Strategies for improving lessons in team-teaching: through narrative analysis of English teachers

With a view to improving teaching for students and teachers alike, Associate Professor Nami Sakamoto, Faculty of Global and Regional Studies, Doshisha University, Japan, is conducting research that is focused on teacher narrative and its application to society and the professional development of assistant language teachers (ALTs) and Japanese teachers of English (JTE). In her work, Sakamoto records English classes taught by ALT and JTE pairs working together and subsequently conducts a semi-structured interview with the two teachers after the class, focusing on pre-prepared questions relating to foreign language teaching practice. She then segments, codes, categorises and analyses the data acquired from these interviews. Narratives are an important part of Sakamoto's research as they enable the series of experiences in the classroom to be analysed, ultimately enhancing teachers' understanding of teaching practice and enabling meaningful changes to be made. Sakamoto analyses narratives through interviews with individual teachers. These analyses are then used to further investigate team teaching and solo teaching in class situations. Sakamoto is collaborating with Professor Masayuki Teranishi, University of Hyogo, to extend a narrative approach for a deeper understanding of peoples' lives. Sakamoto is seeking to establish an improved understanding of professional development in language teachers and has succeeded in highlighting the construction of teachers' identities through teaching on the basis of three fundamental factors that work together to support identity building in teachers: cognitive, emotional and collegial awareness.