The situatedness of hybrid practitioner agency in the internationalisation of Japanese higher education and the necessity of transversal policy enactors

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study explored a contemporary period of Japanese higher education policy planning that adopted internationalisation of higher education as a metanarrative for sociocultural change in Japan. These wider societal pressures have over a period of time contributed to increasing institutional resistance to top-down policy initiatives. Further, these pressures have limited spaces for professional collegiality to develop. As a result, there is an increased importance for the development of individual practitioner agency that can contribute to the interpretation and translation of national policy planning goals. Document analysis in conjunction with qualitative interviews were operationalised with faculty membership of the same university in Japan to explore how situated performative action hold significant conceptual importance to understanding resistance, or enactment, to educational change. In particular, the study revealed the spatial dispositioning of teaching practitioners reflective of language policy planning experiences. These experiences were multifaceted and did not represent benign motivations on behalf of these individuals. To overcome these tendencies, this study identified hybrid practitioners who understand and demonstrate policy, administrative and teaching/researcher expertise as a necessary language policy plannning component of modern higher education institutions. The hybrid practitioner model is an important component of carrying forward the policy planning objectives of modern higher education organisations.