Institute for Teacher Education: Announcement of the 2nd Teacher Education Research Forum in 2024

The Reiwa Era: Work Styles and the Challenge of Educational Reform

Event Outline

• Date and Time: October 27, 2024 (Sunday) 13:00-17:30
• Venue: Waseda University International Conference Center, 3rd floor, Conference Room 3 (10 minutes walk from Waseda Station on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line)
• Lecturer: Kenichi Matsumoto (Superintendent of Education, Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture / Professor Emeritus, University of Toyama / Former Professor, Graduate School of Education, Kanazawa University)
• Topic 1: “Creating a sustainable system to support schools that teachers are excited about: The Board of Education’s challenge”
• Topic 2: “Children growing as human beings! – How should we discuss this based on individual optimization? -“
• Hosted by: Igarashi and Terabayashi
• Participation Fee: Free (first 50 people)
• Organized by: Waseda University Teacher Education Research Institute (Director: Professor Chiharu Fujii, Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences)
• Co-organized by: Waseda University Comprehensive Research Organization

Aims of the Teacher Education Research Forum

The first forum of the institute in 2024 (May 26) featured a lecture by Eiji Kikuchi, titled “How to change stagnant education and society? – Learning from young people leaving the teaching profession”. The second forum (October 27) will focus on the future of work styles and education in the Reiwa era. The current situation is complex, with structural, historical, cultural, and regional issues that cannot be solved all at once. However, by connecting the flow from the country to the board of education and schools, people from various regions and positions are working hard every day for the “children” and “schools” in front of them.

This time, we will look at the challenge of the board of education. With the aim of making schools lively, making teachers excited, and children growing as human beings, the small city of Nanto has created a new, future-oriented system by thoroughly reviewing and rethinking what is “common” and “business as usual”. This has led to zero early retirements in five years. By using the Board of Education as a central axis, each school, the community, and parents have been able to work together and become one, making it possible to bring about dynamic change.

At the center of this is the Superintendent of Education, Mr. Kenichi Matsumoto. With 23 years of experience as a junior high school and elementary school teacher, he became a university professor and produced many teachers. Five years ago, he became the Superintendent of Education in parallel with his university studies, and has been working on “work style reform” and “educational practice reform” at the same time, with the Board of Education at the core. Mr. Matsumoto has extensive practical research on life studies, integrated learning, and ESD (SDGs) science, and has experience teaching children from preschool to graduate students. He says that the process of Nanto City’s education reform is the same as problem-solving learning.

We would like to have a fun and lively discussion about the idea of problem solving from the ground up and practical wisdom development.