Abstract
This article reports the results of the online survey on Japanese-language educators’ beliefs and experiences concerning their profession that we conducted in the fall of 2018. A total of 355 teachers in North America responded to the survey. The responses were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative data suggest that the survey respondents almost unanimously agreed on the importance of global and translingual/transcultural competence as a crucial goal for JFL education. However, the items concerning the legitimacy of language varieties (e.g., standard vs. regional dialects), the importance of accuracy (e.g., grammar, pronunciation), and the views on Japanese culture (e.g., emphasis on uniqueness) received rather conflicting responses from the participants. Moreover, qualitative comments brought up the issues of native-speakerism, nihonjinron, and heteronormativity ideologies as prevailing in JFL education. In short, the results illuminate both converging and diverging perspectives of the survey participants and contradictions or dilemmas between aspirational ideals and mundane practices.
Highlights
The current article reports the results of an online survey on Japaneselanguage educators’ beliefs and experiences concerning their profession
The results illuminate converging and diverging perspectives of the survey participants, contradictions or dilemmas between aspirational ideals and mundane practices, and fundamental societal and institutional conditions for language educators that are considered to be a cause of the current lack of teacher diversity
We originally developed this survey as a prompt for the Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ)-sponsored Asian Studies (AAS) roundtable discussion and not as a research study
Summary
The current article reports the results of an online survey on Japaneselanguage educators’ beliefs and experiences concerning their profession. This survey was developed as part of the preparation for a roundtable discussion on diversity, inclusion, and professionalism in Japanese language education, proposed by the authors of this article, sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ), and held at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) in March 2019. The aim of the roundtable was to foster candid and constructive discussion on the topic involving four invited panelists with diverse academic and ethnic backgrounds (Mahua Bhattacharya, Kimberly Jones, Ryuko Kubota, and Suwako Watanabe), as well as the audience participants. We thought that the survey could provide space for interested members and potential members, who might not be able to attend the roundtable session, to share their views and concerns
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