Understanding the Perceptions and Practices of Team Teachers and Students in Japanese High Schools through Exploratory Practice (EP)
Japan has long been employing a team-teaching scheme involving local Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) and foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) in English lessons through the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) programme. I set out this study to examine team teachers’ and students’ perceptions of JTEs, ALTs, and team-teaching practices. I also attempted to investigate how a teacher research experience in the form of Exploratory Practice (EP) (Allwright & Hanks, 2009) affects team teachers’ and students’ perceptions and practices. To these ends, I chose a qualitative case study approach situated primarily within a constructivistinterpretive paradigm. Participants were two pairs of team teachers (each pair consisting of a JTE and an ALT) and 76 second-year high school students from two different Japanese public high schools. I collected data over a period of four months through an array of qualitative methods such as narrative interviews, classroom observations, pair discussions, and focus group discussions. I analysed the data through a constructing grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006). Established thematic codes, derived from the analysis, were then compared within and across cases in order to bring forth the participants’ particularities and commonalities. Findings suggest that overall the participants perceived JTEs to be language models, learners, and bridges between ALTs and students. JTEs are also viewed to be fully-fledged teachers who are professionally respected. The participants regarded ALTs as authorities and providers of the target language and/or cultures. At the same time, ALTs were seen as mere foreign language assistants who are marginalised in their work places. The participants considered team-teaching practices to be unique, open-ended, and secondary. It is noteworthy that the participants had these perceptions with varying degrees and with various, sometimes opposing, attitudes. It was also found that the EP project in this study, which included multiple activities such as classroom observations, reflective classes, and various kinds of discussions affected the participants’ perceptions. They experienced three different developmental processes: replacement, synthesis, and reconfirmation. At the same time, the EP project affected the participants’ practices in that they gained agency and realised EP principles in their teaching or learning. There was, however, a range of effects of the EP experienced by the participants, including a minimal effect. The varied effects of the EP seem to have been related to the participants’ individual characteristics, discrepancies between each participating pair, contextual factors, and research-related matters.
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