In classroom creation within schools, the significance of collaboration between “teacher” and “observers” is sometimes imperceptible. This study aimed to elucidate the process of creating a class through collaboration and reflection between two in-service teacher graduate students in professional schools for teacher education. In a first-year junior high school handball class, we gathered soliloquy records during class, after-class reflections between teacher and observer, and observer’s long-term training journal. Using Trajectory Equifinality Modeling (TEM), we described the process by which teacher and observer collaboratively experienced the creation of the class with attention to their relational dynamics. In TEM analysis, changes in collaborative reflective practice emerged as fluctuations from dissatisfaction with expected facts or confusion over unforeseen facts. Embracing these fluctuations not as “how to proceed with the class” but as “what vision do we have for the classroom” leads to the potential creation of a high-quality experiential environment. Further, while the educators’ positions remain unchanged, a shift in their situations can help transform the underlying relational schema, indicating a potential transition to high-quality practice.

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The hospitality industry in Japan has high expectations for foreign workers in an era of multicultural conviviality, where the working population is decreasing, and the flow of people is more intense. Foreign workers need to adapt to a different culture in Japan while simultaneously developing their careers. This study examines the lives of foreign workers who have “adapted to a different culture” in Japan and “developed their careers in the hospitality industry” to capture the transformation of their consciousness and clarify their self-concept. Therefore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four foreign workers who have been in the hospitality industry for a long time. The data were then analyzed using the “Trajectory Equifinality Approach (TEA),” which captures various life paths on a time axis and examines models of description and symbols of occurrence. The results revealed that the transformation of consciousness among the four foreign workers occurred at turning points in their lives, reexamining the place where they lived and their relationships with the people around them under “cross-cultural adaptation” and “career development,” and that they reconstructed their self-concept each time.

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This study examines a case where a child needing medical care chose not to undergo dialysis. The TEM diagram and TLMG were used to identify factors influencing conflicts and mutual understanding between parents and medical practitioners. The analysis revealed parental conflict between protecting the child’s life and respecting the child’s decisions. Medical practitioners face ethical and legal uncertainties that create conflict. Mutual understanding was facilitated by the child’s firm resolution and active participation, which eased tensions, strengthened trust, and aided in forming suitable treatment plans. The parents’ approach of respecting the child’s growth and decisionmaking ability nurtured the child’s autonomy. Trust in and respect for their child’s efforts allowed parents to balance their protective instincts with the child’s wishes. The primary physicians’ extensive experience and empathy further supported the child’s perspective. They focused on how the child and family wanted to spend their limited time resolving familial conflicts. This included the family’s supportive stance.

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This study was conducted by three new graduates, who became Japanese-language teachers after completing a Japanese-language teacher-training course at university. This was against a backdrop of a shortage of young Japanese-language teachers, in addition to many people choosing not to become Japanese-language teachers after graduating from university, even if they completed a Japanese-language teacher-training course at university. Focusing on the life-stage transition from being students to being professionals, we used a trajectory equifinality approach (TEA) to analyze their career development and the changes in their career views. The discourse that‘Japanese teachers cannot make a living from teaching Japanese’temporarily turned them away from the path of teaching Japanese, but as a result of self-introspection regarding personal environmental factors, they chose to become Japanese-language teachers. In addition, to realize their overseas orientation and career views, new graduates chose to become Japanese-language teachers based on an awareness that doing so would help them to achieve their career goals.

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