White Western male teachers constructing academic identities in Japanese higher education

Abstract

In research on gender and teaching in higher education, the experiences of male teachers as men, and of whiteness in a non-majority-white context have received little attention. As one step towards addressing this gap in the literature, this paper analyses interview accounts of white Western men working as English language teachers in Japanese higher education. The paper demonstrates, first, ways in which disembodied academic identities are constructed by erasing the men's racialised gender and sexuality. Second, it shows how favourable images of white Western male teachers are produced through a series of negative contrasts based on gender and race. Third, it suggests that men's homosocial networks may serve to facilitate male predominance in the Japanese university system. The analysis contributes to current understandings about the construction of white Western masculinities in academic institutions, in international education, and in English language teaching as a globalised industry.

Non-Japanese Asian Female English Teachers Speak Out: Dismantling White Privilege in Japan

“…Unlike Appleby (2014), who examined these issues from the perspective of white male English teachers, we flipped the coin upside down and looked into these issues through reflective eyes. Both teachers indicated repeatedly in their interviews that there are clear gender and racial imbalances in the Japanese university.…”

“…This is what Appleby (2014) described as the all men's club of English teaching academia. In order to become a part of it, female teachers would need to have extraordinary appeal (Appleby, 2014).…”

“…According to Kobayashi (2014), it may be an advantage for male native speakers of English to hire other males like themselves for English teaching positions, which is one of the causes for the gender imbalance in the workplace. Appleby (2014) further implied that this imbalance has to do with the full-time male native-speaker teachers outnumbering the female teachers because many male teachers eventually become tied to Japan for financial and personal reasons, and find it more comfortable than if they were to return to their home country and start over.…”

“…Gender gaps also happen in Japanese academia (Appleby, 2014;Hicks, 2013). According to the "Women and Men in Japan 2015" Facts and Figures, March 31, 2014, the percentage of Japanese male teachers is much higher than Japanese females in higher academic positions in particular universities.…”

EAP Students Co‐constructing Alternative Narratives: Classroom Discursive Representations of Islam and Democracy

“…In recent years, there have been numerous critically based perspectives addressing issues of race (Chang, ; Chun, ; Motha, ), gender and sexuality (Appleby, , ), emotion (Benesch, ), class (Block, , ), teacher identity (Morgan, ), neoliberalism (Chun, ; Flores, ), militarism (Nelson & Appleby, ), and economic inequalities in the English language classroom (Vandrick, ). In addition, religion, which may be a taboo topic for some in the classroom (e.g., Kaye, ; Tekin, ; Thornbury, ), has also gained the attention of researchers who have examined English language teachers and their relationship with Christianity, and the roles it has played in their classrooms (e.g., Johnston, ; Varghese & Johnston, ; Wong & Canagarajah, ; Wong, Kristjánsson, & Dörnyei, ).…”