Eastern Michigan University issued the following announcement on March 19.
Junko Kondo is a doctoral student at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies in Kyoto, Japan. Kondo is studying Environmental Education in hopes of positively changing the current state of teaching in Japan. After graduating with a bachelor’s in American History and a master’s in Anthropology Kondo began teaching middle and high school social studies for several years. However, the job began to take a toll on her health and well-being.
In a presentation for the Teacher Education Department at the EMU COE on Thursday, March 5th, Kondo showed alarming statistics about what it's like to be a teacher in Japan. According to a study done in 2018, Japanese teachers work the longest hours compared to any other country. She told those at the presentation that she often worked from the early hours of the morning to late at night on weekdays and the whole weekend as a teacher in Japan. Teachers are seen as another guardian over the student. For example, Kondo spent the weekend taking her students to and from their extracurricular activities. Although this form of intense teaching creates a deeper connection between the teacher and student, teachers often feel run down. Kondo recalls little to no support systems or professional development offered to teachers. As a result, many teachers are left stressed, lacking a personal life, and even experience illness due to overworking.
On a cultural exchange program in Micronesia, Kondo first experienced place-based education and became hopeful for what this concept could mean for teachers in Japan. Her first impression of place-based education was that this was a more fun and authentic way of learning that might improve the well being of educators. It also touched on the importance of one’s environment and how you can learn from the place you are in. This was also important to Kondo because as a teacher she saw enrollments of both students and teachers decreasing. Japan is experiencing aging and depopulation which is in part due to environmental factors such as natural disasters. She believes younger generations need an appropriate competence of how to care for the environment around them. Therefore, Kondo quit her teaching job to pursue research in the field of Environmental Education.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Eastern Michigan University
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