Teacher Internship and the Culture of Teaching in Japan

Japan's teacher internship was a hotly debated political issue for three decades until the legislature finally approved its implementation in 1988. The aim of this paper is to explore how the culture of teaching mediated the implementation of the government‐sponsored teacher internship. The data presented in this paper come from ethnographic research conducted in 1989 with a focus on three elementary public schools in Tokyo. Our findings suggest that the culture of teaching measurably influenced the administration of internship in the first year. As a result, internship became ineffective if measured by the Government's expectations. This paper argues that the Government's reform, of teaching is bound to be ineffectual without classroom teachers’ active support for it.