Masakata Ogawa: The science champion

Disappointed by the lack of interest in science that he encountered in a Japanese high school, Masakata Ogawa has spent most of his career seeking a change to that and the creation of the East-Asian Association for Science Education (EASE) is his solution. Ogawa, former president of EASE and now chair of the EASE 2016 Conference organising committee

Tell me about EASE.
We are a very young association – less than a decade old – so you could say that we’re still in the early stages of establishing ourselves, but we have had a good response to plans for this year’s conference and that gives me hope that we’re maturing. We bring together science educators in five constitutional regions: Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan and the organisation has a membership of around 500 individuals. Most are university-level educators and the majority are research-oriented, although some are practising science and technology teachers.

The East Asia region has a good reputation in terms of scientific discoveries and technological advances, so there should be many opportunities for the exchange of ideas.
East Asia is consistently ranked top in the world in these areas, but we found that it had been difficult for science educators to exchange ideas and thoughts face-to-face across the East Asia region. It was possible at the bilateral level, but much more difficult to achieve on the multi-regional level. Everyone realised that and it was the primary reason for the creation of EASE. The association was formed in 2007 to encourage the sharing of ideas between science educators.

Did you face any challenges during the formation of EASE or in its early days?
It is unfortunate, but international associations in East Asia can become quite political. We learnt from very early on that we would not be able to refer to the members as “countries” because they include Hong Kong and Taiwan. The government in Beijing would not permit Chinese delegates to join the association if we had used that term. So we refer to the members as “constitutional regions.”

It even took the delegates three hours of discussions to decide on the Chinese characters that would be used in the formal name of the organisation.

Similarly, “South Korea” was unacceptable to their delegation, which insisted on being known simply as Korea.

What challenges do you face today?
Over the coming decade, we need to develop a more sophisticated and formal management of the association. If we cannot do that, then it will be difficult for us to expand our activities.

Tell me more about the upcoming EASE 2016 conference which will take place in Tokyo this August.

We hold our conferences every other year, with the first event in Taipei in October 2009. Japan became this year’s host as we were the only one of the five member regions to have not staged a conference yet.

We have to synchronise with other major science education conferences around the world.
The largest is the National Association for Research in Science Teaching in the US and which attracts people in this field from around the world each year. The European Science Education Research Association also has a conference and we make sure we do not overlap with that event. Each of the region members also has national associations and we are careful not to clash with their meetings.

Why did EASE decide on Tokyo for this conference?
We felt that if the conference was held here (in a familiar city) then the organising committee would not need to extend so much support to the delegates, meaning we could focus our attention on the academic programme.

Tokyo is notoriously short of accommodation. How are you helping your delegates with their bookings?
We have placed the keynote speakers in a nearby hotel but the vast majority of attendees are being asked to make their own arrangements.

We are able to provide information on hotels in the city and most are able to make reservations online. I think that is more convenient for both sides because very few of them will be coming just for the conference; many will use the trip to travel around parts of Japan, either before or after the meeting, and some will even come with their families.

How does EASE decide on the venues used for the conference?
We are not a wealthy association and we do not have a rich foundation behind us, so we are hosting the events at the Tokyo University of Science instead of a hotel or a conference venue.

That in itself may be a problem this time around, however. In the past, the largest conference was in Beijing, when 600 people attended. We recently passed the deadline for the submission of abstract papers for the Tokyo conference and there were over 600 from more than 1,000 authors.

A few months ago, I thought we might get around 600 delegates; now I estimate that we will have 1,100 people in attendance.

How is that a problem?
Our campus is not so big, we do not have an auditorium at our central Tokyo site. Our largest meeting room only takes around 200 people. Right now we are looking into live streaming the opening session and others that are particularly popular. This is a probem we need to solve before August.

What other hurdles are you facing?
The biggest issue we have had so far is visa applications, particularly for delegates from China, the Philippines and the Russian Federation.

The Japanese government has made obtaining visas easier in recent years, but there is still a lot of paperwork that needs to be completed. And as I don’t have a secretary, I’m doing all that work myself.

The delegates are coming on tourist visas but stating on their applications that they will be attending a professional conference and each one of them needs a letter of confirmation from the university.

But as more Chinese are coming to Japan for such events, I am hopeful that the process will become smoother in the future.

How many people are involved in the preparations?
It’s a core group of five or six people, but we feel it is good to keep the organising group very small because it is easier to exchange information on what we are all doing and to keep up to date on developments. Each of us has an area of responsibility – topics for academics, review processes, programme development, registration and so on – so we are sharing the load as well as information.

Aside from the work side of the conference, what entertainment awaits the delegates?
We will have a formal banquet in a nearby hotel at the end of the second day, but it will be limited to just 200 people for space reasons. The venue was confirmed well in advance but, in hindsight, it’s unfortunate because I believe there will be many people who would like to attend. There will be lunches and refreshments throughout each of the days, which are included in the registration fees.

Have you had any assistance from the national or city conventions bureau for the event?
We did not apply for any form of assistance. Tokyo probably does not need to provide subsidies or incentives to attract conferences to be held here.

But the next time the event returns to Japan, we intend to go elsewhere and we will then apply for assistance and perhaps use convention facilities.

We did, however, apply for a grant from The Japan Foundation for a programme that would permit young researchers to attend and deliver papers. It was turned down unfortunately. Nevertheless, I think we can be successful with future requests.

How is the conference funded?
Currently, each conference is organised and funded independently rather than centrally from EASE. The event has received support from the university through the establishment of a website that has promoted the event. That has cost us US$10,000 for a year, which comes as a loan from the university.

The website has been extremely helpful because without it, it would have been very difficult to get information about the event out and attract good quality speakers and delegates.

When I checked in February, the website had been visited by more than 9,000 individuals from over 50 countries, both of which are far larger than our membership.
The university is also allowing us to use its buildings and facilities at no cost as a joint-organiser.

How do you anticipate the association will develop over the next decade or so?
The character of the association will be the most important thing. It is the question of whether EASE should be an organisation that is focused on academic research or whether it is more about exchanging ideas and information, collaboration across borders or an umbrella organisation for national associations. I’m no longer on the board, but the present executive members need to make a decision on our direction for the next decade.