College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Borderlands and Border Crossing: Japanese Professors of English and the Negotiation of Translinguistic and Transcultural Identity(2012) Rudolph, Nathanael John; Martin-Beltran, Melinda; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Recent scholarship in the field of ELT posits that critical constructions of the Native Speaker/Non-Native Speaker and Native English Speaker Teacher/Non-Native English Speaker Teacher binaries in the ELT literature have oversimplified and essentialized categories of teacher identity (e.g., Menard-Warwick, 2008; Park, 2012) and as a result cannot account for contextualized negotiations of borders of linguistic and cultural identity around the world. In the interest of addressing this issue, the following study explores the lived experiences of four Japanese professors negotiating their translinguistic and transcultural identities in the field of English language teaching (ELT) in Japan, and how through these experiences they have arrived at challenging who they might be or become as English language learners, teachers and users. Employing narrative inquiry and the use of semi-structured interviews, the study attempts to provide a sociohistorically-situated account of participants' lived experiences conceptualizing and negotiating borders of being and becoming as English language learners, users and teaching professionals. In doing so, the study attempts to examine the interplay of local and global discourses of identity implicated in the construction and perpetuation of borders within ELT in the Japanese context. The study seeks to encourage dialogue in the ELT research and teaching community both within and beyond Japan, related to how these discourses might adversely affect learner, teacher and user identity and contextualized language teaching. In addition, the study attempts to contribute to debate within ELT scholarship regarding who "non-native" teachers might be or become and the roles "native" and "non-native" teachers might play in globalized ELT.Item INTERNATIONALIZATION POLICIES OF JESUIT UNIVERSITIES: A CASE STUDY OF JAPAN AND THE U.S.(2009) Jung, S.J., Kang-Yup; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the wake of globalization, higher education institutions almost inevitably have adopted and implemented internationalization policies as their primary strategy for responding to the challenges and opportunities brought about by globalization. This study concerns the comparison of the motivations, program strategies, and organization strategies of the internationalization policies of two Jesuit universities: Sophia University in Japan and Georgetown University in the United States. This study focuses on understanding internationalization policies at the two universities and developing a conceptual framework that might be useful in the expansion of scholarship of internationalization theory. There are three key research questions: (a) Is the noticeable shift from social and cultural rationales for internationalization to for-profit rationale ubiquitous?; (b) How do the policies of internationalization of the two universities resonate with the particular contexts surrounding them?; and (c) To what extent do the programs of internationalization reflect the core value of the Jesuit philosophy of education which is to prepare men and women for others? Qualitative comparative case study was conducted at both research sites through semi-structured interviews with senior administrators, deans, faculty, and administrative staff members. On-site materials are collected and analyzed. Cross-case analysis is used to compare and synthesize the findings of the two single case studies. This study found that no noticeable shift from socio-cultural rationale to for-profit rationale has taken place at the two universities. Despite financial constraints, the two universities' internationalization polices are affected most strongly by the socio-cultural rationale and the academic rationale. Sophia puts an emphasis on the motivation for intercultural understanding stemming from its history and origin, while Georgetown gives its highest attention to the motivation for human development. The two universities are able to appropriate their contexts and surroundings so that the universities' idiosyncratic features of local contexts play a significant role in defining their specific responses to the challenges of globalization which are inscribed in their international programs and projects. Finally, the Jesuit philosophy of education, "men and women for others," plays a crucial role as a bedrock on which the direction of internationalization policies is defined. However, despite the strong relationship between the Jesuit philosophy of education and policy, there is only a weak correlation between the philosophy of education and programs. This research will contribute to a wider perspective on internationalization policies through cross-cultural comparative research at an institutional level, an expansion of literature about a global university, and a re-visioning of internationalization for the sake of conscientizing internationalization at an individual level and responsible internationalization at an institutional level.Item Curriculum Reform as a Reflection of Tradition and Change: Japanese Teachers Approaches to Dimensions of Difference via the Integrated Curriculum(2006-04-26) MacDonald, Laurence Jon; Finkelstein, Barbara; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the midst of significant social and global change, Japan has embarked upon its most significant education reform since the immediate post-WWll period. In 2002, MEXT enacted the integrated curriculum (sogoteki na gakushu), a decentralization effort intended to empower teachers and schools with the autonomy to create and implement curriculum of their own choosing. The purpose of multi-site case study is to discover if and how Japanese teachers are utilizing the autonomy provided by the integrated curriculum to provide students opportunities to interact with dimensions of difference based on Japan's changing cultural landscape and global role. This multi-site case study is based on seventeen months of field work in Japan, at which time I analyzed government and school documents; interviewed teachers, administrators, scholars, and leaders of NPO/NGOs; and observed integrated curriculum activities in 60 public schools. Based on this data, I uncovered three approaches to the integrated curriculum that confront students with dimensions of difference: 1) the human rights education approach; 2) the cultural co-existence approach; and 3) the international understanding education approach. In the context of the human rights approach, teachers implemented curriculum to help students: 1) develop self-esteem; 2) contend with issues of bullying and social exclusion; 3) and learn about the rights of minorities, the disabled, and the homeless. Schools in ethnically diverse communities implement a cultural co-existence approach to the integrated curriculum, engaging students in the exploration of human migration and the growing ethnic diversity of their communities. In the international understanding approach, teachers help students explore foreign cultural influences on Japanese culture; the nation's relationship with its Asian neighbors; and the role of the Japanese Government and NPO/NGOs in overseas development and volunteerism. While these approaches to the integrated curriculum were by no means universal, the findings of this study confirmed that many schools in diverse urban areas did implement at least one of these three approaches.