Background: Involvement of parents in their children’s academic learning is important, yet some Japanese elementary school teachers face challenges in involving linguistically, culturally, religiously, and ethnically diverse immigrant parents. Strong parental involvement is essential for the success of the child and the school and should be an ongoing, comprehensive, and purposeful process that ensures parents’ connection to the school culture, purpose, and organization. In physical education (PE), teachers must create a physically and psychologically safe learning environment for all children as well as enhance mutual understanding of the educational purposes and instructional concepts in the curriculum. To facilitate communication and collaboration with immigrant parents, teachers must become more culturally responsive and overcome linguistic problems and cultural conflicts. Therefore, in this study, the researchers developed an online professional development (PD) training to help Japanese elementary school teachers gain the knowledge and skills to implement culturally responsive approaches in their communication with immigrant parents. The researchers designed the PD training based on andragogy theory [Knowles, M. S., E. F. III. Holton, R. A. Swanson, and P. A. Robinson. 2020. The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development. 9th ed. London: Routledge]. The purpose of this study was to investigate the teachers’ learning experiences during the PD training. Participants and setting: This study used a purposeful sampling method to recruit nine Japanese elementary school teachers (male n = 4; female n = 5) from eight schools who met the sampling criteria: (a) they were teachers in a Japanese public elementary school, (b) who experienced teaching a Japanese language learner in PE as a classroom teacher, and (c) who faced difficulty in involvement of immigrant parents regarding PE. Research design: This study used a descriptive-qualitative research design using an interview method with an in-depth, semi-structured approach [Seidman, I. 2019. Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences. 5th ed. New York: Teacher College Press]. Data were collected from the online PD training and online semi-structured interviews and a constant comparative method was used to analyze and interpret the data to develop a theory more or less inductively through coding, categorizing, and making a segment of categories. Findings: Three major interrelated and complex themes were identified from the data analysis: (a) use of multiple tools as culturally responsive communication strategies, (b) the borderline between socially acceptable and unacceptable responses to religious backgrounds of immigrant parents, and (c) the necessity of anti-bias curriculum to minimize teachers’ unconscious biases. To address the increasing cultural diversity in Japanese elementary schools, continuous PD opportunities must be created to foster teachers’ professionalism in promoting culturally responsive communication with immigrant parents regarding PE. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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