Teachers Finding Belonging Inside and Outside the Classroom

Sunday, July 22nd, 2012, 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Speaker: Joseph Falout

Teachers are often professionally dedicated, however they may face motivational difficulties largely due to lacking a sense of belonging both inside and outside the classroom. Belonging is important because it's a fundamental psychological need that keeps people living and working at their best. Participants will explore together in this workshop three mutually constitutive pathways of belonging within their own social environments -- engaging, imagining, and aligning -- in order to promote their motivation to teach in the classroom and engage within their other professional environments. The presenter will provide a theoretical base from social psychology, and illustrate with anecdotes of those with firsthand experiences. Workshop participants will leave with a better understanding of their own aspirations and the social networks around them that can help lead them to an increased sense of belonging, purpose, and accomplishment.

Joseph Falout, an assistant professor at Nihon University, researches, publishes, and presents internationally about developmental motivational variables of language teachers and learners in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) sociocultural contexts. He edits for the OnCUE Journal, published by the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), and the Asian EFL Journal.

Organization: Iwate-Aomori Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Iwate-Aomori JALT)

Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 1,000 yen; 500 yen for full-time students

Venue: Aiina, Morioka, 6th Floor, Room 602 map

Location: Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan

Contact Iwate-Aomori JALT

Mary Burkitt

Work phone: 019-663-3132

Jason Hill