TES Connect 2026 Summer

Cover Story Whole Child Development

From Taipei to Tokyo: Conducting Research Beyond the Classroom By Enora Clerc, Camille Houdet, Connie Wang, F0 Students, FS Mr Sylvain Amisse-Paoletti, Economics and Social Sciences Teacher, FS

In December 2025, three F0 students had the oppor tunity to travel to Japan to present a research project, developed over several months, at the Journée Franco phone de la Recherche des Lycéens, the Francophone Research Day, held at the University of Tokyo. The pro ject, entitled The Construction and Negotiation of Iden tities in a High School: An Analysis of Social Interactions and Discourses, was presented at this occasion. To go beyond the usual framework of classroom learning, our aim was to experience what it means to conduct a real research project: defining a topic and a methodology, collecting data, analysing results and presenting them to an academic audience. The Franco phone Research Day provides a particularly stimulating framework for this work, as it gives students the oppor tunity to present their research alongside established French-speaking researchers in Japan, working across a wide range of academic disciplines.

The project began with our shared interest in the ques tion of identity construction. At first, several directions were considered, including the role of artificial intel ligence, social media and the influence of different school environments. Gradually, the research question became more precise: how are identities constructed and negotiated through interactions between individ uals in different social contexts? In other words, how do students adapt the way they present themselves depending on the people, places and contexts in which they interact? This question led us to explore sociological theories on social networks and identity, especially the work of Har rison White. However, the challenge was not only to use a theoretical framework, but to design a protocol that could actually be implemented by high school students in a school environment. Discussions with researchers and teachers, including Tanguy Lepesant, Bérengère Durchon and Lai Wen-Ling, encouraged us to develop an original methodology.

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