ETD Spring 2022 Issue: Call for Papers

For the Spring 2022 issue of the Explorations in Teacher Development journal, we invite any rigorous scholarship dealing with phenomena related to teacher development. We welcome articles using quantitative or qualitative data. We above all urge authors to use their research as an opportunity to learn from as well as speak out and join the scholarly conversation about teacher development, sharing the wisdom they have gained along the way.

As we all continue to face the challenges of teaching and living well in a pandemic, we also especially encourage submissions related to the concept of askesis, or care of the self. This means not understanding oneself and others as atomistic individuals, as privileged subjects among objects, but as responsible formed-transforming selves who create their own conditions for ethical agency, attending to social norms and rules but committing to a more ambitious ethics and character to act ethically without guarantees. During the pandemic, ethically ambiguous situations might have become more apparent to many of us, but we might also have begun to notice—or actively attend to—how caring for the self in a radically relational ethics extends to the known and familiar now made strange.

We especially encourage scholarly inquiry of all kinds that estranges the taken-for-granted practices and opens new possibilities for teacher development, transformation, or growth.

Spring 2022 Issue Projected Schedule:
  • First submissions: 1/11
  • First reviews and revisions: 1/12-1/31
  • Second reviews and revisions: 2/1-2/15
  • Proofreading: 2/16-2/28
  • Publication: 3/15

TD SIG AGM & Forum at JALT2021

At JALT2021, we’ll be holding our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and forum on Saturday November 13, from 2:05 to 3:35 PM.

This year, our meeting and forum will be combined into one session. Officers of the SIG will first report on the recent activities of the group, as well as share information and news about the SIG’s events, membership, publications, and other related matters. This will be followed by a forum which addresses both the challenges and opportunities for teacher development during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our session, along with the rest if the conference, will take place online. We look forward to your participation!

Explorations in Teacher Development Journal (Teacher Journeys 2020 Special Edition)

The TD SIG is thrilled to announce the publication of our Teacher Journeys 2020 conference issue of the Explorations in Teacher Development journal!

This special edition features 16 highly practical, informative, and personal narratives of issues relating to emergency remote teaching. Our aim with this collection of papers is to not only further document the unique situation that we have found ourselves in over the past year for posterity purposes, but to provide a resource through which we can learn from one another’s experiences.

Click here to access the issue.

Teacher Journeys 2021: Call for Proposals

We are happy to announce that the call for proposals for Teacher Journeys 2021 is now open! Please find it at the conference website.

Over the past ten years, the Teacher Journeys conference has traveled around Japan to highlight teacher narratives. This year, following the model of Teacher Journeys 2020, in place of a face-to-face conference the Teacher Development SIG will curate a collection of videos sharing reflections on teaching in these new circumstances.

These videos will be shared on the conference site from late summer to early fall. We would also like to include a written version of all accepted presentations in a special issue of the TD SIG journal, Explorations in Teacher Development, to appear in 2022.

PanSIG 2021 Forum with ICLE SIG

At this year’s PanSIG 2021 conference, the TD SIG facilitated a forum with the Intercultural Communication in Language Education (ICLE) SIG. The session was titled Developing an Intercultural Understanding as Teachers, with the forum opening the conference on Friday, May 14.

The event featured presentations by invited speakers Yoko Munezane from Rikkyo UniversityStephen Ryan from Sanyo Gakuen University, and Helen Spencer-Oatey from the University of Warwick and GlobalPeople Consulting Ltd. Each presentation explored different elements of what developing intercultural practice, understanding, and principles in foreign language education entails.



Yoko Munezane
 introduced a new empirical model of intercultural communicative competence, exploring the structural relationships among eight individual differences factors, and how this model could be applied to the language classroom to promote intercultural friendship.

Following this, Stephen Ryan provided lessons learnt through an autobiographical presentation outlining the evolution of his understanding and approaches to the position of culture in his teaching.

Finally, Helen Spencer-Oatey demonstrated ways we can learn to notice how socialisation-based multiple identities affect behaviour, through reflecting on their potential significance and seeing what impacts they have on our (mis)evaluations of others. 

Following the series of presentations, an engaging discussion took place in which the speakers reflected on each other’s talks, established points of resonance, and developed some new ideas together. The TD SIG would like to thank you if you attended this forum.

TD-CUE SIG Joint Forum @ JALT2021: Reflections on Remote Teaching – Call for Proposals

The Teacher Development SIG and JALT CUE SIG will be co-facilitating a forum on “Reflections on Remote Teaching” at the JALT2021 International Conference

The past year and a half has forced many innovations in teaching. The tendency has been to focus on technological adjustments; however, deeper changes involving the purpose of education and the role of the educator have also taken place. We invite presenters to share their own reflections on these fundamental issues which were stimulated by recent circumstances.

In the forum, a series of members of each SIG will use tablets, laptops or paper, to share experiences of creating communities through PechaKucha-like sessions. Presenters will give 5 minute presentations, followed by short Q&A periods. Each presentation will be given several times to multiple audiences so that attendees are provided a range of topics. This is in accordance with our goal of ensuring all of those in attendance at least one valuable takeaway from their experience teaching during the pandemic.

The deadline for proposals is April 28th. Click here for the proposal submission form.

PanSIG 2021 Forum with ICLE SIG

JALT PanSIG 2021 will take place from Friday 14th May to Sunday 16th May. Originally planned for Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture, the conference will be held online due to ongoing concerns over the COVID-19 situation. The conference website is pansig2021.eventzil.la

The TD SIG is delighted to be facilitating a forum with the Intercultural Communication in Language Education (ICLE) SIG, titled ‘Developing an Intercultural Understanding as Teachers’.

This will be held on Friday May 14th from 19:00-20:30.

The following invited three speakers will be presenting on the following:

  • (Presentation 1) Prof. Yoko Munezane (Rikkyo University) – From Friendship to the Interconnected World: Theory & Application of the New Model of Intercultural Communication
  • (Presentation 2) Prof. Stephen M. Ryan (Sanyo Gakuen University) – Things I Wish I’d Known about Culture When I Started Teaching
  • (Presentation 3) Prof. Helen Spencer-Oatey (University of Warwick) – Building an Interconnected World through Fostering Global Fitness

The following is a description of the forum: 

Language teaching involves a commitment to, and interest in, intercultural communication. In providing language learning instruction, practitioners are not merely sharing linguistic knowledge and skills in a one-directional manner, but are continuously negotiating and learning from their students’ dynamic experiences, repertoires, and identities. As English is a lingua franca, which facilitates communication across cultures, a sensitivity to the intricacies of interaction between groups from different speech backgrounds is essential. In an era characterised by division and remoteness, language educators’ roles have become even more paramount in upholding and promoting intercultural mindsets. However, these skills may be overlooked or complicated to build
and hone.

This forum is a collaboration between the Teacher Development (TD) and Intercultural Communication in Language Education (ICLE) SIGs. Featuring a panel of invited speakers from the SIGs, each presenter will explore a different element of what developing intercultural practice, understanding, and principles as a foreign language educator entails. Following the presentations, the panellists will interact about points of interest and resonance, and there will be an opportunity for audience participants to share their reflections and contribute to the dialogue. It is hoped that this session will provide guidance for developing intercultural teaching approaches and language learning environments.

Click here to register for the conference.

TD & CUE SIG Forum @ JALT2020

On Saturday, November 21 at the JALT2020 conference, the TD and CUE SIGs held their tenth joint forum, “Forms and Functions of Community in Education”.

The forum was conducted online via Zoom, and the format was slightly different from past years. Five members from the SIGs spoke in turn about their experiences in creating community.

First, Mathew Porter of Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Nursing University described a community among nurse educators in a nursing department at a Japanese university. Wendy Gough of Bunkyo Gakuin University spoke about the importance of mentors, and how to find or become one. Peter Brereton of International Christian University shared his experience in establishing a group of reflective practitioners which helped to more deeply connect his university with its associated high school. Daniel Hooper of Kanda University of International Studies shared the importance of action logs in adjusting to a new community during his transition from a small eikaiwa to a private international university. Dawn Lucovich of Nagano JALT and The University of Nagano spoke about the principles necessary to create a community of practice and how they can be implemented at JALT.

After the presenters spoke, there was a brief moderated discussion in which participants discussed in breakout groups how they might implement the ideas expressed to foster community in their own teaching contexts, and then shared some final thoughts with the full group. Please look forward to more collaboration with the CUE SIG on future forums!

PanSIG 2021 Forum with ICLE SIG

PanSIG 2021 will take place on May 15-16 in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture. The event is currently planned as a hybrid event (partially online), but will be moved entirely online if needed depending on the situation.

For PanSIG 2021, the TD SIG is delighted to be facilitating a forum with the Intercultural Communication in Language Education (ICLE) SIG, titled ‘Developing an Intercultural Understanding as Teachers’.

Over the next couple of months, we’ll be finalising the details, including the invited speakers, the session format, and the date/time. Please watch this space for information!