Cultivating Professional Development Through Critical Friendship and Reflective Practice: Cases From Japan

It is our great pleasure to launch the latest long-awaited volume edited by Adrianne Verla Uchida and Jennie Roloff Rothman. Cultivating Professional Development through Critical Friendship and Reflective Practice: Cases from Japan,  shows us an innovative bottom-up approach to professional development for educators. A critical friendship is where “two teachers come together willingly to explore facets of their development as decided by the friends” (Farrell, Foreword). These individuals might be colleagues, close friends or acquaintances who are an “invaluable, integral aspect of your personal growth as a professional” (Verla Uchida & Roloff-Rothman, Introduction). This volume enhances our knowledge of reflective practice and makes a valuable contribution to the field. The editors and contributing authors show how reflective practice can foster critical friendships as a means of professional development for educators.

Contents

• Foreword by Thomas S. C. Farrell
• Introduction by Adrianne Verla Uchida and Jennie Roloff Rothman

Part 1: Intra-Institutional Friendships

• Chapter 1: Bridging Teaching Beliefs and Visible Behaviors: Data-Led and Dialogic Reflection as an Anchor for Critical Friendship by Andrew Gill and Daniel Hooper 
• Chapter 2: Embracing Our Contexts: Fostering a Critical Friendship through Conversations on Parenting and Career Trajectories in Tertiary Education by Winifred Lewis Shiraishi and Adrianne Verla Uchida

Part 2: Inter-Institutional Friendships

• Chapter 3: From Chai Dates to Critical Friends: Reflective Practice as Professional Development by Adrianne Verla Uchida and Jennie Roloff Rothman
• Chapter 4: Epiphanies in Practice: How Good Friends Can Become Critical Friends by Aviva Ueno and Amanda J. Yoshida
• Chapter 5: The "Critical" in Our Critical Friendship: Honesty, Candor, and Respect by Jackson Koon Yat Lee and Emily Choong
• Chapter 6: The Realist and the Idealist: Experiences of Co-running a Teachers’ Reflective Practice Group by Peter Brereton and Michael Ellis
• Chapter 7: Navigating Changing Identities Through Critical Professional Friendship by Chhayankdhar Singh Rathore and Eucharia Donnery

Part 3: Extra-Institutional Friendships

• Chapter 8: Cultivating Critical Friendships Through Reflective Practice: A Community of Teachers from Different Educational Institutions by Atsuko Watanabe, Chitose Asaoka, and Akiko Fujii
• Chapter 9: Critical Co-Presenterships: Podcasting as Reflective Practice by Matthew Y. Schaefer and Robert J. Lowe
• Chapter 10: Getting on Board: A Phenomenological Approach to a Critical Friendship Between Leaders by Dawn Lucovich and Wayne Malcolm

Conclusions

• Chapter 11: Tying it All Together: A Roadmap for Cultivating Critical Friendships by Jennie Roloff Rothman and Adrianne Verla Uchida