Foreign Female English Teachers in Japanese Higher Education

Narratives From Our Quarter

Diane Hawley Nagatomo, Kathleen, A. Brown, Melodie Lorie Cook

• Publisher: Candlin & Mynard ePublishing Limited
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9789887519416
• eBook ISBN: 9781005291242
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The goal of this book is to provide information, inspiration, and mentorship to teachers (namely foreign women, but not restricted to such) as they navigate the gendered waters of teaching English in Japanese higher education. Such a book is timely because foreign female university teachers are outnumbered by their foreign male colleagues by nearly three to one. This imbalance, however, is likely to change as reforms in hiring policies (which have until recently generally favored male applicants) have been widely implemented to encourage more female teachers and researchers. The narratives by the contributors to this book offer a kaleidoscope of experiences that transverse several loosely connected and overlapping themes. This book is, in a sense, a "girlfriend's guide to teaching in a Japanese university" in that it provides much practical information from those who are already in the field. It covers areas such as gaining entry into Japanese higher education teaching, searching for and obtaining tenure, managing a long-term professorial career, and taking on leadership responsibilities. The personal side of teaching is examined, with authors describing how individual interests have shaped their teaching practices. Family matters, such as negotiating maternity leave, reentering the workforce, and difficulties in balancing family and work are discussed by those who have "been there and done that". The darker issues of the job, such as harassment, racism, and native-speakerism are introduced, and several chapters with practical and legal information about how to combat them are included, as well as a list of valuable resources. The contributors to this volume have drawn upon their own unique experiences and have situated their stories in areas that are of great personal importance. The individual narratives, when taken together, highlight not only the complexity of the professional identity of EFL teachers but also the myriad of issues that shape the careers of women in Japanese higher education. These issues will resonate with all female EFL faculty, regardless of their geographical location.

Chapter 1: Identity Construction Among Foreign Female Teachers in Japanese Higher Education

Diane Hawley Nagatomo

In the introduction to this volume, we briefly described how the contributors to this book approached the writing of their chapters and also provided a glimpse into the stories that they tell. In this chapter, I would like to continue that discussion, first by providing some additional background information to illustrate the context in which the contributors to this book live and work, and then by considering how Wenger’s (1998) theory of identity might provide a useful lens for a closer reading of the stories told in this volume.

One might wonder why it is necessary to have a book on teaching in Japanese higher education comprised solely of foreign female voices when many of the issues are pertinent to all teachers, regardless of nationality or gender. This is particularly true when it comes to the two positions for which teachers are hired: standard (which usually means tenure) and non-standard (which usually means fixed-term or part-time) employment (Hayes, 2013). Before proceeding any further, let us examine these types of employment. A 2017 survey constructed by The Asahi Shinbun (a large newspaper) and Kawai Juku (a major cram school) and distributed to 751 universities reported on data from the 659 (an 87.9% response rate) that responded (The Asahi Shinbun, 2018). Among the total 338,622 faculty members the universities report employing, 169,458 were full time, and 169,164 were part time. Unlike previous surveys distributed by government agencies, this survey also asked about the status of the full-time employees and found that approximately one quarter of them had fixed-term contracts. These contracts accounted for 30.4% of teachers at national universities, 27.4% at prefectural and municipal universities, and 23.3% at private universities. In some instances, fixed-term contracts might have been tenure-track appointments, where after trial periods teachers were invited to apply for tenure. However, for many institutions, particularly national universities, academic appointments were connected to grants and outside funding, and so when the funding ended, so did the jobs.

In the past, there was much leeway in the requirements for tenured positions (Nagasawa, 2004), particularly for foreigners (Hayes, 2013). Most institutions now require applicants for these valued positions to hold an advanced degree (usually a PhD), to have published research in peer-reviewed journals, and in the case of foreigners, to be proficient in Japanese. Hiring criteria for limited-term contracts is much less stringent, and often (but not always) possessing a master’s degree in any area is acceptable. Limited-term contracts can help universities save on personnel costs, especially those that are financially struggling due to the dwindling student population. If universities lose students, they can cut costs by downsizing their staff. Many contracted teachers, particularly foreign teachers engaged in language teaching, are attached to language institutes. These institutes were established in many universities during the 1990s when ideologies of internationalization and globalization were promoted to attract prospective students (e.g., Hashimoto, 2010; Nagatomo, 2016; Seargeant, 2009; Rivers, 2013; Whitsed & Wright, 2011). Limiting the length of employment of foreign English teachers in such institutions, according to Rivers (2013), contributes to “a conveyer belt mentality” (p. 77) where there is a steady supply of foreigners, who are preferably fairly young, new to language teaching, and new to Japan. Such impermanent employment conditions may be seen to benefit institutions, but the resulting job instability demotivates and deprofessionalizes teachers (e.g., Stewart, 2006), which can lead to teacher “burnout” (Murray, 2013).

The Asahi Shinbun (2018) admits its numbers concerning part-time teachers may be inaccurate because each institution reported only the number of teachers employed and not their type of employment. This could result in the same adjunct teachers working in three different institutions being counted three times. Nonetheless, these figures show that universities rely heavily on part-timers; some of them hold full-time positions elsewhere and teach one or two classes (usually within their academic specialty), while others support themselves entirely through part-time work. As for the classes being taught, adjunct teachers (and contracted full-time teachers) generally teach general education courses while tenured staff teach specialized ones. As English is often a required subject, regardless of students’ majors, there is an abundance of work available for native and non-native English teachers, especially in comparison to other academic subjects. Part-timers, however, do not have the security of tenure, nor do they have the social welfare benefits or access to research funds generally given to full-time employees. They do, however, enjoy a certain amount of teaching autonomy, and they have much free time when classes are not in session. However, these positions are also tied to supply and demand; if an institution no longer needs them, their contracts will not be renewed. According to a survey collected by one of Japan’s legally registered trade unions, what concerns university part-timers the most is job security, because there is no guarantee that positions will continue from one year to the next (General Union, 2015). Changes in the Labor Contract Law in Japan in 2013 require employers to offer part-timers permanent employment after five years (for an explanation, see, for example, Puckett and Jia, 2018). This law was enacted to protect part-timers in other fields of work outside of academia, but how universities choose to deal with this remains uncertain at the time of this writing. Many university part-timers fear that they will simply be shown the door when their five-year period comes to an...

Table of contents

• Editors
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword - Andrea Simon-Maeda
• Introduction - Diane Hawley Nagatomo, Kathleen A. Brown, and Melodie L. Cook
• Chapter 1 - Diane Hawley Nagatomo
• Chapter 2 - Amanda Yoshida and Adrianne Verla Uchida
• Chapter 3 - Sarah Mason
• Chapter 4 - Kristie Collins
• Chapter 5 - Gerry Yokota
• Chapter 6 - Yoshi Grote
• Chapter 7 - Eucharia Donnery
• Chapter 8 - Suzanne Kamata
• Chapter 9 - Louise Ohashi
• Chapter 10 - Wendy Gough
• Chapter 11 - Phoebe Lyon
• Chapter 12 - Quenby Aoki
• Chapter 13 - Jennifer Yphantides
• Chapter 14 - Wendy Jones Nakanishi
• Chapter 15 - Cynthia Smith
• Chapter 16 - Avril Haye-Matsui
• Chapter 17 - Richa Ohri
• Chapter 18 - Tricia Okada
• Chapter 19 - Donna Fujimoto
• Chapter 20 - Fiona Creaser
• Chapter 21 - Kathleen A. Brown
• Chapter 22 - Jo Mynard
• A. List of Acronyms/Terms Used in This Book
• B. List of Useful Resources