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Although teachers can find privacy, a common aspect of Japanese schools is the opportunity for teachers to observe each other. The architecture of most schools allows teachers to hear each others' classes throughout the day. Teachers must interact regularly in the teachers' room and on their way to classes. More informally, individuals seek each other out to talk about how best to solve problems and to get ideas for teaching and advising. Many teachers socialize during free time at the school and casually discuss more personal issues. Watching demonstration classes together is valued by teachers and administrators and schools schedule these special classes as much as possible. Teachers also look for lessons left on chalkboards and other displays to better understand how their peers' teach.
During all seasons except for the coldest days of winter, windows, both to the outside and into the hallways, are left wide open and anyone in the hallway can easily see as well as hear all the activities in the classroom. In addition, most of the classrooms and all the teachers' rooms have windows that look out on the playgrounds. It was always obvious when any class was outdoors for physical education or other outdoor activities. In the mornings, classes often began noisily, but teachers commented on this approvingly rather than criticizing any disruptions to their own teaching. Energy and liveliness are encouraged among the children except during specifically quiet learning times. Teachers are aware of the activities in other classrooms and notice the noise level, but seem to accept differences in each others' teaching and disciplinary styles. Teachers emphasize the importance of teaching children to distinguish between times to be quiet and times to be active as well as to distinguish between the noise next door and the quiet activity in their own classroom. Learning this distinction was referred to by teachers as kejime, (to distinguish between) and was seen as an essential socialization process for all Japanese students. One vocational high school teacher told me repeatedly that his goal for his less diligent students was to get them to have kejime so that they could go out into the world of work and behave appropriately in various situations. The architectural openness encourages teachers to teach students to learn to distinguish between appropriate behavior for different times and places.
At both Tancho and Matsu elementary schools, one of the first things I noted as I watched the first period class was what was going on in the classroom next door. At Tancho I described a riddle game students were playing in their morning meeting and wrote, "It is hard to hear their soft voices because the class next door is very noisy. The boy near me closes the door and then we can hear a bit better." Several times I struggled to hear a lesson because of the noise from a nearby classroom or the playground, but this did not seem to be perceived as a problem by the students or teachers I was observing. Teachers and students sometimes laughed about or commented on interesting sounds from nearby classrooms, but they never seemed to become upset about noise. The exception to this proved the rule. I observed two teachers leave their own rooms to go next door and scold students who were not studying during an unsupervised study period. Again, this was because students were not properly making the distinction between when they were to be quietly working and when they were allowed to be energetic.
Teachers learn directly about each others' plans and styles when they talk with each other in the teacher's room and between class periods. For example, an elementary school teacher spent the climb to his fourth-floor classroom discussing a science lesson with another teacher and two junior high school teachers spent the walk to their third-floor classrooms discussing student safety and how to prevent falls in the stairways and hallways. Teachers seemed adept at using their time together to learn and plan. Three sixth-grade teachers began their day by discussing details of the day's biology experiment before the morning informational meeting. Then, during the 10-minute break, after they had all finished teaching the biology experiment, one teacher described how she used the TV monitor to show the microscope slides of good examples to the entire class. Another teacher said he wished he had done that, too, but he had forgotten how to use the monitor. This brief interlude between classes turned into questioning about how best to reach all students, because one teacher reflected that he did not teach his class well enough and that many students did not get to see the results under the microscopes. This type of interaction seemed common among teachers. There seemed to be a general willingness to reflect on one's own weaknesses, to seek advice, and to share good ideas.
Two teachers, one at Naka Vocational High School and one at Matsu Elementary School, described in detail how they learned from their peers during more casual interactions. When I asked in a joint interview at Naka Vocational High School about what type of training is most useful, they responded as follows:
Younger teacher: I say that I'm troubled about this kind of thing, can I go see your class? We do that a lot.
Interviewer: Really? And you don't feel nervous about it? What if an older teacher comes to watch your class?
Younger teacher: If it is him, I don't worry. If it were a different person I might be uptight.
Older teacher: This year there are three new teachers at our school. And they aren't used to vocational school students, right? And then I say, "come see my class." And we talk about various kinds of things and that becomes training.
Although many teachers agreed that the best training was watching other teachers teach, they also reported that it was unusual to be allowed to observe casually. But at Naka this seemed to be the atmosphere that prevailed. For one class period the above 2 teachers had me watch each of their 1st-year math classes for 25 minutes of the 50 minutes total and then wanted to hear all my opinions about differences in how the students behaved and the teachers taught. There was no animosity, only a mutual expectation of learning from each other.
One elementary school teacher commented, "we talk a lot. In the fourth grade, we are all great talkers (all three fourth-grade teachers laugh). Real talkers. It is really true that we just say what we want to say." Later, after discussing how much of this was her own personality versus a common experience of teachers, she continued:
Teacher: We have opinions. But we each add those in a gentle way (sunao ni) and we don't hesitate about those things. So, things like age or experience or our qualifications, those don't really come into play. When we have a grade meeting, or more than a grade meeting, a meeting at school, she too can put forth her opinion (referring to the 1st-year teacher). But I have never had an experience when I couldn't do that, really.
Interviewer: That's good isn't it? That atmosphere?
Teacher: Right, and that atmosphere depends on human relations. Other than that you can't do it. It is even good if we just go eat lunch together or something. To have time together and share the things we are thinking about. And when we do that, we can decide on things, since we aren't with the children. So then we can talk about things together, anything . . . . We are always telling jokes and laughing together. But I think that kind of thing is really important. And because we have that, when there is something I need advice on, I can think that there are really people I can talk to. I am really grateful for that. So it is a good grade. But really, I have had that all along. That's why this school is a school like this.
The older teacher who had taught at several schools disagreed slightly and pointed out that not all schools have such good relationships, saying, "There are some people who really are problematic. And when those people are in your grade, it is a problem." The novice teacher continued to comment on how important the casual socializing is to her learning as a teacher:
At first I came to school feeling really nervous. And when I heard that I would be in fourth grade, I wondered what it would mean. But from the start, we went to eat lunch together (these were the days before classes began), and everyday, everyday, they talked together with me. So very quickly I felt comfortable.
At Chuo Junior High School there were chances to observe other teachers in a formal setting. The vice principal told me:
Twice a year within the entire school we have someone give a class and everyone observes and reflects on it. For a junior high school that is rather rare. We are the kind of school that can do that. And here we also have a teachers' meeting in the morning, and also in the afternoon; it is that sort of place.
He was proud that their school can take the time to observe classes together twice a year and have an extra afternoon meeting everyday. All the schools strive to have some demonstration classes each year and, as mentioned above, teachers regularly have chances to observe demonstration classes during periodic inservice training.
Teachers also observe other teachers' classrooms and attempt to get ideas from chalkboards and other displays. For example, one teacher at Hasu Elementary School who was known for his ability to produce quick, entertaining sketches, periodically sneaked into various classrooms and drew a picture on their chalkboard. When I asked him about this, he pointed out that it was also a good opportunity for him to observe how other teachers were using their classrooms and what lessons were on their chalkboards.
Most teachers and administrators stated that teachers have responsibility for their school and also freedom within the school. The big exception in regard to freedom is the way teachers are assigned to schools, but most teachers argued that a lack of choice in school assignments and regular rotations are probably best in the end. How assignments within schools are made varies from school to school. For example, the music teacher at Meiji High School said that, when assigning school responsibilities, the committee in charge, including the principal and vice principal, ask all teachers to submit requests either to be a homeroom teacher or to take on some other role. They also were invited to say what grade level they hoped to teach. Then the committee tries to make assignments that respect those requests. The music teacher theorized that the more traditions (dentou) a school has, the more it respects the teachers' and students' opinions. This situation did seem to be borne out among the three high schools we studied. At Arata High School, the newest high school, teachers' preferences were seldom requested when assignments to committees and homerooms were decided. Although the individual personality of the principal is also important, the teachers at schools with long traditions have the potential to form effective opposition against any rules perceived to be "top-down."
One Arata High School teacher, who had taught at Meiji High School for six years, commented that the greater power and autonomy evidenced by teachers at Meiji could be attributed to Meiji's long history and a group of teachers who pushed for the institution of a democratic process in all realms of school administration. For example, teachers at Arata as a rule informally let the administration know about their preferences for teaching roles, but the administration made all assignments at the beginning of each year. At Meiji, preferences were actively solicited and a committee including teachers made the final decisions, which were then discussed in an all-teachers meeting. This teacher told me that in his previous prefecture, where unions were stronger, all decisions on all positions except principal and vice principal were done through an all-teacher vote. In his late twenties he was elected to the position of head administrative teacher, a position usually reserved for teachers in their forties or older. While he had enjoyed that democratic process and the responsibility and challenge, he also noted that the process did not result in the best teacher being chosen for each position. Popularity and the operation of various factions lay behind many of the assignments.
The principal at Matsu Elementary School had an interesting view of the comparative power of principals, mainly based on his experience traveling on a research program to visit schools in the United States and Germany. He was told that if a school in the United States is a success, the principal gets all the credit and if it is a failure, the principal gets all the blame. The principals he met in the United States seemed to be involved in giving instructions to all teachers about how and what to teach. He thought that German principals were in-between, or, in his words, "in Germany, to teach each class, the principal and the teacher had a lot of discussion." He concluded that both situations are different from what happens in Japan, where teachers are responsible for both their own teaching and the operation of the school as a whole. He said he could not imagine trying to dictate to teachers about how to teach. When I questioned him about whether he tries to direct or motivate the teachers, he described how he sometimes gives pep talks to keep them going and to attempt to shape their teaching styles. This was very different, he said, from directing others' teaching.
Almost all junior high and high school teachers have a bachelor degree in the subject they teach. According to the Vice Principal at Chuo Junior High School, "as far as us (administrators) asking teachers how they do things or giving ideas about how to teach, that is rarely, almost never, something that we do." But the administration can exert an important influence on a school's reputation and atmosphere, and teachers are generally quick to point out good and bad aspects of the administrators in their school.
Before I visited Shimogawa Junior High School I was told by various teachers that it used to be a school with major discipline problems. However, a new principal had come and he had worked to improve things. According to the head teacher, the new principal's main strategy had been to take responsibility for the school. He did that by meeting regularly with the teachers, always being available, spending long hours at the school, and making sure he got involved in all the issues concerning student discipline and school activities. The principal had been well liked and they were having a farewell party for him after school on the next day, because he had just been transferred to another school.
Another teacher joined our conversation by commenting that, "the students listen very well here." She continued to state, however, that she was concerned that they were too quiet; she preferred to see more liveliness among junior high students. The head teacher agreed, but added that he preferred this to the previous disciplinary problems. While observing teachers in this school, I noticed that they stood in the hallways during the 10-minute breaks between classes instead of returning to the teachers' room. All the teachers seemed to do this, and no one commented upon it as unusual, but at the other schools students were left mainly unsupervised during break times. At Shimogawa, students rushed around mainly within their classrooms talking to friends and playing, and several also approached the teachers to ask advice or report missing homework assignments, seemingly accustomed to the teachers' continual presence. The atmosphere was more controlled than in other schools in the sense that there was more surveillance of students. Teachers took responsibility jointly for monitoring hallways and other areas of the school during free time.
The head administrative teacher at Chuo High School also discussed the problems of changing the atmosphere in a difficult junior high school. After spending 5 years at a national junior high school affiliated with a university, he was sent to be the head grade teacher for 3 years at a school that he described as
rather devastated (kouhai siteorimashite). When I say devastated I mean that the students were not so good in various ways. Not just that they weren't well off (economically), the school was a good school but the discipline and things like that weren't so good. That sort of thing. The students wouldn't listen to lessons. They'd try to skip classes. The school was more than wild. You couldn't even teach classes.
The most important thing, I think, was the teamwork among the teachers. They all worked together to raise the children. If you just try to get your own class to improve, it won't happen, but if you do it as your whole grade year, or even the whole school — I guess if you do it all together. If there was a problem, we all investigated in various ways and provided guidance. And in the end, the important thing was that that child was in one teacher's homeroom, so we talked about how to give responsibility for that child back to that teacher. In that way the connections between the teachers and children were built and strengthened. Those were the ideas we gradually spread throughout the school. If you ask what was at the base, well, the teachers had a sense of emergency (kikikan). Somehow we had to support these children and their learning and we had to do something.
I asked him if they also replaced the teachers at the school. He said that there were many changes of teachers, particularly teachers who seemed to feel that the situation was hopeless. Those teachers were transferred away to other schools. Clearly the rotation system could also be used to help create new environments in some schools.
This example makes it clear that administrative teachers who were thought to be able to effect change were brought in to provide some leadership. However, this teacher emphasized that change came through team work and cooperation—all teachers had to help a homeroom teacher deal with individual students.
What is a good teacher in Japan? I received a variety of answers to this question. Often I was asked in return, "What do you mean by good? Good for the other teachers, good for the students, or good for the school?" The answers pointed to well-rounded teachers who cared about students. Although many teachers also told me, "Of course, they also have to know the subject matter well," the bulk of responses focused on kindness and liking children. How being a good teacher translates into higher test scores for Japanese students thus becomes a less direct question. Few teachers told me that ability to teach content well was the major goal, although most seemed to assume that this was an important skill for teachers to have. Seemingly assuming that all teachers begin with a solid grounding in academic skills, teachers focused on the personal qualities required to be an exceptional teacher.
Motivation. One phrase that came up in some form in every interview when I asked what made a good teacher was: "motivation for teaching (yaru ki ga aru ka dou ka)." I heard from teachers that the basis of a good teacher was yaru ki ga aru (motivation). One Midori Junior High School teacher, for example, described what makes a good teacher:
If teachers don't give their all right from the start and instead say, 'the students don't listen anyway so why should I try?' Well, if you behave that way, then students definitely won't open up their hearts to you. So I would tell teachers that if from the start you give it your all, then even if you have failures, at some point you will see it was worth it.
Working hard and putting oneself fully into one's work were major themes in the answer to this question, but this was not described as effort focused only on work. Motivation was not defined narrowly but was rather an enthusiasm that could incorporate many types of personalities. The above quoted teacher later told me that many types of people can become good teachers:
Of course there are also individual differences (kosei)—there are some who can talk naturally with children and others who can't. But children are flexible (junan) so they will be tough toward tough teachers (katai sensei ni kataku) and soft with soft teachers (yawarakai sensei ni wa yawarakaku); they will adjust their responses to the teacher. So it isn't as if you need to change those individual qualities—quiet people can't force themselves to become talkative and talkative people can't force themselves to become reserved. But children can understand that each teacher has an individual personality.
Teachers also emphasized that motivation could spring from outside interests. I was often introduced to teachers by first being told about their out-of-school activities. For example, at Midori Junior High School, a Japanese language teacher who was an expert at making and arranging dried flowers was encouraged to show me her bouquets. The art teacher was urged by the other teachers to share his photographs and stories from years of using his vacation time for travel around the world. Even among the busy teachers who seemed to spend all their time on school-related activities, the interests underlying their motivation were emphasized. For example, a Midori social study teacher who spend almost every evening on school related work and described his hobby as collecting copies of television documentaries told me that he brought his enthusiasm into his career and how much fun he has:
I like it. (My work) is very fitted to me. My wife often says to me that it seems inexcusable (moshiwakenai) that I get a salary for something I enjoy so much. I do what I want. For example, today I showed the video about the self-defense forces, right? And the other day, I showed one about street children in Brazil from the summit there. And when I show that to students and they watch it and feel something, I think that is important social studies learning. If a teacher doesn't like things, students know that, don't you think?
He repeatedly emphasized that the teachers have like that activities or else students will be affected negatively. Motivation was characterized as developing through enjoying work and other parts of one's life.
Being well-rounded. In addition to motivation and incorporating fun and enjoyable school activities into the school day, many of my respondents emphasized the necessity of being well-rounded and having interests outside of school. Outside interests sometimes included educational or cultural benefits, and sometimes were described as strictly play. In order to give a sense of how important outside activities were to these teachers, I will quote at length from several interviews. For example, one elementary school teacher commented that "play" is important, not only for her own development but also for her relationship with students:
This doesn't directly relate to skills, but for me, I don't like the days to go by with me just being a teacher. Although it is, of course, important to teach math, Japanese, history, and things, I sometimes try to play, do things that I like to do. Like hobbies and things I like to do, not just to be a teacher.... then I can talk about various things with the children and it isn't like I only know about school. I think that a teacher who knows lots of things about various subjects is quite wonderful, you know. As for myself, although I don't have confidence that for any particular field I know it to the tiniest detail, I do have knowledge about various things that I am always learning from teachers who know the details. And I think that may be important, too, especially for elementary school.
This excerpt also emphasizes the interaction between teachers and suggests that sometimes conversations not focused strictly on school life are beneficial to her development and to her students. The administrators, too, expressed hope that teachers would be involved in activities outside of the school. The vice principal at Chuo Junior High School told me that it isn't good for people to work from 8:00 in the morning until late at night, particularly in a world of rapid change:
More than being difficult, it isn't connected to the individual's development. It's good if life and work were intertwined, but conversely, it is also important that when work is over and they have free time, when they are with their friends, that they live their life, don't you think? That kind of awareness is also important. Rather than staying at school until 10:00p.m. and going home just to sleep. That really is a life of only school. In addition, a life of only school isn't enough for the children. (Teachers) also have to convey different points of view. Long ago, there weren't as many changes in society, but now the changes are really extreme. If teachers themselves don't absorb those extreme changes, they can't keep up with the children. So, they must have the strength to respond to changes...
The principal at Meiji High School supported this position and described well-roundedness as necessary for the mental health of teachers:
Teachers who have had broad experiences have become necessary. A "multi-faceted person" (maruchi ningen) style is also necessary, I think. And if you do that you won't end up being neurotic, you know? In particular the elementary and junior high school teachers (need to be multi-faceted).
In addition to the hope that individual teachers be well-rounded, I was also told that a variety of teachers were necessary for a school. For example, the principal at Tancho Elementary school responded that it is good to have many kinds of teachers available as models for the children, including teachers who may have to limit their working hours due to commitments at home:
For example if a teacher is good at cooking, or very good with the family, and if another is very good at sports, like swimming, those individual qualities are important. And for example if now the (teacher's) mother is ill, and they have to go home early for a while, maybe they really want to do club activities or things, but right now they can't. And there are teachers like that. But that is OK, and when the situation gets better, they can work more again. If you don't look at teachers with a long term view (nagai me de) and raise them that way (sodatteiteikanai to), I guess I think you can't get good teachers.
I was somewhat surprised at his point of view because it seemed to go against what businesses might be looking for in an employee. When I questioned him further, he clarified that the struggles teachers face outside of school may make them more capable as teachers:
If you only seek efficiency that you can see at the moment- instead, we think of raising children, and also raising teachers, all as a part of education. There are teachers who can understand how mothers struggle (because they are themselves mothers).
An extremely busy junior high school teacher believed that even the time spent working late at night on bureaucratic type tasks contributed to becoming a well-rounded teacher. He commented about his many late night meetings:
It really isn't at all a waste of time. It is learning about many things. We have lots of kinds of office-type work, too. And office work has a big influence on other kinds of work. Human relations and things. We may be doing office work, but during that time we also can develop human relations and it becomes easier to talk with people.
Developing human relationships, outside of the classroom and outside of the school was a major reason why teachers are encouraged to be well-rounded. Being able to relate well to a variety of people was sometimes described as making people more "human." One junior high school teacher commented that a good teacher is:
Teacher: A teacher who is like by students. Those who are like are the ones who have a certain humanness, I think.
Interviewer: And that kind of teacher, are they just like that, do they just have that personality from the start? Or as they get experiences, as they study some things, do they become that way?
Teacher: It's not just books, but it is as they interact as much as possible with other people, they begin to understand others' feelings, and understand children's feelings, and will be liked. It isn't that they are liked because their way of teaching is good. After all, teachers are people, and as people, those who are generous (yutaka ga aru) are the ones with some appeal (miryoku), those who appeal somehow to the children.
This teacher continued, as many others had, to describe how generosity develops not only from study and hard work, but also from enjoyable experiences:
There are people who have lots of knowledge, but don't appeal to students. The teachers themselves must study on their own, not just knowledge, but in order to have a generous heart (yutaka na kokoro) they must see beautiful things, museums and things, enlarge their knowledge, go to various countries, and have experiences like that. After all, it doesn't matter what the subject is. They aren't just teaching their subject. They are also homeroom teachers and fill other roles.
Even at the junior and senior high school levels where the preparation for entrance examinations is emphasized, teachers told me that just being able to teach the subject matter is not what makes a good teacher. Teachers emphasized being "human" around students.
As have most observers of Japanese elementary schools, I saw many enjoyable activities and noted a willingness on the part of the teachers to include nonacademic segments in their schedules. At junior high and high schools there was an emphasis on examinations, but also an emphasis on allowing time for socialization and scheduling extracurricular activities. Schools were structured to incorporate and value nonacademic activities. In the morning teachers meeting at Chuo Junior High School, the 2nd year teachers discussed the second year 3-day camping trip that had finished 2 days earlier. They reported that they had enjoyed themselves, despite the work involved, and thought the children had enjoyed themselves, too. At Shimogawa Junior High School, the group of 2nd year teachers met to discuss how to combine their individual skills in areas outside of subject matter as they planned a similar camping excursion. One teacher was in charge of indoor recreation, one in charge of outdoor recreation and fire-dancing ( a dance done with torches by a group of students one night at the campfire), and one in charge of meals—each teacher had responsibility for one or more of the numerous activities involved in camping. In addition, all needed to know or learn various aspects of outdoor life and group organization. Since part of their stated goal was to "create memories" for the junior high school students, an important aspect of the trip was to orchestrate exciting experiences and the teachers needed to draw on their own sense of fun to help that happen. One teacher instructed students that they should not choose their committee assignment by rock, paper, scissors (janken) but rather because they are interested in a particular task. The teachers gave somewhat personal presentations about committees and revealed some of their own interests, seemingly hoping that students would also develop curiosities related to long term interests.
Throughout my interviews, when asked about what makes a good teacher, I heard that people can become good teachers through learning from others and having many types of experiences. Specific skills such as ways to use materials are taught to teachers either informally by experienced teachers, or formally through inservice training. One elementary teacher carefully described the typical way to learn necessary classroom skills:
Her description of learning various teaching skills emphasized the importance of having a variety of teachers in the school and the seemingly easy way teachers learn from each other. After observing one fourth-grade physical education class where the teacher in her midthirties skillfully demonstrated somersaults of various kinds, I remarked to her that she was quite a good gymnast. She replied that she really wasn't, but had been practicing basic gymnastics with a teacher who had some training, and over the past few years had developed enough skill to teach the class well. She went on to complain about how much her body ached during this part of the year when she was teaching gymnastics!
Even writing on the chalkboard was described as a skill to be mastered from peers. Learning how to write on the chalkboard in a way that conveys the main ideas of the lesson was described as an important skill for all teachers. One elementary school teacher explained how she mastered this skill and why it is so necessary. To her, a clear chalkboard presentation is useful to both students and to other teachers:
During my first year, I was always told by various older teachers about the correct way to write on the chalkboard. For example, first always write the purpose (midashi) — what we will be studying. The children may not be looking at it, but by looking at the chalkboard, they can tell what we did during this 1 hour. The main point is on the board and is useful for note taking. Various teachers also come to my room and see what I have written. We will look in and see. It doesn't have to be something great, but is a reference, and for others looking at it as a reference, it is really useful.
Professor Hiroshi Usui, a teacher educator at Hokkaido University, wrote after observing classrooms in the United States as part of this Case Studies project:
It was striking to me that teachers here did not seem to consciously organize their writing on the chalkboard in a way that would help promote communication with students. As well, they seemed to use the chalkboard less frequently than Japanese teachers. In Japan, the chalkboard is used as a primary medium of communication so that teachers are always aware of clarity, size, shape as well as saliency of the items placed on the chalkboard.
He also commented on the lack of space on chalkboards and wondered who was responsible for cleaning the boards. In all Japanese classrooms at all levels of schooling, students take turns being responsible for cleaning the chalkboard between classes. If an assignment is written during one lesson that should not be erased, it will generally be copied over to the chalkboard chart showing the day's assignments. If a teacher enters a room to find a chalkboard that is not clean, he or she will usually either erase it thoroughly or wait until it is erased by a student to begin the class.
Teachers took for granted that a good teacher in Japan would have strong academic skills, but emphasized motivation, having enjoyable outside interests, being well-rounded, and cultivating the non-academic skills required to teach effectively. Good teaching seemed to be a possibility for anyone who would put forth effort toward developing these skills and human traits. The effort required was expected to spring from pursuing one's interests, not only in school but in all aspects of an individual's life.
[Chapter 5 - Teachers and the Teaching Profession in Japan (Part 6 of 7)]