating My Study: Reflective Practice in the Japanese Context, discusses how reflective practice is still a relatively new and under-researched area of study in Japan, and lays out my own position as a novice researcher. The chapter introduces the cultural conventions of hansei, tatemae/honne and kotodama, which I incorporated into the research design of the main study. The chapter also describes the challenges I faced in conducting the main research within this cultural context. The chapter closes by stating the importance of being aware of the attitudes and roles a researcher takes on, especially in interviews, when interacting with the participants over the course of the study. Chapter 4, The Reflective Continuum, introduces and explains what I call the reflective continuum, the non-linear and recursive journey of reflection that individuals travel in different ways and at different speeds. The chapter introduces five types of reflection: description, reconfirmation, hansei, reinterpretation and awareness. I argue that reflection is developed in unpredictable and very individual ways. The chapter presents my argument against categorising reflection in certain ways; specifically, I reject sequential and hierarchical taxonomies of reflection. The five types of reflection are employed in the data analysis chapters, Chapters 5–8. Chapter 5, Reflective Practice and the Consolidation of Professional Identity: Cases of the Novice Teachers, narrates the experiences of three novice teachers, Ken, Kyoko and Sara, in reshaping their professional identities. The chapter first presents a brief discussion on the professional identity of teachers, which is followed by narratives of the experiences of the three novice teachers in my study. The chapter shows that their experiences were somewhat similar. They were confronted with having to shape or reshape their professional identities, which were based on the images of teachers that they had constructed as students or had constructed while teaching in a single educational institution. The chapter illustrates how this shaping of professional identities was mediated by the interplay of context, career path and teacher cognition. Chapter 6, Reflective Practice and the Consolidation of Professional Identity: Cases of the Experienced Teachers, narrates the experiences of four more-experienced teachers, Yoko, Mr Sato, Naomi and Miki, as they explored their professional identity through reflective practice. The chapter illustrates how the paths they took towards shaping their professional identities were more subtle and more gradual than those of the novice teachers, a fact that can be attributed to the experienced teachers already possessing multifaceted professional identities which were versatile and adaptable to various sociocultural contexts. This chapter

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also weaves together the findings from the experiences of both sets of teachers, arguing that shaping one’s professional identity is a challenging process, in which personality, sociocultural context and the deeply held beliefs and images of teaching built up during the years spent in school as a student are (re)negotiated. The chapter suggests that reflective practice offers a productive arena for change, enriching and consolidating teachers’ identities as professional educators. It also proposes the trajectory of this development, tracing it from being concerned primarily with one’s own role, to negotiating one’s identity, to eventually articulating and taking on an individual mission. Chapter 7, Teachers’ Awareness and Understanding: Exploring Teacher Cognition, sheds light on the teachers’ exploration of their own teacher cognition. After a brief review of the current literature on teacher cognition, the chapter narrates the exploration of reflective practice through the choices of reflective themes made by the participant teachers. The chapter shows that the exploration and externalisation of teacher cognition seems to be linked to significant professional development; the reflective continuum is shown to be a space where the active and conscious deliberation of reflective themes leads to productive changes and growth in cognition. The novice teachers seemed to find that their existing knowledge and beliefs were not necessarily appropriate in their current teaching contexts, a realisation which led them to expand their teacher cognition. The more experienced teachers became aware of contradictions, avoidances and compensations, which indicates the development of meta-awareness. Due to their richer repertoires, the experienced teachers seemed to feel less need to explore their cognition, preferring to stay within their comfort zones. The chapter argues that asking an experienced teacher to move outside a familiar comfort zone may require longer or more substantial engagement with reflective practice, more focused support from other teachers and the presence of a mentor. Chapter 8, The Reflective Interventions: Creating a Space for Expression, discusses the benefits and the challenges raised by the three reflective interventions I used: focus group interviews, journal writing and individual interviews. The chapter emphasises that one intervention was not enough to lead any one teacher to awareness or reinterpretation. Rather, it is clear that multiple opportunities to engage in all three interventions primed the teachers to generate awareness or reinterpretation. The chapter argues the importance of offering multiple reflective interventions to participants not only for rigorous data collection but also for catering to individual preferences for different modes of communication and interaction. The chapter also points out the importance of the relationships created between the researcher and the participants in the way that the teachers gave meaning to their engagement in reflective practice.

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Chapter 9, Implications for Professional Development Opportunities for Japanese Teachers, brings together the meaning of my study of reflective practice for the participants, for teacher development in Japan and also for me. The chapter first touches on the action plan: Japanese with English Abilities, which prompted my research study. Next, despite my concern not to influence the honne of the participant teachers, the chapter explains how my interactions with the teachers, along with their interactions with each other, were integral to the ways in which they developed understanding of, and expertise in, using and applying reflective practice. It also argues that being part of a research study on reflective practice gave the participants a space to express things that they could not say in their workplaces. The chapter then introduces my conceptualisation of teacher development: an ‘expansion’ of the teachers’ repertoires and experiences rather than a drastic ‘change’ of practice. The chapter argues that a researcher must maintain awareness of positionality in the research. The book concludes by drawing out the personal meanings that I gained through my engagement in the study of reflective practice: I review how my interest in reflective practice epitomises lifelong interests and how it has become, for me, a way of being. To share the original voices of the participants in their own language, the original transcripts in Japanese from the focus group discussions and the interviews and the original journal entries in Japanese are accessible from the following link: http://www.multilingual-matters.com/RPPD.asp. In this book, the following abbreviations are used: FG

Focus group (FG1 refers to the first focus group)

INT

Interview (INT1 refers to the first interview)

JE

Journal entry. For example, in ‘JE1/18 October,’ ‘1/18,’ refers to the number of the entry (in this case the first entry) and the total number of the entries (in this case 18). October is the month when the entry was made.

JA

JA indicates the availability of the original transcripts/entries in Japanese. For example ‘JE1/18 October JA’ means that the first entry made in October is available on the web.

2 Designing a Better Way to Learn about Teachers and Professional Development One idea that just popped into my head as I was writing this is that I was probably teaching my classes without really grasping the reality of my students. The students in my class who say ‘I don’t know’ probably have a lot of things they really don’t understand, and feel like they cannot keep up with the class. I really need to re-examine my own teaching. (Kyoko, JE; Journal entry 4/12 October, JA: Japanese transcript is available from the web)

Although it stemmed originally from the personal and professional distress described in Chapter 1, my research study was also driven by an intellectual challenge that I set for myself. I wanted, through the collection of data gathered from carefully designed interventions, to see if there was another way to conduct professional development events for in-service teachers in Japanese high schools. Specifically, I hoped to learn what promise reflective practice might hold as a successful and appropriate development tool for high school teachers in Japan. My study attempted to answer one main research question, ‘How does reflective practice work as a professional development tool for in-service high school teachers of English in Japan?’ In looking at this research question, I also tried to address the following subset of questions: • • •

What does it mean for the Japanese high school teachers of English to reflect? How can reflective interventions be effective in helping Japanese high school teachers of English to reflect? What are some individual differences and similarities among teachers in their engagement in reflection and what implications do these have for the wider implementation of reflective practice in professional development programmes?

Given its relatively short history in the field of teacher education, reflective practice has been implemented in a surprisingly large and varied number of ways over the past decades. It is not necessary to trace all the developments and variations of reflective practice that appear in the published research

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in order to understand the data presented in this book. Most relevant to the present study is the body of scholarship that positions the teacher at the intersection of individual (content and pedagogical) knowledge and socially derived (professional and identity) practices, as individuals who develop through situated interaction, reflection and activity. As Johnson and Golombek (2002: 3) remind us, teachers are ‘legitimate knowers’, and are ‘producers of legitimate knowledge’, a role that gives teachers agency in the creation of their own knowledge. From this perspective, teachers are theorists, because of their practitioner status, not despite it. Decades earlier, Widdowson (1978) decried the marginalisation of teachers as ‘humble practitioners’: Language teachers are often represented, by themselves and others, as humble practitioners, essentially practical people concerned with basic classroom tactics and impatient of theory. Such a representation is unnecessarily demeaning. Of course the teacher is concerned with practical results, but this practice is based on theoretical notions, no matter how inexplicit they may be. (Widdowson, 1978: 163) Thus, recent studies of professional development for teachers, including teacher education and in-service training, respect the kinds of knowledge that teachers have as legitimate knowledge and emphasise its complexity (Burns et al., 2015; Kubanyiova & Feryok, 2015); this recent research emphasises the importance of engaging with teacher knowledge rather than simply trying to ‘change’ it through external means: ‘Professional development emerges from a process of reshaping teachers’ existing knowledge, beliefs, and practices rather than simply imposing new theories, methods, or materials on teachers’, say Johnson and Golombek (2002: 2). Crandall (2000: 39) provides a similar reminder of the need to recognise the roles of teachers in their professional development: ‘What is often missing from traditional language teacher education is recognition of the role that the teacher plays in generating knowledge through teaching experience and reflection’. Had I been familiar with these studies, I might have been able to at least begin to explain the disengagement I observed in the participant teachers in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) teacher training seminars. Our presentation about ‘how to teach writing’ had most probably been perceived by the participating teachers as the bestowal of an entirely external, and unwanted, ‘gift’ – we were outsiders without much understanding of and interest in what the teachers already knew and felt about their own students, classrooms and schools.

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Reflective Practice as Professional Development Although reflective practice has its origins in Dewey’s (1933: 5) notions of ‘reflective thought’, it is Schön’s (1983, 1987) elaboration, decades later, of the ‘reflective practitioner’ that is the immediate source of much work on reflective teacher practices (Farrell, 2001; Grushka et al., 2005; Lee, 2007). Schön’s seminal works, The Reflective Practitioner (1983) and Educating the Reflective Practitioner (1987), opened the door to understanding how teachers can, and should, be actively involved in their own development. His work underscored the recognition that reflective engagement with their own beliefs and practices could indeed be regarded as a form of professional development for practitioners. Schön’s primary claim highlights the mismatch between formal education and post-school life: education does not, he says, prepare students to solve problems in the ‘real world’, because real-life problems tend to be unique to their contexts and more complex than textbook problems; in addition, they may involve clashes between values. In brief, problems faced by people in real-life situations tend to defy solutions suggested by the application of rules or simple rule-governed inquiry. Schön (1987: 6) points out problems that arise frequently in what he calls ‘indeterminate zones of practice’ – new, unknown situations where existing solutions are apparently irrelevant. He contends that such indeterminate zones of practice require solutions developed not through technical rationality but through professional ‘artistry’, that is, through depth of knowledge and reflection. Even though Schön originally proposed two modes of reflective thought, reflection-in-action (occurring during practice) and reflection-onaction (occurring afterwards) as being crucial to professional ‘artistry’ or expertise, it has been primarily reflection-on-action that has taken root in teacher development, as indicated in the work of Moon and López Boullon (1997) and Tsui (2003). Today, we use the term ‘reflection’ primarily in Schön’s sense of reflection-on-action, that is, a considered and deliberate look back on events, actions and feelings that are now in the past. One basic assumption is that such reflection can produce insights which can be used to improve future actions, and so the application of reflective insights to improve future action has been called reflection-for-action (Farrell, 2014). When I asked my research participants to write journals about their teaching, or to engage in a group discussion, I was engaging them in reflection-on-action, with the hope that such reflective activity could ultimately provide them with more material to call on when they wanted to engage in reflection-for-action. One broad legacy of Schön’s scholarship is that his concept of knowingin-action, that is, the tacit knowledge of teachers which they draw upon

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while actually engaged in teaching activity, has become a core concept in the active and growing body of research into the role of teachers’ expertise. A substantial body of literature looks at this working knowledge of teachers, also referred to as practical knowledge (Calderhead, 1988; Elbaz, 1983), craft knowledge (Zeichner et al., 1987), practical theory (Handal & Lauvas, 1987), personal knowledge (Eraut, 1994), personal theory (Sendan & Roberts, 1998), personal practical knowledge (Connelly & Clandinin, 1995), teachers’ professional knowledge (Banks et al., 1999) and teacher cognition (Borg, 2003; Burns et al., 2015; Golombek, 2015; Johnson, 2015; Kubanyiova & Feryok, 2015). Teacher knowledge, as this range of terms suggests, comprises several elements, namely, experiential knowledge and propositional knowledge (which in turn contains subject knowledge and pedagogical knowledge). In this book, I employ the preferred term ‘teacher cognition’, defined by Borg (2006: 272) as ‘complex, practically-oriented, personalized, and contextsensitive networks of knowledge, thoughts and beliefs that language teachers draw on in their work’, as a superordinate term to encompass both propositional and experiential knowledge. Teacher cognition is a complex, dynamic and emergent amalgam of both tacit and conscious knowledge. It unifies ‘knowledge about’ and ‘knowledge how to’, and also incorporates values, beliefs and emotions (Borg, 2003; Banks et al., 1999; Elbaz, 1983; Golombek, 2015; Johnson, 2015; Mann, 2005; Shulman, 1987), all of which are shaped through engagement with sociocultural (Johnson, 2006; Kubanyiova & Feryok, 2015) and socio-historical contexts (Burns et al., 2015). Two challenges arise for the student of teacher cognition: one is that cognition is by definition invisible, and thus difficult to study; the field assumes that beliefs and values exert tremendous influence on teacher decision-making, planning (Woods, 1996) and actions in the classroom (Korthagen, 2004; Pajares, 1992; Tsui, 2003; Woods, 1996) but this influence can be interpreted only when it is externalised through practice and talk. The other challenge is that we cannot assume that what teachers actually do in the classroom directly reflects or embodies the beliefs and values they hold (Fanselow, 2014; Johnson, 2009; Kubanyiova & Feryok, 2015). To develop more expert cognition as active and autonomous agents, teachers must be able to identify not only the beliefs and values that they hold, but also in what ways their practice reflects those beliefs. Becoming aware of the discrepancies between the two may be more than just a motivating factor for engaging in professional development; it may be, as Farrell (2007) suggests, a prerequisite for growth. Borg (2003) is clear on the need for teachers engaged in reflective study of their own knowledge to review their beliefs and values. Similarly, Tann (1993) argues that in order to prepare students to teach, it is necessary for

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them to clarify their assumptions about teaching. Ashdown (2002) contends that it is important for teacher development seminars to encourage teachers to recognise the complexity of their value systems and the impact of these on teaching: [T]he design of professional development needs to specifically (rather than implicitly) attend to teachers’ value systems through discussion, role play, observations of teaching, and analysis of case examples, to ensure that teachers’ growth and development is not only about specific skill and knowledge acquisition, but also about the process of recognizing and addressing the complexity of their value systems and the impact such systems have on their teaching. (Ashdown, 2002: 127) This brief review of the research suggests that the MEXT seminars that Hitomi and I were hired to lead did not even minimally recognise the need to respect and refer to the complexity of teacher cognition, or to attend to the value systems or experientially derived expertise that our participating teachers brought to those events. Of course, the published research does not play down the inherent challenges of using reflection to study, and promote change in, teacher cognition. Also in Western settings, reflective practice is not always easy for the participating teacher to grasp (Golombek, 2015). The Japanese context within which I wanted to apply this unfamiliar set of procedures and practices was in many ways different from the contexts described in existing studies. How could I design a study that both respected its participants’ social, political and cultural context and at the same time, drew upon the existing body of research that suggests reflective practice to be a highly engaging and rewarding way to engage working teachers in professional growth and development? I began by making three specific choices.

Choice 1: Use a case study approach I was interested in how actual teachers would respond to the chance to engage in reflective practice activities, so I needed a methodology that would allow me to look at individuals while not losing sight of the social context. I decided to use the case study approach, and planned an analysis of six case studies of in-service teachers of English in Japanese high schools. These were qualitative case studies, as defined by Merriam (1998: 21): ‘an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single instance, phenomenon, or social unit’. Although the case study approach typically examines a subject in a natural setting without intervening (Stark & Torrance, 2005), I employed strategic, reflective interventions because I was primarily interested in the

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very question of how Japanese teachers would react to, and engage with, reflective practice. Unlike much of the existing reflective practice literature, my project was less focused on tracing the specific changes demonstrated in a teacher’s practice which reflects cognitive change and development than it was on producing an in-depth analysis of how each teacher engaged with reflective practice at all. I wanted to uncover the individual differences in the way my participants engaged with the goals and practices of reflective practice. A case study allows for a close analysis that focuses on the individual participant (Hammersley & Gomm, 2000) and allows the researcher ‘to probe deeply and to analyse intensively multifarious phenomena’ (Cohen et al., 2000: 185). Because the case study ‘observes the characteristics of an individual unit – a child, a clique, a class, a school or a community’ (Cohen et al., 2000: 185), it seemed to be an appropriate methodology for my study. Another reason I used to justify my choice was the fact that like reflective practice itself, case studies are still relatively novel in the Japanese context. Qualitative studies in the field of teacher development research represent a relatively new phenomenon in Japan (Sato & Kleinsasser, 2004). This made case studies a strong choice for me, especially since a case study approach can be ‘especially suitable for learning more about a little known or poorly understood situation’ (Leedy & Ormrod, 2005: 135). So, though Leedy and Ormrod (2005: 135) promote case studies for studying ‘how an individual or program changes over time, perhaps as the result of certain circumstances or interventions’, my interest in the teachers’ development was relatively narrow. I was interested in two questions: how each one oriented to reflective practice, and how (or whether) the way they engaged with reflective practice enhanced their reflective abilities. Besides looking at the individual experiences of my six participants, I wanted to clarify to what extent reflective practice could fit into the Japanese context, both as a form of professional development for teachers and as a set of practices that resonates and even intersects with a variety of existing cultural concepts.

Choice 2: Use my position as an outsider strategically This study looks at an under-researched population in Japan, namely, in-service high school teachers, and an under-researched topic, how to structure opportunities for their professional development through reflective practice. Longitudinal studies situated in authentic teaching contexts are difficult for pre-service teachers to engage in, given their short practice teaching requirements. A typical practicum for pre-service teachers is four weeks at junior high schools and two weeks in high schools.

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Depending on the circumstances of the host school, however, even junior high school pre-service teachers can end up having only three weeks for a practicum. Although in-service teachers work for the entire school year, of course, the situation is even more difficult for them. Overscheduled with classes, extracurricular duties and meetings, in-service teachers can find it very difficult to meet the time demands of research projects such as mine. As a result, there are few studies in the field of teacher development in Japan that include in-service teachers as the sole participants. This reality makes the results of my study unique and potentially valuable for the light they shed on this under-studied context. Ultimately, I chose to work with high school teachers rather than junior high school teachers because internal in-service teacher development is less frequent at the high school level, while it is relatively common in elementary schools (Shimahara, 1998). Moreover, as discussed earlier, high school teachers are under pressure from parents and administrators alike to prepare students for entrance examinations. As Ikeno (2006) argues, because of this distorting emphasis on exam preparation, enthusiastic calls for the improvement of English education in high schools have appeared in various guises over the years. However, despite this apparent enthusiasm, curriculum and instructional practices remain mostly unchanged (Ikeno, 2006). High school teachers cannot afford to modify their lesson plans on a whim because of the pressure they are under to prepare the students for the entrance examinations. This combination of specific restrictions and constraints on high school teachers’ freedom to explore and develop professionally suggests that professional development opportunities for high school teachers have been marginalised in Japan, and highlights the need for further investigation and research. I do not have a teacher’s certificate for elementary, junior high or high school teaching, so I have never experienced teaching in these contexts. As a researcher, I held what ethnographers call an etic perspective on this study, being an outsider in the participant teachers’ teaching context (Creswell, 2013). For a researcher, being an outsider can be an advantage at times. Seeing the researcher as an outsider can create a less intimidating or vulnerable environment in which the participants might be able to express their views more easily (Merriam, 1998). Additionally, the fact that this study was conducted not as part of a course or seminar, but was based upon voluntary interactions between the participant teachers and myself, indicates that the relationships and interests in the study were essentially personal. This aspect of the project, especially in the Japanese context where candid interpersonal discussion can be limited, might have been particularly conducive to frank and candid disclosures on the part of the participants.

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Choice 3: Accept that teacher cognition is accessible only indirectly Knowing that reflective practice is only an indirect way of identifying and exploring what a teacher knows, feels and believes, I had to be strategic in designing the reflective interventions that my participants would engage in. I call these interventions ‘reflective’, because they provided arenas in which the teachers could engage in reflection, as well as rich data sources for my study. The specific topics and tasks in the interventions were decided as the study developed over time. Below, I briefly describe the three kinds of interventions I organised, and put them into context in the reflective practice literature.

Journal entries Participants were required to write weekly journal entries and had for all intents and purposes free choice about what topics they could write about (except for the first entry, which I provided specific guidance on). I chose to ask the teachers to write journals because regular focused writing can facilitate reflective thought, as numerous studies have shown (Bailey 1990; Brock et al., 1992; Golombek, 2015; Ho & Richards, 1993; Lee, 2007; Loughran, 1996; McDonough, 1994). Tripp (1993: 18) illustrates that the reflective journal, or what he calls a critical incident file, allows teachers ‘to identify, articulate and examine their professional awareness and problematic’. Gebhard and Oprandy (1999) suggest that writing can be an effective tool to articulate and explore one’s beliefs and practice. Journal writing helps the writer to take a more objective view of an event by externalising it (Bailey, 1990; Tripp, 1993). As Walker (1993: 63) points out, writing is ‘a way of distancing oneself from the experience, which has the effect of clarifying it and fostering the ability to work with it, so that the learner can draw out potential learning’. For Japanese participants, I hoped that journal writing would allow each participant’s real intent, honne, to emerge, in part due to the personal and private point of creation that characterises the entry (Lawes, 2006). Brown and Dowling (1998) point out that the journal is an intervention that represents the everyday acts of a teacher, which can mean that the data is relatively less manipulated than other interventions such as interviews. McDonough and McDonough (1997) also describe journal keeping as a way to express one’s real intent: a primary vehicle for process research, for getting ‘under the skin’ of the psychological, social and affective factors involved in teaching… that cannot readily be reached by staff meetings or tests or population sampling or experiments. (McDonough & McDonough, 1997: 135)

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Journal writing retains the sense of being highly personal in that it allows the writers to write about their views and deeply ingrained thoughts and also because it does not seek, or require, an immediate response, even when a question is posed; it allows writers to continue to mull over their ideas. Thus, as McDonough (1994: 63) contends, journal writing is a ‘real insider instrument’ which allows writers to become better aware of their behaviour and attitudes. As such, it can be a safe place to vent emotions; Gebhard and Oprandy (1999: 24) suggest that journal writing offers a forum for expressing frustration: ‘we can even accept a journal as a place to vent our frustration and to work through our judgements’. I hoped, then, that asking the participating teachers to keep journals would be offering them a place to express their true thoughts, their honne.

Focus groups The focus group is defined by Morgan (1996: 130) as a research technique that ‘collects data through group interaction on a topic determined by the researcher’. In the focus group discussions, the views and understandings of the group members are shared; they may be debated and challenged, and consequently changed (Field, 2000), an outcome which rarely occurs in an individual interview (Bryman, 2004). The members may be presented with opposite views, challenged for holding certain ideas or have their inconsistencies pointed out (Bryman, 2004). Such interactions may lead the members to learn new ideas, probe and clarify their views (Morgan, 1996; Nishida, 2006) and consequently gain insights (Nishida, 2006) or change their views (Bryman, 2004). Engagement in discussions with the other teachers is widely seen as a good way for them to enhance their ability to reflect on their teaching practices (Farrell, 2001). I employed focus groups in my study with two purposes in mind: first, it would give me a good way of triangulating the data collected through the other interventions; in addition, it would provide a different arena where the participants could express their thoughts and feelings. I decided to include focus group discussions to dig deeper into the data on teacher cognition that I collected from the journal entries and interviews and to strengthen my findings. A second reason for setting up focus groups was to give the teachers a forum where they could debrief their experiences as research participants and journal keepers. Journal writing, as the experience of my pilot study participant, Mr Sato, illustrated, can be a lonely and even isolating activity (a detailed account of Mr Sato’s response to writing in his journal can be found in Chapter 3; a brief outline is given in the following discussion). I hoped that the participants would find the multidirectional mode of group discussion a welcome change from their solo teaching work, individual journal writing and one-to-one interviews.

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For the Japanese teachers in my study, a setting where the interlocutors were peers could allow the participant teachers to express their honne more easily than in other interventions where they were either alone or faceto-face with me privately, especially when I asked them to talk about the experience of participating in my research study and about their views of engaging in the reflective interventions. This was probably even more true when issues relating to their workplaces arose. A major goal of asking the participants to join focus group discussions was to deter them from descending into self-critical reflection. This too was based on an insight gained from Mr Sato’s experience. Due to his understanding of ‘reflection’ to mean digging into past actions to identify what he had done wrong, Mr Sato found writing journals to be a painful experience since it conjured up the events and feelings that he had tried to repress. As he was the only participant in the study, he did not have anyone else other than me with whom to share his views. I hoped that the focus group discussion would ease any sense of isolation that the participants may have felt, and at the same time, give them a forum to debrief each other about their work, their views on reflective practice and their experience as research participants. Group discussions can be, of course, problematic. Some writers point to the imbalance of power that can exist in a group setting, where uneven participation may result from status differences among the participants. Sato and Kleinsasser (2004: 800) caution that collaborations in a group should not necessarily be assumed to lead to ‘improved (or positive) teacher development’, and that the types of interaction among the participants and the influences of the interactions need to be taken into account. Cohen et al. (2007: 377) also point out that the group dynamics caused by status differences ‘may lead to non-participation by some members and dominance by others’. In a comment that seems particularly relevant to the Japanese context, Grundy (as cited in Boud et al., 1985: 14) asserts that ‘one of the key features of self-reflection is the need for people to have the freedom to make a genuine choice for themselves, rather than conform to the influence of the teacher or other students’. To this end, it is important to structure the group in a way that allows for maximal equal power relationships among the group members, including teachers and facilitators. Uneven participation caused by status differences needs to be taken into account in the Japanese context especially, where a strong distinction is made between private truth (honne) and public expression (tatemae), cultural concepts that will be elaborated in detail in Chapter 3.

Individual interviews To have a chance to engage in individual conversation with each participant, I asked them to participate in an interview with me once a month over the six months of the study. These interviews were

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unstructured: as Creswell (2009) notes, open-ended questions allow researchers to attend to what people say and do, rather than influencing the participants’ expression. I wanted the unstructured interviews to encourage the participants to speak frankly with me, remembering Silverman’s (1993: 10) idea that states that interviews are the most effective way to ‘gather an “authentic” understanding of people’s experiences’. Interviews can also be places where participants’ views and feelings can emerge in their own words (Kvale, 2006), bringing the etic researcher closer to sharing a participant’s own world view (Merton et al., 1956 cited in Robson, 2002). As Brown and Dowling (1998: 72) suggest, an interview can allow a researcher ‘to explore the world from the perspective of the interviewee and to construct an understanding of how the interviewee makes sense of their experiences’. The direct interaction with an interviewee can allow the researcher to gain a deeper understanding of the participants than is possible with other methods. Face-to-face communication may lead respondents to be more engaged and motivated to share their views than in other interventions (Tuckman, 1972, cited in Cohen et al., 2007). In the interaction between the researcher and the participant, there is more chance for clarification, probing and prompting (Brown & Dowling, 1998). Information collected in an interview may even change the direction of a project: the spontaneity of the interviews may also offer ‘the possibility of modifying one’s line of enquiry, following up interesting responses and investigating underlying motives’ (Robson, 2002: 272). In addition, non-verbal cues may give additional information to help interviewers understand verbal messages (Robson, 2002). Thus, it felt important to me to have direct interaction with the participants so that I could get to know them better and the views they expressed.

Reflective Practice and Data Analysis The process of analysing the collected data is not always recounted in detail in a book like this one. There is, of course, no one right way to do data analysis (Miyahara, 2015; Watt, 2007), and each data set raises its own challenges and questions. My own process of learning to analyse data from this project, a qualitative study carried out by a novice researcher and focused on the complex and iterative process of reflection (Miyahara, 2015), is perhaps a good one to share, as it is, in Ellis and Bochner’s (2000: 741, cited in Watt, 2007) words, a ‘personal tale of what went on in the backstage of doing research’. Maybe even more important, my goal in this study was to provide evidence that in-service teachers bring important kinds of knowledge and understanding to professional development programmes. Involving the participants in helping me understand the data

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is one way that I tried to emphasise the respect I felt towards them as both professional instructors and keepers of their own expertise. For me, partly because I was a novice researcher, data analysis was a dynamic, but sometimes strenuous and baffling (though in the end, educational) experience. My supervisor frequently told me that I should ‘let the data speak’, an instruction I understood to mean that I should read the data thoroughly and wait until something interesting, unusual or notable emerged from it. I was also reminded to stay ‘detached’ from it, which I found quite difficult. When I reread the transcribed data, the voices of the participants were vivid, strong, impressive and sometimes emotive, conjuring up feelings that I had felt, or continued to feel, towards the participants, such as empathy, gratitude, respect and sometimes, confusion. After trying and rejecting procedures such as keeping a research journal, and doing conversational analysis on my interactions with the teachers, over time I developed a way of incorporating the participating teachers’ own insights into the process of how I selected, analysed and understood the data I had gathered, which was by asking the participants to select reflective themes, their recurring interests or concerns in their teaching practices. As complex and iterative as reflective practice is, it fits well with the concept of including the participants actively in the complex and iterative process of analysing research data. Being involved in the process of analysis gave meaning to the teachers’ engagement with my study, I believe. They made sense of the very activity of reflection by identifying their own individual reflective themes and sharing those themes with me. I, in turn, used those reflective themes as important variables in my own process of analysis. Their reinterpretation or awareness of their own reflective themes, which evolved over the course of study, showed their professional development, such as in (re)shaping professional identity or expanding teacher cognition. My experience suggests that in-service teachers can be important sources of information and activity where professional development is concerned, if we know how and what to ask them.

Summary This chapter introduced my research study design in the context of a brief introduction to reflective practice as a research area within teacher development. It also introduced the notion of teacher cognition. The chapter highlighted the important concepts which underpin reflective practice: teachers have important knowledge and values to contribute to their own professional development, and reflection is recognised as a productive form of professional development. Because reflective practice is a new endeavour in Japan, in order to design a study which

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both respected the participants’ social, political and cultural context and at the same time allowed the participants to fully engage in their own professional growth and development, I made the following three specific choices: using a case study approach, using my position as an outsider strategically and accepting that teacher cognition is accessible only indirectly. In my attempt to access teacher cognition, I employed three reflective interventions: journal entries, focus group discussions and individual interviews. For the analysis of the data, I arrived at a way to incorporate the participating teachers’ own insights by asking them to select their own reflective themes. This research design-analysis process is a significant aspect of the study as it regards teachers as an important source of knowledge. The next chapter describes my research study in more detail to situate it within the Japanese context.

3 Situating My Study: Reflective Practice in the Japanese Context I think this type of self-development is good, but it becomes more difficult as we get older. We have all those years of experiences behind us, and they come out. If we are just writing about teaching in the classroom, maybe that is ok… but we do not want to inquire after ourselves very deeply, we want to leave some aspects fuzzy for ourselves. (Mr Sato, INT2: second interview)

My exploration of reflective practice was a relatively new endeavour which observed some aspects of teacher development that are under-researched in Japan: the use of reflective practice for teacher development of English language teachers (Yanase, 2014); the employment of qualitative research in teacher development (Sato & Kleinsasser, 2004); using in-service teachers as research participants; and employing a researcher from outside the professional sphere of the participants. It is also instructive to note, as some of Mr Sato’s troubles outlined below suggest, that this new endeavour was embarked on by a novice researcher. In this chapter, I situate my exploration of reflective practice by introducing certain key aspects of reflective practice and relating them to specific elements in the Japanese context; then, I discuss how the Japanese setting of my research study influenced my incorporation of these elements into the research design.

The Case of Mr Sato, Pilot Participant Because one of my goals in pursuing this research study was to learn more about how reflective practice would or could function in a Japanese context, I needed to get a ‘taste’ of some of the challenges I might face in the proposed project, which would take a tremendous amount of time and effort to complete. So, before embarking on the main study, I conducted a pilot study with one participant teacher, Mr Sato (pseudonym) in Suburban prefecture (pseudonym) from September 2006 to March 2007. After my 2006 Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) seminar, I asked for volunteers from among the participants and Mr Sato was the only teacher to volunteer. Under my guidance, he

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engaged in reflective interventions for seven months and I asked him to keep weekly journals and to participate in monthly interviews with me. In addition, I observed his lessons every month. For his journal entries, Mr Sato was encouraged to write about things that happened in his classroom, his feelings towards those events, his beliefs about teaching and even about the activity of journal keeping itself. To encourage him to generate his own topics, he was frequently reminded that he had the discretion to decide what topics to write about. Mr Sato was given a choice to keep his journal in either English or Japanese, and he chose English. He was asked to send me his journal entry electronically every week. My role was to read his entries and to write back questions or comments, but not to judge or evaluate the content of the entries. Each month, I held an unstructured interview with him at his high school, asking questions about the content of the journal entries. He chose to have those in Japanese. I also observed his class every month. The aim of the class observations was for me to learn more about the context where he taught. I took a strictly observer role, sitting at the back of the classroom and making field notes. I did not record the classes I observed because the purpose of the observation was to understand the context of his teaching and not to discuss his teaching specifically. Having a great degree of control over the topics he could write about seemed to lead Mr Sato to wonder what to enter in his journal; as a result, he often found himself thinking about negative events. Through journal keeping, Mr Sato experienced deep introspection, not only about his teaching practices but about the way he lived his life. He told me he found the experience too ‘heavy’. He wrote the journal entries at home, which he said broke down the barrier he had built between work and home, separating school-related matters, such as teaching, students and colleagues, from his private life (INT3). He talked about journal writing in the fourth interview: I started to think about teaching when I was home as well. I used to think that I was playing a part, just as Shakespeare wrote. And I was playing a part of a teacher. When I go home, I wanted to lead a totally different life. But reflective practice got me thinking about teaching more and more. If I write the journal home, it was even more. Teaching comes to haunt me more and more. (INT4) Journal writing led him not only to contemplate his current teaching practice, but also to conjure up past experiences, instructional events and students, which he could not change. The discomfort he experienced ultimately prevented him from keeping up the journal entries. He talked about writing the journal in one interview:

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I think this type of self-development is good, but it becomes more difficult as we get older. We have all those years of experiences behind us, and they come out. If we are just writing about teaching in the classroom, maybe that is ok… but we do not want to inquire after ourselves very deeply, we want to leave some aspects fuzzy for ourselves…. journal is good as a child, but it is difficult as an adult… you pile up sad memories… with Westerners since they have religions, they can be saved by God, but with Japanese, since most of us do not have religion, we cannot entrust ourselves to God, there is no salvation. (INT2) Mr Sato expressed these views in a joking tone, but the impact of his statement cannot be ignored. It appears that, given the chance to reflect, he had started to look at himself only critically, only through a negative lens. In trying to keep a weekly journal, Mr Sato experienced discomfort with the nature of journal writing, which seemed to require him to disclose uncomfortable thoughts, deep introspection about his own life and reminiscences of painful experiences. Moore (2004: 110) describes such unproductive negativity as ‘pseudo-reflection’, which is counterproductive to growth and can lead the writer ‘to focus too much on negative experiences and feelings, to feed anxieties and obsessions, and to lead not so much to improved practice as to despair’. Interestingly, Mr Sato normally used the word ‘hansei’ to refer to ‘reflection’, which might be one reason why his writing led him towards negative reflection. As described below, hansei is a deeply rooted Japanese practice that focuses on what could have been done better. Even though I never used the word ‘hansei’ in conversation with him, Mr Sato spontaneously used the word to refer to reflection. My classroom observations also seemed to have had a rather negative impact on Mr Sato. The aim of the class observation in the pilot study was for me to learn more about the context where Mr Sato taught. Without a clear purpose of what to observe, the observation sessions appeared to leave Mr Sato feeling nervous and vulnerable. Needless to say, I was only partially surprised by Mr Sato’s reactions to the reflective interventions I had designed. As a Japanese person, I could understand – if not always successfully predict – which elements of reflective practice could be miscommunicated or misunderstood by a Japanese participant. Of course, I took Mr Sato’s reactions into account when designing the main study. I reduced the number of class observations to one, and conducted them near the beginning of the research period; I gave more guidance about the topics that could be used for journal entries, though the participants retained the right to choose their own topics; I clarified how I was using the English word ‘reflection’ and explicitly contrasted it with the Japanese concept of hansei; and I introduced focus group discussions

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where the participants could debrief, talk about their feelings and reactions and simply share ideas and support each other. And, to avoid having any of the six participants experience the kind of discomfort that Mr Sato had obviously gone through, I routinely asked them whether the journal writing was producing any negative emotions. But even more importantly, Mr Sato’s experience forced me to accept that I had to explore in greater depth the potential obstacles that Japanese culture could throw up for practitioners of reflective practice. Indeed, as the study progressed, I realised that the way the participants reacted to reflective practice could not be strictly separated from the cultural and social context in which they worked, and in which the study unfolded. The following discussion attempts to provide a brief but helpful discussion of that context so that readers who are not familiar with Japan, Japanese culture or the specific teaching contexts, can appreciate the complexities that Mr Sato, and I, faced when trying to engage with reflective practice in Japan.

Reflective Practice in the Japanese Context Reflective practice has been a mainstream underlying principle of good teaching practice and teacher education in the West (Farrell, 2001; Grushka et al., 2005; Lee, 2007; Rarieya, 2005). However, it is rather a novel approach towards teacher development for English language teaching in Japan, especially for in-service teachers of English; to the extent that it has been implemented in Japan, it is more common in pre-service than in-service teacher training programmes. Yanase (2014) comments on the small number of published studies about reflective practice in Japan, as estimated from the infrequent appearance of the keywords ‘reflective’ or ‘reflection’ in leading journals. Searching titles and abstracts of papers published between 2002 and 2011, ‘reflective’ appears only 0.5% and ‘reflection’ 0% in the publication of the Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan (ARELE) and 1.5% both for ‘reflective’ and ‘reflection’ in the publications of the Japanese Association of College English Teachers (JACET). The following observations demonstrate the novelty of reflective practice in 2007, the time that I began my research. There are 86 national universities in Japan, and only 12 have adopted reflective practice for pre-service teacher training courses (Japan Association of Universities of Education, 2006). For in-service teacher training seminars such as those mandated by MEXT, precise figures have not been published; however, according to a study by Jimbo et al. (2009) on in-service teacher training, no cases of reflective practice have yet been reported. That there is no agreed Japanese translation for ‘reflective practice’ also suggests its novelty in the Japanese context. Writers have translated the

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term in various ways: ‘hanseiteki jissen （反省的実践）’, ‘action research (アクションリサーチ)’, ‘furikaeri (振り返り)’, ‘seisatsu (省察)’, ‘naisei (内 省) and the direct use of the English term ‘reflective practice (リフレク ティブプラクティス)’ (transcribed into the phonetic katakana alphabet). This variety is probably an impediment to a wider understanding of the concept. In this discussion, I employ the English phrase ‘reflective practice’ as I used it during my research. The English word ‘reflective’ is not often used as a loanword in Japanese, so it is free of strong or familiar connotations for Japanese speakers. Also, the English word ‘practice’ is a loanword in Japanese, where it is commonly used to refer to ‘an exercise’ such as ‘dance practice’ or ‘basketball practice’, and has a neutral meaning. By contrast, as discussed below, other terms used to translate ‘reflective practice’ into Japanese carry powerful connotations, some of them strongly negative or critical. For example, ‘hansei’ or ‘hanseiteki’ denotes a self-critical connotation; ‘action research’ is not an accurate translation for reflective practice; ‘furikaeri’ is vague in its meaning; and ‘seisatsu’ and ‘naisei’ were not common terms when the study began in 2007. The direct use of the phrase ‘reflective practice’ is free from what might be called the contamination of connotation, and in all ways preferable to the alternatives. The act of incorporating reflective practice into a research study carried out in a Japanese context is a form of borrowing, the ‘conscious adoption in one context of policy observed in another’ (Phillips & Ochs, 2004: 774). Borrowing a methodology highlights the need for cultural sensitivity to specific cultural practices in the borrower’s culture, which in this case meant taking into account the pervasive and inescapable conventions in Japanese society of tatemae (one’s public front) and honne (one’s real intent), as well as the common practice of hansei (self-critical reflection). Specifically, this meant that I had to work hard not to influence the honne of the participants. At the same time, I had to try to help them avoid falling into the more-familiar practice of hansei, and instead to help them engage in the borrowed and relatively unfamiliar practice of reflection. Some scholars suggest that borrowing a methodology across cultural boundaries can be problematic (Silverman, 1993). As Canagarajah (1999) points out: Methods are not value-free instruments of solely pragmatic import. They are ideological in embodying partisan assumptions about social relations and cultural values. Methods can reproduce these values and practices wherever they are being used. (Canagarajah, 1999: 104) Moreover, Canagarajah (1999: 104) warns that there can be residual effects of such borrowing, that ‘dependency on imported products has tended to undermine the alternative styles of thinking, learning, and interacting preferred by local communities’.

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Similarly, Kumaravadivelu (2001, 2006) argues the need for postmethod pedagogy, that is, pedagogical choices that take into consideration the contexts in which they will be implemented. He notes that English language pedagogy from the West has been introduced into non-Western, non-native English contexts with little scrutiny. In Kumaravadivelu’s (2006) framework, choices about borrowing should be made according to three principles. Particularity means being sensitive to the local context, with its linguistic, social, cultural and political particularities. Practicality highlights the fact that the interplay between practice and theory can move in both directions. And possibility taps into the sociopolitical awareness that is needed for the transformation of both personal and social identity. Particularity seeks to facilitate the advancement of a context-sensitive, location-specific pedagogy that is based on a true understanding of local linguistic, social, cultural and political particularities. Practicality seeks to rupture the reified role relationship between theorizers and practitioners by enabling and encouraging teachers to theorize from their practice and to practice what they theorize. Possibility seeks to tap the sociopolitical consciousness that students bring with them to the classroom so that it can also function as a catalyst for identity formation and social transformation. (Kumaravadivelu, 2006: 69) Using Kumaravadivelu’s terms, I feel that bringing reflective practice to the Japanese context draws on all three principles: particularity because as a borrowed method of investigation, it fits neatly into the local practices of the participants; practicality in that it regards teachers to be creators and owners of knowledge (Johnson & Golombeck, 2002); and possibility because it encourages the exploration of identity formation among teachers (Korthagen, 2004) and aims for social transformation through critical reflection (Boud et al., 1985; McIntyre, 1993; Van Manen, 1977; Zeichner & Liston, 1996). Reflective practice would seem to be an ideal candidate for cross-cultural borrowing. As Nagamine (2015) points out, the reflective approach is an approach that fits in well with the post-method perspective, in which the local context enjoys the same stature as the borrowed idea. Holliday (1994) elaborates on how various methodologies can be appropriated into non-Western, non-native English contexts, specifically noting that reflective practice is an approach that can be adapted for local cultural sensitivities. Some scholars even suggest that reflective practice might be effortlessly introduced into the Japanese context because it is somehow seen as an ‘Eastern’ approach. Johns (2005) and Korthagen and Vasalos (2010) both point to ‘mindfulness’ as a shared aspect of both reflection and Zen Buddhism. And Clift and Houston (1990) state:

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[R]eflection can take an Eastern as well as Western approach, to recognize its long and distinguished history, and to recognize that it is not a method nor a technique but a way of life, then one begins to sense the paucity of thought that has too often gone into the conceptualizations of many teacher preparation programs. (Clift & Houston, 1990: 212) Tremmel (1993) states that in Western society, individuals understand reflective practice in terms of the concepts and epistemology that they are already familiar with, meaning that they tend to remain captives of technical rationality. He contends that reflective practice can be understood more profoundly with a different mindset, specifically, Zen. ‘Paying attention’, claims Tremmel, is a crucial aspect in reflective practice as mindfulness is in Zen: I am beginning to see that paying attention, not only to what is going on around us but also within us, is not only a necessary step towards mindfulness and Zen, but is also the better part of reflective practice. (Tremmel, 1993: 447) The comments of these writers imply that introducing reflective practice into the cultural context from which Zen originated might be relatively easy. Given the contemplative nature of reflective practice, it may not face the challenges and resistance in Japan about which Canagarajah warns. Still, it was crucial for me, a Japanese researcher studying Japanese teachers of English working in Japanese schools, to be sensitive to that context. Specifically, this meant considering three important cultural concepts, tatemae, honne and hansei.

Hansei: Self-Critical Reflection Anyone discussing reflective practice in the Japanese context must take a long look at hansei, a concept deeply ingrained and valued in Japanese society (Rohlen, 1976, cited in Lewis, 2000). A concept like hansei may be found in other cultures, but it is uniquely prevalent Japan. The key point of hansei is that it highlights the fact that in Japanese culture, ‘there is always room for improvement’ (Taylor et al., 2010: 133). Fukuzawa (1994: 75) describes hansei as a social norm, which contains ‘overtones of selfcriticism and confession measured against the yardstick of socially defined norms of behavior and emotions’. Non-Japanese writers have chosen to translate hansei along similar lines: Novakowski (2006: 2) translates it as ‘self-critical reflection’ and Rohlen and LeTendre (1996: 7) as ‘selfreflective criticism’. As noted elsewhere in this discussion, hansei is sometimes used to gloss the word ‘reflection’, a usage that is not dissimilar to its common dictionary

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definitions: (1) to look back at oneself in order to evaluate one’s speech or conduct as right or wrong and (2) to look back at one’s speech and conduct and to admit one’s wrongdoing (Digital daijisen, 2010; Meikyo kokugo jiten, 1995). As these definitions suggest, there are two aspects to the meaning of hansei, one positive and one negative. However, the overwhelmingly prevalent use of the word refers to negative, self-critical evaluation. Most important, for a person brought up in Japan, hansei is regarded as a fundamental skill for social and personal development (White & LeVine, 1986); whether negative or positive in connotation, it is ‘emphasized and esteemed’ says Lewis who describes the function of hansei as a marker of social maturity: Self-critique may have a decidedly different emotional meaning when it is established and valued as it seems to be in Japan; identifying one’s shortcomings and soliciting and gracefully accepting criticism may be ways of showing competence, not failures to be avoided. (Lewis, 2000: 26–27) It is no exaggeration to say that hansei is encountered throughout one’s life in Japan (White & LeVine, 1986), in settings as varied as high school, university extracurricular clubs and company training programs (Rohlen & LeTendre, 1996: 7). It is particularly a ‘central practice in Japanese schools’ (Taylor et al., 2005: 79), with hansei meetings being convened whenever an event, such as a sports rally or an orientation for new students, is completed. Students who have conducted misdeeds are also asked to write hansei essays as ‘both a disciplinary tool to encourage errant students to repent their misdeeds and a means of socializing children to appropriate feelings and emotions’ (Fukuzawa, 1996: 308). LeVine (2001: xviii) describes the effect of hansei essays: ‘the scripts for apologies, self-criticism, and self-reproach are psychologically salient for many Japanese’. White and LeVine (1986: 59) point out that ‘Children are encouraged to hansei and look for their own weak points’. Taylor et al. (2005: 80) also point out the self-disciplinary nature of hansei: ‘By using this technique, students overcome their shortcomings by first acknowledging them’. Hansei, thus, is used to improve the conduct of Japanese children both at home and at school (Kristof, 1997). In spite of the negative connotation of the word, the act of being able to do hansei well is perceived as a sign of maturity. Sato (1994) explains that hansei involves not only contemplating one’s misdeeds, but also making a conscious effort to improve one’s morals. Setting goals for selfimprovement after hansei is seen as a ‘quest for character improvement [that] is close to being a national religion’ (Rohlen, 1976: 128, in Lewis, 2000). In this sense, it can be said that hansei is associated with personal development as it relates to being a valuable and mature member of society.

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Nevertheless, the association of reflection with negative aspects of performance is not pertinent only in the Japanese context. Some critical discussions argue that reflection can lead to dwelling on failure, which may in turn lead teachers to concentrate on solving problems rather than on deepening understanding. In addition, dwelling on the negative can undermine confidence in one’s practice. Focusing on solving problems may seem, at first glance, to be productive, but as Korthagen and Vasalos (2010) warn, seeing problem solving as mere troubleshooting may prevent practitioners from reflecting on underlying phenomena that influence their teaching, and professional development may remain rather superficial. Hatton and Smith (1995: 35) point out that there seems to be, to some extent, a consensus that reflective practice involves finding solutions to problems; however, ‘questions can be raised about whether solving problems should be considered an inherent characteristic of reflection’. Tremmel (1993: 437) also argues that the tendency to look for precise solutions may prevent teachers from reflection, and points out that ‘in Schön’s terms, it is exactly this desire for solutions that hinders efforts to establish reflective practice in education’. Thus, predominantly focusing on solving immediate problems may inhibit the kind of exploration and rethinking that actually develops teacher cognition. The second problem with focusing solely on negativity is the impact of emotion upon the reflective practitioner, a consequence I confronted in the case of my pilot participant, Mr Sato. Viewing one’s past practice as deficient or even problematic can lead to the undermining of confidence about the future. Day (1999: 40) suggests that, ‘confrontation resulting from engagement in reflective processes is not always “comfortable”’, which may lead individuals to question or second-guess themselves. Ghaye (2011) warns that the risk of focusing on deficit-based questions of reflection may lead to deficit-based conversation, and also to deficit-based patterns of action, which can also threaten one’s sense of confidence. Boud et al. (1985) contend that negative feelings caused by reflection can prevent teachers from learning: [T]he reflective process is a complex one in which both feelings and cognition are closely interrelated and interactive. Negative feelings, particularly about oneself, can form major barriers towards learning. They can distort perceptions, lead to false interpretations of events, and can undermine the will to persist. (Boud et al., 1985: 11) Korthagen and Vasalos (2010: 537) echo this view, pointing out that a side effect of reflecting on negativity is the feeling of inadequacy: ‘People often have the habit of lingering longer with things that went wrong than with successes. A side-effect is that somehow this fosters a feeling

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of inadequacy in them’. Moore (2004: 110) describes unhelpful negative reflection as ‘pseudo-reflection’, saying it is counterproductive and can lead one ‘to focus too much on negative experiences and feelings, to feed anxieties and obsessions, and to lead not so much to improved practice as to despair’. In addition, reflection on deficiencies and problems is claimed to lead one to have a narrow vision (Ghaye, 2011). Korthagen and Vasalos (2010: 537) write, ‘to put it in everyday terms: through negative emotions about their experiences, people tend to move into a kind of “tunnel thinking”’. Because hansei is so pervasive in the Japanese context, I worked hard to help my participant teachers avoid confusing the Japanese notion of hansei, with its focus on identifying mistakes and problems, with the imported theoretical concept of reflection; one simple way, among others, was to avoid using the word at all in my discussions with them, even when we were speaking Japanese.

Tatemae and Honne: Japanese Conversational Conventions/Putting the Group before the Self In presenting a study which involves communication among Japanese people, it is also vital to introduce and explain tatemae and honne, which are conventions that govern much interpersonal communication in Japan. Tatemae, a term which derives from the word for ‘a roof ridge’ in Japanese, refers to a communication style that represents an official and public pro forma style; it ‘involves form, the formal principles of polite behaviour accepted by all Japanese to insure harmony and good feelings’ (Hall & Hall, 1987: 118). Tatemae is consequently sometimes associated with dishonesty as it appears to ‘“disguise” the real self under a conventional “mask”’ (Nae, 2003: 41). However, another and perhaps more appropriate way of characterising it is that it is a result of placing precedence on others’ expectations over one’s own. By conforming to the larger cultural expectation, the individual must subsume the private self to the social unit and one disguises one’s real intent (honne). Honne, the opposite of tatemae, means a conversational style that represents ‘substance, your real intent, and your personal feelings, which are rarely divulged’ (Hall & Hall, 1987: 118). Seki (2004: 12) explains honne as ‘the real self’, which reveals ‘dissent or true underlying motives’. Honne is expressed and conveyed only when a secure environment obtains among the interlocutors. As Nae (2003: 41) explains, ‘the private component of the Japanese self is less conspicuous and is allowed to surface only in very intimate moments and places’. During the initial phases of encounters among individuals, tatemae is expected to precede honne. Tatemae forms the basis of the communication; it is the foundation on which honne can be built or expressed (Doi, 2005).

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Miyanaga (1991) describes an initial encounter between individuals in Japanese society this way: Interaction rituals begin with mutual expressions that are culturally prescribed when two parties meet; they develop from occasional (i.e., formal) to frequent (i.e., intimate) exposure of honest feelings. The particularities of the moral basis of interaction rituals is socially established and agreed upon. Honest feelings, however, are, by definition, personal. Premature expression of honest expectations can incite a strongly negative response from the other person in the relationship. (Miyanaga, 1991: 89) Tatemae functions as ‘a valuable license that secures them [individuals] membership in a coveted group’ (Doi, 2005: 82). Once membership is established through tatemae, more open discourse, in other words honne, can be allowed to develop. Tatemae thus may be described as a prerequisite for honne in interpersonal discourses in Japan. The practice of maintaining different public and formal representations of self – tatemae – and private and informal self – honne – is probably universal. However, its significance in the communication style of Japanese speakers is characterised by Japanese interlocutors’ awareness of, emphasis on, attitude towards and expectation of tatemae and honne in various social settings (Naito & Gielen, 1992). The understanding and adaptation of tatemae and honne is seen as ‘a sign of maturity in Japanese culture when a person fully understands both sides in other people while being able to communicate tatemae or honne depending on the felt intricacies of a situation’ (Naito & Gielen, 1992: 163); it is considered ‘crucial to being a member of Japanese society’ (Seki, 2004: 12). Like hansei, being able to participate appropriately and productively in tatemae and honne is a mark of a mature member of society. Of course, these conventions appear in all sorts of discourses, including the kinds of discourses that are collected and studied for research. Seki (2004) notes that tatemae and honne are extremely pervasive in discourse among Japanese speakers, and warns of the influence that they may have on responses in research contexts. In conducting a study with Japanese university students, Seki incorporated individual interviews as a supplementary method to group discussion upon the assumption that participants do not always express their ‘genuine’ views in group settings. Seki’s (2004: 45) assertion that: ‘The form used by Japanese people speaking in public is almost always tatemae, which always springs from the perceived attitudes or feelings of the group’, may be an overstatement, but it indicates how customary the practice of tatemae is in Japan. With its prevalence in the culture, it is important to take the conversational conventions of tatemae and honne into consideration in research. This recommendation is

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particularly strong when the subject under study is reflective practice, a method which aims to hold off external influence on the participants, but to draw out their honne. Given these complexities, it is not surprising that even Japanese researchers who engage in reflective practice research in the Japanese context sometimes wonder if the participants are saying what they really think (Kuroda, 2015).

Kotodama: The Spirit of the Word Besides wondering whether my participants felt comfortable telling me their true feelings and thoughts, I also had to confront a cultural reservation about expressing a thought at all. This reservations stems from the concept of kotodama, which can be translated as ‘word spirit’ (koto means word and dama means spirit). It refers not to the act but to the significance of putting one’s inner, private thoughts into words. In Japanese society, ‘what is expressed’ and ‘what is not expressed’ are sharply different; ‘not expressed’ does not just mean the opposite of ‘expressed.’ What is expressed means what is chosen to be shared with others, and thus public. The original meaning of kotodama is associated with Shintoism, the eclectic set of indigenous animist religious practices of Japan; the idea is that the verbalisation of inner thoughts leads to mystical power (Hara, 2001). The concept dates back to the 7th and 8th centuries and is mentioned in a poem found in A Collection of Myriad Leaves (万葉集), the oldest anthology of Japanese poetry. Writers are still explicating the term centuries later. Miller (1982: 133–134), for instance, explains kotodama as follows: ‘Once anything is verbalized, it must necessarily be carried out; consequently, words having reference to anything that cannot be carried out are not lightly uttered’. This belief has some impact on the use and avoidance of certain sounds and words in Japanese; on occasion, speakers avoid saying aloud certain words that may bring about misfortune. As the concept of kotodama is deeply ingrained in Japanese society, people may not be conscious of it, but we can see kotodama at work when people avoid saying ‘divide’ and ‘separate’ at wedding ceremonies. Another example is the common practice of not numbering rooms and building floors with the number 4, because the number 4, pronounced shi, has the same pronunciation as the word for death. In my discussion, however, I focus on the cultural concept rather than on the superstition, placing kotodama within the range of communication conventions that govern interpersonal discourse among speakers of Japanese. Simply put, making a thought public through written or spoken expression gives it added power. The influence of kotodama in the communication practices of Japanese speakers can be observed in the present day. Even though it is no longer a

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common belief that what is uttered will be actualised through mystical power, people still feel as if what is uttered may gain power through being actualised (Hara, 2001). Hara’s (2001) kotodama belief model explains the meaning that is carried by the expression of inner thoughts: Person A consciously has his or her thoughts, ideas, and feelings; and immediately, Internalized Message A is created from them. Before encoding Internalized Message A, Person A asks himself or herself whether this message should be encoded or not, at the stage of internal self-feedback. After Person A has decided to encode the Internalized Message A, a verbalized externalized Message A is produced. The words included in this verbalized Message A are believed to have the power to make the verbalized issues happen or to be actualized, whether the message is intentional or unintentional. Internal self-feedback therefore plays an important role in choosing which messages will be verbalized, in order to avoid doing ill or undesirable kotoage1. (Hara, 2001: 285) The relevance of this concept to my research can be seen in the choices that the participants made about deciding what to write about in their journal entries and what to bring up in their interviews. Although reflective practice practitioners in the West encourage thoughtful reflection, the quantity of words or the choice of what to write about tends to be seen as a value-free choice, at least in the first stages of reflective practice. In Japan, however, deciding what is to be encoded, or verbalised, carries more consequences. My interactions with Mr Sato in the pilot study and careful consideration of the Japanese conventions of hansei, tatemae/honne and kotodama helped me to adjust the design of the main study in several ways. Specifically, I reduced the number of class observations to just one, I decided to incorporate focus group discussion sessions, I set an initial prompt for the first journal entry and I provided my participants with a brief but pointed explanation of the difference between reflection and hansei.

The Japanese Participants and the Reflective Interventions The profiles of the seven participant teachers, including Mr Sato from the pilot study and six from the main study, are fully described in Chapters 6 and 7: only basic background information is introduced here. The participation of all of the teachers in the main study was voluntary, drawn through my announcements at the end of the teacher training seminars or mailing lists. Three participants were drawn from Urban prefecture (pseudonym) and three from Rural prefecture (pseudonym) (Table 3.1).

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As noted in Chapter 2, the focus group provided a chance for group interaction, discussion and reflection; I included it at least partially because of the isolation that my pilot participant, Mr Sato, had expressed. The teachers who taught in the same prefectures were brought together for a focus group discussion a total of three times during the course of the study. The three meetings were scheduled at regular intervals: focus group 1 (FG1) in September, focus group 2 (FG2) in December and focus group 3 (FG3) in March. The dates and the venues were negotiated with the participant teachers and they were given a choice of language, either Japanese or English, for the discussion. Both groups of teachers chose Japanese for these discussions. With the consent of the participant teachers, the focus group discussions were audio recorded and subsequently transcribed. My role in the focus group was that of a facilitator. Even though I suggested the topic for the discussion, the setting was unstructured and I did not impose pre-written questions or a direction on the discussion. In other words, I guided but did not intervene in the discussion (Bryman, 2004). My role, however, required me to be active enough to ensure the Table 3.1 The teachers in the studies Name

Prefecture

Years of teaching

Type of high school

Mr Sato (pilot study)

Suburban

>20

Vocational Ocean High School*

Ken

Rural

2

Vocational Sky High School

Kyoko

Rural

2

Vocational Hills High School

Sara

Urban

6

Remedial River High School

Yoko

Rural

13

Vocational Mountain High School (current) Rich High School (previous place of employment)

Naomi

Urban

>20

Intermediate Medial High School (current) Lake High School (previous place of employment)

Miki

Urban

>20

Advanced Field High School

*Entries in italics indicate the pseudonyms of the high schools where the participants taught.

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spontaneous yet congenial participation of the members (Cohen et al., 2007). I sometimes posed questions to encourage the participation of reticent members. The FG1 meetings had a distinct set of goals: to introduce the study, to offer opportunities to ask questions about the study and to suggest topics for the first journal entry. The introduction consisted of a brief explanation of reflective practice. After taking the participants’ questions, I showed them a 10-minute segment of a film about a Japanese high school teacher of English teaching a lesson. This DVD was one of a series about ‘expert teachers’ for sale in Japan. Afterwards, the teachers participated in a discussion about the teacher’s lesson. The DVD served as a prompt for discussion, which was also recommended for the topic of the participants’ first journal entry. I hoped that discussing the practice of another teacher would set the tone for the participant teachers to discuss their own practice, rather than to go back and write about past memories. The FG2 session was designed to give an opportunity for the participants to express and discuss their views about the reflective interventions, the focus group discussions, journal keeping and the individual interviews. The objective of the FG2 grew from discussions I had with the participants over the course of the study, mostly stemming from questions raised by the teachers in the interviews and the journal entries. The participants often raised questions about the interventions and about their performance, wondering if they were answering questions correctly in the interviews or making adequate entries in the journals. Therefore, in the FG2 meeting, which was attended by all the participants in both prefectures, I introduced the term ‘interview’ and asked for their impression of the word. Some participant teachers said that they found it was easier to speak during interviews when I initiated the discussion with questions (Miki, FG2), and others stated that because of the word ‘interview’, they thought they were expected to respond to the questions posed by me (Yoko, FG2). The use of the word and the purpose of the interviews were discussed and clarified in the FG2 discussion. I explained that the primary purpose of the interviews was for the participants to express their own views about their teaching practices at length; I explained that I was using my questions merely as prompts to draw out these views. Through these clarifications, I tried to help the participants understand that I was mostly interested in hearing what they had to say, rather than getting answers to specific questions that I had prepared. The FG3 was held as a forum for the participants to look back and share their feedback on their engagement in the study, in itself another reflective task. Ken, having come down with a cold, could not attend the meeting in Rural prefecture. In Urban prefecture, there were no dates when all the three teachers were available. I asked the three participant teachers about the possibility of conducting the session in April. Given the feedback

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Table 3.2 Focus group process and the aims Sessions

Dates

Aims

First

September 2007

Meeting the other participants, inquiring about the study, suggestions for the first journal entry

Second

December 2007

Reflective task: Experience-sharing about participation in the study, focus group, journal keeping and interviews

Third

March 2008

Reflective task: Looking back on participation in the study

from the participant teachers, and the description on the information sheet of the study which stated that the study would be completed in March 2008, the focus group was conducted in March without Naomi (Table 3.2).

Journal entries The participant teachers were asked to send me a journal entry electronically approximately once a week, but the number of the actual entries was decided by each participant (see Table 3.3), who were offered a choice of language for the entry, either Japanese or English. One teacher, Sara, kept her journals in English; the five other teachers kept their journals in Japanese. My role was to read the entries, pose clarifying questions and comment on their entries, but I tried not to evaluate or judge the content of the journals. My aim in taking this non-evaluative stance was to encourage the participants to express their honne (intended true meaning) freely and spontaneously. After their participation in the FG1, the teachers were asked to write the first journal entry about their reactions to the discussion that took place in the focus group, and to comment on the ideas that were generated in the meeting. From the second entry onwards, the teachers were encouraged to write about their experiences of engaging in the study or their lessons; however, participants were free to select their own topics. The topics sometimes developed as a thread between participants’ entries, my questions and their responses. The final journal entry involved a reflective task, to be done prior to the submission of the final entry in the final month of the study. All the journal entries and the exchanges with me were compiled at the end of the study and sent via email to each participant. For the final entry, the participants were asked to read their previous entries and to identify certain reflective themes that they could see – that is, their recurring interests or concerns in their teaching practices.

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Table 3.3 Journal writing process and the topics Entry

Topics

First

Reactions on their first focus group discussion

Subsequent

Open-ended reactions: Responses to questions posed by me

Final

Reflective task: Selection of the themes of their teaching from the past entries

Rereading the journal entries, as Lee (2007) points out, was intended to lead the participants to become more aware of the changes in their own values and beliefs, which is a form of self-development. Bailey (1990: 224) claims this about the importance of rereading the journals: ‘simply writing diary entries does not yield the maximum potential benefit of the process. In order to really learn from the record, the diarist should reread the journal entries and try to find the patterns therein’. Tripp (1993: 109) also notes the importance of rereading journals, as ‘we allow our subconscious to write in things which we may recognise as important only after they have appeared on paper’ – this seems to suggest that one has different perspectives as a writer and a reader.

Journal writing in the Japanese context Diary keeping is a common practice in Japan. Nishikawa (2009) points out that diary keeping has been used as a device for educating Japanese nationals about the nation’s ideological policy throughout history. During WWII, under totalitarianism, soldiers were encouraged to keep diaries, and after WWII, as capitalism surged, housewives were encouraged to keep diaries of family finances. In the present day, individuals engage in the practice of diary writing throughout the course of their lives. In elementary school, pupils are assigned to keep a summer vacation diary; in high school, students study the classic diary literature written around 1000 AD. This continuous exposure to the practice and function of diary keeping helps to explain the general proclivity for diary keeping among Japanese. It has even spilled over to digital diaries. In 2008, a report by Technorati indicated that the highest percentage of blogs in the world is written in Japanese (37%), followed by English (36%) (Harden, 2007). That the number of blogs written in Japanese – the official language of only one country – exceeds that written in English can be seen as a significant illustration of the Japanese preference for keeping a diary. In spite of, and maybe because of, the predominant cultural conventions of honne and tatemae, we can speculate that Japanese diary keepers are, through familiarity with the practice, accustomed to expressing their honne in a diary, even when writing for an intended readership.

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Interviews During the course of the study, each teacher was interviewed six times, approximately once a month (see Table 3.4). The interviews were 45 minutes in length, and the participants were given a choice of language for each interview, either Japanese or English; all six teachers chose to speak in Japanese. With the agreement of the participants, the interviews were audio recorded and later transcribed for analysis. My role in the interviews was to ask questions to draw out my interlocutors, not to judge the interviewees’ statements or share my views. The questions focused on the content of the journal entries and the participants’ perceptions and experiences of engaging in the study. My questions were used as prompts to develop the interviews, but not to impose a set structure on them. Among the interventions utilised in the study, the interview was the one that required me to discuss and negotiate with the participants. Our discussions came from such factors as my choice of the word ‘interview’, my use of a notepad and my expectations for my interactions with the teachers. Farrell (2001) asserts the necessity of negotiating reflective interventions before embarking on a study; I found that it was necessary to discuss the interventions during the study as well. The purpose of the first interview (INT1), which was conducted in October 2007, was to provide a warm-up session for the participants and me to get to know each other, and for the participants to get accustomed to being interviewed. The questions focused mostly on factual information, such as their years of teaching experience, how many years they had been teaching at that particular school, the courses that they were teaching and general information about the curriculum of the school. I did not ask questions pertinent to their beliefs and ideas towards teaching. During INT2, conducted in November 2007, I encountered some challenges. The interviews were designed to be unstructured; however, conducting that kind of interview proved to be more difficult than Table 3.4 Interview process and the focus Interview

Focus of the interviews

First

Learning the background of teachers and school contexts

Second and third

Asking specific questions of each participant on their journal entries

Fourth

Reflective task: Sharing interview transcriptions with each teacher

Fifth

Reflective task: Identifying the participants’ own reflective themes

Sixth

Reflective task: Discussion of the last journal entry

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I expected. I initiated each interview by asking clarifying questions on the content of the journal entries. There were individual differences in the way each participant responded: most responded to the questions and did not engage in an extensive dialogue; apparently, they felt that they were expected to play the role of ‘interviewee’. I noticed a shared tendency among the participants in that they waited for me to ask a question, to which they then provided a response, waiting for the next question to speak again. This prevented them from exploring topics and developing their thoughts in depth. Once the voice recorder was turned off, however, they would speak more spontaneously; what could be said their honne, real intent, would emerge. I believed that the tendency for participants to wait for my questions probably resulted from my using a notepad in the interviews, and perhaps even from the use of the word ‘interview’ itself. My notepad contained a list of questions, and as the participants and I sat facing each other, in close proximity, they were able to look at the list. After the interviews, some participant teachers would apologise that I could not finish asking all the questions on the list. Schwalbe and Wolkomir (2002: 209) point out that notepads can be identified as ‘a symbol of the power of the researcher’. The use of the notepad could have led the participants to assume a more passive version of the role of interviewee, thinking that there were set questions to be answered. In subsequent interviews, I tried to minimise my reading the questions from the notepad. A further difficulty with the unstructured interviews may have come from the use of the word ‘interview’. ‘Interview’ is a loanword from English that is commonly used in Japanese, where it is restricted to a rather strictly defined question-and-answer (Q&A) style of discourse. Using this word, the participants might have interpreted their expected role as providing answers to direct questions. The use of the word ‘interview’ was raised in the FG2 discussion, to clarify that the interview sessions did not have to take a Q&A form. In addition to the clarification of the word ‘interview’, I tried to fit into the role expected of me by each participant teacher. By doing this, I hoped to facilitate more spontaneous conversation as a solution to the challenges raised by the interview situation. Thus, the interviews with the participant teachers varied in terms of my participation. With those whose interviews resembled Q&A sessions, I went along with the Q&A sessions as a warm-up before their expression of honne, or real intent. For example, in my interviews with Naomi, who requested active participation from me, I responded to questions and talked more than in other interviews. Accommodating to Naomi’s expectations of me seemed appropriate, since trying to avoid giving replies to her questions might have offended her or discouraged her participation. And with potentially any of the participants, some of my interview questions could have been seen

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as contentious; others raised fundamental concerns about a participant’s chosen teaching career. If I had been asked the same questions by the participants in return, I wondered whether I would have been entitled to refuse to answer such questions, especially since I was a researcher interested in teacher cognition and development. Refusing to reply to the very questions that one asked the participants did not seem fair or ethical to me. Even for less contentious questions, it would appear rude, aloof or arrogant not to respond or make any comments. Kvale (2006) reminds us of the potential disingenuousness of the terms ‘interview’ and ‘interviewer’. He states that ‘The term interview dialogue is … a misnomer. It gives an illusion of mutual interests in a conversation, which in actuality takes place for the purpose of just the one part—the interviewer’ (Kvale, 2006: 483). He also describes the dominance of interviewers through interviews, ‘The dominant position of the interviewer may lead to an invasion of the subject’s privacy, with a temptation to masquerade as a friend to get the information the researcher needs’ (Kvale, 2006: 497). Mann (2011: 19) argues the importance of an ‘interactionally sensitive way of working with interviews’. During the interviews with Naomi, I felt that it was crucial to respect her expectations and to give her a forum for expression, rather than to try to adhere to some standard role of ‘researcher’ who was only interested in obtaining data. I came to feel that even if I could not use her data for my research it would be fine. The changes in my attitude and in my role as interviewer, as generated from the interactions with the teachers such as Naomi, were a major finding of my study, the implications of which will be discussed in Chapter 9. By the time of the third interview (INT3), in December 2007, each participant was taking a more active role in our conversations by engaging in more extensive discourse. The fourth set of interviews (INT4), conducted in January 2008, involved a reflective task: I asked the participants to read the transcripts of their first three interviews and to share any findings, such as a recurrent topic, points of apparent importance or salience and whether they had discovered anything about their teaching or themselves as a teacher. The reason for asking the participant teachers to read the transcripts was twofold: to check the transcripts for accuracy (for example, whether the proper nouns and kanji, or Chinese characters, were correct) and also to reflect on the contents of the conversations. Mann (2002, cited in Mann, 2011), who also used previous interview transcripts with research participants, points out that this can produce a ‘dialogic effect’ as interviewees enlarge on, clarify and sometimes cast doubt on earlier articulations. There were differences among the participant teachers’ reactions upon reading the interview scripts: some were amazed to find

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certain patterns in what they had said, while others, especially the moreexperienced teachers Yoko and Miki, did not note any new findings. In the fifth set of interviews (INT5), conducted in February 2008, another reflective task was incorporated. Participant teachers were asked to identify their personal reflective themes – that is, recurring interests or concerns about their teaching practices, and the ideas that had arisen or been discovered through their participation in the study. The reading of previous interview transcripts in INT4 seemed to be very helpful for the participants in selecting their reflective themes: Ken identified ‘atmosphere’, Kyoko picked out ‘teaching individuals vs. a group’ and Naomi named ‘belief’. The final interviews (INT6) focused on reflections about the teachers’ overall participation in the study, which asked them to engage in one more reflective task. Prior to INT6, each participant received the compiled collection of all of their previous journal exchanges with me: they were asked to read these, write about their reflective themes and send their writings to me. The interviews focused on the reflective themes written about in the final reflective journal.

Class observation Although it was not strictly a reflective intervention, the class observation allowed me to have first-hand experience of the context in which each participant taught. Learning about the textbook, the students, the physical layout of the classroom and the objectives of high school English lessons, was important in creating rapport with the teachers as well as understanding the data I went on to collect from our interactions. Applying the lesson I had learned from the pilot study, I scheduled only one class observation of each participant, at an early stage in the study. Since there was no particular focus on what was being observed or how the data was recorded, observation in this study was informal (Robson, 2002). I took a non-participant observer role (Brown & Dowling, 1998) and sat at the back of the classroom for the whole class period, taking field notes on the events that occurred in the lesson and on my reactions. With each participant, the date of the observation session was negotiated via email. The observations of Kyoko, Ken, Yoko and Naomi were conducted in October 2007, and the observations of Miki and Sara in November 2007. After the observation, if time permitted, brief interviews of about 10 minutes were conducted to ask clarifying questions and explanations regarding the lesson, but not to evaluate the teaching. The discussion was recorded with the consent of the participant, and transcribed. Following completion of the study in March 2008, a follow-up email was sent to each participant asking approximately 10 questions pertinent to the reflective themes they described in the final journal entries and discussed in the final interviews. The questions focused on their views

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about the reflective themes and any changes that were brought about after the completion of the study.

Summary In this chapter, I situated my exploration of reflective practice, which is an under-researched area of study in Japan, as a new kind of endeavour for Japan, but one conducted by a novice researcher. The case of Mr Sato in the pilot study highlighted the potential impact of the cultural and social context on the design and execution of any study of reflective practice. I took into consideration the cultural conventions of hansei, tatemae/ honne and kotodama, which I tried to incorporate into my research design. Despite my efforts, I still found that the reflective interventions in the main study did not always go as planned. There were various elements of the study, such as the use of certain words (interview), the presence of certain tools and equipment (a voice recorder and a notepad) and my own expectations as a researcher, that impacted the procedure and development of the interventions and thus required discussion and negotiation with the participants. My change of attitude and roles in interviews over the course of interacting with the teachers was one of the major findings and implications from the study, which will be discussed in Chapter 9. The next chapter will introduce my definition of reflection and what I call the reflective continuum, that is, how each participant uniquely and nonlinearly accessed the continuum through different types of reflection.

Note (1)

Kotoage means to say something in order to realise it through the power of kotodama.

4 The Reflective Continuum I resolved to try to teach classes that I will not be ashamed of. (Miki, JE 1/18 October, JA)

In this chapter, I lay out what I call the reflective continuum, a non-linear and recursive journey of reflection that individuals travel in different ways and at different speeds. The participants accessed the continuum in unpredictable and very individual ways. For convenience, I will discuss different dimensions of reflection as separate and distinct points of entry to the reflective continuum, but it is important to keep in mind that the different dimensions of reflection at each entry point do not have to happen in a strictly ordered way, and that any point can be reaccessed at any time. Many different attempts have been made over the years to categorise different types of reflection. These taxonomies have arisen from the specific theories of learning that the researcher subscribes to, and from the specific contexts of investigation. One element that they often share, and that I reject, is the notion that the types or categories of reflection stand in a hierarchical relationship to each other. In other words, taxonomies of reflection tend to be laid out in a series of stages or levels through which the reflective practitioner must pass. I argue that reflection cannot be described in hierarchical stages; rather, the reflective process is non-linear and recursive, and that someone engaged in reflective practice may pass through several stages of reflection that are unpredictable, a process that I call the reflective continuum. In this chapter, I will introduce the five types of reflection that the participants in my study experienced, and propose that each type comprises a part and an entry point in the reflective continuum. A number of scholars have put forward a variety of definitions of reflection (Bailey et al., 2001; Loughran, 1996; Mann, 2005; Richards & Farrell, 2005; Shulman, 1987; Smyth, 1989; Tamai, 2014b), and have proposed various tiers and types of reflection (Farrell, 2015; Jay & Johnson, 2002; Korthagen, 2004; Moore, 2004; Van Manen, 1977; Zeichner & Liston, 1996). Some of these writers seem to regard reflection as a series of levels, with one stage of reflection preceding another and one level representing a higher order of reflection than the others. Critical reflection, particularly, tends to be positioned as the best, or ultimate, form of reflection (Larrivee, 2008; Smyth, 1989; Watanabe, 2016). Many of these taxonomies, which place critical reflection at the highest level, stem from the seminal work of teacher educator Van Manen (1977), who proposed a framework based on Habermas’s (1974) work, which classifies reflectivity into three hierarchical levels, each informed by a different philosophy of learning.

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In these models, the lowest level, ‘reflection’, is defined as technical reflection, aligned with the behaviourist approach, which takes an empiricalanalytical perspective and values ‘economy, efficiency, and effectiveness’ (Van Manen, 1977: 226). An example of having such focus is prioritising finishing one’s lesson on time. The second level, ‘reflectivity’, grows out of a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach, where reflection concerns such elements as reasons and assumptions of teaching. The third and highest level, ‘reflectivity’, aligns with the critical approach and its political-ethical orientation, questioning structures of power, authority and institutionality. Over the years, various models of reflection have been presented (Furlong & Maynard, 1995), many of which reflect this three-part structure. In most of the models, critical reflection is presented as the highest form of reflective engagement, and thus, presumably, the ultimate goal of reflective practice in teacher development. Larrivee (2008), for instance, describes the position of critical reflection in teacher development: Many advocates of reflective practice take the position that teachers should not only reflect on behaviors and events within the confines of the classroom but should include the influence of the larger social and political contexts. They deem teaching as ultimately a moral pursuit concerned with both means and ends and therefore consider critical reflection to be imperative for teaching in a democratic society. (Larrivee, 2008: 344) Decades earlier, Smyth (1989) argued the importance of engaging in critical reflection for teacher development: [B]eing able to locate oneself both personally and professionally in history in order to be clear about the forces that have come to determine one’s existence, is the hallmark of a teacher who has been able to harness the reflective process and begin to act on the world in a way that amounts to changing it. (Smyth, 1989: 7) Critical reflection for teachers, then, is posited as a way of looking at oneself and one’s students as entities embedded in specific historical and socio-political contexts, a viewpoint which redirects the reflective practitioner’s perspective from the clinical inward-looking to the more politically charged outward (Larrivee, 2008; Moore, 2004). Smyth (1989) describes the shift of inquiry in critical reflection from oneself to the institutional context: When teachers are able to begin to link consciousness about the processes that inform the day-to-day aspects of their teaching with the wider political and social realities within which it occurs, then they are able to transcend self-blame for things that don’t work out and to see that

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perhaps their causation may more properly line in the social injustices and palpable injustices of society, which is to say that deficiencies in teaching can be caused by the manner in which dominant groups in society pursue their narrow sectional interest. (Smyth, 1989: 7) Smyth’s quote suggests that critical reflection can help teachers avoid ‘navel gazing’ (Brookfield, 1995; Farrell, 2015) and become agents of change in their context, as referring to Fried (1980), Smyth (1989: 5) puts it, ‘teachers taking charge of aspects of their lives over which they have been prevented from gaining access in the past’. I question, however, whether it is plausible for an individual to move in the linear fashion through these levels of reflectivity that the literature seems to propose. I also question whether the socio-political factors described in some models of reflection are in fact the essential hallmarks of successful reflection. Therefore, while I do not reject critical reflection as an important mode of reflective activity, I do not embrace it as being a higher or better form of such activity. Teachers at different stages of their career pay more or less attention to the crucial elements of their practical and theoretical activity, including personal identity, social role, socio-political pressures and so forth, depending on their current goals, the students they have, job setting and many other factors. In other words, sometimes reflection involves looking back at past practice (Boud et al., 1985; Lucas, 1991; Richards & Farrell, 2005; Tamai, 2014b), and sometimes it involves looking back at past thoughts and feelings (Bailey et al., 2001; Loughran, 1996). Sometimes it means looking inward and sometimes it means looking outward. My participants demonstrated all of these orientations in the relatively short time they spent in my research study, which suggests that there is no ‘final’ stage of reflection, only varying ways to reflect. My working definition of reflection for this study, then, is the activity of looking back over one’s actions, thoughts, written and spoken ideas, feelings and interactions, all with the goal of making new meaning for oneself, an activity conducted in dialogue with the self and with others. This activity occurs in an unpredictable and non-deterministic sequence, along what I call the reflective continuum, which comprises several types of reflective engagement, none of which is higher or more advanced than another. The five different types of reflection that this chapter introduces emerged from the data through an interplay between various aspects of the study such as its design, my position as a researcher and the Japanese cultural conventions of tatemae/honne, kotodama and hansei. The design of the study, informed by the pilot study, engaged the participants in a variety of reflective tasks, including rereading their interview transcripts, rereading their journal entries and selecting reflective themes. My position in the

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study, a novice researcher who was outside of their teaching spheres, helped me to create interactions with each participant in unique ways, drawing on both shared and individual features such as our years of teaching experience. In terms of the cultural aspects, as the discussion in Chapter 3 suggested, I expected that the Japanese teachers almost certainly would bring a culturally grounded sense of hansei (reflection as self-criticism) to their participation in my study. Also, I anticipated that what they would choose to express or describe, and whether they expressed themselves with tatemae or honne, could be at least partially explained by the concept of kotodama.

Review of the Participants and their Reflective Themes The summary chart from Chapter 3 is included again here, for the reader’s reference (Table 4.1). The focus of this chapter is on how participating teachers engaged with the reflective tasks and how these Table 4.1 The teachers in the studies Name

Prefecture

Years of teaching

Type of high school

Mr Sato (pilot study)

Suburban

>20

Vocational Ocean High School*

Ken

Rural

2

Vocational Sky High School

Kyoko

Rural

2

Vocational Hills High School

Sara

Urban

6

Remedial River High School

Yoko

Rural

13

Vocational Mountain High School (current) Rich High School (previous place of employment)

Naomi

Urban

>20

Intermediate Medial High School (current) Lake High School (previous place of employment)

Miki

Urban

>20

Advanced Field High School

*All names are pseudonyms; entries in italics indicate pseudonyms for the high schools where the participants taught.

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varieties of engagement illustrate my contention that for each individual participant reflection happens along a continuum, with multiple entry points and an unpredictable trajectory. While all the participants experienced all the varieties of reflective engagement that I was able to identify, they did so in quite different sequences and at different times in the study. Mr Sato was the participant in the pilot study who had more than 20 years of experience teaching in Ocean High School in Suburban prefecture. Ken was a novice teacher in his second year of teaching at a vocational school, Sky High School in Rural prefecture. Kyoko was also in the second year of her career at a different vocational school, Hills High School in Rural prefecture. Sara was in her sixth year of teaching but only in her second year at River High School in Urban prefecture. Yoko was in her thirteenth year of teaching. She had spent nine years teaching at Rich High School before coming to teach at a vocational school, Mountain High School. Naomi had more than 20 years of experience teaching. Her diverse experience included teaching at schools such as Lake High School and Medial High School, a middle-ranked school in Urban prefecture. Miki had also spent time in different teaching contexts, as she had more than 20 years of teaching experience. She was teaching at Field High School, an advanced school, at the time of her participation in the study.

Five Ways of Reflecting: A Working Taxonomy Like any popular term in widespread use across various research platforms and perspectives, the word ‘reflection’ has taken on a variety of connotations, colourings and even meanings. In my study, I hoped to learn to what extent reflective practice can be productively used in teacher professional development in Japan. Thus, one of the first stages in my own use of the term was to be able to identify the many different ways that reflection itself appeared in my data. It turned out that in addition to identifying episodes of hansei as described in detail in Chapter 3, I was able to delineate a total of five categories of reflective engagement in the activity of my participants: description, reconfirmation, hansei, reinterpretation and awareness.

Description Several writers have discussed description as a form of reflection. For example, Jay and Johnson (2002: 78) say that reflective description involves ‘describing a matter, such as a classroom concern, a recognized bias, an interesting theory, or a feeling’. They also note, however, that its apparent simplicity can be misleading:

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descriptive reflection entails more than just reporting the facts. It involves finding significance in a matter so as to recognize salient features, extract and study causes and consequences, recontextualise them, and envision a change. (Jay & Johnson, 2002: 78) Tripp (1993) also points out the significance of description, suggesting that describing can help the writer make subconscious ideas or beliefs explicit and, as a consequence, reshape the understanding of an experience: The written account not only facilitates and formalises our telling or retelling of [experiences], but simultaneously encourages and records the way we inevitably reshape the experience, highlighting or suppressing features according to how we are feeling about them when writing. This is entirely natural and useful, because in the reshaping we allow our subconscious to write in things which we may recognise as important only after they have appeared on paper. Part of that reshaping is the result of re-analysis which might, as in the first example above, occur a very long time later. (Tripp, 1993: 109) In my study, I use the label description for any written or spoken depiction of experiences or feelings: it is so general that it could be applied to just about all the data that the teachers generated. As previously discussed in Chapter 3, however, what is chosen to be (or not to be) verbalised is highly significant in the Japanese context. The frequently invoked concept of kotodama suggests that the individual has chosen a private thought to be made public and to be actualised (Hara, 2001). We can say that reflection as description involves the participants declaring or announcing that ‘this idea is to be examined’, or ‘this is what I hope to achieve’ or even ‘I aver that this is an important idea’. The act of description therefore implies the existence of private, unannounced and undeclared thoughts which will not be made public for examination. Unannounced ideas might also mean that individuals are not ready to face or engage in the ideas. As the act of announcing, description then is important because it is a gateway to what I believe is a reflective continuum, a non-linear and recursive process of reflection that individuals travel along in different ways and at different speeds. The topics that the teachers described in the journals, interviews and focus groups early on were often re-examined later through other kinds of lenses, namely, reconfirmation, hansei, reinterpretation and awareness. For any topic to be examined and explored, first, it had to be described, i.e. made public, as a crucial first step. Description is also explained as a way to identify a problematic, that is, to identify the difficulties that become visible by taking a particular theoretical viewpoint on a given situation (Tripp, 1993) or problem definition (LaBoskey, 1993); as such, it is important as a gateway to the exploration of tacit teacher

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cognition (LaBoskey, 1993) and routines (Tripp, 1993). Emphasising the importance of acknowledging the impact of perspective on understanding, Tripp (1993: 14) says: ‘it is only when it is realised that problematics exist that one can set out to expose, understand and acknowledge (or, if necessary, transform) them’. For Tripp, the identification of the problematic is important in that it leads to an exploration of one’s routine, which otherwise is not often challenged. In this sense, the problematic resembles Schön’s framing of a problem. Tripp (1993) states: It is our problematic which leads us to develop and uncritically rely upon a set of structured practices which are employed in more or less similar ways upon more or less similar occasions, and which are generally called routines, (Berger and Luckman, 1971) and in this case, ‘professional routines’. These professional routines are constructed by and enacted through a particular problematic, and are by definition, seldom if ever challenged or consciously engaged. It is these routines which thus effectively determine what we actually do in the social and material world of our professional practice. (Tripp, 1993: 14) Description, as an identification and verbalisation of a problematic, is thus a way to examine a part of teacher cognition that otherwise remains unexamined. One outcome of asking the participants to describe elements of their activity (experiences, thoughts, feelings, etc.) was that the act of describing was also an act of externalisation, which allowed them to reinspect and reinterpret those incidents at a later time. In the later stages of the study, they were asked to return to these externalised descriptions in order to identify recurrent elements as reflective themes for analysis. As a result, Ken was able to see that ‘atmosphere’ was a recurrent theme in his reflections, Kyoko identified ‘developing students through English study’, Sara recognised ‘bring the world into the classroom’ as her reflective theme, Naomi identified ‘Ms Ono’ and Miki discovered one of her reflective themes to be ‘worksheet’ (Table 4.2).

Reconfirmation As a stage that typically follows description on the reflective continuum, I found that the participants engaged in reconfirmation, that is, they confirmed a commitment to a previously expressed belief or idea. Reconfirmation is a unique aspect of this study’s findings, and has not been previously identified or discussed in the literature of reflective practice. To my knowledge, Farrell’s (2014) notion of ‘affirmation’ comes closest, but differs from reconfirmation in that reconfirmation involves restating what is important for the person reconfirming the belief or idea.

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Table 4.2 Reflective themes of the participant teachers Name

Reflective themes

Ken

• Atmosphere • Speaking in front of a class • Being stricter with students

Kyoko

• Teaching individuals vs. a group • Developing students through English study • Expansion of students’ perspectives

Sara

• Good environment conducive for effective teaching • Different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools • Bring the world into the classroom

Yoko

• Finding contradictions among my themes • Avoidance of what I do not want to be involved in • The journal as a forum to express what I could not express at workplace

Naomi

• Ms Ono • Student belief and teacher belief • Whole person education

Miki

• The use of the worksheet • Cleaning vs. studying for lessons

I frequently came across instances of reconfirmation in my data; it may derive from the way I incorporated reflective tasks that encouraged recursive activity: the participants were asked to review their interview transcripts and journal entries. I noticed that the participants’ selection of their reflective themes was often accompanied by an instance of reconfirmation. From my data, I would say that reconfirmation is an important point on the reflective continuum, because it is a way of reviewing and confirming ideas that have been expressed – perhaps in simpler or less examined ways – earlier on. The participants seemed to have felt the need for opportunities to revisit and reconfirm their views, particularly when the expression of those views suggested some ambivalence. Reconfirmation differs from description in that it involves a narrowing of focus: reconfirmation happened in my data when participants reviewed their journal entries and interview transcripts with the goal of identifying and selecting what was important to them. The act of reviewing sometimes reminded the participants of their initial aspirations when choosing to become a teacher, especially for the novice teachers in my study. Even though reconfirmation does not imply substantial changes in perception or viewpoint, it constitutes a crucial point on the reflective continuum

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because it allows the individual to ‘see again’ (and ‘say again’) his or her original aspirations. For my participants, reconfirmation functioned as an important element of self-monitoring, especially for novice teachers such as when Kyoko explored her reflective theme, ‘developing students through English study’. Similarly, Sara pointed out that it was beneficial for her to reconfirm the direction she wanted to move in during our exchanges of journal entries (JE 26/26 August). Still somewhat uncertain of their orientation as teachers, over time our exchanges reconfirmed these two teachers’ primary aims and directions in teaching. As a stage along the reflective continuum, reconfirmation often led to reinterpretation and awareness. This was particularly visible when certain participants chose their reflective themes while reviewing their journals and interview transcripts; the repetition of the topics and points of focus reconfirmed for these participants that they were, indeed, salient and dynamic elements of their professional development.

Hansei As explained in Chapter 3, hansei is a type of reflection that has widespread cultural resonance in Japan and is familiar in Japanese educational and work contexts. Deeply ingrained in Japanese culture, hansei involves looking back at one’s present or past practice, recognising that it was not appropriate or satisfactory and acknowledging one’s responsibility in its cause and improvement. In the course of my study, I found that my participants lacked a certain clarity about the concept of reflection precisely because of this widespread, and roughly similar, Japanese concept: despite my efforts to clarify the differences, hansei seemed to underpin the participants’ interpretation of the concept of reflection, especially in the early stages of the study. Remembering Mr Sato’s negative reaction to the task of reflection, I tried hard to differentiate reflection and hansei. I avoided the use of the word hansei and clarified the difference between hansei and reflection in our second focus group discussion. However, despite these efforts, the interpretation of reflection as hansei was, perhaps unsurprisingly, persistent among the teachers; they used the term hansei in their interviews and journals. Although I associate hansei with a particular kind of reflective focus that specifically targets problems to be solved, in the end I added it to the reflective continuum as an integral stage of professional development for my Japanese participants. The way the participants used the term hansei differed from what was described as negative reflection in the literature reviewed in Chapter 3, such as ‘undermining one’s confidence’ (Day, 1999; Ghaye, 2011), ‘prevent[ing] teachers from learning’ (Boud et al., 1985),

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‘feeling of inadequacy’ (Korthagen & Vasalos, 2010), experiencing ‘despair’ (Moore, 2004) or ‘reducing one’s vision narrowly’ (Ghaye, 2011; Korthagen & Vasalos, 2010). For instance, Kyoko said that she could not understand her colleagues who thought that they were able to ‘engage in satisfactory educational activities without having an opportunity to hansei’ (JE 9/12 January). And Naomi regarded hansei as an essential part of learning: ‘I have gained a lot from the participation in the study. I started to look back at my teaching. I look back, hansei, and I learn from it’ (JE 18/18 August). From my data, I concluded that hansei could be instrumental in leading these teachers towards both reinterpretation and awareness, and at times it contributed to such strategies as generating solutions and adopting new perspectives. So, despite its focus on ‘what I did wrong’, hansei among my participants was often followed by a statement of conscious effort towards self-improvement and improved actions. This aspect of accepting and taking responsibility for a problematic situation is quite different from critical reflection, which deflects responsibility to external social structures, and it is also different from simply reviewing the past. Hansei seemed to be a useful stage between describing/understanding a problem and consciously deciding that it was something that could be changed. Eliminating hansei from the continuum of reflection meant that I was denying an integral tool that my participants brought to the tasks I set for them. The following examples illustrate how frequently hansei appeared as a type of reflection in my data and how it led to other types of reflection. Naomi, for instance, pronounced hansei about having been unable to prepare an original worksheet; instead she resorted to a workbook that she knew was too difficult for the students. Hansei is followed in the data by her reconfirmation of what is important for her as a good teacher, that is, teaching a lesson that students can follow. I did not have time to make the worksheet this week, so I had to use the workbook. The students were not motivated to study with the workbook and the lesson ended in failure. I assume hansei. I feel the importance of teaching a lesson that students can follow. (JE 3/18 November, JA) One of Miki’s journal entries illustrates the concurrence of hansei and awareness (she notes that this episode took place in her homeroom class; a homeroom teacher is expected to provide career and behavioural guidance): Today, in Class D (my homeroom class), a student asked me again about whether or not I would give out the Japanese translation of the reading passage in the textbook. I told the student that I am not going to give it and don’t need to because I am explaining everything during the class. However, the student’s reply was ‘But you gave it to us last year.’ Last year, when we

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were using an official government approved textbook, we had many types of tasks such as oral introductions and I also created worksheets for each class. I explained to the student that the way I am teaching this year is different from last year. Then, another student said, ‘Last year’s way was better. This year, it feels like we are reading the English text with only a strong focus on translating into Japanese, so it doesn’t feel like we are reading English.’ That was pretty harsh to hear… I explained to the student the reasons for the difference and he seemed to understand. However, honestly speaking, preparing an English-to-Japanese grammar translation type class is easier for me. I may be making excuses (such as how the students wanted more explanation based on translation or wanted grammar to be explained more, or I don’t have time to prepare because I am busy and don’t have time to make worksheets). I assumed hansei as I felt that I may have been swept toward the easier way of doing things. Last year, I worked really hard to use many different ways of teaching because I was against the idea that the students of this school are on a college exam course and should just be taught with grammar translation to prepare for the exams. However, I’ve realised that I’m doing a completely different style of teaching this year. I promised the student that we will go back to last year’s style after we finish with the exam. I resolved to try to teach classes that I will not be ashamed of. (JE 2/18 October, JA) Miki’s journal entry first shows a description of a problematic event. The student points out that the previous year’s lessons were better. Miki then mulls over her reasons for the differences between this year and the previous year, and mentions that she shared with the students her reasons for the differences in the lessons. Then she explores the underlying reasons and generates another perspective on the problem: ‘I don’t have time to prepare because I am busy and don’t have time to make worksheets’. She becomes aware that she was leaning towards teaching lessons that require less preparation, then writes that she assumed hansei. She closes the journal entry with a reconfirmation of her previously stated principle that she wants to do what she considers good teaching: ‘I resolved to try to teach classes that I will not be ashamed of’’. In a similar episode, using hansei led Kyoko to change her practice. Kyoko showed hansei about the fact that she had not provided written feedback to each student on their writing: ‘I assume hansei that I had not given individual feedback to students in English. When I was in high school, I used to receive individual feedback from teachers’ (JE 8/12 January, JA). After making this comment about her actions, she started to write comments on each student’s work, which, she later revealed, enabled her to have one-to-one communication with each student (JE 8/12 January). As Kyoko and Miki’s journal entries show, hansei often leads the participants towards looking at an event from various perspectives. Jay

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and Johnson (2002) explain the generation of various perspectives through reflective practice: [R]eflective practitioners are sensitive to various perspectives. So a given classroom scenario might be considered from the perspective of another teacher, a student, a counselor, a parent, and so on. When we consider alternative perspectives or varying ways to approach a problem, we discover meaning we might otherwise miss. (Jay & Johnson, 2002: 78) Nevertheless, even though hansei might be an essential part in the reflective continuum for Japanese teachers, I suggest that for reflective practice to be successfully conducted in Japan, the concept of hansei needs to be clearly differentiated from that of reflection. Reflection is a broader concept, and it can include a wide variety of actions, such as description, reconfirmation, reinterpretation and awareness, as well as hansei. As I see it, hansei is just one type of reflection, almost a type of repentance, in which the reflecting teacher notes what he or she did or did not do. It is true that after hansei, the teachers often stated that they would like to improve their lessons in the future. However, if Japanese teachers regard reflection as synonymous with hansei, they may end up reducing reflective practice to engaging in hansei, with its focus on making changes to future practice, as warned by Hatton and Smith (1995), Korthagen and Vasalos (2010) and Tremmel (1993) in Chapter 3. To my mind, this would be a great loss, as it would result in a change of practice but not an improved or deeper understanding of the practice itself. Hansei has a practical and functional orientation, while reflective practice requires an analytical and cognitive orientation.

Reinterpretation Hansei allowed the participants to come up with ideas for making positive practical changes in their future activity. Reinterpretation, on the other hand, took place when they changed their actual notions, or understanding, of what had happened in the past and what could happen in the future. Reinterpretation often involved moving from a highly subjective to a more objective frame of reference: from seeing an episode from the inside, as a personal experience, to seeing it from the outside with different perspectives, such as through others or through some theories. Although reflective actions along the reflective continuum are not rigidly sequenced, the change from subjective to objective can happen only after ample description has been produced and reviewed. It may happen when trying to see an episode through another person’s eyes, or it may involve viewing the episode through the lens of a particular theory. This

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multifaceted perspective echoes Jay and Johnson’s (2002) concept of comparative reflection as introduced on p.56. Reinterpretation also aligns with what LaBoskey (1993: 30) calls ‘means/ends analysis’, which is to ‘gather and evaluate information as to the possible sources of the dilemma under consideration and to generate multiple alternative solutions and their potential implications’. In the way that reinterpretation can result in a new and even contradictory way of looking at events, it also recalls Schön’s (1983: 268) concept of reframing, where ‘the inquirer remains open to the discovery of phenomena, incongruent with the initial problem setting, on the basis of which he reframes the problem’. Among my participants, Ken reinterpreted ‘atmosphere’ which led him to gain a sense of agency, Kyoko reinterpreted ‘teaching individuals vs. a group’ as she noted the differences between classroom teaching and juku, which was shown in the ways that she worked on freeing herself from her long apprenticeship of observation (Lortie, 1975) and Naomi’s reinterpretation of ‘Ms Ono’ led her to gain a more objective perspective on her difficulties with a colleague. These episodes, which will be elaborated in Chapters 5–7, show that change can happen not only in the realm of practical actions, but also in internal cognitive and affective domains. Learning about and adopting new perspectives on challenging episodes can help teachers develop very different ways of understanding what is really happening in such episodes.

Awareness Awareness is perhaps one of the most well-known elements of reflective practice. More than just identifying a salient feature of one’s past (or future) activity, awareness involves being able to take an objective stance and a critical attitude towards one’s practice and beliefs. As Morin (2005: 359) writes, one characteristic of being aware is ‘the capacity to become the object of one’s own attention’. Although this capacity might seem to be the first point on the reflective continuum, I discuss it last because, as my data suggests, it can be the point at which development is actually recognised and accepted. Awareness was manifested in different ways by different participants. While the detailed description of each teacher’s reflective trajectory is provided in Chapters 5–7, we can get glimpses of the various ways that reflective activity differed among participants from these brief descriptions. Awareness for Kyoko meant being able to recognise and honour the connection between her practice and her principles (specifically, that teaching should be a form of mentorship and development and not just the transmission of content). The awareness of this connection seems to have given her confidence that her practice was in fact underlined by this

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belief that she held so strongly. Awareness then led to Kyoko’s conscious incorporation of activities that accorded with her belief, framed as a reflective theme, in ‘developing students through English study’. Yoko became aware of contradictions among the statements she made about her beliefs and her actual activity (focus group [FG]3, interview [INT]6, JE 24/25 March). She also became aware that she had avoided writing in her journal about topics which she did not want to discuss, such as supervising extracurricular club activities. She admitted that she had avoided writing about what did not go well, perhaps invoking the concept of kotodama in her reasoning: ‘I would not want to write that I cannot help it or that I could not do it or that this might be acceptable’ (FG3). She even said that writing such entries in the journal was in fact a compromise and selfdeception (FG3), a comment which shows heightened awareness. Miki became aware that her ‘use of worksheets’ – which she considered something of a panacea in teaching – might represent her attempt to compensate for what she saw as weaknesses in her highly routinized teaching practice. Sara gained awareness about one of her maxims – ‘bring the world into the classroom’. She became aware that the world is different for each person and thus her students’ world was different from her own (JE 25/26 March). Ken developed awareness by understanding his reflective theme, ‘atmosphere’, in a different way. Initially, he felt ‘atmosphere’ was external, something that exerted tremendous influence on his lessons. At the end of the study, he became aware that previously he had not taken responsibility for unsuccessful lessons, attributing the success of a lesson to the ‘atmosphere’ of the class and to the students. Clearly, awareness was manifested in a wide variety of ways by the participants. Identifying reasoning, recognizing contradictions, noticing patterns and tendencies, realising that change had occurred and identifying instances of avoidance and compensation are all very different insights, but they all signal the development of awareness. Unlike reinterpretation, awareness is not about changing one’s viewpoint or understanding; it means making a new discovery and, often, gaining additional insight into one’s activity. Just as with reinterpretation, awareness is often generated by engaging in different dimensions of reflection through different types of reflective tasks and reflective interventions.

Conclusion In this chapter, I discussed what reflection means as I used the term in this study: the act of looking back at one’s practices and ideas, in dialogue with oneself and with others, with the goal of seeing, understanding and constructing new meanings for those elements of one’s activity.

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I also introduced five types of reflection that constitute entry points into the reflective continuum, including description, reconfirmation, hansei, reinterpretation and awareness. A reflective continuum is my way of conceptualising the trajectory of change that can happen through reflective practice. Teacher development does not occur in rigid or sequenced stages. Rather, the stages occur in a series of non-linear loops, recursively created as the participant engages with thinking, remembering, writing, discussing, studying and interpreting. The unpredictability has been identified by many writers, including: Hunt (1998: 28, emphasis in original), who warns the reader: ‘CAUTION! RP DOES NOT PROCEED IN AN ORDERLY FASHION!’; Ward and McCotter (2004: 245), who described reflection to be ‘cyclic in nature’; and Jay and Johnson (2002), who note that the process is not as linear as [a] typology might suggest; rather, it involves contemplation, inspiration, and experience. Reflection should not be constrained to a formula, but allowed to evolve in its own loops and leaps over time. (Jay & Johnson, 2002: 80) Zeichner and Liston (1996) remind us that reflection: is a holistic way of meeting and responding to problems, a way of being as a teacher. Reflective action is also a process that involves more than logical and rational problem-solving processes. Reflection involves intuition, emotion, and passion and is not something that can be neatly packaged as a set of techniques for teachers to use. (Zeicher & Liston, 1996: 9) As my data revealed, each person’s trajectory through the reflective continuum is personal and individual. In conclusion, I reject the idea that reflection and change happen in hierarchically ordered ways. In particular, I question the claim that critical reflection is paramount for teacher development (Larrivee, 2008; Smyth, 1989). I prefer Furlong and Maynard’s (1995: 44) approach, who question the stance that ‘reflection is something that only occurs when one asks particular sorts of questions – questions with a broader moral and ethical edge to them’. The hierarchical model seems to suggest that the levels of reflection, such as the technical level, the cognitive level and the critical level, follow each other sequentially. In contrast, the teachers in this study often returned to topics and ideas that they had discussed earlier, reconfirming and reinterpreting their views. This cyclic, non-linear activity was apparently necessary for them to consolidate internal and external changes in their understanding and practice of good teaching.

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The five types of reflection that constitute the reflective continuum are employed to discuss their journeys of reflection in their shaping of professional identities (Chapters 5 and 6) and exploration of teacher cognition (Chapter 7). The typologies are also used to illustrate how each reflective intervention, focus group discussion, journal writing and individual interview, brought the participants to an entry point of their journey on their reflective continuum (Chapter 8).

5 Reflective Practice and the Consolidation of Professional Identity: Cases of the Novice Teachers I think there was a big gap between the students and me. I had an assumption that the students would like English because I really liked English as a student. (Kyoko, JE 2/12 October, JA)

In the previous chapters, I have tried to set up a culturally embedded understanding of reflective practice, discussing how the Japanese participants in my study – all of whom were new to the concept and the practice of reflection for professional development – responded to, engaged with and understood the reflective interventions that I asked them to participate in. Even a preliminary analysis of the data indicates that Japanese teachers can benefit from being asked to engage in reflective tasks. Rather than hindering their ability to see reflection as a potential avenue for growth, the existing cultural concept of hansei appears to help them understand that the purpose of reflection may not lie solely in material change but that it can also contribute to cognitive change, the development of new ways of understanding and even changes in commitment and belief. The richness of these insights suggest that professional development incorporating reflective events for Japanese high school English instructors can be productive for enriching and consolidating their identities as professional educators. In this chapter, I look at their specific experiences in greater detail, and try to show how their engagement with the reflective interventions in my study helped to mediate their understanding of their own professional identities. Though I separate the stories of the more novice teachers (Ken, Kyoko and Sara) in this chapter from the more experienced teachers (Yoko, Mr Sato, Naomi and Miki) in Chapter 6, I found that almost all the participants experienced a shaping or reshaping of their professional identity. Some were confronted with the need to shape and others were given space to think about their professional identities, but both cases were mediated through the interplay of their contexts, career paths and teacher cognition.

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After a brief discussion of what the current literature says about professional identity, I analyse the participants’ experiences as they went through the study. Through the analysis, I identified a trajectory of professional identity shaping. As the literature suggests, the initial career phase of many teachers is associated with shaping one’s professional role: young teachers learn what is expected in their specific institutional context, while negotiating the sociocultural context at the same time. This phase is followed by a stage where teachers begin to develop specific forms of professional identity, melding one’s personality with theoretical knowledge from training and concrete material knowledge gained in practice and the context that they are situated in (Chapter 6). Finally, there is recognition of the self as a professional, accompanied by the identification and clarification of the person’s mission or long-term goals (Chapter 6), which is formed by the interaction of the teacher’s individual history, personality and the development of a professional identity. The three stages are, of course, not prescriptive but are what I observed through the engagement of the teachers in reflective practice.

Professional Identity As Varghese et al. (2005: 22) point out, ‘in order to understand language teaching and learning we need to understand teachers; and in order to understand teachers, we need to have a clearer sense of who they are: the professional, cultural, political, and individual identities which they claim or which are assigned to them’. Professional identity has emerged as an area of great interest in teacher education (Borg, 2012; Korthagen, 2004). Defined by Varghese (2006: 213) ‘in terms of the influences on teachers, how individuals see themselves and how they enact their profession in their settings’, teacher identity in professional development has been addressed in a wide range of literature (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Beijaard et al., 2004; Flores & Day, 2006; Johnson, 2015; Korthagen, 2004), seeing the ‘self’ as a significant factor ‘in constructing the way we interact with the environment and make judgments in a given context’ (Hong, 2010: 1531). As Bullough (1997) states: Teacher identity - what beginning teachers believe about teaching and learning and self-as-a teacher - is of vital concern to teacher education; it is the basis for meaning making and decision making.… Teacher education must begin, then, by exploring the teaching self. (Bullough, 1997: 21) Numerous teacher education programmes emphasise the exploration of professional identity (Korthagen, 2004) as a crucial element of understanding and implementing good classroom teaching practice (Varghese et al., 2005). Several scholars argue that the exploration of teacher identity is especially

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important for novice teachers (Bullough, 1997; Flores & Day, 2006), because for many novices, the image of what a teacher is derives almost entirely from what they observed as students. This recognition of the power of what has been called the apprenticeship of observation (Lortie, 1975) is generally recognised: ‘prior experiences as pupils seemed to play a strong mediating role in the identities which new teachers brought into their first school teaching experience’ (Flores & Day, 2006: 223). Liberating novice teachers from the influence of the apprenticeship of their student years is both necessary and difficult, especially given how complex the process of developing teacher cognition and teacher identity can be (Morton & Gray, 2010). Novice teachers grow into their professional identity by activating knowledge and by operationalizing beliefs (Sakui & Gaies, 2003). Beijaard et al. (2004: 123) note the importance of both individual and socially constructed awareness for the novice teacher: ‘identity formation is a process of practical knowledgebuilding characterized by an ongoing integration of what is individually and collectively seen as relevant to teaching’. Developing a teacher perspective requires the novice to understand the importance not just of pedagogical skills and content knowledge, but also ‘beliefs, assumptions, values, and practices that guide teacher actions both inside and outside the classroom’ (Farrell, 2013: 92). In this chapter, I follow the experiences of the three more novice teachers in my study, Ken, Kyoko and Sara. Their data suggests that reflective practice can be highly useful for novice teachers because it raises awareness, offers opportunities for reconfirmation of beliefs and provides a way of letting even a novice teacher gain a more objective perspective on the beliefs and values that underlie his or her current teaching, all of which contribute to their professional identity shaping. The individual cases are illustrated with the types of reflection and with the reflective themes which the teachers identified (Chapter 4).

Ken: Moving from Student Perspective to Teacher Perspective As one of the most novice teachers in the study, Ken experienced a professional identity shift over the course of the study, moving from seeing his classroom practice through the eyes of a student to seeing it from the perspective of a teacher. From student to pre-service teacher to in-service teacher, Ken explored new perspectives regarding his identity as a teacher and teaching itself. The most crucial change came in the way he redefined his responsibility for shaping student learning; by the end of the study, he had gained substantial agency in his role as organiser and leader in the classroom. In short, like the developing teachers described by Layder

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(2006: 4), Ken became more sure of his ability ‘to make a difference in the world’ and was confident that he was ‘able to do things which affect the social relationships in which’ he was embedded. He no longer saw himself at the mercy of his circumstances. Using the themes that Ken himself identified from reviewing his data (‘speaking in front of a class’ and ‘being stricter with students’), this section discusses Ken’s engagement in the reflective interventions and the impact this engagement appears to have had on his sense of autonomy and professional identity. Ken was in his second year of a teaching career at a vocational high school, Sky High School (pseudonym). The school was small and employed only two teachers of English, Ken and a more experienced female colleague. Ken had a positive working relationship with this colleague, who had many more years of experience than he did. Ken reported that his colleague acknowledged and accepted any ideas he offered; however, he also stated that he wished that she would give him more critical comments about his teaching. This admission seems to indicate that Ken wanted professional guidance from his senior colleague. Ken reported that the teachers he had studied with in junior high school and at university were crucial influences on his motivation to learn and on his views about teaching (JE 1/11 October). When he started to study English for the first time, during his first year in junior high school, he was not motivated because the teacher of English seemed to have, in Ken’s words, ‘given up on teaching’. His junior high school had many problematic and disruptive students who hindered the teachers from teaching. The unsettling atmosphere in the classroom, and the difficulties the teachers faced, combined to make Ken feel that he was not suited for teaching and that he would not want to become a teacher in any case. However, during his second year, Ken met a teacher at juku, a private educational organisation (or ‘cram school’), who gave him positive feedback and built up his confidence. As a result, English became one of his favourite subjects. Since the juku teacher had studied in the United States, Ken dreamed of studying in the United States also (INT1). He actually realised this dream in his third year at university, attributing his success to two favourite instructors he met in the United States. He particularly respected one instructor because of his wealth of knowledge, and liked another because the teacher treated him like a friend (INT3). After returning to his university studies in Japan, Ken enrolled in a teacher training course, on the advice of his parents, to obtain a teaching certificate (INT1). (Teaching English at a public high school in Japan requires a specific certificate, which involves completing specific teacher training courses authorised by the Ministry of Education as well as a bachelor’s degree.) During his two-week practicum experience, he established what he believed was a strong rapport with his students by playing baseball and having long talks

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with them; in return, the students gave Ken pointers, such as, ‘you should speak more in the classroom’, and supported him by actively participating in the observation lesson he carried out for his supervisors at the end of the practicum period. Ken recalled that even those students who did not like studying made a great effort to participate in the observation lesson (INT1). This success was a crucial factor in his decision to enter the profession. Despite his positive experience in his practice teaching, and the presence of a supportive colleague at work, Ken was frustrated and unsure about his status as a ‘real’ teacher when I first met him at the beginning of the study. Ken selected two themes in the reflective tasks: ‘speaking in front of a class’ and ‘being stricter with students’. As his first journal entry shows, he did not feel comfortable in the role of teacher: ‘And before I knew it, I had become a teacher. Why was that? Even now, I am not completely sure’ (JE 1/11 October, JA). In the initial phase of the study, Ken’s views of teaching and his behaviour both in class and in extracurricular activities appeared to be those of a student–teacher rather than those of a full teacher. He seemed ambivalent about teaching, especially speaking in front of a class. In many ways, he seemed to feel more affinity with his students than with his colleagues. One manifestation of Ken’s student–teacher identity can be seen in his dual role in the badminton club. Japanese high school teachers are required to serve as advisors to student clubs. They do not have to be skilled in the area of the club activity, and in fact are not expected to instruct students. Their duties are primarily administrative, as they supervise the activities and practices, which often occur in the late afternoon and on weekends. Ken was both the advisory teacher and a club member for the student badminton club. Having decided to participate in the club as a member, he practised badminton along with the students. It turned out that Ken’s ‘peers’ – the club members who were also his students in English class – were extremely cooperative during lessons (FG1). Thus, it was easy for him to teach classes where there were club members present. This may be a replication of his positive experience of playing baseball with his students during his practicum, and may also indicate his comfort in the informal club setting as a student–teacher. Ken expressed inconsistent and contradictory feelings about being a teacher in his interviews and journal entries, which indicate shifts in his perspective, from student to student– teacher to teacher. Over the course of the study, some development was apparent as Ken came to reinterpret the activity of ‘speaking in front of a class’, and to reshape his views on ‘being stricter with students’.

Speaking in front of a class Ken lacked confidence in speaking in front of his students. He recognised that as a student, an individual may be excused for not having the right personality, or disposition, for speaking in front of a group, but for a teacher,

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it is simply a requirement of the job (INT4). To be more comfortable in the role of teacher, Ken needed to develop a professional identity that included a higher level of comfort when speaking to his classes. In the initial phase of the study, he singled out ‘speaking in front of others’ as something that he was not skilled at. At various points during the study, he discussed the relationship between his lack of confidence in speaking and the effect of ‘atmosphere’ on students’ learning, which was one of his reflective themes. By the end of the study, he had objectively identified ‘speaking in front of others’ as a task that he needed to work on. Ken’s frequent references to his incompetence as a speaker not only illustrate his personal insecurities as a teacher, but also suggest that he was somewhere on the continuum between seeing himself as a pre-service teacher and being secure in his identity as a teacher. He tended to associate his reluctance to maintain discipline (for example, telling the class to be quiet) with his lack of confidence in speaking to the class as a whole. He explained that he did not want to tell the students to be quiet in class (INT3), because if they became quiet, he would be the only one speaking, which he found to be rather unbearable (INT4). At the same time, he did acknowledge that speaking in front of others was a necessary quality for being a teacher (INT4). Illustrating the interaction of emotion and content knowledge for teacher cognition (Kubanyiova & Feryok, 2015), Ken attributed his lack of confidence in speaking not only to his underdeveloped delivery skills, but also to his insecurity about the content of what he was saying. Ken did not want the class to be quiet because he was not sure if the content of the lesson was worth paying attention to (INT4). He felt sorry for his students and uncomfortable asking for their attention because he still lacked knowledge of his subject matter, in this case, the English language (INT5). Participation in the study did not fully solve Ken’s problems with ‘speaking in front of a class’ and feeling confident about his English. However, by the end of the study, he was much more aware of the ways that these issues undermined his potential as a professional teacher. In his final interview, he identified his lack of confidence in speaking in front of the students as something he would have to work on if he decided to stay in the profession: Ken: Regarding teaching? Well, what I’ve thought about is not really about how to teach, but more about whether I am suited to be a teacher or not. A*: I see. Ken: Yes. For example, as I wrote, my feelings such as how I am not good at speaking, or that I don’t like to speak in front of other people tend to come out. Those kinds of thoughts come out, and I dwell on them, and it makes me think whether I can continue to be a teacher like I am now. I wonder if it would be ok. (INT6, JA) (A*

stands for Atsuko, the first name of the researcher.)

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Ken’s comment, ‘Whether I can continue to be a teacher like I am now’ suggests that even as the study came to an end, he was still negotiating the contradictions between his personal identity and the professional role required of a teacher. He questions whether he could continue in the profession given that he lacks this important quality. This statement indicates his reinterpretation of what he earlier described; upon reflection, ‘not being good at speaking in front of others’ might mean the difference between being a student and being a teacher. While acceptable in a student, it may be an unacceptable quality for a teacher. However, comparing the first and the second years of teaching, Ken did acknowledge a certain amount of development in relation to ‘speaking in front of others’. In the final interview, he said: Now I do feel like I can, to some extent, consider things outside of teaching my classes, things like I have written there. In the past, for me, speaking in front of a class for one hour was really stressful. That was all I could handle. Teaching took all of my energy and I couldn’t think about anything else. Recently, however, I can think about things such as ‘That student seems a little less energetic than usual. What happened?’ It’s like, now I can consider things such as whether that student may be tired, or what that student is feeling. (INT6, JA) This extract suggests that participating in the reflective tasks did support Ken’s examination of his own professional development as a teacher. As opposed to his first year, when he was absorbed by the stress of having to speak in front of others, or having to teach a lesson (INT6), he acknowledged that he was now able to pay attention to his students, and not merely the challenges of the task of teaching.

Being stricter with students Ken’s negotiation of professional identity formation can also be seen through his contradictory statements about class management. In his second interview, Ken talked about the new high school policy to take firmer action with students: Ken: So, anyway, there developed this atmosphere or consensus that we should be strict. It wasn’t like I wasn’t telling students to behave, but I tended to be a little lenient. But all of the teachers agreed we should be stricter in general, so I decided to be stricter than before and have been doing that recently. And now I feel like I’m a fussy or bossy teacher, all strict and admonishing and telling them to be quiet. As it turns out, the class is quieter, but they really aren’t very active. The atmosphere of the class is not very good. It may be just my perception, but it feels more difficult to teach than before.

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A: Ken: A: Ken: A: Ken:

A: Ken: A: Ken:

So, when you say it feels difficult to teach, you mean that happened after the decision among the teachers to be stricter and tell students to behave more? That’s right. The students talk among themselves, after all. That problem occurred, and students were feeling unstable, and then if the teacher is like this, it just makes the situation worse. And... when that was happening, um, the reason you say you feel so is.... well, what is your view about telling students to behave and being stricter? The students’ reactions, you mean? Yes, that’s right. You could describe the students’ reactions, or your own views about strictly enforcing good behaviour among the students. Regarding strictly telling students how to behave, I guess… how can I say it.. .I have been teaching... and well, now that we have stricter discipline, I wanted to create an atmosphere of learning and saying things in a fun, casual way, but some students wanted me to be stricter and control the class more. I see. Do you mean in terms of asking students to follow school rules and discipline? Well, things like stopping kids from being loud or disruptive in class. Right. Yes, that kind of thing. Some students had actually come to me to tell me they wanted that. So, because of that kind of thing, I thought I should be telling students to behave more strictly. I don’t know. (INT2, JA)

This extract shows Ken’s attempt to align himself with the institutional perspective while also understanding (and perhaps even favouring) the student perspective on the issue of classroom management. At first, Ken’s position appears more like that of a student, or a student–teacher. He places himself outside the institution, as if he is not really part of it, and implies that he disagreed somewhat with the decision of the administrators, saying, ‘But all of the teachers agreed we should be stricter in general, so I decided to be stricter than before and have been doing that recently’. He casts himself as the passive recipient of a policy that was handed down by others. As a result, when the atmosphere in his class becomes less pleasant due to his implementation of the new policy, he does not see himself as having the agency to change that result. But he is not completely against the policy. After expressing dissatisfaction with it, he then acknowledges the necessity of such a firm approach, noting that some students wanted him to be stricter with noisy students. However, he is still uncertain about where to align himself, as expressed in his final statement, ‘I don’t know’.

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Ken’s contradictory statements about class management indicate that he is still very much exploring himself in the role of the teacher. In one interview, he confesses that he does not know how to discipline the students, because he has never been in the position of being firm with others. As he says in one interview: ‘Well, I have not really given reprimands to others up until now. So, I do not know how to do it. I received reprimands from my parents, so I do know what I should say, but…’ (INT2). However, in the same interview, he also says the opposite: ‘one of the teacher’s roles is for students to regard us as being strict, so I want to tell students what I think’. In a later interview, Ken said he had become more firm with his students, asserting, ‘I would not allow any students to disturb motivated students through chatting’ (INT4), which shows a stronger commitment to his role as a teacher with both agency and responsibility in the classroom. (This affirmation was made after he received a critical comment about his participation in the badminton club from a colleague, the physical education teacher, who contended that club activities should be approached seriously and not simply for the purposes of enjoyment. This experience led Ken to think that ‘being enjoyable’, not only in relation to badminton but also to English lessons, which he had previously seen as important in learning [JE 1/11 October], was not necessarily an appropriate or useful perspective.) In the same interview (INT4), however, Ken notes that chatting in class was not necessarily bad. Because the reasons why students chat during a lesson are not always clear, being too strict about chatting is questionable. The contradictory and shifting views towards class management expressed in the same interview indicate his uncertainty about what his choices as a teacher should be. By exploring different viewpoints, he seems to be actively exploring his developing identity as a teacher. Unlike Yoko, for example, a highly experienced teacher, Ken might not have been aware of the contradictory statements he made in interviews. Ken’s comments in our interviews also indicate that he, like other novice teachers, shaped his professional identity by actively comparing and contrasting himself with good teachers he knew as a student. Similarly, he also referred to his current interactions with his senior colleagues as having an impact on his growth as a teacher. By engaging in this kind of comparison and contrast, Ken seemed to be attempting to liberate himself from his own apprenticeship of observation (Lortie, 1975). Ken moved from wanting to be like those who had taught him, from replicating the practice of his own teachers, to the much more complex task of establishing what it meant to be a teacher himself. This can be seen when he compared himself to one of his professors in the United States. This teacher had treated him like a friend, a quality that Ken raised while reinterpreting his view about the forms that teacher identity could take:

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Ken: So...it was more like he was my friend rather than just my teacher. I was very happy to have that kind of relationship. A: I see. He is a teacher at a college, so being like a friend to a college student must be a different thing. Do you feel that you have been influenced by that teacher in that way? Ken: Yes, I think you could say that. Yeah. In the beginning, when I had just become a school teacher, I thought that I shouldn’t make walls between myself and my students, and should be more like a friend to my students. I thought that would be OK. A: Yes, I see what you mean. Ken: Of course, recently, I wonder if it would be appropriate. (INT3, JA) Initially, Ken tried to be friends with his students, modelling himself on his teacher at the American university; this friendly relationship may also have manifested itself in the way he participated in the badminton club. However, with feedback from others, such as the PE teacher and the students themselves, he reinterpreted his view about the role of teacher: being a good teacher did not necessarily mean being good friends with the students. Being firm with students shows how Ken’s perspective changed from that of student to that of teacher. A central part of professional identity is discovering and creating professional boundaries, and negotiating these boundaries is widely recognised as being difficult for novice teachers. Cook (2012: 284) points out that for novice teachers, ‘the negotiation of teacher-student boundaries’ is vital in developing a professional identity, while Zembylas (2005) points out that setting personal and professional boundaries is a crucial aspect of teacher identity construction. Suggesting that the boundaries are neither rigid nor predictable, Lasky (2005: 908) notes that ‘the willingness to blur the boundaries between the personal and professional with their students [is] a core component of teacher identity’. Ken was still in transition from seeing the classroom as a student to being a teacher in it, but through participation in reflective practice, he gradually came to regard himself primarily as a teacher and to take active steps towards constructing his teacher identity. In his second year of teaching, Ken was not completely certain about what it means to be a teacher, and thus drew heavily upon the image of teaching that he had constructed as a student. Through listening to the views of others, such as his students and colleagues, his teacher identity gradually shifted from that of a student to one that was substantially, if still tentatively, professional. Interaction with others has been claimed as a significant aspect in identity shaping as when Hong (2010: 1531) states, ‘identity is continually being formed and reformed through the way we internalise the external environment, negotiate interactions, and

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externalize ourselves to others’. Through reflective practice, Ken shaped his own identity as a teacher, which led him to gain confidence in that very identity. As Connelly and Clandinin (1999: 3) state, ‘Teachers seemed more concerned to ask questions of who they are than of what they know’. It is interesting to note that what interested Ken during our reflective exchanges was not how to teach, but a much more fundamental question: whether he was suited to be a teacher at all. His experience indicates the importance for novice teachers to be given opportunities to explore and construct their professional selves. Lacking such opportunities may undermine the very basis of their chosen career.

Kyoko: Teacher Role to Teacher Identity Kyoko, the other novice participant, also in her second year of teaching, was perhaps less unsure of her vocation, but she also needed to explore her role as a teacher, which, like in Ken’s case, was mostly based on her experiences as a student. The difficulty she experienced during her first year of teaching high school obliged Kyoko to explore her goals as a teacher, a quest that eventually led her to reshape her professional identity. Kyoko’s case is illustrated by her reflective theme – ‘expansion of students’ perspectives’. Kyoko’s case, like Ken’s, suggests that novice teachers’ engagement in reflective practice can produce visible and substantial benefits, thanks to the opportunities that reflection provides for the exploration and formation of a professional identity. For Kyoko, becoming a teacher of English seemed like a natural course. Her parents were both teachers, and teaching was therefore a very familiar profession. In addition, throughout her school days, English was her favourite subject (INT1). She attended a high school that placed strong emphasis on communicative English language teaching, which was still a novel approach in public high schools at the time (FG1). Because she liked English, she nurtured a dream of studying abroad from the time she entered high school. She majored in English language and English language teaching at college (FG1), and had the chance to study abroad when she was in college. After graduating, Kyoko became a teacher at Hills High School, a lower-intermediate vocational high school. In her first year of teaching, Kyoko was excited about the opportunity to teach, particularly to conduct lessons entirely in English and to try out various teaching methods she had learned at college. Her ambition and excitement, however, faced several challenges. Kyoko told me that she found it difficult to establish a good relationship with her students and colleagues. There was a wide gap between Kyoko’s idea of teaching English and what was expected of the teachers at the high school where she worked. Kyoko discussed this gap between her expectations and those of the students in one of her early journal entries:

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When I started teaching, I thought ‘my job is to teach English,’ so I was perplexed with having to engage in the guidance of club activities and of non-curricular matters. I had no idea that the students would not listen to me or regard English as what is not necessary in the future. I think there was a big gap between the students and me. I had an assumption that the students would like English because I really liked English as a student. (JE 2/12 October, JA) This entry shows that Kyoko was faced with the ‘reality shock’ of teaching (Mahmood, 2013; Veenman, 1984): being a teacher was different from what she had expected. It turned out that being an English teacher meant more than merely teaching English, and what was worse, the students did not think English was necessary for their future. As the entry shows, she could not empathise or build a rapport with the students. In one group discussion, she said, ‘I thought it would be best if I could do everything in English….but if I do it, the distance between the students and me became farther and farther apart’ (FG1, JA). The difficulty Kyoko had with the students led her to decide that building a rapport was a prerequisite for teaching effective lessons. In addition to her difficulty in building relationships with the students, Kyoko said she could not easily discern relationships among students, for example, if bullying happened in a class (FG1). These challenges appear to have provided her with a strong impression of the importance of understanding interpersonal and classroom dynamics. It was also difficult for Kyoto to build constructive relationships with her colleagues, all of whom had many more years of teaching experience than she did. They did not empathise with the new approaches to the teaching of English that Kyoko tried. Feeling dispirited, Kyoko managed to complete her first year of teaching with support from an initial teacher training group, provided for all new teachers by the prefecture. But her difficult first year resulted in Kyoko believing in the importance of establishing good relationships with both students and colleagues, even though she did not necessarily know how to do this. Kyoko learned about my study from one of the participants in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) teacher training seminar I held in her prefecture. When she was invited to take part in the study, she was excited about the prospect. As a novice in her second year of teaching, she was still feeling rather insecure and isolated at her workplace (INT3). The initial teacher training seminars, which had been her primary source of moral support, had come to an end (FG2). Still reeling from that difficult first year, she had to discover what she could do as a teacher, because resorting to the methods that she had learned at college was not effective. Her expectation of high school students, derived from her own, very positive, high school experience, did not help her to understand her students. In addition, she felt that she could not express

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her views or ask for support from her colleagues. Kyoko said that she saw participation in this study as a way of obtaining moral support.

Expanding her students’ perspectives ‘Expansion of students’ perspectives’, one of Kyoko’s reflective themes, indicates the reconfirmation (JE 9/12 January; INT5) of her belief that this was an important goal for a teacher. As the study progressed and she participated in various reflective tasks, Kyoko began to assimilate that belief more fully into her teacher identity. Her discussion of this theme also showed her confusion about her expected role as a teacher, which was still entangled with the perspective she had developed as a student. In an early journal entry, Kyoko wrote: ‘I should be the window to the world that the students don’t know. What I gained in high school forms the core of myself. Whether the students like it or not, it is my role to introduce a different world to them’ (JE 3/12 October, JA). This comment illustrates that her idea of the role of an English teacher is to provide opportunities to broaden student horizons through the study of English. It also clearly highlights how much her own experience as a high school student still influenced her teacher self. In an entry made about a month later, Kyoko gave a rather passive description of her role with regard to the ‘expansion of students’ perspectives’: Most of my current students aim to get a local job, marry locally, and have a happy family, so I think my job as a teacher is to support them in this. I know this is true in my head, but I have to admit that I feel powerless as an English teacher. It is frustrating. (JE 6/12 November, JA) Her description of her job as a teacher for this group of students has a discouraging tone. She expresses negative emotions, saying that she feels powerless and frustrated about the reality that her students would spend their lives in the local area after graduation. Given this reality, what role did her belief in having ‘their perspectives expanded’ play? Kyoko’s frustration may have been deepened when she compared her current students with herself when she was in high school. Unlike them, she had been curious to know what was going on in the world and wanted to study abroad. In an interview conducted about a week after she wrote this comment, her views on what she could accomplish remain unclear. First, she describes her job as a teacher, but not in a very enthusiastic way: In terms of supporting students, I’ve basically stopped trying to force them to study English. Instead, I’m trying to support them by meeting their needs. That’s what I meant when I wrote it. So, my main job is to make them study, but in reality, if I am asked how necessary or meaningful that is, it is actually

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not all that necessary for them to study, so I just try to match what I do to what they want. (INT2, JA) The extract shows Kyoko’s rather defeated feeling in her attempt to teach English: she does not reiterate her initial goal of ‘expanding her students’ perspectives’. To a large extent, it seems as if she has given up her original aim, and has decided to just go along with what might be useful and practical for the students: ‘I just try to match what I do to what they want’. However, she has not completely abandoned her definition of the teacher’s role that she formed back in high school. In the same interview, she goes on to say how she still might have a positive influence on her students’ lives: Well, I don’t know what they are going to catch or gain. In my case, it was something out of the ordinary that a teacher said. If I show them many different things, they may catch something and go into a career related to it. Also, I have many different kinds of students and not all are hoping to get local jobs. Some want to go to college and some want to study abroad, so I want to be helpful in some way and let those students know from time to time that there are various options available to them. (INT2, JA) This extract indicates that Kyoko is now able to notice more variety in the needs of her students, and is redefining her role to some extent by providing several options, ‘so I want to be helpful in some way and let those students know from time to time that there are various options available to them’. However, she is still unsure about her role as a teacher, as her characterisation of the role differs so much within the same interview (INT2). Having started with an enthusiastic description of the role of the teacher in an early journal entry, Kyoko’s attitude by the second interview is more passive but also still hopeful. After she read over the transcripts of her past interviews, in the fourth interview, Kyoko revives her positive outlook to some extent: Reading these past interview scripts, I thought that my thoughts are different, like, sort of depending on my feelings at various times. For example, around this particular time I was frustrated with the reality that the students here would mostly just get local jobs and not many of them wanted to study English very much. But now, I feel that some of the students here have an interest in English and so I should do my best to provide many things to those students. (INT4, JA) Kyoko acknowledges that some of the views she expressed in the previous interviews and journals were governed by temporary emotions, such as frustration and doubt, which she was experiencing at a particular time, and thus did not necessarily still hold true. Given that insight, she

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finds that the interview transcripts can support a more positive attitude towards helping the students: ‘I should do my best to provide many things to these students’. Her subsequent journal entry, after the fourth interview, seems to reconfirm her belief that as a teacher she still had some power to ‘expand the students’ perspectives’: Through the interview the other day (INT4) and reading my interview scripts, I was a little embarrassed but I felt what I have been concerned with and what I have posed as tasks became clear. Students have a lot of channels in learning English. The purpose is for the students to realise that English is the pipe which connects them with the world. (JE 9/12 January, JA) As Kyoko wrote in her journal that day (JE 9/12 January), the reading of the interview scripts engaged her in looking back over her opinions and previous statements, an act which allowed her to examine and reconfirm her view of the role of a teacher. In the fifth interview, commenting on this journal entry (JE 9/12 January), Kyoko seemed to be more convinced and determined to put her goal into practice, and reconfirmed (INT5) that what she can do as a teacher is to ‘expand the students’ perspectives’: I would be happy if they realise that there are lots of people who have completely different senses of values from those in their world, and this is not the only place that exists. I want them to have a broader perspective. Yes, for example, one thing I strongly feel is that they believe in one thing too firmly. When the students graduate from high school, they will get jobs or go on to higher education, or get married. In my case, when I tell them that I am 25 right now, they all ask me like ‘Wow, why don’t you get married?’ (INT5, JA) She further elaborates on ‘expanding students’ perspectives’ in the last interview: English and the world, well, the world means foreign countries, or what they do not know. It might be their future. The world means what they do not know, outside of their present world or their present values. It is to know that they live within the frame of Japan and the Japanese language, but English allows them to look beyond. (INT6, JA) The descriptions of ‘expanding students’ perspectives’ in these last two interviews suggest that Kyoko was no longer discussing the role of teacher in the abstract. Nor was she focusing solely on what her students, or colleagues, seemed to expect from her as a teacher. Rather, she appeared to be reconfirming for herself what, as a teacher with agency and a professional identity, she wanted to accomplish.

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Through her participation in the study, Kyoko had an opportunity to explore her teacher role and to reconstruct her professional identity. In the early stages, her professional identity was formed mostly by her experiences as a high school student: early on in the study, Kyoko wrote in her journal, ‘What I gained in English lessons in high school forms the core of myself’ (JE 3/12 October, JA). By the end of the study, she still noted her tendency to rely on her own experience as a high school student in teaching students at the current high school: ‘Teaching the students at the high school, I try to practise how I learned in high school’ (INT6, JA). As Lortie (1975) notes, the apprenticeship of observation comprises thousands of hours of immersion; it is not easy even for a highly motivated novice teacher to escape its sway. Yet, by her second year of teaching, Kyoko’s professional identity was shifting from its roots in her experience as a student; although the shift was small, it was real. The literature on the identity formation of teachers suggests that novice teachers are likely to have tentative identities that need to shift (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Flores & Day, 2006): they may construct these tentative identities based on their assumptions as a student, but often find that such makeshift identities do not fit or work in their workplaces. Through her examination and discussion of her role as a teacher, reflective interventions helped Kyoko to shift from basing her identity merely on past experience to incorporating current experience into her identity. It was helpful for Kyoko to examine and discuss her role as a teacher through engagement in the reflective interventions as she negotiated the journey towards being a professional teacher. Day (2004: 46) defines professional identity as ‘an amalgam of personal biography, culture, social influence and institutional values which may change according to role and circumstance’. Kyoko’s case shows that she was initially extremely concerned with the prevailing institutional values and what was expected of her. Over time, this shifted to a more agentive question: what did she want to do as a teacher? Initially, she referred frequently to her teacher ‘role’, and talked about how it was consciously derived from her experience as a high school student, highlighting both her personal biography, as Day suggests, and how circumstances have changed so as to reduce the immediate value of that biography. In both journal entries and interviews, she referred to ‘my role’, ‘my job as a teacher’ and ‘tasks’, which indicate that she was concerned with the material activity that others (her colleagues; her students; the institution) expected from her. This is what Farrell (2013) calls the ‘predetermined’ roles of teachers, expected and assigned by others. Her imagined role, based on her experience as a high school student, was rather idealistic and did not seem to be appropriate in her actual context. Through negotiation of these contradictions, she began to construct a new understanding of what the role of a teacher could be. Gradually, she reshaped her ideas about her own teacher identity to match what she wanted to do as a teacher, which recalls

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Farrell’s (2013) category of ‘individually constructed identities’, which reflect personal expectations and commitments.

Sara: Expanding Professional Identity Teacher professional identity comprises multiple characteristics, which tend to be multifaceted, dynamic and conflicting; these characteristics are not stable and continue to change throughout a person’s career (Beijaard et al., 2013; Varghese et al., 2005). In my study, Sara’s case showed that a teacher’s identity can shift significantly as it is influenced by factors such as students, curriculum and personal experience and disposition. Working at River High School, Sara changed, in her own words, from being a ‘cold teacher’ to one who was committed to ‘expanding students’ world through teaching of English’. Originally, Sara had become a high school teacher of English because of her positive experience during her own high school days. She enrolled in one of the top high schools in her home prefecture, where most of the students pursued higher education, and she happily reminisced about that time, when she enjoyed both studying and engaging in club activities. During high school, she studied in the United States for one year as an exchange student which, she said, expanded her opportunities. At her Japanese university, Sara met a teacher of English who taught her ‘the importance of using the English language in English lessons’ and of ‘bringing the world into the classroom’, which meant not sticking to textbooks alone but using authentic materials. Sara still held onto these ideas as core beliefs for teaching and selected one – ‘bringing the world into the classroom’ – as a reflective theme. Sara started her teaching career at a competitive public high school, where, similar to her own high school, most of the students planned to continue their education at the university level. Teaching at this competitive high school caused her to become more acutely aware of her lack of subject knowledge and English proficiency. She also questioned the relevance of teaching through the grammar translation method, even though it was accepted by her colleagues as being a desirable method for preparing students to take college entrance exams. After four years of teaching experience at this high school, she went to graduate school and obtained a Master of Arts in teaching English to speakers of other languages (MA in TESOL). After getting a degree, she was assigned to River High School, a new type of high school which exposed her to a completely different experience.

From ‘cold teacher’ to ‘expanding students’ world’ At the time Sara joined the study, she seemed to be disconnected from her students and having difficulty teaching at River High School. Through her engagement in the reflective interventions, she eventually changed her

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view of the students and shaped her professional identity in ways that had positive consequences for her teaching and her sense of professional satisfaction. Sara’s challenges in teaching at River High School had two main causes: a change in curriculum, and an unfamiliar type of student. In the second year of her appointment, the high school launched a curriculum change in an attempt to boost its achievement levels. Sara seemed to be anxious about teaching in these new circumstances. She was teaching both firstand third-year students, and first-year students were following the new curriculum, whereas second- and third-year students still followed the old curriculum. Sara’s predicament can be seen in Beijaard et al.’s (2004: 122) comment that ‘when programs and curricula change, teachers lose a sense of themselves’. However, a greater difficulty derived from the fundamental difference that Sara felt between herself and her students. She could not understand them, describing them as ‘people with different values that I cannot empathise with’ (INT6). The students at River High School disliked studying in general, not to mention studying English. Many of them found it painful to sit quietly and attend lessons, and most did not see a clear purpose for studying English because they did not think they would ever use it in the future (FG1). Sara described the first-year students as having learning difficulties and lacking the motivation to study. She wrote: I don’t know what to do with students who forget everything after the class is over… How can I motivate them to learn English when they think they don’t want to or need to study? (JE 6/26 November) The third-year students were described as being uncontrollable and ‘horrible’, in that they did whatever they pleased in class and did not listen to their teachers: In my current school, among the third year students, the reality is that some students are putting on their makeup during class, or talking on their cell phones or eating or drinking. So I have to keep telling them to stop, and reprimand them, and my class often gets interrupted by things like that. So when people come to this school, they are surprised because students don’t listen to the teachers at all and ignore us. Even if we tell them to stop, they are putting on their makeup and say ‘later’ or something like that and in some cases just keep on doing it for the whole period. From your perspective, I think you’ll find the situation quite unbelievable. (INT1) In the early weeks of the study, Sara appeared fatigued, demotivated and even detached from her job, having to manage a class of unmotivated and disruptive students: ‘I wonder that the students’ low motivation would

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demotivate teachers’, or vice versa… Maybe it works both ways, with some differences in the ratio...’ (JE 11/26 December). This weariness led Sara to abandon incorporating new ideas and activities because there was a risk that introducing them may have made the students even more uncontrollable. Her discouragement led her to stop teaching her lessons using as much English as possible, one of her main beliefs, which had been inspired by her teacher at university: ‘Maybe I should try to use English in class more, but so far, I was discouraged to plan anything better’ (JE 2/26 October). Her demotivation and difficulties led her to be more conservative in her approach to teaching, and she had started to teach using the grammar-translation method, which she had actively questioned the relevance of in her previous place of employment. Sara’s demotivation also demoralised her when she prepared for lessons. Despite her stated belief that the teacher’s role is to ‘bring the world into the classroom’, that is, to introduce authentic materials such as newspapers into lessons, also learned from her teacher at university, she abandoned the effort. And even though she criticised herself for falling back on the grammar-translation method, she let herself do it because it cut way back on the time she needed to prepare for class (JE 6/26 November). Even though Sara commented that she ‘could try something different for them; otherwise, they just get bored, and eventually, fail’ (JE 4/26 November), problems with classroom and behavioural management exhausted her too much for her to plan and implement new ideas into lessons. Sara also pointed out the importance of ‘good, stimulating texts’ for students to improve their reading skills. However, she was not motivated to search for such a book or to prepare a lesson using such texts. Sara wrote: ‘we often don’t have the books at hand nor have time to prepare for using them, unless we do it on weekends… Maybe that’s what enthusiastic teachers do to make their lessons exciting and inspiring for their students’ (JE 7/26 November). This entry shows that Sara differentiated and distanced herself from, ‘enthusiastic teachers’ who devoted their weekends to looking for effective materials for students. Her demotivation led Sara to describe herself as ‘a cold teacher’, as seen in the second interview: Sara: What I really want to do is to ‘teach English in English’. However, in this school, I spend a lot of my energy disciplining the students, so I am often wondering what in the world I am doing here. The other day I told you that I am considering changing my job. If I go to a different school, I think I can take a different approach. In my mind, the teacher’s job should be mainly to teach English rather than discipline the students. For students, a teacher like Mari (pseudonym) who cares about the students is precious. I think I am cold in that aspect. A: Is that so?

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Sara: I don’t see myself as being that passionate and pushing the students no matter what just like Mr. Kimpachi. I can’t go that far, and I draw a line at a certain point between my students and my private life, between what I do here and when I go home after work. (INT2) This excerpt indicates Sara’s professional identity as a teacher who has, perhaps unwillingly or unwittingly, reduced English from being a living language to just a school subject. Sara also contrasts herself with other ‘enthusiastic teachers’ like Mari, Sara’s friend who was also a high school teacher, and Mr Kimpachi, a TV drama character who is an iconic representation of the enthusiastic teacher in Japan. (Mr Kimpachi is a junior high school teacher who devotes his time and effort to helping students; the show focuses mostly on his guidance on extracurricular matters such as preventing students from committing acts of juvenile delinquency, and helping a student who gets pregnant.) Sara describes both Mari and Mr Kimpachi as devoting their private time to the students, and helping them not only with the subjects they teach but also with life problems. In the same interview, she repeats that she draws a line between what she is willing to do as a teacher and in her private life: I have drawn a line at a certain point between my students and my private life, between what I do here and when I go home after work...I have decided my role as a teacher to be ‘this much’ and I do not put weight on doing more than that. (INT2) However, her viewpoint shifts slightly after her ‘horrible’ third-year students graduate and she experiences a better classroom environment with them gone. In one journal entry after their graduation, she describes how authentic materials were effectively incorporated into a French class she was taking as a student. This observation encouraged her to incorporate authentic materials in her own lessons, allowing her to reconfirm her commitment to one of her core maxims, ‘bring the world into the classroom’: ‘If I gave authentic texts to my students at school, some of them will surely be daunted and discouraged to study, but better students may want to do this’ (JE 18/26 February). The entry shows that she is concerned with both the students who might get discouraged, and those students who might gain from the material. She continues in the same journal entry: Now that students are a little more concentrated in class, I feel like looking for more materials other than textbooks and do experimental lessons. The only problem is that our school is on a tight budget, so I have to buy them if I were to obtain something new! (JE 18/26 February) Constraints on finding authentic materials are this time no longer attributed to her own lack of enthusiasm due to difficult students, but

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rather to the lack of budget. In a subsequent journal, entered about a week afterwards, Sara writes: ‘I found a book which help (sic) student to read fast and a lot, and I used it in my OC (Oral Communication) 1 class and it worked quite well’ (JE 20/26 February). This comment is in striking contrast to the statement made three months previously, when she said that looking for materials was what enthusiastic teachers did and not what she was willing to do. By this later entry, Sara seems to have regained the energy and willingness to expend her own time looking for authentic texts, purchasing outside books and using interesting outside materials in lessons. In the final interview, Sara explains that she assumed hansei, saying that the fatigue from disciplining students caused her to lose energy to think about new ideas to motivate students to learn, which in turn led to more monotonous lessons (INT6). This comment shows that she assumes responsibility as a teacher for not having made better efforts to improve her lessons. In the latter phase of the study, she returned to her core belief, that as a teacher she wants to expand students’ world: ‘If I could stretch their boundaries a bit further by teaching English and make them interested in what’s going on in the world around us, it would be my great pleasure’ (JE 25/26 March). This indicates that her professional identity was strongly bound up with her belief that teaching English was more than just using the textbook; it was a commitment to expanding the students’ world through interesting English lessons. Sara’s case suggests that teacher identity can shift when the context of teaching shifts, as discussed by Hong (2010) and Beijaard et al. (2013), who argue that professional identity is established and maintained through interaction in social situations and the negotiation of roles within a particular context. Adapting to new circumstances is necessary for successful teaching, but it places a big demand on the energy and focus of a teacher who faces extra challenges in those circumstances. Sara herself expressed an understanding of this dilemma in her selection of one of her reflective themes – ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’, which will be discussed in greater detail in the next chapter. Before her assignment to a teaching position at River High School, Sara had four years of experience teaching in another school. The challenging new context that she was assigned obliged her to reshape her professional identity to accord with the context in which she was teaching. Sara was one of the participants who sent me a journal entry every week. I suspect that journal writing gave Sara an opportunity for description and reflection in different ways at different phases of the study. Initially, journal writing might have given her a space to let out her frustration and to vent (Gebhard & Oprandy, 1999). Her continued engagement in writing the journal entries may have given her the opportunity to trace and monitor her views about teaching. Rereading her journal entries seems to have provided her with different perspectives on understanding her views about teaching. In Sara’s

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case, through journal writing, she had the chance, as discussed in more detail in Chapters 4 and 8, to describe, reinterpret and become aware.

Summary The stories of Ken, Kyoko and Sara suggest that novice teachers learn what is expected in their specific institutional context, while at the same time, they negotiate their sociocultural contexts with varying degrees of success. The narratives of how they shaped their professional identities also illustrated the emerging and dynamic nature of teacher professional identity (Beijaard et al., 2013; Varghese et al., 2005). Interactions with other teachers, students and the school context appeared to be particularly important in shaping professional identity. Ken’s experiences and comments showed that he was in an emerging process of constructing a professional identity as a teacher, moving with some difficulty into that new role from the more familiar role of student. Kyoko’s story indicated that she was obliged to shift her professional identity from matching the image of being a teacher that she had constructed as a student to being an actual teacher in the context where she worked. Her story also showed a shift in her understanding of what a teacher should be: at first she did what she felt was expected of her, that is, she concerned herself with fulfilling the role of a teacher; only later did she start to fulfil her own expectations of herself, being the teacher that she wanted to be, at that point growing into her own professional identity as a teacher. Sara’s case also showed an emerging aspect of teacher identity, that it is dynamic and adaptable, as she found that she had to shape her identity to suit her new teaching context. The next chapter will narrate the identity-shaping experiences of the more experienced teachers in the study: Yoko, Mr Sato, Naomi and Miki. Ultimately, the next chapter will weave together the role of reflective practice in identity shaping for both novice and more experienced teachers.

6 Reflective Practice and the Consolidation of Professional Identity: Cases of the Experienced Teachers Currently I like all of my English courses and keep trying new things. But in some cases, in some courses for example, when I really dislike a class and am really fed up with it, I would only be able to write something like ‘I hate it’, so I would not write about it at all. (Yoko, INT6, JA)

A novice teacher spends a lot of time and energy trying to establish a foothold inside the professional circle; an experienced teacher becomes so used to operating within that circle that the intertwined networks of what SimonMaeda (2004: 409) calls micro-level interactions (in the classroom) and macrolevel circumstances (sociocultural context) can become nearly invisible. As described in the last chapter, there were some commonalities among the novice teachers’ attempts to shape their professional identity, such as the compelling need to reconstruct an identity based on student perspectives into one relevant to their current teaching contexts. The more experienced teachers, on the other hand, followed different paths towards new professional identities. In contrast to the novices, they reviewed their professional roles, explored their existing professional identities and clarified personal and professional goals (‘mission’ to use Naomi and Miki’s term). Their engagement in shaping these new versions of identity seemed to be more gradual and subtle; their attempts to engage reflectively were perhaps even hampered by the fact that they already possessed rich, multifaceted professional identities.

Yoko: Gradual Reshaping of Professional Identity Participation in this study gave Yoko, a highly experienced teacher of English, a chance to talk about her beliefs and viewpoints in great detail, discussions which eventually led her to fundamentally reshape the professional identity that she had initially constructed while working at Star Company (pseudonym), her first workplace. Although she was a

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very competent and talented teacher, Yoko did not regard teaching as her vocation. She had worked for 15 years, 3 years at Star, a business corporation, and 12 years as an English teacher at two different high schools. At the time of the study, Yoko was teaching at Mountain High School (pseudonym), located in a small town in a rural prefecture. The rank of the school is one of the lowest in the prefecture, and most of the students do not plan to attend university. Yoko’s view about teachers began to change even while she was still a student. Until junior high school, Yoko had liked teachers. But, at that level their lessons were, she remembers, monotonous. Teachers spent more time being authoritarian than actually teaching the subject matter; they did not want to let the students think that they could be intimidated (JE 6/25 November; INT2). Yoko’s disappointment with her teachers led her to feel what she calls ‘antipathy for adults’. Despite her disappointment with the teachers, at university Yoko obtained a teacher’s certificate, since teaching was one of the few professions which gave equal opportunities to women (INT2). Yoko’s professional knowledge and her professional identity were strongly influenced by Star Company, where she started working immediately after her graduation from university. Yoko said that her preservice practicum experience led her to feel that she needed to gain work experience in a corporation before taking on teaching as a profession (INT2). Star Company, which specialises in consulting and personnel placement, was one of the fastest growing and competitive companies in Japan at the time. The company was known to be progressive, eschewing the traditional seniority system (in which preference is shown based on years of service and is associated with lifetime employment) and promoting meritocracy and gender equality – all of which became a fundamental part of Yoko’s professional knowledge. Yoko enjoyed working at the company, which led her to change her view of adults from seeing them as boring and monotonous to believing that ‘being an adult is fun’ (INT2). This was the beginning of both her adult and professional identity. She was a competent worker who won various prizes such as first prize in a sales talk competition. She said that she left the company due to health reasons and her lack of interest in the profitoriented side of business (INT2). Yoko’s work experience at Star Company lasted only a few years, a much shorter time than her teaching career so far; however, it continued to have a substantial influence on her professional knowledge and identity. After leaving the business field, Yoko started teaching at an affluent private high school, Rich High School (pseudonym). Yoko wanted to send the message to the students that ‘being an adult is not that bad’. Unlike her own junior and senior high school teachers, she hoped that she could be a

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positive influence on her students’ lives. After teaching at this high school for some years, she felt that she had succeeded in sharing this message, and had become an excellent teacher who can teach any lesson well. However, her very success made her wary of the possibility that she might be manipulating the students. The lack of challenge also made her uneasy that her own lessons might have become monotonous. She left the school after teaching there for about 10 years. After leaving the profession, Yoko became interested in environmental issues, which developed into a new message that she wanted to convey to students. Gaining this new social aim, she resumed teaching. On the surface, Yoko did not seem to have been faced with the immediate need to reshape her professional identity; in her case, the shaping was comparatively subtle and, relative to the changes undergone by the novice participants, rather more gradual. While a novice teacher may be highly motivated to engage in reflective practice for development, a more experienced teacher may not immediately see the need for further professional growth. One of the reflective themes that she selected, ‘the journal as a forum to express what I could not express at work place’, suggests that it was necessary for Yoko to have a space for expressing herself honestly, because she felt quite different from other teachers at the workplace. Yoko explained, ‘I am relieving tension through writing in the journal. I write what I have been feeling but have not been able to tell others in the new workplace. I rediscover that I want to express my views but I cannot’ (JE 24/25 March, JA). She explained that what she could not express at work was her dissatisfaction towards her workplace, such as her colleagues’ detachment (INT6). Upon closer analysis, I found that another idea that she could not express openly was her critical view of teachers and teaching, which had its roots in her experience at Star Company. Her engagement in reflective practice gave her ample opportunities to express her views, and it eventually led her to slightly reshape her professional identity. Yoko’s minor dissatisfaction with her current high school, Mountain High School, arose from various differences she found between it and her previous places of employment, Star Company and Rich High School. Yoko said that she could not really express her views about teaching with her colleagues at her current high school, as they did not engage in discussions about teaching. Yoko pointed out that, unlike teachers at private high schools, teachers at public high schools like Mountain High School did not put much effort into their teaching. In addition, they tended to avoid unnecessary confrontations with colleagues as they would be transferred to different schools after 5–10 years in any case. Yoko contrasted her current working environment with her previous workplaces, saying that her colleagues at those other workplaces were more dedicated, regardless of

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how long they had been on the job. In addition, at her current workplace, working closely with only one other colleague made it difficult for Yoko to express her views. When their views were different, Yoko said, the different view might be taken as a personal criticism by the other teacher (JE 13/25 January, JE 14/25 January, FG2). According to Yoko, Rich High School, having a larger number of teachers, was conducive to more open discussions, and at Star Company she could more easily coordinate and have frank talks with her colleagues (JE 16/25 February). Yoko’s view of teachers and the teaching profession, which was influenced by her time in business at Star Company, seems to be the main element that she felt she could not share with her colleagues. Yoko seemed to associate herself more closely with Star Company than with either of her schools, as if she saw herself primarily as a business person and only secondarily as a teacher. The lasting influence of working in Star Company is seen in her teaching practice, how she evaluates effective teaching, her ideas about the key to effective teaching and her view of teachers. For instance, Yoko gave her students a reflection sheet amended from one she had used at Star Company (JE 18/25 January). She said that her career guidance to the students was influenced by her experience at the company, in that she saw career choice and change to be flexible and did not necessarily recommend lifelong employment in the same company (JE 23/25 March). Her discipline of students was influenced by her experience of being an interviewee, and she emphasised the importance of appropriate attire for the right occasions (INT3). The professional knowledge that Yoko gained through working at Star Company formed the basis of her belief in how effective teaching should be evaluated, which she described as an objective examination of the quality of work. She was, thus, critical of how ‘good work’ was evaluated at schools which she expressed in one journal entry: When everyone is given the same evaluation across the board, that everyone is ‘doing a good job’ (even though I don’t completely agree that this is true), I think this is based on a certain standard that consists of things like ‘We are working hard every day dealing with many difficult students’, ‘We are working overtime until late day after day’ and ‘We are working on Saturday and Sunday helping students with club activities’. In other words, the standard is based on how many hours they are working and how much difficulty they are facing. In Japan, the most difficult thing for teachers is the fact that there is an immense amount of work, and the greatest challenge is how to be efficient in dealing with that. It is rare that questions about quality of teaching are asked, such as about whether effective instruction was given when working with the students, or whether that overtime work could have been done more efficiently between classes or other times within the working day. Sometimes I almost feel like it is some kind of taboo. (JE 19/25 February, JA)

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Yoko expressed how quantity of work is regarded as quality of work in high schools, which is very different from how she sees the two. I have come to understand the value of just ‘being there’ and spending time with the students. However, punching my time card, I still cannot leave behind the discipline of ‘only report the actual net hours you were working’ that was instilled in me when I was working in the corporate world as a salaried person. (For example, even if I was writing a project proposal for three hours, I would have to accept that my work was inefficient and wasting time for correcting careless mistakes, so it is actually only one hour of networking time. Or my boss would point out that in reality my work included two hours’ worth of tea breaks. Or on the other hand, I was working and eating at the same time during lunch because I got some good ideas for brainstorming, so it was actually equal to one hour of attending a work meeting, and so on). (JE 19/25 February, JA) She described what she had learned about quantity and quality of work in Star Company, which was obviously very different from what she had observed in high schools. It is hard to say whether the teachers are saying ‘You are doing a good job’ to each other because they are taking it easy on each other or because they are genuinely trying to evaluate their skills and passion. When teachers praise each other like that, it is good that they can feel some degree of motivation in their heart by thinking ‘I am doing my best.’ However, at the same time, I think we should not forget to coolly and objectively look at each other’s quality of work. (JE 19/25 February, JA) In these comments, Yoko was critical of the tendency among teachers to evaluate effective teaching through the amount of time spent with students and the assumption of good intentions, rather than through an objective examination of the end results. The extract indicates her frustration with this kind of evaluation, and her unwillingness to accept this kind of holistic feedback from her colleagues; she also notes that she does not feel free to share her critical attitude with others. Yoko’s view of effective teaching involves retaining an ‘objective’ perspective as a teacher such as seen in, ‘the standard is based on how many hours they are working and how much difficulty they are facing’. She is critical of some teachers who seem to lack objectivity, ‘it is hard to say whether the teachers are saying “You are doing a good job” to each other because they are taking it easy on each other’. She emphasises her belief that the key to being a fair teacher lies in not asking for recognition (JE 7/25 November), and explains that if students make great achievements, it should be attributed more to their hard work than to teachers’ effective instruction (JE 9/25 November). If teachers started to ask for recognition, they may teach not to improve

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the students, but instead to receive recognition for themselves (JE 7/25 November). Yoko admits that she is grateful to receive positive comments from her students, but expresses her thoughts about the danger of being self-satisfied (INT3). Yoko’s strong determination to hold an ‘objective’ perspective and not to be self-satisfied was apparently based on what she had witnessed in Rich High School. There, she commented, she saw rather pitiful examples of teachers who were so earnestly committed to their work that they lacked objectivity (JE 9/25 November). She noted that, unlike the promotional ladder in business, there were not many posts available for promotion within a high school. Thus, devotion was often not fully recognised. Yoko said that as a result, teachers tend to seek recognition in a different way, through receiving gifts from students or their guardians: [A]s teachers they have no special positions of leadership within the organisation. So, what do they do to pursue satisfaction? They tend to start falling into a hole. When I was doing work relating to hiring at Star Company, I saw many male workers like that over the years and I can really understand what they feel. But it is dangerous in a sense. So, when he gets a necktie from the PTA, he was actually pushing for that, but he wants to show it off one time every three years. He’s like ‘I am supported by the mothers.’ He’s really trying to express something. Of course, he is a good teacher, and very passionate in what he does, but it is really something how he makes a big deal about getting a present like that and showing it to everyone. (INT3, JA) Yoko noted critically that, compared with employees at Star Company, teachers apparently lacked the ability to evaluate others (FG2), to become leaders among adults (FG2) and to cooperate with their peers (FG2). She was also critical of high school teachers’ tendency to regard teaching as their lifetime vocation. Yoko describes her attitude in this journal entry: Probably, since the time I was working as a salaried professional at Star Company, I have a habit of endlessly searching for the ‘right timing to quit’. This is part of the company culture there. They feel that finding a good career or workplace is a type of destiny and this belief is instilled in the workers. We feel that we want to leave the company in a nice way, with good timing, without staying for a long time at the wrong job in a meaningless inertia. The reason for leaving can be a promising new career or just based on the realisation that the job was not one’s destiny. (JE 21/25 February, JA) As this extract indicates, Yoko did not see teaching as her lifetime calling but simply as one of the jobs she has held, a view that differs markedly from that held by many of her colleagues. In discussing career change among teachers, her view is critical, describing teachers as people who may not be

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equipped with capabilities to engage in business and survive in the business world (INT5, JE 23/25 March): Compared to working in a regular company, the position of a teacher is really different. For example, it is possible to move from a company to a school and become a teacher. That is because company workers are able to use their professional skills or management ability or experience in society in schools. However, on the other hand, if a person who was a high school teacher wants to become a company worker, most people would say that it is really difficult. So when I came to this side, and became a teacher, I really felt that and understood it would be very difficult. Not impossible if somebody really wanted to do so, but difficult. I knew that most people in society had that perception, and so I knew that if I moved to a high school for my job, I would basically face the problem that I would never be able to go back into the corporate world. That was why when I moved to Rich High School, I was thinking that I probably would not work at the school until retirement. I was thinking that I wanted to start and run my own business. (INT5, JA) The extract shows that Yoko clearly distinguishes between teaching and working at a company. Her views are directed not only towards her current school, but more significantly towards high school teachers in general, from whom Yoko seemed to have distanced herself. Her professional identity seems to be different from other teachers, as she does not consider teaching to be her lifetime calling. Five months after the study finished, Yoko sent me an email that expresses her concept of her own professional identity somewhat differently. To my question, ‘In the five months that have passed since the study ended, what do you think you have gained through participation in the study?’ she responded: Teachers can be too lenient to one another, even when they could not achieve what they should have done. If such teachers have mutual trust, complaints and commiseration can lead to a positive outcome, but also there is dependence. From my friends from Star Company, I can get the message, ‘what needs to be done needs to be done!’ However, their working environment is totally different from my current environment, it is difficult for them to understand what I am facing. It was fortunate for me to communicate with you in the study, who understands the teaching context but has a different outlook. (JE 25/25 August, JA) She still associated herself with her former colleagues from Star Company, but seemed to have a clearer idea about the differences between the work environment of a company and a high school, noting that those colleagues might not understand her difficulties. This indicates to me that Yoko has begun to shift her own identity slightly, now identifying

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herself more closely with teachers and beginning to see herself more as a professional teacher. Even though the literature on professional identity claims that it is dynamic and continues to be shaped over the length of a career (Beijaard et al., 2013; Varghese et al., 2005), Yoko’s case shows that the professional identity of an experienced teacher can be more impervious to change than that of a novice teacher. Professional identity shift for the experienced teacher may require more involvement in reflective practices or more time for the reflection to work. Her case also indicates that the initial place of employment might have a substantial influence on the formation of one’s professional identity, and that it can continue to influence identity well after the person has changed workplaces. Her engagement in reflective practice for seven months, however, gave her an opportunity to explore and reshape her professional identity to at least a small degree.

Mr Sato: Perplexed with his Professional Role and his Identity Even though Mr Sato was the participant teacher in the pilot study, his case illuminates that teaching in the same context for quite a number of years may free the teachers from exploring professional identity. Reflective practice obliged Mr Sato to confront how strongly he divided his identity as a teacher on the school premises and his identity outside of school. Mr Sato, a male teacher in his fifties, had taught at Ocean High School (pseudonym) for more than 20 years in his 30-year career as a high school English teacher: this is very unusual, as public high school teachers are typically transferred to a different school after several years. When he participated in the study, he was a homeroom teacher for one class of third-year students. (Homeroom teachers are responsible for administering discipline and providing career guidance. This responsibility, at lower-ranked schools, often outweighs subject instruction in terms of energy and time. However, there are some who go into education with a strong desire to guide and foster young people as a homeroom teacher rather than to teach a certain subject.) Besides teaching English, he was the coach for the high school’s women’s karate team. He said that the reason that he chose to teach at Ocean High School was because it was the headquarters for the prefectural karate association, and because he wanted to nurture a champion high school karate team. Mr Sato’s engagement in reflective practice, especially reflective journal writing, made him confront the way that he had defined identity and role as a teacher. He submitted nine entries in seven months, eight of which were sent in September and October, and one in January. He stopped sending regular entries after November, which led me to wonder if he

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wanted to withdraw from the study. From our interviews, I learned the reasons why he stopped submitting entries: he found writing the journal to be quite challenging due to the way it forced him to disclose his thoughts; in addition, writing the journal at home sharply reduced the psychological distance Mr Sato had created between his home life and the school. He stated that when he went out of the main gate of the high school, he had been able to separate himself from school-related matters: teaching, students and colleagues. He explained that this distance allowed him to keep a healthy balance in his life between school and home in order to prevent teaching from being too intense and stressful. Being asked to write a journal pushed Mr Sato to think about the authenticity and boundaries of his teacher identity, a construct which, before now, he had tried to keep restricted to the school premises. He said in an interview, Writing a journal involves some private parts in one’s life. Especially if I write it home. Here at the high school, I play a role of a teacher wearing a mask. When I go home, my true persona emerges, thus it would be better to write a journal when I am at school. (INT2) He described the impact of writing a journal for him, I started to think about teaching when I was home as well. I used to think that I was playing a part, just as Shakespeare wrote. And I was playing a part of a teacher. When I go home, I wanted to lead a totally different life. But reflective practice got me thinking about teaching more and more. If I write the journal home, it was even more. Teaching comes to haunt me more and more. (INT4) His entry shows that his role as a teacher began to expand outside of the premises of the school. In addition, reflective practice obliged him to scrutinise his role as a teacher, as he said in one interview: It (reflective practice) gave me a chance to look at myself. Looking at oneself is quite hard. You have to try to accept…accept…accept yourself. But at the same time, I do not want to accept myself as how I am at the moment. I am asking myself, is it me? No, it can’t be. But you still have to accept yourself. Because you are playing such a part. But at the same time, even faced with the part you are playing, I am still thinking, this is not me. I am not playing it this way. It is different. While you are home, you do not have to face the reality (of the school). But if you have to write a journal there, you have to face it. It’s rather sad. (INT4) The detachment he notes might be a strategy that Mr Sato has acquired in his long years of teaching, helping him to avoid immersing himself too deeply in school matters. He may be successful at restricting the demands

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that teaching makes upon him because he has been teaching at the same high school for more than 20 years. Until now, he has probably not been presented with any opportunity to examine how he inhabits his role as a teacher. The journal writing, however, challenged this detachment and pushed him to scrutinise his role as a teacher even away from the school premises. In addition to his role as a teacher, journal writing immersed Mr Sato in deep introspection about the way he lived his life, which related not only to his professional identity but also to his personal identity. He said in an interview; In reflective practice, one can write about one’s classes but this is not the only thing included in the journal. One starts thinking about oneself, critically examining and retrospecting oneself deeper and deeper. And this becomes quite heavy. (INT2) He also commented that, In writing a journal, one tends to write about what is most important. In my case, what is most important is how I live my life. And this is quite heavy. It involves me into a very profound thought to the extent that it is scary. (INT3) As can be seen in the two interviews, Mr Sato often used the word ‘heavy’ to describe journal writing. As previously discussed, he described his engagement in reflective practice in negative terms: I think this type of self-development is good, but it becomes more difficult as we get older. We have all those years of experiences behind us, and they come out. If we are just writing about teaching in the classroom, maybe that is ok…but we do not want to inquire after ourselves very deeply, we want to leave some aspects fuzzy for ourselves…journal is good as a child, but it is difficult as an adult… you pile up sad memories…with Westerners since they have religions, they can be saved by God, but with Japanese, since most of us do not have religion, we cannot entrust ourselves to God, there is no salvation. (INT2) Mr Sato’s comments in this entry led me to incorporate focus group discussion in the main study so that participants would not feel as isolated or ‘heavy’ about their journal writing as Mr Sato apparently did. However, during the interview, as he was expressing his view in a joking tone, I was not immediately aware of the emotional impact of his reaction. Writing the journal seemed to have forced him to look into himself, not only into his teacher role but also into the person he was. Despite the discomfort that he experienced in journal writing, in the final interview (INT4), Mr Sato stated that reflective practice would be

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a very effective method for professional development and possibly for personal development. In terms of teaching, he expressed ‘reflective practice got me thinking about teaching more and more. If I write the journal home, it was even more’ (INT4). He described the effectiveness of journal writing, referring to athletes: This professor who teaches at a university, who received a copper medal in Judo in the Olympics, he was writing a journal in his prime time of Judo. When he stopped writing it, his skills of Judo regressed. It seems most of the famous athletes keep a journal. (INT4) He further stated that, ‘Journal writing would be the best way to know yourself and where you stand’ (INT4). Reflective practice challenged him in the way it forced him to confront his professional role and his identity. However, at the end of the study, he evaluated journal writing as an effective tool for professional development. It was difficult for me to know how Mr Sato came to terms with journal writing. His case suggests that, for shaping professional identity, the context a person works in is highly significant. When a teacher teaches in the same school for a substantial number of years, the professional role and identity that is established in that context may not be as open to shift or change unless a specific intervention, such as reflective practice, is initiated. Unlike Mr Sato’s atypical case, where he stayed at the same school for more than 20 years, public high school teachers are normally directed to change workplaces every 5 to 10 years. This fact alone seems to me to be a strong argument for introducing and incorporating reflective practice into teacher development events designed for teachers at public high schools in Japan. Faced with different teaching contexts, they constantly have to figure out questions, such as ‘who am I?’ and ‘what do I know and how is it useful?’

Naomi: Becoming Aware of her Mission Naomi, one of the experienced teachers in the study, became aware of her mission as a teacher by participating in my study. She articulated this mission as providing ‘whole person education’. A sense of mission may be seen as the culmination of one’s professional identity formation as the more expert we become at something, perhaps the more we ascribe meaning to it, not just in terms of our own lives but also as an activity with social value. Korthagen (2004: 85) describes mission as ‘the meaning of one’s own existence within a larger whole, and the role we see for ourselves in relation to our fellow man’. With approximately 20 years of experience in teaching English, Naomi described her experience as a high school exchange student in the United States as a prominent event in her youth, which had the effect of changing

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her into an extrovert. Naomi started her teaching career at a private high school; after teaching there for about 10 years, she left that school. She said she wanted to have opportunities for participating in seminars, which was not encouraged at the school. She started to teach at a public high school, Lake High School (pseudonym); concurrently, she enrolled in an MA programme in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) as a part-time student. After several years of teaching at Lake High School, she was transferred to her current high school, Medial High School (pseudonym). Lake High School was significant in Naomi’s teaching career, the place where she laid the foundation of her professional mission. The high school was a completely new environment for Naomi. The rank of the school was very low in the prefecture, resembling River High School, where Sara taught. Naomi was the only female teacher assigned a first-year homeroom of 40 male students. Initially, the students resisted Naomi, wanting a male teacher whom they could respect and who was physically stronger than they were (INT1). Naomi faced difficulties every day: the students would get into fights, break windows and steal things from each other in the classroom. She expended time and effort in preparing lesson plans. The students would, however, disrupt the lesson by throwing things and getting into fights (INT2). The challenge was not restricted to the premises of the classroom or the school: when the students got into trouble outside of school, Naomi had to go to the police station, or visit local detention facilities to fetch them. Given these circumstances, she had to gain the students’ trust in different ways than her male colleagues did (INT2). She started to give individualised attention to the students; for example, she gave each one a birthday present, and engaged in a diary exchange with every student (INT2). Eventually, Naomi succeeded in gaining the trust and loyalty of the students, and she remained their homeroom teacher for three years, until their graduation.

Whole person education Reflective practice allowed Naomi to become more aware of her mission – what she wanted to practice and the meaning of her existence as a teacher. In her case, it was providing ‘whole person education’ (INT4, JE 12/18 February). Korthagen (2004) proposes that ‘mission’ is the deepest layer of reflection, and for Naomi, it represented a profound commitment to her work. ‘Whole person education’ expresses Naomi’s powerful sense of responsibility for fostering students for both their own sake and for the sake of society. ‘Whole person education’ meant different things in different schools to accord with the types of students she faced, but it retained the same overall aim, which was to change the students’ beliefs about learning, to facilitate their learning and to encourage them to be good citizens (INT2, JE 13/18 February).

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‘Whole person education’ at Lake High School meant that Naomi saw her social responsibility as including these goals: to keep the students in school, to protect and prevent them from committing crimes and to terminate ‘a vicious cycle’ in which they were trapped. She learned that many of the students came from uncaring families; some of their fathers were in jail, some had mothers who had deserted them and some were commuting to school from orphanages (INT1). Many of their parents did not seem to care very much about their children, much less about their education. Naomi said that her contribution to society was to take care of these students and to keep them in school. She observed: ‘since their parents are uninterested in their sons, I wonder what would happen to them if I deserted them. I felt social responsibility that if I don’t, the society will be full of freeters’ (Freeters is a Japanese word applied to people who never obtain full-time jobs and support themselves with short-term, part-time jobs throughout their lives) (INT4, JA). She described her mission thus: In our school as well as others, if we fail a student like that, it might be OK if he or she has somewhere to go, but if there is no place to go, that becomes a source of strong resentment and bitterness. We can only hope that it does not lead to criminal activity. In order to prevent things like that from happening, I think we need to keep supporting students like that. I think that is one of our missions. (INT2, JA) Naomi argued for the need to change the vicious cycle in which the students are trapped by their socio-economic background: I cannot let their sons repeat the same thing and think the same way. I have to lead them to graduate from high school and let them know that school is not what is against them, but rather what supports them. I thought this might be my mission at the time. My biggest task was this. In a big picture, I thought I contributed to the society through this. I may create criminals by letting them drop out. If they dropped out, they would join gangs. (INT2, JA) Faced with the students at Lake High School, Naomi ascribed the problems not to the students themselves but to the environment in which they were brought up (INT1). In saying, ‘In a big picture, I thought I contributed to the society’, Naomi looked beyond the school to give meaning to her role and identity as a teacher in the larger society. ‘Whole person education’ at Medial High School meant providing discipline (INT3). Naomi was concerned with the students’ lives both right after their graduation from high school and the more distant future, which might include working at a company or going abroad (INT3). In order to foster decent adults, she attempted to provide discipline, even though it was not always pleasant.

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In the past, I focused mainly on English education and didn’t emphasise discipline or guidance for students so much. But recently I feel the latter is more important, even more than English. In particular, I want the students who are going to go abroad to have very good discipline… I don’t want Japanese students to be rude overseas and be seen as representing Japan. (INT3, JA) Her belief in ‘whole person education’ at Medial High School indicates that she noticed the change in her ‘teacher belief’ over the course of her career. Naomi was not interested in administering discipline earlier in her career, but she came to believe that it was important and also that it was an important part of her mission and responsibility to foster students to become good citizens. Naomi’s interest in her mission, which provided her with a strong sense of responsibility, may represent the concerns of an experienced teacher. Many scholars claim that the target of reflection for novice and experienced teachers is different: novice teachers are often preoccupied with more immediate concerns, such as classroom discipline and motivating students (Veenman, 1984; Williams & Grudnoff, 2011), while experienced teachers are more likely to be concerned with matters and responsibilities beyond the classroom (Williams & Grudnoff, 2011). As mentioned earlier, mission can be seen as the culmination of a teacher’s quest to form a professional identity (Mayer, 1999, cited in Walkington, 2010). When reflecting upon mission, a teacher becomes aware of the meaning of professional (and possibly personal) existence in the larger context of society, and in relation to others (Korthagen, 2004). Naomi’s case also indicates that, however strong it may be, teachers are not always aware of their own mission in teaching, and engagement in reflective practice can help them become aware of it. Becoming aware of one’s professional mission can be empowering for teachers, as it denotes becoming aware of the meaning of their existence in the societal whole.

Miki: Established Philosophy of Teaching Miki was a teacher who seemed to have established her philosophy of teaching and her mission prior to her participation in my study of reflective practice. Miki was a teacher with a strong sense of agency and firmly established professional knowledge, who, like Yoko, did not select many reflective themes in the early phase of the study. Everything that she stated and wrote seems to have been clear to her. She was able to articulate her professional identity with strong descriptive examples (INT6). Miki, who had more than 20 years of experience in teaching, was a confident, competent, experienced teacher who was well versed in the theory of English language teaching. She had received a BA and teacher’s certificate from a university well known for its strong emphasis on English language

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education. After graduating from the university, she became a high school teacher of English, and since then had taught at four public high schools. Despite her many years of experience as a teacher, she still strove to develop her teaching. In order to improve her teaching and English language proficiency, she obtained an MA in TESOL. She familiarised herself with the literature of English language teaching and attended seminars and lectures. She passed an examination administered by the Board of Education to teach at Field High School (pseudonym), a designated high school with a special curriculum to prepare students to pass competitive university entrance examinations. Miki indicated that she had gained her current favourable workplace by choosing to come to Field High School (INT2). This high school is one of the most well-established high schools in the prefecture, and its curriculum is focused on the guidance and instruction of students for passing entrance examinations to the top universities in Japan. In her previous high schools, Miki said, she had grown weary of working with colleagues who did not give full effort and energy to teaching. They did not offer extra lessons, and in the worst cases, they would tell the students to go to juku (private ‘cram schools’) to study for college entrance examinations. Miki said that such teachers gave minimum effort to teaching and drew clear boundaries between what they would do and wouldn’t do for the students (INT3). In contrast, she often described teaching to be ‘trying whatever I can do’, which showed a strong sense of responsibility and commitment as a teacher. She said in our first interview, ‘What a teacher can try is to think about what one can do in such a context, this is what I would like to try’ (INT1), which indicates her dynamic, multifaceted professional identity.

A strong sense of agency Miki was a teacher with a strong sense of agency who took responsibility for improving student learning, placing value on trying to do whatever she could to help her students. She made constant references to herself as a source of change and a provider of solutions, and the pattern of Miki’s journal entries indicates her strong sense of responsibility for students’ learning. The entries often unfolded with a description of a difficulty, such as students’ critical comments followed by hansei, analysis of the difficulty and a solution. The following interview excerpt demonstrates Miki’s sense of responsibility: A:

When you think the students are not engaged, do you think some possible reason might be… for example, do you think you, a teacher, could change if you do something differently? Do you always ascribe the source of difficulty to yourself?

Miki: (nods)

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A:

Really?

Miki: I am not confident. A:

Really? You do not think that because the students are so and so…?

Miki: Well, I think that way to console myself, but then, I think, ‘what did I do wrong?’ A:

I see.

Miki: Such as I am not good at talking in the classroom. (INT4, JA) This excerpt indicates that Miki ascribed to herself some responsibility for the challenging situation. Other teachers, especially in the early stages of their career and also in the early phase of the study, often ascribed the causes for difficulty in teaching to external causes, such as the atmosphere (Ken), an uncooperative colleague (Naomi) or unmotivated students (Sara). Perception of oneself as a source of difficulty and change may be a crucial factor in the engagement in reflection for professional development, as it shows one’s willingness and confidence to face and take responsibility for the situation. It also shows one’s strong sense of autonomy in that one is responsible for students’ learning and should be in control of teaching.

Multifaceted teacher identity As stated earlier, Miki was a teacher who seemed to have established her philosophy of teaching and her mission prior to participation in the study. In an early journal entry, she referred to the teacher’s ‘philosophy’ and ‘the core’ that influences teaching: One thing I learned in graduate school was that my personal beliefs or philosophy regarding the questions of ‘what is language and how is it acquired?’ would form one’s basic principle and lead to how I would teach. In teacher training, isn’t learning that kind of thing the most important? (JE 4/18 October, JA) Asked about her philosophy of teaching, she explained her view of teaching and her mission at the high school: Prof. Suzuki (graduate school professor, pseudonym) told me that, and I agree it is true. In other words, Prof. Suzuki taught me that how we teach changes depending on how we think. In addition, of course, we have to consider student needs. Considering the students’ needs should really lead to deciding what we will do in our classes. I thought this was really true, even if there is something in particular that I want to try to do. Another key point is the various conditions such as student needs and the environment of the school. Those are constraints we have to face. For example, we have to consider how much time is available,

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or whether we have to unify what we teach with other teachers. He told me that we have to consider what we can do within those constraints. I really believe that this is true, so I do my best in that. So, frankly, passing college exams is what is prioritised here at our school because it is an advanced college preparation high school. However, it is not enough for the students to just get into good schools by passing entrance exams; it is also important to teach English that students can use in the future. If they have a good ability in English, they will do fine in passing the college entrance exams, and they will find their English is very useful when they get to college as well. The key point here is that they develop fundamental skills including the ability to read in English and also to write their own ideas clearly. I think that helping my students get those abilities is my main mission for being at this school. (INT1, JA) From the outset of the study, Miki was able to articulate her philosophy of teaching and her professional role. The extract above shows that Miki modified her teaching practices to suit different students in different contexts. Her teaching practice, she notes, is informed by various aspects: her principles, students’ needs and school contexts. She said that teaching principles are formed through having clear views about what language is and how language is acquired. Students’ needs and school contexts, such as constraints, time and other teachers, are also important factors to be taken into account in teaching practice. Just as in Naomi’s case, Miki’s statement also suggests that mission is adaptable to different contexts. Miki’s statement, ‘What a teacher can try is to think about what one can do in such a context, this is what I would like to try’ (INT1, JA), indicates that it is a responsibility of a teacher to modify one’s practice to accord with the context one is teaching. Miki described her ‘mission’ at Field High School, which comprises aspects such as her philosophy of teaching, the students’ needs, the context and the constraints. Although she participated willingly and enthusiastically in the study, Miki did not seem to be strongly influenced by her participation in terms of professional identity, perhaps because it was already highly developed, being multifaceted and adaptable to different high school contexts.

Conclusion This conclusion weaves together my findings about how reflective practice contributes to the shaping of identity by both the novice teachers (Chapter 5) and the more experienced teachers (Chapter 6). Shaping one’s professional identity promotes professional development as it enables a teacher to be adaptable within various teaching contexts. However, it is not necessarily an easy endeavour as it involves teachers scrutinising themselves against their structural contexts and their personalities. The experiences of the teachers in this study showed that reflective practice

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offered them an avenue for engaging in the shaping of their professional identities. This concluding section also lays out the trajectory that the process of shaping their identity seems to take. It starts when teachers negotiate their roles in their respective sociocultural contexts; then they attempt to tie their personalities and their professional identities together. In the process of becoming aware of their mission, they seem to experience the merging of their personal beliefs about teaching and their awareness and acceptance of the social responsibility they carry.

Exploration of professional identity throughout the career Thomas and Beauchamp (2011: 767) describe the development of teacher identity thus: ‘the paths that teacher identity development can take are not necessarily smooth but often fraught with periods of self-doubt and questioning’. My data suggests that reflective practice is full of selfdoubt and questioning, but can nevertheless be beneficial for professional development at almost every phase of a teacher’s career, though novice teachers perhaps change the most (unsurprisingly). As professional identity, which both arises from and influences teaching practice, is dynamic and adaptable, and continues to be shaped throughout one’s career (Beijaard et al., 2013; Varghese et al., 2005), exploring its various aspects can be a valuable experience for a teacher at any stage of development. My study found that professional identity formation or reformation is not an easy path, as it involves teachers negotiating with structural factors and contextual ones such as students, curriculum, colleagues and schools. In addition, previous experience, personal goals and inclinations and willingness to engage and negotiate with the workplace context can have a powerful impact on the development of a teacher’s identity, or set of identities, which can be multifaceted. Although many positive reactions were noted among my participants, professional identity formation can be seen as a struggle, teachers ‘have to make sense of varying and sometimes competing perspectives, expectations, and roles that they have to confront and adapt to’ (Beijaard et al., 2004: 115). For the novice teachers in my study, engagement in the reflective interventions allowed them to move away from conceptualisations of teaching stemming from their apprenticeship of observation. Ken was prompted to shift his orientation towards teaching from that of a student, to a student–teacher and finally to an autonomous teacher. Reflective practice encouraged Kyoko to review her ‘tentative professional identity’ (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009). Ken and Kyoko faced challenges as they negotiated what it means to be a teacher, going back and forth in thinking about what they could and should do as teachers, ‘negotiating within shifting conceptions of what teaching is or should be, relating to the identities of others, becoming agents of their own identity development’ (Beauchamp &

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Thomas, 2009: 185). They were easily elated and discouraged by what they experienced in their classrooms, and at times even questioned whether they could continue teaching. The process of professional identity reformation was also a challenge for teachers with longer careers, especially when confronted with new circumstances. Sara, encountering types of students that she had not previously taught, negotiated and shaped her identity to suit the new expectations of how she needed to teach and interact with her students. A reflective intervention – writing an entry of the reflective journal – seemed to have obliged Mr Sato to confront the way that he defined his role as a teacher, a long-established role after 20 years at the same high school. His case shows that teachers, if working in the same context for a substantial number of years, might not otherwise be given an opportunity to reflect upon and consider their professional role and identity. As well as confirming the importance of the exploration of professional identity for novice teachers, the study also underlined its significance for the experienced teachers, as professional identity is dynamic and layered. Yoko, Naomi and Miki, having taught in various contexts and experienced several phases of construction and reconstruction of their professional identities, seemed to have developed multifaceted identities which were versatile enough to serve them in diversified contexts. However, Yoko’s case and Mr Sato’s case suggest that shaping a professional identity for an experienced teacher may require substantial involvement with reflective interventions. This study thus suggests the need for the teachers to engage in extended reflective interventions.

Trajectory of teacher self: From role to identity to mission Professional identity is an amalgam of various elements, and is uniquely constructed by different individuals in a given context. In accordance with their career paths, however, this study identified a trajectory of the development of teacher self, from primarily being concerned with their own role, to negotiating their identities, to eventually envisaging and assuming individual missions. As Roberts (1998) explains, becoming a teacher is an adoption of a role: Learning to teach is not a private journey, but it involves the adoption of a social role, a process of defining oneself as a teacher informed by our images of others and the traditional views of teaching available to us. (Roberts, 1998: 36) In the study, I found that when the teachers used the term ‘roles’, they were referring to external expectations: what others expected of them and what they expected of themselves in terms of actions, tasks and goals.

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Negotiation of the role in a given context represents a significant element in the construction of professional identity. Cohen (2008) summarises Zurcher’s (1983) view that: All role identities are produced and reproduced as they are negotiated through social interaction. That is, role identities do not have inherent significances, but rather carry expectations for conduct that are learned in the process of socialization, and are constantly negotiated as people work to fit what they want with the expectations they encounter. (Cohen, 2008: 81–82) Roberts (1998) emphasises how roles are constructed through relationships with others and social validation: [T]eaching is a socially constructed role, and in learning to teach, the expectations of others and relationships with others play a profoundly important part. Individualist theory remains incapable of addressing these dimensions of becoming a language teacher. We therefore recognise that, while each teacher develops his/her thinking by personal construction and reconstruction, social validation plays a critical part in the process. (Roberts, 1998: 32–33) My study found that the teachers’ preoccupation with roles is a primary concern at the novice stage. Ken’s statement in an interview – ‘whether I can continue to be a teacher like I am now’ (INT6) – shows that he is struggling to balance his personality with his existing concept of the expected professional teacher role. He wonders if he can continue to be a teacher when he contrasted his current self with his image of what a teacher should be. In addition, he refers to the role of the teacher as if the definition is fixed, such as when he says, ‘one of the teacher’s roles is for students to be regarded as being strict’ (INT2). In the study, Ken went back and forth, thinking about how ‘strict’ he should be as a teacher, negotiating his own view and what is expected of a teacher. In the initial phase of the study, Kyoko too often refers to ‘job as a teacher’ and ‘teacher role’, and was seeking to find what that entails. Negotiation of teacher roles, informed by structural factors, might have a particularly strong mediating influence on the construction of professional teacher identity in Japan. Teaching, especially in pre-tertiary institutions, is considered a moral vocation, and teachers are seen as responsible for guiding and fostering students in their moral and personal development. Thus, when taking up a first teaching assignment, the novice teacher is forced to confront the reality that teaching is a profession that requires a person to ponder not only content knowledge but also social expectations, institutional constraints and social values.

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Roles represent what teachers are expected to be and to do, and do not necessarily embrace personal agency and commitment. Novice teachers need to examine ways of developing their identity along more holistic lines, involving not only external expectations but also internal desires and commitments. After developing a clear understanding of their roles, teachers may next seek to tie the professional role to the personal identity. By (re)constructing their professional identities, teachers may try to negotiate identity in terms of personality (Farrell, 2015). In teachers’ integration of their personalities into their professional identities, they experience what Meijer et al. (2009: 299) call ‘presence’, which is ‘where the connection between the professional and the personal element in teaching takes place’. The amalgamation of their professional role, identity and personality is presumed to be important, as a strong division between the personal and the professional may invite an ineffective conflict in one’s teacher professional identity (Beijaard et al., 2004). Such amalgamation can lead teachers to fully inhabit their complex identity, a state described by Meijer et al. (2009: 306) as ‘“to be yourself” means ultimately to be able to recognize and feel one’s own state of presence in the here-and-now, while functioning in the situations one encounters in daily life’. In her engagement in reflective practice, Kyoko’s statements about being a teacher change from what she should do as a teacher – an expected role – to what she wants to do as a teacher, which is to ‘expand students’ world through the study of English’. When Sara feels distance from her students, she uses the word ‘role’ to describe herself as a teacher only on school grounds. Over the course of the study, however, she starts to discuss what she hopes to do as a teacher, which can be seen by her statement, ‘stretch their boundaries a bit further by teaching English and make them interested in what’s going on in the world around us, it would be my great pleasure’ (JE 25/26 March). The merging of one’s personal belief about teaching and one’s social responsibility can be illustrated in terms of awareness of one’s mission. Naomi becomes aware of the meaning of her existence as a teacher – giving ‘whole person education’ to students – which suggests that she has successfully integrated her role, beliefs and mission as a teacher. Prior to participation in the study, Miki had a clear idea of her professional identity and her mission: she knew what was expected as a teacher and what she wanted to practise in different contexts of teaching, which was informed by students’ needs, her philosophy of teaching and the constraints posed in different contexts. Having an opportunity to immerse themselves in their exploration of professional roles and professional teacher identities through reflective practice is a crucial aspect in language teacher education. What a teacher knows cannot easily be separated from who the teacher is. Connelly and Clandinin (1999: 3) describe the intricate nature of teacher cognition and

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teacher identity, noting that when teachers are asked questions about their cognition, they seem to begin answering questions about their identity as a teacher – ‘Who am I in my story of teaching?’; ‘Who am I in my place in the school?’; ‘Who am I in children’s stories?’; ‘Who am I in my administrator’s stories?’; ‘Who am I in my parents’ stories?’ ‘Who am I in this situation?’ – rather than, ‘What do I know in this situation?’. The next chapter focuses on and attempts to shed light on the participating teachers’ exploration of teacher cognition, what the teachers know, through their engagement in reflective practice.

7 Teachers’ Awareness and Understanding: Exploring Teacher Cognition Some teachers are just really good at speaking and getting the attention of the students. But I won’t be able to become like that…In contrast, I prefer to make the students do some kind of task. I think that may be because I want to feel a sense of comfort by seeing that the students are doing something. (Miki, INT6, JA)

As I stated in Chapter 2, my study takes as one of its premises the fact that teacher cognition is accessible only indirectly and that its influence can be interpreted only when it is externalised through writing, talk and practice. Therefore, in designing the study, I hoped to get my participants to externalise their thinking, their attitudes and the roots of their teacher beliefs by asking them to engage in the three reflective interventions. I also presented them with a variety of reflective tasks, one of which was asking teachers to select their own reflective themes. Writing in a recent special issue of the Modern Language Journal dedicated to the topic of teacher cognition, Kubanyiova and Feryok (2015) describe the importance of externalising teacher cognition in practice. They characterise teacher cognition research as an ‘emergent sense-making in action’, which offers an explanation of the relationships between what teachers think, what they do and what their students learn. They also indicate that teacher cognition research should attend to the ‘ecologies of language teachers’ inner lives’ as they clarify ‘what language teachers do, why they do it, and how this may impact how their students learn’ (Kubanyiova & Feryok, 2015: 436). My study does not follow the participating teachers back into their classrooms to trace changes in their specific teacher knowledge or thought as manifested in their professional activity. Rather, based on my negative experiences with professional development seminars, I adopt a slightly more general goal: I hope to show that, like teachers everywhere, teachers of English in Japan possess untapped reserves of dynamic and adaptable expertise, knowledge and insights that can contribute to the creation of more engaging, integrative, purposeful and relevant in-service seminars for teachers in the Japanese context.

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Given the limited use of this research and training methodology in Japan, and given the specific challenges of the Japanese context, such as widespread teacher mobility, the burden of social expectations that high school teachers in particular must bear and the potentially constraining cultural concepts of hansei, tatemae and honne, it was unclear whether Japanese teachers would find reflective activity productive or useful. Happily, my results seemed to justify my initial sense that teachers of English in the Japanese context, like teachers everywhere, draw on a complex constellation of beliefs, feelings, values and practices that has come to be known as teacher cognition. Through the multimodal interventions I asked the participants to engage in, I came to know in some detail the ‘complex, practically-oriented, personalized, and context-sensitive networks of knowledge, thoughts and beliefs’ that these language teachers draw upon (Borg, 2006: 272). As Kubanyiova and Feryok (2015) point out, the field has expanded since Borg’s seminal book appeared, but it has not always been clear to what end research into teacher cognition is being put. In this book, I have tried to indicate that teachers can identify for themselves, through reflective tasks, key themes that contribute to the shape and activity of their cognition. Following a discussion of the literature on teacher cognition, I illustrate in more detail the ways in which my participants conceptualised their teaching activity by exploring the reflective themes they selected for themselves and by referring to the different dimensions of reflection discussed in Chapter 4.

Teacher Cognition: Tacit, Complex and Dynamic As Johnson (2015: 517) notes, teachers of language typically enter the profession ‘with largely unarticulated, yet deeply ingrained, everyday concepts about language, language learning, and language teaching based on their own L2 instructional histories and lived experiences’, a description that clearly echoes the cases of Ken and Kyoko, the two novice participating teachers, described in Chapter 5. Teacher cognition research has amply demonstrated that teacher cognition, though normally tacit, can be externalised for reflection and study. Yet, studying it in its complexity can be a challenge, as it retains its origins in ‘histories and lived experiences’, and becomes more complex as a teacher gains more expertise, a quality seen in the cases of Sara, Naomi and Yoko. And perhaps most relevant for the study described in this book, teacher cognition is dynamic and can continue to change indefinitely. As Borg (2003) points out, teacher cognition can continue to be reshaped throughout a career: through numerous encounters with various events, teacher cognition is always under examination and revision. Accepting this means that we can expect to find evidence of development in teacher cognition at all stages of the professional trajectory,

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which seems to be supported by the cases of Naomi and Miki, the most experienced teachers in the study. The dynamic quality of teacher cognition means that it will be modified and reshaped through interaction with context and circumstances, variations which require new applications of existing propositional knowledge, to what Wallace (1991) called ‘experiential knowledge’. Johnson (2006) illustrates the dynamic nature of teacher cognition by referring to Kennedy’s (1999) ‘expert knowledge’, and suggests that teacher cognition is transformed as teachers link ‘expert knowledge’ to their own ‘experiential knowledge’. Mann (2005) adds teaching context to his explanation of the construct, and describes the dynamic reshaping of teacher cognition that occurs when expert knowledge and experiential knowledge are informed by the teaching context. Understanding how teacher cognition is shaped and developed has important implications for professional development. Johnson and Golombek (2003) point out that the reshaping of teacher cognition is itself a learning experience for teachers, as they gain new understanding from undergoing the process of reshaping. The second distinct characteristic of teacher cognition is that it is complex, an integration of various kinds of knowledge, including propositional knowledge, experiential knowledge, local situated knowledge and beliefs and assumptions (Banks et al., 1999; Borg, 2006; Connelly & Clandinin, 1995; Elbaz, 1983; Johnson & Golombek, 2003; Mann, 2005). Banks et al. (1999: 95) characterise the combination of various types of professional knowledge as ‘a complex amalgam of past knowledge, experiences of learning, a personal view of what constitutes “good” teaching and belief in the purposes of the subject’. By using the term ‘amalgam’, they emphasise the importance of the interdependence between various types of teacher cognition. In addition to drawing upon lived experiences and context, pedagogical knowledge and formal knowledge about the subject matter, teacher cognition has also been studied in terms of the beliefs, values and assumptions that teachers bring to the classroom. More recently, research has looked into the influence of emotion on shaping the tacit knowledge of teachers (Borg, 2012; Golombek, 2015; Korthagen, 2014; Kubanyiova & Feryok, 2015; Nagamine, 2015; Zembylas, 2005). These writers argue that emotion plays a significant role in the interpretation of propositional and experiential knowledge, a relationship that I clearly saw in the cases of several of my participants. The third and perhaps most intriguing characteristic of teacher cognition is that it is tacit. Although there is general agreement that, as teacher educators and professional development coordinators, we should attempt to examine and understand teacher cognition, both for epistemological and practical reasons (Kubanyiova & Feryok, 2015), the target of our study

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remains invisible, difficult to identify and even hard to define (Borg, 2006; Burns et al., 2015; Kubanyiova & Feryok, 2015; Polanyi, 1957). Some writers have pointed out that teachers themselves can be unaware of the sources of their own values, understanding and decision-making (Crandall, 2000; Tann, 1993; Tsui, 2003), either because they have never thought about it or because they take such knowledge for granted, after years of internalisation and experience while being teachers and students (Lortie, 1975). Teacher cognition research takes as a fundamental argument the claim that awareness is a prerequisite for change; reflective practice has come to be seen as a powerful key to opening the door on this elusive, changing and complicated issue (Cox, 2005; Farrell, 2001; Williams & Burden, 1997). My data, as discussed in the previous two chapters, indicates that the participating teachers in my study came to articulate, understand and reshape aspects of their professional identity based on their engagement with the reflective tasks that they participated in. In this chapter, through their reflective themes, I look at the ways in which reflective practice helped the participants externalise, analyse and develop what Kubanyiova and Feryok (2015: 436) have called the ‘ecologies of their inner lives’. In the discussion, I refer to the types of reflection I identified in Chapter 4.

Ken: Reinterpretation of ‘Atmosphere’ on Learning and Teaching In Chapter 5, we saw Ken reinterpret for himself the meaning of his reflective theme, ‘atmosphere’, as he shifted from taking a student perspective on that issue to seeing from the viewpoint of being a teacher. By moving the locus of control over class atmosphere from external factors to internal ones, Ken made himself less vulnerable and passive (JE 2/11 October, JE 4/11 November) and laid claim to a stronger sense of agency (INT6). Ken realised that, as a teacher, he had to see the world differently. The change is significant as it shows a change in Ken’s level of teacher efficacy, ‘the extent to which the teacher believes he or she has the capacity to affect student performance’ (Berman et al., 1977: 137). In addition to reinterpretation of the meaning of ‘atmosphere’, in the final phase of the study, Ken became aware that he was placing the responsibility for conducting an effective lesson onto the students by implicating them in the creation of the classroom ‘atmosphere’. He came to understand that he ought to be in control of creating an ‘atmosphere’ conducive for learning, a sign that he had gained a stronger sense of autonomy. In the early phase of the study, Ken noted that the ‘atmosphere’ in the classroom and of the whole school exerted a strong influence on student learning and on his teaching. He described a positive class ‘atmosphere’ as ‘enjoyable’ (JE 1/11 October), and ‘relaxing’ (JE 4/11 November) and one

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where ‘students are motivated’ (JE 5/11 February). A lesson with a negative ‘atmosphere’ was characterized as one where there was ‘no motivation from the students’ (JE 10/11 February), ‘no reactions from the students’ (JE 8/11 January) and ‘the students [were] falling asleep in class’ (INT1, INT6). Borg (2003: 88) says that the shaping of teacher cognition is influenced by the teacher’s own experiences as a student: ‘prior learning experiences shape teachers’ cognitions and instructional decisions’. Ken’s experiences as a first-year junior high school student suggest one reason for the ways in which Ken was affected by classroom ‘atmosphere’. His junior high classmates were not motivated and the teacher was not enthusiastic, which reduced his interest and motivation towards studying. As a teacher, Ken commented on the unpleasant ‘atmosphere’ of his current high school, noting tensions between teachers and students and attributing it to the students’ reluctance to study and their hostility towards teachers (INT2). These examples reveal Ken’s view that a positive ‘atmosphere’ is instrumental for successful learning. Ken also felt that a positive ‘atmosphere’ was necessary for effective teaching. The positive effect of ‘atmosphere’ on Ken’s teaching can be summarised like this: if the class has a motivating ‘atmosphere’, it influences all the students, encouraging them to feel comfortable about participating; they will speak up, ask questions and respond to his questions. Ken stated that he preferred such a lesson because he is not the sole speaker in the classroom (INT5): Ken speaks, the students respond to him and he responds to the students. The recurrent references to a positive and negative ‘atmosphere’ in his classes were always followed by a description of an ease or difficulty of teaching, which shows that Ken drew a direct link between the effectiveness of his teaching and the perceived ‘atmosphere’ of the class (INT5, JE 11/11 March). Ken’s views on this link began to change over the course of the study, a shift that is strikingly shown by two contrasting journal entries written hours apart (JE 8/11, 9/11 January). The first entry is mostly negative, while the later entry overturns it: in the second entry, Ken reinterprets the relationship between himself and the ‘atmosphere’ in his classroom. In the first entry he writes: Recently, I’ve been losing my passion for teaching… after the year-end break, we had to cancel some classes or students were not so attentive after the vacation, so it was hard to make progress in the curriculum… Another problem is that the content of my lessons are becoming very routine-like and repetitive. This is boring both for my students and for me… I think I want to change something, and I’ve tried various things. Some new attempts actually went well. But recently I have gotten tired, and I don’t feel like doing anything new… It is really a problem… I know I need to do something, but I am doing nothing, so I feel worse. It is indeed a vicious circle! (JE 8/11 January, JA)

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This negative tone reveals a predicament that Ken characterises as ‘a vicious circle’: he knows that he has to change his practice but he does not have the motivation to try. However the second entry, below, which was submitted just four hours later, after he taught, displays a completely different tone. This demonstrates that he has developed some increased ability to reflect on his experiences and take alternative perspectives on them. Due to his participation in the reflective task of writing about his teaching, Ken displayed not only heightened awareness of his beliefs, but also a readiness to change his understanding of what he could do in his classroom: I sent you an email a short while ago saying that I’m losing my passion. However, just now, I had a class for my first year students and my feeling has changed. The students were first year students and they had not been so responsive in previous classes, but today they were very cooperative and energetic and I almost finished the whole class just chatting with them! It really is easier to teach when the students are responsive. Today we were studying about the present perfect tense, but all of the students kept their concentration like never before. It felt almost like I could let them study on their own and they would be fine. I was amazed. One thing I realised was that I should not be making excuses about my students not being responsive. I should do everything I can to create an atmosphere that allows them to respond energetically. Even if it doesn’t work sometimes, I need to be doing my best. Recently, I had been failing to give my best effort. If I don’t give it everything I’ve got, there is no way that things are going to get better. I think my research regarding materials development is also lacking. I really haven’t studied enough yet and need to do more. (JE 9/11 January, JA) The latter entry shows Ken’s reinterpretation of one of his key reflective themes, ‘atmosphere’. He changed his perception of class ‘atmosphere’ from being primarily an external phenomenon, which, though it exerted tremendous influence on his teaching, he felt unable to change, to something he had more personal control over. He indicated that he had gained at least some sense of control about changing a negative ‘atmosphere’ to a positive ‘atmosphere’, and also about creating a good ‘atmosphere’ conducive for learning. He showed hansei by stating the cause of the ineffective lesson: ‘I had been failing to give my best effort’. He also assumed responsibility for creating a positive ‘atmosphere’ by stating, ‘I should do everything I can to create an atmosphere that allows them to respond energetically’. The two contrasting entries, written and sent on the same day before and after one lesson, indicate the instability of Ken’s teacher cognition on this point, as well as his insecurity and vulnerability about his relationship to what he perceived as factors beyond his control. However, they also reveal Ken’s active exploration of his views about teaching, especially his

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relationship to the theme of ‘atmosphere’ – indicating his readiness and willingness to develop from being an insecure novice teacher to being a teacher who assumes responsibility and control. By the final phase of the study, Ken became aware that he was blaming unsuccessful lessons on students and class ‘atmosphere’, and that he was not attempting to improve the lesson: A:

Have you noticed anything about your own teaching? Such as a habit or a tendency?

Ken: Let me see. Well…one thing I notice is that, when I refer to the ‘class atmosphere of the students’, in reality I am blaming things on the students. A:

I see.

Ken: I think that is not good. A:

For example?

Ken: Well, for example, when I have a class that does not enjoy reading very much, I just say ‘They are just like that’ and, I know it is not good, but I don’t try to take the initiative to change the situation. A:

I see.…how did you notice that tendency? How did you realise that?

Ken: I think I realised that by writing about it. By writing, yesterday? No not yesterday. It was when I was reading what I had written yesterday. When I was reading my own journal, I noticed that I had written that kind of thing at the very end. I must create by myself the atmosphere that is necessary. A:

I see. Very interesting.

Ken: Yes. A:

Right. I see.

Ken: Yes, that’s what I assume hansei on. A lot. (INT6, JA). Ken became aware that once he characterised a class as having a certain attribute or ‘atmosphere’, he would abandon any attempt to change it. But by engaging in discussion about the reflective theme ‘atmosphere’, he first reinterpreted it to be something which he needed to change, and then became aware that when teaching did not go well, he placed the blame on the ‘atmosphere’ and the students. Speaking as a Japanese person, Ken assumed hansei, taking responsibility for improving the situation; as a reflective practitioner, he displayed the beginnings of a stronger sense of autonomy and efficacy by recognising that he should be the one to initiate such changes in the classroom. The reinterpretation of the meaning

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of ‘atmosphere’ suggests that his reflection had contributed to a reshaping of Ken’s teacher cognition.

Kyoko: Teacher Cognition and Professional Goals Participation in reflective practice was important for Kyoko not only as a source of moral support, but also as a way of obtaining further professional support. It reminded her of her original intentions in becoming a teacher and reconfirmed her aim in teaching; in addition, she felt empowered, through exploring and discussing ideas, gaining awareness and shaping her professional identity and teacher cognition, her views about teaching. The development of her teacher cognition is illustrated through her reflective themes of ‘teaching individuals vs. a group’ and ‘developing students through English study’.

Teaching individuals vs. a group Over the course of the study, Kyoko reinterpreted her ideas about what teaching involves, moving from a view rooted in her own experiences as a student to ideas based on her current activity as a novice teacher. One example of this was her reinterpretation of her reflective theme, ‘teaching individuals vs. a group’. Early on, Kyoko stated that what she learned as a high school student formed one of her essential core qualities (JE 3/12 October); so when she became a teacher, she would try to emulate teaching that she had observed and enjoyed as a high school student. Kyoko’s model of instruction drew upon the private instruction she had received at juku (a private ‘cram school’), which she attended from 5th grade to 12th grade (INT4). Kyoko was considerably influenced by the teaching at her juku, particularly the individualised instruction; two teachers whom Kyoko named as her role models were both teachers at juku (INT2). Kyoko said: Taking the college entrance examinations and others, I was talking to the juku teacher, not only about studying English but about what I was feeling unsure about… just like I am talking to you about worries and so on about being a teacher… kind of like talking to a mentor, so I really enjoyed talking with the juku teacher. (INT 2, JA) She described how ‘rich the relationship becomes between a teacher and a student’ (INT2) in the context of a one-to-one instruction, and referred to the comfort that she had experienced as she could ‘monopolise the teacher’ (INT2). In her present workplace, Kyoko attempted to provide individualised instruction both inside and outside the classroom. However, attending to individual students in a classroom proved to be difficult. As a classroom

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teacher, she had to teach groups of students, not individuals. Teaching a class of 40 students one day, she recalled that she had asked herself, ‘Who am I teaching?’ She went on to say that talking to a group of 40 students was almost like a public speech, and walking around the classroom trying to attend to each student felt like a façade (INT4). She could see that giving individualised instruction in a classroom would be difficult and could recognise the fact that juku and school were different. But outside of class time, Kyoko attempted to provide individualised lessons just as her juku teacher had done for her (INT2). Every morning before classes, she gave individualised instruction to a student who was planning to take college entrance examinations (INT2). Kyoko, however, came to find meeting this student every morning to be rather challenging: Kyoko: But it became a little too much for me. So, the frequency of meeting the student became three times a week, and then twice a week about 90 minutes. A:

For about 90 minutes?

Kyoko: Because when I was in high school, I would go to juku at around five in the evening and stay there until 10 or 11 at night, but this is really difficult for a teacher to do….at school. But that really gave me comfort and assurance, so if there is a student who wants to talk to me, I would try to make time…just like the juku teacher did it for me. (INT2, JA) These observations show that Kyoko was drawing upon her perspective as a former juku student even while attempting to adapt individualised lessons to different circumstances. They show that she understands the difference between juku and classroom instruction, but that she is still trying to balance her internalised model (individualised) with the external circumstances (group). In this interview, Kyoko demonstrated an attempt to reinterpret what teaching in a high school entails, as she shifts her perspective from student to teacher.

Reconfirmation of her goal as a teacher: Developing students through English study At the beginning of the study, Kyoko firmly expressed that her goal in teaching was ‘developing students through English study’, which she later selected as one of her reflective themes. However, her ideas and feelings about how to do this were still uncertain and her attitude towards ‘developing students through English study’ wavered as she interacted with certain students who were not interested in studying English. Repeated engagement in the reflective interventions, focus group discussions, journal writing

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and interviews helped her reconfirm her commitment. Her participation in reflective tasks reminded her that ‘developing students through English study’ was what was important for her and what she wanted to try. This reconfirmation shows that unstable or variable views of a novice teacher can be shaped and solidified through engagement in reflective interventions. From the outset of the study, Kyoko talked about the shift from her first to her second year of teaching: she moved from focusing on just teaching English to ‘developing students through English study’ (FG1, JE 1/12 October, INT1). Kyoko learned the idea of ‘developing students through English study’ at one of her Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)-organised novice teacher training seminars, held a few months prior to her participation in this study. Even though she discussed this idea with me, she was still not sure if this was what she really wanted to pursue. To consolidate her focus, she had to revisit and review her ideas, which the reflective tasks supported her in doing. Her first journal entry describes the shift from the first to the second year: In the first focus group... I talked about how the main job I should be doing at my current school has changed from ‘teaching English’ to ‘developing students through English study’. Looking back, in April, May and June last year, I was placing too much emphasis on ‘teaching English’, possibly because I had just studied about teaching English and English education methods in my college days and I wanted to put my studies to use. After I got a better understanding of the actual situation at my job and started to understand the reality of my students, I realised that I had been teaching English mainly for my own personal satisfaction, and ‘teaching English in English’ was one part of this. In the beginning, one of my colleagues pointed out to me that my teaching did not match the reality of the students. (JE 1/12 October, JA) This journal entry shows that Kyoko is aware that she has changed her focus in teaching to better fit the reality of the students; she also acknowledges that her initial choices in the classroom came from her formal education and her desire to get satisfaction from her work. She ascribes the reason for the failure of ‘teaching English using English’ to her disregard for the proficiency level of the students at the high school. She seems to be firmly committed now to the idea of teaching students through ‘developing students through English study’. But despite this statement, Kyoko remained ambivalent about what she wanted to focus on in her teaching (INT3). In one journal entry, Kyoko wrote that she did not really have a firm idea of what she wanted to teach, and that she did not have a clear sense of how she wanted the students to grow in their three years of education. She notes that she abandoned her attempt to teach some of the students – like the third-year students who were about to graduate from the high school and did not care about

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studying (JE 7/12 December). At times, she was discouraged and said that she was even considering a career change, expressing some regret that she had become a teacher (INT2). However, as the months went by, her understanding of what she was doing in the classroom changed as she reconfirmed (JE 9/12 January) her goals in teaching and became aware (JE 9/12 January) of the connection between her goals and her practice. This change came to her attention through writing the required self-evaluation sheet for the high school. She discusses this episode in one journal entry: I had completely forgotten my goals or that I established those goals. Looking back, I was able to see that I tried to teach in accordance with those goals. I was able to find what I wanted to focus on. Writing my self-evaluation report, I have realised that my main recent issues and the things I learned in this year’s teacher training programme are linked…. I also feel a lot of importance in the ideas of ‘developing the person of the students and English education’. When I teach my classes, I still tend to get caught up with just teaching English. (JE 9/12 January, JA) Writing the self-evaluation report prompted Kyoko to reconfirm her goals, one of which was ‘to teach a lesson in accordance with the students’ profile and raise their sense of achievement’. She then became aware of the connection between what she wanted to do and what she practised; that is, what she learned in the MEXT seminar, namely, ‘developing students through English study’ and ‘what she had been trying to do in her classes’. In a previous journal entry (JE 8/12 November), she wrote about returning comments on each student’s work, noting that this was a way of devoting care and attention to each student, which corresponds with her description of ‘developing students through English study’. Writing comments to each student, she thought she could reach, communicate and educate them through English. She wrote, ‘I assume hansei that I had not given individual feedback to students in English. When I was in high school, I used to receive individual feedback from teachers’ (JE 8/12 January, JA). After becoming aware of the connection and reconfirming her goals, she incorporated activities that would involve ‘developing students through English study’ into one of her lessons, which she wrote about in a subsequent journal: The topic of the textbook was about a student council of a high school in Kochi to raise funds not only for founding a corporation to build a school in Laos but also to start intercultural communication with Laos. With the idea of TETE (Teaching English Through English), I wanted to teach the lesson in English. In addition, I introduced education circumstances and the literacy rate in Laos in order to lead the students to find out what was happening in the world. (JE 11/12 February, JA)

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The journal entry shows a greater sense of autonomy in the way that she incorporates her beliefs into the lesson material. Not only does she teach the textbook lesson, but she uses it as a springboard for helping her students gain a better sense of world events, for ‘developing students through English study’. Kyoko’s case suggests the importance, especially for novice teachers, of re-examining one’s previous ideas, in writing and in discussion. Rereading earlier ideas or goals allows the novice to make connections, or reconfirm, between what she believed then and the circumstances she is teaching in now. Kyoko’s commitment and deeper understanding of her original intention was strengthened through her participation in reflective practice.

Sara: Expanding her Teacher Cognition Sara’s reflective themes also show her reinterpretation of what teaching entails, as she reviewed her past experiences as both a student and as a teacher in her previous high schools. The discrepancies among her reflective themes indicate the complex nature of teacher cognition. Her reflective theme of ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’ illustrates her awareness of the need to develop her repertoire of teaching. Sara’s reinterpretation of her teaching maxim, ‘bring the world into the classroom’, which emulated the practice of one of her college teachers, was a manifestation of ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’. Yet, one of her other reflective themes – ‘good environment conducive for effective teaching’ – seems to conflict with her stated belief that ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’: that is, feeling that her effective teaching practices seem to rest on the premise that there is a good environment for her even though, at the same time, she recognises that ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’. Sara was not aware of this conflict, which is unsurprising, as the complexity of teacher cognition typically means that an individual may hold dissimilar or even contradictory beliefs at the same time.

Different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools Sara became aware that ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’ (INT6) through reviewing her journal entries, indicating that her internal repertoire of teaching knowledge grew as she changed contexts. Teaching at River High School required that Sara have different types of knowledge from those that she had used in her previous high school, or from those that she had learned at graduate school. Sara noted that despite her four-years’ experience of teaching at her previous high school, teaching at River High School was like ‘learning again from the beginning’ (INT2).

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In the early phase of the study, Sara was not particularly happy with what she had to do in her classes; she struggled to find ways to keep the students from chatting, tried to figure out how to make them interested in the lesson and looked for activities that would engage them in learning even just for a short while. All of this was different from what she really wanted to practise, namely, ‘teaching English in English’. Sara tried out new activities, such as using drawings as well as texts, introducing ‘games which are almost like English for kids’ (INT6) and showing videos. She chose these materials believing them to be ‘just for fun’ and not really meaningful as teaching materials. However, in the latter phase of the study, Sara became aware of how necessary it is for teachers to be equipped with a variety of teaching practices to fit different teaching contexts; this new awareness indicates growth in her understanding of teaching. She stated in the final interview that ‘maybe it was good that I came to this school, since I can use what I learned here in other schools’ (INT6). The reflective theme, ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’, shows the expansion in her repertoire of teaching, which is also a sign of development in her teacher cognition.

Bring the world into the classroom Sara also reinterpreted another of her reflective themes, ‘bring the world into the classroom’, to make it better correspond to the context where she was teaching. It could be that she was trying to make it match another of her themes, ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’, more closely. Sara wrote about her reflective theme, ‘bring the world into the classroom’, in one of her final journal entries (JE 25/26 March), which indicated her awareness and reinterpretation of her teaching maxim, and demonstrated her conscious attempts to expand her repertoire of teaching. She described ‘bring the world into the classroom’ as her ‘big theme in teaching’ in her first journal entry, saying that she was influenced by a teacher at her college, who said: ‘There are a lot of things going on in the world or around our lives. Why not talk about it in class?’ (JE 1/26 October). She elaborated on the theme in a subsequent journal entry: I think ‘bring the world into the classroom’ means that we can bring any topic to the classroom; I mean my teacher was trying say that we don’t have to stick to the textbooks. He encouraged us to use materials such as newspapers, magazines, advertisements, songs, visual aids, or anything at all. We can talk or write about anything related to our daily lives. My topics are not broad enough yet, but I hope gradually, I can stretch a little further as we move on. (JE 2/26 October)

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For Sara, ‘the world’ meant the news and foreign countries (INT6). However, through her baffling interactions with the students at River High School, outlined in the previous chapter, Sara became aware that the expression ‘the world’ meant something different for each person. This awareness helped her reinterpret what ‘the world’ was that she could introduce to her students: she realised that it should be based on their conception of ‘the world’ and not her own. Her final journal entry shows her reinterpreting this reflective theme: ‘Bring the world into the classroom’ is still my big theme of teaching English. Maybe using the Internet in class, the Student Times, songs or DVDs, would bring the world much closer to the classroom. Once I talked about the Primaries in a lesson and students did not seem to be interested who would be the next President of the United States at all. I guess ‘the world’ is different for each person and my students’ world is more limited to their own town or neighbours. (JE 25/26 March) Sara elaborated on her awareness of the difference between her students’ sense of the world and her own in the final interview: Sara: So, my teacher used to often talk about bringing the world into the classroom, and I used to believe that referred to foreign countries and people around the world outside of Japan. That was ‘the world’ to me. However, at this school, my impression is that ‘the world’ of these students is very limited. For example, their transportation usually consists of walking or riding a bicycle. And when we went downtown to the monument for an experiential learning excursion, one of the students asked me ‘What prefecture is this?’ A:

What?

Sara: The monument is located in the urban prefecture. So I guess some of them had never had a chance to get on a train and go somewhere. The reality is that their world consists of River High School, and the area around River High School is the extent of their world. For example, one time, the US presidential primary elections were being discussed on TV a lot, so I talked about that to them a little, but got blank looks. It seemed like they didn’t know who the current US president was. So, I felt that my view of ‘the world’ may have been too broad for them, and that I should start from topics they can relate to, things in their lives, and then gradually expand to things in Japan outside of their region. I need to take it step by step before I jump to talking about things in foreign countries. Those things are too far away for them. Of course, I need to introduce international things, but I felt that I shouldn’t jump into such big things too suddenly. (INT6)

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After becoming more fully aware of the differences between her students’ conceptions of ‘the world’ and her own, Sara was no longer critical of their apparent lack of knowledge; instead, she attributed their lack of knowledge to their environment. Sara had expanded her repertoire of teaching knowledge, in that she knew more about how to modify her instruction to the context and the students – as shown by her reflective theme, ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’. Her reinterpretation of the meaning of ‘the world’ also shows that she had begun to see that successful teaching includes trying to incorporate the perspectives and understanding of the students.

Good environment conducive for effective teaching Another of Sara’s reflective themes, ‘good environment conducive for teaching’, shows that she became aware that teaching effective lessons for her was contingent upon a good classroom environment (JE 25/26 March), which, for Sara, meant not having students with disciplinary problems. A better environment evolved in her classes after the third-year students stopped attending lessons,1 and also with the increased engagement of her first-year students near the end of the academic year, as they wanted to avoid receiving failing grades. This gave Sara greater mental tranquillity, which led her to create a different view of the students and freed her to try new instructional practices. In her discussion about the third-year students, Sara confessed, It was difficult… the second semester2 as well as the first semester… I did not realise that there are such different values that I cannot empathise with. At the time, I used to wonder, ‘what am I doing here?’ (INT6) Sara concluded that having peace of mind was important in teaching: as she stated, ‘When one cannot afford time and energy, one may resort to just repeating the same thing and not trying anything new’ (INT6). Having a better environment also allowed her to pay attention to different types of students in her classes beyond the problematic students. It also led her to try new ideas in lessons. Sara described the importance of a good environment in a journal entry: ‘I notice that if I have a good environment, I am more relaxed in class and concerned on improving my lessons, but when I have hard times controlling students, I am less concerned about my ways of teaching’ (JE 25/26 March). Sara realised that when she had a problem with poor student behaviour or classroom management she tended to disregard the good students in the room. She expressed in an interview that, being more relaxed, she could finally notice and think about students who had been doing well, and she tried to facilitate improvement for such students. She confessed that, earlier in the study, she was absorbed mostly

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with trying to keep talkative and troublesome students quiet during her lessons (INT5). Sara’s reflective theme of ‘good environment conducive for effective teaching’ indicates that even though she had expanded her teacher cognition in terms of understanding how teaching is informed by different students (as seen in the theme ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’) and the need to ‘bring the world into the classroom’, she still did not feel able to put those themes into practice without a pleasant environment. Still relatively novice in her position at River High School, she was not aware of the potential contradictions among her reflective themes.

Yoko: Becoming Aware of Contradictions and Avoidance After rereading her past journal entries in the last month of her participation in the study, Yoko became aware of contradictions and avoidance in the way she conceptualised teaching. This shows up particularly in her reflective themes of ‘finding contradictions among my themes’ and ‘avoidance of what I do not want to be involved in’. When asked to reread her first three interview transcripts, five months into the study, she claimed that she did not find anything in particular to comment on. Although her attitude might make her seem resistant to reflection, in fact I believe that by rereading and reviewing her own ideas she actually gained rather profound understanding of the state of her own cognition, namely, that it was complex, somewhat contradictory and difficult to explore.

Finding contradictions among my themes Yoko explained one of her reflective themes, ‘finding contradictions among my themes’, in her final journal entry: If I take a few different themes such as ‘tatemae versus honne’ or ‘monotonous lessons’, ultimately I discover convenient contradictions within myself. But if I pursue those, I feel like I will immobilise myself, so I will accept that there are contradictions and work on them in a humble, modest way. (JE 24/25 March, JA) She elaborated on ‘the contradiction’ in the last interview: Well, for example, I don’t like to teach monotonous lessons, but on the other hand… if I think about it in more depth, it’s like, um, I can’t really express it well. I can’t really express it well, but if I really think about it, I feel something different from what I said before. Thinking about the logic of what I said at different times, I think it is difficult to reconcile that. I just vaguely feel that

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what I said are different from before, and don’t think about it any further, so in the end, the contradictions are not very clear. Yeah, I just think about it within myself, how to do my various classes, or how to respond to students…I have my own rules for that, and I think those are clear to myself, but the rules for those, and what I am expressing as my logic or reasoning are actually different. Well, not exactly different, but depending on the situation, I think I have tended to match them up in a convenient way and rationalise them. Case by case, I’ve been doing that. (INT6, JA) Yoko became aware of a contradiction in the varying rationales underlying her reflective themes. She discussed several themes, such as ‘honne and tatemae’ and ‘teaching a lesson that is not monotonous’, and articulated the rationales, explaining why they were important for her throughout the study. At the end of the study, she noticed that the rationales she gave for her important themes contradicted each other; however, she said that she could not articulate what the contradiction was, because she did not think about it any further. Thus, even though she became aware of the contradiction, due to her retreat from the inquiry, the contradiction remained unexplored.

Avoidance of what I do not want to be involved in The other reflective theme, ‘avoidance of what I do not want to be involved in’, also denotes awareness, as Yoko gained a new finding – an identification of commonality with the topics she also avoided in the journal. In her final journal entry, Yoko wrote: As I wrote in my journal, I think I have consciously and unconsciously avoided work things that I did not want to get involved in. Sometimes I feel like I want you to point out those areas. However, even if you pointed them out, if they are low priority within myself, I may still evade them somehow. If so, I think reflection, which is to think deeply about issues that I am concerned with and sufficiently aware enough of to express to others, is a type of training designed to build on the positive points within oneself. (JE 24/25 March, JA) The selection of ‘avoidance’ as a theme is unique in the sense that it involves identifying something that is not there. Perhaps influenced by kotodama, she seeks commonalities among the topics that she avoided mentioning: they were weaknesses (or at least not ‘positive points’) that she did not want to discuss. In the final interview, she further elaborated on the theme of ‘avoidance’: Yoko: Regarding the supervision of club activities, I am actually pretty lazy right now, so I avoid the topic. It is not related to English instruction

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but… It is probably like, if I don’t really like to teach the oral classes, probably I don’t write comments about them very much. I only teach it in a fairly mediocre way, but I think I don’t write about it in most cases. Currently I like all of my English courses and keep trying new things. But in some cases, in some courses for example, when I really dislike a class and am really fed up with it, I would only be able to write something like ‘I hate it’, so I would not write about it at all. A:

Is that so?

Yoko: Yes. If there is a slight hope, I can write about it in the journal, but I would not write an entry such as ‘I just dislike this class and I teach it praying that the time passes quickly’. (INT6, JA) The extract shows that Yoko discussed what she wanted to and what went well, but also suggests that she chose not to write about things that do not go well or that she does not enjoy. Clearly, she is aware of this gap in her journals. She even defines reflective practice as a method that allows teachers to focus mostly on the positive aspects of their teaching: reflective practices ‘build on the positive points within oneself’ (JE 24/25 March). Perhaps she was contrasting reflection directly with the Japanese practice of hansei, which does require the person to deal with things that are not positive. Yoko’s case provides interesting insights into the exploration of teacher cognition through reflective practice. As many research studies have suggested, there were contradictions in what Yoko said or said she believed at different times. Yoko also discovered that she avoided discussion of topics or practices that she did not want to engage in; she justifies her choices by saying that in her understanding, reflective practice is for focusing on the positive aspects about one’s teaching. It is also interesting that after becoming aware of these contradictions and her tendency to avoid certain negative topics, she also acknowledged that she deliberately avoided thinking about them. In a sense, we could assume that she was attempting to stay in a kind of comfort zone, not wanting to venture into exploring topics or beliefs that are uncomfortable to think about. Some writers have raised the issues of avoidance and resistance in reflective practice. Moore (2004) cites a student who discusses an avoidance in reflection: [A]n avoidance of potentially troubling issues whose confrontation might entail a fairly radical reappraisal of practice, involving either downscaling or recasting such issues into more acceptable representations, or focusing on other issues altogether on the basis that there are…. ‘some things you can’t do anything about’. (Moore, 2004: 109)

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Roberts (1998) also points out that when encouraged, the novice, who is likely to be concerned with self-presentation, may resist reflecting on difficult areas of practice. In contrast, an experienced teacher may be unwilling to risk examining familiar routines. As will be discussed below, the exploration of contradictions which leads to dissonance can be a rich area of reflection for learning and becoming aware of one’s teaching practices and oneself (Golombek, 2015).

Naomi: Learner Belief and Teacher Belief as Dynamic Constructs Engaging in reflective practice recaptured Naomi’s interest in what she knew about the theory of learner belief and teacher belief, and reconfirmed her view about the teacher’s role in, and responsibility for, changing ‘learner belief’. The reflective themes of ‘learner belief’ and ‘teacher belief’ also showed that Naomi applied theoretical knowledge to her practice and tried to develop her own expert interpretation in Kennedy’s (1999) sense of mixing experiential and theoretical knowledge. What Naomi meant by ‘learner belief’ was her students’ perception of self-confidence and self-esteem (FG1, INT1). From the outset of the study, Naomi argued that ‘learner belief’ can be modified by the enthusiasm of the teacher (INT1). Informed by her MA thesis research, and her own experiences both as a teacher and as a student, Naomi contested Horwitz’s (1988) idea that learner belief was fixed and resistant to change. She said, ‘many researchers argue that belief about language learning is resistant to change once it was formed, but I thought it can be changed after my observation of the students at Lake High School’ (JE 10/18 January, JA). Since she contended that ‘learner belief’ can be changed by teachers (INT1), Naomi felt that it was extremely important for teachers to get to know students’ ‘learner beliefs’, and, in the case of the beliefs being negative, to try to change them. Changing ‘learner beliefs’, Naomi argued, takes precedence over the teaching of English (FG1). Like her view of ‘learner belief’, Naomi’s teacher cognition is clearly an amalgam of theoretical findings and the application of those findings to her own practice. Through reading her interview transcripts, Naomi reconfirmed that one of her recurring interests was ‘teacher belief’ (JE 12/18 February, INT5). As a teacher and colleague, Naomi applied her theoretical knowledge to her practice and conducted interviews with her fellow teachers to see if she could obtain evidence to support her contentions that ‘teacher belief’ is open to alteration and modification. What Naomi learned during graduate school was that ‘teacher belief’ was primarily influenced by the instruction that a person received as a student (apprenticeship of observation), and that once such beliefs were formed, they were resistant to change. Thus, as

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many researchers have discussed, teachers tend to teach in ways that echo the way they were taught. By contrast, Naomi argued that teacher belief, just like learner belief, can be altered through interaction with others. She noticed that her instruction and interaction with the students were different from those she received as a student: she was interested in ‘whole person education’ and was devoted to educating her students. She observed similar styles of instruction among some of her colleagues, and became interested in whether they had received the same type of supportive instruction when they were students, so she started to interview some colleagues. She found that her colleagues had not received much support from their teachers when they were students, but they provided more supportive instruction to their own students because of the changes in students’ lives and situations from the time when they were in high school. Naomi concluded that teachers’ beliefs and practice are not influenced merely by their experiences as students, but are also shaped by interaction with the students they work with after they become teachers. The key factors for these changes, Naomi asserted, are careful observation and understanding of the students and of their contexts, acknowledging the need to change and displaying willingness to change (JE 11/18 January). This reflective theme, ‘teacher belief’, shows Naomi’s confidence and autonomy as a teacher, one who was even able to conduct her own research because she disagreed with a prevailing theory. Her engagement with reflective practice supported her in her attempts to break away from a theory she had been taught in her formal educational context, and gave her more opportunities to develop her teacher cognition as a productive mix of formal knowledge and knowledge derived from her own personal observations and lived experience. Her reconfirmation of her interest in teacher cognition and her own arguments for the concept of ‘teacher belief’ led Naomi to reinterpret her view towards her difficult colleague, Ms Ono. This shows that using theoretical knowledge, and reinterpreting it for one’s own situation can lead to the formation of a new, and in this case more objective, perspective. Ms Ono was a colleague who preoccupied Naomi in a rather negative way, due to their fundamental disagreements and contrasting views about teaching. Naomi’s discussion in the interviews, journals and focus groups abounded with critical descriptions of Ms Ono. For instance, Naomi expressed strong disapproval of Ms Ono’s teaching, such as her selection and use of exceedingly advanced textbooks of the kind used at the most competitive high schools (FG2). Since Ms Ono was in charge of choosing textbooks for English classes, Naomi was obliged to teach using the books that she chose. Naomi also criticised Ms Ono’s teaching practices: she particularly mentioned an assignment which required students to copy parts of the

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textbook into a notebook, and the difficulty of her tests, where the average scores were often around 30 out of 100. She described Ms Ono as a person who disregarded the views of the other teachers and stubbornly adhered to her own views and ways of teaching (FG1, INT2). Naomi tended to give up on trying to attain any kind of mutual understanding with Ms Ono; she saw Ms Ono as a person who didn’t listen to other people’s views, and Naomi didn’t see herself as someone strong enough to stand up to the other woman (INT6). As Naomi reconfirmed her interest in ‘teacher belief’, she started to explore the possible beliefs that might lie beneath Ms Ono’s approach to teaching. This exploration changed her description of Ms Ono from one that was critical to one that was more objective. Naomi got to the point where she could speculate that the reason for Ms Ono forcing the students to copy textbook content into notebooks might derive from her own experience in high school, when she had had a reputation as a gifted student (FG2). Perhaps Ms Ono might think that this practice was effective because she had used it herself. Naomi said: ‘I want to ask her, when a person says something what is behind them. I want to find out how one’s belief is based on one’s experience’ (INT5). She continued: It just seemed interesting. I apologise for saying it this way, but I thought it would be interesting. I want to know what kind of educational background the person has. Also, I think it is very interesting how a certain person ends up having certain beliefs or thoughts…There is some reason for it. And I think it is probably the beliefs that were formed during the person’s education. I think so because, um, that person’s (Ms. Ono) previous school had small class sizes and used a certain type of methodology. There would be just a few students, and the teaching would be up to her. I’ve heard there was never a chance to collaborate with other teachers and do something together. That is why her teaching style was so dogmatic. (INT5, JA) Naomi’s reconfirmation of her interest in ‘teacher belief’ gave her an objective perspective towards Ms Ono and her teaching style. Naomi was no longer critical of Ms Ono after she came to see that there were reasons behind her teaching style. Ultimately, Naomi decided that these practices most probably derived from her experiences as a high school student and as a teacher at her previous workplace. Naomi’s working through her reflective themes suggests that she continued to develop as a teacher: she shaped her cognition to fit new ideas, she developed autonomy as a teacher/researcher to resist a theory she did not agree with and she sought to apply theoretical knowledge to her classroom practice; finally, she made conscious efforts to reinterpret her understanding of a colleague by actively forming an alternative, theoretically informed perspective.

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Miki: Becoming Aware of Contradiction and Compensation Miki became aware that there was a contradiction in her disciplinary approach to fostering students’ communal responsibility and her frequent practice of teaching with a worksheet. She came to understand that ‘the use of worksheet’ might be a form of compensating for weaknesses in her teaching. As in Yoko’s case, Miki’s awareness emerged in the final phase of the study: she did not point out any findings after reading her first three interview transcripts. The fact that both these experienced teachers did not immediately notice any patterns or themes might suggest that teachers who feel more comfortable in their professional role as teacher, and with, presumably, more stable teacher cognition, may need more interaction and engagement in reflective practice to successfully develop and change.

Contradiction in approach to discipline Miki became aware of a major contradiction in her teacher cognition in terms of her approach to student discipline through the reflective themes she identified, ‘students cleaning the classroom’ and ‘students studying for lessons’. Cleaning the classroom was, for Miki, an important way of fostering communal responsibility among the students. In most Japanese schools, homeroom classrooms are cleaned by the students in the homeroom. Typically, the cleaning is assigned to different groups of students on a weekly basis. Cleaning the classroom is a substantial part of Miki’s method of discipline, which she refers to in her discussion of the role of a teacher: A:

What do you think might be a role of a teacher?

Miko: Well, I am not their parent. I am responsible for their study of English and if I am their homeroom teacher, I am responsible for their school life in general. As for my role, well, I do not know how to describe it, but I have to foster them with care. A:

So, does it mean not only teaching English?

Miki: Yes. So, I have to say things that I do not want to say sometimes. I have to show them that I am upset when I have to. I have to make those students who do not clean the classroom clean the classroom. This may sound non-academic. Also, I have to always make sure there is no bullying. If some students seem to have behavioural problems, how much I need to intervene…(INT 6, JA)

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Miki’ emphasis on cleaning the classroom is also manifested in her deliberate public scolding of students who try to slack off from cleaning the classroom: A:

Is there any time that you feel you have to scold students?

Miki: Yes. Yes. There are times when I have to scold some students in front of other students. A:

Really?

Miki: I will do it in a way not to break their spirit but I have to let them know there are things that they should not do. A:

I see. For the other students to understand as well?

Miki: For example, I go and fetch students who don’t clean the classroom. After lessons, there is no homeroom hour and we go straight into classroom cleaning. If I am not teaching the last period, I go to my homeroom classroom and wait outside not to let the students go home and make them clean the classroom. A:

I see.

Miki: I will scold students to let them know that what I want the students to observe and what I do not let them get away with. A:

And what that might be for you?

Miki: Cleaning the classroom. Something that all of the students have to do. (INT 6, JA) Miki said that public discipline, or deliberate scolding of a student in front of other students, was necessary at times not only for those who avoid cleaning duty but also for those who fulfil their communal responsibility: So, when I scold the students, other students who were not happy with them feel the comfort. Those students who try to fulfil their responsibility are not happy with those who do not, so if I intervene and scold them the serious ones get the comfort. (INT 6, JA) She had also argued, in a previous interview that: [I]f I do not interfere sometimes those who clean always clean and those who don’t always don’t. I do not want the students to feel that those who follow the rules as a member of a society to lose out and those who do not follow to get away with it. (INT 4, JA)

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Another example of Miki’s perception of students’ communal responsibility was expressed in her discussion of students’ preparation for lessons. Miki’s attitude, however, was not the same as it was towards cleaning the classroom; she expected the students to study for lessons, but when they did not, she was not very firm with them: One student expressed dissatisfaction about my lessons. He seems to feel irritated toward some students who do not study for lessons so that they cannot answer questions from teachers and they ask questions about what had already been covered in lessons…. I have to make an atmosphere that those who did not prepare for lessons lose out. When students cannot answer my question as they did not study for lessons and if I try to help them out that might have given comfort that I did not intend to, that is, you can get through the lesson without studying for lessons. I do not want to pressure and embarrass students who are not good at English but that might have given a wrong impression that they do not have to study for lessons. I assumed hansei that I have to think of ways to deal with students who cannot answer my questions because they do not study for lessons. (JE 7/18 November, JA) In a different journal entry, she also refers to the challenge of creating an atmosphere in her classroom that convinces students that being wellprepared for lessons is crucial (JE 8/18 November). Miki became aware of the contradiction in her attitudes towards these two different domains in the last interview when I asked her if there are any differences between ‘cleaning the classroom’ and ‘studying for lessons’; I was implying that they are rather similar in that both are duties that involve communal responsibility towards their classmates: A:

You talked about your belief that all students should engage in cleaning of the classroom. How would that be different from students’ preparation for a class?

Miki: I have never thought about that. Well, I do really have to make my students study for classes. I have to create an atmosphere in class where students feel they have to come prepared. I am not good at doing that at the current school. A:

Is that so?

Miki: Well. Some students do not like it. Some students do not like studying with those who did not prepare for class. Some say it is nuisance to have the lessons interrupted by those who are underprepared. That is a harsh statement but those students are serious. They want to get as much as they can from lessons. Many students seem to feel that they do not want the students who are not prepared to slow down a lesson.

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But there may be differences between cleaning and preparing for a lesson.

Miki: They may be different, but I see similarities. I have never connected them, but I now see the connection. (INT6, JA) Miki became aware of a contradiction in terms of her approach to discipline regarding communal responsibility for ‘cleaning the classroom’ and ‘studying for lessons’. She takes a firm stance on ‘cleaning the classroom’, to the extent that she exercises public discipline; on the other hand, she admits that she finds it difficult to be strict with students who do not prepare for lessons. Both behaviours, however, have similar characteristics, since irresponsible behaviour in either domain has an impact on the other students. Even though Miki says that she does not want to embarrass students who are not good at English, she admits that there is a need for her to create a class atmosphere that compels students to study for lessons.

Becoming aware of compensation in ‘the use of the worksheet’ Miki became aware that ‘the use of worksheet’, which she regarded almost as a panacea, might have been a compensation for her perceived weaknesses in teaching. For Miki, the worksheet had two quite different purposes, she came to realise: it was both a way of compensating for her own perceived weaknesses and an effective teaching tool. Towards the end of the study, Miki started to question ‘the use of the worksheet’, seeing it as representing her comfort zone or routine in teaching. What Miki meant by ‘worksheet’ was teaching material that she created, including a text from the textbook and content questions that she wrote. Worksheets were initially incorporated into her lessons as a way to engage students when she was teaching at a challenging high school that she described as one at the ‘bottom’ level. ‘The use of the worksheet’ with textbook content was useful for students who came to school without their textbooks (INT5). This success in engaging students led Miki to continue ‘the use of the worksheet’ for a variety of purposes, in accordance with the needs of different types of students. Miki often referred to ‘the use of the worksheet’ as a solution to many problems. For example, in order to achieve the mission at Field High School, and to help students to gain proficiency in reading and writing, she resumed ‘the use of the worksheet’ (INT1): I assume hansei that I was too focused on the grammar-translation approach in order to finish the assigned part of the textbook. I started to make worksheet again… Then, most students were concentrated in doing the reading. I was relieved. (JE 4/18 October, JA)

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The excerpt indicates that Miki assumed hansei, in that she acknowledged the need for change from grammar-translation lessons. It also shows that she relied on ‘the use of the worksheet’ for improving her lessons, and attributed subsequent success to her introducing the worksheets again. The reliance on the worksheet as a solution is also observed in the following extract: When I go into explaining things, I still feel like the students are tuning out...I think I should do something, and I am trying to improve my worksheets to make sure the questions are not too monotonous, but...(JE 15/18 February, JA) When she felt she had to do something else to help her students, she resorted to ‘the use of the worksheet’. Miki, however, at times, expressed some doubt about this practice: If I use worksheets, it seems like almost all of the students try their best to answer the questions. However, one thing I am worried about is whether or not the worksheets are really helping the comprehension of the students, even though I am creating them with the intent to assist students in grasping the content of the passage. I really felt this concern in my class with group E today. That was because some students seemed to not understand what they were doing or what they were being asked to do. (JE 6/18 November, JA) Towards the end of the study, Miki started to discuss the limitations of ‘the use of the worksheet’, noting that it engaged the students in answering questions but did not necessarily engage them in learning. However, at the same time, Miki expressed her opinion that it would be difficult for her to change her approach, now that she is accustomed to it: A:

So, it really seems like you are changing your style of teaching case by case depending on the students you are teaching.

Miki: Yes, but even if I make efforts to try to change how I teach my classes, somewhere in mind I think it is difficult to change the way I am. Do you see what I mean? Somehow, even if I think I should do some new things, to some extent I go back to my own old style of doing things. A:

For example, more specifically, what would you say your style of doing things is?

Miki: I guess basically I end up creating worksheets and assigning them. Then I give students some time and let them think about it before asking them what they think. A:

So you give them some time to think?

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Miki: Yes. A:

And, so, do you feel that you need to change one more step beyond that?

Miki: Well when some students fall asleep, I have to reconsider whether this way of teaching is really good or not. (INT 5, JA) Miki’s engagement with reflective practice in this study led her to examine ‘the use of the worksheet’, including not only its benefits but also its limitations. However, since it is a style of teaching that Miki relies on and is accustomed to, she referred to ‘the use of the worksheet’ as something that she cannot change. From this interview, it seems that she is aware of, but determined to stay within, her ‘comfort zone’, a routine that she is familiar and comfortable with. In the final interview, however, Miki changed her characterisation of the worksheet and pointed out that she possibly used worksheets to compensate for her lack of confidence in attracting students by talking to them: A:

Did you notice anything about your style of teaching?

Miki: Well, I guess in the end I go to worksheet. If I want my class to do something, I can’t really get their attention with charismatic speaking, so I tend to depend on designing some kind of task… Yes, that teacher tells very interesting stories, and the students really feel that the teacher’s stories are very interesting. Some teachers are just really good at speaking and getting the attention of the students. But I won’t be able to become like that…In contrast, I prefer to make the students do some kind of task. I think that may be because I want to feel a sense of comfort by seeing that the students are doing something. (INT6, JA) This excerpt, from the last interview of the study, shows Miki’s critical examination of her use of worksheets. Miki says that motivating and engaging students through talking is not something she is particularly good at, and when the lessons do not go well, she admits that she ascribes the lack of success to her own lack of skill in talking to the class (INT6). Engagement in reflective practice thus led Miki to become aware of the dual purposes of the use of the worksheet, both as a panacea for teaching but also as a sign of where her ‘comfort zone’ in teaching ended. Given her insights in this final interview, I would claim that Miki’s participation in reflective practice helped her change her understanding of her own beliefs and values and how they manifest themselves in her teaching practice.

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Conclusion As the preceding chapters suggest, teacher cognition can be accessed only indirectly through externalisation. My study showed that the exploration and externalisation of teacher cognition seemed to be linked to significant professional development. Exploring their own practices, views, beliefs and emotions turned out somewhat differently for each participating teacher. Some teachers expanded the teacher cognition they started with, moving beyond beliefs that were deeply rooted in their past experience, especially student experience. The expansion was especially pronounced when the teachers found that what they observed and learned previously could not be applied to their current teaching contexts. Ken gained a stronger sense of autonomy. Kyoko reinterpreted what teaching entails. Sara expanded her repertoire of teaching. Some reinterpreted their teacher cognition through scrutinising theoretical knowledge through personal experiences, like Naomi who challenged a widely accepted theory and also gained an objective outlook through application of the theory. For other teachers, awareness was deepened, as they became more aware of certain contradictions, patterns of avoidance and compensation for perceived weakness in their teaching practice, such as Yoko and Miki. In all cases, evidence from the data suggested that the teacher cognition of these participants was in many cases tacit, always complex and in most cases open to dynamic change and development, no matter how many years they had been teaching. The teachers pondered their reflective themes through reiterative reflective engagement, moving back and forth along the reflective continuum. I believe that the reflective continuum represents a space where the active and conscious deliberation of reflective themes led to productive changes and growth in their cognition. By engaging in reflective practice, and confronting the possibility of changes in their role and their understanding of teaching, all the participants were exposed to challenges and dissonance. However, the more expert teachers appeared to be able to stick more closely to their existing repertoire of practices and perspectives, and seemed to have felt less need to explore their own teacher cognition. This result seems to accord with Schön’s (1987) view of professional development: long experience in adapting to various indeterminate zones of practice through reflection-inaction means that the repertoire of knowing-in-action is expanded. With the development of a richer repertoire, teachers can more easily practice within what can be seen as a comfort zone. For experienced teachers, going outside the comfort zone may need longer or more substantial engagement with reflective practice; for more novice teachers, for whom the comfort zone is probably less stable, the support of other teachers, and the presence of a mentor, can facilitate development.

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Expanding teacher cognition through the practice of reflection Engagement in reflective practice involved the participant teachers shaping and expanding their ways of understanding what they do as teachers; this process of developing a more complex stage of teacher cognition was informed by interaction, with students, materials and curriculum, and reflection. Ken’s experience as a junior high school student had instilled in him the idea that atmosphere affected learning and teaching. However, Ken reinterpreted the meaning of ‘atmosphere’, shifting from seeing it as an externally constructed influence to being something that, as a teacher, he had responsibility for creating. Kyoko’s view of good teaching was reinterpreted from resembling the kind of individualised instruction she had received at her juku to including classroom instruction of a large class. Kyoko reconfirmed her view of what she wanted to practice as a teacher by shifting from a theoretically derived principle she had learned in college, ‘teaching English through English’, to one that grew more directly from her own experience, ‘developing students through English study’. Sara reinterpreted one of her teaching maxims – ‘bring the world to the classroom’, something she had learned from her teacher in college– to accord more closely to her current teaching context. Sara also became aware that ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’ in a way that reflected both formal knowledge and personal experience. She realised that she could not rely solely on what she had learned in her university course or on what she had experienced at her previous workplace; rather, she had to modify her way of teaching to fit the students she faced in her classes now. Naomi brought both expert knowledge and personal research efforts to interrogate a theory she had been taught in a graduate school course, i.e. that learner belief and teacher belief were unlikely to change once they were formed. These examples indicate that the participants developed their ability to understand that what they had observed or learned previously, either as students or teachers, was not necessarily appropriate in the contexts they were currently teaching in. This insight led them to reinterpret their reflective themes. Just as they had to develop new layers of professional identity in order to adapt to various teaching contexts, the teachers also had to develop new layers of understanding and knowledge as they reinterpreted previous ideas and understanding and expanded their teacher knowledge to match their diversified teaching contexts. In most cases, this meant a richer repertoire of teaching practices and beliefs. Ken became aware that his attitude of pushing responsibility for the classroom atmosphere onto his students and using that as an excuse for ineffective teaching was a big factor in his feelings of demotivation. Kyoko tried to teach the students based on the way that she was taught as a student at juku – that is, by focusing on giving individual instruction in and outside the formal

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lessons – but found it challenging and unsuitable for classroom teaching. Kyoko also learned that her preferred style of teaching English by using English was not appropriate in the context where she was teaching. Sara found that her attempts to ‘bring the world in the classroom’ – a core maxim of teaching – was not successful at River High School, an insight that led her to be aware that what the world meant for her and the students was different and that ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’. Naomi applied theories she learned in graduate school to her teaching and found that the theories did not in fact explain or illuminate what she observed and experienced in Lake High School. The development of teacher cognition among the novice teachers in my group of participants suggests that reflective practice can be beneficial for novice teachers, in contrast to claims by some scholars that suggest new teachers are overwhelmed by the immediate challenges of classroom management (Veenman, 1984); lack classroom experience to draw on, so that they have not formed systematic beliefs about teaching (McIntyre, 1993; Roberts, 1998); or lack the wisdom to understand their classroom experience (Cavanagh & Prescott, 2010). As my data indicates, novice teachers gained considerably from their engagement in reflective practice, and grew in both their professional identity and the consolidation of their teacher cognition.

Becoming aware of contradictions, avoidance or compensation One insight of my study was that, through engagement in reflective practice, more experienced teachers, who initially seemed to have fully established their ideas about their identity and their knowledge and beliefs, in fact critically explored, examined and became aware of the contradictions, avoidances and compensations they lived with in their practices. As discussed earlier, teacher cognition is said to be complex, dynamic and tacit; my study suggests – much like professional identity – that it is often contradictory and in conflict with itself and with what one practices (Fanselow, 2014; Golombek, 2015). Reflective practice, when offered through carefully designed interventions, offers a powerful and engaging forum for teachers to become aware of their own contradictions and their own possibilities for change (Golombek, 2015). Becoming aware of contradictions, avoidances and compensation indicates that the experienced teachers developed meta-awareness of their own cognition as they examined their reflective themes. By identifying her reflective themes, Yoko became aware of contradictions among the various rationales that she gave for her classroom practices, and better understood her avoidance of things she did not want to explore. Miki became aware of contradictions within her approach to discipline through

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‘students cleaning the classroom’ and ‘students studying for lessons’. She also became aware that her reflective theme, ‘the use of worksheet’, represented an attempt to compensate for what she perceived to be weaknesses in her teaching skills. These examples are in contrast to the less experienced teachers, who did not express awareness of contradictions in their teacher cognition. As discussed in Chapter 5, Ken gave a contradictory view of discipline in one interview, but he did not make a reference to it. Sara became aware that ‘a good environment was conducive for her teaching’; however, she did not point out its contradiction with another of her reflective themes, ‘different knowledge is necessary for teaching at different schools’. This suggests that even though Sara became more aware of the need to adjust her teaching style, she still maintained a fundamental belief in the importance of a good environment for effective teaching. Unsurprisingly, Ken, Kyoko and Sara seemed to feel strong pressure to develop and reshape their professional identity and cognition in order to survive and teach in the contexts in which they were situated. Experienced teachers can feel very comfortable in their ‘comfort zones’ and my participants were no exception. Though they did explore their own cognition to some extent, and confronted obstacles, contradictions, avoidance and compensation in their writing and their discussion of teaching, Yoko and Miki realised that further exploration might be uncomfortable or unwelcome. Yoko and Miki did not feel strongly pressured to investigate their contradictions as they had an existing rich repertoire of teaching practices and knowledge which allowed them to teach even when faced with their vulnerabilities. For these teachers, there was less at stake in terms of participating in the reflective activities of my study: less to learn perhaps, but also less pressure to go deep into their own minds. The literature points out that the teacher cognition of experienced teachers can be harder to draw out and examine, as it is more deeply internalised through long years of experience (Loizou, 2012; Lortie, 1975; McIntyre, 1993). Through my study, I found that reflective practice might be more beneficial for teachers as a development arena if it could offer a space and an opportunity for teachers to go beyond their comfort zone, which probably requires more substantial engagement in reflective interventions and with a trusting other, such as a mentor.

Beyond the comfort zone Reflective practice can help even very experienced teachers to explore and perhaps enlarge comfort zones or routines, but this should be a collaborative endeavour between the teacher and another who can provide catalytic interventions (Smith & Lewis, 2015) and a trusting relationship.

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Korthagen and Vasalos (2010) acknowledge the importance of focusing on strengths in reflection, but they also point out the drawbacks of focusing only on positive aspects and suggest the need to look at ‘one’s inner obstacles’: [O]ur analysis led to the insight that a focus on strengths alone is not sufficient, but that what is needed is cognitive, emotional and motivational awareness of both one’s strengths, and of one’s inner obstacles to the actualization of one’s strengths. (Korthagen & Vasalos, 2010: 538, emphasis in original) Roberts (1998) also warns that the focus on strengths may encourage the avoidance of negativity both for novice and experienced teachers. The novice, who is likely to be concerned with self-presentation, may resist reflection on difficult areas. Experienced practitioners may be unwilling to risk an examination of their routines. Webb (2005) ascribes this unwillingness to a reluctance to venture beyond one’s comfort zone: The discussion ‘comfort zone’ for participants centred on reflection for practical concerns immediately applicable in classroom situations. Prompts by the participant researcher to consider the ‘why’ of situations were subsumed by a general wish to share and discuss strategies. They assumed that ‘how to do it’ was a solution to their fear and discomfort. Webb (2005) points out that some teachers, rather than examining ‘why’ they engage in some practice, are more likely to examine ‘how’ they engage in practice, thus staying within their ‘comfort zones’. As one solution to this challenge, Cook (2012: 289) proposes the idea of ‘productive disequilibrium’ in teacher development: ‘learn to embrace, not to fear, change and discomfort in our lives’. My study suggests that it is necessary to include this kind of trusted facilitator when designing a programme for professional development in order to encourage and support teacher involvement in the programme. Such facilitators will need to have the appropriate professional experience and disposition to guide the teachers towards active and engaged reflection. As Kubanyiova (2012) suggests, a critical role of the ‘other’ is to create dissonance by applying strategies that will gently allow teachers to come out of their comfort zones. It is, thus, crucial for any ‘other’ involved in teacher development to be able to build trusting relationships with the teachers involved. A researcher, therefore, could play a significant part in the teachers’ successful engagement in reflective practice, as I did for my participants.

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Notes (1) (2)

Since the academic year in Japan starts in April and ends in March, graduation ceremonies are scheduled in March. Lessons for graduating students are often completed in January of the graduating year. Elementary, junior high school and high school have three semesters; the first semester from April to July; the second from September to December; and the third from January to March.

8 The Reflective Interventions: Creating a Space for Expression If this study only involved journal writing, I would have written differently. Meeting and talking to you in person helped me to feel closer to you. If I participated in the study without knowing you in person, my entries might have been more distanced. (Sara, FG3: Focus Group 3)

In this chapter, I describe in more detail the three kinds of reflective interventions that I designed for the purpose of giving my participating teachers a chance to engage in the recursive and complex activity of reflective practice. The chapter shows how the three interventions made the teachers become aware or reinterpret their reflective themes. As I stated in Chapter 3, I chose three very different kinds of interventions because I wanted to offer various modalities to the participants in the hopes that each person would find at least one ‘safe’ space where they would feel comfortable expressing their feelings, beliefs and reactions, in other words, their honne. It was not possible for me to discern if a teacher’s statement was honne or tatemae, and it is likely that this was not possible for the participant teachers either. At the same time, I do not think that we can definitively categorise every statement to be honne or tatemae; probably it is not necessary to do so. However, I think I can argue with some confidence that the reflective interventions gave participants opportunities to express what they wanted to say rather than what they thought they should say and also to ponder the differences between the two. In the following pages, I discuss the benefits and also the challenges raised by each of the three interventions referring to the five types of reflection I introduced in Chapter 4. It does not mean, however, that one intervention can be identified as leading a participant to awareness or reinterpretation. Rather, it is more accurate to say that one intervention might have been a prompt to awareness when it was primed by recursive engagement with all three interventions, allowing participants to describe, reconfirm and undertake hansei, reiterating back and forth on the reflective continuum. Table 8.1 summarises the reflective interventions and associated topics of discussion used in the research study.

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Fifth interview Reflective task: Identifying their reflective themes Sixth (and final) interview Reflective task: Discussion based on the last journal entry

February

March

Third (and final) focus group Reflective task: Sharing feedback in the participation in the study

Fourth interview Reflective task: Sharing interview transcriptions with each teacher

2008 January

Third interview Asking specific questions about the journal entries

December

Second focus group Reflective task: Participants ask questions and share experiences of participating in the study

Second interview Asking specific questions about the journal entries

November

Topics of interviews

First interview Learning about the background of teachers and school contexts

2007 September

October

Topics of focus group

First focus group • Meeting the other participants • Questions about the study • Suggestions for the first journal entry

Date

Table 8.1 The reflective tasks and the interventions

Final journal entry Selection of reflective themes, based on rereading of past journal entries

Second journal entry on • Open-ended reactions • Responses to questions posed by the researcher

First journal entry Reactions to the first focus group discussion

Topics of journal entries

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Focus Groups as a Reflective Intervention The focus group discussions, though seen as intimidating by some participants, served more than one purpose, being both an arena for debriefing and a place to seek and provide approval and confirmation. As a reflective space, the focus group was designed to provide more opportunities for description and reconfirmation than for reinterpretation or awareness. However, for some teachers, the focus group became an arena to develop awareness. One such instance was with Naomi, when she became aware that a drawback of writing in a journal is that it does not provide the same kind of empathetic response as talking to another person does. Naomi was discussing how she felt upset after receiving an unreasonable evaluation from a student: Naomi: Then, I got upset and I talked about it to my colleagues and then I was able to let go of my tension. But if I wrote it in the journal, the tension would not go down, or with me, it does not go down. How about you? Miki:

For what is upsetting, I may talk to my colleagues as well. I may talk to my colleagues about what bothers me or what went well in teaching.

Naomi: What went well, too? Miki:

If they asked me, I may tell them what went well. But when it comes to what bothers me, I would definitely tell them.

Naomi: Then we can feel calm. Miki:

You can let go of the tension, probably.

Naomi: The colleagues most often empathise with you. Like, yes, that particular student acts that way to everyone. A:

I see. The colleagues empathise with you.

Naomi: I see. Empathy, that is what’s missing from the journal writing! (FG2, JA) This excerpt indicates that the discussion with others led Naomi to become aware that empathy was what is missing in journal writing. Miki’s comment that talking to colleagues enables one to ‘let go of tension’ and my comment that echoed Naomi – ‘the colleagues empathised with you’ – seemed to have prompted Naomi to this insight: ‘Empathy, that is what’s missing from the journal writing!’ This instance shows that for Naomi, the dialogical communication mode, which allowed her to exchange comments with the other interlocutors, was more helpful and beneficial for reflection and for letting go of tension than a more monologic activity, such as journal writing.

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Initially, the focus group was designed to serve as a debriefing forum for the participants to reflect upon the experience of being engaged in a research study. An unexpected outcome of the group discussions, however, was that they sometimes functioned as debriefings on the workplace. For some participants, the focus group was seen as an external venue where they could share their true feelings (their honne) about their workplaces, with people who could really understand them. As fellow teachers of English in prefectural high schools in the same prefecture, the other participants represented a safe audience. This unexpected development indicates to me that many teachers, regardless of their years of experience in teaching, find it difficult to express their views at their workplace. Assuming that this reluctance is widespread, I would suggest that this alone is a strong reason for incorporating reflective dialogue into in-service teacher development in Japan. Kyoko showed a strong appreciation towards participation in the focus group: About the discussion group, this system is really… you remember how I mentioned that I don’t have anything like this and that new teachers don’t really have any chances to talk about things… I know I was complaining about that, and I really feel thankful for having this type of opportunity. (INT3, JA) Kyoko often commented that she felt she could not express her views in the workplace to her older and more experienced colleagues. For her especially, the focus group became a safe venue where she could express her views and ideas about teaching to her peers. The focus group provided a discussion space for more experienced teachers as well. Yoko, who had been teaching for more than 13 years, was teaching the same group of students with another colleague, and was finding it difficult to express her personal views, or honne, with this colleague since she worried that any critical comments could be received as personal criticism. Yoko commented on the benefit of the focus group: We (the participants in the study) have the same difficulties, but we are not involved with each other. We cannot say too much to those with whom we are working too closely. We suppress what we want to say because if we didn’t, it would annoy our colleagues. What we (the members of the focus group) have to do at school is similar so I know what types of difficulties they have, but we are not working in the same context, which allows me to say what I think. Having this kind of environment is healthy. (FG3, JA) Yoko’s comment points to the potential difficulty of sharing views with other teachers in the immediate teaching context. She describes the focus group as ‘healthy’, because her fellow participants could understand her

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work context, as fellow prefectural high school teachers (but at different schools). At the same time, they did not know each other very personally, which allowed freer expression of what could not be expressed in their workplaces, their true feelings or honne. I was often perplexed in the focus group, as the teachers spent a surprising amount of time exchanging critical comments about students, colleagues and administration, both at the school and the prefectural level. At the same time, however, I felt that offering a safe space for such critical comments might be necessary at first. One possible conclusion is that for a focus group to work well, as many meetings as possible may be necessary. The focus group was also beneficial as a way for participants to receive approval of their views and practices from other teachers. Kyoko, a novice teacher, was grateful that some of her views were shared by one of the most experienced teachers in the group, Yoko. Kyoko said, ‘I was also glad that the other teacher who has a lot more experience than myself mentioned similar things’ (INT3). This is what Roberts (1998) refers to as social validation, which plays a critical part in the formation of a teacher’s internal set of beliefs and feelings, or cognition. For novice teachers, in particular, who are in the initial stages of shaping their professional knowledge, agreement and affirmation from more experienced teachers can be comforting. Besides giving novices confidence, affirmation from a more expert colleague can strengthen their commitment to a viewpoint or belief. For Kyoko, the focus group functioned as a venue of affirmation.

Challenges of the focus group There were some drawbacks of the focus group as a reflective intervention, particularly in the Japanese context. Group discussion in Japan often has a tendency to remain superficial (i.e. participants limit themselves to expressing acceptable, non-confrontational viewpoints, or tatemae) rather than to fully develop into an honest or even uncomfortable exploration of the participants’ beliefs and reactions. This might be more the case when the participants do not know each other well. Even Naomi, who showed a strong preference for dialogue over writing, made a critical comment about the focus group: ‘All of us teach in different contexts, so the focus group is more like an exchange of information. We do not really exchange opinions and ideas. It is more like a pile of different information shared by each of us’ (FG2, JA). I found that it often happened in the group discussions that one participant’s sharing of a viewpoint was interrupted by the other members of the group, so the original speaker’s idea would never be fully explored or developed. Another potential drawback is that the group setting may make the participants uncomfortable about fully expressing themselves. In this way, the focus group dynamics may almost replicate those of the workplace. Ken

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found the focus group to be intimidating; he felt overwhelmed by Yoko’s breadth of experience and so remained reticent: She [Yoko] has experience in business, experience in teaching at a private school… when I heard those kinds of things, I thought I do not think about things so deeply. I don’t have so much experience. But as teachers, as English teachers, how can I express it… that leads to a loss of confidence. (INT6, JA) Ken’s comment suggests that interaction and collaboration may not automatically facilitate discussion and reflection; rather, they may have an adverse effect on some teachers, especially where status or professional experience differ. Because he felt intimidated by Yoko in the focus group discussions, Ken felt discouraged and talked about losing confidence in his teaching. Sato and Kleinsasser (2004) caution that collaboration may not always lead to better teacher development, and that the organiser must take into account various factors such as the types of interaction that the participants have and what influences those interactions. Cohen et al. (2007: 377) also argue that the group dynamics caused by status differences ‘may lead to non-participation by some members and dominance by others’. The benefit of the focus group depends on various individual factors, such as personality, relational ability and the way the group members orient to each other. For the focus group to be beneficial, particularly in the Japanese context, the researcher needs to play a proactive role to ensure the uninhibited, but also congenial, participation of all members (Cohen et al., 2007). After hearing Ken’s comments, quoted above, in our final interview together, I reassured him that he did not have to feel intimidated. But I think, looking back, that I could have intervened during the group discussion itself in more helpful ways, perhaps by inviting Ken to participate or by changing the topic away from the participants’ professional accomplishments.

Journal Writing as a Reflective Intervention Journal writing provided the participants with a multifaceted forum for reflection and expression. I wanted to use journal writing, a solo activity, as an intervention to encourage teachers to express their honne. In the discussion that follows, I again refer to the concept of kotodama, first introduced in Chapter 3, in an explanation of the meaning of journal writing in the Japanese context. Like the focus groups, the journals appeared to serve some of the participants as a safe space where they could express what they could not say at their workplaces. For example, Kyoko, the novice teacher, could not express her views to more experienced teachers at work. She said that she

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would write the journal entry in the form of a letter to the researcher: ‘Dear Ms. Watanabe…. Please listen to what I have to say’ (FG2): [F]rom the perspective of a novice, there really are no situations like department meetings to talk about things such as teaching methodologies. Of course, the older teachers, four of them, all in their 50s, are as you can imagine. So we don’t talk about things like that, and nobody really teaches you very much, so I wasn’t sure which way to go. It would have been nice just to have something which allows me to be heard. (FG2, JA) For some teachers, writing the journal entry was the embodiment of reflection. Sara was an avid writer of the journal. She was very expressive in her journal entries and appeared to gain a great deal through writing and rereading. Her last journal entry addressed an insight about reflective journal writing itself: ‘I think keeping weekly journals for six months made me conscious and aware of my teaching, I wonder how I would be different or the same if I stop writing them now’ (JE 25/26 March). This entry indicates the significance of journal writing for Sara’s professional development. It suggests that the journal was a powerful impetus for her to reflect and that without being required to write regularly in the journal, she may have found it more difficult to engage in reflection. The journal gave her a place to put her ideas out for examination. Sara’s active engagement is manifested in her statement about the meaning of journal writing for teachers: ‘This journal keeping, I think, those who want to develop or who want to improve would find this beneficial. But for those who do not think that they can change through writing, the journal writing is just a duty’ (FG3). Her description of journal keeping suggests that a positive belief in, as well as active engagement with, the journal is crucial for such writing to facilitate professional development. This echoes what one in-service Japanese teacher expressed to me at a conference on reflective practice: ‘Writing a journal, verbalisation of what is on my mind, means what reflection is for me’ (Yamamoto, 2014).

The three stages of writing There were individual differences in terms of how the participants responded to journal writing as a reflective intervention, and in my study I identified three stages of journal writing – pre-writing, during-writing and post-writing – as arenas for the development of reflection. ‘Pre-writing’ refers to the stage where participants decide what should be entered into the journal; this tends to happen after they have spent some time recalling past events or reviewing their reactions, thoughts and ideas. ‘During-writing’ is the stage of putting those ideas into words. It comprises two parts: description – the act of writing entries – and response, when the

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participants answered or otherwise reacted to the questions that I raised on their entries. ‘Post-writing’ refers to the participants’ rereading of their own journals. The pre-writing stage – thinking about what to enter in the journal – encouraged the participants to pay closer attention to their teaching practice. It also functioned as a way for them to monitor, or be mindful of, their teaching, in that they had to think about what might go into the journal. Paying attention (Tremmel, 1993) and being mindful (Johns, 2005) have been highlighted as important aspects of reflective practice. Journal keeping encouraged the participants to pay attention for topics and ideas to be entered (Miki FG2, Kyoko FG2). Miki said: ‘I pay attention to what I do in order to find the topics that I can enter in the journal’ (FG2). Paying attention also helped the participants to recall events which they otherwise would have forgotten (Miki FG2). Pre-writing also led the participants to monitor their lessons, or to observe and make connections between different lessons and to plan for future lessons. Yoko said of pre-writing: When I am to write an entry for the past few weeks, I think about what I did. Then, I think, ‘Well, I have to do the follow up of what I did.’ If I did not follow through, I know the reason for not continuing. Writing helps me to pay attention to both discontinuing and continuing what I do. (FG3, JA) Yoko said that recalling her lessons before writing a journal entry led her to think about what she did not do in previous lessons and what she should do in future lessons: ‘I think about what I did not follow up in the following week. Then, I think about what I should do in the next week’ (FG3, JA). The pre-writing stage helped Yoko to see connections among her lessons. The pre-writing stage also engaged the participants in deciding what to put into writing. Besides getting the participants to review and examine their beliefs and practices, this stage pushed them to be more specific about what they wanted to share with others and also to acknowledge or accept with oneself an idea which will be shared with others – as the concept of kotodama suggests – will be seen as both an announcement and a kind of promise for others and for oneself. As discussed in Chapter 3, those things that are verbalised or encoded in writing ‘have the power to make the verbalized issues happen or to be actualized’ (Hara, 2001: 285). In journal writing, what is entered takes on a kind of independent existence. In doing so, it creates a sense of responsibility for the individual to accomplish or actualise what was written. Yoko commented that what she wrote down she felt she had to carry out. Thus, as her selection of reflective theme indicated (‘avoidance of what I do not want to be involved in’), she avoided making entries about things that she did not think she could follow up on or achieve (FG2):

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Yoko:

In a journal, I do not want to write entries such as ‘well, that can’t be helped,’ ‘I couldn’t do it,’ ‘well, this should be good enough.’ I feel frustrated to write such entries. When I feel that it is not good enough, I do not want to compromise that it was ok and I do not want to write that.

Kyoko: I think I made such entries. Yoko:

Doesn’t it bother you? In making such entries, it makes me feel that I was compromising again. If I want to write something better the next time, I feel a little shaken up. (FG3, JA)

Yoko also said that she would not write an entry about something which she did not want to confront or admit. She said, in her final interview with me: Yoko: Regarding the supervision of club activities, I am actually pretty lazy right now, so I avoid the topic. It is not related to English instruction but… It is probably like, if I don’t really like to teach the oral classes, probably I don’t write comments about them very much. I only teach it in a fairly mediocre way, but I think I don’t write about it in most cases. Currently I like all of my English courses and keep trying new things. But in some cases, in some courses for example, when I really dislike a class and am really fed up with it, I would only be able to write something like ‘I hate it’, so I would not write about it at all. A:

Is that so?

Yoko: Yes. If there is a slight hope, I can write about it in the journal, but I would not write an entry such as ‘I just dislike this class and I teach it praying that the time passes quickly’. (INT6, JA) Yoko clearly devised her journal entries in the spirit of kotodama, carefully choosing which topics or ideas she was willing to accept or acknowledge through the act of putting them into writing. For her, writing ‘it was good enough’ or ‘I just dislike this class’ would have meant accepting responsibility for doing something in response to those feelings, and also conceding to those feelings. She would not write about things which she did not think she could change or which she did not want to deal with. In addition, she would not enter ideas which she did not want to accept such as ‘it was good enough’ or ‘I just dislike this class’, as writing them signifies abandoning further trials and compromising the ideas. She chose to mention only things that she felt could change and that she felt comfortable accepting. And she wished to continue to improve her practice so that she could ‘write something better the next time’ (FG3).

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The during-writing stage, i.e. making an entry, frequently enabled the participants to gain an objective perspective on what they were writing about, which allowed them to reconfirm their ideas and to gain awareness about their practices and beliefs. The objectivity of writing is illustrated by Walker (1994: 63), who says that writing is ‘a way of distancing oneself from the experience, which has the effect of clarifying it and fostering the ability to work with it, so that the learner can draw out potential learning’. Distancing oneself, or having objectivity, allowed the participants to reorganise their ideas and feelings and often led them to reconfirm their views. This objectivity underscores the Japanese concept of kotodama, in which whatever is written takes on a kind of independent status, again increasing the distance between the writer/reader and the topic written about. In making an entry, Kyoko reconfirmed her concerns and rationale for certain practices in her lesson (FG3). Miki reconfirmed her practice: ‘recalling the event and through writing it in my own words, I was able to explore what I almost forgot’ (FG2). Finally, for some participants, writing was a way of releasing tension. Yoko wrote in the journal, ‘I can see that I am releasing my stress through expressing what I cannot do at the workplace’ (Yoko FG3, Yoko JE 24/25 March). Several of the participants noted the development of greater objectivity, or awareness, through writing. Sara noted that writing enabled her to look at problems more objectively and to become aware of her teaching style (Sara JE 25/26 March). Kyoko’s journal entries clearly show a continuum of reflection leading to awareness. She first recalls and describes an event, then explores and analyses the difficulties. She notes that ‘through writing in words what I was concerned, I was able to organise what is actually bothering me’ (JE 5/12 November). In the following journal entry (JE 4/12 October), Kyoko writes about how she feels distant from her class of third-year students: When I think about what might be causing this, I have to say that it is just the reality that I have not been able to build a relationship of trust with my students. These are students that I am suddenly teaching for the first time in their third year and I have never worked with any of them, other than the few students who are on the girls’ basketball team. That could be the main thing, but I also feel hansei that I have not tried hard enough to develop a good relationship with the students since April. (JE 4/12 October, JA) One of the non-teaching duties that high school teachers have is being an advisor of clubs and Kyoko advised the basketball team. Advisors do not have to be skilled in the area of the activity, and do not need to instruct students. Their duty is to supervise their activities or practices, which often take place after class and at weekends. As Kyoko writes, she uncovers possible reasons for the problem: she is a novice teacher and therefore she doesn’t know the students well. Also, she

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has not tried hard enough to develop a good relationship with the students. Kyoko shows hansei in acknowledging that she was responsible for the problem. She goes on to explore another reason behind the problem: Also, in their second year, these students were taught by a unique older teacher. This teacher was not very serious about teaching English, and mainly just had his students copy down the Japanese translation of the text as he read it to them. He hardly ever asked the students to do tasks that required them to translate or think. On the other hand, however, that teacher had a very warm personality, and the students who did not want to study very much really liked him. That is why I feel that some students are probably thinking, ‘He was a better teacher for us’. (JE 4/12 October, JA) As the entry shows, high school education in Japan involves the direct teaching of social development as well as subject matter. A substantial number of teachers choose the profession because they are interested in helping young people develop into good citizens; as we saw in Sara’s story in Chapter 6, being a good teacher often means being someone who is passionate about the social development of the students as well as being good at teaching content. Kyoko is critical of the older teacher’s teaching style, but at the same time acknowledges his positive aspects. She tries to look at the teacher from the point of view of the students, who do not much like to study English, and then describes possible causes of the problem by taking an attitude of hansei, looking at herself critically for not trying to approach the students more personally: The students have received very little discipline with regard to studying, so it is not like I am going to be able to help them develop academically in a big way in just one year no matter what I do… Since April, I continue to have this preconceived notion in my mind. In addition, last year I had a similar experience of starting to teach a group of students I had never taught before suddenly in the third year. In their third year, students can be very difficult to work with, and they are resistant to new methods because they have become accustomed to the style of teaching that they received over the past two years. This year, the same thing is happening. If I ask them to do a vocabulary test, they complain and do not prepare. If I ask them to answer a question, they just evade it by saying, ‘I don’t know.’ Due to the attitude that the students have, I began to think, ‘Perhaps it is meaningless to teach these people English.’ Perhaps due to such an unenthusiastic attitude on my part, I did not make a conscious effort to chat with the students about things unrelated to the lesson very much. My feeling about all of this is that I continue to just be a teacher who ‘just teaches English,’ and my teaching is very one-way. Looking back, I really feel that I was childish. (JE 4/12 October, JA)

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The above extract shows Kyoko is analysing the reasons for the problem. She admits her own lack of effort but at the same time references the lack of effort on the students’ part. Then, in the next extract, she seems to demonstrate a new awareness of the fact that she is not really taking the students’ viewpoint into account: That being said, one idea that just popped into my head as I was writing this is that I was probably teaching my classes without really grasping the reality of my students. The students in my class who say ‘I don’t know’ probably have a lot of things they really don’t understand, and feel like they cannot keep up with the class. I really need to re-examine my own teaching. Also, another thing I have realised as I was writing this is that I was trying to impose the ‘discipline’ that I use for my first year students onto my third year students, who have already undergone that process of being disciplined. When I look back at myself as a senior in high school, I was basically an adult. Perhaps I was treating the students too much like children. (JE 4/12 October, JA) Through writing her journal entry, Kyoko develops a new awareness that she has been teaching her lessons without trying to see the world through her students’ eyes. In her entry, she tries to interpret the students’ response to her teaching from a different (i.e. their) perspective: they do not really understand what is going on in her lessons. She critically examines her behaviour towards this group of third-year students and contrasts her experience as a student in high school with how her current students might feel. This entry clearly shows that Kyoko is actively trying to understand the problem from her students’ perspective. By doing this, she realises that she has to assume responsibility for helping to solve the problem by re-examining her teaching approach. Kyoko’s entry illustrates how a reflective practitioner experiences the reflective continuum. First, Kyoko poses and describes a problem, followed by hansei; then she explores the potential causes of the problem by looking at it from different perspectives, including that of the students. She gains awareness that she is not doing enough to ‘grasp the reality’ of her students, and finally states the need to re-examine her own teaching. The writing allows her to engage in the recursive loop of the reflective continuum, essential for her to develop deep awareness. The second aspect of during-writing through which the participants developed reflection was in responding to the questions I posed about their entries. After I received their journals, I would ask clarifying and prompt questions before returning them to the writers; in subsequent entries, the participants responded to those questions, although they could also write about whatever they wanted to. Writing responses was effective for participants who approached the questions as an invitation to explore their teaching practice.

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Through responding to the questions in the journal, Yoko became increasingly aware of contradictions in what she wrote at different times, which seemed to help her understand some of her teaching decisions. She always wrote answers to my questions in her next entries. In her final journal entry, Yoko wrote: I have learned from Ms. Watanabe’s simple comment, ‘Why?’ Rather than statements such as ‘Do this’ and ‘Don’t do this.’ ‘Why?’ questions are effective advice and guidance that lead teachers to generate answers for themselves. (JE 24/25 March, JA) Yoko’s description suggests that she not only took ‘Why?’ questions as requests for information, but also understood that ‘Why?’ could be a rhetorical question prompting her to think more deeply about a question. In other words, we could say that she came to interpret ‘Why?’ questions as triggers for reflection. Interestingly, Yoko also found that asking herself ‘Why?’ questions had the effect of blocking further exploration of her reflective themes and her own cognition: When writing, the process of constantly thinking Why? Why? and considering my reasons led to discovering something different from what I wrote before. When I thought about the reasons in depth, I thought it would become difficult, and so I had better stop at a certain point for a number of issues. Right. But if you ask me about which parts those are, even if I read over my journal, I can’t really identify where they are. (INT6, JA). This excerpt indicates that the reflective trigger question ‘Why?’ produced so much thought for Yoko that it became overwhelming for her. Yoko’s decision to avoid exploring these contradictions suggests that she might have been trying to stay within her ‘comfort zone’ which was discussed in Chapter 7. In other words, she was willing to engage in reflection, but only up to a limit, which she discovered through the interventions. This is an understandable response to reflective practice. Rereading their entries in the post-writing stage gave most of the participants a helpful reflective forum. Reviewing what they had written previously led them to reconfirm, gain awareness and reinterpret both the events they described and their reactions and beliefs relating to those events. The participants gained new perspectives from rereading the written record of their activity. Lee (2007) points out that through rereading a journal, the reflective practitioner becomes aware of changes in values and beliefs. Bailey (1990: 224) also contends, ‘in order to really learn from the record, the diarist should reread the journal entries and try to find the patterns therein’. For my Japanese participants, I can also speculate that

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kotodama was at work: having been written, the journal entries took on an independent existence of their own and became a separate entity from the writer: this allowed the participants to become readers who could take a more objective stance on the things described in the journals. Reconfirmation was apparent in Sara’s experience: by rereading her journals, Sara reconfirmed the importance of her beliefs and her attempts to put them into practice: ‘rereading of the entries helped me to reconfirm what I was trying and what I was concerned with’ (INT6). She gained awareness of her teaching style, including her weaknesses, which was one of her reflective themes, ‘good environment conducive for effective teaching’ discussed in Chapter 7, through rereading her journal entries: I notice that if I have a good environment, I am more relaxed in class and concerned on improving my lessons, but when I have hard times controlling students, I am less concerned about my ways of teaching. (JE 25/26 March) As this entry shows, Sara became aware that a good environment was a key factor for her effective teaching. Miki, on the other hand, approached journal writing as a monitoring system and commented that journal writing helped remind her of her stated aim in teaching; putting her ideas into words helped her compare her aim with her practice so that she could make necessary modifications (INT6). Through rereading his own journals, Ken became aware of the meaning of ‘atmosphere’ and that he was displacing the blame for ‘the class atmosphere of the students’ when the lessons did not go well. He said, ‘When I was reading my own journal, I became aware that I had written that kind of thing at the very end, that I must create by myself the atmosphere that is necessary’ (INT6). Rereading journal entries also gave the participants the opportunity to trace their development over time, and to contrast past and present thinking. The reflective journal allowed Kyoko to look back over her own practice: Last year, I had the first year training programme, and that was a good chance to tell the teacher trainer about my practice at regular intervals. I really appreciated that. However, this year I don’t have that so I hadn’t had any chance to look back on whether my practice was good or bad. Since this summer (through the participation in this study), journal writing has been very good for me to regularly look at what I do. (FG 3, JA) It may be worth noting that my study asked participants to keep reflective journals, not diaries. On the surface, journals and diaries may appear to be the same; the difference, however, is pronounced. A reflective journal is written with full knowledge that there is another reader in addition to the writer. Given kotodama, having a reader is significant, as it

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assures the writer not only that his or her view will be heard, but also that it will be irrevocably (if in a limited way) public. For some participants, the knowledge that their ideas would be read and listened to was an incentive: ‘even only being listened to’ (FG2 Kyoko), or ‘being listened to, even when a comment is not returned’ (FG2 Yoko). Having an outside reader, who was not part of the participants’ workplace, also seemed to have been a positive factor in encouraging honest participation. Yoko said that because I, as her reader, was outside her teaching sphere, she felt at ease expressing her views frankly (her honne) (FG2). Like the focus group discussions, the journal entries apparently provided an arena of expression for the participants, which was a welcome change from their workplace contexts. What is written is no longer private, suppressed or avoided but is placed in a limited public domain. In addition, the influence of kotodama provides incentive for change: both writing one’s view and having a reader gives dual responsibility to the writer to actualise what was written. For Japanese reflective practitioners, kotodama infuses the journal entry with a sense of acknowledgement, announcement, promise and expectation.

Challenges of journal writing as a reflective intervention Despite the insights that journal writing afforded to this study, it was not free from challenges and did not work well for everyone. As Mr Sato’s experience in the pilot study suggests, journal writing can highlight negative experiences and thoughts. Naomi, who preferred dialogical communication over monologic writing, said that unlike talking with colleagues, writing did not help her let go of tension, but rather intensified negative feelings, which actually led to her re-experiencing stress (FG2). This relates to the warnings found in other published studies that reflection can, in some circumstances, lead to ‘a kind of tunnel thinking’ (Korthagen & Vasalos, 2010: 537), undermine one’s confidence (Day, 1999; Ghaye, 2011), prevent one from learning (Boud et al., 1985) or even despair (Moore, 2004) in the worst case, especially intensified, perhaps, by the solitary task of writing in a journal. Another drawback of journal writing was the lack of empathy and communication that the writer receives from the empty page, as was pointed out by Naomi in the second focus group discussion: ‘Empathy, that is what’s lacking in a journal!’ (FG2). Naomi and Sara said that journal keeping should be shared among the participants, and that this would potentially be more beneficial and conducive to discussion than keeping it between the researcher and the individual writer. Naomi commented: ‘chatting, through a sharing of different ideas, may enhance one’s reflection, even though the members are not deliberately trying to do so’ (INT6). In my study, however, with the use of email for the journals, the journal exchanges with some participants

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developed into a form of chat, where they returned the questions immediately in short entries. While it was certainly more dialogic, it did not seem to lead the participants involved to more profound thinking about their responses. Referring to Strand (2006), Golombek (2015) describes how journal writing may not always offer a very reflective forum. A participant may not know how to use journals for reflective writing or may not necessarily even want to engage in reflection; the reflective benefits of writing a journal entry are not necessarily obvious to writers. Finally, journal writing can seem like a homework assignment, a task that participants have to engage in rather than one that offers an element of sociability or novelty. Ken’s journal writing became sporadic towards the end of the study, and he said that he needed a due date for the journal (INT6). However, despite these drawbacks, journal writing can be a real ‘insider instrument’, a tool for looking into one’s views and ideas (McDonough, 1994: 63), which engages teachers in scrutiny of their own teaching practice (Tamai, 2014a). Still, in order to prevent participants from dwelling on negative reflection, the role of the researcher and other teachers is crucial.

Interviews as a Reflective Intervention The third reflective intervention, the one-on-one interview, highlighted more individual differences among the participants than either journal writing or focus group discussions did. Differences among the individuals were manifested in their styles of engagement and in their evaluations of the intervention itself. Overall, I would say that the interviews were an effective reflective intervention for those participants who felt the need for a mentor or who preferred talking to writing. Every interview, however, reflected the mutual construction of interactions and relationships that had developed between the participants and me. As an intervention, the interview tended to elicit description, reconfirmation and hansei more frequently than reinterpretation or awareness. In this first excerpt, from an interview with Miki, we see a unique instance of the development of awareness during an interview. In our final interview, prompted by a question from me, she became aware of the contradictions in the way she disciplined students over classroom cleaning and over preparation for lessons, one of her reflective themes, which was discussed in Chapter 7: A:

You talked about your conviction that all students should engage in cleaning of the classroom. How would that be different from students’ preparation for a class?

Miki: I have never thought about that. Well, I do really have to make my students study for classes. I have to create an atmosphere in class where

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students feel they have to come prepared. I am not good at doing that at the current school. A:

Is that so?

Miki: Well. Some students do not like it. Some students do not like studying with those who did not prepare for class. Some say it is nuisance to have the lessons interrupted by those who are underprepared. That is a harsh statement but those students are serious. They want to get as much as they can from lessons. Many students seem to feel that they do not want the students who are not prepared to slow down a lesson. A:

But there may be differences between cleaning and preparing for a lesson.

Miki: They may be different, but I see similarities. I have never connected them, but I now see the connection. (INT6, JA) Miki’s awareness was triggered by my direct question, ‘How would that be different from students’ preparation for a class?’, which suggests that the active intervention of an interviewer can sometimes be helpful in developing awareness. In the interviews, I mostly asked indirect and neutral questions on their spoken or written accounts. Thus, my questions were, for the most part, mostly what the participants expected. However, my direct question seemed to have taken Miki aback, and made her aware of a contradiction in the two topics she often discussed. Even though the interview was not an intervention in which the participants commonly developed reinterpretation or awareness, it was an integral part of the study because it gave them a chance to discuss and express their views. Kyoko said that the interviews helped her to gain insights about her teaching when, in an interview, we discussed a journal entry she had written: ‘Making an explanation in the interview leads to reconfirming what I said. So, I think there were discoveries or rediscoveries during the interviews…. It is like exploring what one wrote in journals a little deeper’ (FG3, JA). In addition to the benefit of the interviews, this comment suggests that multiple opportunities to discuss one’s view in different reflective interventions are crucial for reflective understanding and awareness. This might be the case especially for a novice, like Kyoko, who has not firmly established his or her views about teaching.

Reading interview transcripts Reading their own interview transcripts was assigned as a reflective task in the fourth interview. Doing this task generated reconfirmation and awareness among the participants. As discussed above for journal entries, the reading of the interview transcripts gave the participants the chance to

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be more objective about their beliefs and ideas. In general, I learned that the more novice teachers – Ken, Kyoko and Sara – got more out of the rereading activity than the more experienced teachers, Yoko and Miki. This makes sense, since a novice teacher is still developing ‘teacher knowledge’; their teacher cognition, so to speak, is still under development. As described in Chapter 7, reading the first three interview transcripts, Yoko commented that she did not have any new findings from the reading: ‘Well, finding something…but what I spoke was what I think about in many instances. I did not find anything unusual or what I do not remember saying. I expressed what I usually think about’ (INT4). Miki corrected some kanji characters in the transcripts and acknowledged what she had said earlier, but did not express any particular surprise or interest in what she found there. The reading of the interview transcripts led Ken, however, to reconfirm that ‘atmosphere’ was an important aspect in his teaching. He stated, ‘it is not because I took part in the study I started thinking about atmosphere, but it was amazing to find that I was so interested in having a good atmosphere’ (INT4, JA). Reading his own statements seemed not only to reconfirm his interest in this concept but also to remind him of its importance to him. Kyoko also reconfirmed her aims and task as a teacher through reading the interview transcripts: In the interview with you the other day, I felt slightly embarrassed looking at the interview script from October but the main issues or goals I have set have become clearer. My aims are that students have many different channels for learning English and letting students realise that English is a pipe that connects them and the world. My task is not to force students to learn English but to increase their motivation to study English through communication with others, and also to make an effort to help them grow. (JE 9/12 January, JA) Becoming aware of changes over time, or realising that some ideas are still in the process of evolving, also came up frequently as the participants read their interview transcripts. Kyoko became aware that what she had stated in the earlier interviews did not always hold true: ‘thoughts are different, like, sort of depending on my feelings at various times’ (INT4). Sara became aware of the changes in her concerns about teaching. She stated in the fourth interview: In October, the students were loud and unsettled; I had a difficult time with disciplining the students. After January, the discipline has become more manageable, so I have been able to focus on teaching the lessons. (INT4) These two examples show that being a reader of their own transcripts led the participants to gain an objective and a detached view of their past

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comments. Rereading interview transcripts was a prompt for becoming aware. In Sara’s case, for example, her engagement in reflective practice itself allowed her to become better when handling a discipline-related issue, and thus to have more time for teaching. Rereading her interview script allowed her to become aware of this change. Through reading the interview transcripts, Naomi became aware of her reflective themes, giving ‘whole person education’, discussed in Chapter 7, which came up repeatedly in her interviews, and of the change in what interested her about teaching: I felt some dismay with myself because I was saying the same thing over and over. The question I asked you yesterday was the same question I asked previously. One thing I noticed was that I say many times that I am not much help to you because I am talking about how to provide good guidance or whole person education to students rather than English education. Even if you say that you are interested in that area as well, I may be influenced by the fact that you obtained MA in TESOL and connect things to English education. To some degree I guess I never believed your words that you are interested in the study of education. So I keep asking the same questions and keep apologising. In spite of that, it seems like I was repeatedly talking again and again about how most of my duties are not related to English language education, but that I feel a strong sense of meaning in those other duties. (JE 12/18 February, JA) Naomi goes on to describe changes in her teaching; specifically, that discipline has become an important aspect in her teaching: When I think about it, I used to dislike having to do student guidance (enforcement of rules) and could not see any personal meaning in it. I was always discontent, for over ten years, with having to be a gate keeper (literally because we stand in front of the school gate as students come to school and check the students’ compliance with rules). As I told you the other day, in order to develop the dignity of Japanese persons, basic education and discipline must come first, and English education comes after that. (JE 12/18 February, JA) The above examples show that reviewing the interview transcripts, which allowed Naomi to take a more objective stance towards her own ideas, was conducive to reflection as it generated awareness about various aspects of interest to her, such as her reflective theme, her interview discourse pattern and the change in her interest in teaching. In some ways, reading interview transcripts seems to have the same benefit as reading journal writing. Bailey’s (1990: 224) point that ‘in order to really learn from the record, the diarist should reread the journal entries and try to find the patterns therein’, applies here too. We can see that Naomi became aware of a pattern in her discussion of teaching. As with the rereading of journal

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writing, reading interview transcripts has the potential to be extremely effective in the development of reflection.

Individual differences in the interviews Individual differences were manifested in the participants’ evaluation of and engagement in the interviews more than in the other interventions. The differences seem to be based on the participants’ need for interaction with others in exploring their views. This could be attributed to a stated need for a mentor (Ken, Kyoko and Sara), or simply a strong preference for a dialogic, reciprocal style of communication (Naomi). On the other hand, Yoko and Miki, who seemed to have firmly established views about teaching, did not necessarily see the need for the interviews to enhance reflection. These differences highlight the variations in importance and meaning that the teachers assigned to interaction in the interview and in the relationships that the teachers and I constructed. Ken’s participation in the interviews shows his reliance on me almost as a mentor, someone who could be ‘supportive of the transformation or development of the mentee and of their acceptance into a professional community’ (Malderez, 2009: 260). During Ken’s interviews, I observed a certain openness to discussing his insecurities and a noticeable reliance on me to give comments or advice. He seemed to have enjoyed expressing his views about teaching, and was open in expressing his insecurities and doubts. Kyoko showed appreciation for being given the opportunity to participate in the interviews. They allowed her to express her views directly to another person, particularly a person whom she seemed to regard as a mentor. She was very engaged in our conversations and seemed to look forward to the interviews especially. She acknowledged a benefit of the interviews, in contrast to journal keeping: The interviews resulted in being supplementary to journals in that the interviews clarify ambiguous parts of journal entries. However, expressing my views through writing and talking face to face like this seem different. Even though what is stated is the same, how the message is conveyed is different, like I can really express what I really think (through the interviews). This may be important. (FG3, JA) Her appreciation of the direct expression of views shows the interviews to be a beneficial reflective intervention, especially for those who feel a greater need for expressing their worries and insecurities as teachers. Kyoko stated: I was able to talk about everything and anything I wanted to talk about and really felt relieved (laugh). It was like, thanks for listening, thanks for listening

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to my complaining. When you showed me my transcript, I could see that I was talking about all kinds of things, and it was good for me to see that I talked about this and that and was probably thinking about this or that. From my point of view, I really appreciated being able to speak about so many things. (FG3, JA) For Sara, having an opportunity for oral expression was crucial, especially in the earlier phase of the study, due to her struggles in teaching challenging students. Her earlier interviews were characterised by her critical comments of the students and her feeling as if she wants to abandon teaching them. Her detached views of the students changed in the course of the study, but the candid, honest (honne) expression of her views towards the students in the early interviews might have been necessary at that stage. The interviews were also vital for Sara to get to know and regard me as a mentor: [I]f this study only involved journal writing, I would have written differently. Meeting and talking to you in person helped me to feel closer to you. If I participated in the study without knowing you in person, my entries might have been more distanced. (FG3) Moreover, Sara expected me to play a more critical role. Her relentless desire for me to be more critical of her views and teaching practices also suggest that she held firm expectations for me to act as a mentor. For Naomi, the best reflective interventions were those that generated dialogue and empathy. Naomi was in need of an interlocutor with whom she could really talk. This arose partially from her strong personal preference for dialogic, reciprocal communication, but also from a specific challenge she was facing in her workplace. Her interviews turned out to be highly dialogical as she not only answered my questions but also raised her own questions to me. Her interview sessions were longer than the others, and sometimes it seemed as if she was in control of the topic and the time. However, Naomi did realise that the purpose of the interviews was not for me to express my views: I am just so interested in finding out what you think of the questions you ask me. I do realise that I am the one who is being interviewed. That is clear to me. I do realise that I should not ask you questions, but my interest exceeds it and then I ask you questions. I understand that the other teachers don’t ask questions like I do. (INT6, JA) When I gave her positive responses, Naomi seemed to feel that her views were being recognised. This may be an example of social validation (Roberts, 1998), and Naomi apparently came to trust me. I built a rapport

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with her by providing not only expected (polite) responses, but also real replies to her questions. Naomi commented that if I had not responded to her questions, she might have felt hurt, and that my participation in the interview conversations was probably necessary for her to engage in reflection (INT6). Yoko and Miki, who were more experienced professionals, and who demonstrated confidence and comfort in their opinions and views on teaching, needed me less as a mentor or peer in the interviews. Even though Yoko said that she enjoyed the interviews, she also said that she did not see the need for them. In fact, she explained that for her, the purpose of the interviews and what I expected of her during them, were not clearly different from writing the journal entries (FG2, FG3, INT6). She did state that interviews, involving spontaneous questions on her journal entries, contributed to development; however, she also noted that she felt she was repeating in the interviews what she had written in the journals. However, post-study email correspondence indicates her appreciation of having interviews, and the opportunity to talk to a teacher outside of her workplace. This again shows the importance of having an opportunity to talk to a peer who understands the context but who is outside of it.

Conclusion In this chapter, I explored the effectiveness of the reflective interventions employed in the study. In addition to enhancing reflection, the meaningful impact of the reflective interventions seems to be to provide opportunities for the teachers to express what they cannot do at their workplaces. An unexpected outcome of the focus group was that it functioned almost as a debriefing arena from the teachers’ workplaces. Initially, the focus group was incorporated as a debriefing forum from engagement in the study; it developed into a safe place for the teachers to express what they thought their honne might be to others who understood their contexts. Thus, the focus group promises great potential for professional discussion groups where constructive and critical discourse can take place. However, the role of a researcher needs to be taken into consideration. As Ken’s experience shows, to deter teachers from having negative experience, it would be necessary at times for the researcher to intervene such as changing a topic or encouraging reticent participants to share their views. Journal writing, which can be divided into pre-writing (thinking about what to write), during-writing (making an entry and answering questions) and post-writing (reading the past journal entries), was conducive to reflection for some of the participants, but not all. The meaning of writing can be explained with the concept of kotodama – that what is written becomes a public promise, an announcement one makes to others and to

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oneself. Thus, one may write only what one promises can be achieved, and one does not write what it may not be possible to achieve. Having a reader seemed to be beneficial for the participants not only to reflect but also to express their views, as the presence of a reader can ensure that the writer’s views will be heard. The interviews showed more individual differences than the other reflective interventions. The participants who regarded me as a mentor or a peer seemed to find the need for more extensive dialogue. On the other hand, those who seemed to have established their teaching and did not really need to have a mentor did not necessarily see the need for the interviews. Just as with the focus group, interviews gave an opportunity for the teachers to express what they could not express to their colleagues. These individual differences demonstrate the importance of my ongoing relationship with the participants, and how my willingness to adapt to their perceived needs helped them trust me and therefore engage more fully in the reflective interventions. In this chapter, the effectiveness of reflective interventions was discussed for all three interventions, but their effectiveness does not mean that one single particular intervention led to awareness and reinterpretation. The engagement in all three interventions seems to be necessary in priming the participants for reinterpretation and awareness, in giving opportunities to describe, reconfirm and engage in hansei. A reflective intervention, where the participants developed awareness, was a breakthrough but it does not necessarily mean that the intervention itself, and on its own, is effective in promoting awareness. As discussed in Chapter 4, reflection is developed through a loop of reflective continuum, talking about one’s views and practice through description, reviewing them through reconfirmation and thinking about them. The multiple opportunities provided by different reflective interventions were crucial for the development of reflection. Individual differences in engagement in reflective interventions address the importance of multiple reflective interventions for the participants. The differences among the individuals were pertinent to the participants’ disposition, and a need and desire to express their views, which often derive from the difficulty of expressing their views at the workplace or from being in the process of exploring teacher cognition. In this sense, triangulation is crucial not only for the rigorous collection of data but also for the provision of interventions pertaining to one’s preference and comfort with the mode of communication. In the discussion of the three interventions, the interaction with the other teachers and I seems to be a crucial aspect in the teachers’ meaningmaking of their engagement in reflective practice. This was in contrast to my attempt at the onset of the study, i.e. trying not to influence their

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honne. In the focus group, the interaction among the teachers contributed to their interpretations of their experiences. In journal writing, having a reader was suggested to be important. In interviews, their expectations from the researcher seemed to have been crucial in their interpretations. In addition to our interaction, our relationships also seemed to be important in their meaning-making of reflective practice, which will be discussed in Chapter 9.

9 Implications for Professional Development Opportunities for Japanese Teachers About the discussion group, this system is really…you remember how I mentioned that I don’t have anything like this and that new teachers don’t really have any chances to talk about things…I know I was complaining about that, and I really feel thankful for having this type of opportunity. (Kyoko, INT3, JA)

The initial motivation for what turned into my dissertation research and this book was a perceived failure; my colleague and I tried, and failed, to engage the in-service teachers who attended compulsory Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) seminars. Initially, I thought that our failure lay in our lack of familiarity with the participants’ teaching contexts and, to a lesser extent, in the short period of time we had to prepare. However, as my research suggests, the problems lay much deeper than time frames or familiarity. As designed, the seminars embodied a heavy emphasis on improving English proficiency rather than stimulating holistic teacher development; consequently, the existing (and substantial) expertise of the in-service teachers we were working with was marginalised. MEXT’s approach to teacher development was based on the belief that the most important factor for good English language teaching is linguistic proficiency, or content knowledge, and that this knowledge should take precedence over other professional knowledge and skills.

The Action Plan: Japanese with English Abilities The seminar which Hitomi and I gave was a component of a major government initiative (‘action plan’), that mandated the participation of all public in-service junior and senior high school teachers of English in Japan in an intensive teacher training seminar once in the five-year period from 2003 to 2007 (MEXT, 2003). Beyond the sheer scale of the people involved (approximately 60,000 in-service teachers; Takahashi, 2004), the compulsory seminar requirement was also unprecedented in terms of the speed with which it was enforced: approximately five months after it was introduced (‘Eigo kyouin kennshu program: sono zenyou, English teachers’ training programme: its overview’, 2003; Takahashi, 2004). 162

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MEXT announced the action plan, Japanese with English Abilities, in early 2003. Designed to foster the English abilities of Japanese nationals, the plan had an unprecedented impact on the nation’s extensive English language teaching sector, with the primary target population being junior and senior high school students (MEXT, 2003). In order to cultivate English ability, every aspect of English education, from examinations to teachers, was involved; high on the list was the improvement of the ‘teaching ability’ (the phrase used in the document) of English teachers in junior and senior high schools. One interesting factor of this action plan was that it was apparently driven not by educators but by recommendations from the business community. Iiyoshi (2005) explains that during the post-1990s period, Japan suffered a long-term recession. Poor education was seen as one cause of the economic downswing, which led to numerous recommendations being proposed by major economic organisations (Tanaka, 2007). The resulting urgent moves to foster the English proficiency of Japanese nationals were thus driven by economic rather than educational imperatives (Goto Butler & Iino, 2005), as Japan announced its plan to equip its people with skills to succeed in the competitive global environments of trade, science and entertainment (MEXT, 2003). Another driver of the plan was a 1998 report on average Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores in Asian countries: Japan ranked the lowest (Funabashi, 2000), TOEFL being an English proficiency test for nonnative speakers of English to gain admission to tertiary education especially those in North America. The report had an enormous impact on Japan. Having the lowest average TOEFL scores was acknowledged as a pressing national issue that required substantial and immediate treatment. A third driver was the state of English language education in Japan (Goto Butler & Iino, 2005), which suffers from the recurrent criticism of being associated with the highly traditional (some would say old-fashioned) grammar-translation method. High school English classes have long been devoted to training students to pass entrance examinations to high schools and universities (Goto Butler & Iino, 2005; Sasajima, 2008; Terauchi, 2001), an approach which mainly focuses on testing the examinees’ grammar knowledge and translation skills, and not on listening and speaking proficiency. Since 50% of high school students take entrance examinations to pursue higher education in institutions such as universities and vocational schools (Sugimoto, 2003), English curricula in high school tend to emphasise reading and grammar, rather than aural and oral skills (Goto Butler & Iino, 2005). It was against this prevailing practice that MEXT’s action plan clarified a firm position: to promote communicative abilities and to discourage the teaching primarily of grammar and translation in classrooms (MEXT, 2003: 3):

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In order to be able to ‘make use of English’, it is necessary not only to have a knowledge of grammar and vocabulary but also the ability to use English for the purpose of actual communication. Thus, in English classes, instruction mainly based on grammar and translation or teacher-centered classes are not recommended. (MEXT, 2003: 3) Despite this new emphasis on communicative skills, which requires versatile and interactive instructional methods, MEXT placed overriding importance on the English language proficiency of teachers rather than on their pedagogical expertise. This mismatch stemmed at least in part from political and economic motives rather than from the insights and concerns raised by educators who were directly involved in English language education.

Teacher Training Seminars to ‘Brush up’ English As a result, the teacher training seminars bore the mark of the business community’s influence. First, they were competency based, reducing pedagogical knowledge and decision-making to ‘teaching ability’. According to Iiyoshi (2005), the business community interpreted ‘ability’ as holistic, potential and abstract, prior to the recession of 1995, and evaluated it accordingly. After the recession, a results-oriented approach was promoted (Iiyoshi, 2005), which focused on measurable, testable achievement. English proficiency with ‘clearly observable results’ was emphasised, while pedagogical approaches that would promote successful learning were essentially ignored. The MEXT seminars embraced this focus on language proficiency, as can be seen in the description of the seminar: Almost all English teachers will acquire English skills (STEP pre-first level, TOEFL 550, TOEIC 730 or over) and the teaching ability to be able to conduct classes to cultivate communication ability through the repetition of activities making using of English. (MEXT, 2003: 7) In the document, ‘a certain level of English ability’, with which the teachers are expected to be equipped, is described by test scores from English proficiency tests commonly used in Japan. The description assumes that English proficiency is measurable entirely through scores. Moreover, there is no description of what is meant by ‘teaching ability’ nor is any link assumed between knowing English and knowing how to teach English. All in all, the document entirely disregards the importance of teaching expertise. In addition, one of the few guidelines announced by MEXT for conducting the seminars – that English be used both by the trainers and the participant teachers – also highlights the focus on English proficiency and undermines any focus on improving pedagogical approaches or skills.

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University teachers (presumably with higher levels of English proficiency) were recruited to lead the seminars exclusively in English, in order to provide participants with ample opportunities to be exposed to, and to use, English (Eigo Kyoin Kenshu Program: Sono Zenyou [English teachers’ training programme: the overview], 2003). The experience of instructors as teacher trainers did not seem to be necessarily taken into consideration. Hitomi and I were recruited as part of this drive: we were experienced in teaching classes in English at one of the few bilingual universities in Japan, but were utter novices as teacher trainers. As teachers in the English programme at the university, we were approved to be session leaders, even though we did not teach teacher training courses at the university, and had never taught in junior or senior high schools. Finally, participation in the seminar was required for all public junior and senior high school English teachers, regardless of the number of years they had been teaching. Exceptions were, however, made in some prefectures for teachers who had experience of studying abroad or who scored more than 550 on the TOEFL; these teachers were required to attend only half the seminar. These exemptions suggest that English proficiency was given precedence over pedagogical knowledge; no attempt was made to take into account teacher expertise, whether gained through years of teaching or through formal training. Some of the teachers in the seminars had taught for more years than I had, and all of them had more years of teaching experience at junior or senior high schools.

Reflective Practice for Teacher Development In my study, I took a very different view of teacher knowledge: I assumed that English proficiency is an important quality for being a good teacher of English, but not a sufficient one. Indeed, my research suggests that language teachers do prize good linguistic knowledge, but they also seek ways to grow in their professional identities as instructors, colleagues and mentors at all stages of their careers. Professional development must be rooted in the lived experience of the teachers it seeks to ‘help’, and must respect the existing knowledge and goals that teachers bring to such seminars. My study suggests that reflective practice is an approach that could more fully tap into what Freeman and Johnson (1998) describe as the ‘wisdom’ of teaching, accumulated through years of practice. Even the limited experience I had with reflective practice in the later seminars I led was enough to prompt me to embark on my longitudinal study. Under the proficiency-oriented approach of MEXT, I could not tap into, or make use of, the strengths of the participants. I wanted to learn, by exploring how in-service teachers engaged in reflective practice, whether there could be other productive designs for teacher development programmes.

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As is clear, my exploration of reflective practice was prompted by my distressing and ambivalent experiences as a teacher trainer in professional development seminars that failed to engage their intended participants. I was challenged by the seminars’ underlying assumptions that knowledge should be bestowed by the teacher trainers upon practising teachers, and by the competency-based agenda of the teacher training seminars that viewed brushing up teachers’ English proficiency as the primary factor in being a good English teacher. As an alternative path for teacher development, I chose to explore reflective practice, which remains even to this day a relatively new concept in Japan. As I designed my study, I emphasised the importance of remaining sensitive to relevant Japanese cultural practices and assumptions. Specifically, I planned to avoid influencing the honne of the participants and to help them avoid engaging in hansei. My stated goal was to engage them in reflective practice and to encourage them to develop their own capacity to use reflection for professional development. My study clearly illustrates that the challenges my participants faced were not strongly related to their English proficiency, in contrast to the assumptions of MEXT. The cases of Ken and Kyoko in particular show that their real difficulties lay in the ‘reality shock’ (Veenman, 1984: 143) of being a teacher. Sara’s case illustrated the difficulties that confronted her when she faced new types of students she had not taught before. Ken, Kyoko and Sara all experienced a profound reshaping of their professional identities through the process of participating in reflective practice. Each of them experienced development in the way they view and understand teaching, that is, in their teacher cognition, moving away from beliefs rooted in their previous experiences as students. The cases of Yoko, Naomi and Miki, the more experienced participants, also suggest that English proficiency was not the fundamental cause of the difficulties and challenges they faced. Through reflection, they became more aware of such challenges but were able to resolve them (or skirt them) by drawing upon a rich repertoire of practices constructed through a wide variety of teaching experiences. The participating teachers were not the only ones who experienced growth and development. My attitude and involvement as a researcher in the study required frequent resetting, as I drew upon my own lived knowledge of Japanese culture and my own familiarity with the historical and political context in which the study was progressing. At the onset of the study, I had planned not to influence the honne of the participant teachers; however, as can be seen in Chapter 8, my interaction with the teachers, along with their own interactions with each other, was an integral part of their developing understanding of, and expertise in, using and applying reflective practice. Despite my consistent attempts to take into consideration the possibility that either (or both) tatemae and honne might be influenced by any given interaction or intervention, it was not possible for me or, most

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probably my participants, to truly know if the data represents honne or tatemae. Perhaps, and more importantly, it did not really matter if what was expressed represented honne or tatemae; the most important factor in providing the participants with opportunities for reflection was that the interventions within the research study gave them a space to express what they could not say at their workplaces. In addition, it allowed them to consider, and decide, what they wanted to say rather than what they were expected to say. The familiar Japanese practice of hansei, coming together to focus on problems and mistakes, ended up being seen as a phase or stage on the developmental continuum of being able to successfully engage in reflective practice. Originally hoping to distinguish the term from my own area of study, I ended up seeing how the teachers used the word hansei when looking back on their actions or behaviours. It helped them figure out how much responsibility to assume for those actions, an integral part in the reflective continuum of teacher development. In the end, allowing hansei to be part of our discussions helped the participants gain a stronger sense of autonomy in their journey towards embracing reflective practice.

Conceptualisation of Teacher Development: What is Teacher Development? My research suggests that teacher development is a very different process than the one embodied by the design of MEXT’s training seminars. The aim of the MEXT seminars was to introduce ‘the methodological choices available and to familiarise trainees with the range of terms and concepts that are the “common currency” of language teachers’ (Mann, 2005: 104). My data show that teacher development involves much more than learning to use the ‘common currency’ of the professional community. My picture of teacher development is one of ‘expansion’ (see Figure 9.1) – the expansion of professional potential and utilisable repertoires, a gain in knowledge, skills and ideas for teaching, through the deeper understanding of oneself. Seeing teacher development as expansion suggests that teachers grow by expanding their expert cognition and their professional identity in ways that allow them to be more versatile in a wider variety of contexts. Some writers refer to ‘change’ as the ultimate target in teacher development, and I acknowledge its importance. However, I regard ‘expansion’ rather than ‘change’ to be a more desirable goal for conceptualising and implementing professional development for teachers. Figures 9.1 and 9.2 illustrate what I believe to be the major difference between ‘expansion’ and ‘change’. ‘Change’ has roots outside the participant. That is, the locus of activity that drives conversion from the existing form or state to a different form or state is primarily external. Also, the original form

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Image of change (Watanabe & Fukao, 2007)

Figure 9.1 Teacher development as change

or state may, ultimately, be rejected or even denied (Figure 9.1). By contrast, ‘expansion’ places the basis and goal of growth inside the participant (the teacher) and sees it arising from a specific set of experiences, contexts and actions; as such, it develops uniquely for each teacher (Figure 9.2). Conceptualising development as expansion places teachers, equipped with different strengths and weaknesses, at the centre or the core of the activity (Figure 9.2). The diversity of the cores represents the variety of experiences gained by individual teachers through the personal, societal and cultural contexts in which they are active. The different cores lead to a variety of processes and goals of development, which are embodied in different forms, shapes and shades of ‘expansion’ (Figure 9.2). As their cognition developed, the participants in my study reinterpreted or became aware of certain themes in their activity; rather than shedding old practices, they expanded their repertoires of use. In terms of shaping professional identity, ‘change’ may imply following a propositional model: plan to ‘change into’ an ideal teacher (Figure 9.1). I found in my study that novice teachers initially tried to become like teachers they had created images of, especially drawing upon their experiences as students; however, their dispositions, experiences and contexts led them to expand their images of what a teacher can be and then to reconstruct their own unique professional identities. The ‘expansion’ model, which places teachers in the centre, also allows teachers more autonomy in taking responsibility for both student learning and their own growth. In the study, reflective practice helped my participants to recognise that they were driving forces in leading the students to learn. Their notion of themselves as teachers also expanded to include a new awareness that they had agency. They acknowledged that the locus of control for their own growth was themselves and expanded their sense of being agents of their own development.

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Image of expansion (Watanabe & Fukao, 2007)

Figure 9.2 Teacher development as expansion

The ‘expansion’ model views development as holistic growth, through which teachers develop repertoires by internalising theories, techniques and ideas about teaching, as well as new understandings of themselves, their students and the classroom. True professional development offers not just model solutions for common problems, but a more integrated sense of how to grow as a teacher. My study clearly illustrates that development is manifested through cognition, identity, awareness and understanding, and not just mastery of particular techniques. Allwright (2003: 114) writes that, ‘instead of trying to develop ever “improved” teaching techniques, we should try to develop our understandings (emphasis in original) of the quality of language classroom life’ and he warns about the tendency to focus on efficiency in teaching: ‘we have been seduced by the prevailing “wisdom” that participant research must essentially aim to improve the efficiency of classroom teaching’ (2003: 113). Johnston (2003: 95) describes teacher development as ‘a broad set of processes all revolving around the professional and personal growth of the teacher concerned’ rather than polishing up one’s teaching techniques. The final point to be noted in relation to ‘expansion’ is a view that sees development as evolving in a recursive and gradual movement. Development does not occur immediately – for example, after an interview or a journal entry or even participation in a seminar. It is a long process that involves both progression and retrogression. The development of the teachers in the study was not straightforward; they often went back and revisited what they had discussed earlier, and went through different types of reflection through their engagement in the reflective interventions – a process called the reflective continuum. The different shades of ‘the expansion’ in Figure 9.2 suggest the gradual movement of development: the curvy lines indicate the subtlety and complexity of development, as opposed to the straight arrows that represent instant linear changes (Figure 9.1).

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The expansion model of teacher development may appear to focus primarily on the examination of internal aspects of individuals, such as teacher cognition and professional identities. This does not mean that external influences, such as formal schooling, students, peers, societal contexts and sociopolitical and historical background, are discounted. In contrast, teacher cognition and professional identities are constantly reformed and altered through interaction with a variety of external influences.

My Own Professional Development as a Researcher The exploration of reflective practice did not allow me to be a detached and objective researcher who examined reflective practice through the participant teachers; rather, it involved me engaging in reflective practice with them. Throughout the study, I was interacting with the teachers, supporting the novice teachers through their difficult times and responding to their expressed needs. Ken, Kyoko and Sara seemed to rely on me as a teacher with more experience. I went along with Naomi’s request to participate in her interviews by answering the questions she posed to me. At times, I thought I was not playing the role of a researcher correctly; I was unsure whether I was ‘doing research’ properly. So at times, I wondered whether or not some of the data I gathered could be used in the analysis (see Chapter 3). However, our interaction and the relationships we constructed ended up being crucial to the participants’ exploration of professional identity and teacher cognition. Despite my concern that I might influence the participants’ honne or contaminate the data, so to speak, it turned out that our interactions and our relationships contributed greatly to the meaning-making they assigned to their engagement in reflective practice. In this way, my experience echoed the discussions of several writers, who have pointed out that many factors contribute to the shared experience of researcher and teacher in reflective practice (Golombek, 2015), including length of career (Borg, 2006; Farrell, 2009; Tsui, 2003), stage of career, age and attitudes towards teaching. As a mid-career academic and instructor, I found that my relationships with the participants took two basic directions. With Ken, Kyoko and Sara, I became something of a mentor. Seeing me as older and more experienced allowed them to express their insecurities safely. Interacting with them also gave me insights into the variable nature of what it means to be a novice: both Ken and Kyoko, who were in their second years of teaching, struggled to find direction in their teaching. Sara already had six years of teaching experience but faced new kinds of difficulties in her second year at a new school where she found the students to be more challenging to work with.

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Sara regularly requested critical input from me about her teaching throughout the study (INT2, FG2, INT6, JE 26/26 August) even though she understood such feedback was not the purpose of the study. This created some cognitive dissonance for me too, since I wanted to provide her with advice but also wanted to maintain the integrity of my research design. Instead, I asked her questions, hoping to engage her in exploratory thinking. Sara’s need for advice from me appeared to arise from her situation at work, where she was unable to obtain advice even from a trusted colleague (JE 23/26 March). She thus sought another source of constructive advice and criticism in me. I still wonder if I should have gone along with her request and given her more feedback and input. I was perplexed by the cognitive dissonance I felt, even guilt, as my roles clashed: as a researcher, I believed I should not give advice; as a teacher with more experience, I saw myself as someone who could give supportive and beneficial advice. This tension recalls the situation that Golombek (2015) described when her sense of responsibility for mediating her student teachers was contradicted by her negative emotional response to a journal entry by one of her students. With the other teachers, Yoko, Naomi, Miki and Mr Sato from the pilot study, my relationships developed differently; they saw me less as a mentor than as a peer, an experienced teacher but from a different professional sphere, with whom they enjoyed the opportunity to express views and reactions on topics they could not address with their colleagues. Yoko had 13 years of experience as a teacher, less than I did at the time, but was quite confident and autonomous with her professional activity. Naomi and Miki, with more years of teaching experience than me, were around the same age as I was, and Mr Sato, 10 years older, also had worked approximately 15 more years than I had. From their data, I gained insights into the Japanese high school teacher’s sense of social responsibility and mission towards the students. Frankly, at times, I was rather overwhelmed with their expertise and experience, and also with my lack of knowledge about the instructional context of teaching English at public high school in Japan. Indeed, my own sense of being a novice researcher combined with my lack of familiarity with their teaching contexts perhaps prevented me from providing these experienced teachers with what Smith and Lewis (2015) call catalytic interventions. My experience with Sara and the more experienced teachers suggests that researchers can learn from emotional and cognitive dissonance (Golombek, 2015; Kuroda, 2015). This can also be the case with the participants in their engagement in reflective practice, though the structuring of such catalytic, or facilitative, interventions may be more difficult and time-consuming when working with more experienced teachers. Still, it is notable that throughout the study it was evident that all the teachers, regardless of their level of expertise, reacted positively to

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the presence of an ‘other’ who would listen to them and ask questions about their beliefs and practices. In their workplace, the participants were unable to freely express their views or discuss the kinds of issues that we talked about in the research interviews. This need was manifested in the substantial expenditure of time and effort that they put into what was, after all, a voluntary study. Reflective practice, as I learned, is an interactive, mutual and reflexive endeavour which depends upon the rich and uniquely complex relationships that the researcher and participants construct among themselves. Having both benefited from this complex negotiation, and having felt challenged by my ambiguous role as colleague/mentor/sounding board and researcher, I suggest that as researchers bringing this approach to Japan, as anywhere else, we need to be mindful of the power we bring to reflective interactions with our participants, as Kvale (2006) and Mann (2011) have warned. Reflexivity, ‘the process of a continual internal dialogue and critical selfevaluation of researcher’s positionality as well as active acknowledgment and explicit recognition that this position may affect the research process and outcome’ (Berger, 2015: 220) is not necessarily a problem, but it cannot be ignored. I go one step beyond Berger and say that the positionality of the researcher almost certainly does affect how the research progresses. As my interactions with the participants constantly reminded me, I had to remain aware of and monitor ‘the impact of [my] biases, beliefs, and personal experiences on [the] research’ (Berger, 2015: 220). Further, if I am to fully understand the findings of my study, I need to examine and analyse the types of questions and comments I made in my interactions with the teachers. Berger (2015: 220) describes this as turning ‘the researcher lens back onto oneself to recognise and take responsibility for one’s situatedness within the research and the effect that it may have on the setting and people being studied, questions being asked, data being collected and its interpretation’. As Golombek (2015) confesses in her paper, when researchers experience emotional dissonance, they may ascribe the cause to their participants, characterising them as difficult, immature or uncooperative, especially when they do not appear to share much with the researchers. I learned from my own experience that this difficulty is in fact co-constructed by both participant and researcher. When I was discussing my study with Borg (2010), I described one of the participants as ‘a difficult participant’ because I found the teacher to be somewhat reticent at times. He suggested that I should not describe a participant in that way. At the time, I assumed he meant that a researcher should be fair and treat all the participants ethically, but now I realise that he was suggesting that the perceived difficulty was created not by the participant but by both of us in our interactions. As Golombek (2015) and Mann (2011) remind us, the researcher’s own involvement is an integral part of the participants’ engagement with reflective practice.

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One of my objections to the original MEXT seminars was that they were not ethical in the way that they positioned teachers, experienced and novice alike, as receivers of knowledge rather than participants in knowledge-making. In my study, while attempting to avoid what has been called ‘self-indulgence, navel gazing or narcissism’ (Etherington, 2004: 31) and psychologising the participants (Lawes, 2004), I tried to be sincerely interested in, and compassionate towards, my participants. Remembering Dewey’s (1933) original description of reflection as ‘open-mindedness’ ‘responsibility’ and ‘wholeheartedness’, I did my best to retain these attitudes throughout. Finally, following Golombek’s (2015) and Mann’s (2011) recommendation to allow participants to review their own data, I asked my participants to review their interview transcripts, partly to validate their accuracy and partly to enhance the dialogic effect on the participants. Mann (2011) suggests that letting participants have a voice in the data selection and analysis allows them to clarify and look critically at the comments and judgements they have made. My participants selected their own reflective themes by reading their interview scripts and journal entries. Through reinterpretation and awareness of their own reflective themes, they experienced (re)shaping of professional identity and expansion of teacher cognition, which shows that their reflective themes were the basis of their development. It might also be an interesting area of further research to explore the decision-making process of participants as they make such choices. After the study ended in March 2008, I had an opportunity to meet up with Kyoko, Sara, Yoko, Naomi and Miki seven years later. I did not have a chance to meet Ken, but found that he was in the teaching profession. They were all teaching at different high schools. Kyoko and Sara, having developed impressive repertoires of teaching tools for different contexts, seemed to be very confident and active in their new schools. Yoko, Naomi and Miki had continued to expand their repertoires in new environments. What was notable was that I felt more confident in my interactions with the experienced teachers – Yoko, Naomi and Miki – which I believe demonstrated my own growth as a teacher and as a researcher. My journey of reflective practice has led me to become aware of the fact that, as Farrell (2015) notes, reflective practice is a way of being. Through interaction with the participants in my study, both inside and outside of the reflective interventions and the analysis of the data, I feel that I have gained insight into teaching and myself. The present study is the culminant achievement of a journey that has lasted for more than a quarter of a century. It began in my undergraduate days when I was interested in becoming a counsellor, and continued through my graduate studies in teaching English as a second language (TESOL). My interests, such as self-examination, the Rogerian idea of a client-centred approach

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to counselling and an enduring fascination with the ideas expressed in Fanselow’s seminal book, Breaking Rules, have woven seamlessly together and emerged as a professional and personal dedication to reflective practice. I have been invaluably guided further along in my journey by Shirley Lawes, who supervised my doctoral research. The end of the book does not mean the end of my journey of reflective practice. I am still finding my own place on the reflective continuum, pursuing, expanding and developing a deeper understanding of teaching, of learning, and of myself.

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Index affirmation 51 agency, sense of 47, 97–8, 108, 167–70 aim of the study 5 Allwright, D. 169 apprenticeship of observation 63, 69, 76, 100, 123 Ashdown, J. 4, 14 assumptions, clarifying 14, 63 audio recordings 36 authentic materials 79, 80 autonomy, sense of 98, 116, 125, 168 avoidance 120–3, 134–5, 145–6 awareness –as ‘expansion’ 168 –and hansei 54 –definition of 57 –in interviews 153–6 –in journal entries 147, 149, 150, 151 –and the reflective continuum 149, 160 –and teacher cognition 108, 110–12, 115, 116–19, 120–3, 126–35, 173 –and teacher identity 63, 69, 96, 173 –as variable in analysis 21, 53, 57–8

boundaries, personal-professional 70, 80, 90–3, 103 Brock, M. 17 Brookfield, S. 47 Brown, A. 17, 20, 43 Bryman, A. 18, 36 budget constraints 80–1 Bullough, R.V. 62, 63 Burden, R.L. 108 Burns, A. 11, 13, 108 Calderhead, J. 13 Canagarajah, A.S. 27, 29 case study approach 5, 14–15 catalytic interventions 171 Cavanagh, M. 134 Clandinin, D.J. 13, 71, 103–4, 107 class observations 24, 25, 35, 43–4 classroom management 68, 119–20 see also discipline client-centred approaches 6, 173 Clift, R.T. 28 cognition see teacher cognition Cohen, J.L. 102 Cohen, L. 15, 19, 20, 37, 143 colleagues, relationships with 72, 85–6, 97, 102, 124, 141, 171 comfort zones 122, 131, 132, 135–6 communal responsibilities 126–9 comparative reflection 57, 69 compensations 129–31, 134–5 compulsory professional development 4, 165 see also MEXT seminars confidence 31, 64, 71, 131 Connelly, F.M. 13, 71, 103–4, 107 conscious knowledge 13 contexts, teaching 49, 82–3, 93, 99, 100, 101–4, 107, 116–17 continuum of reflection 45–60, 160, 169 contradictions 58, 69, 116, 120–1, 126–9, 134–5, 150, 153–4 conversational conventions 32–4 Cook, J.S. 70, 136 Cox, E. 108 Crandall, J. 11, 108

Bailey, K.M. 17, 45, 47, 150, 156 Banks, F. 13, 107 Beauchamp, C. 62, 76, 100 Beijaard, D. 62, 63, 77, 78, 81, 82, 90, 100 beliefs –challenging 94–5, 123–4 –description 50 –as dynamic constructs 123–5 –in journal entries 150 –learner beliefs 123–5 –as part of teacher cognition 13, 106, 107, 133 –researchers’ 172 –and teacher identity 62–3, 81, 83–4, 96, 103 Berger, R. 172 Berman, P. 108 blogging 39 Bochner, A.P. 20 Borg, S. 13, 62, 106, 107, 108, 109, 170, 172 Boud, D. 19, 28, 31, 47, 53, 152

184

Index

Creswell, J.W. 16, 20 critical reflection 45, 46–7 cross-cultural borrowing of methodologies 27–8 cultural sensitivity, need for 27–9, 48 curricula changes 78 cyclical nature of reflection 59–60, 149, 169, 172 data analysis 20–1 Day, C. 31, 53, 62, 63, 76, 152 debriefing 18, 19, 26, 141, 159 deficit-based reflection 31 definition of reflection (working) 47 description –creating a reflective space for 140 –definition of 50 –as form of reflective engagement 49–51, 55 –in interviews 153, 156 –in journal entries 73, 80, 81, 147, 148, 151 –kotodama 50 –and the reflective continuum 149, 160 –and teacher cognition 50–1, 115, 119, 125 –and teacher identity 73–4, 75, 81, 87, 97 Dewey, J. 12, 173 dialogic effects 42–3, 140–1, 157–8, 173 diary writing 39, 151–2 discipline –‘being stricter with students’ 65, 67–71 –communal responsibilities 127 –contradictions over 134–5 –in homerooms 94 –and student development 148–9 –and teacher cognition 119–20 –and teacher identity 66, 78 –and ‘whole person education’ 95–6 dissonance 123, 132, 136, 171, 172 Doi, T. 32, 33 Dowling, P. 17, 20, 43 during-writing stage (of journal entries) 144, 147–150, 159 ecologies of inner lives 105, 108 efficiency of teaching 46, 86–7, 169 Elbaz, F. 13, 107 Ellis, C. 20 emotions see also hansei –awareness of 155–6

185

–cognitive dissonance 171, 172 –and data analysis 21 –and journal entries 18, 24–5, 26, 91–2 –and negative reflection 31 –reflection includes 59 –and teacher cognition 13, 66, 106, 107, 119–20 –and teacher identity 73–4 empathy 140–1, 152–3, 158 English –grammar translation method 77, 79, 130, 163 –for journal entries 38 –as medium of instruction 79, 114, 117, 133, 164–5 –proficiency focus 162–5 –teaching methods 77, 79 Eraut, M. 13 Etherington, K. 173 ethics, research 42, 172–3 etic perspectives 16, 20 evaluation of effective teaching 86–7 exams, pressure of 16 expansion vs change 167–70 expectations 71–2, 103 experiential knowledge 13, 107, 123 expert knowledge 107 externalisation 50, 51, 105 facilitation roles 19, 36, 41, 50, 136, 143 Fanselow, J.F. 6, 13, 134 Farrell, T.S.C. 12, 13, 18, 26, 40, 45, 47, 51, 63, 76–7, 103, 108, 170, 173 Feryok, A. 11, 13, 105, 106, 107, 108 Field, J. 18 Flores, M.A. 62, 63, 76 focus groups –challenges of 142–3 –debriefing function 18, 19, 26, 141, 159 –facilitation of 19, 36, 41, 50, 136, 143 –as ‘reflective interventions’ 18–19, 25–6, 35, 36–8, 138–9, 140–3, 159 Freeman, D. 165 Fukao, A. 168, 169 Fukuzawa, R.I. 29, 30 Funabashi, Y. 163 furikaeri 27 Furlong, J. 46, 59 Gaies, S. 63 Gebhard, J.G. 17, 18, 81 Ghaye, T. 31, 32, 53, 54, 152

186

Index

Gielen, U.P. 33 goals, professional 83, 93–6, 112–16, 171 goals of reflection 47 Golombek, P.R. 11, 13, 14, 17, 28, 107, 123, 134, 153, 170, 171, 172, 173 Gomm, R. 15 Goto Butler, Y. 163 grammar translation method 77, 79, 130, 163 Gray, J. 63 group before the self, conventions of 32–4 group discussions 19 see also focus groups Grudnoff, L. 96 Grushka, K. 12, 26 Habermas, J. 45 Hall, E.T. 32 Hall, M.R. 32 Hammersley, M. 15 Handal, G. 13 hansei –avoiding in study design 5, 27, 166 –definition of 29–32 –as existing cultural concept 61 –as form of reflective engagement 53–6 –in interviews 153 –in journal entries 148 –as negative reflection 25, 27, 29–32, 53–4 –versus reflection 1, 25, 122 –and the reflective continuum 48, 149, 160, 167 –and teacher cognition 110, 130 –and teacher identity 61, 81, 97–8 Hara, K. 34, 35, 50, 145 Harden, B. 39 Hatton, N. 31 hierarchies of reflection 45–6, 59 high school, research focus on 16 Hitomi (pseudonym for colleague) 2–4, 14, 162, 165 Ho, B. 17 Holliday, A. 28 homeroom teachers 90, 94, 126 Hong, J.Y. 62, 70, 81 honne –avoiding in study design 5, 166 –creating a reflective space for 138, 141 –cultural sensitivity to 27 –definition of 32–4 –and diary writing 39 –and focus groups 19, 141, 142, 159

–influenced through interaction with researcher 159–61, 166–7, 170–1 –in interviews 41, 158 –and journal entries 17–18, 38, 143, 152 –and the reflective continuum 48 –and reflective practice research 34 –vs tatemae 32–4, 138 Horwitz, E.K. 123 Houston, W.R. 28–9 Hunt, C. 59 identity, professional see teacher identity Iino, M. 163 Iiyoshi, H. 163, 164 Ikeno, O. 16 indeterminate zones of practice 12 individualised instruction 112–13 inner obstacles 136 in-service teachers as objects of study 15–16 insider instruments 153 institutional context, and critical reflection 46–7 institutional policies 68 interaction rituals 32–5 interviews –clarification of meaning 37, 40, 41 –in pilot study 24 –as ‘reflective interventions’ 19–20, 40–3, 138–9, 153–9, 160 –rereading of transcripts 42–3, 74–5, 120, 154–7, 173 –role of interviewer 41–2 isolation 4, 18, 19, 36, 72, 92, 152 iteration 21 Japan, reflective practice in 26–9 Japanese –in focus groups 36 –in interviews 40 –for journal entries 38 –words for ‘reflective practice’ 26–7 Japanese with English Abilities 2, 162–4 Jay, J.K. 45, 49–50, 55–6, 57, 59 Jimbo, H. 26 Johns, C. 28, 145 Johnson, K.E. 11, 13, 28, 62, 106, 107, 165 Johnson, K.L. 45, 49–50, 55–6, 57, 59 Johnston, B. 169 journal entries –challenges of 152–3

Index

–clarifying questions about 40–1, 149–50 –description in 73, 80, 81, 147, 148, 151 –including private life 24, 91–2 –journals vs diaries 151–2 –kotodama in 35, 143, 145, 146, 147, 151, 152, 159 –as monologic activity 140, 152 –in pilot study 24 –prompts for first entries 37, 38 –as prompts for interviews 40–1 –as ‘reflective interventions’ 17–18, 38–9, 138–9, 143–53, 159 –rereading of 39, 81–2, 144, 150–2, 156 –and teacher cognition 109–10, 114, 115, 117–18 –and teacher identity 81–2, 84, 90–2, 97–8 –three stages of writing 144–53 Kennedy, M. 107, 123 Kleinsasser, R.C. 15, 19, 23, 143 knowing-in-action 12–13, 132 Korthagen, F.A.J. 13, 28, 31–2, 45, 54, 56, 62, 93, 94, 96, 107, 136, 152 kotodama –and avoidance 120–1 –and awareness 58 –cultural sensitivity to 48 –definition of 34–5 –and description 50 –in journal entries 35, 143, 145, 146, 147, 151, 152, 159 –public nature of journals 151–2 Kristof, N.D. 30 Kubanyiova, M. 11, 13, 105, 106, 107, 108, 136 Kumaravadivelu, B. 28 Kuroda, J.M. 34, 171 Kvale, S. 20, 42, 172 LaBoskey, V.K. 50, 51, 57 Larrivee, B. 45, 46, 59 Lasky, S. 70 Lauvas, P. 13 Lawes, S. 17, 173 Layder, D. 63–4 learner beliefs 123–5 Lee, I. 12, 17, 26, 39, 150 Leedy, P.D. 15 legitimate knowers, teachers as 11 LeTendre, G.K. 29, 30 LeVine, R.A. 30

187

Lewis, C. 29, 30, 171 Lewis, M. 135 Liston, D.P. 28, 45, 59 locus of control 108, 168 Loizou, F. 135 longitudinal studies 15 López Boullon, R.L. 12 Lortie, D.C. 57, 63, 69, 76, 108, 135 Loughran, J. 17, 45, 47 Lucas, P. 47 Mahmood, S. 72 Malderez, A. 157 Mann, S. 1, 13, 42, 45, 107, 167, 172, 173 Mayer, D. 96 Maynard, T. 46, 59 McCotter, S.S. 59 McDonough, J. 17, 18, 153 McDonough, S. 17 McIntyre, D. 28, 134, 135 means/ends analysis 57 Meijer, P.C. 103 mentor relationships 58, 115, 132, 135, 153, 157, 158, 160, 170 Merriam, S.B. 14, 16 methodology 5, 14–20, 27 MEXT seminars 2, 11, 14, 23, 26, 72, 162–5, 167, 173 Miller, R.A. 34 mindfulness 28–9, 145 mission (professional goals) 83, 93–6, 101–4, 171 Miyahara, M. 20 Miyanaga, K. 33 Moon, J. 12 Moore, A. 32, 45, 46, 54, 122, 152 Morgan, D.L. 18 Morin, A. 57 Morton, T. 63 motivation, student 78–9, 80, 109, 131 multifaceted teacher identities 98–9, 101, 103 Nae, N. 32 Nagamine, T. 28, 107 naisei 27 Naito, T. 33 negative reflection 24, 25, 27, 29–32, 53–4 Nishida, Y. 18 Nishikawa, Y. 39 non-linearity of reflection 45, 47, 50, 59–60, 149, 169, 172

188

Index

non-participant observation 25, 35, 43 Novakowski, J. 29 novice teachers –benefits of social validation 142 –developing professional identity 62–82, 168 –and teacher cognition 134, 155 objectivity 1, 6, 42, 87–8, 156, 170 observations 24, 25, 35, 43–4 Ochs, K. 27 Oprandy, R. 17, 18, 81 Ormrod, J.E. 15 other, need for engaged 136, 158–9, 172 outsider positioning of researcher 15–16, 20 Pajares, F. 13 participants 35–44 particularity 28 patterns, spotting 38, 42–3, 150 paying attention 145 pedagogy 28 peer relationships 159, 160, 171 personality and professional roles 62, 65–6, 102, 103, 143 perspective 51, 56, 57, 63–71 Phillips, D. 27 pilot study 5, 23–6, 31, 35, 49 Polanyi, M. 108 politeness norms 32–4 positionality 9, 172 possibility 28 post-method pedagogy 28 post-writing stage of journal entries 150–2 practical knowledge 13 practicality 28 Prescott, A. 134 pre-service teacher training 15–16, 26, 64–5, 84 pre-writing stage (of journal entries) 144, 145–6, 159 problem solving vs reflective practice 31, 53, 59 problematics 51 productive disequilibrium 136 professional development for teachers –as ‘expansion’ 167–70 –reflective practice as 12–20, 165–7 –role of teacher in 11, 12–20 –and teacher cognition 107 –and teacher identity 62–3 professional development of researcher 170–1

propositional knowledge 13 pseudo-reflection 25, 31 quantity vs quality of work 87 Rarieya, J. 26 reality shock 72, 166 reconfirmation –creating a reflective space for 140 –definition of 51 –in interviews 153, 154–5 –in journal entries 147, 150, 151 –and the reflective continuum 160 –and teacher cognition 112, 114, 115, 123, 124, 125, 133 –and teacher identity 63, 75 –as variable in analysis 51–3 recursivity 45, 50 reflection-for-action 12 reflection-in-action 12, 132 reflection-on-action 12 reflective continuum 45–60, 160, 169 reflective tasks –and reflective continuum 48–49 –and teacher cognition 106 –awareness 58 –its benefit 61 –professional identity 108 –reinterpretation 58 –types in this study 47, 52, 105 reflective themes –and awareness 134, 135, 138, 145, 150, 151, 156 –and teacher cognition 8, 106, 108, 110–113, 116–121, 123–126, 132 –and reconfirmation 52 –and reflective continuum 132 –and reflective intervention 138 –and reinterpretation 133, 138 –as data analysis 21–22 –definition 21, 38, 43 –development 173 –examples 52 –interviews 43 –interview scripts 173 –journal entries 38, 173 –research design 7, 44, 47, 51, 105 reflexivity 172 reframing 57 reinterpretation –definition of 56 –as ‘expansion’ 168

Index

–as form of reflective engagement 56–7, 58 –and hansei 54 –in interviews 154 –and journal entries 150 –and professional development 21 –and the reflective continuum 53, 160 –and teacher cognition 108, 110, 111–13, 116, 117–19, 125, 132, 133, 173 –and teacher identity 65, 67, 69–70, 173 religion 25, 34–5, 92 research questions 10 researcher –and notepads 41 –as an outsider 16, 23 –awareness of one’s role/positionality 7, 9 –cognitive dissonance 171 –development of 166, 170, 173 –in reflective practice 8, 136, 170, 172 –novice 7, 20, 21, 23, 44, 48, 171 –‘objective’/detached 1, 6, 170 –sensitivity 1, 29, 172 –roles in focus group discussion 143, 159 –roles in interviews 42, 44, 161 –roles in journal writing 153 –various roles 172 resistance and avoidance 120–3 Richards, J.C. 17, 45, 47 Roberts, J. 13, 101, 102, 123, 134, 136, 158 Robson, C. 20, 43 Rogers, C. 6 Rohlen, T. 29, 30 role adoption, teacher identity as 101–2 routines 51 Sakui, K. 63 Sasajima, S. 163 Sato, K. 15, 19, 23, 30, 143 Schön, D.A. 12, 31, 51, 57 Schwalbe, M.L. 41 seisatu 27 Seki, T. 32, 33 self-critical reflection 19, 29–32 see also hansei self-presentation 123, 136 Sendan, F. 13 sensitivity in research 1 Shimahara, N.K. 16 Shintoism 34–5 Shulman, L.S. 13, 45 Silverman, D. 20, 27

189

Simon-Maeda, A. 83 Smith, D. 31 Smith, M.K. 135, 171 Smyth, J. 45, 46–7, 59 social validation 102, 142, 158 sociocultural contexts –sensitivity to 13, 26–9, 46 –and teacher identity 76, 82, 83, 95, 100–4 socio-political consciousness 28, 46, 47 Stark, S. 14 Strand, K. 153 strengths, focus on 136 student clubs 65, 69, 86, 90, 120, 146, 147 Sugimoto, Y. 163 tacit knowledge 13, 50–1, 106, 107–8, 132 Takahashi, T. 162 Tamai, K. 45, 47, 153 Tanaka, S. 163 Tann, S. 13–14, 108 tatemae 27, 32–4, 48, 138, 166–7 taxonomies of reflection 45–60 Taylor, S.I. 29, 30 teacher cognition 105–37 –awareness 108, 110–12, 115, 116–19, 120–3, 126–35, 173 –beliefs as part of 13, 106, 107, 133 –complexity of 107 –definition of 13 –description 50–1, 115, 119, 125 –dynamism of 106–7, 132 –emotions 13, 66, 106, 107, 119–20 –and ‘expansion’ 133–4, 167–70 –externalisation 105 –hansei 110, 130 –hidden nature of 13 –indirect accessibility to 17–20, 105 –journal entries 109–10, 114, 115, 117–18 –as lens 4 –literature on 106–8 –more than just English proficiency 166 –novice teachers 134, 155 –reconfirmation 112, 114, 115, 123, 124, 125, 133 –reinterpretation 108, 110, 111–13, 116, 117–19, 125, 132, 133, 173 –self-identification of 106 –and student discipline 119–20 –tacit knowledge 13, 50–1, 106, 107–8, 132

190

Index

–and teacher identity 103–4 –as teacher knowledge 13–14 –values 13–14, 106, 107 teacher identity 83–104 –awareness 63, 69, 96, 173 –beliefs 62–3, 81, 83–4, 96, 103 –description 73–4, 75, 81, 87, 97 –emotions 73–4 –and ‘expansion’ 167–70 –experienced teachers’ 83–104 –hansei 61, 81, 97–8 –journal entries 81–2, 84, 90–2, 97–8 –as lens 4 –literature on 62–3, 90 –multifaceted teacher identities 98–9, 101, 103 –novice teachers’ 61–82, 100–4 –and possibility 28 –reconfirmation 63, 75 –reinterpretation 65, 67, 69–70, 173 –as role adoption 101–2 –sociocultural contexts 76, 82, 83, 95, 100–4 –and student discipline 66, 78 –and teacher cognition 103–4 –trajectories of 100–4 –values 62–3 Terauchi, H. 163 textbooks 3, 124–5 theorists, teachers as 11 Thomas, L. 62, 76, 100 thoughts, expression of 34–5, 50 TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) scores 163 Torrance, H. 14 transcriptions 36 translations into Japanese of ‘reflective practice’ 26–7 Tremmel, R. 29, 31, 56, 145 triangulation of data 18, 160

Tripp, D. 17, 39, 50, 51 Tsui, A.B.M. 12, 13, 108, 170 values –in journal entries 150 –researchers’ 172 –and teacher cognition 13–14, 106, 107 –and teacher identity 62–3 Van Manen, M. 28, 45, 46 Varghese, M.M. 62, 77, 82, 90, 100 Vasalos, A. 28, 31–2, 54, 56, 136, 152 Veenman, S. 72, 96, 134, 166 vocation, teaching as 71, 84, 88, 102 Walker, D. 17, 147 Walkington, J. 96 Wallace, M.J. 107 Ward, J.R. 59 Watanabe, A. 45, 168, 169 Watt, D. 20 Webb, M. 136 Western concept, reflection as 27–9 White, M.I. 30 Widdowson, H.E. 11 Williams, M. (and Burden) 108 Williams, R. (and Grudnoff) 96 wisdom of teaching 165 Wolkomir, M. 41 Woods, D. 13 word spirit 34–5 see also kotodama working/ practical knowledge 13 Yamamoto, M. 144 Yanase, Y. 23 Zeichner, K.M. 13, 28, 45, 59 Zemblyas, M. 70, 107 Zen Buddhism 28–9 Zurcher, L.A. 102