Yutaka OCHI
March, 2019
Abstract
This report is about a partnership project between U.S. and Japanese elementary and secondary schools which started in July, 2017 and is going to finish in August, 2019. It is also aiming at finding a new perspective and exploring new possibilities for international understanding activities. This project started from the Program for Teaching East Asia at the University of Colorado at Boulder. It offered mutual understanding activities between U.S. and Japanese elementary and secondary schools. In June, 2017, 13 U.S. junior high school teachers came to Tokyo and visited a junior high school. In June, 2018, 11 U.S. elementary school teachers visited 5 elementary schools in Tokyo, participated in classes, gave lectures, and stayed at homes of the students during the weekends. They have been corresponding letters to and from the students between the partnership schools by airmails and e-mails. This report will show the mid-term results of these activities and try to suggest new ways of thinking in international understanding studies in elementary and secondary education through the experiences of the project.
