Research Interests:

Critical pedagogy, Multilingual/multicultural education, Heritage language education

Extensive reading, Language and culture in language teaching, Transnational/Japanese language literature, 

Conference Proceedings:

“Sense of Belonging among Japanese Language Teachers and Its Influence on Teaching Practice: Insights from a Professional Learning Community,” Proceedings of the 32nd Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum. 171-180. (2026).

“Language Education for Co-Creating the Future: The Power of Community and Vision.” With Kazuko Saito, et al. Proceedings of the 31st Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum. 237-247. (2025).

“Anti-racist Pedagogy in Advanced Japanese Language Course.” Proceedings of the 30th Central Association of Teachers of Japanese Conference, Chicago, IL. (2025)

"Leveraging Online Professional Learning Communities to Address the Challenges in Japanese Language Education: The Case of the Boston x New York Study Group.” With Saito, Kazuko, et al. WorldCALL Official Conference Proceedings. DOI: 10.22492/issn.2759-1182.2023.12. (2023)

"Japanese Language Education: toward Social Justice". Proceedings of the 28th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum. 258-268. (2022).

"Zainichi Koreans and Japan as a Diverse Society: Learning and Identity in an Intermediate Japanese Course". Proceedings of the 27th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum. 212-225. (2021)

"Diversity and Inclusion in Material Development". Proceedings of the 2020 SEATJ Conference. 29-48.

"Diversity and Inclusion for Japanese Education: What we can learn from a negotiated syllabus for a course designed for Japanese heritage language learners".  Proceedings of the 25th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum. 304-318.

Conference Presentations: 

“Sense of Belonging among Japanese Language Teachers and Its Influence on Teaching Practice: Insights from a Professional Learning Community,” The 32nd Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum, Princeton, NJ, May 2026.

“Reflaming Learning through Translation: Fostering Critical Thinking and Awareness of Diversity in Advanced Japanese Education in the Age of AI,” presentation, The AATJ 2026 Annual Spring Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada,  March 2026.

“Learning Japanese, Teaching Japanese: From Learners to Educators, ” Moderator for panel discussion of the Boston x NY Joint Study Group’s 4th Anniversary event From Learners to Teachers: Diversifying Perspectives & Fostering Connections within the Teachers’ Community, hosted online, supported by Japan Foundation Los Angeles, January 2026.

“SOFLA in Action: Professional Growth for Educators,” panel presentation (Saito, K., Sperbeck, M., Takahashi, A.), 2025 Global Learning for an Open World (GLOW) Conference, hosted online, November 2025.

“Language Education for Co-Creating the Future: The Power of Community and Vision,” poster presentation (Saito, K., Sperbeck, M., Takahashi, A., Hiramatsu S.), The 31 st Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum, Princeton, NJ, May 2025.

“Engagement of Boston-New York Study Group (BNYSG): Education with Vision,” online BNYSG group presentation hosted by Commemorative Lecture for the Retirement of Dr. Yasuhiko Tosaku of UC San Diego, September 2024.

"Human Library in Japanese Language Education: To become educators who can effectively engage with diverse students." Interactive Workshop, main organizer, (Asakura, N., Saito, K., Takahashi, A.), The 2024 International Conference on Japanese Language Education (ICJLE), Madison, WI, August 2024.

“Jibunrashiku: Inclusive pedagogy centering the diverse identities of Japanese language learners.” Interactive Workshop, organizing member (Hanaoka, V, Hoshi, S), The 2024 International Conference on Japanese Language Education (ICJLE), Madison, WI, August 2024.

“Anti-racist Pedagogy: Case of Advanced Japanese Course Japanese Language and Society through Contemporary Film” The 30th Central Association of Teachers of Japanese Conference, Chicago, IL, April 2024.

“Beyond Textbook-learning: Global Talk for Beginning Japanese Learners,” panel presentation “Fostering Empathy and Diverse Mindset through International Exchanges (Okubo, N., Yoo, E., Nakajima, Y., Graham, T.),” The Ninth International Conference on the Development and Assessment of Intercultural Competence, hosted online by The University of Arizona, AZ, February 2024.

“Japanese Language and Society through Contemporary Film,” panel presentation (Sugimori N., Miyagi-Lusthaus, H.) titled “Social Justice through Multimedia: Beyond Diversity and Inclusion,” The ACTFL 2023 Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, November 2023.

“Leveraging Online Professional Learning Communities to Address the Challenges in Japanese Language Education: The Case of the Boston x New York Study Group,” online presentation with BNYSG, WorldCALL 2023 Conference, Chiang Mai, Thailand, November 2023. 

“Incorporating Dialects into Japanese Language Education: Why and How?” The 7th Boston-New York Study Group Workshop - Five-minute Spotlights, NECTJ End of Summer Workshop 2023, hosted online, August 2023.  

“Exploring the Benefits of ‘Tiny Tadoku’: Practical Insights from Seven Schools across the Northeastern United States,” panel presentation (Saito, K., Sperbeck, M., Takahashi, A.), The 36^th JLTANE Conference, Trinity College, CT, May 2023.

“Inclusive Teaching through the Lens of Social Justice: Microaggressions in Everyday Conversations,” Brown Center for Languages Studies Spring 2022 Showcase, May 2022.

“Japanese Language Education toward Social Justice.” The 28^th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum, Princeton, NJ, April 2022.

“Japanese Language Education from the Perspective of Diversity and Inclusion,” panel presentation (Yamazaki, C., Kobuchi-Philip, M.), ASIANetwork 29^th Annual Conference, April 2022.

“Promoting Anti-racism in Japanese Language Education: Microaggressions in Everyday Conversation,” Modern Languages Conference ’22 Cross-Talk: Conversation on Race & Language, Center for Language Education, Brown University, February 2022.

“Zainichi Koreans and Japan as a Diverse Society: Learning and Identity in an Intermediate Japanese Course.” The 27^th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum, Princeton, NJ, May 2021.

“Efforts to incorporate social justice topics into elementary/intermediate Japanese course: outcomes, challenges, and future plans.” The 67^th Annual Northeast Conference of the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL), April 2021.

“Japanese language education through the lens of social justice using Zainichi Korean’s Children’s Story.” presented on panel “How to approach Social justice topics in elementary and intermediate Japanese courses” at The American Association Teachers of Japanese (AATJ) 2021 Virtual Spring Conference, March 2021.

 “Efforts to Develop Social Justice Theme in Japanese Language Education.” presented at The ACTFL 2021 Virtual Conference, November 2020.

“Issues of diversity and inclusion in material development.” The 35^th Annual Conference of the Southeastern Association of Teachers of Japanese (SEATJ), Memphis, TN, February 2020.

“How to incorporate social justice topics into elementary/intermediate courses.” presented on panel “Teaching Language for Social Justice in Globalized Japan.” The International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019: Perspectives Conference, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN, November 2019.

“Diversity and Inclusion for Japanese Education: What we can learn from a negotiated syllabus for a course designed for Japanese heritage language learners.” The 25^th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum, Princeton, NJ, May 12, 2019

“Integrating Social Justice Topics into Elementary and Intermediate Japanese Language Courses: Toward a deeper understanding of contemporary Japanese culture and society.” presented on panel “Towards an Understanding of the Increasingly Diverse Japanese Society: Why Cover Social Justice Topics in Japanese Language Education? How should they be incorporated?” The AATJ 2019 Annual Spring Conference, Denver, CO, March 2019.

“Why do we still avoid taboo topics in Japanese class? – Social justice: essential content for Japanese language education in the 21^st century.” The 28^th Annual Conference of the Japanese Language Teachers Association of New England (JLTANE), Dartmouth College, MA, August 2018.

“Time for Change: How can we approach and integrate social justice topics in the Japanese language classroom?” presented on panel “Leaving Our ‘Comfort Zone’: Incorporating Social Justice in Japanese Language Classes” The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2018 Annual Conference, Washington, DC, March 2018.

“Negotiated Syllabus for Teaching Japanese Heritage Language Learners” presented in the session “Tools to Improve Literacy and Empowerment.” The ACTFL 2016 Annual Conference, Boston, MA, November 2016.

“A Negotiated Syllabus for Japanese Heritage Language Learners: An attempt to motivate JHL learners to develop reading and writing skills in Japanese.” The AATJ 2016 Spring Conference, Seattle, WA, March 2016.

 “Writing Task for Elementary Learners as a Communication Activity Using Blogs.” The AATJ 2015 Spring Conference, Chicago, IL, March 2015.

 “Searching for the Third Space through Japanese Language/Transnational Literature: What the New Genre Can Offer to Japanese Language Learners.” presented on panel “Linguistic, Cultural, and Identity Diversity in Japanese Language Education.” The AATJ 2014 Spring Conference, Philadelphia, PA, March 2014.

 “Critical pedagogy and the use of Nihongo Bungaku: Transnational literature in Japanese Language education – An experiment in an advanced Japanese course.” The AATJ 2013 Spring Conference, San Diego, CA, March 2013.

“Between JHL and JFL Courses.” The 12th Northeast Council of Teachers of Japanese (NECTJ) Japanese Heritage Language Conference, New York, NY, August 2012.  

 “Use of Japanese Language Literature/Transnational Literature in Advanced Japanese Course.” The 12^th JLTANE Conference, Trinity College, CT, June 2012.

“Bilingual Writing Proficiency Research –the Case of the Boston Japanese Language School.” The 2011 Mother Tongue, Heritage Language, and Bilingual Education (MHB) Research Conference, Kyoto, August 2011. 

“Pilot Research for Launching ‘Hosyūkō Teachers Support Group’.” The 2011 Mother Tongue, Heritage Language, and Bilingual Education (MHB) Research Conference, Kyoto, August 2011.  

Community-Based Learning and Research Course Mini-Grant, $82.5, Brown University, 2025

Course Development Grant (Race, Power, and Privilege) $880, Brown University, 2025.

UTRA Award (Advanced course development: Translation of films “GO”, “昨日何食べた（What did you eat yesterday?), “焼肉ドラゴン (Yakiniku Dragon)”, Summer 2024

UTRA Award (Advanced course material development: Translation of Nihongo Bungaku “開墾地 [A Cleaning]”, 2023-2024

Remote-Accessible (REM) Course Development Funds, $2,500, Sheridan Center, Brown University, 2023.

Brown University Campus-Based Grants for a panel presentation, titled "Social Justice through Multimedia: Beyond Diversity and Inclusion," and a committee meeting on working projects (the Boston x New York Study Group, the Online Human Library for Japanese Teachers, and the Regional Dialects Collection for Material Development) at The ACTFL 2023 conference, $1,400, Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, Brown University, 2023.

The 2023 Problem-Solving Course Design Institute, $1,000, Brown University, 2023.

Course Development Grant (Documentary Film) $2,230, Brown University, 2022.

Course Development Grant (Documentary Film) $2,000, Brown University, 2020

SPRINT summer student internship, Brown University, 2020

Japan Teaching Materials Purchase Grant $1,000, Japanese Foundation, 2020

Engaged Course Development Mini-Grant for Community Engagement $430, Brown University, 2020

Brown University Campus-Based Grants for a project "Toward Diversity and Inclusion: Incorporating Social Justice Topics into Japanese Language Teaching" $1,800, Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, Brown University, 2019.

Conference Travel Grant $700, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2016, 2017.

East Asian Languages and Literatures Department Travel Award $1,000, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, 2016.

College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature Faculty Development Award $300, University of Hawaii at Mānoa for book purchase, 2016.

Travel Award from University Research Council $1,000, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, 2014, 2015.

Kathryn Davis Fellowship for Summer Program $3,000, Middlebury College, 2012.

2^nd prize for essay “Between Different Cultures” for an essay contest sponsored by Hokubei Mainichi Newspaper, San Francisco, CA, 2003.

American Council on the Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)

American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ)

Northeast Council of Teachers of Japanese (NECTJ)

Naemi McPherson has taught all levels of Japanese courses including JAPN 0500 and 0600 at Brown.  

She has been working on material development to incorporate social justice topics into Japanese language education.  Her current project also includes writing stories for extensive reading.