Teachers\u27 Roles in a Team-Taught Lesson : The Perspectives of Japanese Teachers

The introduction of team teaching in Japan on a nationwide scale has been an ambiguous project from its start nearly fifteen years ago. Much effort and expense are devoted to the programme in the hopes of bringing to life the target language community in the Japanese classroom, as well as to cultivate some degree of cultural sensitivity in the students. Upon this foundation, however, the focus in team teaching has been on the teachers, and their relationship as team members. In an effort to bring the students to the forefront of the team-taught class, it is important to better clarify the relationship between all the participants in the class so that each of their contributions can be maximized. To achieve this aim, in this paper the perspectives of Japanese teachers are explored