The purpose of this study was to describe and explain Japanese elementary school teachers’ learning experiences of online professional development program regarding parental involvement of immigrant parents as it pertains to physical education (PE). The study used the andragogy theory (Knowles, 1989), a descriptive-qualitative methodology with an explanatory case study design. The participants were eight elementary school teachers at public schools in Japan. All participants were involved in an online professional development program. They completed five modules including (a) parent involvement attitudes and beliefs, (b) cultural awareness when teachers work with immigrant parents, (c) communication strategies, (d) development of trust between parent and teacher, and (e) discussion meeting among the participated teachers. Data sources were self-reflective journals, focus group interviews, and semi-structured online interviews. Three themes emerged from the data: (1) the advantage of online professional development for being a self-directed learner, (2) critical thinking as a tool which helped teachers identify their learning needs, (3) the needs of professional learning community beyond the school districts. The results suggest that online professional development programs helped the teachers reach ideas and strategies that acquire their own problem-solving skills in collaborating with immigrant parents in order to promote their children’ learning and prepare a safer learning environment in PE. Moreover, teachers can continuously grow their professional learning by using online platforms regardless of their working site, working schedule, and diverse population in each school.

Authors:
Takafumi Tomura, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Yu Furuta, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Hirotaka Kizuka, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Cynthia Hall, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Takahiro Sato, University of Tsukuba, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Mr Takafumi Tomura is a University Doctoral Student at University of Tsukuba in Japan

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