In language education in Japan and around the world, almost every teacher’s career path takes the form of a unique and eventful journey. We often take this for granted, but it is exactly these journeys, these narratives of teacher identity formation, that enrich our profession and serve our students. Since 2011, the Teacher Journeys conference has been the venue for educators of all backgrounds and teaching contexts across Japan to share and reflect on such stories.

This year, we are looking for presentations that fall broadly under the theme of teacher development. Personal narratives that highlight professional change and the path to it are welcome. Descriptions of the professional change, what prompted it, what informed it, what the results of it were: all of these in any combination should make for a presentation suitable for the conference. Please see the previous submissions here and here to get a better idea of what we are looking for and, perhaps, for some inspiration.

We envision this conference not only as an opportunity for viewers to learn from the presenters’ stories but also, and more importantly, to share their own. We hope to achieve this goal by a) employing a flipped format for some of our presentations and b) by utilizing a novel online environment for socializing.

Learn more about the conference by visiting the pages for presenters and attendees. If you have a story worth sharing, please consider contributing to this year’s conference! The deadline for proposal submissions is June 30th July 31st.

Click on the image below to go to the conference website.

The PanSIG 2022 conference will take place face-to-face from July 8th to 10th 2022 at the University of Nagano.

The TD SIG is delighted to be facilitating a forum with the College and University Educators (CUE) SIG on the theme of Communities of Practice (CoPs) on Sunday July 10th (11:45 – 13:15).

CoPs can be teachers, students, company workers, or otherwise, who form in organic or natural ways. The CoP members hold a common aim or concern for the activities they do and learn how to improve as they interact regularly within the group. Some participants may be more senior in age or experience than others, thus giving way to a learning experience and successful conclusion of their efforts for everyone. The forum speakers are university and professional educators with a specific background as a member or researcher of CoPs.

James Bury will inform us about the positive outcomes achieved as a result of encouraging colleagues at two separate workplaces to interact with research, question their own teaching practices, engage in their own practice-based investigations, and then share their findings with each other.

Yoshifumi Fukada will explain how Japanese EFL/ESL learners actively engaged themselves in English-mediated socialization and grew as English users and as persons in a project-based English education program held in Japan and during studying abroad.

Daniel Hooper will describe the shared goals, interpersonal relationships, and local repertoire of tools that emerged from a small reflective practice group for university teachers that met regularly to discuss critical incidents they experienced in their working lives and to explore their own professional identity.

Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto will talk about the potential of informal online communities to improve teachers’ professional and personal lives, sharing specific examples of the meaningful impact observed with teachers in a unique English for Teachers program, and the factors that made positive changes possible.

Looking for an Extra Incentive or Boost for your Resume?

We are opening up the opportunity for any interested TD SIG members to expand their horizons by becoming a Member-at-Large, specifically to assist us by being Proposal Reviewers for our upcoming Teacher Journeys 2022 Conference. 

As a Member-at-Large, you can get a glimpse into how we plan, discuss, and work as a team via our Basecamp platform, and be involved in the discussion. And if you decide you’d like to step up for other event-related roles when needed, you can enjoy some of the perks that come with it.

This chance certainly enhances our well-being while also putting a shine on our resumes. So, what could be better than that?

If you hope to join our always evolving and dynamic team, please reach out to us with a short message expressing your interest at jalt.td.sig@gmail.com.

Our team is comprised of officers and members-at-large with diverse backgrounds, skills and interests. With the understanding that our jobs and families are first priority, TD SIG expanded its Officer List so that each volunteer has about the same consumable proportion of work each year. That’s why we have multiple program chairs, publications chairs, and members-at-large – and why things get done so well.

We are eager to meet and work with you!

The Teacher Development SIG will be facilitating a forum on “Students’ Aiding Teacher Development” at the JALT2022 International Conference in Fukuoka.

With people positively influencing each other in every walk of life, it is understandable that within a language classroom, students can and do positively impact their teachers in direct and indirect ways all the time. When shared, these stories of how students have aided teacher development can be fascinating to hear and can have important lessons for educators. We invite presenters to share their own reflections on this fascinating area of education.

In the forum, tablets, laptops or paper will be used 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 development aided by students.

The deadline for proposals is Wednesday, May 11th. Click here for the proposal submission form.

The PanSIG 2022 conference will take place face-to-face from July 8th to 10th 2022 at the University of Nagano.

The TD SIG is delighted to be facilitating a forum with the College and University Educators (CUE) SIG on the theme of ‘Communities of Practice’.

Please watch this space for information on the forum details including the invited speakers, session format, and the date/time.

Join us on Sunday, November 7 from 10-11am (JST) to hear four Teacher Journeys 2021 presenters discuss topics such as the process of creating videos, lessons learned from others, and ways that these experiences might inform professional teacher development post-coronavirus.

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!

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.

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.

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.