Towards an actor-centered typology of internationalization: a study of junior international faculty in Japanese universities

Thomas Brotherhood,Yangson Kim,Christopher D Hammond

doi:10.1007/s10734-019-00420-5

Thomas Brotherhood, Yangson Kim + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00420-5

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Abstract

This paper offers new qualitative insights into ongoing internationalization processes in Japanese higher education. Drawing on ideas from migration studies and informed by analysis of junior international faculty members’ (JIFs) experiences in Japanese universities, we posit a novel, actor-centered typology of internationalization that delineates between integration, assimilation, and marginalization of mobile actors, and considers their implications in practice. Twenty-three interviews were conducted with JIFs from a variety of disciplines and institutions across Japan. Findings indicated a pattern of disillusionment with their role in internationalization, as many perceived themselves to be tokenized symbols of internationalization rather than valued actors within it. Participants identified various barriers which prevented them from participating in the academic “mainstream” and confined them to peripheral roles. We argue that their experiences are indicative of assimilative and marginalizing forms of internationalization, which pose persistent barriers to reform in Japanese universities despite decades of state-sponsored internationalization.

Highlights

Understandings of internationalization in higher education have benefited from iterative theorizations and a progression of influential definitions of internationalization processes
The significance of these findings in relation to our deductive analytical categories of integration, assimilation and marginalization is summarized in the discussion section below
Our evidence suggests that junior international faculty members’ (JIFs) in Japan, rhetorically positioned at the heart of internationalization as a reformative process, feel disillusioned about their ability to contribute

Summary

Introduction

Understandings of internationalization in higher education have benefited from iterative theorizations and a progression of influential definitions of internationalization processes. A commitment confirmed through action to infuse and integrate international, global, and comparative content and perspectives throughout the teaching, research, and service missions of higher education. It shapes [the] institutional ethos and values and touches the entire higher education enterprise... Persistent practical challenges in internationalization processes are evident in a number of contexts, indicating the need for further interrogation. One such context is Japan, in which reforms to higher education have seen slow progress despite decades of state-sponsored internationalization (Gonzalez Basurto 2016; Ota 2018). Recent research suggests that while internationalization may be occurring in Japanese higher education in quantitative terms (Huang 2018a), these metrics do not reflect the underlying realities of internationalization in practice

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Conclusion