Our member Naoko Inoue passes her PhD examination
Congratulations to our postgraduate member Naoko Inoue who has passed the examination for her PhD titled ‘The experiences of native English speaking academics who work and live in Japan’.
Naoko situated her study in relation to internationalisation policy in Japanese higher education. Data were collected through interviews with native English speaking academics, and discourse analysis of official (government and institutional) internationalisation documents.
The study revealed how internationalisation discourses in Japan value native English speakers’ English language skills, ‘nativeness’ and, in some cases, whiteness. These discourses were both reflected and contested in native English speaking academics’ accounts of living and working in Japan. Participants recognised that they benefited from a ‘native English speaker’ identity, but they also sought to identify themselves otherwise – as ‘competent academics’ rather than ‘native English speakers’.
Dr Vivienne Anderson, Naoko’s supervisor, said, ‘I am excited that Naoko has finished the thesis, and look forward to seeing her graduate in May. Naoko’s work is important in that it complicates existing literature on the dominance of the English language in internationalisation policy and practice.’
Naoko is very happy to have completed her PhD and noted, ‘I am grateful to my supervisors, HEDC, the Univeristy of Otago and the Centre for Global Migrations for their support.’
