A Thrice-Told Tale of Japanese Staffrooms and a Transformative Journey in Searching for East Asia as Method

Oct 15, 2026

Study explores how to view and interpret teacher learning within a Japanese secondary school staffroom by using three analytic lenses and tracking shifts in researcher subjectivities. A narrative approach chronologically documents the lenses’ application to everyday staffroom interactions and the transformation of the research stance. Findings show each lens yields distinct meanings, while Western lenses cannot fully explain everyday practices shaped by East Asian worldviews and ethics.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Purpose

Design/Approach/Methods

Findings

Originality/Value

Background

Origins of the staffroom-as-learning idea

Return to staffroom research and special issue development

A Thrice-Told Tale of Japanese Staffrooms and a Transformative Journey in Searching for East Asia as Method Yanping Fang (方燕萍) Nanyang Technological University Linfeng Wang (王林锋) Osaka Kyoiku University ECNU Review of Education 2024, Vol. 7(3) 618–640 © The Author(s) 2024 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/20965311231212213](DOI: 10.1177/20965311231212213)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/20965311231212213)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe) Abstract Purpose: This study aims to search for ﬁtting lenses to view and interpret teacher learning in a Japanese secondary school teacher staffroom and capture the reconstituting of researcher subjectivities in this process. Design/Approach/Methods: A narrative approach chronically documents the ﬁndings and use of the lenses in analyzing the staffroom daily interactions and traces the journey of transformation in our researcher subjectivities. Findings: The telling of a Japanese staffroom (shokuinshitsu) as a thrice-told tale under the three lenses—cultural-historic activity theory, contextualism, and intimacy orientation—each uncoversa unique interpretation of the learning going on in the daily life of the Japanese staffroom. While complementary, Western-lenses are found to be unable to explain the nature of the everyday practices in the staffroom formed under the worldviews and ethics of East Asia. Our critical examination of the major academic encounters involved in the past two decades illuminates the complex dynamism behind our research perspectives, awakens us to the dominance of Corresponding author: Yanping Fang, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk NIE2-03-19, Singapore 637616, Singapore. Email: [yanping.fang@nie.edu.sg](yanping.fang@nie.edu.sg) Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as speciﬁed on the SAGE and Open Access page ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). Western-centralism in our researcher subjectivities, transforms our worldviews, and returns us to our cultural roots to build alternative frames of reference as East Asia as Method. Originality/Value: This study not only uniquely demonstrates what decentered, alternative, and diversiﬁed frames of reference would look like in studying East Asian practices but also what it would take for scholars to move toward East Asia as Method. Additionally, going beyond the three lenses, it contributes to our understanding of how space (staffroom as an entity) mediates forming of the character of those who are dwellers of the shokuinshitsu. Keywords East Asia as method, space as a mediating entity, teacher learning, teacher staffrooms in Japan and East Asia, transforming researcher subjectivities Date received: 23 January 2023; revised: 4 June 2023; accepted: 7 August 2023 Background The notion of staffrooms as sites of teacher learning in schools of three cultures—China, Japan, and Korea—emerged as a reaction to course work and research experience during the ﬁrst author’s doctoral studies at Michigan State University over two decades ago. Course readingsand class discussions, mostly concerning works by U.S. scholars, highlighted a recurring theme of teacher isolation and autonomy (e.g., Huberman, 1995; Little, 1990; Lortie, 1975), which was both shocking and intriguing to a Chinese person growing up in a familiar school culture of teachers working together. Together with a few doctoral students who were from or

FAQs

What is the purpose of the study?

The study aims to find suitable lenses for interpreting teacher learning in a Japanese secondary teacher staffroom and to capture how researchers’ subjectivities are reconstituted through this process.

How does the study conduct its research?

It uses a narrative approach to chronologically document how the three lenses are applied to daily staffroom interactions and to trace transformation in the researchers’ subjectivities.

What do the three lenses reveal about teacher learning?

Each lens uncovers a different interpretation of learning in the staffroom’s daily life, and together they show how everyday practices are grounded in East Asian worldviews and ethics that Western lenses alone cannot fully explain.

Oct 15, 2026

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