Community Language Schools Conference

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Implementing a non-traditional curriculum

In 2010 Orange Coast Gakuen Japanese Language School (OCG) became an independent entity and at the same time installed a new, non-traditional curriculum.  The school was able to team up with a trio of professors from the Japanese faculty at California State University Long Beach.  In this panel we will jointly discuss what we have done, the progress we have made, and the remaining obstacles and challenges to implementing the new curriculum, from the points of view of a curriculum advisor and an administrator.

The basic challenge has been to make sure that all involved – teachers, parents, and administration – are willing to make, and maintain, a strong and unified commitment to the new approach.  A prerequisite for success, of course, is that the new curriculum is a good one.  We feel that ours is.  We will describe the rationale of the new curricula and instructional approach, which are distinctively different from the traditional curricula and approach used by most Japanese heritage schools. 

The first obstacle we have faced is ensuring that all of our teachers support the new curriculum.  Existing teachers must be able and willing to make a paradigm shift in their teaching approach. The same goes for newly recruited teachers, who are often trained in traditional techniques.  Maintaining this commitment requires constant attention.  Here, our curriculum advisors have played a crucial role, by providing teacher training and classroom suggestions.  In the process, they have also demonstrated to the teachers that the new approach is an effective one.

A second challenge is to gather curriculum materials which, by definition, are not readily available.  We were able to use texts written by the advisors in our first year.  Since then the school has also embarked on a project to create our own textbooks.  While there are a number of issues here, we feel that the textbooks will establish our identity over the long run.  In spite of this support, our teachers initially felt burdened in having to gather new teaching materials, as well as learning the new approach.  The school tried to provide extra financial support, but the perceived burden was still high.

A third challenge is to make sure that our parents remain supportive of the new curriculum.  Our parents need to be constantly reminded of the value of the curriculum, especially because student progress is always incremental.  This requires effective communication between parents, administration, curriculum advisors, and teachers.  Here, our school has been fortunate to have a very active Parents Association, which has created a supportive attitude among most parents.  The PA also puts on a number of cultural events, all of which have been incorporated into the new curriculum.