23.5053, Review: Applied Linguistics; English: Nagatomo (2012)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-23-5053. Tue Dec 04 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.5053, Review: Applied Linguistics; English: Nagatomo (2012)

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Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:50:10
From: Jennifer Tan [jennifertanpohsim at gmail.com]
Subject: Exploring Japanese University English Teachers’ Professional Identity

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-1160.html

Author: Diane Hawley Nagatomo
Title: Exploring Japanese University English Teachers’ Professional Identity
Series Title: New Perspectives on Language and Education
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Year: 2012

Reviewer: Jennifer Poh Sim Tan, University of Brunei Darussalam

SUMMARY

The book comprises eight chapters, the first four of which provide detailed
background information on the study and methodology for data collection. The
three chapters that come after present findings from three separate studies,
offering readers a preview into Japanese tertiary education from three
separate viewpoints. The final chapter summarizes the main findings of the
three studies and deliberates on the pedagogical consequences resulting from
these studies.

Chapter 1 provides introductory comments and the rationale for the study. It
has been noted that many Japanese people are unable to speak simple English
despite undergoing a minimum of six years learning the language in school and
an additional four years at the tertiary level. University graduates’
inability to communicate in English has also drawn flack from the corporate
community, who inevitably see the need to play an active role in improving the
communication skills of their newly hired recruits. In 2002/2003, the Ministry
of Education, Health, Science and Welfare (MEXT) in Japan revised its course
of studies and directed an emphasis on spoken communication and the study of
culture (Neustupny & Tanaka, 2004).  For English language education, MEXT’s
Action Plan included: introducing it in elementary schools; improving
secondary school teachers’ pedagogy and communicative skills; increasing
students’ motivation and language abilities; and creating alternative types of
university entrance examinations (MEXT, 2003). Whilst these reforms seemed
adequate, little attention was paid to English education at the tertiary
level, besides addressing the topic of alternative university entrance
examinations. Also, notably absent was mention of university English classes
or the teachers teaching English at universities; however, there was a need to
improve university teachers’ communicative and/or pedagogical skills and/or
raise the quality of teacher education programs. This proved surprising,
especially after ministries and business organizations called for measures to
improve the communication of undergraduates’ English language (Apsinall,
2006). The purpose of this book is to draw attention to an under-researched,
yet highly influential group of teachers who wield tremendous influence on
English language education in Japan; the Japanese teachers of English in
Japanese universities. The author says that the failure to bring tertiary
English education into the official discourse of reforming English education
in Japan may impede MEXT’s Action Plan aiming to create a nation of English
speakers.

Chapter 2 places the study within the sociocultural context of Japan and
focuses on a variety of issues that have shaped English language learning and
language teaching in Japan. The start of the chapter provides a brief
historical overview of English education and explanations for the lack of
widespread English proficiency. The author then moves on to provide some
background information on the complex relationship between educational
backgrounds and positions in industry, which, she points out, tend to be
gender biased. Whilst the number of Japanese female students in higher
education has reached parity with male students, women’s professional
opportunities are still limited as a result of a stratified educational system
and gendered sociopolitical attitudes. In addition, women do not seem privy to
an educational system that results in a profession, but rather, they choose
universities depending on factors related to societal expectations. In
addition, English is considered a ‘feminine subject,’ making it one of the
most popular area of studies for women. The remainder of Chapter 2 provides
interesting and important information on the Japanese world of academia, for
example, the characterization of a ‘good’ Japanese professor, which Poole
(2010) identifies as two competing discourses that reflect contrasting
ideologies in the workplace – ‘uchimuki’ (i.e. facing inward) and ‘sotomuki’
(i.e. facing outward). Poole’s study provides useful insight on the way(s)
teachers see themselves within the university and how others see them as
professionals. Finally, the author provides informative data about the
underrepresentation of female professors in all areas as well as their lagging
behind male professors when it comes to promotions.

Chapter 3, ''Knowledge, Beliefs and Identity,'' reviews relevant literature
that deals with the teacher’s knowledge, beliefs and identity, and introduces
several key studies on professional identity development in non-native English
speaking teachers in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) contexts and in the
Japanese context. The studies in this chapter highlight the struggles of
non-native speaker teachers in the areas of pedagogy and methodology; these
could  be attributed to culture differences, for example, the communicative
language teaching method advocated by Western linguists may not be suitable
for the less vocal, more self-conscious EFL learner (and non-native English
speaking teacher). Chapter 3 concludes with a discussion of identity
development in teachers in post-secondary and higher education.

In Chapter 4, the author introduces her research methods and participants, and
outlines her data-collection process for the studies in Chapters 5-7, as well
as her analytical approaches to the data.  Since the purpose of the study is
to investigate teachers’ professional lives, the author provides an impressive
list of studies that make a case for narrative research as an appropriate
methodological approach. She explains that this approach makes extensive use
of the actual words that people use to tell their stories when describing
their life experiences. In addition, narrative research has been found to be
an ideal tool for analyzing the beliefs, knowledge, practice and identity of
teachers in general education. Chapter 4 concludes with the author
acknowledging that her own unique position within the study, both as an
insider and outsider, is likely not only to have colored how she retells the
participants’ interview data, but also how she approaches the research. Having
lived and worked in Japan for more than 30 years, she considers herself  an
insider within the research context, whilst at the same time, an outsider who
is a native speaker of English and who has had an educational background that
differs from the participants. As Bell (2002: 210) argues, when interpreting
data, personal, subjective interpretations will impose meaning on the
participants’ life experiences.

The following three chapters comprise the analysis section of the book. The
first segment, Chapter 5, ''Developing Professional Identity,'' provides
details on how four teachers who are relatively new to their professions
developed their professional identities as researchers and members of Japanese
universities. The aim of the study in this chapter is to determine the
principal work-related activities these teachers engage in and how they
construct their identity as they familiarize themselves with their work. In
order to analyze the teachers’ narratives,  the author refers to Wenger’s
(1998) Theory of Identity. The author states that this was an important group
of teachers to research, as they had just begun to embark on a teaching career
at a time when universities in Japan were undergoing changes. Poole (2003,
2010) describes some of these changes as ‘remarkable,’ as they challenged the
autonomous role to which universities and professors had previously been
privy, for example, an attitude of indifference towards teaching and a
preference for conducting research. Today, Japanese university teachers are
often required to participate in activities that result in less time for
research.

Chapter 6, ''It’s a Man’s World,'' investigates the impact gender has on the
professional identity of seven female teachers, ranging in age from their
early 30s to early 60s, using Gee’s (2000) conceptualization of identity,
which he defines as ‘being a certain type of person in a given context’ (p.
99). Gee offers four perspectives to view how people see themselves: identity
formed by nature; identity that is bestowed from institutions; identity that
develops through interactions with others; and identity that occurs when one
is affiliated with a group or system.

Finally, Chapter 7,''‘Teaching Is What I ‘Do’, Not Who I Am’,'' presents an
in-depth study of one of the female participants, Miwa. The aim of this study
is to unearth how pedagogical practices in the classroom reflect both personal
and professional identity. The participant is found to have conflicting
identities and feelings, as she sees herself as a literature scholar, having
spent more than a decade training in this field, yet her professional
responsibilities require her to teach the English language, which she does not
particularly deem to be an important aspect of her work.

Chapter 8 completes the book by re-examining the findings of each of the
studies presented in Chapters 5-7. The author also includes considerations for
future research directions and provides some tangible pedagogical suggestions
for English language education within the Japanese tertiary context.

EVALUATION

‘Exploring Japanese University English Teachers’ Professional Identity’ is the
product of a study that has its origins in formal academia, yet it is written
and presented in a reader-friendly format that makes it accessible, not only
to the research community and English language teachers, but also to just
about anyone interested in teaching and learning about higher education in
Japan.

On page 1, the author clearly identifies the purpose of the book, i.e., to
draw attention to a group of Japanese teachers that seem to have been passed
over whilst the whole of Japan’s education system underwent reforms. This
oversight comes as a surprise, considering that while the inability to speak
English has proven to be an area of concern, especially from potential
employers who question these graduates’ language abilities, little is known
about the teachers who play an imminent role in the wide-reaching influence of
English language education in Japan. This absence of understanding is
addressed by the author, who provides a ‘thick’ ethnographic account of how
these teachers develop a professional identity as they become part of the
community of practice of English language teachers at the tertiary level in
Japan. The presentation of the teachers’ identities makes for complex and
complicating outcomes, as the author has to take into consideration both
professional and personal domains. Without coming across as discriminating or
biased towards any particular country’s system, the findings are
constructively and systematically analyzed and cover a range of important
issues that shape English education in Japan; for example, the issue of gender
marginalization and the construct of a good university professor, which are
influenced by cultural, professional and societal expectations.

As a whole, the chapters are organized methodically to provide readers with
background information, spanning from historical to present day events that
have shaped Japanese education, particularly, English language education at
the tertiary level. Another interesting section of the book is the detailed
information on Japanese professors and how socio-political contexts are
intertwined with professional contexts and expectations, which gives readers
an understanding of the ‘inner’ workings of tertiary education, all of which
are relatable to the second part of the book. This second part, focusing on
Japanese teachers’ cognition and identity, is where the author individually
examines teachers using the narrative methodological approach. Teachers, like
all other human beings, are storytellers who individually and socially lead
storied lives (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990) and their stories provide a
narrative thread that teachers draw upon to make sense of their experience and
themselves (Connelly and Clandinin, 1999).  Beijaard, Meijer & Verloop (2004)
point out, ‘through storytelling, teachers engage in narrative ‘theorizing’
and, based on that, teachers may further discover and shape their professional
identity resulting in new or different stories’ (p. 121). In this study, the
author adopts the narrative research perspective, which is considered
especially appropriate for studying careers  (Cohen, 2006), as it postulates
two fundamental questions: firstly, what does the narrative or story reveal
about the person and world from which it came; and secondly, how can this
narrative be interpreted so that it provides an understanding and illuminates
the life and culture that created it? (Patton, 2002:115). In order to
understand how the participants make sense of events and actions that
intersect between their personal and working lives which, in turn, enables the
construction of ‘a sense of their professional identity’ (Nagatomo, 2012),
the author relies on two main forms of data collection: verbatim accounts; and
class observations of the teacher who participants considered as important
sources for discovering life stories (Atkinson, 1998, 2001). As such, the
author’s adoption of the narrative research perspective is justified, as it
provides an effective way to undertake the ‘systematic study of personal
experiences and meaning: how active subjects have constructed events’
(Reissman, 1993: 78).

This book is of obvious interest to different groups of readers; firstly,
policy makers must be aware of the relevance of understanding teachers’ Funds
of Knowledge, which, according to Gonzalez and Moll (2002: 625), acknowledges
that people are competent and have knowledge, and that their life experiences
have given them that knowledge. As such, it is necessary to have a good
understanding of a person’s (in this case, the teachers’) knowledge, life
experiences and strengths before making calls for reforms and addressing
deficiencies. Scholars of language study, particularly, teacher trainers, will
find this book invaluable, as the reflections of the participants show that a
one-size-fits-all type of pedagogical training may not be effective, and that
consideration of the trainee’s sociocultural, political and personal contexts
needs to be considered in order to yield best practices. Researchers intending
to study teachers’ identity and beliefs will find the research methodology
useful and easily replicated. Finally, this book will prove extremely useful
to anyone intending to consider a teaching position in Japan. From the
‘backpacker’ (Thornbury, 2002) teacher to university teachers and researchers,
this book is a must-read, as it gives a better understanding of the inner
workings of the Japanese education system, in particular, the workplace
culture. As a language teacher, I used to wonder why young Japanese
undergraduates seemed to display an air of indifference in English classes
when Japanese society in general is known to be polite and respectful. After
reading this book, I now understand these juxtaposed attitudes. I truly
enjoyed reading ‘Exploring Japanese University Teachers’ Professional
Identity’ from the perspective of a language scholar, teacher educator and
English teacher.

REFERENCES

Aspinall, R.W. (2006)  Using the paradigm of small cultures to explain policy
failure in the case of foreign language education in Japan. Japan Forum 18(2),
255- 274.

Atkinson, R. (1998) The life story interview. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.

Atkinson, R. (2001) The life story interview, In J.F. Gubrium and J.A.
Holstein (eds). Handbook of Interview Research: Context and Method (pp.
121-140). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on
teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2),
107–128.

Bell, J.S. (2002) Narrative inquiry: more than just telling stories. TESOL
Quarterly 36(2), 207-213.

Connelly, M. F., & Clandinin, J. D. (1990). Stories of experience and
narrative inquiry. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2-14.

Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1999). Shaping a professional identity:
Stories of education practice. London, Ontario, Canada: Althouse Press.

Cohen, L. (2006) Remembrance of things past: Cultural process and practice in
analysis of career stories. Journal of Vocational Behavior 69(2): 189–201.

Gee, J.P.  (2000)  Identity as analytic lens for research in education. In
W.G. Secada (ed.)  Review of Research in Education (Vol. 25). Washington, DC:
American Educational Research Association.

Gonzalez, N. and L. Moll (2002) Cruzando el Puente: Building Bridges to funds
of knowledge. Educational Policy 16(4): 623-641.

MEXT  (2003). Regarding the establishment of an action plan to cultivate
''Japanese with English abilities.''
http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/html/hpac200201/hpac200201_2_015.html.
Accessed 1 October 2012.

Nagatomo, D.H. (2012). Exploring Japanese University English Teachers’
Professional Identity. Multilingual Matters:UK.

Neustupny, J.V. and Tanaka, S. (2004) Language use in Japan and English
language teaching. In V. Makarova and T. Rodgers (eds) English Language
Teaching: The Case of Japan (pp. 11-28).        München: Lincolm. Europa.

Patton, M.Q. (2002).  Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, 3rd edn.
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Poole, G.S.(2003)  Higher education reform in Japan: Amano Ikuo on the
‘univeristy I crisis’. International Education Journal 4(3), 149-176.

Poole, G.S. (2010) The Japanese Professor: An Ethnography of a University
Faculty. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Riessmann, C. (1993). Narrative  Analysis. London:Sage.

Seidman, I. (2006).  Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for
researchers in Education and the Social Sciences (3rd edn). New York: Teachers
College Press.

Thornbury, S. (2002). Unbearable lightness. ELT Journal 55 (4), 397-402.

Wenger, J. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity.
Cambridge: CUP.


About the Reviewer:
Jennifer Tan has taught English and Applied Linguistics courses at the
tertiary level in Malaysia, Singapore and neighboring South East Asian
countries. She has also worked at SEAMEO-RELC, training and supervising
teachers around the ASEAN region. Presently, she is senior lecturer at the
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
Some of her research interests and on-going projects are relate to reflective
practices in teaching and learning and the concepts of self-efficacy,
identity, beliefs and collaboration. Future research projects, which consider
the Funds of Knowledge Framework, include best practices in teaching and
learning, and classroom discourse.








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