The Representational Parameters of the Native Speaker in Japanese Higher Education

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26770193
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Future University-Hakodate
• Principal Investigator: Rivers Damian 公立はこだて未来大学, システム情報科学部, 准教授 (00515455)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: Native Speaker / Native-Speakerism / Representation / Higher Education / Employment

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Overall, Japanese higher education shows "an enduring reluctance to tackle issues of 'native-speaker' based employment, conflations with nationality, and the racialized assumptions underpinning both" (Rivers & Ross, 2013: 328). Non-Japanese nationality teachers labelled as "native speaker" are positioned to perform to a fixed burden of representation related to occidental stereotypes further fueled by various native-speaker fallacies. This burden provides the structure to regulate workplace interactions, experiences and expectations in a way which promotes differential treatment and inequity. The consequences of such practices being normative have been shown to include unstable employment, marginalization and exclusion within the workplace, anxiety and poor mental health, unresolved frustration and cynicism, poor or non-existent relationships with colleagues, and difficulties in establishing a professional identity on the basis of earned rather than unearned criteria.

Free Research Field

Education