Yasushi Maruyama, Ph. D. (Florida State University) is Professor of Philosophy of Education. He has served as an editor of various academic journals, including the editor-in-chief of Studies in the Philosophy of Education, a Journal of The Philosophy of Education Society of Japan. His research interests contain the philosophy of Wittgenstein, philosophy of mind, ethics of teaching, professional ethics education and postcolonialism. Among his publications are “Tragedy of Education, the Other in Education: Beyond the Colonialism of/in Education” (in Forum of Modern Education, no. 11, 2002); “Conceptual Captivity and Emancipation: Wittgenstein’s Teaching of Philosophy” (in Studies in the Philosophy of Education, no. 96, 2006); “Ethics Education for Professionals in Japan: A Critical Review” (in Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 42, no. 4, 2010); and Pedagogical Theories of Moral Education (Kyodoshuppan, 2014).

Hello, I am Hisashi Kuwayama, mainly in charge of international students and some exchange programs in the Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University. I would like to support that both international and Japanese students enjoy their social and academic life in an intercultural/disciplinary atmosphere. And also, my research and practical interest is on international cooperation in education especially for developing countries by making the best use of historical and sociocultural experiences in Japan’s school education. I am looking forward to having collaborative work with researchers and educators for the sustainable development in education.

Greetings, I am BABALOLA Micky Amune from Nigeria. I graduated from Retsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) Beppu, Oita Prefecture with a doctoral degree in Asia Pacific Studies with a focus on Environmental policy and administration. I have had the privilege as a student to participate in intercultural exchange activities with elementary, junior high and high school students from various places in Japan where I served as a language instructor and cultural ambassador. My research interest focuses on Environmental Policy, Environmental Impact Analysis, Environmental Pedagogy, Environmental Technology, Remote Sensing, System Dynamics Theories, and Multi-Criteria Decision Making.

Hello, I am Brett Walter. I earned my Master’s in Elementary Education and my PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, with a focus on Foreign and Second Language Education, at Florida State University. I have taught English in Japan for five years, initially through the JET Program at the kindergarten, elementary, and junior high school levels and then in a private English conversation school in Hiroshima. During the five years I studied at Florida State University, I also taught Japanese as a second language to undergraduates. My research interests include instructional methods for teaching foreign languages as well as methods for improving teacher training and introducing multicultural education at the university level.

Tinka Delakorda Kawashima earned her M.A. in Philosophy at the University of Tsukuba and her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Ljubljana, both focused on traditional Japanese religiosity and its development in the contemporary consumer society. Using European and Japanese socio-religious theoretical perspectives, she conducted empirical research at popular religious (pilgrimage) sites across Japan and SE Europe, eventually focusing on the multi-religious world heritage site in Nagasaki. During her study in Slovenia, she taught courses on Japanese language, society and religion at the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Ljubljana. In Japan, she taught English language courses on Japanese culture and European sociology of religion at Yamaguchi Prefectural University. Her most recent research involves cultural heritage protection and educational tourism.

Hello, I am Bulbul Jha. I have earned my M.A. degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, specializing in Japanese language, literature and culture. I have finished Master’s and Ph.D. in education from Hiroshima University, focusing on onomatopoeia in child language acquisition and comprehension of metaphors by native speakers of Japanese and Hindi speaking Indian learners of Japanese, and the factors affecting the same respectively. I have taught Japanese as second language at University of Delhi while doing M.Phil. My research interests include onomatopoeia, metaphors, figurative language, child language acquisition and second language acquisition.