Theron Muller, Waseda University Faculty of Human Sciences
Alaa Salem, Waseda University Faculty of Human Sciences
14 August, 8:30-10:15 ReN 4 in MR402, Presentation 4 of 7
Abstract
Japanese higher education has sought to increase international postgraduate student and researcher numbers in recent years, in response to a demographic crisis in the country’s 18-year-old population and to internationalize its stubbornly provincial higher education faculty demographics. Such efforts have centered on high-profile, high-ranking higher education institutions. However, institutions outside these highly publicized efforts face similar pressures to attract and retain “international” students and faculty, although fewer resources are available to them. This investigation explores the experiences of three such researchers at a former national university located in a prefectural capital outside Japan’s metropolitan and commercial hubs. Two are international postgraduate student researchers and the third is a Japanese postdoctoral junior faculty member who relocated to Japan from the US following graduation from his doctoral program. Through semi-structured “academic literacy” interviews and “text histories” analysis, we explore the issues these authors face in their research and in writing for publication. We find that social relationships are at least as important as textual processes in shaping their experiences. Social isolation within sequestered research laboratories, along with interpersonal tensions that arise through jealousy of attributes that the researchers feel should be considered strengths that they contribute, such as English language proficiency, lead to interpersonal conflict. This in turn results in undesirable outcomes for some, including estrangement and discontinuation of potentially fruitful research collaborations. However, a supportive environment within a well-resourced laboratory leads to relative success in terms of research publication and successful collaboration. Nevertheless, the funding environment is such that a well-resourced laboratory can quickly become poorly resourced with the end of grant funding, resulting in the emergence of tensions. To improve future authors’ success, we discuss how policy could be reshaped to account for the difficulties these authors face, including issues concerning a lack of institutional writing support.
Recording
Following is a prerecorded video of the presentation we gave at the conference:
The presentation slides are here and embedded below.
Leave a Reply