This study examines the impact of a Local Revitalization RPG in Ishinomaki City, Japan, as a tool for enhancing regional attachment, cultural awareness, and educational engagement among university students. Following the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, Ishinomaki has sought innovative strategies to foster recovery and preserve…

Purpose: This study aims to search for fitting lenses to view and interpret teacher learning in a Japanese secondary school teacher staffroom and capture the reconstituting of researcher subjectivities in this process. Design/Approach/Methods: A narrative approach chronically documents the findings and use of the lenses in analyzing the staffroom…

Virtual exchange projects (VEP) are known for bringing learners together from all over the globe to develop skills and attitudes through collaborative tasks. However, the present understanding of learners' perspective transformation during a VEP remains limited. Based on a four-week VEP between students at a Japanese and Polish university, this…

This paper examines how public education can ensure equity and diversity by clarifying the "democratic aspects" that can be captured through school-community collaborative activities in Japan and the U.S. As a result of comparison and analysis, it is indicated that in both Japan and the U.S., these activities are conducted in the context…

The purpose of the study is to understand how Japanese women become social entrepreneurs. The challenges in fostering women's entrepreneurship include socio-cultural traditional views on women's roles and expectations and insufficient support systems. Despite such challenges, the rise of Japanese women as social entrepreneurs has been observed in…

Research in language learning indicates that process drama (PD), an educational approach where students and teachers work in and out of role to explore themes and issues, can be well suited to the Japanese higher education (HE) context. Despite the benefits highlighted in the literature, PD remains a niche approach to language teaching and…

We engaged in duoethnographic research to deepen our understanding of Japanese educator Daisaku Ikeda's notion of ningen kyoiku, or "human education," a lifelong process of transformation based on commitments to dialogue, value creation, global citizenship and creative coexistence. In particular, we examine the cultivation of intellect,…