Transkribering: Ur en lärares ögon; Masahiro Kawakami och Japansk undervisning
03:11
Välkommen till det andra inlägget (klicka här för att komma till föregående) i serien “Ur en lärares ögon” där jag intervjuar lärare från olika delar av världen om deras erfarenheter av läraryrket. I detta inlägg transkriberas intervjun med Masahiro Kawakami, engelsklärare och lärarstudent från Japan. Intervjun kompletteras av mina reflektioner. Inlägget behandlar 1) Masahiros bakgrund, 2) intresse för specialpedagogik, 3) om lärares fortbildning och 4) rekommendationer till andra lärare.
Nyckelord: Japansk undervisning, specialpedagogik, fortbildning, lärarkultur.
Bakgrund
Masahiro inleder med att berätta hur hans lärarutbildning har gett honom verktyg för att skapa struktur och att kunna planera sin undervisning. Han understryker värdet av att undervisningen behöver luta sig mot en teori för att kunna planera god undervisning. Vidare beskriver han japansk undervisning från synsättet som student och som lärare i kontexten av en styrd läroplan, där han resonerar om hur systemet försöker ge alla elever en likvärdig utbildning men samtidigt begränsar lärare.
M: So first of all, my is Masahiro Kawakami, as he introduced me, so you can just call med Masa. So my background is, currently, I teach English at high school. Right now, second grade and third grade at high school. And also, I study at a post-graduate school and I am majoring in English education.
F: So you teach part time and you study part time. What is that like? Can you apply the things that you learnt at the university in your practice? In a real classroom environment?
M: I think it really works, because of course, every teacher has to organize the classes based on the long term, or it can be short term. But when you are trying to organize your classes, you have to have base on some theory. Or, I mean, you have to have some theory to make classes. You need some plans. So the theory, or knowledge or disciplines from the university or my learning, are really helpful. Because without those kind of disciplines, the classes or the plan can be really messy. The classes have to be streamlined and the teacher has to concentrate on one topic or one discipline to make really good classes.
F: And your experiences as a teacher, for example here in Japan, I’ve understood that the curriculum is sort of fixed. Do you see it in a positive light or do you there are some issues with it? What do you think?
M: So the curriculum in Japan is really, really restricted by the ministry. Every 10 years, the educational minister writes the curriculum and basically the teachers have to follow the curriculum. So I’d like to say that the teachers don’t have much flexibility what to teach the students. It’s not really negative, but if I’d want to say the positive perspectives, the homogeneity of the education can be ensured. Like, I don’t think that every school has given the same education, but the Ministry is trying to make the situation so that every student has the same education. So it can be a positive point.
Intresse för specialpedagogik
Masahiro beskriver att hans intresse för specialpedagogik kom med att han arbetat för en ideell organisation. Där mötte han barn med begränsade förutsättningar för att få det han kallar "god undervisning". Han beskriver även hur hans bakgrund gett honom perspektiv på specialpedagogik och hur han träffat lärare som förstår inte elevens situation. Masahiro reflekterar sedan kring elever som har andra åtaganden som gör att de bortprioriterar skolan.
F: That’s really interesting, because I also understood that recently, you’ve come to focus on students in need. And could you tell me a bit about why you came to that focus? What the situation in Japan with students in need? So first your approach to it and then the general attitude.
M: So the steps or the reason why I’m interested in the children or the education of children in need is, I worked in an NPO. Non-profit organization. The work within the NPO is to give the opportunity, the education, or the educational environment to the children or students who are really poor. Or who can’t enjoy education because the parents don’t have any money or one of the parents have gone for some reason. And because of those kind of reasons, some students can't enjoy really good education. In normal school settings, just going to the school, they can’t get really good education or support. So, through the NPO, I met many of those kind of children. That really surprised me, because, to be honest, my life is really good. So my parents have given me really good education, and that's why I can speak English, read it and shooting these videos. And through my life, I didn't see those kinds of children in need. Or that had such severe studiations.. I was really happy about education in Japan at that time. Because I thought, the education in Japan is really good, because they are trying to ensure the really equal for everybody, but in the truth, in reality.
F: Right, and what could that look like? The lives of these students in need? What kind of issues do they meet? With teachers? Learning disabilities?
M: Problems from teacher’s side are like, many teachers can’t understand the situation of the students. For example, those kind of students that can’t concentrate on learning in their own classrooms, because of some problems in their own family. For example, the have only a mother. So some of them feel “Oh, I really have to help my mother and I don’t have any time to study in the classroom or house”. That means they can’t afford studying, and if they go to classrooms, they don’t understand any content because they don’t have any time to review what they have learnt. So in the end, some students can’t concentrate on the learning in the classroom. And if the teacher sees that, they think, or he or she will think, he or she is just ignoring learning. That happens. And those kind of teachers hesitate to give support to, how can I say, “bad students”, or seemingly bad students. But in truth, the situation, or the environment is really difficult for them.
F: Yes I understand, there’s another reason behind their behavior.
M: But it’s really hard to see the reason or the truth.
Om lärares fortbildning
Masahiro förklarar att det är svårt att få fortbildning som lärare i Japan. Det beror på hög arbetsbelastning och administrativa uppgifter. Däremot lyfter han att lärare måste förnya sin lärarlegitimation var 10:e år vilket innebär att läraren återvänder till sitt universitet. Utöver detta problematiserar han lärarkulturen där han beskriver sina erfarenheter av att träffa på skolor där man gärna inte pratar om sina problem och att elever sällan kan ge kritik om sin undervisning.
F: Do Japanese teachers get a kind of education, in special pedagogics or such, to handle and help students?
M: I hope recently, especially young students, I mean young student teachers are getting that kind of knowledge and backgrounds. The veterans, the older teachers, in 40-50s, I think when they were students in college, they didn’t get that kind of instructions or classes.
F: On that topic, I’m thinking from a resource-perspective, do Japanese schools, over time, give teachers the opportunity to re-train themselves? If there’s for example an area that you feel like “Oh wow, I want to become even better”, for example, students with certain needs. Let’s say students with autism, ADHD, and so on. Do you have the opportunity to re-train?
M: The situation for re-train themselves for teachers is really hard. For example, I would say they have no chance to re-learn what they want to. For example, every 10 years, every teacher has to go to university. They have to get special classes to renew their teaching license, at least. The other opportunity to learn is depending on each teacher, but the situation for teacher working is really hard, because they have to deal with many documents or they are required to accomplish some contents. That makes the situation busy for teachers. I’d like to say, that not many teachers have the opportunity to relearn or to acquire new knowledge.
F: The situation is quite similar in Sweden as well; many teachers are aware of the issues but they rarely find either the time to help them to progress but they also feel that they lack the knowledge. But in Sweden there are teachers that are trying to work with the attitudes of teachers themselves, with the teacher culture, on how to help these students. What is that like in Japan? What’s the teacher culture like? Do they work together? Do they try to support each other with these things?
M: One point I’d like to talk about: introverts. I’d like to say the culture of teaching in Japan is introvert. Maybe they hesitate to share the problems which is happening or is going on in school. The best way for the schools would be to solve the problem within the school, so they really hate to share the problem. Like bullying, or some of them would be, if students kill themselves for some reasons, even those kind of really serious things happen. Many schools try to hide the problems, but sometimes those kind of accidents leak and once it leaks, the principal or really important person in the school has to retire. They quit for the responsibility. That’s really serious. So introvertness is a kind of Japanese culture, unique to Japanese schools.
F: I understand. We Swedish teachers also experience these kinds of issues, with teachers sometimes trying to hide problems. But usually, students are quite vocal. They have the rights to talk about their teachers, with for example the principal. Do students have the opportunity to do that in Japan?
M: That’s really rare for Japanese students, especially junior high school, elementary and high school students. Well, our thought or our idea is that every teacher is superior to any student. So the students have to obey the teachers. So that’s really rude to leak the information to the boss or principal. It’s really rare.
F: Of course, in Sweden too, you have this kind of power difference; the teacher is always in a more powerful position than the students.
M: Yeah many students go to the counselling room and they consult the counselor about many problems, and that includes the problems with teachers. So it’s getting better.
Rekommendationer till andra lärare
Avslutningsvis rekommenderar Masahiro andra lärare att försöka vara kreativa. I Japan är lärares kreativitet begränsad och det gör att lärare ofta använder samma material. Masahiro lägger särskild vikt vid att lärare alltid ska försöka förbättra sig och sträva mot att ge eleverna så god undervisning som möjligt.
F: I have covered most of the questions that I wanted to ask. But the last one is more about a general question on teaching strategies, or recommendations or tips or anything for other teachers. Something that you have picked up, that you feel strongly for. If you’d like to talk about something like that?
M: Something that I believe, which is really important for teachers or who works as an educator, is to be creative. The huge problem for teachers in Japan is they have to go to the classroom and covey the classes which are similar to every year. Some of the teachers use the same material from the last year. Because, they don’t need any effort to make new students, it’s not like a company. But, every teacher needs those kind of perspectives to attract many students every year. We have to do our best to mix material for classes to make them the very best. So I’d like to say that creativity is really important to be a good teacher, or to be a communicator or an educator in daily educating settings.
F: That’s wonderful. Thank you for sharing your experiences and your ideas.
Tack för att ni tog ett tid för att läsa och att titta på denna intervju med Masahiro. Han har i efterhand berättat för mig att han har fått ett stipendium för att studera i bland annat Tyskland och Sverige. Hans och min förhoppning är då att han kommer att kunna besöka min arbetsplats i Sandviken.
Kommentera gärna med era reflektioner kring:
- Vad är era tankar om japansk undervisning?
- Hur ser fortbildning ut på er arbetsplats?
- Vilka styrkor och svagheter ser ni med att lärares arbete styrs centralt?
Eder tillgivne,
Feke
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