Dr. Masato Ogawa is currently a Professor of International Education at International Pacific University, Okayama, Japan. He teaches Elementary Social Studies methods, Introduction to International Education, and a variety of education courses for Japanese and international students. He received the Excellent Teaching Award in 2014. In addition to his work in classrooms, he has been serving as a chair of the Department of International Education since April 2015. He also has been serving a project chair of the university’s new academic building, “Global Campus,” promoting internationalization at the university.
Dr. Ogawa’s focus in international studies through the lens of social studies education, diversity and multicultural education, and social studies education in the United States has afforded him the opportunity to conduct several research studies with scholars from the United States, Japan, and abroad. He has published many book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed international and national journals in English and Japanese. In addition to those publications, he has made numerous research presentations at international, national, and state/regional conferences.
Dr. Ogawa earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in social studies education from the University of Georgia. He previously taught social studies and Japanese at Ontario High School, Ontario, Oregon. In 2004, he received one of four Teaching 9/11 Best Practices Awards presented by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. He was honored for a lesson plan that looked at the limits of governmental authority during wartime. In the lesson, high school students consider two examples—U.S. government treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and the USA PATRIOT Act, enacted after terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. From 2008 to 2013, he taught elementary and secondary social studies methods, the Freshman Learning Community, foundations of education, secondary education methods, economic education, and East Asian Studies at Indiana University Kokomo. He received the Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award in 2009 and 2011. In addition to his work in classrooms, he served as the Associate Director of the Center for Economic Education and organized various economic education workshops for in- and pre-service teachers in the Indiana University Kokomo service area. He also served as the Director of the Indiana University President Diversity Initiative Summer Diversity Program, an initiative designed to introduce minority students to careers in Nursing, Business, Education, and SPEA. In 2009, he was awarded the first Chancellor’s Diversity Excellence Award as his work is grounded in the themes of international affairs, diversity, and multicultural education.
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