Katsuhiro Yamazumi, Ph.D.
Katsuhiro Yamazumi, Ph.D., is Professor of Education at Kansai University in Osaka, Japan. He is a Program Officer of the Research Center for Science Systems (RCSS), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).
He was the Director of the Center for Human Activity Theory (CHAT) at Kansai University until 2009. Under his leadership, this Center was awarded the status of an “Academic Frontier” Project for a five-year period between 2005 and 2009 by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).
He was Visiting Scholar at the Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning (CRADLE), University of Helsinki in 2013 and 2014, Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) between 2013 and 2014, and Research Fellow of Researcher Exchange Program at JSPS in 2016.
He is now Editorial Board Member of “Learning, Culture and Social Interaction” and “Journal of Russian and East European Psychology”.
Drawing on the framework of cultural-historical activity theory and its interventionist methodology, he studies historically new forms of pedagogical practices in schools and communities that go beyond an encapsulated concept of traditional school learning and the institutional boundaries of school organizations.
He has won nationally competitive grants by JSPS, namely, the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research. He received the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) “That’s Interesting!” Award 2013.
His recent book chapters are published in “Learning and Expanding with Activity Theory” (Cambridge University Press), “Learning and Collective Creativity: Activity-Theoretical and Sociocultural Studies” (Routledge), “Reforming Learning and Teaching in Asia-Pacific Universities: Influences of Globalised Processes in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia” (Springer), and “Improving Reading and Reading Engagement in the 21st Century: International Research and Innovation” (Springer).