Education & Family
Programs for Educators
Educators face numerous challenges to effective teaching about Japan in American schools; these range from a dearth of resources and opportunities to learn about Japan during pre-service training to a lack of space in the curriculum. Designed to serve teachers with a broad range of knowledge about Japan, our Programs for Educators are intended to enrich their knowledge and refine their approaches to teaching about Japan. Currently, we divide our professional development activities into three areas:
- Teacher Workshops pair leading Japan Studies scholars with K-12 teachers to promote learning about Japan and to create new teaching materials;
- Study Tours to Japan for K-12 educators, professors and education policymakers;
- About Japan: A Teacher's Resource, an online community providing resources, teaching ideas and a discussion forum.
Educator Workshops
Professional development workshops provide K-12 educators with an opportunity to interact with world-renowned Japan experts to improve their teaching about Japan. These events range from half-day seminars on topics such as religion and using kamishibai (picture-board storytelling) as part of a balanced literary program, to intensive thirty-hour workshops offering professional development credits.
K-12 educators learn about ways to incorporate Japanese kamishibai (picture-board) storytelling into their classrooms, led by storyteller and founder of Kamishibai for Kids, Margaret Eisenstadt.
Workshops introduce recent scholarship and place Japanese culture and history in a larger East Asian or global context. Recent thirty-hour workshops include Religion in Japanese History and Culture; Japan’s Long 20th Century; and Art in Japan from E-maki to Manga.
Recent visiting scholars include Helen Hardacre, Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society at Harvard University; William Tsutsui, Professor of History and Department Chair at the University of Kansas; and Antonia Levi, Associate Professor of University Studies and leading expert on anime at Portland State University.
For more information on the Summer 2008 Educators Workshop, please click here.
Study Tours to Japan
Education Programs leads two types of study tours for educators to Japan. The Study Tour for Educators bring classroom teachers, school administrators, and school librarians to Japan for three weeks to improve their teaching about Japan. Highlights include a homestay, visits to schools, historic and cultural sites, and meetings with experts on Japanese society. To maximize the impact on classroom practice, all participants attend intensive preparatory and follow-up activities, including a 30-hour educator workshop, introductory language study, and a follow-up workshop for writing new lesson plans.We selected eleven leading professors of education for our first Leadership in Education Study Tour to Japan in 2006. Participants got a behind-the-scenes view of Japanese K-12 schools and universities, exchanged ideas with educators and government officials, and visited historic sites in Kyoto, Nara and Hiroshima. The participants, all of whom play important roles in preparing the next generation of K-12 teachers, gained an understanding of the Japanese educational system that has informed their teaching, research, and policy-related work.
For information about the 2008 Educators' Study Tour, please click here.