Role controversy among team teachers in

This article attempts to identify and clarify incongruous and problematic percep-tions of team teachers ’ roles held by JET Programme Assistant English Teachers (AETs) and their Japanese English-teaching colleagues (JTEs). Confusion over who should do what, and especially the frustration resulting from belief con-flicts between team teachers, produces negative pressure on partners that could be detrimental to English lessons and general classroom atmospheres. Using data collected from long-answer sections of a nationwide questionnaire involv-ing over 1,400 junior and senior high school educators, the author investigates discord found between and within AET and JTE groups at both levels. While respondents generally concurred on the main (i.e. top three) roles expected of themselves and their partners, discrepancies did arise regarding other, less com-monly perceived roles