Takayo Ogisu
April, 2019
Abstract
The past two decades saw dramatic changes in how jugyo-kenkyu is discussed and practiced in Japan, mainly due to its expansion to overseas. Global recognitions on lesson study, the direct translation of jugyo-kenkyu, opened up a discursive space, in which Japanese educators started to write and speak about jugyo-kenkyu in new ways. In this discursive space, the notion of jugyo-kenkyu itself has been shaped and reshaped referring to the lesson study practices abroad. Intensive exposure of jugyo-kenkyu practices to the eyes of foreign educators, through school visits, collaborative research, interactions at academic conferences, and development assistance, revealed in detail how it works in Japan. Such explorations allowed Japanese educators to become aware of taken-for-granted principles and mechanisms of jugyo-kenkyu in comparison to other cultures. Some explicitly anticipated that such cross-cultural contacts would revitalize jugyo-kenkyu inside Japan. How the notion of jugyo-kenkyu has reconstructed over time among Japanese educators particularly after “lesson study” came to be known globally is what I tried to explore in this article.
