Provocative Encounters Reflecting Struggles with Change: Power and Coercion in a Japanese University Situation

Autor/in	Toh, Glenn
Titel	Provocative Encounters Reflecting Struggles with Change: Power and Coercion in a Japanese University Situation
Quelle	In: Policy Futures in Education, 15 (2017) 4, S.512-525 (14 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1478-2103
DOI	10.1177/1478210317705738
Schlagwörter	Universities; Educational Change; Power Structure; Bullying; Epistemology; Foreign Countries; College Faculty; International Studies; Language of Instruction; Educational Policy; Decision Making; Educational Administration; Academic Discourse; Literacy; English for Academic Purposes; Language Teachers; Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Political Influences; Global Approach; English (Second Language); Language Tests; Scores; College Students; Japan; Test of English for International Communication + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? University; Universität; Bildungsreform; Mobbing; Erkenntnistheorie; Ausland; Fakultät; Internationaler Studiengang; Teaching language; Unterrichtssprache; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Bildungsverwaltung; Schuladministration; Schulverwaltung; Discourse; Diskurs; Alphabetisierung; Schreib- und Lesefähigkeit; Language teacher; Sprachunterricht; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Political influence; Politischer Einfluss; Globales Denken; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Language test; Sprachtest; Collegestudent
Abstract	This article examines a case of what Olssen et al. (2004) call "managerial oppression" set in a faculty of international studies of a Japanese university. Japanese universities have, in recent times, been facing the financial pressures of a falling birthrate and dwindling enrolments. To remain solvent, some universities have had to reinvent their curriculum in the hope of attracting students. Institutional renewal, as will be noted, does not occur without accompanying complications relating to power and politics. In the present case, these complications are attributable to tensions created within an ideological dialectic of openness and closedness (Peters and Roberts, 2012) as universities face the dilemmas of globalization alongside the endurance of conservative mercantilist philosophies traceable to policies set during Japan's post-war occupation by Allied forces. Through a critical examination of a series of instances of bullying and coercion, I seek in this article to argue that bullying and coercion are not random or idiosyncratic but are instead embedded in larger socio-political epistemologies that impinge on education and influence the way institutional agendas and managerialist decisions can adversely affect or defile human behavior. In this way, I seek not only to make a contribution to current understandings of language policy, ideology, power and higher education in Japan, but more uniquely, to establish a connection between ideological closed mindedness, corporate managerialism and acts of institutionalized bullying and coercion. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01