Planning and Teaching
Lessons in a Japan-U.S.
Cross-Cultural Teacher Education Exchange:
The Lesson Component of the Friendship Project
Kensuke
Chikamori, Naruto University of
Education;
Fred Hamel, University of Puget Sound;
Carol Merz,
University of
Puget Sound (emeritus);
Yumiko Ono, Naruto University of Education,;
Jane
Williams, Middle Tennessee State University
The Friendship Project (FP)
is a joint project of
one Japanese university and two American universities. Project
activities encompass
annual exchanges of teacher education students and faculty members in
weeklong
visits to both countries. While in the partner country, the teacher
education
students teach lessons in a local school, participate in home stays
with local
families, and experience various aspects of the national and local
culture.
These activities are collaborative in nature and promote understanding
of
education-related issues not only among the exchange students but also
among
the participating professors. The FP has been an on-going project since
2004.
Across the years of the
project, the
collaborating researchers have collected data from students relating to
their
reactions to the immersion experiences in the other culture and have
reported
results of these data at previous JUSTEC seminars. At the 21st
JUSTEC, the researchers presented plans for an additional research
focus: the
lessons the FP teacher education students teach at the local schools in
the host
country. The FP researchers presented a preliminary plan for the new
research
focus and invited responses and advice from the JUSTEC participants.
The
preliminary research plan, to be summarized in the presentation, is as
follows:
1. The rationale for
conducting lessons in
local host country schools
2. A
brief description of lessons that have been taught over the years,
including
3. FP faculty members’
learnings as a
result of the planning and implementation of the lessons
4.
A discussion
of the processes to be
considered that will capture the above learnings/perceptions
This new focus is in the
planning stage. Discussion of the above issues
during the presentation served as an “incubator” of various
methodology-related
ideas from the expertise of the JUSTEC participants.
Implications
of Findings for the Educational Community in Japan and the U.S.:
The ultimate
goals of this phase of the FP research are:
to learn from our students
about what was best in the FP activities to
enhance the “first contact” practicum experiences teacher education
students
receive in their own communities by using FP
model/ideas/methodology/what
worked best in creating more culturally responsive novices,
to better design and plan
curriculum in schools of education that
promote culturally responsive teaching in beginning teachers, and
to learn about essential
differences and
similarities in how U.S. and Japanese teachers plan for instruction in
the host
countries in order to expand possibilities in our ways of conceiving
lessons.