Alliance of Associations of Teachers of Japanese

MISSION STATEMENT

The Japanese field has grown to the extent that it needs coordinated service from its professional organizations. The decentralized nature of American education and the expansion of Japanese language education make it all the more important that there be strong national leadership that serves the needs of teachers across institutions, levels, and areas of instruction.

STRATEGIC PLAN

The Alliance seeks to strengthen Japanese education through collaborative effort.

This effort involves:

1. Facilitating communication
2. Advocating for Japanese education
3. Networking and infrastructure building
4. Professional development
5. Research and development

Specifically, the Alliance will support and engage in the following activities:

1. Facilitating communication: gathering and disseminating information, providing venues for discussion and networking, encouraging articulation, identifying key issues, and developing priorities and action plans.
2. Advocating for Japanese education: developing promotional materials, educating administrators and the public, publicizing the strengths of the profession, seeking financial and other support for field-wide needs, educating future leaders in the field, and participating in national foreign-language policy discussions and initiatives.
3. Networking and infrastructure building: maintaining a central office for field-wide communications, developing and maintaining means of communication (printed, electronic, face-to-face), promoting standards-based instruction and articulation among programs and levels of instruction, and supporting connections between organizations and special interests within the field.
4. Professional development: identifying and assessing established means of pre-service and in-service training, anticipating teachers' professional development needs and ensuring that those needs are met, coordinating and disseminating information on professional development opportunities, and sponsoring in-service training institutes and workshops.
5. Research and development: coordinating research efforts related to curriculum/program design, assessment of teaching and learning, promoting the creative use of technology, and engaging in and disseminating the results of survey research related to the field.

ACTION PLAN

In its first two years of operation, the Alliance will focus on the following projects and activities:

Facilitating Communication:

• Consolidating mailing lists and services
• Providing a central location to serve people looking for information about Japanese language education
• Holding Alliance Executive Board meetings
• Holding joint board meetings of Alliance member organizations (ATJ, NCJLT)
• Participating and sponsoring panels at national and regional meetings of professional and academic organizations including the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
• Compiling and disseminating lists of pre-service training programs and professional development opportunities for teachers
• Gathering information on high school study abroad programs at all levels; disseminating checklists/information to guide teacher-created exchanges and study abroad
• Cooperatively editing and producing field-related publications
• Disseminating findings of the National Working Group on Japanese Language Competency Goals
• Publishing handbooks on standards-based Japanese language education
• Expanding the ATJ/NCJLT/Alliance Web site into an even more comprehensive resource for the field

Advocating for Japanese Education

• Producing an advocacy packet for teachers promoting foreign language learning in general and study of Japanese in particular
• Promotion of new and support of existing programs
• Creation of a brochure promoting teaching as a career to students of Japanese
• Representing the Japanese education community in various activities and discussions of the foreign-language field as a whole (National Standards Collaborative, National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages, Joint National Committee for Languages)
• Advocating for extended articulated sequences of instruction that allow students to achieve advanced language skills

Networking and Infrastructure Building

• Continuous review and updating of strategic plan
• Providing logistic and office support for Alliance member organizations
• Seeking funding for specific field-wide projects as well as for the maintenance of a strong central office
• Seeking input from and inviting participation of heritage language teachers, immersion program teachers, community college teachers, teachers of Japanese literature, and other groups not represented by professional organizations
• Establishing links with Japanese language professionals in North America and elsewhere
• Providing information about the field to policy and funding organizations

Professional Development

• Surveying and evaluating professional development resources and identifying needs that are not presently being met
• Reviewing the current status of the field in terms of standards-based education
• Cooperating in the development of professional teacher standards and teacher training/development programs
• Designing and administering workshops, seminars, and institutes targeting identified professional development needs
• Providing information for teachers on Japanese certification, master teacher certification, and other forms of accredication
• Assisting with the development and improvement of training and certification programs
• Developing workshops to mentor future leaders in the field
• Sponsoring a conference of administrators and instructors in training and certification programs
• Sponsoring a national conference on Japanese language pedagogy

Research and Development

• Sponsoring and disseminating the results of research on assessments of teaching and learning
• Conducting a project in collaboration with the Defense Language Institute assessing learner outcomes in foreign language study
• Publication of a Framework for Post-Basic Japanese Language Instruction
• Exploring collaboration with the Educational Testing Service on test design for Japanese learning assessment
• Supporting and evaluating innovative program and curriculum design projects
• Supporting and evaluating new technologies for language learning
• Continuing to develop Japanese learner modules for the National Foreign Language Center's LangNet project of technology-based delivery of customized curricula

TIMELINE

In its initial months of operation (1999-2000) the Alliance will primarily emphasize communication, networking, and infrastructure building within the field. The Alliance Executive Board will meet at least three times (in July 1999 at the Alliance office in Boulder, in November 1999 in conjunction with the annual ACTFL conference in Dallas, and in January or February 2000. The full membership of the Boards of Directors of the Alliance's founding member organizations, ATJ and NCJLT, will meet in September to discuss the status of collaboration and the streamlining of operations for both organizations under the umbrella of the Alliance. In addition, the Executive Board will invite representatives of heritage language teachers, immersion teachers, community college teachers, and Japanese language organizations in Canada and Mexico to attend its meetings and discuss cooperation and affiliation. The Alliance office will expand both its services to member organizations and its advocacy efforts on behalf of the field as a whole. The Executive Director and members of the Executive Board will represent the Alliance at meetings of other organizations in the Japanese education field and at conferences of language educators and policy makers. Work will continue on publishing handbooks for standards-based Japanese language education, reports of the National Working Group for Japanese Language Competency Goals, and a Framework for Post-Basic Japanese Language Curricula. Planning will begin for a series of conferences, workshops, and institutes for teachers from all parts of the field. Information on pre- and in-service training opportunities for Japanese language teachers will be compiled and disseminated. Funding will be sought for these projects as well as for the maintenance of a strong central office.

In Year Two (2000-2001), the Alliance will expand and build on the activities of the first year, as well as engage in a number of new activities. A number of conferences and workshops will be held: the first of a series of leadership conferences to train teachers in standards-based education and in advocacy for standards-based language instruction, foreign language learning in general, and the study of Japanese in particular; a conference of administrators and instructors of training and certification programs; and the first of a series of summer curriculum research projects in Japan for K-12 teachers. Brochures promoting teaching as a career for Japanese language students will be produced. Teacher-advocates will conduct seminars for school administrators, parents, and community leaders on the benefits of strong foreign language education programs. A national conference on Japanese language pedagogy will be held. Task forces on articulation, teacher standards and certification, and learner and program assessment will collaborate with other organizations in the foreign language field to develop new tools that will strengthen Japanese language education at all levels.