Fostering Antiracist Engagement in Japanese Language Teaching

Authors

  • Ryuko Kubota University of British Columbia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jll.2020.133

Abstract

Japanese language teaching and learning is influenced by various types of human diversity. Diversity of gender, language, and culture are often addressed in learning materials, instructional practices, and professional discussions in the field. Yet, issues of race are often glossed over in everyday pedagogical practices and professional discourses on equity, diversity, and inclusion. To fill this gap, this article will focus on issues of race and introduce key concepts—race and ethnicity, racism, intersectionality, and new racism—by drawing on some examples from the survey results presented by Mori et al. (this volume). The article proposes antiracist engagement in Japanese language teaching that encourages the recognition of different forms of racism operating in various contexts and the exercise of hyper self-reflexivity to always question own positionalities and responsibilities in a complex web of power relations. 

Author Biography

Ryuko Kubota, University of British Columbia

Ryuko Kubota is a Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education in Faculty of Education at University of British Columbia, where she teaches applied linguistics and teacher education. Her research draws on critical approaches to second language education, focusing on race, gender, culture, and language ideologies. 

References

References Cited

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 2018. Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America (5th edition). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Bourdieu, Pierre and Loïc J. D. Wacquant. 1992. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Flores, Nelson and Jonathan Rosa. 2015. Undoing Appropriateness: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and Language Diversity in Education. Harvard Educational Review 85: 149–171.

Hancock, Ange-Marie. 2016. Intersectionality: An Intellectual History. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Jenks, Christopher. 2017. Race and Ethnicity in English Language Teaching: Korea in Focus. Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.

Kosaka, Eiko. 2008. Ideological Images: U.S. Nationalism in Japanese Settler Photographs. Asian Settler Colonialism: From Local Governance to the Habits of Everyday Life in Hawaii, ed. by Candace Fujikane and Jonathan Y. Okamura, 209–232. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press.

Kubota, Ryuko. 2002. The Author Responds: (Un)Raveling Racism in a Nice Field like TESOL. TESOL Quarterly 36: 84–92.

––––––––. 2003. Critical Teaching of Japanese Culture. Japanese Language and Literature 37: 67–87.

––––––––. 2009. Rethinking the Superiority of the Native Speaker: Toward a Relational Understanding of Power. The native Speaker Concept: Ethnographic Investigations of Native Speaker, ed. by Neriko Musha Doerr, 233–247. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.

––––––––. 2011. Learning a Foreign Language as Leisure and Consumption: Enjoyment, Desire, and the Business of Eikaiwa. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 14: 473–488.

––––––––. 2014. Standardization of Language and Culture. Rethinking Language and Culture in Japanese Education: Beyond the Standard, ed. by Shinji Sato and Neriko Musha Doerr, 19–34. Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.

––––––––. 2015. Race and Language Learning in Multicultural Canada: Toward Critical Antiracism. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 36: 3–12.

––––––––. 2019. Confronting Epistemological Racism, Decolonizing Scholarly Knowledge; Race and Gender in Applied Linguistics. Applied Linguistics: 1–12. doi: 10.1093/applin/amz033

Kubota, Ryuko and Angel Lin. 2009. Race, Culture, and Identities in Second Language Education: Introduction to Research and Practice. Race, Culture, and Identities in Second Language Education: Exploring Critically Engaged Practice, ed. by R. Kubota and A. Lin, 1–23. New York: Routledge.

Kubota, Ryuko and Elizabeth R. Miller. 2017. Re-Examining and Re-Envisioning Criticality in Language Studies: Theories and Praxis. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 14: 129–157.

Lummis, Douglas. 1976. Ideorogī to shite no eikaiwa [English conversation as ideology]. Tokyo, Japan: Shōbun sha.

Mori, Junko, Atsushi Hasegawa, Jisuk Park, and Kimiko Suzuki (this volume). On Goals of Language Education and Teacher Diversity Beliefs and Experiences of Japanese-Language Educators in North America.

Motha, Suhanthie. 2015. Race, Empire, and English Language Teaching: Creating Responsible and Ethical Anti-Racist Practice. New York: Teachers College Press.

Mouer, Ross and Yoshio Sugimoto. 2009. Images of Japanese Society: A Study on the Structure of Social Reality. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Oguma, Eiji. 1995. Tanitsu minzoklu shinwa no kigen; “Nihonjin” no jigazō no keifu [The Myth of the Homogeneous Nation: A Genealogy of the “Japanese” self-portrait]. Tokyo: Shinyōsha.

Rivers, Damian and Andrew S. Ross. 2013. Idealized English Teachers: The Implicit Influence of Race in Japan. Journal of Language, Identity & Education 12: 321–339.

Tsuda, Takeyuki (Gaku). 2012. Disconnected from the “Diaspora”: Japanese Americans and the Lack of Transnational Ethnic Networks. Journal of Anthropological Research 68 (1): 95–116.

Sasaki, Teru. 2013. Kindai nihon no jinshu sabetsu to shokuminchi seisaku [Racial Discrimination and Colonial Policies of Modern Japan]. Reishizumu to gaikokujin ken’o [Racism and Xenophobia], ed. by H. Komai and M. Kobayashi, 103–117.

Tokyo: Akashi shoten.

Sue, Derald Wing. 2010. Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

van Dijk, Taun A. 1992. Discourse and the Denial of Racism. Discourse & Society 3 (1): 87–118.

Yamada, Mieko. 2015. The role of English Teaching in Modern Japan: Diversity and Multiculturalism through English Language Education in Globalized Era. New York, NY & London, England: Routledge.

Downloads

Published

2020-09-25

Issue

Vol. 54 No. 2 (2020): Japanese Language and Literature

Section

SPECIAL SECTION LANGUAGE AND PEDAGOGY

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licenseor its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a pre-publication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
  9. The Author agrees to digitally sign the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work.