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All teachers seemed to be busy during their required time at school (typically from 8:25 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), but the degree to which school activities took up their time outside of those hours varied greatly, depending on the school, age, sex, and the individual motivation of the teacher. During their hours at school teachers do many things in addition to teaching. Elementary school teachers teach all periods on most days, except for a few periods when their homeroom has music class. Therefore, they are generally in class with students from 8:45 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Junior high and high school teachers typically teach three or four classes a day of the six-period schedule. In addition, they generally have several periods when they teach the same lesson, which may reduce their preparation load. Most teachers reported that they arrived at school sometime between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m. and left between 5:00 and 6:30 p.m. A few teachers stay later or arrive earlier because they are involved in club activities or for other reasons, and many regularly attend research meetings in the late afternoons or early evenings. Although Japanese teachers are at the school for long hours, their time at school is not only for teaching. Teachers also plan classes while at school, either individually or with other teachers. In addition, teachers expect to use varying amounts of time each day talking individually with students — students at junior high and high school know they can speak with teachers between class periods and before and after school; elementary and junior high school teachers also eat lunch with their classrooms; and high school students know they can visit the teachers' room during lunch to seek out teachers. Finally, as discussed below, teachers spend much time in administrative, planning, and guidance meetings with other teachers and administrators.
The work of a teacher can seem never ending. One elementary school teacher described her work in a way that will probably sound familiar to teachers throughout the world:
The really strange thing about a teacher is that if you want to make work you can make as much as you want; it is that kind of a job you know. To the degree you want to try something, you strangle yourself. For example, if the children in your class can't yet write their characters well, you decide you will have some character practice and so you try to make some character tests on your own and well, those have to be graded. And when you teach classes, if it is hard to understand, you will make some additional helpful materials. Then you have to make them and of course it is because you like it that you do the work. But it is work you know. So there are teachers who are making computer software because they want their students to learn to use the computers. The kind of teacher who goes without sleep–they exist and well, to be frank, if they didn't like it they couldn't do it! The only tasks that are set are the very basics, but even then, to go home at 4:00, I think you can't go home at 4:00p.m. and not take things home with you.
On average, teachers seemed to work from about 8:15 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with an occasional later evening, plus every other Saturday. Most teachers take about 10 days of summer vacation and fewer days of vacation at the end of the school year in March, and at New Year. However, except for a few comments about the number and length of meetings, teachers did not seem to feel coerced into overly long hours. The exceptions were new teachers who needed to spend a lot of extra time on class preparations and student advising because of their own lack of experience. Teachers generally referred to their first 2 or 3 years of teaching as quite strenuous and spoke of having stayed at school until 10:00 p.m. or later almost every night during their first few years. But few teachers had family responsibilities during their first few years on the job, so the expectation was that full devotion to work during that time was not an unnatural burden.
Elementary school teachers. Two elementary school teachers described the following typical schedules. The first is typical of a teacher who is dedicated but not extreme:
I come around 8:00 or 8:05 a.m. Now I'm not doing club. But from September, I'll be supervising the basketball club, so then it will get a bit later. Now, even if I chat with people, and do some advising and things, 5:00, or sometimes 6:00 p.m. If I want to go home, I can go home by then. And when club starts up it will be about 7:00 p.m.
The second elementary school teacher described the other extreme, in response to my comment that he is probably very busy now because he is a research scholar (kenshuuiinsei) and has a newborn child:
Teacher: There is a social studies festival planned for Naka and I am a staff member. Last night we were working on that until after 10:00 p.m. Also museum work — a history room at the Naka City museum. During summer vacation sixth-graders will get together and I work as a summer class instructor, and also a 10-year project to put Naka's history into a textbook, now we are doing the investigation for that.
Interviewer: Are you also doing clubs?
Teacher: Yes, I am. Right now it is girls' softball, and then also swimming. Then we have staff meetings, and editorial board meetings — something somewhere after school in the evening.
Interviewer: Is that about two or three times a week?
Teacher: Right, two or three times.
Because his wife is currently at home on maternity leave (she is also an elementary school teacher), he gets up at 5:00 in the morning and generally gets to school before 6:30 and works until 8:30 when classes start. Two or three nights a week he is at meetings until 10:00 or so in the evening, and the other nights he gets home after club is over, generally after 7:00 p.m. He said he generally only gets 5 hours of sleep. Next year, however, when his wife is back at work, he will have to take one of the children to daycare in the mornings so will not get to school until closer to 8:30, losing his early morning work time.
Junior high school teachers. Two teachers at Midori Junior High described another set of schedules, equally varied for different reasons. One female math teacher who has two small children described her schedule as fairly regular:
Teacher: I usually arrive at about 8:20 a.m. and at 5:00 p.m. I am supposed to pick up the children from the day care center. It's close to here, so I leave a bit before 5:00.
Interviewer: Do you usually have work you take home with you, too?
Teacher: Well, yes, but even if I take it home I can't do it at home, so, I really have no help at home and there is no time at all to do my own work there. I really try to get everything done while I am at school.
Interviewer: Do other teachers ever complain about your leaving at that time?
Teacher: No, they don't say anything at all.
The other teacher reported a schedule at the other extreme. He generally arrives at school between 8:00 and 8:15 a.m., although the day I followed him he arrived at 7:00 a.m. for a PTA newspaper collection drive. He discussed various specific meetings and then summarized, "Well, really I have had a extreme (hidoi) life lately. About three days in a row last week I had meetings from around 6:00 p.m. and when it is bad they don't get over until around 12:00 midnight."
I asked him when he saw his family.
Well, in the mornings, and at night, that sort of thing. I try not to destroy my family but the times when we can eat dinner together are really rare. Maybe once a week, or well, Sunday, right, on Sundays I am the reverse, at home almost all day.
I suggested he was more dedicated than some teachers and he responded:
Not dedicated, but somehow various types of work just pile up. Well, the fact that for teachers no matter how many hours you work your salary is the same, well, for me — it may be the reverse for others — I take it as my own responsibility. It is my own work, so it isn't for money, whether I go home at four or stay and work and start doing club activities at six, it isn't for the money so somehow that makes me work more! So even if my research meetings go until 10 or so, they are not at all related to extra pay, so because it is like that, somehow conversely I do it. And of course there are some kinds of extra work that you clearly get paid for, and whether that is good or not, I don't know, but that is not the reason I became an educator (kyoin). It is for the children, you know, and if I do it I want to do it. My work is my hobby.
But even he looked forward to having all Saturdays off:
Sometimes I also think would be good to have more free time. Now that two Saturdays a month are vacation days it makes a big difference. When it becomes every Saturday off, my life will really change, I think. Then I will have two days off in a row. Now, even in the summer, there aren't many times that I have several days in a row, what with all my school activities. That will be nice.
Both of these teachers are typical; I observed several of each type at all schools visited.
High school teachers. Although most high schools require teachers to be present from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., most teachers stay at least that long and like the two junior high school teachers quoted above, there are teachers at both extremes. Teachers sometimes stay late at school because it is a pleasant place to work, especially if they live with small children in a tiny apartment. For example, one science teacher reported that he usually stayed at school until 7:00 p.m. because:
Then things that I could do at home, well, there isn't anything I can do there so I do them while at school. This is where the machines are [referring to computers and copiers, etc. as well as laboratory equipment]. So, rather, I stay here and there are quite a few times when I am doing my own things [meaning work not related to his school duties].
I asked one math teacher, who reported that he generally was at school from about 8:05 in the morning until 6:30 or 7:00 p.m., why he stayed so late:
Well, Meiji High School teachers tend to go home comparatively early. When I worked at a school for the handicapped I always had various things I hadn't yet done, so I had times when I was at the school until 9:00 or 10:00p.m. Now it (7:00 p.m.) seems relatively early.
Teachers of vocational subjects at Naka Vocational High reported that they often stayed late because they were working on equipment, trying out new materials, or helping students prepare for special activities (for example, a robotics tournament or tests of special skills). Although some teachers groaned about long hours, it seemed that the teachers who worked the most were choosing their long hours either because they were on an ambitious career track, hoping to get research appointments or administrative appointments, or because they were interested in their subject matter and gladly spent their extra time exploring materials and meeting with other teachers with similar interests.
Although schools keep strict schedules and teachers usually arrive promptly for meetings, there also is a recognition that flexibility is important and that schedules can be bent to accommodate particular circumstances. In particular, the morning teachers' meetings and teachers' meetings that involve the entire faculty are kept within tight schedules and carefully run formats. Informational meetings often began and ended within five minutes and conveyed a large amount of information. However, meetings of smaller groups and meetings after school tended to allow plenty of time for discussion and did not seem to have tight ending times. In addition, times for starting and ending classes tended to be flexible, especially in elementary schools. In elementary schools, individual teachers generally have the same group of students all day long, and teachers are free to ignore the chimes that signal the start of a new class period. In almost all classrooms, students do not jump up to leave when a chime is heard; rather they wait until the teacher announces the end of a class period and then stand and bow on the command of the student in charge that day. Teachers may cut a class short and move onto a different subject or extend a period to continue a lesson, depending both on the contents to be covered and the teachers' assessment of the needs and energy levels of their students.
One fifth-grade teacher told me, as we sprinted up the four flights of stairs to his class room before first period, that the day's schedule was more packed than usual and if the students were not up to it he would give them a break and do something not on the schedule. He mentioned the schedule because I had been given a copy of his plan for the day; his scheduling is up to him. He told me that there are days when very few classes actually get taught because of student concerns or needs that absorb class time. One fourth grade teacher interrupted two classes, physical education and Japanese language, to have a class discussion about getting along with each other because relationships between students had become an issue. Teachers are encouraged to use problems for taking time and calling upon students to think about various ways to work together better.
High school morning meeting. Each day's meeting is unique but generally follows fairly standard procedures. The emphasis is on sharing information with the full teaching staff. My notes from Naka Vocational High School demonstrate how tightly schedules are followed and how much information can be shared within 5 minutes:
At 8:25 no one was in the teachers' room except the teachers who have their desks here. At 8:29, almost all the other teachers were gathered and seated at the long tables in the back. The chimes ring at 8:30 and the vice principal stands as the chimes are still ringing. He begins to talk immediately as the chimes end. The first announcement is from the teacher who is the head of the student council. There is a second, quick announcement, and then the vice principal announces that they will discuss a student problem and the head of the student guidance department (seito shidou bu) discusses a first-year student who had a motorcycle accident on May 17. He describes that the boy has been coming to school to reflect on his actions (hansei suru) in a straightforward (sekkyoku teki ni) and energetic way so he wants to ask the permission of all the teachers for this boy to be allowed to come back to school. [He had been suspended because students are not allowed to ride motorbikes]. The teachers take a quick voice vote and there was no dissent, so he is allowed back.
The meeting ended just before 8:35 and the room emptied as quickly as it filled. The efficiency and respect for time seem to indicate rigidity and strict adherence to rules, but teachers did not report that they feel coerced into rigid schedules. Several teachers criticized some aspects of meetings within their school — mainly that there are too many meetings and the meetings last too long. But the efficiency of informational meetings seemed to be appreciated.
Elementary school morning meeting. My notes from Matsu Elementary School reflect a similar mix of efficient information sharing and more serious student issues:
The morning informational meeting starts promptly at 8:30 with the chimes. The principal begins the meeting by introducing me. Then there are several announcements by various teachers. One announcement concerns the need to watch students so they would not run in the hallway. Another teacher announces something about using computers, and a third teacher announces that there was a safety inspection yesterday and asks the teachers to all get out the sheet he had passed out. The chimes ring to end the meeting and the principal takes the mike and thanks the teacher in charge of safety. He says that today he read in the paper that a fourth- or fifth-grade student in the prefecture was running in the hallway and caught his hand in the fire hose and his finger got cut off. He says they should check for those types of hazards too. At exactly 8:37 the meeting is over and teachers are talking and getting ready for the first class.
Although both of these meetings might seem to trivialize important issues by discussing them so briefly in a quick meeting, the information is conveyed efficiently to all teachers. I was told that committees had previously discussed every agenda item thoroughly, so that all details are familiar to a representative group of teachers before being voted upon or presented in a brief announcement at an informational meeting.
In all the schools either a vice principal or the principal was present and usually started and ended the meetings, but the meetings were led by another teacher on a rotating schedule. At Tancho Elementary school an experienced teacher conveyed his worry to me about the first-year teacher leading the all-school morning meeting for the first time. He was more concerned about supporting and training this young teacher in her first chance to direct the entire school than he was about the behavior of the students. He told me that the rotation of leadership provides chances for all teachers to become familiar with some administrative duties and for teachers to perform in front of their peers regularly.
There are complex organizational structures within all Japanese schools that have evolved over many years. Every school has a guide book that is developed each school year detailing these structures and the responsibilities of individuals within the schools. Many tasks that might be performed by administrative, clerical, or maintenance staff people in other countries are the responsibilities of teachers in Japan.
At the structural level, all the schools have a lengthy list of committees and responsibilities that are organized and published at the beginning of a school year. Every aspect of school administration is assigned to a specific group of teachers. The list of committees in the school guide book for Matsu Elementary School listed the current teachers' names and each category was further broken down into subcommittees with numerous responsibilities. A partial list follows:
Management committee. Fourteen members. Vice principal is the chairperson, and also includes the principal, office head, administrative head teacher, the curriculum head teacher, the health committee chair, the student guidance head teacher, the head teachers of each grade, and a student representative. Subcommittees include, for example, an activities committee and graduation and advancement committee.
Student guidance committee. Eleven members. Curriculum head teacher is chairperson. Includes the principal, the vice principal, the administrative head teacher, the student guidance head teacher, the school nurse teacher, the school doctor (usually a local doctor who visits the school periodically), a representative from the area government, the chairperson of the PTA, and a "folk representative" or "child member" (minsei daihyou or yoji iin). Subcommittees include one on "recommendation points for school educational cooperation" and one on training.
School health committee. Nineteen members. Chaired by the health committee chair. Includes the principal, vice principal, head administrative teacher, head curriculum teacher, the nurse teacher, the student guidance head teacher, the lunch room head teacher, the physical education head teacher, the nutritionist, three doctors, the school pharmacist and five PTA members.
Other committees. In addition there is a Committee on bullying and other policy issues with 14 members, a Committee for Choosing Educational Materials, a Committee for Budget Formation, a Committee on the Management of School Safety and Hygiene, A Committee for Recommendations about the Five Day Week, committees for each subject group and for each grade level, the student guidance committee, the health guidance committee, the school library committee, the school budget committee, and a committee to supervise each aspect of student government including: broadcasting, announcements, health, physical education, lunch, animal care, plant and grounds care, beautification, library, weekly group meetings, and class representatives. Each student government committee has at least two teachers in charge of meeting with two student representatives from each classroom. Finally, there is an emergency policies committee, including two administrative committees and all teachers as members. At a more philosophical level, each school's goals (mokuhyou) are rewritten, or reviewed and updated each year in committee.
Reports from each committee meeting are then presented at grade level and subject level meetings. Decisions and reports are again discussed and sometimes challenged. This extensive committee structure necessitates many interactions among members of the staff. Committees all meet regularly and all teachers are involved in some aspect of several committees. Thus, teachers are at least formally responsible for numerous aspects of school management beyond their own classroom responsibilities. Teachers also know exactly which after-school voluntary club and in school required club activities are their own responsibility, which tasks in the teachers' room such as scheduling coverage for absences, scheduling for extra activities, or planning for social events will be taken care of by which people, and what roles they are to assume within their subject, grade level, and committee assignments. In addition, most schools also describe in great detail who is responsible for which room in the building (for cleaning and any potential emergency problems) and who is responsible for supervision of the building on Saturday afternoons, days during breaks, and evenings when students may be participating in clubs. All teachers also attend various city, prefectural, or even national level meetings and committees as representatives of their schools, sometimes by choice and sometimes by virtue of being on a certain school committee or in a certain role.
This complex organizational structure forces participation of all teachers in school management that extends beyond any departmental or grade level allegiances and provides for the distribution of power and shared decision making. When interviewing teachers and learning about their typical schedules and responsibilities I always had to learn about their duties supervising clubs, their committee assignments, and particularly their role as homeroom teachers, grade level heads, or other responsibilities. Each teacher's workload varies, depending on their current committee assignments and other responsibilities. Numerous out-of-classroom tasks seemed to accentuate teachers' roles as responsible to and for their school, subject, and/or students. The meeting time required to make all these assignments in a cooperative way is not trivial. Teachers quickly become integrated into a school and get to know each other well. The time they spend face-to-face in meetings or working on tasks probably increases the chance that they will share useful information about teaching and about students' needs.
Meetings of the entire teaching staff are held weekly or less frequently at most schools and tend to be rather formal. They appear to be bureaucratic meetings in which the staff is expected to offer fast, rubber stamp approval. Information tends to be presented and voted upon quickly. At Meiji High School, it was briefly announced by the chair of the Student Guidance Committee that they were adopting a new policy for school discipline. Rather than carefully policing violations of the dress code such as wearing earrings or lipstick or exhibiting certain unacceptable behaviors such as hanging out at coffee shops, the new policy called upon students to remember their school and act as its representatives. After announcing this broad policy with many subtle nuances, the committee chairperson asked if there were any questions. No one asked a related question. Although I thought this was a top-down policy decided by one committee or a policy that would have no real impact, the principal later commented to me that he had been impressed by the idea and that it had been discussed in the school for several months. The vote was smooth because the staff understood the nuances and agreed with the policy, or at least had been convinced to try it.
Apart from the formal structures that determine interactions, teachers may also gather socially and choose friends within the school. When I questioned teachers about their outside interests or hobbies, I was told, for example, about a friendship based on being fishing buddies or that a teacher did not yet feel he had close friends in a new school because all his friends who enjoyed watching horse-racing were at his previous school. I was sometimes asked about my food and music preferences, which led to suggestions that I come to dinner with a certain friendship group who particularly enjoyed the same foods or that I ask one teacher for the copy of a new music tape. Teachers appeared to form friendships based on being a similar age, on having children of the same ages, on coming from similar backgrounds, or living near each other. The system of rotation meant that teachers knew some teachers at other schools well, too, and could draw upon those contacts when special information or connections could be helpful.
Teachers and administrators. The type of personal interactions that occur between teachers and administrators depends on the setting, the history of a school, and the individuals involved. Although all administrators were once teachers, they generally saw their current work as being quite different from that of the teachers. Administrators reported that they must work to find ways for getting to know all teachers better. For example, the principal of Arata High School answered in the following way when I asked him if there are times outside of school when he has contact with teachers.
Of course, we have social gatherings too. We can talk about various things and try to understand each other at those events. Since I've become a principal those are more frequent. Just having classes at school doesn't allow you to understand what each other is thinking, you know. If you change the location, teachers can talk about various things. We also have chances to go on trips somewhere—about every three months.
Like most respondents, he emphasized the need to see teachers outside of their usual roles. Japanese teachers generally contribute small amounts of money monthly to entertainment funds set up for the entire school, each grade level, and each subject group. These groups then schedule banquets or overnight trips to hotels in the mountains, on the coast, or at hot spring resorts. These activities provide long hours together when everyone can step out of their usual roles, often facilitated by plenty of good food and especially alcohol. Most teachers reported that they enjoy these events, although some reported that they find them a burden, especially teachers with young children or other family responsibilities.
But administrators also report antagonisms with teachers as a group. The principal at Meiji High School was in his early sixties and had experience at five high schools. In response to my asking what he most worries about regarding teachers, he told me:
Principal: The problem is, after all, the union group and how to get along you know. That is the biggest problem. They just end up opposing everything.
Interviewer: I suppose that trying to change things is hard. Was it the same when you yourself were a teacher? Did you oppose various things?
Principal: Well, right. When I was at the bottom, that same way of looking at those above me. I felt the wall, or you could say I felt opposing feelings.
Even at this school known to be a peaceable and democratic place for teachers, the principal felt that union opposition was his biggest worry. But the sense on the part of principals that they cannot exercise power over teachers easily seemed more widespread, even today when union membership is at a low in Japan. In 1960, over 90 percent of teachers belonged to teachers' associations, by 1992, 59 percent belonged (Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, 1995, p. 121). Some areas of Japan have higher union involvement than is found in Naka prefecture.
The music teacher at Meiji told me that some principals try to assert their power because it is their last chance to change the school before they retire. Others, he said, just sit back and relax during their last few years at the school. He agreed that vice principals usually have the most power in the school. I asked if they are usually closer to teachers than the principal and he responded that a vice principal's rapport with teachers depends on whether they are from the school or not. If they have taught there and then move up, they are more likely to understand and listen to teachers. But if they are brought in new they may be prone to give orders and be difficult.
Although interaction is facilitated because all teachers usually have a desk in one main teachers' room, the negative side of this arrangement is that teachers are also closely monitored. Particularly in elementary and junior high schools, but even in high schools, the vice principal and sometimes the principal and the head administrative teacher often sit at the front of the room at their desks. They can easily observe the entire room. Even the use of the phone is only from the desk of the vice principal in this main room, and all conversations can easily be overheard. At Midori Junior High School I observed this when a senior teacher, who had been rushing around all day getting memos and posters together announcing the postponement of the PTA newspaper recycling project due to rain, had to take a phone call from an evidently irate PTA member. As he gave a long and carefully worded apology and explanation while masterfully encouraging the mother always to let him know when she had questions or complaints, I knew I was not the only eavesdropper. At least five other teachers and the vice principal listened and then applauded him and one, the director of the administrative office, suggested he would be good in a business office. This case turned out successfully, but one can imagine pressure to say the right things on the phone under different circumstances or with less experience and confidence. There is a tension between the benefits reaped from always having colleagues nearby with whom to consult and chat while at the same time always being observed.
Interactions among teachers. There are ways that teachers can escape to more solitude than is possible in the teachers' room. The only science teacher at Naka Vocational High School was a rather extreme example of a teacher who chose to be alone. He spent most of the time he was not in class or at meetings in the science preparation room, which had effectively become his own office. I saw him only during the teachers' meeting, our scheduled interview, and during the time I observed him teaching. Other teachers knew he was likely to be in the science room, so he could usually be located.
Even for involved and sociable teachers, there are times of withdrawal from the group for various reasons. At Matsu Elementary School, one teacher and I almost missed the 10 minute closing teachers' meeting on Friday afternoon because we were in the classroom talking with a few remaining students. She forgot the meeting and it seemed that this was a not infrequent event for her or for other teachers. Elementary school teachers can spend time in their own classrooms and thus be somewhat isolated from the other teachers and administrators. Certain areas of most schools become inviting places for relaxation. For example, when I asked a teacher at Meiji High School what he does when he is worn out emotionally he responded,
I go to the fourth floor preparation room — the chemistry room — and I smoke a cigarette there or drink some coffee and say things like, "Oh, it's no good anymore!" (he laughed). You can smoke, so (he laughed). There are teachers from another room who gather to smoke and well, there are about seven or eight given those who are entering and leaving or just standing around. So it is relatively easy to talk there. Because there aren't as many people as in the teachers' room. There is an atmosphere where you can talk easily.
Most teachers have their own favorite place to congregate with colleagues and/or to be alone. Teachers can choose whether to work in the general teachers' room where there is always some activity, with students in club activities that may be in a classroom or on a playing field, in subject-related preparation rooms, in their classrooms, or in various other places such as the designated smoking area. Depending on their own personalities and preferences, teachers can choose to be more or less alone during unscheduled times.
[Chapter 5 - Teachers and the Teaching Profession in Japan (Part 5 of 7)]