Teacher Awareness as Professional Development: Assistant Language Teachers in a Cross-Cultural Context 303088399X, 9783030883997

Citation preview

Teacher Awareness as Professional Development Assistant Language Teachers in a CrossCultural Context

Nami Sakamoto

Teacher Awareness as Professional Development

Nami Sakamoto

Teacher Awareness as Professional Development Assistant Language Teachers in a Cross-Cultural Context

Nami Sakamoto Department of Secondary Education Okayama University of Science Kita-ku, Okayama, Japan

ISBN 978-3-030-88399-7    ISBN 978-3-030-88400-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover pattern © Melisa Hasan This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Acknowledgement

This book would not have been possible without the support from a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to Assistant Language Teachers May, Andrew, and Simon, without whom this book would not have come into being. They always gave me their time amid their very busy teaching schedule. Through our interactions and interviews with them, I got several wonderful opportunities to deeply understand and share their language teaching practices and professional growth. Second, I would like to acknowledge the help and support from the supervisor of my doctoral course, Masayuki Teranishi, whose constant assistance helped broaden my horizons. He elicited my awareness of the study throughout the academic years. I would also like to thank Dr Akira Tajino, Dr Yasushi Okuda, and Dr Tatsuhiro Yoshida for their guidance and encouraging comments on this research. I have benefited from their comments and received valuable guidance on narrowing the scope of my study. My thanks are extended to Dr Karen E. Johnson, Dr Yosuke Yanase, Dr Jim Stewart, and Dr Marina Lambrou. Most of all, I would like to thank my family for encouraging and supporting me in studying language teacher development in depth for several years and in conducting my research.

v

Contents

1 Introduction  1 References   6 2 English Language Education Reform and Assistant Language Teachers in Japan  7 Introduction   7 English Education in Japan   8 Assistant Language Teachers in Japan   9 Seminal Works in the Study of Assistant Language Teachers in Japan  12 Summary  15 References  15 3 Teacher Awareness, Kizuki: A Form of Professional Development 19 Introduction  19 Teacher Awareness, Kizuki  20 The Three Loops of Awareness  23 Cognitive Awareness  23 Emotional Awareness  24 Collegial Awareness  25 Summary  26 References  27

vii

viii 

Contents

4 Overview of the Study 29 Introduction  29 Language Teacher Identity  30 Investment  33 Teacher Awareness  34 Data Collection and Method of Analysis  36 Summary  38 References  38 5 Tracing Process 1: Their Stories Begin 41 Introduction  41 May’s Transformation of Her Perspectives on Teaching  42 Andrew’s Perspectives on the New Classroom Culture  46 Simon’s Grounded Teacher Belief  50 Beginning of Teaching Stories in the New Cultural Context  54 Summary  55 6 Tracing Process 2: Experiencing Kizuki—Cognitive, Emotional, and Collegial Loops of Awareness 57 Introduction  57 May’s Kizuki and Her Problem-Solving Perspectives  58 Cognitive Awareness  59 Emotional Awareness  62 Collegial Awareness  64 Andrew’s Kizuki and Strength in the Face of Hardship  68 Cognitive Awareness  70 Emotional Awareness  72 Collegial Awareness  75 Simon’s Kizuki and Learning from Colleagues as a Language Teacher  78 Cognitive Awareness  79 Emotional Awareness  82 Collegial Awareness  86 Transformation for Advancing in Professional Development  90 Summary  91 References  92

 Contents 

ix

7 Tracing Process 3: Investments and Crossing the Boundaries in the Classroom 95 Introduction  95 The Investment of Assistant Language Teachers  95 May’s Investments and Breaking Through to a New World  97 Andrew’s Investments and Identity Construction as an ALT 101 Simon’s Investments and Building Relationships with Learners 105 What Were the Results of Their Investments? 108 Summary 110 References 111 8 Tracing Process 4: Fostering Collegiality in Cooperative Practice113 Introduction 113 Collegiality for ALTs 114 Collegiality: Enriching the Classroom 116 What Collegiality Creates in Team-Teaching Lessons 118 Summary 119 References 120 9 Tracing Process 5: Sociocultural Perspectives on ALTs’ Professional Development121 Introduction 121 The Nature of Team Teaching 121 Social Relationships in Team-Teaching Practices 123 ALTs’ Teacher Development in the Zone of Proximal Development 125 ALTs’ Yarigai in Professional Development 127 Summary 130 References 130 10 Narrative Inquiry as an Inquiry-Based Approach to Teacher Development133 Introduction 133 What and How Do Teachers Narrate? 134

x 

Contents

Transformative Process Grounded in Kizuki Through Teacher Narratives 136 Social Practice: Interviewee and Interviewer 139 Summary 143 References 143 Epilogue145 Index149

Abbreviations

ALT EFL ESL JTE JET Programme MEXT SCI SLA

Assistant Language Teacher English as a Foreign Language English as a Second Language Japanese Teacher of English Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Sister Cities International Second Language Acquisition

xi

List of Figures

Fig. 3.1 Fig. 5.1 Fig. 5.2 Fig. 5.3 Fig. 6.1 Fig. 6.2 Fig. 6.3 Fig. 6.4 Fig. 6.5 Fig. 6.6 Fig. 6.7 Fig. 6.8 Fig. 6.9 Fig. 6.10 Fig. 6.11 Fig. 6.12 Fig. 6.13 Fig. 6.14 Fig. 6.15 Fig. 7.1 Fig. 7.2 Fig. 7.3 Fig. 7.4

Loop of awareness in teachers’ professional growth Map of relationships from May’s first interview Map of relationships from Andrew’s first interview Map of relationships from Simon’s first interview Map of relationships from May’s second interview Cognitive loop of awareness in May’s second interview Emotional loop of awareness in May’s second interview Collegial loop of awareness in May’s second interview Three loops of awareness in May’s teaching theory Map of relationships from Andrew’s second interview Cognitive loop of awareness in Andrew’s second interview Emotional loop of awareness in Andrew’s second interview Collegial loop of awareness in Andrew’s second interview Three loops of awareness in Andrew’s teaching theory Map of relationships from Simon’s second interview Cognitive loop of awareness in Simon’s second interview Emotional loop of awareness in Simon’s second interview Collegial loop of awareness in Simon’s second interview Three loops of awareness in Simon’s teaching theory The three loops of awareness and investments in May’s teaching theory The three loops of awareness and investments in Andrew’s teaching theory The three loops of awareness and investments in Simon’s teaching theory Identity transformation model of ALTs

22 42 46 50 58 62 64 66 67 68 71 74 76 77 78 83 85 89 90 99 104 107 110

xiii

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

How do language teachers grow? How do language teachers develop their teaching skills? Do different types of language teachers have different needs in terms of professional development? Team-teaching lessons by Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) and Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) have many different aspects in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context in Japan. Teacher narratives describe their experiences from, in a sense, both the first-person and the third-person viewpoints of narrators, and are a powerful tool for understanding their language teaching life in the classrooms. Focusing on ALTs’ teacher development in a cross-cultural context, this book pursues the questions through the analysis of their narratives, views the landscapes of their teaching theories, and traces the process of their professional growth. Teaching and learning occur in a cultural community (Rogoff, 2003). It sometimes means in a classroom, which is a special, social, cultural, and historical space where individuals learn, teach, and grow in everyday life. I spent more than 20 years as a teacher in junior high schools in Japan. I started teaching English in the EFL context at a junior high school in Himeji, Japan, immediately after the Japanese government started hiring foreign ALTs in public schools countrywide. Before that, only some private junior and senior high schools had employed ALTs in English lessons, and most schools, particularly public schools, did not employ them. When I first became an English teacher, I was puzzled by the practice of team teaching. ALTs were experiencing team-teaching lessons in Japan for the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0_1

1

2 

N. SAKAMOTO

first time; in fact, much like me, most of the ALTs I team-taught with were teaching English for the first time. At the time, I was a freshman teacher; I needed to design both team-teaching lessons and my solo lessons simultaneously, and, initially, I had no idea what team-teaching lessons were like. While teaching students at junior high schools, I conducted team-­ teaching English lessons with more than 20 ALTs; some of whom were fresh university graduates, while others were teachers in their native countries. Each of the ALTs had a unique character and personality, which came out in different cross-cultural contexts in their classroom teaching. I taught and simultaneously learned from my students and partner ALTs. I vividly remember how the ALTs struggled and felt happy or depressed in their classrooms during the lessons, deepened their relationships with their students, and helped enhance the students’ learning. Each of the ALTs had their own theories of teaching and brought unique aspects to our lessons. Our experiences of both failure and success in our classes made us reflect on our teaching as a collaborative practice. We spent our time supporting each other’s classes, discussing our teaching methods, giving feedback to each other, and striving to improve our teaching methods and, thereby, our students’ learning. Teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin. In the classroom, I taught, learned, struggled, and sometimes felt I had accomplished something. Native English speakers were first hired as ALTs through the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme in 1987. Nowadays, ALTs are recruited not only through the JET Programme but also through sister city programmes, private sector recruitment, and direct employment. Because of this diversification and the increasing need for ALTs due to curriculum reform, several studies have been conducted on ALTs in Japan, focusing on a wide range of features (see Chap. 2). Although this body of research has investigated the figure of the ALT, only a few studies have examined the inner aspects of ALTs’ lives and roles. For instance, what are their teaching beliefs about Japanese classrooms; how do they adapt and position themselves in the classroom community, given their different cultural backgrounds; and how do you construct your identity as a teacher? Each classroom has its own context. The participants in the classroom create a unique community culture, visible in the relationships among them. ALTs, in fact, tend to gradually come to construct their own ideas and understanding in the new context of Japanese schools through their team-teaching lessons. The nature of the classroom community, JTEs’

1 INTRODUCTION 

3

teaching methods to achieve learning goals, the kind of roles ALTs need to play, and the nature of team teaching in language classes are a kind of “puzzle” (Allwright, 2005). Tajino and Tajino (2000) define team teaching in language classrooms as “team learning”, in which all the participants, including Japanese teachers, students, and ALTs, construct learning experiences based on meaningful interactions in the language classroom. Through these relationships, the participants collaboratively learn and grow. From a sociocultural perspective, Yoshida (2016) states that “human cognition including thinking, understanding and learning develops through social interaction among people in a meaningful context” (p. 33). He sees the language classroom as a place for participants to engage in activities and achieve their goals through fruitful interactions. The questions that arise here are: 1. How do ALTs trace their identity transformation in lan guage teaching? 2. What are the elements that lead to their teacher development? Regarding her own work in analysing teacher identity from sociocultural and sociopolitical perspectives, Norton (1997) writes, “I use the term identity to refer to how people understand their relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities for the future” (p.  410). She attempts to comprehend teacher identity, including individual potential as a teacher, by analysing it through the construction and reconstruction of their relationships with the world. “Teacher identity” can be described as the manner in which teachers understand and position themselves in the time and space of the classroom and at school. This identity can also be constructed and reconstructed through intertwined connections between the past, present, and future—it is a dynamic process. This book describes the transformation of ALTs’ identities with respect to professional growth. Identity does not exist a priori but rather is constructed through relationships with other people in different environments. For language teachers, identity is constructed in spaces such as classrooms, which present diverse and complex elements of varied social, cultural, historical, and political contexts. In particular, for ALTs, how they construct their teacher identity as ALTs in the cross-cultural context is directly related to language teaching in Japan. This book uses examinations of the narratives of ALTs to investigate how they (re)constructed

4 

N. SAKAMOTO

their teacher identities and traced their professional development in teamteaching language classrooms through social relationships in the crosscultural context. This book highlights the narratives of ALTs in Japan through semi-­ structured interviews. To understand their narratives in depth, I employ some crucial theoretical tools, such as teacher awareness or kizuki, comprising cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness (Sakamoto, 2011). I explained kizuki as the word which implies “sudden feeling of inner understanding of a phenomenon”, and it “can be roughly translated as ‘becoming aware of, noticing,’ or ‘realizing’” (Sakamoto, 2011, p. 188). She explained that awareness deepens thinking and produces a developmental “loop” that leads to new thoughts and attempts. The classroom is home to different events pertaining to foreign language learning and teaching, participants’ mutual relationships, students’ motivation, teachers’ development, and collegiality among teachers, all of which take place simultaneously and chaotically. To develop a thorough understanding of the classroom, I propose three different lenses of awareness. Each type of kizuki is a unique lens through which to see the teachers’ world of language teaching within the classroom. When discussing the three types of kizuki, the main concept of this book, I will deliberately use the word “awareness” in its plural form. Cognitive awareness focuses on mentally replicating classroom learning, teaching, and learning, enabling teachers to think of students’ learning as connected to their own language improvement and growth, and enhancing the importance of social relationships in classroom learning. Emotional awareness emerges from feelings of fulfilment in the classroom. Sometimes, it simply involves teachers being empathetic towards individual students. Emotional awareness enhances and reinforces teachers’ sense of community with the class. Finally, collegial awareness often results from teachers’ collective efforts to ensure students’ development in the classroom. In the context of teaching, collegiality is not merely friendship among teachers. It often occurs when teachers collectively work towards students’ development in the classroom. In the contexts of different aspects of daily classroom life, the three types of awareness can function both positively and negatively. In my kizuki model of teacher awareness, the three awarenesses are interwoven and collectively create opportunities for teacher development. This book is an inquiry into the narratives of ALTs teaching English in Japan. Firstly, Chap. 2 provides an overview of English Language Education Reform and Assistant Language Teachers in Japan to describe

1 INTRODUCTION 

5

their teaching environment. As this book depicts the emerging loops of teacher awareness and their transformative power in the construction of teacher identity and the professional development of ALTs, Chap. 3 describes the concept of kizuki as a form of professional development, elucidating the theoretical underpinnings for the whole study. Chapter 4 considers the other key concepts used in this study: language teacher identity, investment, and data collection and method of analysis. ALTs’ narratives play a central role in this book. In the position of both an English teacher and a researcher, I first interviewed ALTs when they had come to Japan and started teaching in Japanese schools, and again about a year later. Their narratives were based on their first language teaching experiences in the cross-cultural context that Japanese schools provided for them. This book describes the ALTs’ narratives to show the five stages of a process of teacher development, and the stages are described in sequence from Chaps. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Regarding the first stage, I unravel ALTs’ reactions and feelings at the start of the class and what made them feel confused and anxious in each of the school contexts in Chap. 5. The second stage, experiencing kizuki (cognitive, emotional, and collegial loops of awareness), is described in Chap. 6 using a conceptual relationship diagram. The third stage, in which the ALTs invest in themselves to build their identity as ALTs in a cross-cultural context and cross the boundaries felt in the classroom, is observed in Chap. 7. The fourth stage, explained in Chap. 8, describes how collegiality was vital in the cooperative practice of team teaching with a JTE. Finally, in Chap. 9, I describe how the sociocultural perspective of ALTs’ development as teachers and the sense of fulfilment—yarigai, the Japanese word for heartfelt emotions of achieving something—motivated them to engage in the process of professional development as teachers. Finally, Chap. 10 provides an overview of teacher narratives’ critical role in understanding teachers’ theories of teaching. It also describes one aspect of the relationship between interviewer and interviewee as a social practice. Throughout the book, ALTs’ narratives explain how they traced their process of language teacher development in a cross-cultural context. Their stories were a powerful means to understand professional development. Do ALTs’ teacher identities develop over time through their teaching experiences? What is the process of their professional development in the cross-cultural context? By elucidating these processes through the study of ALTs’ narratives, their development can be empirically explored, and I hope that teacher narrative research will become a common practice for professional development in the field of language teacher education.

6 

N. SAKAMOTO

References Allwright, D. (2005). Developing principles for practitioner research: The case of exploratory practice. The Modern Language Journal, 89(3), 353–366. Norton, B. (1997). Language, identity, and ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly, 31(3), 409–429. Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford University Press. Sakamoto, N. (2011). Professional development through kizuki—Cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness. Teacher Development, 15(2), 187–203. Tajino, A., & Tajino, Y. (2000). Native and non-native: What can they offer? Lessons from team-teaching in Japan. ELT Journal, 54(1), 3–11. Yoshida, T. (2016). Sociocultural analysis of effective team teaching in a Japanese language classroom. In A. Tajino, T. Stewart, & D. Dalsky (Eds.), Team teaching and team learning in the language classroom: Collaboration for innovation in ELT (pp. 31–50). Routledge.

CHAPTER 2

English Language Education Reform and Assistant Language Teachers in Japan

Introduction In this chapter, I first review the changes in English language education in Japan resulting from recent educational reforms and the new curriculum introduced from April 2020. In response to rapid globalization, Japan has initiated a massive educational reform in schools. This includes increasing the number of English language lessons, and thus more English-speaking Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs), who assist Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) and play important roles in English language classrooms. The history of ALTs in Japan began with the 1987 Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, which was intended to foster international connections by recruiting citizens from other nations to live in Japan and assist JTEs with English language instruction. They do not need a teaching qualification or experience, but they have interviews and seminars in their native countries before coming to Japan. During 30 years since JET’s inception, numerous researchers have examined various aspects of ALTs, including system and policy, actual conditions, influence on participants, lesson studies of classes which were team taught by ALTs and JTEs, and the relationships among participants. However, few studies have examined ALTs closely; in particular, little attention has been paid to inner aspects concerned with their identities. Surveying previous research on ALTs, this chapter identifies a need for investigations into ALTs’ experiences and that look for clues to their thought processes. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0_2

7

8 

N. SAKAMOTO

English Education in Japan In recent years, due to rapid globalization, Japan has been implementing massive educational reform at high speed in elementary schools, junior and senior high schools, and universities. In 2013, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) launched a project to promote the development of global human resources. The purpose of this programme is to financially support projects that bring about systematic improvements in the education offered at universities. In the context of accelerating globalization, the government announced that it was crucial for the future of Japan to improve students’ English ability, not only in primary and secondary education but also at the university level (MEXT, 2011, 2012). In the “five proposals for English educational reform adapting to globalization” (MEXT, 2014), the Ministry stated that teachers need to create various opportunities for communicative activities in language classrooms. In particular, the urgent problem is to improve students’ communicative abilities in four language skills across five areas: listening, speaking [presentation], speaking [interaction], reading, and writing. Communication has two sides: receiving information and expressing ideas. In addition, for proper communication, we need to have a deep understanding of language and culture and foster a positive attitude towards communication. The new Course of Study requires Japanese English learners to acquire these basic but comprehensive skills. One of the major changes in the Course of Study (MEXT, 2017a) is the introduction of English activities (foreign language activities) for third and fourth graders at elementary schools (before 2020, only fifth and sixth graders studied English). In addition, English was upgraded from “language activity” to a “subject” in the elementary school curriculum for fifth and sixth graders, which means that students’ English performance is evaluated and that teachers need to set measures to assess the English language abilities of learners. As English becomes a formal subject at elementary school, the role of Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) there becomes more significant. In the case of team teaching with ALTs, which is normally conducted weekly or biweekly, homeroom teachers are taking the initiative in English classes as of 2020. As many elementary school teachers do not have a specific licence to teach English as a foreign language, this may become a difficult issue in primary education in Japan. In the future,

2  ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION REFORM AND ASSISTANT LANGUAGE… 

9

while recognizing the difference between the English activities in the third and fourth grades and the English lessons in the fifth and six grades, more ALTs may play more important roles in meeting the teaching goals of each grade. In junior high schools, the new Course of Study started in 2021, and it establishes that English lessons should be implemented primarily in English, while junior high school students are also required to learn some of the grammatical topics that were taught at high school under the previous Course of Study. This means that Japanese students will be encouraged to acquire more advanced English than they have previously and, as in the case of primary schools, ALTs may play a more important role in offering opportunities for students to communicate in English (MEXT, 2017b; Sakamoto, 2018). The high school curriculum introduces a new subject starting in 2022: “logical thinking and language expression” in English. In this subject, to improve English knowledge and skills, students will learn actively through English speeches, presentations, and debates, so that they can develop not only speaking and listening abilities but also the ability to think and express themselves logically, critically, and clearly in English. Considering the balance between the five areas of the four skills in language teaching and learning, team-teaching lessons with ALTs will need to be more vigorous at all levels of teaching and learning.

Assistant Language Teachers in Japan How do ALTs participate in language classrooms in Japan? What kinds of teaching style are found in “team-teaching” lessons in language teaching? ALTs have assisted and co-taught with JTEs in Japanese public schools since the system was introduced over 30 years ago. Their main roles include conducting communicative language activities, planning language lessons, supporting student learning, and assisting JTEs. Although the roles of ALTs are different from school to school depending on each school’s policy and features―such as the frequency of lessons, lesson design, and the hiring system for ALTs―ALTs are now indispensable in every school, enabling students to improve their practical language skills. ALTs also convey the cultural aspects of their native countries and can foster a sense of international understanding in language learners. In the Japanese context, although the situation has improved due to

10 

N. SAKAMOTO

globalization, language learners have historically had few opportunities to communicate with non-Japanese speakers. ALTs in Japan provide not only authentic communication but also valuable resources for cross-cultural understanding. The history of ALTs in Japan goes back to the beginning of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET Programme), an international exchange project introduced by the government of Japan in 1987. This programme is supported by three government ministries: the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), as well as the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR). With their support, local government bodies―usually boards of education―sign contracts with ALTs. The purposes of this programme are to invite young people from abroad, in order to deepen the relationships between Japan and their home countries, and to internationalize communities in Japan. ALTs are supposed to promote foreign language education, and through their participation in international exchange projects run by local governments, Japanese boards of education and schools across the country have tried new projects in language education. Through this programme, ALTs are dispatched to almost all schools in Japan. In 2019, the programme invited ALTs from 30 countries, such as the United States (2958 ALTs, which is the largest group), Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago (CLAIR; The Council of Local Authorities for International Relations, 2019a). CLAIR (2019a) also reported that 5234 ALTs were teaching English in Japanese elementary, junior high, and senior high schools. Their background and previous teaching experiences vary: some have already undergone professional language teacher training and had teaching experience in their countries of origin or in other countries, others have had opportunities to teach their native language in other countries, and still others have just graduated from college or university and have never taught before. Since the JET Programme tends to hire young native speakers, most ALTs are not expected to have had sufficient opportunities to learn about language teaching. Regarding the specific duties of ALTs in schools, their duty in the classroom is defined in the 2019 General Information Handbook (2019), as follows:

2  ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION REFORM AND ASSISTANT LANGUAGE… 

11

The main duty of an ALT is to engage in team teaching with Japanese teachers of foreign language (JTL) in foreign language classes in Japanese schools. The goal of team teaching is to create a foreign language classroom in which the students, the JTLs, and the native speaker (ALT) engage in communicative activities. Team teaching provides opportunities for active interaction in a foreign language in the classroom, enhances the students’ motivation towards learning a foreign language, and deepens the students’ understanding of foreign cultures. ALTs work in cooperation with the JTLs to plan lessons, team teach, and evaluate the effectiveness of the lessons. (CLAIR, 2019b, p. 83)

In addition to this handbook, MEXT offers some seminars and training for ALTs. Shortly after their arrival in Japan, all ALTs attend a seminar in Tokyo and learn about Japanese schools, language lessons with JTEs, the duties to be fulfilled, and their new life in Japan. Regarding language teaching, they learn not only about principles of language education in Japan but also about common teaching methods and their roles in the classroom. Subsequently, shortly after the seminar, they move to the prefecture where they will teach and then are placed in their respective schools. The period of appointment for a JET Programme participant as an ALT is one year. If the participant wants to extend their time as an ALT, they can apply to the board of education, and if the school accepts, they can be reappointed for the following year, for up to three years in total. Some ALTs remain in the same school for three years, and in special cases they may hold seminars for JTEs and new ALTs, as experienced ALTs. However, other ALTs may quit the programme halfway through and return to their countries. Currently, some boards of education hire native English speakers from private enterprises or through means other than the JET Programme. In those cases, the employment conditions may differ from those of the JET Programme in terms of working hours, duties, or teaching plans. Some local governments invite native language teachers from overseas cities with which they have individual ties of friendship, such as the Sister Cities International (SCI) programme and sister states relationships. ALTs who come to Japan through the JET Programme are called “JET ALTs”, while others coming from language teaching companies and through other connections are called “non-JET ALTs”. In this book, the term “ALT” refers to “JET ALT”, except when specified otherwise.

12 

N. SAKAMOTO

Seminal Works in the Study of Assistant Language Teachers in Japan In this section, I will examine the previous work that has led to our current understanding of ALTs themselves and the system in Japan. In recent years, many researchers have examined language teaching with ALTs in Japanese schools. About 30 years after the beginning of the JET Programme, the innovative and multifaceted studies on ALTs in Japan can be classified according to their varied approaches. First, when we focus on the existence of ALTs in schools, we notice that research has been conducted from differing perspectives. The ALT system has been the topic of several research projects (Honna & Takeshita, 2005; Butler, 2007; Kikuchi & Browne, 2009; Ohtani, 2010). For instance, Komura (1989) suggests that ALTs are not employed for team teaching only and it is more important that institutions such as schools and the board of education to enable ALTs to master professional language teaching skills and knowledge as language teachers. Focusing on the policy of language education in Japan, Naka (2006) points out that ALTs are regarded in schools as Assistant English Teachers (AETs), not Assistant Language Teachers. The notion of “Assistant English Teachers” specifically focuses on English language teaching in foreign language lessons. The notion of “Assistant Language Teachers” implies that students have the choice of learning other foreign languages at school. Naka suggests that, from the perspective of language policy, language assistants not only for English but also for other foreign languages should engage in team teaching in public schools. There has also been a significant amount of research on the pedagogical effects of ALTs on participants in language classrooms (Sick, 1996; Kubota, 2002; Uegaki, 2004; San Jose & Piquero-Ballescas, 2010; Uematsu, 2015). Uegaki (2004) investigated college of technology students aged 15 to 18 (equivalent to high school students in Japan) who had been previously taught by ALTs in junior high school. His study illustrates that the more lessons students have with ALTs, the more their listening ability improves. Shirahata and Ishiguro (2011) measured the quantity of utterances by an ALT in an English lesson. They also recorded the English usage of an ALT in an English activity lesson at a Japanese elementary school and investigated whether it was possible for elementary school teachers to apply the ALT’s English language usage and expressions in their classroom English. These studies on the effect of ALTs on

2  ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION REFORM AND ASSISTANT LANGUAGE… 

13

participants in language classrooms were conducted as quantitative research using video-taped lesson data, and they showed that the English utterances ALTs made at elementary school are mostly at Japanese junior high school level, and thus simple enough for both homeroom teachers and students. Butler (2007) discussed, based on a survey of elementary school teachers, the elements of the notion that native English teachers are the ideal language teachers in English activity lessons. Several researchers carried out studies of ALTs’ working conditions (Tsuido, 1997; Uenishi, 1999; Hougham et al., 2017). Uenishi (1999) compared the views of ALTs and JTEs by conducting a questionnaire with high school Japanese teachers of English and ALTs in public schools. He identified common opinions shared by both sides, stressing the need for them to improve their mutual understanding. To discover how ALTs actually reacted to difficulties in dealing with intercultural situations, Tsuido (1997) investigated their conflicts with Japanese culture. Through a questionnaire, he analysed the adaptability of ALTs to Japanese culture and context from three different perspectives: cognition, action, and emotion. Furthermore, Sophia University (2014) conducted a questionnaire survey of 1807 ALTs who taught in elementary, junior high, and senior high schools, and clarified the conditions influencing their teaching, including their backgrounds. In a piece of autoethnographic research on ALTs, Simon-Maeda (2011) illustrates her own language teaching experience as an ALT in a public school in Japan. She analyses her position from three different points of view: as a native English speaker, a Japanese language learner, and a member of the Japanese community. She reflects on herself through second language acquisition and through applied linguistics, indicating the importance of understanding Japanese language education from a sociological perspective. Fujimoto-Adamson’s (2010) case study describes the roles and responsibilities of JTEs and ALTs in the classroom and demonstrates their relationships during English teaching. He uncovered an unequal relationship between team teachers at the local level, as well as the extent to which interventions from local Japanese teachers are necessary in classroom exchanges. Conversely, many researchers have inquired into the relationship between ALTs and JTEs (Shimaoka & Yashiro, 1990; Tajino & Tajino, 2000; Tsuido, 1997; Gladman, 2015). Tajino and Tajino (2000), Tajino et al. (2016), and Stewart et al. (2019) highlight the social relationships involved in language teaching and learning in the classroom. They

14 

N. SAKAMOTO

redefine team teaching by ALTs and JTEs as “team learning”. Their study suggests that, by sharing teaching ideas and cultural values from both sides, English-native teachers and Japanese English teachers can overcome the linguistic differences between them to achieve teacher development. Focusing on the function of team teaching, Shimaoka and Yashiro (1990) emphasized the effectiveness of team-teaching lessons. In their study, an ALT (a native teacher) and a JTE (a non-native teacher) supported each other so that learners could become more familiar with English. They classified types of team teaching based on the roles of individual teachers and examined how effective these were for the learners. Additionally, Gladman (2015) argued that a good relationship between teachers is key to successful team teaching. Analysing the studies of ALTs undertaken in the last 30 years, the diversity of viewpoints is notable. This may reflect the fact that ALTs have many aspects, both as teaching staff and in a system of hiring ALTs. Conversely, few studies have examined ALTs closely and investigated their inner aspects, the most notable example being Simon-Maeda’s autoethnography. When we seek to identify ALTs’ duties at school or problems to be solved, we use questionnaires and quantitative frameworks, as in the study by Sophia University, as they are highly efficient approaches. However, quantitative studies tend to neglect ALTs’ inner aspects, which are often quite complicated and difficult to measure numerically. As more than 30 years have passed since the introduction of ALTs in Japan, it is time to understand them at a deeper level, and a qualitative study collecting real voices from ALTs, like the current study, is needed. Although ALTs attend pre-teaching seminars and training as soon as they arrive in Japan, most of them face new contexts particular to Japanese education, such as gaps between language teaching in their countries and in Japan, team-teaching lessons with JETs, and differences between elementary, junior high, and senior high schools. For some ALTs, team-teaching lessons are unexpected. Their new life within Japanese culture is an unprecedented experience for them; while some ALTs quickly become accustomed, others need some time to become effective members of their communities. In all cases, at the beginning of their life as educators in Japan, they are strangers to the students in the classroom. By sharing experiences with the participants in their classrooms over time, ALTs build and rebuild the relationships with their students. By sharing time and space, their relationships gradually change in the community, day after day. In this context, how do ALTs position themselves in the Japanese classroom? In this book, I focus on the

2  ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION REFORM AND ASSISTANT LANGUAGE… 

15

narratives of ALTs in Japanese schools and investigate how they construct and reconstruct their identities in their classrooms. I will also attempt to clarify what elements support their teacher development within their teaching life in Japan. In so doing, I hope this study will help to achieve a deep and sympathetic understanding of ALTs and to supplement past studies on them.

Summary Focusing on the Course of Study and national measures in Japan, this chapter has first reviewed the educational reform of foreign language education to clarify the aims of the reforms, and problems and obstacles which Japanese schools will need to overcome. Against this background, in Japanese schools, team-teaching lessons with ALTs support students’ learning and may be increasingly effective for both learners and teachers. Next, I looked at seminal studies, pointing out that quantitative studies do not seem to focus on ALTs’ inner aspects, which are often quite complicated and difficult to measure numerically. ALTs have been working in schools with a variety of teaching environments. Given their diverse professional expertise, the following questions arise: How do ALTs trace their identity transformation in language teaching? What are the elements leading them in their process of teaching development? The purpose of the present project is to answer these questions. More specifically, it looks at which aspects of ALTs’ jobs and lives in Japan support their identity transformations and help them make progress in teacher development.

References Butler, Y. G. (2007). Factors associated with the notion that native speakers are ideal language teachers: An examination of elementary school teachers in Japan. JALT Journal, 29(1), 7. CLAIR (The Council of Local Authorities for International Relations). (2019a). The number of participants by country 2019–2020. http://jetprogramme. org/wp-content/MAIN-PAGE/intro/participating/2019_jetstats_j.pdf CLAIR (The Council of Local Authorities for International Relations). (2019b). The general information handbook 2019. Tokyo.

16 

N. SAKAMOTO

Fujimoto-Adamson, N. (2010). Voices from team-teaching classrooms: A case study in junior high schools in Japan. Business Communication Quarterly, 73(2), 200–205. Gladman, A. (2015). Team teaching is not just for teachers! Student perspectives on the collaborative classroom. TESOL Journal, 6(1), 130–148. Honna, N., & Takeshita, Y. (2005). English language teaching in Japan: Policy plans and their implementation. RELC Journal, 36(3), 363–383. Hougham, D. G., Walter, B. R., & Sponseller, A. C. (2017). Practicalities of team teaching: Recent research and experience in Japan. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown (Eds.), Transformation in language education (pp. 135–145). Tokyo: JALT. https://jalt-publications.org/node/4/articles/6030-practicalities-teamteaching-recent-research-and-experience-japan Kikuchi, K., & Browne, C. (2009). English educational policy for high schools in Japan: Ideals vs. reality. RELC Journal, 40(2), 172–191. Komura, M. (1989). Chugakko oyobi kotogakko ni okeru AET nitsuite [AETs in secondary schools]. Osakakyoikudaigaku Eibungakkaishi, 34, 97–100. Kubota, R. (2002). The impact of globalization on language teaching in Japan. In D.  Block & D.  Cameron (Eds.), Globalization and language teaching (pp. 13–38). Routledge. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). (2011). Council for the Promotion of Global Human Resource Development: Interim summary. https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chousa/koutou/46/siryo/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2011/08/09/1309212_07_1.pdf Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). (2012). Developing global human resources. https://www.mext.go.jp/b_ menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo3/047/siryo/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2012/ 02/14/1316067_01.pdf Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). (2014). Five proposals for English educational reform have been adapted to globalization. http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chousa/shotou/102/houkoku/attach/1352464.htm Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). (2017a). Course of Study of elementary school. Toyokanshuppan. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). (2017b). Course of Study of high school. Higashiyamashobo. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). (2018). Course of Study of junior high school. Higashiyamashobo. Naka, K. (2006). Gengoseisaku to shiteno JET puroguramu II: Seidotekisokumen niokeru kadai to teigen [The JET program as a language policy (II): A step towards the improvement of English language education in Japan]. Kyushujyoshidaigakukiyou. Jimbun/syakaigakkahen, 42(3), 15–32.

2  ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION REFORM AND ASSISTANT LANGUAGE… 

17

Ohtani, C. (2010). Problems in the assistant language teacher system and English activity at Japanese public elementary schools. Educational Perspectives, 43, 38–45. Sakamoto, N. (2018). Chugakko no shido to hyoka [Guidance and evaluation in junior high schools]. In H. Sakai, T. Hiromori, & T. Yoshida (Eds.), Manabu oshieru, kangaeru tameno jissennteki eigoka kyouikuho [Practical English teaching method to learn, teach, and think] (pp. 224–251). Taishukanshoten. San Jose, B., & Ballescas, M. R. P. (2010). Engaging multiculturalism from below: The case of Filipino assistant language teachers in Japan. Journal of Asian Studies for Intellectual Collaboration, 1(1), 162–180. Shimaoka, T., & Yashiro, K. (1990). Team teaching in English classrooms-An intercultural approach. Tokyo: Kairyudo Shuppan. Shirahata, T., & Ishiguro, K. (2011). Shogakko eigo kastudo deno ALT no eigohatsuwa wo bunseki suru [Analyzing ALTs English production in English activities in primary school]. Shizuokadaigaku Kyoikugakubu Kenkyuhokoku. Kyokakyoikuhen, 43, 11–23. Sick, J. (1996). Assistant language teachers in junior high school: Do programs stressing their inclusion produce better listeners. JALT Journal, 18(2), 199–210. Simon-Maeda, A. (2011). Being and becoming a speaker of Japanese: An autoethnographic account. Multilingual Matters. Sophia University. (2014). Shogakko, chugakko, koutougakko ni okeru ALT no jittai ni kansuru daikibo anketochosa [A large-scale questionnaire survey on the actual conditions of ALTs in elementary, junior high, and senior high schools]. Kenkyusaisyuhoukokusyo, 43, 11–24. Stewart, T., Dalsky, D., & Tajino, A. (2019). Team learning potential in TESOL practice. TESOL Journal, 10(3), e00426. Tajino, A., Stewart, T., & Dalsky, D. (Eds.). (2016). Team teaching and team learning in the language classroom: Collaboration for innovation in ELT. Routledge. Tajino, A., & Tajino, Y. (2000). Native and non-native: What can they offer? Lessons from team-teaching in Japan. ELT Journal, 54(1), 3–11. Tsuido, K. (1997). Gakko deno ibunkakattobamen ni taisuru ALT no hanyo no bunseki [An analysis of assistant language teachers’ perception of school-related cultural problems]. ARELE: Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan, 8, 61–70. Uegaki, M. (2004). Gakusei no ishiki to gakushukoka ni ataeru ALT no koka [The effects of ALTs on the consciousness and listening abilities of students]. Kobeichiritsukogyokotosenmongakko Kenkyukiyo, 42, 85–90. Uematsu, S. (2015). Long-term effects of learning English. Springer. Uenishi, K. (1999). Team-teaching ni kansuru chosa/kenkyu: JTE to ALT no ishiki wo hikaku shite [A study of team-teaching: comparing JTEs’ and ALTs’ awareness]. CASELE Research Bulletin, 29, 39–34.

CHAPTER 3

Teacher Awareness, Kizuki: A Form of Professional Development

Introduction The core concept of this book is language teacher awareness in the classroom. Teacher awareness, kizuki, is a theoretical framework that I introduced in 2011, in an article describing teachers’ awareness as a crucial factor in professional development from a sociocultural perspective (Sakamoto, 2011). Kizuki is a Japanese concept, which is considered important in that culture and implies a sudden feeling of inner understanding of a phenomenon (Sakamoto, 2011, p. 187). Kizuki is made up of three types of teacher awareness: cognitive, emotional, and collegial. Cognitive awareness mainly focuses on mentally replicating learning in the classroom. The focus is on teaching and learning. It enables teachers to think of students’ learning as connected to their own language improvement and growth. Emotional awareness emerges from affective dimensions, such as joy, surprise, and disappointment, or from feelings of fulfilment in the classroom. Sometimes it is simply a show of their empathy for individual students. Collegial awareness often occurs through teachers’ collaborative work towards students’ development in the classroom. It enables teachers to create opportunities to understand each other. To develop a careful understanding of the classroom, I proposed these three very different lenses of awareness. In the kizuki model of teacher awareness, the three types of awareness are mutually interwoven, and they create opportunities for teacher development. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0_3

19

20 

N. SAKAMOTO

Teacher Awareness, Kizuki In the school environment, classrooms are the spaces where teachers and learners jointly spend most of their time. While learning is certainly one form of engagement in this context, participants also experience growth within these unique communities. Each classroom community has its own character, which develops socially, culturally, and historically through a series of relationships and interactions. When focusing on the daily lives of language teachers, it is clear that the classroom setting requires continual interaction with students who live in the surrounding community. By the time class begins, teachers have carefully designed the language lessons for the day and prepared teaching materials that are appropriate and engaging for their students. Entering the classroom, teachers naturally observe each student and start the class with a greeting that is appropriate to their situation that day. However, sometimes teachers notice and understand that certain students are having difficulties as the lesson continues, thus prompting the teachers to further familiarize them with the target language through natural supplementary explanations. Unscheduled events also frequently occur. Teachers must be flexible under such conditions and may need to adapt their lessons based on similar experiences they have had in the past. At times, they discuss lessons with their colleagues and vocalize their impressions of student progress. In this way, many school elements become embedded in daily life, including the joys of teaching, depression, struggles, and a sense of accomplishment. Consciously or unconsciously, teachers live through their own professional growth process. Their teaching lives are present in the classroom at all times. In recent years, several studies involving classroom-based approaches have identified a variety of components related to the professional growth of teachers. For example, Johnson (1999) stated that “learning to teach requires the acquisition of knowledge about all facets of classroom life” (43). To understand “all facets of classroom life”, teachers must closely examine each one. Sometimes this is done through a smaller and more focused lens, while other times require a more distant overview. When observing a classroom in either manner, teachers may experience different types of awareness, thus gaining insight into their teaching methods while deepening their understanding of the learning experience. The concept of classroom “awareness” is one aspect of this and generates questions about teachers’ growth in the context of language teaching, which drives further

3  TEACHER AWARENESS, KIZUKI: A FORM OF PROFESSIONAL… 

21

investigation. Some researchers have proposed models and mechanisms to support teachers in developing a better awareness of their professional development within the context of their own classrooms. For instance, Freeman’s (1989) model of teacher development includes the components of knowledge, attitude, skills, and awareness, with awareness being “a superordinate constituent, [which] plays a fundamental role in how the teacher makes use of the other three constituents” (35). This poses some important questions. What does the teacher notice? What are the clues they must recognize in their language teaching? What happens after teacher awareness has been established? As demonstrated, “awareness” plays an important role in bringing out the cues for teacher development found within the language classroom. In Sakamoto (2011), I developed the concept of “teachers’ awareness” using the Japanese word “kizuki”. In Japanese culture, this notion is valued as a momentary, inner, and delicate action. I argued that kizuki plays an important role for teachers, specifically as a lens for continuously examining and understanding the landscape of classroom phenomena, including every moment, every lesson, and every day in the classroom, as follows: Here, however, the author would like to discuss the concept of Japanese word kizuki, which plays a very important role in this study. It means to notice by chance a phenomenon that we previously were not aware of or did not pay attention to in our everyday lives. The word kizuki implies cognitive processing or the transition of awareness rather than a state of consciousness and can be roughly translated as ‘becoming aware of, noticing,’ or ‘realizing’. This notion is shared by school teachers without being defined as a scientific term; it is rather holistic and is generated when a sudden shift of perspectives or viewpoints regarding classroom phenomena was experienced by the teacher. (Sakamoto, 2011, p. 188)

Teachers’ awareness is a crucial factor in professional development from a sociocultural perspective. Kizuki is derived from “a sudden shift of perspectives or viewpoints”. Within the mix of classroom elements, or events and phenomena that often go unnoticed because they are so commonplace, it therefore plays a crucial role in helping teachers understand what is actually happening as well as how they can understand it and the way in which they must face such events in the context of classroom life. In the article, I discussed teacher awareness (or kizuki) as a trigger for three specific loops of awareness: the cognitive, emotional, and collegial;

22 

N. SAKAMOTO

these are also three different aspects of teacher development. Teacher awareness is a crucial factor in professional development from a sociocultural perspective. Based on the understanding that teacher development occurs within relationships derived from social and cultural communities, this earlier study focused on the perspectives of a teacher of English as a foreign language (EFL) in order to look at the transformation of her kizuki. More specifically, the work traced the process of teacher development experienced by one young novice Japanese teacher of English, referred to as “the partner teacher”. While developing social relationships with classroom participants, the partner teacher experienced kizuki about her own teaching practices. A qualitative analysis of her narratives showed that she had stepped forward in the process of her own teacher development as a result of experiencing three different kinds of awareness. In doing so, her teaching theory shifted to create a vital transformation of her “life” in the classroom. This was explained through the three abovementioned loops of awareness: the (1) cognitive, (2) emotional, and (3) collegial. Each form of awareness cues teachers to use a specific lens when processing classroom phenomena, depicting the teaching and learning landscapes, and understanding the classroom as a whole (Fig. 3.1). The narrative data collected from ALTs during the current project were analysed with a focus on teacher awareness as a key concept, reapplying the concept of three different awareness types when inquiring about the Teachers’ Professional Growth

Emotional loop

Cognitive loop

Collegial loop

Teachers Awareness: Kizuki

Fig. 3.1  Loop of awareness in teachers’ professional growth

3  TEACHER AWARENESS, KIZUKI: A FORM OF PROFESSIONAL… 

23

process of professional development. The question, then, is what aspects of the language classroom come into focus through each awareness type. Each kizuki uses that aspect to understand the language classroom.

The Three Loops of Awareness Cognitive Awareness Of the three awareness types involved in kizuki, the cognitive type is mainly focused on teaching and learning in the classroom. The word “cognitive” itself means that something is “based on the knowledge gained from experiences”. Here, I would like to employ the word “cognitive” to more specifically express something that is “based on the knowledge gained from lived teaching experiences in the classroom”. In the classroom context, student learning occurs at the individual level, during collaborative work with peers, and at the level of the whole group. In a sense, it is difficult for teachers to adopt an outside perspective to see the amount of deeper learning that occurs at the individual level. By more closely observing individual student efforts, however, we gradually become aware of their accomplishments and struggles in the classroom. During paired work, for example, things that are difficult to accomplish alone may be performed with the help of a classmate, which causes rapid growth among participants, as if a chemical reaction has occurred. These types of situations and changes in student attitudes towards learning may then influence the teaching style. Thus, the teacher will design the next lesson by applying what they gained from this feedback process, as appropriate. By using a lens that focuses on teaching and learning (i.e., cognitive awareness), we can better determine which materials are appropriate for students, the roles that teachers should play in each situation, how overall classroom learning occurs, and the ways lessons can be applied to reflect students’ language. This creates an opportunity for teachers to build their own theories about which aspects they need most, as well as those they would like to implement, thus enabling them to determine whether their abilities are being enhanced. They then learn to revisit and develop their own teaching methods through cognitive awareness; that is, they become teacher learners. Once a view of the classroom is obtained through cognitive awareness, the loop of cognitive awareness initiates their own teaching feedback while highlighting opportunities to develop their methods.

24 

N. SAKAMOTO

Cognitive awareness helps teachers understand that student learning is connected to language improvement and growth. This deepens the importance of social relationships in the context of whole-class learning, which does not merely involve recognizing and remembering each lesson separately but also includes the need to reflect on each lesson in order to improve future lessons. The new lens that teachers can access through cognitive awareness enables them to circulate these ideas through continuous feedback, thus creating a renewed sense of awareness about both teaching and teacher learning. Emotional Awareness The second form of awareness under kizuki is the emotional type, which emerges from affective dimensions such as joy, surprise, sadness, anger, disappointment, and/or feelings of fulfilment in the classroom. For example, teachers may feel happy when they notice that students are making efforts to engage in language learning but become disappointed or discouraged when well-prepared teaching plans are not appropriate for the particular level of learning students require on a given day. These are natural reactions in the context of the social and cultural relationships that occur in the classroom space. Positive emotions lead teachers to face language teaching with enthusiasm, while negative emotions may cause them to feel they cannot perform well in the same environment. However, negative emotions are not always bad. In fact, such awareness can lead teachers to reflect on themselves and thus alter their practices. For example, the behaviours of sharing and discussing these kizuki with their peers and colleagues are clues that they must progress to the next stage as language teachers. In regard to the relationships they have with students and colleagues, these aspects of emotional awareness enable teachers to learn and grow through their own experiences. Mental and emotional movements that emerge in the classroom give teachers the energy to overcome the struggles and difficulties they confront in language teaching. They must care for the mind in order to support and develop their students while also gaining the motivation to learn and improve their own abilities as language teachers. This requires the passion to step forward in their own continued professional development. Emotional awareness also pertains to the construction of the teacher’s own identity in the classroom community. Experiences of kizuki make it clear that they are not teaching machines upon entering the classroom but

3  TEACHER AWARENESS, KIZUKI: A FORM OF PROFESSIONAL… 

25

are persons who nurture students while learning and developing relationships as participants in that environment. In this regard, empathy is important when teaching and is achieved through emotional awareness. Empathy can be experienced with students and colleagues, including ALTs. This creates opportunities for teachers to view language learning and teaching from the same viewpoint as others, thereby grasping and understanding classroom phenomena. Teachers are instructors as well as human beings, who may sometimes show empathy for individual students. In sum, emotional awareness enhances and reinforces their sense of community within the classroom. Collegial Awareness In teaching, collegiality does not only refer to friendships among teachers. Collegial awareness often occurs when teachers collectively see student development in the classroom. In fact, very small factors may initiate collegial awareness, such as encouraging words from senior teachers or the practice of sharing information about student learning with colleagues. It is also important to note that collegial awareness can function in both positive and negative ways depending on different aspects of daily classroom life. For example, the partner teacher in my earlier study (Sakamoto, 2011) found that her colleagues tested her assumptions about her own teaching, thus positively influencing her perceptions within the collegial loop of awareness. Even if there are school teams, teachers work alone in the classroom, where they must face students by themselves. Teachers design and prepare their own lessons, stand in front of students, practice language teaching, engage in self-reflection, and revise lesson designs. Even in the context of one language lesson, teachers will experience hundreds of instances in which they must make their own decisions in order to adapt to student learning needs. Do I need to reallocate more time for paired work because students are a bit slow? Judging from their retention of today’s work, it may be best to add some reading practice to the assignment. Is it better to add another handout to help students prepare for their speech presentations? Teachers pose and answer these types of questions alone. In a sense, we can easily imagine that certain boundaries exist between teachers and their students. As the teacher independently faces the classroom, their sense of teamwork may therefore be diminished. However, collegial awareness creates the sense that a team still exists, thereby reminding teachers

26 

N. SAKAMOTO

that they can share perspectives on teaching. Moreover, teachers may pick up on hints that help them understand students and thereby improve their language lessons through casual interactions with colleagues. What distinguishes teachers from “co-workers” is that they not only teach specific subjects in similar ways under the same curriculum to achieve common goals but must also nurture students as a team. They must collaboratively support student learning and will at times influence the futures of their students based on how they envision society. Collegial awareness enables teachers to gather a diversity of tips that help them grow within the teaching profession. It also plays important roles in developing various perspectives, facilitating common support, learning from others, and sharing teaching goals. Teachers may not be able to discuss these issues with colleagues on busy school days, but those who gain collegial awareness remain in its loop, in which they will develop a better understanding of the value of classroom life.

Summary In this chapter, I reviewed three different types of awareness pertaining to the concept of kizuki, each of which constitutes a fundamental aspect in the area of professional teacher development. In Sakamoto (2011), I introduced the concept of the “loop” as a way to describe the trajectories that connected these concepts within the partner teacher’s teaching theory; more specifically, I used circles to illustrate a relationship map showing how each concept interacted to create a dynamic loop of awareness. By examining all three loops of teacher awareness within the teaching theory as shown on the map, we can also see links connecting individual loops, thereby binding them into a mutual relationship. Kizuki can drive the cognitive, emotional, and collegial loops of awareness for language teachers. In other words, teacher awareness is a fundamental factor for their professional growth. The new teaching perspectives gained through kizuki can also be adapted to better understand issues related to classroom phenomena. In daily classroom life, each lesson is rife with chaotic and complicated phenomena that also hold significance and meaning. In this space, we teachers continually imagine ways to improve student learning for the purpose of helping each one achieve a brighter future. Looking at Fig.  3.1, the three loops of awareness appear two-­ dimensional. However, as we trace the process of teacher development

3  TEACHER AWARENESS, KIZUKI: A FORM OF PROFESSIONAL… 

27

and identity construction, the flow of time becomes a crucial aspect of describing the cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness. Experience accumulates through daily teaching life, thus becoming empirical knowledge. As teachers use each lens of awareness to observe their students and share this information with their colleagues, sudden insights will often lead to solutions. These insights and experiences accumulate to create value in daily classroom life, thus becoming the basis of unique teaching theories. Each awareness type grows in three-dimensional space, including the flow of time, to form a spiral construction in the context of professional development. As teachers repeatedly experience meaningful forms of awareness through teaching, they can accurately trace their development as language teachers. Using these loops, ALTs may thus gain access to lenses through which they can better envision how to (re)construct their identities within the professional development process. This book examines what ALT narratives reveal about the formulation of unique teaching theories in the context of kizuki and the three loops of awareness. Many different events occur in the classroom setting, where diverse elements simultaneously and chaotically mix. To develop a careful understanding of the classroom, I have discussed three very different lenses of awareness that jointly enable a better understanding of everyday teaching. In regard to the different aspects of daily classroom life, the three awareness types can function in both positive and negative ways. In sum, they are mutually interwoven in my kizuki model of teacher awareness, thus combining to create new opportunities for teacher development.

References Freeman, D. (1989). Teacher training, development, and decision making: A model of teaching and related strategies for language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 23(1), 27–45. Johnson, K.  E. (1999). Understanding language teaching: Reasoning in action. Heinle and Heinle. Sakamoto, N. (2011). Professional development through kizuki—Cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness. Teacher Development, 15(2), 187–203.

CHAPTER 4

Overview of the Study

Introduction This chapter traces the key notions of this book: language teacher identity, investment, and teacher awareness. Each of these terms is a key guide to understanding the narratives of Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in this book. The chapter also explores the methodology of narrative inquiry as used to examine ALTs’ teacher identities from a teacherresearcher perspective within the limitations of the interview process. Inquiring into language teachers’ narratives and thereby encouraging their self-reflection help them understand their classroom teaching and take steps forward in the process of their professional development. The last part of this chapter explains the methods in detail, describing how I collected narrative data and the techniques of data analysis I employed. The interviews with Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) were semistructured and semi-­guided; they were asked to tell “stories” about how they experienced language teaching in Japan. The value of collecting and analysing narrative data is that such data provide access to participants’ own interpretations of their beliefs, knowledge, and learning. Analysing such “stories” also enables us to trace the emerging awareness of participants’ learning over time.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0_4

29

30 

N. SAKAMOTO

Language Teacher Identity Language teachers learn through developing their teaching theories, wherein various aspects of their teaching are interwoven. These aspects include how they construct their identity as language teachers. Language teacher identity is the subject of a growing body of research in applied linguistics, and it has become an important topic in recent years (Duff & Uchida, 1997; Johnston, 1999, 2003; Morgan, 2004; Pavlenko, 2003; Varghese, 2001, 2004). Varghese (2001) indicates that the professional identity of bilingual and foreign language teachers had recently emerged as a central topic of research in language teacher education. For many years, language teachers were regarded as teaching professionals responsible for teaching students a target language using an appropriate methodology; however, when researchers started to investigate language classrooms holistically, multiple “puzzles” (Allwright, 2003) about teachers in language teaching and learning became obvious. Clearly, the classroom and its teacher are influenced by several factors, such as classroom conditions, the learning stages of the students, and their backgrounds, mutual relationships, and motivations, among others. Language teachers’ identities are affected by their social, cultural, historical, and political characteristics. A language classroom is a social and cultural space in which learners and teachers learn and teach within the social relationships among the participants and their unique classroom culture. Moreover, each school has its own historical context, grounded on its approaches to language teaching and learning. Participants spend their teaching and learning life in these schools—their experiences encompass these historical processes. Against this backdrop, one element in particular pertains to language teachers as teaching professionals. Leading studies on teachers’ beliefs, cognition, knowledge, and behaviour (Johnson, 1992, 2009; Johnson & Golombek, 2011; Woods, 1996) indicate the importance of analysing the identity of language teachers within the classroom landscape. Participants in language classrooms—students, language teachers, and ALTs—share the time and space intended for teaching and learning and consequently also create their own classroom culture and context. Approaching the classroom holistically—including the various and complex aspects of language teaching and learning—van Lier (2000) portrayed the classroom as a living ecology. Through his ecological approach, he argued that “a more

4  OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 

31

integrated and holistic view of language education can give a deeper understanding of the nature of education” through sociocultural theory (van Lier, 2000). Based on the concept of “affordance”, he articulated the relationships between learners and the environment (classrooms, in this case). Identity is constructed both internally and among people in social relationships. The relationships among the participants in the classroom are characterized by constant complex interactions—we teach, learn, and grow. From a sociocultural point of view, Allwright (2003) and Hanks (2017, 2019) proposed an “exploratory practice” approach to understanding classroom life. Language teachers grow in language teaching classrooms; their identities are (re)constructed in the relationships among the participants. Narrative inquiry is one of the most rapidly growing theoretical approaches to language teacher identity. Johnson and Golombek (2002) explain that “narrative inquiry” allows us to understand teacher cognition, beliefs, and theory by tracing their teaching practices. Based on the narrative approach, the authors wrote: They [teachers] individually and collectively question their assumptions as they uncover who they are, where they have come from, what they know and believe, and why they teach as they do. Through such inquiry, teachers recognize the consequences of their beliefs, knowledge, and experiences on what and how they teach. They recognize who their students are, where their students have come from, what their students know, and what their students need to know. (p. 5)

The authors showed that teachers’ narratives—by telling and re-­ telling—enhance the process of making sense of their teaching. It creates opportunities for teachers to reflectively understand afresh their experience of teaching. Likewise, Duff and Uchida (1997) analysed language teacher identity from a sociocultural point of view. In an ethnographic study at a private EFL centre in Japan, they conducted interviews with two Japanese and two American language teachers. The authors asked the teachers about the interrelationships between teachers’ sociocultural identities and teaching practices and explained language teacher identity through a biographical, professional, and contextual process. Their study revealed the paths of teacher socialization and further identified how teachers in cross-cultural contexts resolve conflicts related to their sociocultural roles and personae.

32 

N. SAKAMOTO

Regarding her own work in analysing teacher identity from sociocultural and sociopolitical perspectives, Norton (1997) writes, “I use the term identity to refer to how people understand their relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities for the future” (p.  410). She attempts to comprehend teacher identity, including individual potential, by analysing it in light of the construction and reconstruction of their relationships with the world. Language teaching involves many complex factors for teachers, such as whether they are native or non-native speakers, experienced or novice, what experience of language learning they have, and the methods used to teach their students. Identity can also be constructed and reconstructed through intertwined connections between the past, present, and future. Teacher identity can be described as the process by which teachers understand and position themselves in the time and space of the classroom. Identity does not exist a priori, but rather is constructed through relationships with other people in varied environments. For language teachers, identity is constructed in spaces such as classrooms, which present various complex elements of social, cultural, historical, and political contexts. Language teachers have two aspects to their identity: teachers of language and learners of teaching—how they teach and how they learn to teach. These issues are dynamic and unpredictable, but teachers know that the answers lie in the classroom. Sometimes they recognize clues to answers in the responses of learners, sometimes in feedback from colleagues, and sometimes in their reflections and deliberations. Once they gain an understanding of what the ownership of teacher learning is like, their teaching starts to transform. When language teachers view the footprints of their transformation, envision their future teaching, and reflect on their current teaching, the process of their identity construction as a language teacher begins to shift. The term language teacher identity indicates the processes of change through which teachers transform their values and beliefs into social relationships and refers to the situations in which their meaning-making process takes place and community membership is acquired. I attempt to understand language teacher identities in the classroom from a sociocultural perspective (see Chap. 9). Building on this notion, this book traces the identity transformation of Assistant Language Teachers in Japan, identifies the elements that affect them in the (re)construction of their identities, and seeks to understand what has guided them through the process of professional development.

4  OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 

33

Investment In this book, another significant perspective taken from narrative analysis is “investment”. The notion of “investment” in second language acquisition was developed by Norton (2010) and will be used to explain some of the elements that surface in the ALTs’ narratives. When non-native speakers migrate from their native countries for political or economic reasons, it is essential for them to overcome hardship in their new environment and to learn a new language and culture to support their new lives. Norton termed this “investment” (Norton, 2010). Studies have shown that negative experiences in language learning can reduce learners’ motivation. Norton distinguishes “negative motivation” from “investment”. She analysed Second Language Acquisition (SLA) learning approaches from the viewpoint of the relationship between learners and the social and cultural aspects of their background, rather than from a psychological perspective. Norton (2013) develops the distinction between “investment” and “motivation” as follows: The conception of instrumental motivation presupposes a unitary, fixed, and ahistorical language learner who desires access to material resources that are the privilege of target language speakers. The notion of investment, on the other hand, conceives of the language learner as having a complex social history and multiple desires. The notion presupposes that when language learners speak, they are not only exchanging information with target language speakers, but they are constantly organizing and reorganizing a sense of who they are and how they relate to the social world. Thus an investment in the target language is also an investment in a learner’s own identity, an identity which is constantly changing across time and space. (pp. 50–51)

Capturing the relationship between investment and identity in the social world, Norton explains that motivation is concerned with accessing “material resources that are the privilege of target language speakers”, but investment aims at identity (re)construction in the community where they are. For example, as analysed in Sakamoto (2011), a Japanese teacher of English (JTE) was not concerned about bridging a cultural or language gap in the classroom. This is understandable because she was Japanese and shared the Japanese language and culture with her students. However, in the case of ALTs, the situation is different. The classroom, where all the participants interact in fluent Japanese, sometimes becomes a place for

34 

N. SAKAMOTO

ALTs to experience hardship and feel isolated. They may not have expected this while they were in their native country due to their confidence in their ability to teach English; after all, they can use the language with no difficulty. This language barrier sometimes becomes an even greater obstacle than teaching English. Thus, even though they are teaching English or participating in club activities daily, they sometimes feel that they are isolated or do not belong to the classroom community. This is due to the historical and cultural gaps between their native countries and Japan. This impression may vary among workplaces as each school has its own unique culture. Despite their attempts to understand these aspects in the cross-­ cultural context, the gaps in culture, language, and customs, and the uniqueness of each school, create felt barriers between ALTs and the communities of Japanese classrooms. Overcoming and crossing barriers is part of the process of their identity (re)construction and of professional development in a cross-cultural context. Each ALT invests consciously and unconsciously in their own way. Some invest time in learning Japanese, while others invest time with students and share ways to communicate with each other at school. This might be natural for JTEs, but for ALTs it requires new efforts in foreign areas. The analysis of their narrative data will clarify the details of how they overcame these hardships. In Chap. 7 of this book, I will focus on their investment in their language teaching, trace their narratives, and inquire how they experienced boundary-crossing in Japanese classrooms during their language teaching lives.

Teacher Awareness In teaching, what phenomena and events are teachers observing and understanding? To what extent are teachers aware of events and phenomena in the classroom? Teacher awareness is an important aspect of their development. They continue to understand their teaching in the classroom by observing students’ learning, recognize the effects of their teaching, and reflect on their teaching with a critical eye. Fostering teachers’ multiple viewpoints on language teaching in classrooms is crucial to help them in their professional development. This further concept of teacher awareness is one of the keys to understanding teacher identity in this study. In recent years, several studies using classroom-based approaches have recognized several components of teachers’ professional growth. Freeman’s

4  OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 

35

teacher development model (1998) provided a basic understanding of the elements that comprise teacher development, including awareness. In the KASA (knowledge, attitude, skills, and awareness) model, he defined awareness in the classroom as “a superordinate constituent, [that] play[s] a fundamental role in how the teacher makes use of the other three constituents [attitude, skills, and knowledge]” (p.35). Teacher awareness influences the improvement of their attitudes, skills, and knowledge. The more aspects teachers are aware of, the more opportunities they gain to change. The narrative data introduced in this book are analysed with a focus on teacher awareness as a key concept, based on my concept of three different types of awareness (Sakamoto 2011) (see Chap. 6). In Sakamoto (2011) I developed the concept of teacher awareness using the Japanese word kizuki to highlight a sudden feeling of inner understanding of a phenomenon—this notion is valued by Japanese people and culture as a momentary, inner, and delicate action. Teacher awareness plays an important role as a lens through which to see and understand the landscape of classroom phenomena continuously recurring, through every lesson and every day in the classroom. Certain teachers are aware of the smallest details in a scene in the classroom, while others let them pass unnoticed. Furthermore, some teachers only notice, while others provide reflective feedback on what they experience as awareness. The difference in the degree and level of teacher awareness is partly due to personality and skills, but more due to their experience and where the teacher is in the process of professional development. For example, in some situations, teachers may need proximity to be aware of the changes, efforts, or struggles of the students. In some cases, awareness moves teachers to transform positively in the moment. In these positive cases, their awareness unlocks their understanding of what is happening in teaching and the real meanings of the phenomena, refracted through their teaching theory. Teaching theories can change, and hence teachers continue to improve by updating their theoretical knowledge. The ongoing development of these principles contributes to the construction of their teacher identity. This is also a step in the process of teacher development. The concept of awareness in the classroom generates questions about teachers’ growth in language teaching that drives the investigation of the process of ALTs working on their professional development in the present study. Awareness has an important role in providing the clues for teacher development in the language classroom.

36 

N. SAKAMOTO

Data Collection and Method of Analysis In this book, as the primary source of data, I explore six interviews with three Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) who were teaching in Japanese schools. Two were JET ALTs and one was a non-JET ALT, all from different countries (Canada, New Zealand, and the United States). The two interviews were conducted with each ALT on separate occasions while they were teaching at public secondary schools in Japan. The first interview was conducted at an early stage of their career and just after they had started to teach English in Japan. The second interview was carried out between five months and one year after their first interview. It is once they had some experience of teaching and living in Japan. The interviews with the three ALTs in this book were conducted by the author, and mutual interaction was encouraged based on questions prepared in advance through a pilot study. I sometimes inserted additional questions in response to the themes raised in our interaction. The questions were mainly about their teaching experiences, joy and difficulties in teaching, team-teaching lessons, their teaching goals, and teacher beliefs. In addition to the interview data, the following types of data were used in the analysis when necessary: video-taped lessons, field notes, interviews with JTEs who had team-teaching lessons with an ALT, reflections written by students who participated in the ALT’s lessons, students’ written questionnaires, and my reflections upon the interviews. The narrative data collected in the interviews of the ALTs were transcribed and qualitatively analysed. The qualitative analysis in this study was based on the grounded theory approach (GTA). The GTA does not describe a theory a priori; rather, it elicits theories grounded on the data collected throughout the study. Through the interviews, I explored how ALTs construct and reconstruct their identities in their classrooms and what led them through the process of professional development as language teachers. The methodology of this study is based on GTA as presented by Strauss and Corbin (1998), but I modified it to uncover the inner aspects of ALTs’ transformations. First, I did not conduct data collection and analysis in turn in dealing with each of the ALTs. Instead, after collecting a certain amount of data, I analysed that interview data thoroughly and then described the landscape of teaching theory for each ALT based on the results of the analysis. Second, although the original form of GTA views maintaining a distance from the data as important and tries to exclude the

4  OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 

37

researchers’ view to avoid subjective and arbitrary interpretations, in this study, I sometimes relied on my intuition as a teacher-researcher to understand each ALT’s experiences, referring to the reality of language teaching in the contexts of schools and classrooms. As long as I remain sensitive to my standpoint as a “teacher-researcher” (Freeman, 1998), seeing the data with the eyes of both a practitioner and a researcher, I can remain aware of which standpoint I occupy and capture the data from multiple perspectives through different lenses. Through this attention to the data, it can be said that my analysis avoids being overly subjective or arbitrary. Applying this modified GTA, I extracted concepts marking each ALT’s and JTE’s teacher development and identity (re)constructions and constructed a storyline by relating those concepts. The relationships among the categories are shown in concept mappings, which visualize the ALTs’ identity transformation, teaching theories, and professional development. Each of the concept mappings also expresses ALTs’ teaching theories, including their ideas, thoughts, feelings, and changes in thinking about their practice. In the analysis, mindful of the theory of close reading (Teranishi, 2008), I also paid attention to style—how the narrative was presented, in addition to the content of their story—because, as many narratologists and stylisticians suggest, the style often makes meaning, and its examination enhances the depth and accuracy of the understanding of the narrative. The teachers and students involved were asked to tell stories about how they experienced language teaching in Japan. The value of collecting and analysing narrative data is that it provides access to participants’ interpretations of their beliefs, knowledge, and learning. As a limitation of this methodology, I acknowledge that interviews tell us something important about how the interviewee wants to be perceived while recognizing that this itself is an important factor in their perception of their situation. Because the interviews were only semi-guided, the interviewees’ topic choices are informative in themselves, including aspects that are salient and important to them. Analysing such narratives also enables us to trace the emerging awareness of participants’ learning over time. In the following chapters, I will analyse the narrative data from each teacher and tease out the common aspects among the ALTs. Through careful observation of their narratives based on the three different types of awareness—cognitive, emotional, and collegial—together with the notion of “investment”, I will explain how they constructed or reconstructed their identities in the language classroom.

38 

N. SAKAMOTO

Summary This chapter discussed concepts fundamental to this study: teacher identity, investment, and teacher awareness. I also explored the methodology of narrative inquiry as used to examine the identities of ALTs as teachers from a teacher-researcher perspective within the limitations of the interview process. The results of research on narrative inquiry indicate that inquiring into language teachers’ narratives, thereby encouraging their self-reflection, helps them understand their classroom teaching and progress in their professional development. In this chapter, I also explained the process in detail, how I collected narrative data, and the methods of analyses employed, based on the Grounded Theory Approach (GTA) (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) and a close reading of the interview transcripts. All data collected and analysed in this study were narratives, the value of which lies in providing access to participants’ interpretations of their beliefs, knowledge, and learning. Interviews tell us something important about how the interviewee wants to be perceived, and because the interviews were only semi-guided, the interviewees’ choices of topic are informative in themselves. Analysing such narratives also enables us to trace the emerging awareness of participants’ learning over time.

References Allwright, D. (2003). Exploratory practice: Rethinking practitioner research in language teaching. Language Teaching Research, 7(2), 113–141. Duff, P. A., & Uchida, Y. (1997). Negotiation of teachers’ sociocultural identities and practices in postsecondary EFL classrooms. TESOL Quarterly, 31(3), 451–486. Freeman, D. (1998). Doing teacher research: From inquiry to understanding. Heinle and Heinle. Hanks, J. (2017). Exploratory practice in language teaching: Puzzling about principles and practices. Palgrave Macmillan. Hanks, J. (2019). From research-as-practice to exploratory practice-as-research in language teaching and beyond. Language Teaching, 52(2), 143–187. Johnson, K. E. (1992). The relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices during literacy instruction for non-native speakers of English. Journal of Reading Behavior, 24(1), 83–108. Johnson, K. E. (2009). Second language teacher education: A sociocultural perspective. Routledge.

4  OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 

39

Johnson, K. E., & Golombek, P. R. (2002). Teachers’ narrative inquiry as professional development. Cambridge University Press. Johnson, K. E., & Golombek, P. R. (Eds.). (2011). Research on second language teacher education: A sociocultural perspective on professional development. Routledge. Johnston, B. E. (1999). The power of language: Second language acquisition, narrative, and identity [Ph.D. thesis]. University of Houston. Johnston, B. (2003). Values in English language teaching. Routledge. Morgan, B. (2004). Teacher identity as pedagogy: Towards a field-internal conceptualisation in bilingual and second language education. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 7(2–3), 172–188. Norton, B. (1997). Language, identity, and ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly, 31(3), 409–429. Norton, B. (2010). Language and identity. Sociolinguistics and Language Education, 23(3), 349–369. Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters. Pavlenko, A. (2003). ‘I never knew I was a bilingual’: Reimagining teacher identities in TESOL. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 2(4), 251–268. Sakamoto, N. (2011). Professional development through kizuki—Cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness. Teacher Development, 15(2), 187–203. Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research techniques. Sage Publications. Teranishi, M. (2008). Polyphony in fiction: A stylistic analysis of Middlemarch, Nostromo, and Herzog. Peter Lang Publishing. Van Lier, L. (2000). From input to affordance: Social-interactive learning from an ecological perspective. Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning, 78(4), 245. Varghese, M. (2001). Professional development as a site for the conceptualization and negotiation of bilingual teacher identities. In B. Johnston & S. Irujo (Eds.), Research and practice in language teacher education: Voices from the field (pp.  213–232). University of Minnesota, Center for Advanced Research in Second Language Acquisition. Varghese, M. (2004). Professional development for bilingual teachers in the United States: Articulating and contesting professional roles. In J.  Brutt-­ Griffler & M. Varghese (Eds.), Re-writing bilingualism and the bilingual educator’s knowledge base (pp. 130–145). Multilingual Matters. Woods, D. (1996). Teacher cognition in language teaching: Beliefs, decision-making and classroom practice. Cambridge University Press.

CHAPTER 5

Tracing Process 1: Their Stories Begin

Introduction How do teachers trace their professional development? Do different types of language teachers have different needs in terms of professional development? This book traces the professional development models of three Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) by analysing their narratives. From Chaps. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, each chapter describes an individual process found in their narratives through the interviews, and I attempt to highlight their voices by directly quoting from their narrative data. The ALTs’ stories start in this chapter, which focuses on the narratives from their first interviews, taken when they had just begun teaching in Japan. As their first impressions of language teaching in Japan, May, Andrew, and Simon, the three ALTs, observed gaps between their expectations of Japanese students and the reality of those students, along with cultural differences and the different characteristics of different schools. Through the experience of confusion and struggles with these gaps, each of the ALTs questioned and started to step forward in their own approaches to teaching English to their students in each school context.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0_5

41

42 

N. SAKAMOTO

May’s Transformation of Her Perspectives on Teaching May is a Canadian ALT who came to Japan through the JET Programme. She had studied Japanese by herself in her high school days, and she took a Japanese major for one year at university. Before coming to Japan, she had taught English in Thailand as a volunteer language assistant for three months. She came to Hyogo, Japan, in April, which is an unusual time for an ALT to start under the JET Programme. This was because the previous ALT at her junior high school needed to return home suddenly. When I interviewed her, she was teaching at a public junior high school attached to a university and had daily team-teaching lessons with three different Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) for students across three grades. I was one of the JTEs. She was, exceptionally, allowed to continue teaching for five years—more than the normal maximum period. The conceptual relationship obtained through the analysis of May’s first interview is shown in the following map (Fig. 5.1). In the maps created in this study, I located each concept following the categorization of the contents and labelled each of the concepts with a letter. To distinguish the content categories, I used ovals on the maps, with the arrangement on the maps indicating the conceptual relationships. Throughout the interviews, the ALTs shared some common key

Fig. 5.1  Map of relationships from May’s first interview

5  TRACING PROCESS 1: THEIR STORIES BEGIN 

43

concepts, while others differed. Moreover, the frequency of each concept varied depending on the interview. On the maps, concepts appearing with considerable frequency were placed towards the middle, while concepts that are strongly relevant to each other were grouped, as indicated by the ovals. In May’s conceptual relationship map, there are 17 elements. a. Reflection on her teaching experience in the past b. The gap between Japanese and Canadian language education c. The gap between the image and the reality of the understanding of students d. Necessity of supporting students e. Struggles about English f. Students’ trust in and reliance on JTEs g. Difficulties and anxiety over evaluation h. Students’ efforts i. Students’ accomplishments j. Feeling left out in the classroom k. Effectiveness of speaking Japanese l. Sense of ease with JTEs m. Support from JTEs n. Emerging ideas of lesson design o. Awareness of and delight in self-efficacy p. Reflection on elements required for teaching q. Awareness of the meaning of being in the classroom At the beginning of the first interview, she (a) reflected on her teaching experience in the past and noticed (b) the gap between Japanese and Canadian language education and (c) the gap between the image and the reality of the understanding of students. Her observations led her to acknowledge the (d) necessity of supporting students and, at the same time, her own (e) struggles with English, which is how she can simplify her English so that her students can understand it. Furthermore, she started to consider the (k) effectiveness of speaking Japanese. Through observing (h) students’ efforts and (i) students’ accomplishments in language learning, she felt that her (n) emerging ideas of lesson design with (m) support from JTEs worked effectively. As she herself experienced (o) awareness of and delight in self-efficacy and (p) reflection on elements required for teaching, she started to be (q) aware of the meaning of being in the

44 

N. SAKAMOTO

classroom. In the first interview, her narratives started from an awareness that led to a transformation of her viewpoint on teaching, and she reflected on a scene where she had made some teaching materials for a lesson and received some advice from a JTE who was team teaching with her. (Throughout my narrative analysis in this book, all the italics are the author’s. M is May, and N is the author here.) 83  N  Actually, I’m surprised you always try to think …, think of new things. 84  M  Actually, at first, I only did it when I was asked to, so if you asked me to do listening, then I would just make one. 85  N  Really? Mmm, I didn’t think so. You always do it by yourself. 86  M  I didn’t think about it before, I guess, but for some reasons, like when we were going to do their first exam, I had written something. I didn’t even think about the grammar stuffs. 87 N I see. 88  M  But then you said ‘Oh, if you can use grammar and vocab from their learning …. from their recent learning, that’s best.’ And it clicked and I realized ‘Oh, I should have something specifically for that grammar.’ And then at that’s point I thought there should be a listening exercise for each chapter, to be appropriate. 89 N I see. 90  M  So this is the kind of thing they want us to do, teach culture in class, but I don’t wanna just … but I wanna make it relevant to the language, so this is a good chance to merge [in] something personal. Like this is why I’m here.

Throughout the first interview, May talked about episodes in which she had the opportunity to think about her language teaching. In excerpt 84, for instance, she seems to regret that she could not make teaching materials autonomously when she came to Japan. However, reflecting on an occasion when her JTE advised her to use the new grammar points and vocabulary—thereby adapting to her students’ learning stages—she expressed her cognition at that time by using clicked and realized. The word clicked, in particular, highlights the moment when a switch turned on in her awareness. She expressed her sudden awareness as something that led her to rethink the meaning or purpose of making the teaching materials, reflecting on her acquisition of a new perspective on teaching materials and thinking about students’ learning stages. She continued her narrative by saying “this is a good chance to merge [in] something

5  TRACING PROCESS 1: THEIR STORIES BEGIN 

45

personal. Like this is why I’m here.” This demonstrates that her transformation through awareness had already started when the first interview was conducted. During the first interview, May also tended to narrate her episodes in the classroom using the first-person singular, as shown in the transcript above. Another episode where she experienced struggles is recorded in the following excerpt, where she describes an interaction while she was speaking English in front of the students in the class (excerpt 127). 127  Actually, I just thought of something, this is one thing I’d like to go down as my personal goal is when I am speaking English, I want to …. I need to modify my English because whenever I speak English, the kids don’t understand me. But I’m sure that if I could think of what they can understand, like what kind of grammar they can understand, I’m sure that I could pretty much communicate in a way they would understand. Like …, make it really basic. But right now, I’m not good at that. So feel …, I feel kind of bad, like they try and they’re watching me, I can see they’re looking at me, and I’m talking in English, but no matter what I do, I know they don’t understand me.

Although she conducted team-teaching classes with JTEs, her use of the first-person singular pronoun suggests she tried to solve the problems in language teaching by herself. Considering her students’ reactions, she attempted to modify her English level to suit the students. Excerpt 127 conveys her sincere response, struggles, and sense of responsibility for teaching English. I can see that she viewed students as one community at the beginning of her teaching in Japan, rather than observing and understanding individual student’s learning. However, her narratives in the first interview showed that she had started to think about communication among people, including students and teachers, in her language classroom. Her story conveys how, at first, she was just doing what the JTE told her to do in her new school and how a simple conversation with her JTE colleague led her to start thinking about her position in the class and creating better teaching materials. The fact that she began to create materials that were more suitable for her students, that she began to struggle because she could not communicate well with her students, and that she tried to improve her teaching based on the students’ responses shows that she gained a novel

46 

N. SAKAMOTO

perspective on teaching itself. May’s story began with a transformation in her view of teaching. Moreover, her narratives show that she also started to reflect on constructing her identity, using the words “Like this is why I’m here” in excerpt 90.

Andrew’s Perspectives on the New Classroom Culture Andrew came from New Zealand through the JET Programme and was concurrently working at two public high schools on different weekdays when I conducted both of the interviews. Of the two schools, one was a public high school, and the other was a public technical high school. As each school had a distinctive teaching purpose, he designed appropriate language activities for each school. Each week, he conducted team-­teaching lessons with many different Japanese teachers of English. The concepts Andrew expressed in his first interview are summarized and visualized in the following map (Fig. 5.2). I have drawn a line in the lower right of the figure, separating two areas of the map. This is because those two concepts, the (j) uniqueness of the

Fig. 5.2  Map of relationships from Andrew’s first interview

5  TRACING PROCESS 1: THEIR STORIES BEGIN 

47

background and the (k) standpoint of identity, are not directly concerned with his teaching, although they still fundamentally influenced his understanding of his identity in the classroom at a subconscious level. The nineteen elements mapped from Andrew’s first interview are: a. Potential of each student b. Relationships with students c. Understanding of students d. Students’ passive character e. Emergence of students’ ownership in learning f. Students’ positive attitudes g. The reality of students h. The gap between expectation and reality i. Struggles with cultural difference j. Uniqueness of background k. Standpoint of identity l. Learning as an ALT m. Struggles in teaching n. Problem-solving o. Negotiation in the classroom p. Appropriate lesson design q. New attempts in the classroom r. Delight as a teacher s. Teacher beliefs At the beginning of the first interview, Andrew observed that (g) the gap between his expectations about Japanese students and the reality of those students, combined with the (i) cultural and characteristic differences of each school confused him in the classroom. By focusing on the inner aspects of each student, he gradually came to (c) understand each of his students. He also started to think about becoming a skilful teacher who could equip students with the ability to use English with confidence in the classroom and began to (o) negotiate his teaching with the reality of the students, making (q) new attempts at language activities in his lessons. The sight of students struggling with English reminded him of his own Japanese studies. In such moments, he reflected on his position in the classroom, wondering how to (s) reconstruct his beliefs as a teacher. When he started teaching, it was a big surprise to him that students could not understand his spoken English in the way he had expected

48 

N. SAKAMOTO

before he came to Japan. He described his frustration in the classroom as follows (excerpt 19): 19  I was surprised a little bit because once I dropped the level of what I was expecting to teach them and I actually started teaching, a lot of them, a lot of the students still struggled to understand some of my basic sentences, conversations and explanations. And in the beginning, that started to frustrate me

This was Andrew’s first experience of teaching at a school, in either his home country or Japan. In his mind, he already had an image of high school students in his home country and a media-informed image of Japanese high school students, but when he came to Japan and faced the reality, he could not hide his surprise at the gap between this expectation and the reality of the students. Even though he had set out to teach English, he was confronted with the reality of students who did not understand English and soon realized there was a bigger problem before he could even think about teaching or teaching methods. For Andrew, who is a kind-hearted and conscientious person, the struggle to teach English when he could not convey what he wanted to say became a source of conflict in everything, including the strategies he had chosen, his approach to students, how to get to know them, and how to select his teaching materials. Often when people feel frustrated, it is because they are making insufficient progress in what they want to do. Even though he could not make himself adequately understood to students in English, he managed to find another way to communicate with them. He also commented on the shyness of his students (excerpt 144). 144  They are very shy. That was what I …, it was also another surprise for me. I didn’t expect the students to be so shy.

As he started teaching day to day, he noticed that his students’ English level differed from the image he had in his head before coming to Japan. Furthermore, the students were very shy, so in the first interview, one of his challenges was how to communicate with them. This was his starting point. 154  They are trying to learn English, and I’m trying to learn Japanese …, I know what you are struggling through.

5  TRACING PROCESS 1: THEIR STORIES BEGIN 

49

As he had previously learned basic Japanese, Andrew commenced further studies on arrival in Japan. What he intended to convey was that it is scary when language learners make mistakes in speaking the target language. He could relate to how they felt. His reflections on his learning of Japanese made him cautious not to make errors in speaking Japanese (excerpt 200). 200  When I am speaking Japanese, I try to be really, really, really careful.

There were signs that this relationship was changing when, as a learner, he began to show empathy towards his students. His attitudes in approaching students started to transform into understanding. Another pertinent issue is the perspective that emerged from his background. Although an ALT from New Zealand, he narrated his two cultural backgrounds as (A is Andrew, and N is the author here.): 203  N  So when you think about your identity itself, which, you know, what is your native country? 204  A  My …, I guess, I guess I will culturally call myself a New Zealander. 205 N New Zealander. 206  A  So I was born in New Zealand and raised up in New Zealand, but there is …, I lived in a special …, I was brought up in a special like scenario were my parents, back home it’s always Chinese and always Chinese culture. And then when I leave the house to go and see my friends, that’s when I experience actual kiwi culture or New Zealand culture. So it’s constantly new to me. I am finding; I am still finding things that, oh, okay, I didn’t know that was part of my culture, and I should learn that. But there is something that I can do better than some other people that have been raised completely in New Zealand as well.

Having grown up with two identities in his home country, as a New Zealander, and as Chinese, he was a part of the Chinese culture at home, but with his friends, he was immersed in New Zealand culture. Depending on the situation in his daily life, he crisscrossed the boundary between these two identities—it was natural for him, and an indication of his cultural uniqueness. The words “that was part of my culture” show a very natural acceptance of that realization. His uniqueness in being able to move back and forth between the two identities would later become an important factor in his professional development as an ALT.

50 

N. SAKAMOTO

In the first interview, he reflected on his days as a teacher, always perplexed. The more he taught, the more he realized how difficult it was for students to learn English. He also struggled with designing language lessons to help students improve their English skills. In his teaching, it was his willingness to work with his students, gradually sharing his perspective as a foreign language learner, while newly understanding their reality in a Japanese classroom culture, which propelled him forward in his professional growth as a teacher.

Simon’s Grounded Teacher Belief Simon came to Japan through the sister-city relationship between a city in Arizona (United States) and the city of Himeji, Hyogo (Japan). He was a non-JET ALT working at a public junior high school. This is an annual one-year work programme, whereby Himeji City welcomes new ALTs from its sister cities. Before coming to Japan, Simon already had language teaching experience in an ESL context at a US university where he facilitated English writing lessons for students of various ages. Of the three ALTs in this study, only Simon had had appropriate experiences as a language teacher. In Simon’s writing class in the United States, his students had various cultural backgrounds and were of various ages, and thus he focused on individual writing practices tailored to each learner’s proficiency level. As shown in Fig.  5.3, the concepts in his first

Fig. 5.3  Map of relationships from Simon’s first interview

5  TRACING PROCESS 1: THEIR STORIES BEGIN 

51

interview indicate that he viewed the language classroom from a multifaceted perspective and through a cognitive lens informed by his knowledge and experience of teaching. In fact, in the first interview, even when he talked about his (f) anxiety with new teaching, (i) difficulty of English, and (j) confusion over different personalities of JTEs, his tone was calm, and he appeared to enjoy these situations and his life in the classroom. It is demonstrated in Fig. 5.3, through his language teaching experience, that he had already constructed his personal teaching style and teacher beliefs. The overall structure of Simon’s narrative is mapped out in Fig.  5.3, and there are 20 elements in the conceptual relationship map from Simon’s first interview: a. Image of ideal students b. Encouragement of students c. Students’ changes d. Difficulty of supporting students e. Communication with students f. Anxiety with new teaching g. Reflection on his own teaching h. Teacher beliefs i. Difficulty of English j. Confusion over the different characters of JTEs k. Comfort at school l. Differences from other ALTs m. Needs for communication n. Need for a comfortable and safe classroom o. Efforts in teaching p. Respect for colleagues q. Need to change r. Learning from awareness s. Mutual feedback with colleagues t. Support from colleagues Simon’s narratives first addressed his (f) anxiety with his new teaching life in Japan and his (h) teacher’s beliefs in the language classroom. As he had previously developed his language teaching style in the United States, he often felt (f) anxiety with the new teaching and (j) confusion over the

52 

N. SAKAMOTO

different characters of Japanese teachers of English (JTEs); he spoke about these at the beginning of his narrative. Under these conditions, even though he faced (d) difficulties supporting students in the new teaching context, he reoriented his (h) teacher beliefs to this new context through (e) communication with each of the students. In the first interview, he repeatedly narrated experiences where he attempted to implement new teaching practices in his new context and tried to communicate with and understand each of the students. A student interview task in particular, which was new to him, made a strong impression. He reflected on the activity in our first interview, as shown below. (S is Simon and N is the author.) 50  S  It was very nice to see them in the hallway and they could ask me many questions, I think. 51  N  Personal questions, about English or something? 52  S  Yeah. They had a list of questions to ask, but many students, after they practiced those questions many times; they came up with their own changes to those questions. 53  N  By themselves? 54 S  Yes. 55  N  Oh, personal questions? 56  S  Yeah, yeah. So, they used those questions as a guide, so maybe, what is your favourite TV program, and then they can say, “What is your favourite flower, what is your favourite …” 57  N  Oh! I see, I see. The lists helped students to ask you some questions. 58 S  Yes. 59  N  I see. Did you make it? 60  S  No. I think Miki made it. 61  N  Miki? I see. Did you have a discussion about your idea or she asked you this idea is okay or …? 62  S  No. I think it was her idea, and actually, it was a surprise to me. 63  N  Ahh! Surprise. Nice surprise. 64  S  I did not know until the students received it. 65  N  I see. 66 S  But it was great.

The interview task was designed by Miki, who was one of Simon’s JTE colleagues at his first school and conducted team-teaching English lessons with him. (She was my colleague for many years while I was teaching at junior high schools.) In this interview task, students approached Simon

5  TRACING PROCESS 1: THEIR STORIES BEGIN 

53

outside the classroom during their breaks, after school, or at lunchtimes. When I interviewed Miki regarding the current study, she said that she positioned this interview task as an important one in her lessons. Every time a new ALT arrives at her school and starts team-teaching lessons, she sets this interview task for two main purposes: to help students build their confidence through interviews in English with a new ALT and to create opportunities for the ALT and students to get to know each other through individual interactions. She mentioned that she had conveyed these two purposes to Simon before they explained this activity to their students in the lesson. Simon reflected that the task was more meaningful than he had expected because of the two goals he shared with Miki: (1) building student confidence in speaking English and (2) getting to know the new ALT through communicating in English. When students have interview tasks during a lesson, some may rely on JTEs, and they may have to halt the interviews because of time constraints even when they are progressing well. Interviews outside the classroom resemble private interactions between individuals— not simply language study—and teachers can utilize the conversations to find out more about the students. Simon’s statement, “it was great” (excerpt 66) conveys his fondness for this experience. Simon continued his narratives on the interview task (S is Simon and N is the author.): 67  N  Oh! That’s nice. When students came to you to ask some questions on the list, what were you careful about, what did you think of? 68 S About me? 69  N  For example, so …, “I have to speak more slowly,” “I have to focus on the grammar.” or something? 70  S  With that I focus on just communication. 71  N Communication? 72  S  Yes. So, understanding one another is the only goal. 73  N  I see. 74  S  Maybe we can try different ways of answering the question, or asking. Maybe if a student doesn’t understand, I can change to a different word.

Here, he did not regard the interview task simply as a lesson task, but as an opportunity to communicate with his students. He believes that communication, as a meaningful interaction among people, is the only goal in these interviews. When Simon noticed that the students seemed

54 

N. SAKAMOTO

not to understand his English, he tried to use expressions appropriate to their level of English. He was actively supportive in leading each of the students towards their shared goal, working on (m) the need for communication and (b) encouragement of students, as shown in Fig. 5.3. Simon’s statements in the first interview show that he is an experienced and skilful language teacher, and his narratives are, evidently, focused primarily on his teaching. This is different from the other two ALTs.

Beginning of Teaching Stories in the New Cultural Context The ALTs’ narratives traced their experiences and vividly recounted, from their own perspective, how they understood their roles as language teachers in the classroom. In particular, life in Japan and teaching in the Japanese context begin simultaneously for ALTs—culture, lifestyle, school curricula, and teaching methods such as team teaching are all new for them. Acculturation is thus an important factor in teaching as an ALT. Unlike enculturation, acculturation for an individual or a group refers to learning another culture from a prior state of enculturation. When ALTs, who only know schools in their native country, start to teach language at a school in a foreign country, they must understand the context of that school and culture. In everyday school life, they learn, consciously or unconsciously, about various cultural elements in the Japanese classroom. These become clues for ALTs to understand language teaching in Japanese classrooms as the starting point for their further professional development. The three ALTs had different backgrounds, working environments, and relationships with people in the classroom. However, some commonalities exist in their situations. When their teaching lives began in the cross-­ cultural context, they experienced expectation gaps between their picture before coming to Japan and the one they faced in the classroom after starting to teach. This surprised or sometimes even shocked them. The first struggles in the classroom emerged from recognizing such gaps and feelings; they needed to make changes to understand these phenomena in the classroom. Their narratives described how they initially understood their teaching, how they started to consider and explore what they were going to do, what they needed to do, what they wanted to do, and how to do it. They started to reflect on what they were going to do in language teaching and tried to act both within and outside the classroom. Of the

5  TRACING PROCESS 1: THEIR STORIES BEGIN 

55

three ALTs, two had different teaching experiences before coming to Japan, and one had no teaching experience at all. Each of their unique experiences led them to view their struggles and difficulties from multiple perspectives, and their awareness was awoken and challenged through social interaction. Their beginning stories tell us that their backgrounds, experiences before coming to Japan, acculturation, and social interaction in the classroom were interweaving with each other, and they started to support each ALT’s (re)construction of teaching theory, their identity in the language lessons, and what they do in team teaching.

Summary In this chapter, I traced the beginning of the ALTs’ stories as process 1. In the first interview, May reflected on a scene involving some teaching materials she made and some advice from a JTE who was team teaching with her. Throughout the first interview, she talked about opportunities she had to think about her language teaching. Her words expressed the changes in her perspectives on language teaching. The first interview featuring Andrew described the gap between his expectations regarding Japanese students and the reality of those students, along with cultural differences and the different characteristics of different schools, which initially confused him in the classroom. By focusing on the inner aspects of each student, he gradually came to understand each student. At the same time, he started to think of becoming a skilful teacher who could equip students with the ability to use English without hesitation in the classroom. He began to negotiate his teaching within the reality of the students. When Simon, the third ALT interviewed, started teaching in Japan, it came as a surprise to him when his students could not understand his spoken English in the way he had expected, and he described his initial frustration. Of the three ALTs in this book, only Simon had prior teaching experience as a proper language teacher. In his first interview, he indicated that he already viewed the language classroom from a multifaceted viewpoint and through a cognitive lens based on his knowledge and experience of teaching. The three ALTs began the process of growth as language teachers in their own contexts and with their own individual backgrounds.

CHAPTER 6

Tracing Process 2: Experiencing Kizuki— Cognitive, Emotional, and Collegial Loops of Awareness

Introduction One may ask how the loops of the three awarenesses can be identified in each Assistant Language Teachers’ (ALTs’) narrative. One section of this chapter is devoted to examining each ALT’s second interview from a sociocultural viewpoint. The interviews are analysed through the three awarenesses of kizuki, namely, cognitive, emotional, and collegial loops of awareness (Sakamoto, 2011; See Chap. 3). Each type of kizuki is a unique lens through which to see the teachers’ world of language teaching within the classroom. When discussing the three types of kizuki, the main concept of this book, I will deliberately use the word “awareness” in its plural form. The ALTs’ awarenesses and teaching theories are visualized in concept relationship maps. Furthermore, each of these awarenesses may be viewed as a cue to employ a different lens to observe phenomena in the classroom, depict the teaching and learning landscape, and arrive at an understanding of the classroom as a whole. Once the loop of each awareness started to function, the ALTs transformed their ways of teaching by adjusting the realities of their own classrooms. Their narratives illuminate how they were able to internalize these viewpoints as teacher-learners in their daily lives in the classroom.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0_6

57

58 

N. SAKAMOTO

May’s Kizuki and Her Problem-Solving Perspectives Approximately one year after the first interview, I conducted a second interview with May. The map of concept relationships from the second interview with May, which includes important key concepts of teaching, is depicted in Fig. 6.1. It is noteworthy that some new concepts appeared during the second interview. Three different loops of awareness, which circulate among the concepts, are described on the map. The following 18 elements can be found in the map: (a) Delight as a teacher (b) Relationships with other participants (c) Understanding of students (d) Classroom community (e) Awareness and discovery through reflection (f) Efforts to improve (g) Constructive changes in teaching (h) Learning from practice (i) Meaning and role as an ALT/a native English speaker (j) Teacher beliefs as an ALT (k) Anxiety and struggles in the classroom

Fig. 6.1  Map of relationships from May’s second interview

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

59

(l) Struggles in teaching (m) Benefits of English ability of JTEs (n) Different perspectives on education from JTEs (o) Ability to solve problems (p) Work on Japanese learning (q) Advantages of Japanese use (r) Action for teacher development As the map shows, (e) awareness and discovery through reflection gave rise to (f) efforts to improve teaching, and this drove her to action for (g) constructive changes in teaching, as she deepened her learning through teaching practice. At the same time, her concepts concerning Japanese changed a little. An awareness of the (q) advantages of Japanese use enabled her to (p) work on Japanese learning, and ultimately, this is also connected to (r) action for teacher development. Schön (1983) considered the relationship between teachers’ “reflection-­ in-­action” and professional teacher development. In “reflective practice”, teachers monitor incidents while acting. Furthermore, their reflective insight reinforces the effect of their action. Schön defined this insight as “reflection-in-action” and referred to such a practitioner as a “reflective practitioner”. Richards and Lockhart (1994) also introduced specific methods of classroom investigation for reflective teaching, including teaching journals, lesson reports, surveys and questionnaires, audio or video recordings of lessons, observation, and action research. An examination of Fig. 6.1 reveals significant components of reflection: (f) efforts to improve teaching, (g) constructive changes in teaching, and (h) learning from practice. Cognitive Awareness It was evident in the second interview that May’s own teaching had transformed in a year. She expressed her beliefs as a teacher by what she said and how she said it. She viewed herself through a meta-cognitive comparison with her state one year earlier. May appeared to have realized higher-­ order understanding and thinking that enhanced her interpretation, analysis, and control of her cognitive processes, especially when engaged in teacher learning. Such meta-cognition enabled her to view herself and her teaching objectively as well as create opportunities for self-­­ understanding in her relationship with the world around her. For example,

60 

N. SAKAMOTO

she stated that previously she had perceived her primary job as providing support simply in order to facilitate a JTE’s teaching. However, by the second interview, her perspective had changed because she viewed her lessons through a professional lens (excerpt 62). She realized that in order for her to make a personal and original contribution as a teacher, it was imperative for her to add something. (Throughout my narrative analysis in this book, all the italics are the author’s.) 62  Actually, for most of the past year I think I’ve been thinking, “We planned to do this activity. I helped the JTE execute it smoothly and provided my own contribution. I did a good job.” But now I’m starting to realize that just executing the plan smoothly doesn’t make my teaching a success.

The italicized sentences highlight her awareness of her own teaching. Her use of my is noteworthy. Although all her lessons at the school were team-teaching lessons with JTEs, she used my instead of our. This indicates that she was aware of and had started to determine what she needed to do, what she wanted to do, and what she had to do in the classroom as a professional ALT, a role that no one else could fill. Her use of I implies that she realized her own perspective in the classroom, which was significant for the construction of her new identity as teacher. It highlights her steps in the process of her own teacher development. She had started to understand not only her duties but also the meaning of being there as an ALT. When I interviewed her the second time, she had just started to pursue an MA course in foreign language education at a university in Canada. Through this study, she questioned her own view of teaching (excerpt 55). Her doubts could be regarded as a sign of her acquisition of a meta-­­ cognitive perspective from which to review her everyday teaching and reveal her professional teacher growth. 55  To be honest, starting this [master’s degree] certificate made me suddenly realize how small my view of teaching English really was.

Her MA studies enabled her to acquire professional perspectives on teaching, which triggered her cognitive awareness as a teacher. This trigger appears to have clicked her cognitive loop of awareness, which was positioned in the centre of her teaching theory. Her new education at university afforded her opportunities to grow both technically and mentally. After our interviews, she began to use ICT in lessons often, including quiz

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

61

games, word games, and reading activities, which she was learning in the MA course. She related this as follows (M is May and N is the author.): 19  M  Recently, I’ve been thinking about how I can use more technology in the classroom. A few weeks ago, I showed a music video to the students to illustrate a grammar point and practice listening. However, I would like to use technology more often if possible. Anyway, it’s now on my mind more than ever and I’ve been researching iPhone apps that I can use in class. I just have to put this into action. 20  N  What made you start to think so? 21 M After going to a few conferences and starting to study in my graduate course, I realized that ICT is a hot topic right now. I feel like it’s talked about a lot, but teachers are still figuring out the best ways to use ICT in the classroom. 22 M Then when I reflected on it, I realized that technology has played a big role in the way I study Japanese too. If it was not for certain websites and applications, I don’t think I could have learned as many kanji as I have. I think it’s s a good topic for future research in my graduate course.

This interaction demonstrates that what May had learned in the master’s course and participation in various conferences resulted in her viewing technology as a means for language teaching in the classroom. Her professional growth as an ALT created the learning loop. Although this approach was new for her, through trial and reflection on its pedagogical effects in the class, her narratives reveal that she came to realize what kind of technology was suitable for her students, how it should and could be used effectively in the classroom, and what type of goals for language learning she could set and share among lesson participants. Based on her learning and teaching experiences in Japan, she broadened her cognitive perspectives on teaching and student learning. The second interview with May enables us to construct her cognitive loop of awareness through language teaching (Fig. 6.2). May’s (e) awareness and discovery through reflection with JTEs or by herself enabled her to think of further (f) efforts to improve teaching. Her emerging (g) constructive changes in teaching led to learning from practice. The concepts related to May’s teaching itself comprised the largest part of her teaching theory. Moreover, her cognitive loop of awareness became a loop in her language teaching. In her professional development,

62 

N. SAKAMOTO

Fig. 6.2  Cognitive loop of awareness in May’s second interview

her awareness of teaching as well as reflective trial and error enabled her to review her own lessons at a cognitive level, not only in the classroom but also repeatedly in her mind after the lesson, which also afforded her the opportunity to trace her process of teacher development. As the narrative data reveal, her cognitive loop of awareness was grounded in her teacher knowledge based on actual teaching experiences. Emotional Awareness While consolidating her mutual relationship with students in teaching and carefully observing her students’ learning, May experienced another awareness. Becoming aware of her students’ difficulties and endeavours in their language learning, she also paid attention to their feelings because she wanted to appreciate their achievements and encourage them by attending to them kindly regardless of how slow their progress was (excerpt 75). 75  I want to show the struggling students that they’re also moving forward, even if their achievements seem small.

Whenever she articulated the students’ difficulties and/or trials and errors, her stance toward them could be compared to that of a compassionate sister or mother. She experienced their progressive steps joyfully

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

63

and enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment associated with teaching. This sometimes allowed her to overcome her own anxieties and difficulties in the classroom. Her sympathetic understanding of students’ difficulties was visible when she related how impressed she was by their efforts in book report lessons (excerpt 85). It was apparent that she valued her students’ positive attitudes toward their learning and the efforts they made. 85  However, if a native speaker wrote something like this in a book report, the teacher would say, “This sentence has no meaning,” but I’m more impressed by statements that are incorrect but convey the student’s personal meaning.

May describes an impressive scene in the classroom when her students conveyed their feelings in their own words in an English book report, without being afraid of making errors. In this instance, May noted, “the student’s personal meaning”. This appears to be the same perspective that she felt as an ALT, that “this is a good chance to merge something personal. “Like this is why I’m here” (excerpt 87 in the first interview). This perception was possibly true of both herself and her students. Her ability to empathize with her students in their learning was evident. Her stance toward students could be compared to sitting beside them and putting herself in their position, with an encouraging attitude. May respected students’ opinions and learning style. However, in order to maintain their motivation to learn English and listen to her speak the language, she wondered whether she should try other techniques to stimulate their interest (excerpt 38). 38  I’m sometimes afraid to talk to them only in English, because I worry that if I say a lot of stuff they don’t understand, they’ll just get more discouraged. Maybe they have different learning styles, so we need to try other techniques to stimulate their interest.

Using the knowledge of foreign language teaching she had acquired in her master’s course, May endeavoured to enhance students’ learning and employ ICT as mediational tools in language lessons. Her strong desire to support students with the techniques she had learned was evident. She used ICT effectively in team teaching and reflected on the lessons where she used it with her JTE colleagues. Throughout the second interview, she narrated repeatedly that she felt “afraid to talk to them only in English”. However, she also emphasized that when she watched her students, she

64 

N. SAKAMOTO

.

Fig. 6.3  Emotional loop of awareness in May’s second interview

experienced joy in teaching when she realized that she had contributed to their learning English. May’s narrative revealed that she had established a warm relationship of trust with her students in teaching and learning. By experiencing emotional awareness in such a relationship in the classroom, she began to establish her classroom perspective and entered the process of professional development. In Fig.  6.3, her emotional awareness can be identified as a loop. Through (b) relationships with other participants, she was able to acquire a deeper (c) understanding of students and gained new perspectives from which to watch and support her students. As she transformed her position, she enjoyed various opportunities to feel (a) delight as a teacher in the (d) classroom community. This may be related to building (b) relationships with other participants as a loop. This loop of emotional awareness, kizuki, influenced the reflective teacher learning loop of awareness in her teaching theory. Collegial Awareness A year after her first interview, May had grown as a teacher. When she described seminars in Japan during the first interview, she focused on

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

65

those implemented in the JET Programme. However, during the second interview, May also expressed interest in the seminars for JTEs. This implies that she had become aware of the presence of two perspectives on an English lesson, as an ALT and a JTE. 44  As an ALT, I am part of a group of people who aren’t really considered professionals, but I feel quite motivated to rise above that expectation. We had some teaching seminars related to the JET Programme, but I like to participate in seminars meant for Japanese teachers too.

The expression “I like to” implies that May enjoyed the seminars and that these were part of her own plan. After joining the seminars for JTEs, she became aware that ALTs must be professionals in the classroom. Furthermore, in order to collaborate appropriately with JTEs in language teaching, she realized the need to share their perspectives on students and their learning. It was apparent during the second interview that she appreciated that she was involved in team teaching with JTEs. Consequently, she considered attending some seminars for JTEs as she wanted to understand their duties as teachers, aspects with which they experienced difficulty, popular teaching methods in Japan, and JTEs’ teacher development. Her awareness of her colleagues enabled her to see their teaching from multiple perspectives and empathize with them. May’s growth as a teacher in Japan was reflected in her style of narrating. As revealed in the analysis of the first interview conducted with her, she consistently used the singular of the first person I when she shared facets of her teaching (excerpts 84, 86, and 87). 84  Actually, at first, I only did it when I was asked to, so if you asked me to do listening, then I would just make one. 86  … but then you said, “Oh, if you can use grammar and vocab from their learning … from their recent learning, that’s best.” And it clicked and I realized, “Oh, I should have something specifically for that grammar.” 87  So this is the kind of thing they want us to do, teach culture in class, but I don’t wanna just … but I wanna make it relevant to the language so this is a good chance to merge [into] something personal. Like this is why I’m here.

In contrast, during the second interview, May often used the plural of the first person (we and us) (excerpts 25 and 36) instead of the singular I.

66 

N. SAKAMOTO

25  They also need a conversation partner to listen to them. If we teachers are with them, we can help them produce original sentences and correct any big mistakes. 36  I think that those students are able to find their own ways to study English outside of the classroom. They still come to us teachers with questions, but they discover a lot by themselves, either in books or on the Internet.

Different uses of personal pronouns often provide a very important clue to the theme of a literary work such as Thomas Hardy’s poem Oxen or Saul Bellow’s novel Herzog. Similarly, different uses of personal pronouns often furnish a vital clue to someone’s recognition of collegiality (see Carter & Long, 1987; Teranishi, 2008). The change of pronouns in May’s second interview is stylistic evidence that reveals the way she developed her collegiality, identifying herself not only as an ALT but also as a member of the teaching staff. Furthermore, an analysis of May’s narrative suggests that the personal pronoun is a significant stylistic device in non-­ literary narratives. While excessive use of I impresses on one that she endeavoured to handle the issues she experienced in classes by herself, her subsequent natural use of we teachers and us teachers demonstrated a feeling of solidarity with her JTE colleagues. May’s collegial awareness in her second interview is illustrated in the loop depicted in Fig. 6.4.

Fig. 6.4  Collegial loop of awareness in May’s second interview

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

67

When May’s (e) awareness and discovery through reflection emerged, she was afforded opportunities to recognize her (i) meaning and role as an ALT and native English speaker in the classroom. Based on May’s understanding of her own meaning as an ALT, even though (k) she experienced anxiety and difficulties in the classroom and (l) struggles in teaching, her (j) teacher beliefs as an ALT were (re)constructed and grew through (h) learning from practice. These experiences resulted in her expending (f) efforts to improve, which may be related to her own (g) constructive changes in teaching. In her case, team-teaching lessons with JTEs (n) and different perspectives on education from those of JTEs enabled her to understand her teaching with JTEs in the collegial loop of awareness. An overview of May’s cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness in her teaching, as expressed in her second interview, is depicted in Fig. 6.5. Figure 6.5 shows how the loops of the three awarenesses helped me to conceptualize May’s identity as an ALT as she constructed it and progressed in her own teacher development. Each component is interwoven in the construction of May’s teaching. In particular, in the concept map of May’s second interview, her cognitive loop of awareness encloses the collegial loop. Thus, her collegiality with JTEs played a significant role in helping her enhance her language teaching. All of the English lessons in May’s school were team-taught by JTEs and ALTs. When May experienced (k) anxiety and struggles in the classroom, her colleagues

Fig. 6.5  Three loops of awareness in May’s teaching theory

68 

N. SAKAMOTO

helped her overcome her difficulties by (h) learning from team-teaching practice. Through mutual feedback about lessons with JTEs, she shared (e) her awareness and discovery through reflection. May’s narratives revealed that she often discussed language lessons with the JTEs and her learning about teaching itself often originated from her colleagues in everyday lessons. Thus, her concepts of language teaching in the cognitive loop of awareness were interwoven with her collegial loop of awareness. Moreover, there was some overlap between the emotional, cognitive, and collegial loops. One may deduce that May’s emotional awareness was often concerned with her relationships with students: she shared her delight in teaching with her colleagues. Furthermore, her emotional awareness was linked with her feelings of fulfilment in her teaching.

Andrew’s Kizuki and Strength in the Face of Hardship A comparison of concepts in Andrew’s second interview to those in his first interview reveals new concepts such as identity borderline, boundary crossing, and the sense of teacher development. These notions reveal how he (re)constructed his identity in his teaching theory in the classroom. The map of his concept relationships, which portrays his key concepts for language teaching at Japanese high schools, is depicted in Fig. 6.6.

Fig. 6.6  Map of relationships from Andrew’s second interview

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

69

The following 18 elements can be found in the concept relationship map: (a) Expectation to students (b) Students’ changes (c) Efforts in teaching (d) Needs of comfortableness (e) Sharing purposes (f) Balance of teaching (g) Appropriate teaching (h) Understanding of students (i) Autonomy of students (j) Student motivation (k) Relationship with students (l) Stress/struggles in teaching (m) Desire for teacher learning (n) Learning from other ALTs (o) Relationship with JTEs (p) The sense of teacher development (q) Identity borderlines (r) Boundary crossing Comparing these concepts to the map of Andrew’s first interview reveals the inclusion of a new concept, namely, (r) boundary crossing. This is related to Andrew’s understanding of (q) identity borderlines. Borderline refers to the line separating two of his perspectives in the classroom, a teacher’s perspective and a friendly perspective for his students. His (q) understanding of identity borderlines emerged from aspects that supported his professional teacher development, including (m) desire for teacher learning, (n) learning from others, and (p) the sense of teacher development. He also noted the phenomenon of (b) students’ changes, which was supported by his teaching efforts in the classroom. Originating from (l) stress/struggles he experienced in teaching, while continuing his efforts based on an understanding of his own classroom, he gradually came to understand his identity borderline and identified a key element in the achievement of identity reconstruction, namely, (r) boundary crossing. It is noteworthy that boundary needs to be distinguished from borderline. In this study, boundary may be regarded as the imaginary line that marks and divides the classroom community from the teacher.

70 

N. SAKAMOTO

Cognitive Awareness During the second interview, Andrew shared (l) the stress and struggles he encountered in his teaching, including difficulty motivating his students and discomfort in his own teaching with some JTEs. While reflecting on his frustration, however, Andrew demonstrated that he had deepened his (h) understanding of his students and attempted to discover (g) appropriate teaching for them. While reflecting on his teaching in the classroom, Andrew described his (c) efforts in teaching, namely, to afford his students the opportunity to experience English drama. He related that he believed drama was a fulfilling and worthwhile activity even though it was challenging (excerpt 50). 50  They [Students] will give me the idea and I will try and create a script out of that, which is what I did last time. It took me a while but it worked out quite well, and try and get them to do a bit more of like acting and just mainly during presentations while standing in front of another crowd, and trying to present, say something, just present something in a different language. That takes a lot of, like, a lot of confidence and so it’s like a confidence-­building thing.

It was apparent from his students’ attitudes that his English drama lessons influenced his students positively. When he saw his students acting, it was confirmation that they were in the process of “confidence-building”. Because his students appeared to be shy from the outset of his teaching in Japan, he had attempted many tasks and language activities to make the students more active. Finally, through his English drama lessons, he was able to create a path to guide his students through the process of “confidence-­building”. It was at this moment that he discovered his own answer to his struggles in the classroom and thus experienced awareness in his teaching. He was cognitively aware of his teaching process and teacher development. By repeatedly reflecting on his experiences of English drama lessons, he became confident that this was one of the best teaching methods for his students. He viewed his drama lessons as “a confidence-building thing” for students. Furthermore, this understanding encouraged him to create an original drama script even though it was time-consuming. During his second interview, Andrew often articulated his (m) desire for teacher learning, which made him realize his position and reflect on his own lessons. He started to think about how his lessons were arranged to determine (g)

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

71

appropriate teaching for his own students (excerpts 277 and 278). (A is Andrew, and N is the author.) 277  N  Yeah, because each teacher has each personality. 278  A  Yeah exactly, so I mean you are not copying the personality because personality you cannot copy. But it’s more like the idea and the implementation, like seeing an idea come to life and you’re like that’s how it works. Okay, now how I do I … now I understand the idea and the ­concept better, how do I take it for myself and my own flavour to it and then continue doing the same class and that’s pretty much about it.

In excerpt 278, he understood what and how he should and could learn from other ALTs or JTEs. This did not entail mere copying but was based on new ideas and the implementation thereof in the classroom by other teachers. Rather, he wanted to develop new activities and adjust them to his own students in his own language classrooms. Instead of copying, he reconstructed his own teaching after adopting a new concept. In relation to his cognitive awareness in the second interview, it is important to examine why he referred to himself in different ways in his relationship with his students (Fig. 6.7).

Fig. 6.7  Cognitive loop of awareness in Andrew’s second interview

72 

N. SAKAMOTO

Table 6.1  A professional standpoint and a personal standpoint Teacher side

Friendly side

Teaching side Near a teacher Professional side of me A teacher The teaching side

Not full teacher As a friend A friend side Trying to be friendly

He appeared to change his identity to match the particular situation in which he met students. In excerpt 298, he uses the word borderline to explain his position as being between two different standpoints: a teacher and a friend. 298  I would see myself as a teacher sort of figure. I wouldn’t say full teacher, but I would say like nearly in that same area. Whereas with my other school, I would see myself nowhere near a teacher, I see myself in the borderline between the teaching side and the, like trying to be friendly.

Throughout the second interview, he used different terms (Table 6.1) to express his position in the classroom, thus acknowledging (q) identity borderline (Fig. 6.6). Naming appears to be one of the ways in which he grasped his standpoints in different teaching contexts. By going back and forth over the borderline between the two different standpoints, through (r) boundary crossing, he constructed and reconstructed his identity in the language classroom. He related that in the process of gaining a new understanding of his two roles, he experienced (l) stress/struggles in teaching. His cognitive loop of awareness is depicted in Fig. 6.7. Emotional Awareness One may ask what Andrew’s second interview revealed about his emotional awareness. He related how much he needed to observe other ALTs’ lessons and learn from them to acquire new teaching knowledge when encountering difficulties with his students. When he conveyed his desire to learn about team-teaching lessons from other ALTs, his tone of voice was more persuasive and powerful than in other parts of the interview. When he communicated his hopes for teacher learning, he spoke rapidly and fluently.

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

73

269  So that’s what I want to do. I want to go to some other schools and check out some of the other ALTs and how they perform, how they work, how they make things lively is what I want to get right now.

While the first sentence of excerpt 269 was very short and appeared to be straightforward, he used the same expression repeatedly in the second sentence, which was long. He also repeated various expressions and grammatical structures several times. When he recalled his difficult teaching experiences, he became highly excited. The phrase right now revealed how he wanted to enhance his teaching skills in his daily lessons. It was also apparent that he believed it was necessary to change his lesson design, activity design, and way of teaching itself. His desire to improve his lessons by obtaining hints and/or inspiration from other ALTs’ lessons is apparent in the excerpt. As noted previously, Andrew was teaching at two different public high schools when this interview was conducted. He articulated his (m) desire to learn from other teachers. While he experienced one of the schools as congenial, he found it difficult to teach English in some of the classes at the second school. He endeavoured to find more appropriate teaching methods in this school. His passion as a teacher motivated him to improve his teaching. During his interview, he talks about the experiences which made his life in Japan “much more memorable” (excerpt 300). 300  From a professional standpoint, not the best things, but from a personal standpoint, it [being like their brother] makes my life in Japan more, much more memorable because now I know that the students there are willing to talk to me, they are willing to do something, they are willing to share their ideas and just try and joke with me, which I will probably never get that kind of interaction like in, outside of Japan, outside of the school anyway.

Based on his struggles at one school and what he learned from other teachers and ALTs, Andrew repeatedly tried to employ new teaching styles and new language activities in his lessons. His trial-and-error endeavours gradually changed Andrew’s relationships with his students both in and outside the classroom. He described the attitude of his students using “they are willing” again and again: “The students there are willing to talk to me, they are willing to do something, they are willing to share their ideas and just try and joke with me.” This revealed the (b) students’

74 

N. SAKAMOTO

Fig. 6.8  Emotional loop of awareness in Andrew’s second interview

changes and demonstrated that Andrew’s new (c) efforts in teaching worked well in the classroom. It was apparent from his tone in excerpt 300 that he experienced delight as an ALT. This emotional awareness resulted in his students transforming their attitudes and him feeling fulfilled with teaching. Furthermore, it made his life in Japan more memorable. His emotional loop in the second interview is illustrated in Fig. 6.8. Andrew’s emotional loop of awareness occupies a large space in the concept relationship map in his teaching theory. Furthermore, many of the concepts are concerned with the students. He observed his students’ learning carefully, and through (k) his relationship with them, he became aware of (j) student motivation and (i) their autonomy. Consequently, the more Andrew’s (h) understanding of his students grew, the more he expended (c) efforts in teaching despite difficulties in creating lessons that were (g) appropriate to the students’ stage of learning. In the language classroom, he had (a) expectation to students. Once he got kizuki to become aware of his (b) students’ change in learning, his identity as an ALT was (re)constructed in the classroom community. These attitudes stimulated his emotional awareness in teaching. Through experiencing struggles, disappointment, joy, fulfilment, and impatience in the classroom, his emotional awareness toward his students in the class helped him enhance his professional development.

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

75

Collegial Awareness With regard to collegial awareness as it appeared in Andrew’s teaching theory, he had different impressions of the two schools in relation to school culture, language lesson design, contexts of teaching, and collegiality. ALTs were expected to organize varied team-teaching lessons with many different JTEs. Andrew did not have sufficient time to discuss lesson plans with each of the JTEs in one of the schools. Consequently, he had to create lesson plans and/or prepare language activities by himself. Andrew needed to organize language activities even though at times he only had two minutes before the lesson to discuss it with the JTE and prepare it accordingly (excerpt 84). Thus, it was natural that he felt confused when planning and implementing his language activities. 84  A  Generally, it’s me that designs it [the communication class] and then I will tell my JTE either like two minutes beforehand … or not at all. I generally—like if it’s—if I’m trying to test some idea, for instance, for example, as I said, I did the cultural or the country research. I just wrote out a bunch of questions and I said this is what I want them to do. Are you okay with it? Yes, that’s fine. And then I wrote it. And then as soon as … while the students are doing this, I will be explaining to the JTE like this is what I want out of it. I want them to do a thing. And he was like I like where this is good, please continue. So… 85  N  I see. So… 86  A  I haven’t had any—like some of the teachers I work with, I’m not very—they don’t tell me, oh! I don’t quite like that. They’re not willing to tell me that even my ideas are bad or are not going to work. It’s a bit it—it becomes a limbo of like, am I—do I stop this, do I stop this topic, the project and start a new one, or do I keep going with it because I’ve already invested so much time…

Andrew thus described colleagues in one school: “They’re not willing to tell me that even my ideas are bad or are not going to work.” (excerpt 86). Although he wanted to discuss his teaching plans, he was unable to do so. He was not given useful feedback by JTE colleagues either, which caused his struggles and difficulties in teaching. His words “it becomes a limbo.” indicate his struggles in the classroom. In excerpt 86, his use of the first-person singular may give one the impression that he felt isolated

76 

N. SAKAMOTO

in team-teaching lessons. As noted previously, while he occasionally felt isolated at one school, at the other, he experienced a sense of closeness to some JTEs colleagues. His tone differed when he spoke about the two schools. A comparison of excerpts 84 and 125 reveals his different impressions of their collegiality. 125  But because this teacher, the teacher that I taught with last year knows me quite well, knows what I’m capable of and knows what the lessons involve, she generally tells the other teachers just not to worry and just let me, like, teach. And then—and they [the JTEs in the school] put a lot of trust in me.

In this excerpt, it is evident that there was mutual trust between Andrew and some JTEs. They accepted his personality and capabilities as an ALT and appreciated his knowledge of teaching foreign languages. They trusted him to teach as he thought best. Depending on the JTE, his lessons differed, and he experienced stress and difficulties. However, gaining trust such mutual trust in one school gave him the opportunity to arrange their lessons to enhance his personality and solidify his teacher identity as a professional and skilful ALT. Figure 6.9 highlights how his collegial awareness through meeting with professional colleagues helped him discover his capabilities as a teacher.

Fig. 6.9  Collegial loop of awareness in Andrew’s second interview

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

77

In his collegial loop of awareness, Andrew’s (m) desire for teacher learning was evident. He learned a great deal from discussions with other ALTs and from his ALT colleagues’ lessons. This kind of learning was possible only from others who were in the same position as him. A senior ALT allowed Andrew to observe his lessons to help fulfil his (m) desire for teacher learning. On the other hand, JTE colleagues in (o) mutual trust relationships, which have been noted previously, show he was able to conduct original lessons and get feedback from JTEs. These experiences motivated him in his process of professional development. Although he described his (l) stress/struggles in teaching throughout the interview, these components of his collegial awareness enabled him to overcome difficulty and feel (p) the sense of teacher development in his language teaching. A combination of the analyses reveals the whole landscape of Andrew’s three awarenesses in his teaching (Fig. 6.10). The emotional and cognitive loops of awareness occupy the largest space in Andrew’s concept map. He was a young ALT with no teaching experience and may have endured more hardships than the other ALTs because he had just started living in Japan. He was also new to teaching and emotional aspects such as the joy he experienced seeing positive changes and desire to learn in his students drove him in his professional

Fig. 6.10  Three loops of awareness in Andrew’s teaching theory

78 

N. SAKAMOTO

development. Fortunately, one of his colleagues was a senior ALT, and thus, he had opportunities to learn from him about teaching language to Japanese students. His desire to learn enabled him to think of his own unique style of teaching by utilizing drama lessons. His narrative portrays how his positive attitude and efforts to learn, in the context of teaching English for the first time in a different culture, has dramatically helped him grow.

Simon’s Kizuki and Learning from Colleagues as a Language Teacher This section discusses the second interview with Simon. The map of concept relationships is depicted in Fig. 6.11. As shown in the map, the following 21 elements were identified from Simon’s second interview: (a) The gap between image and reality (b) Differences in character of the JTEs (c) Introverted characteristics (d) Communication with students (e) Sharing of understanding of students

Fig. 6.11  Map of relationships from Simon’s second interview

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

79

(f) Students’ difficulty in English (g) Support in the classroom (h) Encouragement of students’ learning (i) Raising English awareness (j) Teacher beliefs (k) Work on Japanese language (l) Responsibility of teaching (m) Feeling of personal growth (n) Sense of accomplishment (o) Mutual support with colleagues (p) Powerful character of colleague (q) Respect for colleague (r) Learning from colleagues (s) Awareness in the class (t) Efforts in teaching (u) Classroom as a comfortable and safe space A comparison of this map with that of relationships that emerged from the first interview reveals new notions. As a reflective practitioner, Simon evaluated Japanese students’ English learning by noting (f) students’ difficulty in English, providing (g) classroom support, and (h) encouragement of students’ learning. He continued his (t) teaching efforts and experienced adopting the (l) responsibility of teaching as an ALT in Japan by (r) learning from his colleagues. These loops gradually led to a (m) feeling of personal growth and a (n) sense of accomplishment in the classroom. Cognitive Awareness Simon’s cognitive awareness was not evident during the first interview. However, it was apparent during his second interview that he had developed as a teacher while in Japan. When relating daily language activities in the class, Simon reflected on when he had begun to teach at a Japanese school and recognized the changes (excerpt 121):

121 At first, yeah, it’s … at first it’s very difficult because I don’t know how to teach English in Japan, so what activities are good, what are bad. But one year later I feel like now if I have five minutes, I can prepare something that’s decent.

He emphasizes that he did not know how he should teach language in Japan, even though he had teaching experience at college before. This sort

80 

N. SAKAMOTO

of recognition, accepting one’s lack of knowledge as a teacher, is not easy for an experienced person, but he did it. Moreover, he articulated his lack of knowledge to the interviewer. Excerpt 121 tells us that he recognizes what he could not do at that time and what he can do now, as well as what was missing in him as an ALT one year ago and what he can now create for students in an appropriate way. Here, Simon comes across as a highly experienced and reflective educator, who meta-cognitively observes himself. In other words, he sees himself as an object to be observed and fostered in his professional teaching world. This quote highlights his growth and increasing self-confidence as a language teacher rather than his embarrassment about his past struggles. In fact, throughout the second interview, he refers to his own teacher learning in many sections, such as excerpt 128. 128  So, maybe watching teachers like Akiko, for example, maybe watching good teachers teaching, they have good ideas and we can watch and learn how to even change, you know, put a lesson together quickly.

Akiko was also one of Simon’s JTE colleagues with whom he had team-­ teaching lessons at a Japanese school. She was an experienced teacher at the second junior high school where he worked. Simon had just one year teaching as an ALT in Japan before returning to his former position teaching English writing at a college in the United States. Given this background, teaching practice at a Japanese school was a good opportunity for him to improve his language teaching techniques and incorporate them into his own teaching style in the future. Simon narrated details about his learning from JTEs in the classroom, as shown below. (S is Simon and N is the author.) 277  S  Oh! Yes, I am always developing, maybe every day I learn something new. A new technique or … 278 N I see. 279  S  … or about myself. So, actually, I am very excited to go back. For example, I can make a lesson plan very easily now. So, I know timing is very important. 280 N Aha! Timing. 281 S  Timing is the most important thing. 282 N I see. 283  S  How long can we spend on this activity, so how long will my lecture take? My lecture shouldn’t be too long. Students can only focus for short time.

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

81

284 N That’s right. 285  S  And then activity and lecture and activity and not too much games—not too many games. But involving the students is important too. So, lecture, too much is very boring, students won’t listen. But … 286  S  So, you lecture and you have activities. 287  N  Yeah. So, it’s mixed. I watched their lesson plans, every teacher and now I Feel like I can make a better lesson plan myself. 288  N  I see. 289 S  So, when I go back to America, I can use that information.

Because of his cognitive awareness of the importance of “timing” and “the balance between classroom activities”, Simon sounded confident about his teaching skills and looked forward to teaching in the United States again. By combining his learning and new knowledge, he appeared to be proud of himself because he was able to get students to listen and learn while involving all of them in the classroom. In Simon’s first interview, he was confused about the (b) JTEs’ different characters. However, after a few months, he overcame the confusion and learned from their distinct lessons. Learning from other teachers triggered his (m) personal growth and afforded him a (n) sense of accomplishment. On the contrary, by realizing the status of English as a second language in Japan, Simon achieved another cognitive awareness. (S is Simon and N is the author.) 291  S  Yeah. And, as a second language teacher, I will teach college writing when I go back. But many of my … 292 N College? 293  S  College, college, yeah. 294 N College, writing. 295  S  Writing, writing in English. But many students speak English as a second language … 296 N I see. 297  S  So, now every language learner learns English in a different way, but now I understand how foreign people might learn English. So, it’s very difficult … 298  N  Oh I see. 299  S  And I think, I learned more about English than Japanese so far here. Always teachers will ask me what does this mean or why is it this way? Or what is this? 300  N  Oh! I see, I see.

82 

N. SAKAMOTO

301  302  303  304  305 

N  N  S  N  S 

I don’t know, so because it’s natural for me. Yeah, I understand. So I never thought about why? Why do we say this? Yeah. …Why do ALTs say the same kind of thing …? So, you can ask. Your English is very good. You have a good question. 306  N  Why this case? Instead of that? So … this… kind of things. 307  S  Yeah, so, but it’s natural for, maybe like ga, wa, no, to, ni. So, for us, which one do I use? But Japanese people can say so quickly.

Through his English teaching in a Japanese junior high school, he realized that just copying native speakers’ English is not enough for language learners. As English is a foreign language for students, they need to know and understand the target language scientifically. Simon noticed that language teachers need to teach English as a unit using a technical approach at some points in the lesson. Many students (and JTEs as well) are curious to know why they must use specific expressions in specific contexts, and English grammar is effective in explaining this. In Simon’s case, as he is a native English speaker, he does not worry about these points “because it’s natural for” him. His experience of teaching English to Japanese students created more opportunities to sharpen his English language sense than his Japanese. Simon’s loop of cognitive awareness focused not only on teaching itself but also on re-learning the English language. His English teaching experiences allowed him to become more aware of English (Fig. 6.12). In Simon’s cognitive loop of awareness, his JTE colleagues had an impact on him, and thus, he experienced (l) teacher responsibilities in Japanese school contexts and the (m) feeling of personal growth. His (l) teacher responsibilities as an ALT emerged from his (j) teacher beliefs. Consequently, he endeavoured to (h) encourage to students’ learning and (g) support [students and JTEs] in the classroom. These transformations afforded him a (n) sense of accomplishment in the language classroom. Simon’s teacher cognition appeared to be inspired by team-teaching lessons with JTE colleagues at both the junior and senior high schools where he taught. Emotional Awareness In this section, Simon’s emotional loop of awareness is examined. When his students appeared to be bored, he observed Akiko, his JTE colleague. In the excerpt that follows, he spoke about her attitude towards lessons. (S is Simon and N is the author.)

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

83

Fig. 6.12  Cognitive loop of awareness in Simon’s second interview 353  354  355  356 

S  N  S  N 

But Akiko, you know her energy is this way. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Very big. Maybe she loves teaching so much, she is enjoying it all the time. That’s amazing. 357  S  Yeah. I think so. I wish … not everyone can be like that. 358 N Yeah. 359  S  But maybe you try a little. Students can see, “Wow! She is crazy. She loves English very much.” 360  N  Yeah, yeah, maybe personally or … 361  S  Yeah, but they can maybe some students, “Wow! Maybe I should try.” 362 N Yeah, yeah. 363  S  So, they wake up. 364  N  It influences the students. Energy level. 365  S  Yeah, so maybe they can’t fall asleep with her talking or …

As I also know Akiko and her teaching style, our conversation went on in a friendly atmosphere with a comfortable tempo and a shared topic. From this dialogue, it was evident that Simon was impressed by Akiko’s attitude in the classroom, particularly her tremendous energy and power as a teacher. He also described students never fell asleep in her class. His

84 

N. SAKAMOTO

use of direct speech “Wow! She is crazy. She loves English very much” was significant. One may question why Simon used direct speech to convey the students’ thoughts. He quoted imaginary words from the students and used typical teenage expressions such as wow and crazy. This also emphasized Akiko’s power and splendour as a teacher. The fact that he represents his students’ words through direct speech shows that the classes in which Akiko drew all the students into her teaching were ingrained in his mind. Accordingly, one may feel a sense of respect for her. Her energy not only influenced her students but also Simon, who was stimulated to transform himself when dealing with the students. He appeared to be encouraged to change his (c) introverted character when (d) communicating with his students (excerpt 267). 267 Yeah. So, challenge to myself. Maybe, not to be shy too. So, I can’t be shy. So maybe if they [students] see I am trying my best.

In the second interview, it was apparent that although Akiko never forced Simon to be as energetic as her, her energy was transferred to Simon in an indirect manner through the surprise and joy of their joint teaching. These emotional aspects such as surprise, joy, and respect for his colleague contributed to enhancing his awareness as a teacher, enabling him to include more energy in his communication with students. It is noteworthy that he focused on the (u) classroom as a comfortable and safe place. This concept was evident in both the first and second interviews with him. In order to create a comfortable and relaxing space, his JTE colleague and he designed a lesson plan with fun language games. He thus described that point, focusing on Akiko again. (S is Simon and N is the author.) 22  S  I think games are very good as long as you don’t play too much. 23 N Oh yeah. 24  S  It makes the students relax… 25 N Uh-huh. 26  S  … and feel comfortable … 27 N I see. 28  S  And have fun. And let’s see, she has—every teacher has students’ practice conversation from the textbook, New Crown. The textbook, they practice the conversation together, but she has a plan where all students will stand up … 29 N I see. 30  S  …and move and play Janken [rock-paper-scissors] and the winner will play the first character and the loser will play the second…

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

85

31 N I see. 32  S  … and they practice that way many times … 33  N  They have to go the next person … 34  S  Yeah. So, as many as possible. And maybe for 3 minutes and then the students who have the most will get a sticker. 35  N  Oh! That’s nice. 36 S  So it’s cool. So, they are always excited. 37  N  Enjoying their game, like a game. 38  S  Yeah, like a game, but it’s still the same. But maybe they have more fun.

He reflected on an occasion when students were excited by a reading activity as part of their learning and used the term “it’s cool” to capture the moment. In this part of Simon’s narrative, his concern with and consideration for his students become conspicuous; moreover, it is noticeable that, just like his students, he experienced joy and had fun when spending time with other participants in the class. The loop of his emotional awareness in the classroom is visualized in the concept map in Fig. 6.13. Although Simon did not refer to his emotions directly during the interview, his awareness of the mutual relationships among those in the classroom was revealed indirectly by the expressions he used when he spoke about (h) encouragement of students’ learning and his (q) respect for his

Fig. 6.13  Emotional loop of awareness in Simon’s second interview

86 

N. SAKAMOTO

colleagues. Simon always tried to keep and enjoyed (d) communication with students both in and outside the classroom, which enabled him to (e) share his understanding of students with JTE colleagues. He also believed a (u) comfortable and safe classroom underlay language teaching and learning. With JTE colleagues, he created such a space. Collegial Awareness In the first interview, Simon spoke about his first JTE colleague, Miki, who offered him several opportunities to reflect on himself as a language teacher. He also recalled that the difference among the JTEs’ characters was what he struggled with most when he first came to Japan. In teamteaching lessons, it was important for him to get along with each of the JTEs and adapt to different teaching styles. As noted previously, Akiko had a positive and effective influence on Simon. He related the following. (S is Simon and N is the author.) 49 N Yeah. I sometimes—not sometimes, but I had some chances to see her lessons. I like hers. They are heart-warming… 50 S  Yes. 51  N  … and caring person and … 52  S  Very. And she would always make sure to use ALTs—any ALT. So, me too, as much as possible. 53 N I see. 54  S  So, take turns, introduce a topic or starts the lesson with conversation to Introduce a new phrase or just any example … 55 N I see. 56  S  Or meeting together, helping students together. And always has so many ideas, vocabulary … 57 N I see. 58  S  …maybe go through all students. So, after practicing vocabulary so many times, then go to each student, next word, next word, next word. And if they have a problem, the whole class will help, and then next word and they will—if they get it, then move on.

Simon described Akiko’s character in the classroom as a person who “would always make sure to use ALTs—any ALT. So, me too, as much as possible.” Simon chose the word use here. This word implies that he regarded ALTs as those who can be utilized by someone for his/her purpose. Conversely, as an Assistant Language Teacher, Simon is aware that

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

87

assisting JTEs in their teaching is an important role for him, and he might want to be used effectively and naturally. Usually, the word use would sound negative in this context. Even though he chose the word use, however, his expressions here tell us that he regards Akiko as a professional and a talented teacher who can use or cooperate with ALTs in the most effective way for learners. He accepted the reality and understood that he was able to play an important role as an ALT, thanks to her skills and behaviour in the classroom. His words seem to imply even a sense of respect for Akiko. In particular, given the need to get along with JTEs of different characters, seeing her natural way of getting along well with any ALT was one way for him to learn how to do the equivalent. Although Simon was a native English speaker and had teaching experience in the United States, he needed to support JTEs as an ALT in Japan. Therefore, he felt limited in relation to what he could do in the classroom. In this situation, Akiko involved him in a variety of activities, including demonstrating new English phrases to students and introducing new topics into the classroom. In other words, she used him “as much as possible” in their lessons. Simon’s encounter with Akiko gave him an opportunity to develop an awareness of collegiality as one of the teachers in team-­teaching lessons. When he became aware of this, he became a participant in the English lessons, maintaining his own character and communicating with the students at the same time. He also realized that collaborating with Akiko allowed the students to enhance their language awareness. The collegial aspects he experienced through the lessons with Miki and Akiko enabled him to transform his teaching theory positively and attempt new teaching styles in the classroom. He thus recalled one such event. (S is Simon and N is the author.) 369 S I am very calm, so when I began working with her, we would sing a song together in class or do Chants, and she is involving me too or maybe act to demonstrate a conversation. So, one time, we were doing a chant together, she, she told me, “Mr. S, please pick up a beat or something.” Maybe I can’t say the chants in front of students. 370 N I see. 371  S  So, she is making me more genki (“cheerful” in English). 372  N  Yeah, I see. I see. 373 S  Power. Very powerful teacher, so it motivated me too. So I can get more energy. So, I think it’s a good thing for me.

88 

N. SAKAMOTO

To support Simon, who described himself as a calm person, the powerful teacher Akiko gradually involved him in the cheerful chant activity. Her natural and flexible manner helped him pay more attention to the class and brought out his new identity in the classroom. Although it was difficult chanting rhythmically in front of his students, as “picking up a beat” sounded easier than chanting, he tried this. Akiko understood his personality and endeavoured to draw out his potential in teaching. Simon appeared to be willing to accept her leadership and described these experiences: Very powerful teacher, so it motivated me too. So I can get more energy. So, I think it’s a good thing for me.

He acknowledged that he had developed his potential as a language teacher through his lessons with Akiko, his teaching partner. During the second interview, he discussed his colleagues’ serious but flexible attitude toward their own lessons. It appeared as though his collegial awareness had changed his perspective as a teacher dramatically. He was aware that frank support from his colleagues helped him create relationships with students, feedback from his colleagues became material for the next lesson, and shared goals with JTEs led to more meaningful language activities in the classroom. In particular, the emergence of a new ways of teaching through team teaching with Akiko had a positive impact on him. Simon also became aware of Akiko’s attention to detail in preparing every lesson. Although she was already an experienced teacher, she was still learning and growing as a language teacher in everyday lessons. Her self-­ monitoring of lessons was reflected in her team teaching through the support of students’ learning. Moreover, Simon’s careful observation of her attitude toward language teaching encouraged him to learn not only teaching methods but also earnest and flexible attitudes toward teaching itself. He also became aware of the importance of creating a good atmosphere to involve everyone in the classroom. His collegial awareness was inspired by these JTE colleagues. Furthermore, his collegial loop of awareness became evident in his teaching. His emergent collegial awareness is depicted in Fig. 6.14. During Simon’s second interview, he described how he had achieved teacher development in his team-teaching lessons with colleagues. The daily lessons were conducted on the basis of (o) mutual support with colleagues. In conjunction with his JTEs, he also (g) supported their students

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

89

Fig. 6.14  Collegial loop of awareness in Simon’s second interview

in the classroom as a team. As his learning was simultaneously reflected in his teaching, there were many opportunities for him to be (s) aware of the components constructing their language classroom. Considering his detailed attention and reflectiveness in his teaching practice, it was apparent his learning and teaching were well balanced, which had a positive influence on his students’ language learning. He created a (u) comfortable and safe space, the classroom, for both students and teachers. Simon’s cognitive, emotional, and collegial awarenesses in his teaching theory are depicted in Fig. 6.15. His loop of cognitive awareness partly overlaps with that of his collegial awareness. His (p) colleagues’ powerful characters were key for him in the classroom because, based on their guidance, he gradually gained membership there. With the (o) mutual support of colleagues, experiencing (r) learning from them elicited his cognitive awareness in accordance with his teaching experiences. He learned new teaching methods in Japan, shared them with participants, and integrated them into his own teaching theory. Team-teaching lessons with JTE colleagues motivated him to enhance his cognitive awareness. Due to his trusting relationship with JTEs, he increased his (t) efforts in teaching and became aware of his (l) responsibility as a teacher. His teacher learning through cognitive awareness often occurred with colleagues in team teaching. These two awarenesses were

90 

N. SAKAMOTO

Fig. 6.15  Three loops of awareness in Simon’s teaching theory

interwoven with each other and reveal his teacher learning and construction of identity as an ALT. On the other hand, Simon’s loop of emotional awareness is depicted separately on his map because while he experienced emotional awareness due to the relationships among the participants, he rarely showed his emotions and feelings in the classroom. Rather, he concentrated on creating a comfortable atmosphere in his teaching. The loops of the three awarenesses reveal how he conceptualized his newly constructed identity as an ALT.

Transformation for Advancing in Professional Development Although the size and placement of the awareness loops varied for each of the three ALTs, elements that composed their teaching theories and landscapes that they viewed in their language teaching were evident through three different lenses of awareness. For May, for example, the landscape mainly focused on teaching and learning, and her perspectives were closely related to collegial aspects. When May was struggling with teaching, her problem-solving abilities resulted in her choosing effective solutions such as the creation of

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

91

language activities and building relationships with students through teaching. By overcoming the various issues she experienced, she came to construct her position in the classroom. Andrew described crossing the boundary between his existence as a teacher and his existence as a person who was friendly to his students; this enabled him to construct relationships with learners and helped his students experience joy in learning English. Andrew’s identity was constructed by him crossing boundaries with his students. Simon was an experienced ESL teacher before he started to teach in Japan. He related his experiences as a learner of teaching and described learning from his JTE colleague; he viewed his learning as grounded in his teaching experience. By observing his JTE colleague’s teaching and being a teacher in lessons, he reflected on his colleague as a language teacher. From a sociocultural perspective, internalization is the process by which individual learners acquire knowledge through collaborative dialogue (Storch, 2013; Swain & Watanabe, 2012). For example, when May described her awareness moment, which happened through collaborative dialogues with her JTE colleague, she narrated her sudden experience of kizuki in terms of her teaching. Understanding the JTE’s advice, she understood what she needed to do and what she wanted to do. In Simon’s case, he described the moment of awareness through interaction with his colleague JTE in their teaching in the classroom and the moment he came to understand what he could try for students. Their narratives show that they could internalize these viewpoints as teacher-learners in their daily lives in the classroom. These findings imply that once they had gained the lens of awareness, namely, kizuki, their loops of awareness started to infiltrate their teaching, which enhanced their professional growth. Moreover, they started to position themselves in the landscape of the classroom as an ALT: they understood what they needed to do, who they were, and what they wanted. The three different loops of awareness, kizuki, worked as lenses to monitor their identity construction in the language classroom.

Summary In this chapter, the ALTs’ narratives were analysed with the framework of kizuki: cognitive, emotional, and collegial loops of awareness. The stories they related in their second interviews may be regarded as a second process in their professional growth. The concept maps of each of the ALTs

92 

N. SAKAMOTO

revealed the sizes of each loop, the positioning of awareness loops in the maps, and the relationships among the concepts. While their emerging loops of awareness were independent at times, at other times they were interwoven. In essence, these maps with concept relationships and loops of awareness are the teaching theories of each of the ALTs. Through experiencing kizuki, the loops of awareness enabled them to understand their own classroom. Furthermore, for them, teaching was not merely conveying language knowledge, but life in the classroom. Allwright (2003, 2005) investigated the quality of classroom life in his exploratory practice. He believed that understanding can help dispose of a problem or puzzle in the classroom and provide the seeds of a possible solution. The ALTs’ kizuki resulted in loops of awareness, which stimulated the development of their teaching, allowed them to reflect on their teaching, created opportunities to rethink who they were and what they wanted to do, and encouraged them to (re)construct their identity as ALTs. The dimensions of each loop may vary according to the teacher. For instance, some may primarily focus on teaching itself, in which case the cognitive awareness loop is larger and wider. Others may more frequently experience the effects of peer support among colleagues, in which case the collegial awareness loop becomes largest. In this sense, the way the three loops of awareness are balanced indicates which aspects are most important for a given teacher. This can also show which factors are in key positions for developing unique teaching theories. Understanding their cognitive, emotional, and collegial loops of awareness enabled them to enrich the quality of classroom life through their professional growth.

References Allwright, D. (2003). Exploratory practice: Rethinking practitioner research in language teaching. Language Teaching Research, 7(2), 113–141. Allwright, D. (2005). Developing principles for practitioner research: The case of exploratory practice. Modern Language Journal, 89(3), 353–366. Carter, R., & Long, M. N. (1987). The web of words: Exploring literature through language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richards, J. C., Richards, J. C. R., & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms. Cambridge University Press. Sakamoto, N. (2011). Professional development through kizuki—Cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness. Teacher Development, 15(2), 187–203.

6  TRACING PROCESS 2: EXPERIENCING KIZUKI—COGNITIVE… 

93

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books. Storch, N. (2013). Collaborative writing in L2 classrooms (Vol. 31). Multilingual Matters. Swain, M., & Watanabe, Y. (2012). Languaging: Collaborative dialog as a source of second language learning. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 1–8). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Teranishi, M. (2008). Polyphony in fiction: A stylistic analysis of Middlemarch, Nostromo, and Herzog. Bern: Peter Lang Publishing.

CHAPTER 7

Tracing Process 3: Investments and Crossing the Boundaries in the Classroom

Introduction This chapter describes a third process in professional development. Elements that have come to the surface in the Assistant Language Teachers’ (ALTs’) narratives can be explained by referring to Norton’s (2010) notion of “investment” (see Chap. 4). This chapter examines the investments of each of the three ALTs in the context of experiencing kizuki in their language teaching in Japan (See Chap. 6). In their relationships with classroom participants, especially students, they invested time and effort inside and outside the classrooms. Even though ALTs are native English speakers and they wanted to communicate with their students on a deeper level, the language gap prevented them from building relationships with people in their lives in a new country. Teaching English in English was not enough for them to gain membership in the community. These realizations inspired them to start or restart Japanese language learning, and their efforts to overcome language and cross-cultural gaps enabled them to achieve close engagement with the community and to (re)construct their identities as ALTs.

The Investment of Assistant Language Teachers Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) must adapt to new experiences while teaching English in the cross-cultural context of modern Japanese schools. This often involves the discovery of joy in teaching, an appreciation for © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0_7

95

96 

N. SAKAMOTO

new cultures, feelings of accomplishment, and community membership within the school environment. At the same time, these teachers may also experience a variety of differences between their native countries and Japan. For instance, there are cultural gaps, language differences, struggles when teaching language to Japanese students, and boundaries within the classroom community. The previous chapter provided an overview of how three different awareness types and the concept of kizuki combined to help ALTs understand phenomena that arise in the language classroom. It also discussed how the cognitive, emotional, and collegial loops of awareness drove ALTs to continually pursue their own professional development. Among these processes, the loops of awareness provided clues to help teachers overcome hardships resulting from cultural, language, and instructional gaps. Another significant perspective applied in the narrative analysis of this work was “investment”. While “investment” may simply sound like a key term in the field of economics, Norton (2010) used the word in the context of second language acquisition (SLA) in order to express the realities experienced by non-native speakers when attempting to live and work in a new country. When migrating for political or economic reasons, it is essential for non-native speakers to overcome hardships in their new environments while also making continual efforts to learn the local language and culture. This is what Norton termed “investment”. However, motivation studies have also found that negative experiences in language learning can reduce the motivation to continue learning. Norton therefore distinguished between “negative” motivation and investment. In this regard, she analysed the approaches adopted in SLA through the relationship between the learners themselves and the sociocultural aspects of their backgrounds rather than focusing on psychological constructive concepts. Norton (2013) specifically developed the distinction between “investment” and “motivation” as follows: The conception of instrumental motivation presupposes a unitary, fixed, and ahistorical language learner, who desires access to material resources that are the privilege of target language speakers. The notion of investment, on the other hand, conceives of the language learner as having a complex social history and multiple desires. The notion presupposes that when language learners speak, they are constantly organizing and reorganizing a sense of who they are and how they relate to the social world. Thus, an investment

7  TRACING PROCESS 3: INVESTMENTS AND CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES… 

97

in the target language is also an investment in a learner’s own identity, an identity which is constantly changing across time and space. (p. 50)

Norton thus captured the relationship between investment and identity in the context of the social world. She explained that motivation was concerned with accessing “material resources that are the privilege of target language speakers” (Norton, 1995, p.17), while investment was aimed at identity (re)construction with new communities. The situation of ALTs can be conceptualized in this way, as they may often feel isolated when classroom participants interact in fluent Japanese. Such an environment can become a place of hardship, as the language problem becomes a higher barrier to overcome than the process of teaching English itself. Although ALTs are teaching English and/or participating in club activities on a daily basis, they may still experience a sense of isolation or feel as though they are not part of the classroom community. Both sensations arise from historical and cultural gaps between their native countries and Japan. This impression may be even more pronounced in some workplaces, since each school has its own unique culture. An analysis of the narrative data derived from ALTs through the notion of “investment” will clarify the strategies used to overcome these types of hardship.

May’s Investments and Breaking Through to a New World In the previous chapter, we saw how an experience of kizuki prompted May to view language teaching in the classroom from a problem-solving perspective. In this section, I will continue to analyse May’s narrative by focusing on her investment in language teaching. May was a female Canadian ALT who learned Japanese in both high school and at university. Her JTE colleagues therefore thought she understood most Japanese interactions, and her Japanese language skills were genuinely proficient. However, May reflected on a particular classroom experience that was solely conducted in Japanese (from the first interview; M is May and N is the author): 107  N  I sometimes use Japanese only when I explain grammar. 108  M  Yeah, I think that … I mean a lot of the time I don’t understand what’s going on.

98 

N. SAKAMOTO

109 

M  Oh!! Here’s the thing: if you’re explaining grammar and you’re writing on the board, I can figure out what’s going on and the thing is to even know. [I] understand grammar words. If you write the kanji, then I can figure it out. It’s just when there is nothing written. If you just talk, then I have no idea. 110  N  I see, you mean when I … 112  M  But [there is] nothing we can do though, I guess. 113  N  You mean when I am speaking Japanese … 114  M  Japanese to the kids, and then they speak Japanese back, but maybe it’s OK, but, yeah, that’s the time when I just go like … “OK.”

In this scene that May reflected on and narrated, a JTE—the teacher in charge of team-teaching lessons with May—and students are learning grammatical materials in Japanese. She described her feelings by saying “I don’t understand what’s going on.” This was because the conversation was solely conducted in Japanese. Moreover, reflecting on the grammar explanation scene, May expresses her feelings about that scene in the phrase “I have no idea.” In reality, she became confused and said “nothing we can do though, I guess,” meaning she believed there was no solution for situations in which other classroom participants orally interacted in Japanese or used Japanese kanji (a Japanese writing system that uses Chinese symbols). In the first and second interviews, she did not specifically describe the difficulties she experienced while teaching English because of the language gap. However, the phrase “I have no idea” implies that she wanted to take corrective action, but felt there was no good option for doing so. As May had been studying Japanese since high school, none of her JTE colleagues (including me) were worried about her Japanese proficiency. Her description of the above episode during the first interview was therefore new to me, as there had been no opportunity to discover how she felt at the time, but this actually occurred. While working, she asked the JTEs questions about the Japanese language whenever she encountered new Japanese expressions. She also got hold of textbooks of Japanese and was studying Japanese language at home as well. As she was a native English speaker, and as the language she needed in the language classroom was her native language, language might not have appeared to be an issue for her, but the language gap mattered in her new teaching life in its new cross-cultural context.

7  TRACING PROCESS 3: INVESTMENTS AND CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES… 

99

Despite these problems, May diligently continued to study Japanese after entering Japan. In fact, she attempted the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and gradually began to use Japanese to support her students when needed. She reflected on the utility of doing this to help students understand her in excerpt 14 from the second interview: 14  Once they [students] realized that I could understand a little Japanese, they started asking me for help more. I still want to use mostly English with them, but I think the first graders especially don’t want to ask me unless I can understand some Japanese

She realizes that Japanese language skills can be a strong tool even for an English native teacher teaching English. This was particularly important when attempting to create a comfortable atmosphere for first graders in junior high school, who were just beginning to learn the language. Indeed, the fact that students “started to ask her for help more” showed that she had begun to play a more important role as an ALT. In short, May realized that Japanese was an efficient tool that could help her connect with students, engage in the classroom environment, and supplement teaching when needed. We can see elements related to the Japanese language on the right side of May’s concept map in Fig. 7.1. Based on her

Fig. 7.1  The three loops of awareness and investments in May’s teaching theory

100 

N. SAKAMOTO

testimony, we can also surmise that she built a sense of security by improving her Japanese skills. May strove to learn the Japanese language as an investment, but her efforts also resulted in a sense of accomplishment. She reflected on small goals throughout the process of her language learning, as follows: 52  There’s also something really satisfying about climbing levels. The Japanese Language Proficiency Test helps me judge my overall Japanese level. I still evaluate myself based on feelings I get like, “I think I can understand more conversational Japanese compared to one year ago” or “my reading speed is faster than a few months ago.” 11  I’m now more familiar with grammar terms [in Japanese], so I can answer students’ questions and give hints to them in class using meta-­language. I feel like students ask me for help more than they did when I first started teaching. In the past, I always had to refer them to JTEs.

As she began to use the Japanese language practically for the purpose of supporting and helping her students, they also began to feel more comfortable with her. In the context of building these relationships, May gradually understood which type of Japanese language usage was most effective when communicating with students. She thus employed meta-language to adapt to their learning stages: 13  I’m really happy that students feel they can ask me some questions. I think that once I became familiar with Japanese grammar terms like meishi, keiyōshi (part of speech), and etc. I could start to use them a little bit to guide students.

As should be clear from the interview, I was one of the JTEs who conducted team-teaching lessons with May. Although I knew that she did not use Japanese in the classroom as an ALT, she knew that Japanese helped her communicate with students better outside the classroom, especially the first graders. In this regard, the Japanese language itself was helpful. Moreover, May’s positive attitude towards gaining knowledge influenced how her students perceived language learning. Two of the students wrote the following about May on their lesson reflection sheets:

7  TRACING PROCESS 3: INVESTMENTS AND CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES… 

101

• At first, her Japanese was halting, and we felt that speaking Japanese was very hard for her, but I was really impressed when I heard that she was studying to master Japanese. • I know May is studying Japanese, and yesterday, I heard that she was studying how to write some kanji, such as “kanwa”, “keidai” (reading of kanji characters), and so on. I was very surprised because they were difficult. I thought her writing to remember new vocab was the same as my way of learning new English words. [Translated into English by the author] May was able to close the distance between herself and her students by investing in learning their native language. Another student wrote the following in regard to her support for an English speech contest: < Written student questionnaire> She helped me with the speech contest by checking my pronunciation a lot, even during lunchtime and after school, and she came to the lecture hall to give me some advice at rehearsal. My friends and I were really moved by her kindness. [Translated into English by the author]

In addition to learning the Japanese language, May’s investments included time, effort, and support for students outside the classroom. In fact, she provided generous amounts of support outside her official working hours and always spent time with students when they needed it. May also gradually established a position for herself within Japanese society while learning the Japanese language, especially by overcoming a variety of hardships resulting from the language gap. In this regard, it can be said that her investments enabled her to develop a new identity within the local community. While situations of “I have no idea” and the feeling of “I don’t understand what’s going on” initially caused feelings of isolation by highlighting boundaries in the classroom community, her continued efforts and investments in language teaching enabled her to overcome these problems. Ultimately, May was able to build relationships with other classroom participants.

Andrew’s Investments and Identity Construction as an ALT Andrew was a male JET-ALT from New Zealand. In the previous chapter, I highlighted his three loops of awareness in the context of establishing a teaching theory and then demonstrated how each awareness type enabled

102 

N. SAKAMOTO

him to experience the teacher development process. In this section, I focus on Andrew’s investment by analysing his narratives from the second interview, specifically regarding his struggles, hardships, and occasional frustrations. Reflecting on his early teaching experiences in Japan, Andrew described episodes of confusion when attempting to build relationships with his students, as shown in excerpt 108: 108  “I’m never going to use English. So, I’m not going to participate. This is a …, this is a free class, so I’m going to just sleep.” Because they don’t see me as a proper teacher. I have no real authority as a proper teacher or like proper teachers do, that they can like issue out disciplinary actions. For me, it’s just [as if] I am there to try and, like, encourage them to learn by themselves.

As excerpt 108 shows, Andrew seemed to perceive a serious boundary between himself and his students. His narratives also showed how difficult it was to establish the position of an ALT in the classroom context. In fact, although JTEs are non-native English speakers who are generally considered less proficient in English communication than ALTs, Andrew suspected that his students only viewed the JTEs as proper teachers. In excerpt 108, he depreciated his standpoint in the classroom by stating, “it’s just [as if] I am there to try and, like, encourage them to learn by themselves.” In the context of his duties as an ALT, the word just indicated that he was taking on this task against his will. Another significant point in Andrew’s narrative concerns his use of direct speech. While direct speech often appears in written texts such as literature and newspapers, it is rare in texts that are derived from spoken words, such as interview transcriptions. Such usage is therefore a little surprising. Why did Andrew use direct speech to represent the words of his students? Although it is not clear whether the quoted sentences are evidence of actual student speech or simply Andrew’s projection of their ideas, the fact that he represents them through direct speech shows that the negative experience of not being regarded as a proper teacher is imprinted on his mind. Like May, Andrew restarted studying Japanese in his spare time, even taking private lessons. As he only knew simple Japanese expressions such as greetings before arriving in Japan, Andrew may have felt that he was insufficiently prepared to understand his students and could not make himself understood to them. He may have thus found it necessary to use Japanese when interacting with students. As an investment in himself, he therefore studied the Japanese language in order to use it as a tool when communicating in this context.

7  TRACING PROCESS 3: INVESTMENTS AND CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES… 

103

Even under conditions that are characterized by both a language gap and classroom difficulties, Andrew’s perspective on his students was always focused on how he could develop their English abilities. After struggling to communicate in the classroom, he took the initiative to design English drama lessons, drawing on his university experiences. Since his JTE agreed with this idea, Andrew designed a drama-centred lesson through project-­ based language teaching. In the second interview, he reflected on an episode in which he tried an English drama, as follows (excerpt 50, 63, 64, and 65; A is Andrew and N is the author.): 50  A  They will give me the idea and I will try and create a script out of that, which is what I did last time. It took me a while, but it worked out quite well, and try and get them to do a bit more of, like, acting and just mainly during presentation, while standing in front of another crowd, and trying to present … say something, just present something in a different language. That takes a lot of, like, a lot of confidence, and so it’s like a confidence-building thing. 63  A  If you want to learn about another country, another culture, I’ll research it. I’ll teach you. I’ll make sure that you guys get something out of it. If you want to do a play, I am all for it. I love drama, I love acting. It’s fun. 64  N  I see. You tried to tell students about various activities of language lessons. 65  A  Yeah, I sometimes tried to use some Japanese to tell them about drama.

Although it was difficult to learn Japanese while continuing to interact with students in both languages, Andrew accepted the challenge. He prepared the drama lesson using both English and Japanese, discussed the contents of the story with his students, adopted their ideas about the story, and completed the script in his own limited time. This type of project-­ based learning requires hard work and is uncommon in the type of high school where Andrew taught. Nonetheless, he chose to organize and conduct the class on his own initiative. His investments in studying Japanese and trying the drama lesson must have caused a variety of difficulties, but these efforts enabled a breakthrough in solving his problems and overcoming hardships. When students made time to practice, Andrew often joined them. He reflected on these experiences positively, saying they amounted to a “confidence-building thing” for students. The elements of

104 

N. SAKAMOTO

r. Boundary crossing b. Students’ changes

q. Identity borderline

c. Efforts in teaching

a. Expectation to students

e. Sharing purposes

d. Needs of comfortableness

f. Balance of teaching

p. The sense of teacher development

g. Appropriate teaching

Elements of investment

h. Understanding of students

n. Learning from other ALTs

o. Relationship with JTEs

i. Autonomy of students j. Student motivation

k. Relationship with students

m. Desire of teacher learning

l. Stress/struggle in teaching

Fig. 7.2  The three loops of awareness and investments in Andrew’s teaching theory

Andrew’s drama lessons are shown at the centre of his concept map, which is reproduced in Fig. 7.2. Many students also described his English lessons positively on their reflection sheets, as follows:

• English is very difficult, and sometimes I cannot understand the content of the lesson. However, the drama lessons were interesting because I could participate fully. • Andrew was a good teacher. He prepared English activities well, and I enjoyed them. • I was surprised when Andrew spoke to me in Japanese, but it made me glad. • I enjoyed his lessons. [Translated into English by the author] Observing the students carefully, Andrew struggled to find (g) appropriate teaching methods for them during his team-teaching lessons, but his (c) teaching efforts leading to original drama lessons using both English and Japanese created opportunities to overcome classroom

7  TRACING PROCESS 3: INVESTMENTS AND CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES… 

105

hardships. These investments functioned to cross the boundaries between Andrew and his students, thus allowing him to construct a new identity within the classroom.

Simon’s Investments and Building Relationships with Learners Simon was simultaneously teaching at a public junior high school and an elementary school in the same school area, but each had a unique cultural background, and he attempted to become a part of each classroom. His narrative illuminates these efforts. Simon had not learned any Japanese while in his native country but began to study the language after beginning his English teaching career. Simon was an ALT through a sister-city programme and had thus only been given a one-year employment term. This would not be extended, so we can imagine that the need to master and use Japanese was not a serious concern when he was hired. During the second interview, he reflected on an episode in which he informed the classroom that he was studying Japanese: 269  I try Japanese as well—a little—to show that I am studying Japanese, too, “It’s difficult, and I make mistakes, so, please don’t worry.” Or I ask [the students] “What does nani-nani (something) mean? What does this mean?”

Simon was not very concerned about the struggles caused by the language gap in the classroom. Rather, he wanted to show students that it was not a problem to make mistakes when learning a new language. To explain this belief to students, he confessed that he was studying Japanese. In a similar way to Andrew, Simon used direct speech to foreground his belief about foreign language learning, as found in excerpt 269: “It’s difficult, and I make mistakes, so, please don’t worry.” It also seems that he wanted students to share their beliefs with him. He continued his narrative as follows: 271  Yeah, many students, after the interview period, they wrote, “Oh, Simon is studying Japanese very hard, so we must study English hard, too.” So, it’s very cool.

By empathizing with Simon’s language learning struggles, students recognized him as someone in a similar position to themselves. The

106 

N. SAKAMOTO

narrative analysis shows how the language gap functions to draw ALTs and students together. In other words, students and ALTs share unique feelings about language learning. Students learn the target language (in this case, English) as taught to them by ALTs, who also make efforts to learn the native language spoken by their students (Japanese). All participants thus share the struggles associated with language learning. In this context, the teacher and their students develop an awareness of both languages while gaining a sense of accomplishment through learning. This not only creates a teacher-learner relationship but also establishes a learner-learner relationship. Because Simon entered Japan through a sister-city programme, his ALT period was slated to last for only one year. Although he may have only undertaken Japanese studies to share the language learning experience with his students, this was also an investment in his development as a teacher. Simon engaged in another notable activity in the Japanese school context by attempting to spend lunchtime with his students. In most Japanese junior high schools, homeroom teachers are supposed to have lunch with their students each day in the homeroom. However, I had not previously heard of an ALT participating at such a time. Although it was not part of his job, Simon attempted to do so, as follows: 261  So, the homeroom teacher, in particular, and I began eating lunch with students, and it’s very challenging …

This lunchtime procedure gives homeroom teachers the opportunity to communicate with students on an individual basis, thus providing a better way to assess their condition. This is a standard educational method used in both the elementary and junior high school contexts in Japan. As explained in the previous chapter, Simon was somewhat shy. This made it “very challenging” to spend time and talk with students outside the normal classroom setting. Because there are no English lessons during lunchtime, students speak in Japanese, which required Simon to continually overcome the language gap. This constituted a highly challenging investment in the desire to gain membership in the classroom community. Miki, who was a JTE and colleague of Simon’s, reflected on the experience of teaching with him as follows: He always understood not only the educational purpose, but also the meaning of events outside the language classroom—of each and every activity at

7  TRACING PROCESS 3: INVESTMENTS AND CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES… 

107

school. Whenever I would ask him to try something, he would always respond, “OK, let’s try it.” This is a wonderful thing. I think the students knew that, as well. [Translated into English by the author]

Whenever Miki invited Simon to participate in the classroom community by sharing his teaching goals and educational purposes in the context of the Japanese school system and culture, his responses of “OK, let’s try” may have triggered a desire to invest in crossing the classroom boundary. Goal-sharing is also a crucial factor when conducting team-teaching lessons and in other areas of the teaching profession. At times, the common goal is focused on teaching language to students, but such efforts can also be directed at nurturing students in other respects. In Simon’s case, teaching investments were simultaneously made for both himself and his students. As such, he gradually positioned himself as part of the classroom community as a whole. The elements of Simon’s investment are shown on his concept map in Fig. 7.3. Simon’s investments were not solely focused on Japanese language learning. Indeed, he made particular investments to eliminate boundaries and become part of the classroom community, in which he could encourage students by operating more proficiently within the Japanese cultural context. His true engagement with students can thus be described as an

Fig. 7.3  The three loops of awareness and investments in Simon’s teaching theory

108 

N. SAKAMOTO

investment that enabled him to be who and where he was as a teacher; that is, he achieved progress that extended even beyond the classroom boundaries. As Simon operated within the cognitive and collegial loops of awareness, his investments also provided opportunities to recognize feelings of personal growth as a language teacher. After completing his term as an ALT in Japan, Simon resumed work as an English teacher in the SLA context. However, his investments as an ALT effectively boosted his overall teaching experience. He was thus more aware of several important teaching aspects, including the need to experience language learning from the learner’s point of view, and the aspects of understanding student difficulties and managing the class through a safe, secure, and warm teacher-­student relationship.

What Were the Results of Their Investments? In this chapter, I explored the “investments” (Norton, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2013) of all three ALTs through an analysis of their narratives and then discussed the relationships between those investments and the three loops of awareness. May, Andrew, and Simon made investments that gradually drew them into the classroom community while helping them build relationships with other participants. They invested both inside and outside the classroom setting while working through their struggles as English speakers in Japanese culture, particularly by learning the Japanese language. The ALT standpoint is unique within the language classroom. Although all other participants know that ALTs are more proficient in English because they are native speakers, they are also teaching English as assistants. As shown through the narrative analyses, all three ALTs felt some sort of boundary between themselves and other classroom participants. It seems that this can be partially attributed to the language gap. Unlike Japanese teachers, who can communicate with students in fluent Japanese, ALTs must overcome factors related to language and cultural gaps, which can cause feelings of isolation while in the classroom. Indeed, May’s statement “I don’t understand what’s going on” (excerpt 109) indicated her need to make investments in the classroom community. For ALTs, it seems necessary to solely use English in the classroom due to some of their more important roles, such as interacting with students, demonstrating dialogue by using target grammar with JTEs, and creating English communicative activities. In fact, May, Andrew, and Simon spoke only English while conducting their classes. However, the Japanese language became a powerful tool for solving communication problems both

7  TRACING PROCESS 3: INVESTMENTS AND CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES… 

109

within and outside the classroom. By interacting with other participants in English and Japanese, they could continually organize and reorganize their ideas of who they were and how they related to the social world (Norton, 2013, p.50). The use of Japanese thus constituted an effective way to overcome obstacles, most obviously in areas affected by the language gap. Moreover, their narratives suggest that investments were also made to deal with social and cultural issues in the Japanese classroom setting. In other words, the ALTs made time to study Japanese, used English and Japanese with students both inside and outside the classroom, and engaged in the cultural contexts of their new schools and communities by participating in events and activities. This was not done to gain “access to material resources that are the privilege of target language speakers” but to lead them to (re)organize “a sense of who they are and how they relate to the social world” (Norton, 2013, p.50). Classroom investments such as learning Japanese and working beyond the requirements also benefited them in their identity (re)construction. This is especially evident since their hard work helped them gain membership in the classroom community while enhancing their degree of engagement in the same setting. Having built up these investments, the ALTs crossed the boundaries between themselves and the classroom community, thus moving onto the next stages of their professional development. For example, they designed language lessons that were tailored to students, taught English as ALTs, and experienced all three loops of awareness. While Japanese teachers of English are not concerned with cultural and language gaps in the classroom setting, ALTs must cross these boundaries if they expect to progress as teachers. They must cognitively transform their perspectives in crucial ways. ALTs can create meaning within their new environments by making the investments necessary to construct relationships with other participants. Indeed, May, Andrew, and Simon repositioned themselves in the classroom by constructing new identities through their own investments. They experienced boundary crossings with their investments in teaching, and they (re)constructed their identities through their own cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness in the process of professional development (Fig. 7.4). As such, all three ALTs crossed classroom boundaries through their additional efforts in teaching, thereby resulting in deeper community membership. In the context of professional development, this helped them (re)construct their identities through the cognitive, emotional, and collegial types of awareness.

110 

N. SAKAMOTO

Identity (re)construction

Emotional loop of awareness

Cognitive loop of awareness

Collegial loop of awareness

Degree of engagement Investment for boundary crossing Fig. 7.4  Identity transformation model of ALTs

Summary New elements that emerged through the ALT narratives can be explained by referring to Norton’s (2010) notion of “investment”. In the context of the relationships they developed with other classroom participants (especially students), each invested time and effort both inside and outside the classroom. Further, all three shared the perception that foreign language learning was one of the most important investments they had made throughout their teaching careers. While team-teaching lessons were solely conducted in English, classroom participants sometimes used Japanese at other times. The JTEs also used Japanese when explaining complex grammar points and allowed students to speak Japanese when asking them questions about English. That is, they used Japanese when they needed to. Although the ALTs were native English speakers, they often felt they could not effectively support their students in learning English. While this spurred the desire to communicate with students on a deeper level, the language gap prevented them from building more comprehensive relationships with the people in their new communities. In this regard, teaching English in English was not sufficient for gaining community membership.

7  TRACING PROCESS 3: INVESTMENTS AND CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES… 

111

These realizations inspired all three ALTs to either start or restart the process of learning the Japanese language. While their approaches differed, each took steps appropriate to their own circumstances to overcome the barriers between themselves and other community members. They ultimately realized that Japanese language skills were powerful and necessary tools, even for native English speakers who were tasked with teaching English. In this regard, May, Andrew, and Simon became foreign language teachers and learners, thus sharing the language learning experience with their students. Their efforts to overcome language and cross-cultural gaps enabled them to achieve better community engagement while (re)constructing new identities as ALTs in Japan.

References Norton, B. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning. TESOL Quarterly, 29(1), 9–31. Norton, B. (1997). Language, identity, and ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly, 31(3), 409–429. Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity, and educational change. Longman. Norton, B. (2010). Language and identity. Sociolinguistics and Language Education, 23(3), 349–369. Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters.

CHAPTER 8

Tracing Process 4: Fostering Collegiality in Cooperative Practice

Introduction In the previous chapter, I examined how May, Andrew, and Simon experienced boundary crossings with their investment in teaching and (re)constructed their identities through their own cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness through the process of professional development (Fig. 7.4). This chapter focuses on the collegiality between ALTs and JTEs, a theme that has already been discussed as one of the three types of awareness but has not yet been fully explored. Here, the process is analysed through Allwright’s (2016) proposal of Exploratory Practice (EP) as a framework for developing collegiality. Collegiality seems to have different features for ALTs than when observed among Japanese teachers of English (JTEs). How do JTEs understand the investments of each ALT, share teaching life in the classroom, help ALTs understand students, and connect ALTs with other teachers at school? The analyses of ALTs’ narratives show that, based on an understanding of their personalities and in deepening relationships with them, JTEs invite ALTs into the classroom and school as a way to connect with the people there—not only students but also other teachers. In particular, their collegiality was active in collaborative teaching.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0_8

113

114 

N. SAKAMOTO

Collegiality for ALTs Collegiality has been recognized as an important concept in teacher education in recent years (Hargreaves, 2000; Harris & Anthony, 2001; Shah, 2011, 2012; Kelly & Cherkowski, 2015; Ning et al., 2015). It is examined in a whole school or department professional learning community context and focuses on specific elements. When exploring collaboration among teachers within the same school, discussions assume few or no language or cultural barriers. The collegiality between JTEs and ALTs is different. Japanese teachers share common prior knowledge and understanding of the contexts of their schools, and this fosters the sharing of information to improve their teaching and develop the school environment. Thus, in the cultural and historical contexts of Japanese schools, it is possible for them to share, with comparative ease, a common understanding of teaching goals based on the Course of Study, teaching methods, senses of accomplishment, problems to solve, connections with the community, roles for each teacher, and the existing system of cooperation in teaching and nurturing students. Moreover, Japanese teachers have personal experiences in Japanese schools as former students. As necessary, they can view schools from both the teachers’ and students’ perspectives. Conversely, ALTs entering teaching in Japan encounter this new cultural context for the first time, both vocationally and socially. This means that everything about the schools is new for ALTs—how they start the classes, what kind of active learning style teachers employ, what the learning purpose is for students in that school area, what the school organization is like, and whether students have daily club activities, among others. Moreover, they need to become accustomed to the team-teaching style as an assistant language teacher. Reflecting on these aspects and building collegiality with teachers in this cross-cultural context, they must surmount various boundaries, including language, cultural, and lifestyle disparities. Collegiality between JTEs and ALTs is a key aspect that is unique and special. In terms of team teaching, ALTs also practise a unique teaching style with their colleagues. The significance of team teaching in lessons is that it allows multiple teaching and language professionals to work together on a common task so that their educational practices can be more relevant and effective in improving students’ English language skills. In other words, it is hoped that teaming up will lead to high-value educational practices,

8  TRACING PROCESS 4: FOSTERING COLLEGIALITY IN COOPERATIVE… 

115

rather than common or average ones. For the team to achieve this maximized value, its members must work collaboratively to bring their expertise to bear to its full extent. In teams that aim to have flexibility, understanding, and thoughtfulness as their primary organizing characteristics, we can see the possibility of novel collaborative collegiality that is different from characteristically Japanese teacher-to-teacher collegiality. Through the analysis of ALTs’ narratives, especially in the early stages of their life in Japan, Chap. 7 showed how collegiality is relevant to their gaining engagement as a member of the classroom community. In the case of the novice JTE reported in Sakamoto (2011), the emergence and growth of ownership of teacher learning played an important role in the professional development of the partner teacher. Moreover, her awareness of collegiality was the key to her development and connection to sharing students’ vision. At school, her collegiality developed while interacting with teachers in different situations, which she fostered from the beginning of her teaching career. Conversely, in the case of ALTs, collegiality has different features in cross-cultural contexts. ALTs enter a new cultural, social, and teaching environment—everything is new. They build collegiality with people of different languages and cultures. Chapter 7 explained that ALTs’ efforts inside and beyond the classroom played a crucial role in this, with their collegial loop of awareness of JTEs being the key. ALTs’ loops of collegial awareness enhance their understanding of how their collegiality creates possibilities to advance their professional development as language teachers. This is a crucial stage in the process of fostering collegiality. In their new life in Japan, through the novel experiences of teaching English to students in Japanese schools, it is easy to imagine that the ALTs needed to accept a sense of intercultural adaptation in many school experiences. Before and while fostering collegiality and learning from each other at school, ALTs need to cross boundaries within the new contexts. The communication gaps they perceive before and after intercultural contact might be signs of emerging boundaries between them and the classrooms that they experience consciously or unconsciously. Language differences may also create a boundary between ALTs and other Japanese teachers, and hence JTEs are often mediators in creating connections. Collegiality with JTEs is the key to understanding the construction of their identity in cross-cultural contexts. It creates future relationships that grow among people in the daily life of the classroom.

116 

N. SAKAMOTO

Collegiality: Enriching the Classroom The ALTs’ narratives inform us that collegiality among Japanese people, including teachers, differs from the relationship with ALTs. However, both play an important role in professional teacher development because they provide pointers concerning collaborative teaching, feedback from one another, expression of feelings about teaching, and sharing of teaching goals at school. Their collegiality was active in collaborative teaching based on the participants’ cooperative teaching and learning activities. Sharing observations of students’ learning, teachers work together to achieve their shared teaching goals—to foster students’ potential. Collegiality emerges and grows among people in everyday life. In the case of all three ALTs, their narratives made it clear that their JTE colleagues appreciated their efforts and investments as new members of the Japanese community. As shown in Chap. 6, May’s JTE understood how much effort she made to master Japanese and sometimes asked her to take the initiative based on her trust in May as a teacher. Andrew’s colleague agreed with the English drama plan that he proposed and trusted him to lead the lesson. Simon’s JTE invited him into the classroom during lunchtime, setting an interview task to connect him with the students, and supported him within and beyond the language classroom. In these cases, mutual understanding as collegiality played an important role in enhancing ALTs’ degree of engagement in their classrooms. Allwright (2016) proposes Exploratory Practice (EP) as a framework for developing collegiality. In his EP framework, he explains the notion of collegiality as follows: Collegiality, for me, describes a situation where people feel that they are part of a joint endeavor, with all participants working in good faith, not just for themselves but also for all the other people involved (p. xvii). Moreover, he introduces three notions of collegiality that he develops. 1. Involve everybody as practitioners developing their own understandings. 2. Work to bring people together in a common enterprise. 3. Work cooperatively for mutual development. (p. xvii, emphasis provided by Allwright (2016))

These conceptions of collegiality are clearly developed in collaborative teaching based on the cooperative activities for teaching and learning of all the participants. Sharing observations of students’ learning, teachers work

8  TRACING PROCESS 4: FOSTERING COLLEGIALITY IN COOPERATIVE… 

117

together to achieve their shared teaching goal of fostering students’ potential. As shown in Chap. 6, in her first interview, May describes her awareness of the experience in making teaching materials by using the first-person singular pronoun I many times (excerpt 84, 86, 87). 84  Actually, at first, I only did it when I was asked to, so if you asked me to do listening, then I would just make one. 86  …but then you said ‘Oh, if you can use grammar and vocab from their learning…. from their recent learning, that’s best.’ And it clicked and I realized ‘Oh, I should have something specifically for that grammar.’ 87  So this is the kind of thing they want us to do, teach culture in class, but I don’t wanna just…but I wanna make it relevant to the language, so this is a good chance to merge [in] something personal. Like this is why I’m here.

Conversely, in her second interview, her narration style shows different aspects by using the first-person plural pronoun, as shown in excerpts 25 and 36. 25  They also need a conversation partner to listen to them. If we teachers are with them, we can help them produce original sentences and correct any big mistakes. 36  I think that those students are able to find their own ways to study English outside of the classroom. They still come to us teachers with questions, but they discover a lot by themselves, either in books or the internet.

In particular, excerpts 25 and 36 describe how May shared the same teaching goals as her JTE colleague and naturally grasped her language lessons in a collaborative team-teaching way. She also shared their observations of students’ learning, assessing their progress in each of the learning processes, and how they learned in and beyond the classroom. We can understand that her professional observation of students’ learning emerged and grew in the language classroom out of her innate sense of collegiality. From a sociocultural perspective, people grow through relationships with each other. In the case of teachers, including ALTs, they grow through their relationships with participants in the classroom, including

118 

N. SAKAMOTO

students, JTEs, homeroom teachers, and other colleagues. In relationships of mutual trust, JTEs in junior and senior high schools and homeroom teachers in elementary schools invite ALTs into the new classroom contexts and then become mutually reassuring presences for each other through a deeper understanding of their team teaching. Collegiality is not always visible, and it may be difficult to recognize how it happens, whether it really happens, and the extent to which it grows. It does, however, gradually and positively enrich teaching and learning in the classroom. ALTs’ narratives clarify that, through working together, the supportive connection with JTEs helps them realize collegiality and trace the transformation of their identity in the new contexts. The relationships between ALTs and JTEs create a unique classroom atmosphere, and the classroom becomes a safe and comfortable space for students while teachers teach in a highly collegial manner. There is a richness, a congenial and warm combination of caring and stability within the shared purpose of learning. This, then, is the teaching and learning life in the classroom. The fertile rich collegiality affects not only the teachers but also the students. At the same time, it drives teachers to grow as language teaching professionals.

What Collegiality Creates in Team-Teaching Lessons For ALTs, their colleagues are significant role models for professional socialization in Japan. Their cooperation in team-teaching lessons encapsulates a sense of human connection in the workplace, albeit within a cross-cultural context. Language education includes teaching knowledge and skills, developing thinking, judging, and expression through communication, thereby instilling positive attitudes in autonomous learners of the target language. Accordingly, language teaching is managed through interactions among participants both inside and beyond the classroom, whereby ALTs build mutual relationships with their class community. A greater sense of belonging to the workplace ensures greater involvement of the teacher in the classroom. Specifically, as evidenced in Simon’s narrative, his colleagues are not only his co-workers in the classroom but also other language teachers who serve as role models, that is, people who bring out his teaching talent, rely on him, connect him to Japanese society and people, and enjoy teaching and dealing with foreign languages. Their

8  TRACING PROCESS 4: FOSTERING COLLEGIALITY IN COOPERATIVE… 

119

presence supports his educational activities, builds his skills in teaching English, and serves as a healing function. Conversely, ALTs are, for JTEs, professional users of the target language. Therefore, JTEs know that collaborative team teaching with ALTs can create greater results through enhanced language usage, authentic communication, cultural topics, and students’ motivation. When I was teaching with ALTs, I also learned much from them about their native countries, cultures, and topics about English itself. It also helped me experience greater joy in learning. Conducting language lessons as cooperative practice enables participants in the classroom, including JTEs, to enrich their learning of language and grow as teachers. Informal collegiality tends to evolve at a cooperative pace. One of the phenomena observed in the narratives in this study was that the more ALTs experienced collegial kizuki and the emerging loop of collegial awareness, the more independent they became as professionals. What awaited them through deepening collegiality was the enrichment of teaching and learning in the classroom. This enrichment creates reciprocity for both students and learners. In his narrative, Simon shared that creating a classroom as a safe and comfortable space was a crucial belief in his teaching. In this space, teachers and students autonomously share their experiences through mutual relationships.

Summary In this chapter, a discussion of collegiality was developed from Chap. 6 as the fourth process of teacher development. We discussed collegiality between JTEs and ALTs in a cross-cultural context while comparing it to collegiality among Japanese teachers. JTEs and ALTs team-teach language lessons through a cooperative practice. From ALTs’ narratives, it is clear that encouraging and growing their collegiality in cooperative practice becomes an important factor that leads to professional development, likewise for the JTEs. Teaming up creates relationships among people and enriches the classroom for teaching and learning a language. In addition, JTEs can mediate between ALTs and the world of the school where they teach. Collegiality creates opportunities for teachers to connect, share teaching goals, and play an important role in teacher development.

120 

N. SAKAMOTO

References Allwright, D. (2016). Team teaching, team learning, and development of collegiality. In A. Tajino, T. Stewart, & D. Dalsky (Eds.), Team teaching and team learning in the language classroom: Collaboration for innovation in ELT (pp. xiv–xx). Routledge. Hargreaves, A. (2000). Contrived collegiality: The micropolitics of teacher collaboration. Sociology of Education: Major Themes, 3, 1480–1503. Harris, D. L., & Anthony, H. M. (2001). Collegiality and its role in teacher development: Perspectives from veteran and novice teachers. Teacher Development, 5(3), 371–390. Kelly, J., & Cherkowski, S. (2015). Collaboration, collegiality, and collective reflection: A case study of professional development for teachers. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 169. Ning, H. K., Lee, D., & Lee, W. O. (2015). Relationships between teacher value orientations, collegiality, and collaboration in school professional learning communities. Social Psychology of Education, 18(2), 337–354. Sakamoto, N. (2011). Professional development through kizuki—Cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness. Teacher Development, 15(2), 187–203. Shah, M. (2011). The dimensionality of teacher collegiality and the development of teacher collegiality scale. International Journal of Education, 3(2), 1–20. Shah, M. (2012). The importance and benefits of teacher collegiality in schools–a literature review. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 1242–1246.

CHAPTER 9

Tracing Process 5: Sociocultural Perspectives on ALTs’ Professional Development

Introduction Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) conduct both solo and team-teaching classes at school. The team-teaching style preferred in Japan has distinctive aspects: the lessons are conducted by a team of two teachers at all times during the lesson, and the JTE is a professional of English teaching in Japan, while the ALT is a native or proficient English speaker. This chapter explores the nature of a team and what is created in team-teaching lessons. It first reflects on the nature of team teaching from the perspectives of the ALTs in this book and determines how it works as an approach to foreign language teaching in Japan. The focus here is on how team teaching develops teacher learning in social relationships in the classroom. I will argue that team teaching and the emerging kizuki enabled the ALTs to naturally create Vygotsky’s zones of proximal development (ZPD). Moreover, I believe the Japanese word yarigai describes their emerging feelings and can help us understand the ALTs’ emotions.

The Nature of Team Teaching In recent years, several researchers have studied the effects of team teaching (Tajino & Tajino, 2000; Stewart and Perry, 2005; Jang et al., 2010; Kano et  al., 2016; Yoshida, 2016; Stewart, 2018a, 2018b). Regarding Japanese team-teaching English classes, Tajino and Tajino (2000) © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0_9

121

122 

N. SAKAMOTO

examined the team teaching of an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) and a Japanese teacher of English (JTE) in a class of native and non-native speakers and explained how these two teachers with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds introduced different educational practices to the class. They suggested that it is through “team learning” that participants, including students and teachers, learn from each other by exchanging ideas and cultural values. Stewart and Perry (2005) investigated how teachers with different backgrounds can create an effective partnership through team-teaching lessons. Yoshida (2016) identified several patterns of interactions among the participants in a team-teaching class and described the social interactions that elicit student learning. By analysing the discourses in the classroom, he found that the teacher’s scaffolding guided the students’ understanding. The study of team-teaching foreign language lessons by observing the social relationships in the classroom is a growing trend in language education in Japan. Team teaching was first introduced to the English language classroom in Japan in 1987, when ALTs began to teach several times a month. English teachers who had been teaching alone were now responsible for two teaching types: solo teaching and team teaching. Some teachers design their classes to invite ALTs into the flow of the solo class, while others consider the ALTs’ classes as separate. Either way, for students, having ALTs in an English lesson creates a different atmosphere in the learning space. It is important to remember that teaching with ALTs broadens students’ language learning in the classroom. A classroom is a special social and cultural space where individuals learn and teach. The presence of ALTs gives students a sense that the language they are learning will become more practical. An ALT who is not a special guest, but a language teacher, creates an opportunity to transform the personal journey of learning English into a worthwhile learning experience, using native-sounding English. What is the essence of team teaching in language classes? In a team of two teachers in a language class, one is a JTE, and another is an ALT. This is different to having just JTEs in usual lessons. In my life as an English teacher at Japanese junior high schools, I experienced team-­teaching lessons with more than 20 ALTs. Each of the ALTs had a unique personality and background, and whenever I teamed up with a new ALT, we would get to know each other, communicate our educational goals, and share lesson designs appropriate for students. In everyday lessons, each team teacher gets to understand their roles in the classroom. In the class, each teacher takes on a role based on their

9  TRACING PROCESS 5: SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON ALTS’… 

123

specialty. Team teaching is a method in which teachers who teach English together play different roles and work together to develop and nurture students’ learning. The essence of this approach is collaborative teaching to foster student learning.

Social Relationships in Team-Teaching Practices As indicated in Chap. 6, an ALT from Canada, May, realized through the words of her colleague, a JTE, that “creating learning materials as an ALT” was the catalyst for her feeling “this is why I’m here” (Excerpt 90). 83  N  Actually, I’m surprised you always try to think …, think of new things. 84  M  Actually, at first, I only did it when I was asked to, so if you asked me to do Listening, then I would just make one. 85  N  Really? Mmm, I didn’t think so. You always do it by yourself. 86  M  I didn’t think about it before, I guess, but for some reason, like when we were going to do their first exam, I had written something. I didn’t even think about the grammar stuff. 87 N I see. 88  M  But then you said ‘Oh, if you can use grammar and vocab from their learning …. from their recent learning, that’s best.’ And it clicked and I realized ‘Oh, I should have something specifically for that grammar.’ And then at that’s point I thought there should be a listening exercise for each chapter, to be appropriate. 90  M  … So this is the kind of thing they want us to do, teach culture in class, but I don’t wanna just … but I wanna make it relevant to the language, so this is a good chance to merge [in] something personal. Like this is why I’m here.

May shifted to creating the teaching materials based on the grammar points and vocabularies that learners were learning. She gradually included Canadian aspects in her lessons, such as cultural elements from her home country, her knowledge and education as a native English speaker, and most importantly, her personality, preferences, and relationship with her students. In creating teaching materials, she felt that her JTE was not overly involved but rather “waited” for the finished product, respecting May’s creativity. As there was mutual trust in the team, their team-­teaching lessons gradually led to natural improvement in the students. This improvement was her reason for being there. May could create original lesson plans to enhance the students’ learning.

124 

N. SAKAMOTO

Simon, an American ALT with English as a second language teaching experience at an American university, discussed his experience with a JTE in one of his schools, reflecting on a particular scene in a team-teaching class in the second interview. (The author is N, and Simon is S.) 369  S 

I am very calm, so when I began working with her, we would sing a song together in class or do chants and she is involving me too or maybe act to demonstrate a conversation. So, one time, we were doing a chant together, she, she told me, “Simon, please pick up a beat or something.” Maybe I can’t say the chants in front of students. 370 N I see. 371  S  So, she is making me more genki (“cheerful” in English). 372  N  Yeah, I see. I see. 373  S  Power. Very powerful teacher, so it motivated me too. So I can get more energy. So, I think it’s a good thing for me.

In the second interview, he talked about how his team-teaching classes with his JTE had brought out a new side of him. His own realization of this and the fact that he sensed that his JTE’s powerful personality was energizing those around him, including himself, show that they had a collaborative relationship when conducting team-teaching classes. He had been a language teacher in the United States before coming to Japan and had his own teaching style, but his interview responses suggested that he was enjoying the new side of himself that was brought out through his classes with his JTE colleague. It is worth noting that natural phenomena occurred in their team-teaching lessons that did not occur in solo teaching and that Simon understood its meaningful influence on students’ learning and teacher development. Andrew, a young ALT from New Zealand, came up with the idea of incorporating an English drama activity into his term-teaching class, which was not available in Japanese high school classes. He wrote a script and led the class in a project-based learning style. He reflected on the situation as follows: 50  They [Students] will give me the idea and I will try and create a script out of that, which is what I did last time. It took me a while, but it worked out quite well, and try and get them to do a bit more of like acting and just mainly during presentations while standing in front of another crowd, and trying to present, say something, just present something in a different language. That takes a lot of, like, a lot of confidence and so it’s like a confidence-­building thing.

9  TRACING PROCESS 5: SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON ALTS’… 

125

Generally, drama classes are rarely offered in high schools, and drama classes in English are even rarer, especially in the technical high school where he worked, making it too unfamiliar for many English teachers to teach. Nevertheless, Andrew thought it would be effective for the students and discussed it with the JTE who was teaching the class with him. 125  But because this teacher, the teacher that I taught with last year knows me quite well, knows what I’m capable of and knows what the lessons involve, she generally tells the other teachers just not to worry and just let me, like, teach. And then—and they [the JTEs in the school] put a lot of trust in me.

I can imagine that it was not easy to attempt an English drama class in a Japanese school where such classes are rare. Nevertheless, Andrew chose to deepen his students’ learning of English to develop confidence in them through English drama activities. Although this was his first time teaching English in Japan, his narrative conveys the sense of self-accomplishment and self-efficacy he felt from working with JTEs in the classroom. Through the social relationships in the class, he understood that his special lessons were successful, and he felt that his students’ learning had improved. These feelings can also be seen in May’s narrative about creating new materials and Simon’s experience of finding a new side to himself. Their narratives tell us what they thought was important to them, what was needed in the language classroom, and what they valued in their teaching.

ALTs’ Teacher Development in the Zone of Proximal Development Careful analysis of the ALTs’ narrative data allows us to recognize the importance of trustworthy peer-to-peer relationships among teachers in team teaching in enhancing professional development. Here, I would like to look at this phenomenon from a sociocultural perspective. Vygotsky (1978) defined the “Zone of the Proximal Development” (ZPD) as “the distance between the actual development level as determined through problem-solving and the level of potential development with more capable peers” (p.  86). The ZPD is the fertile area between what a child can achieve with assistance from a more capable person and what they can achieve on their own. Although ZPD is often used to understand children’s development and is often conceptualized in terms of the child-adult

126 

N. SAKAMOTO

relationship, I would like to extend the notion of ZPD to a teacher-toteacher situation, a team-teaching classroom, where teachers provide mutual scaffolding. The interactions between team teachers play a crucial role, which leads to emerging awareness of their language teaching. Gaining different perspectives of their language teaching through interaction, feedback, and discussion enables them to broaden their view of teaching and, at the same time, clarifies teachers’ views on how students learn in the classroom. Through her interactions with a JTE, May realized what she had been missing in developing teaching materials, and her perception of teaching materials was transformed. Andrew’s trusting relationship with a JTE led to the development of a class that incorporated English drama activities, a rarity in Japan, and, as a result, created an opportunity to motivate students to learn English. Simon was reminded of his own personality through his team-teaching experience with a JTE, and he could further develop this new side of himself through their collaboration. They naturally internalized their awareness gained from social relationships. Vygotsky (1962) argued that higher mental functions in children’s mental development shift from interpsychic to intrapsychic. He explained that children internalize interpsychic functions, for example, conversing with others in social situations, and transform them into intrapsychic functions, such as asking questions, and performing higher mental functions, such as thinking. Vygotsky’s theory is that the “inner speech” is the language of thought processes, that is, the “inner speech” of the mind, while the language of communication is called the “outer speech”. The social “outer speech” is internalized and becomes the “inner speech”, through which higher mental functions, such as thinking, are developed. When we think of teacher learning, we can understand that when teachers internalize learning that is guided consciously or unconsciously by another person who has more or different teaching experiences, language knowledge, and teaching skills, they develop their awareness of teaching by internalizing their accumulated experiences. In the context of team teaching, teachers have more experience of each other’s teaching styles than they would have if teaching solo. Through the interactions with the JTE while team teaching, the ALTs gain critical points to consider when designing lessons and guidelines for teaching English in Japan. In collaborative teaching, their internalization of teacher learning enabled May, Simon, and Andrew to develop their classroom practices as ALTs. JTEs have the same experience. For example, they can deepen their knowledge of the target language and

9  TRACING PROCESS 5: SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON ALTS’… 

127

different cultures through team teaching with ALTs. In addition, JTEs also experience an increase in consciousness of developing their language teaching skills through team teaching with ALTs. The ALTs’ narratives revealed that they found their learning was not confined to the classroom domain; teacher learning as an ALT was extended within and outside the classroom. During daily team teaching, they gradually developed a relationship of mutual support and growth. This is a core of principle of teaching in a team. As a result, their learning as a teacher expanded. In their narratives, we can see May’s creation of teaching materials, Andrew’s English drama lessons, and Simon’s chanting activities as examples of growth and transformation that resulted from the scaffolding that occurred between the teachers in each context and the relationships between the teacher teams. Through daily interactions, reflection, feedback, and discussions about appropriate language teaching between two teachers, their ZPDs developed, and they fostered their own teaching theories in the process of professional growth.

ALTs’ Yarigai in Professional Development Team teaching offers various possibilities to teachers depending on how team teachers design, organize and practise; give feedback to each other; and reconsider their teaching as being appropriate for their students. What drives teachers to make use of these teaching possibilities? In daily teaching, as a T1 (we call the main teacher T1 in Japanese schools), the JTEs are mainly responsible for organizing the team-­teaching classes and bringing out the best in the ALTs to meet the needs of the students. In particular, for ALTs, teaching in the cross-cultural context always may include both positive and negative aspects, but May, Simon, and Andrew developed their teaching through social relationships in the classroom, overcoming their problems. However, problems are not always easily solved, and situations vary. In fact, when teaching in the classroom, a teacher is also learning at the same time. Teaching is, in other words, ongoing teacher learning. If that is so, what motivates ALTs to consistently teach and learn? How do they learn from teaching? As we saw in Chaps. 5 and 6, the ALTs often experienced difficulties and struggles. However, through confronting these difficulties and solving their problems in the context of each of the team-teaching lessons, they were able to construct their own teaching theories and build their identities as ALTs. Problem-solving through team teaching with

128 

N. SAKAMOTO

JTEs, their emerging sense of accomplishment and self-affirmation, and their joy in teaching and motivation enabled them to take the next step towards professional development. How can we explain these phenomena? I believe the Japanese word yarigai can describe their feelings and help us understand the ALTs’ emotions. Yarigai is a different emotion from the one that we feel when we get some reward. It is not just feeling good because something good has happened, but is a state of mind that emerges spontaneously. We can be aware of yarigai when we feel that what we love contributes to what the classroom needs and when our strengths are used effectively and, as a result, when we see a return. This “return” is not necessarily a reward but is rather a sense of fulfilment. Yarigai is the feeling when we put our heart and soul into something, make an effort or devote ourselves to it, and see the reaction to our efforts and feel a sense of fulfilment, satisfaction, and motivation. In the second interview, May reflected on the communication difficulties she faced due to the language barrier. Having studied Japanese in Canada, when May started teaching English in Japan, she furthered her Japanese studies and used it to explain English. She described her feelings at that time, as shown in Excerpt 13. 13  I’m really happy that students feel they can ask me some questions. I think that once I became familiar with Japanese grammar terms like meishi, keiyōshi (part of speech), and etc. I could start to use them a little bit to guide students.

By observing the students’ positive change when she used some Japanese words to support their understanding of the language activity, May felt that her teaching style was sufficient for her students. Simon, who is a second language teacher in his home country, has a deep knowledge of language learning and described how he was able to internalize the learning from his JTE colleague, interweaving it with his own personal growth through teaching the language. In the second interview, reflecting on the lessons with his JTE colleague, he reported as follows: 128  S 

So, maybe watching teachers like Akiko [Simon’s JTE colleague], for example, maybe watching good teachers teaching, they have good ideas and we can watch and learn how to even change, you know, put a lesson together quickly. 129  N  I see. So, you can modify to your way.

9  TRACING PROCESS 5: SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON ALTS’… 

129

130  S  Yeah. Yeah, or use one good part from her lesson. 131  N  That’s nice. So, you think maybe the way of teaching by, you know, Japanese teacher and the way of teaching by English teacher is the same, you know … 132 S  Yes. 133  N  … native teachers and Japanese teachers. 134  S  Yeah. Sometimes we share ideas and work together to make the best―all good ideas together.

Simon’s voice was energetic here, and the tone tells us that he was enjoying his learning from Akiko, his JTE colleague. Moreover, his positive perspectives and his respect for Akiko enabled them, two team teachers, to create opportunities to “share ideas and work together to make the best―all good ideas together”. His words “to make the best―all good ideas together” express his sense of accomplishment in teaching in the language classroom. Andrew reflected on interactions about lesson design with his students, as shown below. 60  Because they are so enthusiastic about it, I said, this is your class, not my class. This is your class, what you want to learn, you tell me. 61  If you don’t like what we are learning, I’ll change it. You tell me what you learn, and I’ll change it and I’ll make it that you enjoy what you are learning. And you can try and like use as much English as you can. 73  So they are willing―they are willing to learn about other culture, they are willing to speak English. And the other student, I wasn’t expecting him there at all but he surprised me by his enthusiasm for studying—for wanting to speak English. So I’m just―all of them are very motivated. So I’m very, very grateful and fortunate to have very enthusiastic students about this. And so “that’s why I try to, like …, you guys are very enthusiastic. I haven’t got this before. I’m treating you a lot; I’m treating you a lot.”

Andrew’s emotional expression describes how he felt yarigai through noticing students’ enthusiastic attitudes towards foreign language learning. His fulfilment will likely motivate him to further develop his language teaching style in the classroom. May, Simon, and Andrew gradually experienced this feeling in the classroom, and they participated in the process of professional growth. Experiencing yarigai, ALTs developed their team teaching dynamically and collaboratively.

130 

N. SAKAMOTO

Summary In this chapter, I first reflected on the nature of team teaching from the ALTs’ perspective and determined how it works as an approach to foreign language teaching in Japan. My focus here is on how team teaching develops teacher learning through social relationships in the classroom. From the sociocultural perspective, human learning occurs in social and cultural relationships (Vygotsky, 1978). The ALTs’ narratives reveal that they experienced ZPD with their colleagues when team teaching. ZPD was discussed in terms of human development and was described as the gap between a person’s current developmental level, defined by problems solved independently, and the possible developmental level, defined by problems the person solves in collaboration with more advanced peers. In their narratives, ALTs reflected on various interactions with JTEs, and described what they thought, how they felt, what they wanted to do, and how they experienced awareness. In the meaning-making process, through their collaborative activities with JTEs, such as team teaching, ALTs’ emerging awareness enabled them to experience yarigai, a feeling which encouraged their professional development. Moreover, once teachers gain this awareness, they have more agency in the professional development process which develops during their daily life in the classroom.

References Jang, S. H., Nguyen, B. H., & Yang, Y. (2010). Enhancing pedagogical roles of ESL/EFL native and non-native teachers through team teaching: How to make this ‘international partnership’ successful. International Journal of Learning: Annual Review, 17(9), 249–258. Kano, A., Sonoda, A., Schultz, D., Usukura, A., Suga, K., & Yasu, Y. (2016). Barriers to effective team teaching with ALTs. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown (Eds.), Focus on the learner (pp. 74–82). JALT. Stewart, T. (2018a). Expanding possibilities for ESP practitioners through interdisciplinary team teaching. In K.  Yasemin & D.  Kenan (Eds.), Key issues in English for specific purposes in higher education (pp. 141–156). Springer. Stewart, T. (2018b). Team teaching collaborations: Contact, conflict, and empowerment. JACET Journal, 62, 29–47. Stewart, T., & Perry, B. (2005). Interdisciplinary team teaching as a model for teacher development. TESL-EJ, 9(2), 1–17.

9  TRACING PROCESS 5: SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON ALTS’… 

131

Tajino, A., & Tajino, Y. (2000). Native and non-native: What can they offer? Lessons from team-teaching in Japan. ELT Journal, 54(1), 3–11. Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language (Shibata, Trans.). MIT Press. Vygotsky, L.  S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press. Yoshida, T. (2016). Sociocultural analysis of effective team teaching in a Japanese language classroom. In A. Tajino, T. Stewart, & D. Dalsky (Eds.), Team teaching and team learning in the language classroom: Collaboration for innovation in ELT (pp. 31–50). Routledge.

CHAPTER 10

Narrative Inquiry as an Inquiry-Based Approach to Teacher Development

Introduction This chapter focuses on narrative inquiry as inquiry-based approach to the teacher development of Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in Japan. Through narratives, people assimilate their experiences and events, and begin the process that leads to understanding these experiences. When people narrate their stories, the narratives are associated with their social, cultural, and historical contexts. In the case of language teachers, the narratives concern teaching in the classroom. The analysis of the ALTs’ narratives describes five stages of the process of their growth as a professional development model for ALTs: starting their own story in cross-cultural contexts, experiencing kizuki (cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness), making investments in language teaching, constructing collegiality as cooperative practice, and professional development with yarigai. Furthermore, the dialogue leads to an understanding of the importance of interviewing as a social practice, and how the discourse within the mutual relationship of the interviewer and interviewee creates a mediating space for interviewees to (re)understand their experiences.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0_10

133

134 

N. SAKAMOTO

What and How Do Teachers Narrate? In recent years, narrative inquiry has developed as a growing body of research in different fields, such as medicine, dentistry, nursing science, psychology, pedagogy, social science, and jurisprudence. Moreover, it is used in the clinical arena and creative fields, such as art, architecture, design, advertising, and leadership education (Okuda, 2016). This dramatic increase in the application of narrative inquiry to a wide variety of research topics suggests that, regardless of the format, narrative offers valuable material for researchers interested in human activities. However, what is narrative? In what kind of contexts do people narrate? What is the purpose of their narratives? Through narratives, people assimilate their experiences and events, and begin the process that leads to the understanding these experiences. When people narrate their stories, the narratives are associated with their social, cultural, and historical contexts. In the case of language teachers, the narratives regard teaching in the classroom. From a sociocultural perspective, teaching and learning occur in a socially situated cultural community (Rogoff, 2003), which is often a classroom. In the classroom, learners and teachers experience learning and teaching in association with the participants, the country’s classroom culture, and their daily lives. Therefore, these contexts have an impact on the (re)formation of their narratives. Narrative inquiry has been applied to the study of education not only as a research method but also as an object of inquiry, for example the analysis of teachers’ knowledge experiences (Clandinin, 1986; Elbaz, 1991, 2018; Connelly et al., 1997; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Witherall & Noddings, 1991; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999) and teachers’ voices and identities in the social, cultural, and historical surroundings of teacher education (Britzman, 1991). From these emic perspectives, narrative plays an important role as a general means to understand and describe teacher development (Witherall & Noddings, 1991; Carter, 1993; Doyle & Carter, 2003). Narratives are said to be the most authentic way to understand teaching for teachers (Doyle & Carter, 2003; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), because through narratives, teachers trace and reflect on their own teaching stories and (re)think their participation in classroom teaching practice, which is conducted amid social and cultural relationships with participants. Inquiring into teachers’ stories in their narratives enables them to go forward in the process of “internalization” of their own thoughts and feelings (Johnson, 2007). Through narrating, teachers

10  NARRATIVE INQUIRY AS AN INQUIRY-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHER… 

135

naturally and spontaneously review their teaching. In teachers’ professional development, teacher narratives play an important role as a form of teacher research in each of their situations and contexts in schools. Cortazzi (1993) described the study of teachers’ narratives as an innovative methodology to learn more about their culture, experiences, and beliefs from an inside perspective. He emphasized the importance of knowing “how narratives work, socially [and] psychologically”, and seeing “how narratives are structured” (p.  5). Narratives involve two aspects: how they are narrated and what is narrated. Lewis (1999) explains that teacher-research into teacher narratives presents a more complete, useful, and meaningful picture of the data by surrounding them with the full context of the classroom. In the complex classroom context, narratives contain the power to let teachers understand their teaching, connecting one phenomenon to another happening in their lessons; to convey their actual feelings at the individual moments of episodes; to shape their teaching practice; and to figure out the landscape of their teaching life in the context of each classroom. While (re)telling their stories on teaching, they reflect on the lessons and re-observe them cognitively and meta-­cognitively, which means that they grasp their own teaching as actual experiences and consider what and how they can change to improve it. Through an understanding of complexity in the classroom, teachers come to inquire into their own experiences in the professional world. From the sociocultural viewpoint, Johnson regards narrative inquiry as a form of professional development, saying that it “presents systematic self-exploration conducted by teachers through their own stories and alternative ways of thinking and participating in social practices” (Johnson, 2007, p.  177). Golombek and Johnson’s (2004) definition of narratives also focuses on sociocultural perspectives: “Narratives then also demonstrate how teachers’ knowledge is bound up in how teachers create instruction in response to their emotions and values, and how they place themselves in relation to others” (p. 308). Understanding their teaching practices as holistic human activities enables teachers to view themselves and their own teaching in relation to the classroom participants. Through narrating their experiences, teachers gain a bird’s eye view of the events and phenomena of teaching. In narrating their teaching, people choose events in order to help make sense of unconnected happenings, and shape or reconstruct them in their lives through time (Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000). In this connection, Golombek and Johnson (2004) proposed that the “mediational space” of teacher

136 

N. SAKAMOTO

narratives allows the teacher to step back to see their teaching, question their own practice, and listen to their own voice in their externalized understanding (Golombek & Johnson, 2004, p. 311). In addition, they grasp narratives as a “mediational space” that creates an everlasting “zone of proximal development (ZPD)” (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986), which supports and energizes the teacher’s personal and professional development (Golombek & Johnson, 2004). From a sociocultural perspective, the Vygotskian ZPD is a key to human development because it is defined as the difference between what a person can achieve by themselves and what a person can achieve through collaborative work with someone more expert. Lantolf (2000) described the ZPD as “a metaphor for observing and understanding how mediational means are appropriated and internalized” (Lantolf, 2000, p. 17). Language teachers’ narrative inquiry is a powerful means for them to create their own teaching theory. This is because narratives allow teachers to gain insight into their own experiences of teaching in the classroom. In summary, teachers’ narrative inquiry is a first-person story and a third-­ person story at the same time, helping them get to know, both subjectively and objectively, how they live in the classroom based on their own teaching theory. Therefore, inquiring into and understanding their narratives leads them through the process of professional development in language teacher education.

Transformative Process Grounded in Kizuki Through Teacher Narratives What did the teacher narratives in this book create for the Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) themselves? Careful observation of the narrative data assists in understanding how these teachers grew through their inner struggles, sociocultural aspects, and interactions with others, in the context of teaching and living. Their life in Japan involved the following experiences: living in Japan, a cross-cultural context, and teaching English. They taught English to school students as native English-speaking ALTs in cultural communities in Japan, and the classes were conducted as team-­ teaching lessons in association with Japanese teachers of English (JTEs). The stories that they shared, as they reflected on their lessons, were a diverse mix of their reflections on their first experience of team teaching with JTEs, their relationships with the students, their mutual relationships

10  NARRATIVE INQUIRY AS AN INQUIRY-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHER… 

137

with JTEs, their beliefs about English education, the difficulties they faced in creating lessons, and their desire to improve their teaching skills. Their narratives provide an opportunity to carefully portray each moment experienced by them in the cross-cultural context of a Japanese school. Their narratives brought to light the experience of awareness as a critical concept in teacher development. By gaining different awareness lenses, kizuki, for different aspects of their classrooms, they generated cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness loops (see Chap. 6). While the analysis of the first interviews with the ALTs is focused on their background and familiarity with language teaching, the second interview offers textual material to explain the teaching theories based on the three loops of awareness. May, the Canadian female ALT, used the word “clicked” to describe her feeling when she experienced the awareness, kizuki, in her teaching. Reflecting on the creation of teaching materials, for which her JTE colleague gave feedback on whether the content was appropriate for her students, she described the moment of her awareness as follows. 88  But then you said ‘Oh, if you can use grammar and vocab from their learning …. from their recent learning, that’s best.’ And it clicked and I realized ‘Oh, I should have something specifically for that grammar.’ And then at that’s point I thought there should be a listening exercise for each chapter, to be appropriate

She vividly portrayed the moment of the episode and elaborated on how her kizuki emerged and how it influenced her cognition or perception of language teaching as an ALT. The kizuki at that moment was her starting point for the awareness of what it meant to be an ALT in the classroom and what team-teaching English lessons were like with JTEs. May experienced cognitive awareness earlier in her teaching career in Japan and used her excellent problem-solving skills to enhance professional development in the English classroom. An analysis of the second interviews with ALTs established the role of ALTs’ investments, such as mastery of new teaching techniques, Japanese language learning, and extra work with students (see Chap. 7). Their narratives elaborate on the journey of rethinking, reflecting, and understanding what they did in the classrooms; how they practised collaborative teaching with Japanese teachers of English (JTEs); how they developed relationships among participants; and how they grew as ALTs in the

138 

N. SAKAMOTO

cross-­cultural context. These elements promote the benefit of crossing the boundary that existed between them and the community of the Japanese classrooms, and led to teacher development. The analysis of the ALTs’ narratives revealed, through their experience of kizuki and their awareness in language teaching, that they have been involved in English education in the cross-cultural context of Japan and that they experienced five stages while developing professional competence during their teaching career. This can be considered as a teacher-led development model for ALTs in the cross-cultural context (see from Chaps. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9). In the first stage of professional development, they experienced a state of confusion about the gap between reality and their predictions before coming to Japan, and this led to a change in their perspective on teaching English and questions about their performance in their first Japanese school. This could be considered the beginning of their story and the first step towards growth. Their words reveal their conversation with themselves and the perspective that they gained from interactions with others on the phenomena occurring in the classroom, and some of them considered their understanding as inner speech. These self-­ initiated questions and answers were reflected in their teaching style, and gradually led them on a journey to find the meaning of being an ALT. At the second stage, they gradually developed a multifaceted lens to view the varied events in the classroom and began to develop a reflective approach to teaching that captured the essence of the classroom. This was apparent in the second interview. While the analysis of the first interview reflects on their background and familiarity with language teaching, the second interview provides textual material that helps in explaining their educational theories based on kizuki: cognitive awareness, affective awareness, and collegial awareness (Chap. 6, Sakamoto, 2011). At the third stage, it became clear that the ALTs were making a concerted endeavour, or investment, to cross the boundaries that they felt existed between them, the Japanese students, and the community in the classrooms. Their efforts can be explained based on Norton’s notion of “investment” (Norton, 2000, see Chap. 7). In the case of the ALTs, their investment is not only learning Japanese to enable them to share their knowledge with the students but also the day-to-day activities that assisted them to cross the boundaries to familiarize themselves with Japanese school culture. At the fourth stage, the collegial loop of awareness plays a crucial role in illuminating the key concept of growing collegiality, which implies cooperative practice. This is

10  NARRATIVE INQUIRY AS AN INQUIRY-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHER… 

139

the development of the collaborative practice in the relationship between the JTEs and ALTs. The collaborative language teaching also enabled JTEs to recognize the investments made by the ALTs and to understand the meaning of team-teaching practice. They became aware of how to share their teaching purpose, how to position themselves as an ALT or a JTE in the classroom, the efforts that they make in the teaching process, and what else is needed to enhance teaching. This is an important stage as it greatly expands the possibilities of the teaching practices used in the classroom. As the last stage, the ALTs’ professional development is described from a sociocultural perspective. The emergence of the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978) in classroom social relationships accelerated the growth of these teachers. Immediately after arriving in Japan, the ALTs experienced a cultural gap in Japanese schools, but through team-teaching lessons with experienced JTEs, they gradually shaped their teaching style and developed teaching theories while building their identities as ALTs. Yarigai, gained through the experience of teaching, is what drives these teachers to grow (see Chap. 9). Their narratives elaborate on the model of teacher development and the awareness that they gained in the English classes and how this enabled them to understand the classroom and transform their identity as teachers. This led to the kizuki of insights and the process of teacher growth.

Social Practice: Interviewee and Interviewer Narratives have two aspects: narratives by teachers and the teachers’ act of narration. Their act of narration involves sharing their stories about language teaching experiences in the classroom. For ALTs, sharing their experience of the social activity of teaching English assisted them in identifying the initial difficulties faced in their new life in Japan, the classroom phenomena, relationships with students, mutual relationships with colleagues, beliefs as teachers, theories of teaching, and identity construction, and helped them to meta-cognitively consider their English teaching methodologies. The question that arises is what they gained by sharing their experiences in words with others. The word “narrative” focuses on the first-person narrative; however, in this book, the ALTs reflect on their teaching practice and narrate their stories in the context of interviews with another person, specifically me, the author of this book and the designer of this study. Interviews are

140 

N. SAKAMOTO

implemented, in general, as a social practice between an interviewer and an interviewee. Talmy categorized the aspects of an interview into the following: an interview as research instrument perspective and a research interview as social practice orientation (Talmy, 2011, p. 25). In this context, the focus is on the last. The social interactions in an interview constitute an emerging space for interpretation of experiences, and in this case, it is the way that the ALTs chose to tell their stories. Tracing their narratives is a powerful tool to analyse how they interpret and present their experiences, the expressions and emotion they use to describe the experiences, and what and who they recall as shaping their emerging conceptions of teaching and teacher identity. The interviewer is also involved in the narrative space of the interviewee as a social practitioner in terms of being a listener or interlocutor. In the interview with ALTs in this study, there are some instances where the interviewer shared the understanding of the language teaching context that the interviewee elaborated on. I, as the interviewer, have over 20 years of team-teaching experience with more than 20 ALTs in Japanese public schools. I knew Simon’s ALT colleague and had seen her teach during my teaching career; therefore, the topic of conversation was rather specific at times, as if the team-teaching class was taking place in front of us. 28  S  And have fun. And let’s see, she has—every teacher has students practice conversation from the textbook, New Crown. The text book, they practice the conversation together, but she has a plan where all students will stand up … 29 N I see. 30  S  … and move and play Janken (rock-paper-scissors) and the winner will play the first character and the loser will play the second … 31 N I see. 32  S  … and they practice that way many times … 33  N  Yes, they have to go to the next person, right? 34  S  Yeah. So, as many as possible. And maybe for 3 minutes and then the students who have the most will get a sticker. 35  N  Oh! That’s nice. 36  S  So it’s cool. So, they are always excited. 37  N  Enjoying their game, like a game. 38  S  Yeah, like a game, but it’s still the same. But maybe they have more fun. 39 N I see. 40  S  If they talk to a teacher, they have maybe more points.

10  NARRATIVE INQUIRY AS AN INQUIRY-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHER… 

141

41 N I see. 42  S  So, if they are brave or if the boys talk to a girl maybe 2 points or something. 43  N  So, they count by themselves. 44  S  Yeah, yeah. So, and hopefully, they are honest of course. 45  N  I see, yeah. I see, well that’s nice. Akiko, yeah, she likes to have some fun activities with students … 46  S  She is very genki (“cheerful” in English). 47 N Yeah. 48 S  Always.

Simon was able to provide just a rough description of the language activity, including the content of the activity, share them, and speak about the success of the activity. He also shared a critical viewpoint while stating, “So, and hopefully, they are honest of course”, as both interviewee and interviewer knew the reality of what could happen in the language classroom while teaching kids. The discourse here is an intersection of the interviewer and interviewee’s mutual understanding of the JTE colleagues and language teachers’ perspectives on students. It has an aspect of two colleagues reflecting on a classroom situation in school. In particular, Simon’s immediate response in excerpt 34 to Nami’s excerpt 33 stating “Yes, they have to go to the next person, right?” gives the impression that the two are standing in the same classroom, looking at the students in front of them. On the other hand, the interviewer is a listener, quietly listening to the interviewee’s words with overlapping responses such as affirmations, one-­ word summaries, and paraphrases. 247  N  I see. Okay, and then you are always supportive to students, you know, after I listened to your interview again and again. So, what makes you challenge all the time to understand the students or think about new ideas? 248  S  For myself? I have to, maybe I study—I watch other teachers … 249  N  You mean Japanese teachers? 250  S  Japanese teachers and how they interact with students. 251  S  And maybe I watch their ideas and I try to use the same. And I am always challenging myself to speak to students more. How else can I find a reason to talk, so maybe … 252  N  Oh, I see, clues …

142 

N. SAKAMOTO

253  S  Yeah, clues to talk to students. So, maybe visit their club activity or follow their sports games. Oh, I heard from your coach that you won a baseball game, or I heard from my co-worker who is an ALT at maybe Kodera Junior High School, I heard you played volleyball game with them.   Did you win or did they win? 254  N  I see, so try to talk and look for some clues. 255  S  Yeah, yeah … 256  N  Oh, that’s amazing. 257  S  … and then, oh, we lost. Oh, are you sad or happy—sad or don’t care … 258  N  Oh I see. 259  S  So I see. Are they good players or you? Is your team good, yeah, I don’t know. 260  N  So you mean you try to talk to teachers and students both? 261  S  Yeah, yeah. So, especially homeroom teacher and I began eating lunch with students and it’s very challenging … 262  N  You began, you began.   That’s nice. 263  S  Yeah. It’s also difficult, so … 264  N  But students must be very glad. 265 S  Yeah. 266  N  So daily talk. 267  S  Yeah. So, challenge myself to maybe not to be shy too. So, I can’t be shy. So maybe if they see I am trying my best.

In this insert, the phenomena that gradually opened the interviewee’s mind and led them to reflect on each episode in the interview responses came to light. Through the interviewer’s calm responses, such as “I see …” (excerpt 245) and “Oh … I see, clues …” (excerpt 252), Simon’s thought process deepened; he associated the phenomenon described with other related scenes and re-told his story of the classroom. In some cases, Simon’s narrative described how he traced the significance of being an ALT that was hidden in his story and reconsidered how he interacted with students from the perspective of supporting and growing with them, not just teaching English, and how he attempted to transform his identity. The interaction in the scene could be seen to function as a discourse between Simon and a colleague-mentor. In the interviews with ALTs in this book, the interviewer’s role has been woven unconsciously, from a collegial perspective, a researcher’s perspective, and a mentor’s perspective. For the interviewees, as the relationship between the interviewer and interviewee altered unconsciously from scene to scene, the ALT’s view of

10  NARRATIVE INQUIRY AS AN INQUIRY-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHER… 

143

the classroom seemed to lead to empathizing with colleagues, connecting the research source to the researcher, and re-understanding their own teaching through the awareness arising from the interactions with the mentor. Upon considering the interviews from the perspective of social practice, it can be stated that the relationship between the two parties and the development of the dialogue between them affect the narrator’s insight about themselves. By considering the interview through this perspective, a more meaningful mediating space can be created for teachers to talk about their own experiences and construct their educational theories and identity.

Summary This chapter focused on the study of teachers’ narratives and depicts their growth based on the awareness that emerges from the ALTs’ narratives in this study, based on previous research. The analysis of the ALTs’ narratives described five stages of their growth as a professional development model for ALTs. Furthermore, the dialogue led to an understanding of the importance of interviewing as a social practice and how the discourse in the mutual relationship of the interviewer and interviewee created a mediating space for interviewees to (re)understand their experiences.

References Britzman, D.  P. (1991). Decentering discourses in teacher education: Or, the unleashing of unpopular things. Journal of Education, 173(3), 60–80. Carter, K. (1993). The place of story in the study of teaching and teacher education. Educational Researcher, 22(1), 5–18. Clandinin, D. J. (1986). Classroom practice: Teacher images in action. Falmer Press. Clandinin, D.  J., & Connelly, F.  M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. Jossey-Bass. Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S.  L. (1999). The teacher research movement: A decade later. Educational Researcher, 28(7), 15–25. Connelly, F. M., Clandinin, D. J., & Ming Fang He, M. F. (1997). Teachers’ personal practical knowledge on the professional knowledge landscape. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13(7), 665–674. Cortazzi, M. (1993). Narrative analysis. Routledge. Doyle, W., & Carter, K. (2003). Narrative and learning to teach: Implications for teacher-education curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 35(2), 129–137.

144 

N. SAKAMOTO

Elbaz, F. (1991). Research on teacher’s knowledge: The evolution of a discourse. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 23(1), 1–19. Elbaz, F. (2018). Teacher thinking: A study of practical knowledge. Routledge. Golombek, P.  R., & Johnson, K.  E. (2004). Narrative inquiry as a mediational space: Examining emotional and cognitive dissonance in second-language teachers’ development. Teachers and Teaching, 10(3), 307–327. Johnson, K. E. (2007). Tracing teacher and student learning in teacher-authored narratives. Teacher Development, 11(2), 175–188. Lantolf, J. P. (2000). Introducing sociocultural theory. Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning, 1, 1–26. Lewis, J. (1999). Teacher research and literacy support. Support for Learning, 14(3), 135–143. Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity, and educational change. Longman. Okuda, Y. (2016). Naze ima narrative ka?: Sono genjo, haikei, mondai ni tsuite [Why is “narrative” so frequently used and so necessary now?: Actualities, backgrounds and problems]. Research Reports, 18, 67–76. Pavlenko, A., & Lantolf, J. P. (2000). Second language learning as participation and the (re)construction of selves. In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 155–178). Oxford University Press. Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of development. Oxford University Press. Sakamoto, N. (2011). Professional development through kizuki—Cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness. Teacher Development, 15(2), 187–203. Talmy, S. (2011). The interview as collaborative achievement: Interaction, identity, and ideology in a speech event. Applied Linguistics, 32(1), 25–42. Vygotsky, L.  S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. MIT Press. Witherall, C., & Noddings, N. (Eds.). (1991). Stories lives tell: Narrative and dialogue in education. Teachers Colleague Press.



Epilogue

How do Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) trace their identity transformations in language teaching? What elements lead them to the process of teacher development? In this book, through the analysis of ALTs’ narratives, I traced how they constructed and reconstructed their identities and configured the processes of their own teacher growth in an attempt to find answers to these research questions. The landscape of ALTs’ awareness-grounded teacher development model told us that their narratives are powerful tools to better understand the processes involved in their professional growth. Their narratives revealed that ALTs experienced emerging three loops of awareness—cognitive, emotional, and collegial awareness—through their teaching. These loops of awareness emerged from the interactions with participants in classrooms. Although they experienced difficulties while teaching, their awareness enabled them to understand what they needed to do, what they wanted to do, and what their teaching theories were. Their awareness-­ grounded teacher development demonstrated five processes in a cross-­ cultural context, and understanding each of them was similar to tracing their journey in professional development. From a sociocultural perspective, people grow through relationships with others. ALTs grow through relationships made in the classroom, and their own teaching theories are constructed with elements that emerge from the relationships developed with participants in their everyday life. The concept relationship maps included in the book show their teaching theories. The elements in each © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0

145

146 

EPILOGUE

of the maps are intertwined in a complex manner, leading ALTs to their next step: their own lessons for tomorrow. In fact, it is their teaching theories that lead to an ALT’s their professional development as an ALT. The qualitative analysis of their narratives explains their teaching theories through a bird’s eye view of their concept relationship maps. In particular, in a cross-cultural context, the identity construction of ALTs in the new teaching context is a complex process. Their conceptual maps included a wide variety of elements within each of their contexts. In the three ALTs’ maps, their concept relationships consist of certain common elements: teaching effort, understanding of students, and learning in teaching. This tells us that ALTs continuously make an effort to learn about teaching and form their own language teaching practices, based on their vision of students in their everyday teaching lives. The analysis also shows that, in their team-teaching classrooms, collegiality between ALTs and Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) plays a crucial role in ALTs’ boundary crossing. By analysing ALTs’ narrative data, and tracing and visualizing their identity transformations, this study highlighted how important it is for ALTs living and teaching in Japan to engage with participants in the classroom. A better understanding of their processes of identity (re)construction helps us recognize that the “team” in team-­ teaching lessons includes all participants in the language classroom and that valuable collaboration considering social, cultural, and historical backgrounds creates a bridge connecting the same participants. The current study offers significant material for Japanese teachers when considering how ALTs’ teaching and living quality can be improved. It is crucial for us to understand the boundaries that exist in the classroom, recognize how we can build bridges for ALTs and other participants, share ideas about how to facilitate collaborative teaching with ALTs, and practice collaboratively in advancing the process of professional development of ALTs. I hope that the current study will contribute to the creation of an educational environment where ALTs can optimize their talents and collaborate in team-teaching lessons conducted by ALTs and JTEs. Teaching is, at the same time, learning. Teachers learn teaching among social relationships in the classroom. They live, learn, and grow there. In other words, this is teacher learning. Their narratives play a powerful and valuable role to understand their growth. The results of this study indicate that narrative inquiry reveals the important aspects of team-teaching classrooms in public school language teaching in Japan. However, when

 EPILOGUE 

147

considering the limitations of this research, narrative data collection and analysis require a lot of time, and it is difficult to collect a large amount of data. While having that limitation, it is rather essential to carefully analyse each narrative to deeply uncover the inner elements of teachers’ growth. To conclude, this project traced the identity transformations of ALTs in public, junior, and senior high schools in the Japanese context. Based on the findings of the current study, one direction of possible future research would be to inquire into the situation of ALTs in the context of other countries to evaluate whether the cases of ALTs in Japan can be applied universally.

Index

A Assistant Language Teacher (ALT), 1–5, 7–15, 22, 25, 27, 29, 30, 32–38, 41, 42, 47, 49–51, 53–55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 63, 65–67, 69, 71–80, 82, 86, 87, 90–92, 95–97, 99–106, 108–111, 113–119, 121–130, 133, 136–140, 142, 143, 145–147 B Boundary, 5, 25, 49, 69, 91, 95–111, 114, 115, 138, 146 Boundary crossing, 34, 68, 69, 72, 109, 113, 146 C Cognitive awareness, 4, 19, 23–24, 59–62, 70–72, 79–82, 89, 92, 137, 138 Collaborative practice, 2, 139 Collegial awareness, 4, 19, 25–27, 64–68, 75–78, 86–90, 92, 109,

113, 115, 119, 133, 137, 138, 145 Collegiality, 4, 5, 25, 66, 67, 75, 76, 87, 113–119, 133, 138, 146 Cooperative practice, 5, 113–119, 133, 138 The Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR), 10, 11 Course of Study, 8, 9, 15, 114 Cross-cultural context, 1–5, 31, 34, 54, 95, 98, 114, 115, 118, 119, 127, 133, 136–138, 145, 146 E Emotional awareness, 4, 19, 24–25, 62–64, 68, 72–74, 82–86, 90 I Identity transformation model of ALTs, 32, 37, 147 Identity transformation(s), 15, 145, 146

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Sakamoto, Teacher Awareness as Professional Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88400-0

149

150 

INDEX

Interview, 4, 7, 29, 31, 36–38, 41–48, 50–55, 57–74, 77–81, 83–86, 88, 89, 91, 97–100, 102, 103, 105, 116, 117, 124, 128, 137–140, 142, 143 Interviewee, 5, 37, 38, 133, 139–143 Interviewer, 5, 80, 133, 139–143 Investment, 5, 29, 33–34, 37, 38, 95–111, 113, 116, 133, 137–139 J Japanese teacher of English (JTE), 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 22, 33, 34, 36, 37, 42–46, 51–53, 55, 59–61, 63, 65–71, 75–78, 80–82, 84, 86–89, 91, 97, 98, 100, 102, 103, 106, 108–110, 113–119, 121–130, 136, 137, 139, 141, 146 JET ALTs, 11, 36, 101 The JET Programme, 2, 10, 11, 42, 46, 65 K Kizuki, 4, 5, 35, 57–92, 95–97, 119, 121, 133, 136–139 Kizuki model of teacher awareness, 4, 19–27 L Language teacher identity, 5, 29–32 Learners of teaching, 32, 91 Loops of awareness, 5, 21–27, 57–92, 96, 101, 108, 109, 115, 137, 138, 145 concept relationship map, 57, 69, 74, 145, 146

M The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), 8, 10, 11 N Narrative inquiry, 29, 31, 38, 133–143, 146 Non-JET ALTs, 11, 36, 50 P The process of professional development, 5, 23, 32, 35, 36, 64, 109, 136, 146 Professional development model for ALTs, 133, 143 Professional growth, 1, 3, 20, 22, 26, 34, 50, 61, 91, 92, 127, 129, 145 Puzzle, 3, 30, 92 S Social practice, 5, 133, 135, 139–143 Social relationships, 4, 13, 22, 24, 30–32, 121–127, 139, 146 Sociocultural perspective, 3, 5, 19, 21, 22, 91, 117, 121–130, 134–136, 139, 145 T Teacher(s’) awareness, 19, 21 Teaching theory/theories, 1, 22, 26, 27, 30, 35–37, 55, 57, 60, 61, 64, 67, 68, 74, 75, 77, 87, 89, 90, 92, 101, 127, 136, 137, 139, 145, 146

 INDEX 

Team-teaching, 1–5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 36, 42, 44–46, 52–55, 60, 63, 65, 67, 68, 72, 75, 76, 80, 82, 86–89, 98, 100, 104, 107, 110, 114, 117–119, 121–127, 129, 130, 136, 137, 139, 140, 146 Transformation, 3, 15, 22, 32, 36, 37, 42–46, 82, 90–91, 118, 127, 145–147

151

Y Yarigai, 5, 121, 127–130, 133, 139 Z The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), 125–127, 130, 136, 139