The purpose of this study is to examine why the rate of female principals increased from the 1990s to the 2000s. The study focuses on the professional movements of female teachers and “the support organizations for female teachers” that aim to attain gender equality in school.

  In Oita prefecture, the focus of this investigation, the rate of female principals climbed more rapidly from the 1990s until the early 2010s than in any other prefecture. Additionally, the rate of members of the Japan Teachers Union in the area was also relatively high. By interviewing ten female elementary school principals and members of “the support organizations for female teachers” made of Japan Teachers Union female club and the retired female school principals club, this study makes the following observations.

  Female principals in the 1990s had to protest gender inequality to progress with their careers. Cooperating with “the support organizations for female teachers”, they made efforts to increase the number of female principals to expand women’s rights.

  Owing to the efforts made by female teachers in the 1990s, female teachers after the 2000s were able to obtain many different positions in their schools, and could be promoted to the principal level almost as smoothly as male teachers. They introduced gender equality education and attempted to provide female leaders as role models to their students. Cooperating activities between female teachers and supporting organizations decreased in the later 2000s because they did not think that further cooperation was necessary.

  In conclusion, the factors that increased the rates of female principals in Oita prefecture from the 1990s until the 2010s were the efforts and solidarity of female teachers cooperating with supporting organizations. These factors were different from the policy of Gender Equality and the promotion of protection by the established Elite, which has been proposed by previous research.

  Since the 1990s, the theory of “reflective practitioner” by Schön, D. A. has been widely recognized in Japan as the contemporary theory of teaching profession. However, as teacher education reform concurrently ongoing emphasized the implementation of immediate practical skills, there was not much space for interpreting the concept of teachers’ “reflection”. It was particularly so since Schön’s “reflective practitioner” theory was primarily to show how professionals think in action. Therefore, by simply revealing Schön’s arguments, it is difficult to examine the application of the concept of “reflection” in the contemporary theory of teaching profession.

  This study aims to reconsider the concept of “reflection” in the contemporary theory of teaching profession in Japan, using the lens of “reflective teaching” presented by Zeichner, K. and Liston, D. in 1980s to 1990s. They doubted the simple application of Schön’s theory to a theory of teaching profession and developed the concept of “reflective teaching,” explaining the characteristic of teaching profession based on their own empirical research. The core of their “reflective teaching” concept is that the teaching profession is practiced on the basis of “problem setting” in an uncertain situation, all the while grasping their own role as “social actors” based on “moral deliberation”. “Moral deliberation” consists of the two points, “ethic of virtue” and “ethic of duty”. They argued that expertise in the teaching profession means that decision making should be based on the social condition of schooling and by caring and compassion for their students at the same time. They positioned the concept of “reflection” as the key concept in the theory of teaching profession. For that purpose, they emphasized dealing with both clinical experience and academic skills in a teacher training program for building a “foundation” of teaching.

  Their concept of “reflective teaching” highlights the professionalism in the teaching profession in the light of it having a public mission. In order to respond to the problems of diverse schooling in recent years, the essential requirement of the teachers’ “reflection” concept is that the teachers are to position themselves as not symptomatic treatment workers but “social actors” based on “moral deliberation”.

  This study introduces a case of school reform in a public elementary school, hereon named “A-school”, in the city of O, Japan, in which all teachers engaged in the challenge to share their responsibility for all students in the school. The study analyzes how the teacher-community at A-school developed through the school reform. It is noteworthy that the teacher-community at A-school was uniquely developed by teachers’ sharing about their “inabilities” rather than “abilities”. The study, then, focuses on this unique sharing culture to analyze how individual teachers in A-school had experienced their school reform by using a narrative inquiry approach. Considering A-school as a narrative community, we interviewed several teachers and school staff, and analyzed their narratives from three viewpoints; “personal story”, “community narrative”, and “dominant cultural narrative”. As a result, we found out the following: (1) The narrative based on the dominant culture in ordinary elementary schools tends to emphasize individual classroom teacher’s responsibility for students in his/her own class. Such narrative makes it difficult for ordinary elementary schools to achieve the goal “All teachers should be responsible for all students in a school.” (2) Counter to the dominant narrative emphasizing individual responsibility, teachers in A-school positively disclosed their “inability” to share their responsibility for their students. The principal took the initiative to disclose her own “inabilities”, which then provided veteran teachers in A-school a safety to share their own “inabilities”. Those principal’s and veterans’ narratives then encouraged young teachers in A-school to also disclose their “inabilities”. (3) The teachers in A-school realized that being aware of one’s own “inability” and asking for others’ help do not mean giving up one’s own responsibility. Instead, the teachers found that they pursued their own responsibility through continuous questioning of their “abilities” needed for their students’ education.

  This study shows the development of a cooperative network of home economic teachers in junior high schools. This study analyzes the relation between such network of teachers and the teaching materials they use.

  Eight teachers were interviewed. Two interviewees were selected from each generation group of 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s in age. For analyzing the interview, the ego-centric network of the social network analysis was applied. Some of the home economics teachers have a network with the same-professional teachers in the same area, and thus this study focused on their network to be analyzed.

  This study sets the following hypotheses. First, home economics teachers of junior high school do networking with teachers of the same subject in other schools. Second, the information sharing about teaching materials and the relationships mediated by such materials, impact the selection of materials that teachers use for their classes. This study confirms these hypotheses to be true.

  In addition, the following points were revealed by this survey. (1) In the process of building a network, teachers who serve as hubs connecting other teachers in same area may stimulate network formation and development. The existence of predecessors serving as hubs functioned to the advantage of the formation and subsequent development of networks between teachers. (2) The network of teachers provides opportunities for a cooperative development of their teaching materials, leading to improvements of their classes. Therefore, for a teacher it is important that he/she is in contact with other teachers through such network.

  As a result, it became clear that, beyond relationships between colleagues in a school, networking between teachers of same subject in different schools plays an important role.

  The aim of this paper is to describe an introduction of a program, with a component of a short-term study-tour from Japan to Hong Kong SAR, as a curriculum content of an undergraduate course in a University of on Education, in Japan, from FY2012. The author offers reflections and consideration based on observations on how prospective teachers grow through the undergraduate program by including the component of a study-tour aboard.

  Recent globalization impact on schools requires teachers to have competencies to deal with classroom affairs in a globalized context. Though most of the Universities of Education with initial teacher training courses in Japan have been arranging programs with long-term and/or short-term stay in peer instructions abroad, these programs only attract a few students with high motivation for internationalization. In fact, most of the students in initial teacher training courses are rather reluctant to join such kind of international programs.

  In this context, the University of Education where the author has been working has set up a regular subject in undergraduate teacher training course (2 credits for 3rd year students) including 8-days study tour to Hong Kong SAR since FY 2012. Fortunately, from FY 2013, this program has consistently been gaining some scholarship from Japan Student Service Organization, and thus, 10 to 15 students have been taking part in each year.

  The content of the subject is as follows. (1) Text reading about teachers and education in Hong Kong SAR (in Japan), (2) Lectures on Hong Kong education by Hong Kong professors (in English) and joint sessions with Hong Kong undergraduate students, (3) Observation and participation at primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong (making up lessons to introduce Japanese culture in front of Hong Kong students).

  This paper analyzes the participants’ reports to illuminate the process through which the participants have attained their global perspective as prospective teachers.

  In recent years, the training for preparing graduate students as future faculty members has been an issue, and Preparing Future Faculty Program (PFFP) has been implemented mainly in research universities. Currently, PFFP in Japan includes not only lectures on course design, covering topics such as learning outcomes, content, teaching methods, and assessment methods, but also focuses on microteaching to train graduate students. Microteaching can be useful in that it allows graduate students to experience actual teaching in front of multiple people, and it goes beyond a simple image training. Moreover, by observing other peers’ microteaching practice, they can learn more about teaching techniques and methods of lesson design and development. However, the active pursuit of lecture practice is challenging because learners of microteaching are simulating “students.” Even faculty members do not have enough opportunities to learn how to teach. Therefore, graduate students who aim at becoming prospective faculty members need to do more than microteaching, namely, also the actual teaching practice of university classes. The purpose of this study is to develop and implement PFFP in Osaka University allowing graduate students to experience actual teaching practice. The program also enable to observe other students’ teaching practicums, as well as to have a peer learning on instructional practices. This study carried out on both pre- and post-survey studies including the metaphor-making tasks with students who completed the program and analyzed the results of those surveys. This study also conducted interviews with them after the program. The results indicated that through the experience of practical teaching, the graduate students’ image of teaching has changed and that their experience might have changed their pedagogical belief. In addition, graduate students recognized that peer-to-peer observation and sharing feedback provided deep reflection. In the future, in addition to considering support methods to promote reflection, it is necessary to collaborate with university faculty in various specialized fields in order to secure opportunities for class practice.