Showing papers in "Asia Pacific Education Review in 2022"

An interpretive analysis of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in Hong Kong public universities

Abstract: This study in the research domain of higher education sustainability addresses issues of policy and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in and through Hong Kong public universities. The purpose of the study was to critically analyze the problématique of achieving the SDGs by the Hong Kong higher education sector. The study used a post-empiricist qualitative design with Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis and an embedded case study methodology in order to explore the issues of the SDGs policy and implementation in eight public Hong Kong universities. The concept of sustainability ensoulment and the Higher Education Institution Sustainability Model served as a theoretical grounding for the interpretative analysis. The interpretive results showed a broad range of university responses and governmental support for SDGs despite small number of universities, and a score of authentic SDGs-related efforts, which were fully embedded into the educational mission of the universities. The essence from the interpretive analysis of the data suggests that the universities’ authentic attainment of the SDGs requires a ‘salutary detachment’ from putting excessive priorities on superficial sustainability standards and considering universities’ global ranking league tables as their principal goal. The study provides a structured discussion within five thematic areas: (1) regional-dominant sustainability challenges; (2) financing structure and independence; (3) institutional organization; (4) extent of democratic processes; and (5) communication and interaction with society. The research argues that a genuine SDGs attainment originates from what universities know best and regard as their threefold mission—research, teaching and knowledge transfer—to effectively generate global citizens with full ensoulment of the SDGs spirit and values, and thus, turning universities into authentically sustainable institutions.

The interaction of history and STEM learning goals in teacher-developed curriculum materials: opportunities and challenges for STEAM education

Abstract: Abstract Although the integration of subjects in the curriculum has been advocated in recent years, there exist limited opportunities for teachers of different subjects to implement integrated curricula in schools collaboratively. In this paper, we consider history as a humanities subject that could be integrated with STEM and explore the diverse history-related learning goals found in teacher-developed STEAM curriculum materials. Using integrated STEAM curricula developed by 13 cross-subject teacher teams in Korea, we analyze the presentation of history-related learning goals in the curricula and report several patterns identified across the curricula. First, the majority of the curricula aimed for the learners to identify themselves in their regional and national histories, but other levels of identification were also aimed for. Second, all the curricula included goals related to historical analysis skills, which were sometimes integrated with scientific inquiry skills. Third, we found several goals related to eliciting students’ moral response to history, particularly when the curriculum topic concerned issues at the national level. Fourth, the integration of subjects allowed for exhibiting learners’ historical understanding through various activities and in explanatory, persuasive, and imaginative manners. Overall, the analysis pointed to several ways in which the goals of history learning can interact with those of STEM learning, which can be useful for future research and practice in integrated curriculum. We discuss some potential challenges of integrating history with STEM, such as issues that can arise from the use of the “nation” as a context for STEAM learning.

A bibliometric mapping of shadow education research: achievements, limitations, and the future

Abstract: This study aims to map the literature on shadow education using metadata extracted from 488 publications indexed in the Web of Science database. It is termed as shadow education because much of its content mimics what is learned in schools. The study uses bibliometric procedures to describe and visually represent available literature on shadow education in terms of main sources, key authors, institutions, and countries leading the production and dissemination of research on shadow education. Further, the study elaborates on h-classics publications to obtain an in-depth understanding of the most influential scientific outputs in this domain. Key findings of the study are that research on shadow education (a) has experienced steady growth over the last decade; (b) is disseminated through a wide range of outlets, mainly in the disciplines of sociology of education, economics of education, educational psychology, and language education; (c) is published mainly by scholars working in East Asia and the United States; (d) has focused on tangible (quantifiable) benefits related to improved examination results; and (e) reveals how this form of instruction primarily benefits students hailing from high socioeconomic backgrounds, thereby contributing to greater educational inequality. This study also suggests pedagogical implications and areas for ongoing research.

Job satisfaction, academic motivation, and organizational citizenship behavior among lecturers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-national comparative study in Japan and Malaysia

Abstract: Job satisfaction and its antecedents and outcomes are important areas of focus in the social sciences research, and higher education is no exception. The importance of this issue has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, using a cross-national study conducted in Malaysia and Japan, we collected data on lecturers’ job satisfaction and two of its outcomes, namely, academic motivation and individual-level organizational citizenship behavior (OCBI) to test our evidence-based theoretical model, which explains the relationships between these variables. We also added age, gender, and tenure as covariates to our model. Our partial least squares structural equation modeling estimation results at the aggregate and country levels showed that the effect of job satisfaction on OCBI was mainly transmitted through academic motivation. We also observed that Malaysian and Japanese lecturers did not show a statistical difference in terms of the relationships described between the variables in our model. Additionally, the relationship between academic motivation and OCBI was nonlinear based on the data from the Malaysian sample, and we explained this phenomenon from both theoretical and practical/policy perspectives. Moreover, our results showed that age plays an important role in the model when it is estimated using data from the Malaysian higher education system. We discussed our findings in detail in terms of theoretical and practical implications.

Effects of changing from on-site to online distance classes on graduate students’ help-seeking: lessons for sustainable teaching and learning from the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract: Over the past decade, the Japanese government and Japanese universities have increased student mobility, both inbound and outbound, to accelerate the internationalization of higher education. However, student mobility was halted in early 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and international students who had planned to engage in a traditional study abroad program could not enter Japan. The current study examined whether the unexpected implementation of online distance classes because of the pandemic affected the learning strategies of graduate students, including international students. In addition, we investigated whether the online courses functioned as an alternative to face-to-face classes. An analysis using structural equation modeling revealed that the period of enrollment, self-regulation, and country of residence were factors that influenced help-seeking behavior. Graduate students who had enrolled before the pandemic and already experienced face-to-face classes were more likely to actively seek help from instructors and classmates in online classes. Furthermore, graduate students who were unable to enter the country but were taking classes online also tended to actively engage in help-seeking from their instructors and classmates. Students’ experiences of the sudden change to distance learning suggest that, to ensure a sustainable teaching and learning environment in various contexts, instructors should use class designs that consider distance learning, particularly designs that enhance students’ help-seeking, even under normal circumstances. In addition, ensuring sufficient online/virtual spaces for communication among teachers and students is important.

Learning regenerative cultures: Indigenous nations in higher education renewal in Australia

Abstract: Abstract What is regenerative learning in Australian higher education? This paper addresses the intersecting crises of climate, species loss and injustice; often called a conceptual emergency. We tackle the problem of disciplinary compartmentalisation, preventing integration of important related concepts. The particular case is separation of the Australian Curriculum Cross-curriculum Priorities at school and university for teaching, learning and research purposes. We are concerned with two of the three: sustainability, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. The project generates significant conceptual linkages, which strengthen sustainability with Indigenous histories and cultures. The linked concepts have the potential to re-centre Indigenous knowledge systems and knowledge holders in Australian higher education for sustainability. The interconnectedness facilitates learning of, for and through regenerative cultures, which are healing and wellbeing-oriented. Centring Indigenous histories, concepts and wisdom in sustainability education will reveal deeper meanings such as communicative ways of understanding worlds. These have multiple applications in teaching and learning, and improved outcomes in practice. Each case study presented in this paper utilises a decolonising, regenerative research method for answering research questions. The methods challenge Western, colonising power relationships that continue to act upon Indigenous lived experience; enable communicative relations with more than human worlds and are transformative. Together, they value experience, the collective, being creative, narrative, justice, ways of knowing and responding to sentient, animate places. In this paper, decolonising ways of working towards regenerative futures foreground Indigenous ways of knowing, being, valuing and doing, revealing Indigenous knowledge making for contemporary contexts.

Integrating sustainability themes for enhancing interdisciplinarity: a case study of a comprehensive research university in Japan

Abstract: Interdisciplinary education and education for sustainable development provide a complementary approach to enhancing learners’ interdisciplinary and sustainability competencies. An interdisciplinary approach is considered a crucial method for enhancing university students’ competencies in sustainability. However, the use of integrating sustainability issues for the purpose of enhancing interdisciplinary education in universities is still under investigation. In contrast to the analyses of sustainability studies programs, this case study explores how sustainability issues could enhance interdisciplinarity in teaching and learning in non-environmentally related courses that do not have special learning objectives related to sustainability. By borrowing Biggs’ comprehensive model of teaching and learning in higher education, this case study analyzes an undergraduate general education course and a postgraduate course at a comprehensive research university in Japan from four perspectives: students’ perspectives learning environment, learning process, and learning outcomes. This qualitative case study data were collected through mixed research methods, including questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with instructors and learners. Findings demonstrate that interdisciplinary teaching and learning can be enhanced by integrating sustainability issues into non-environmentally related courses. By integrating sustainability issues into the curriculum, students and instructors from various disciplines can collaborate with the intention of enhancing students’ abilities to integrate knowledge and communicate with people from different backgrounds and experiences. The paper concludes by discussing the achievements of and barriers to incorporating sustainability themes into interdisciplinary teaching and learning in non-environmentally related courses at universities. Moreover, it provides implications of utilizing a complementary relationship between sustainability and interdisciplinarity to innovate and rethink teaching and learning in higher education to prepare students to build a sustainable future.

Key issues impeding the integration of international faculty at Japanese universities

Abstract: The study is devoted to identifying the key issues impeding the integration of international faculty at Japanese universities via a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews with 40 international faculty hired in Japanese universities with various backgrounds were conducted. The interview data were analyzed based on a three-stage coding procedure, namely open, axial, and selective coding, which identifies the main themes through increasing the level of data abstraction. The study identified the key issues from work, cultural, and interpersonal dimensions in the context internal to Japanese universities, and environmental dimension in the context external to Japanese universities. Meanwhile, the study also acknowledged the perceptual differentiation of these issues depending on international faculty’s backgrounds. Based on the principles of Embedded Intergroups Relations Theory, it appears that the key issues differ according to international faculty’s identity (country of origins), cultural backgrounds (previous experiences in Japan), and their organizational characteristics (academic ranks and disciplines). In other words, junior faculty in the Humanities who were not from countries in which Chinese characters are historically used or without previous experiences in Japan tend to perceive themselves as tokens at Japanese universities. Theoretical and practical implications including policies, future studies, and support systems are offered for policymakers, researchers, and university administrators.

Unraveling the EFL expat: challenging privilege through borderlands and Asia as Method

Abstract: Each year, multitudes respond to the demand for native English speakers to teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Asian countries, particularly China, Japan, and South Korea. These EFL transnationals are often young, new to living abroad, and inexperienced as educators. When they arrive, they often find a community, and an identity waiting for them: that of the expatriate. In this paper, I draw on research on EFL expatriates to produce a figuration, a way of engaging with and highlighting contradiction and disjuncture in the narrative identity of EFL expat taken up by some transnational EFL teachers. This figuration serves as a nexus to which I bring two bodies of theory with which to think. These are the Borderlands Thought of Gloria Anzaldúa and Chen Kwan-Hsing’s articulation of Asia as Method. Separately, I bring these into conversation with the figuration of the EFL expat, then consider what emerges when all three are brought together. In doing so, I highlight how the figuration of the EFL expat is outlined by privileged and constrictive colonial, racial, professional, and linguistic dichotomies. The theories of Anzaldúa and Chen help to unravel these binaries, suggesting ways in which transnational English teachers can move on from such constraints to become something more than in-but-not-of their local world. I also consider what it means for Western scholars to work respectfully in theoretical spaces that were not developed by and for them, proposing that such researchers can think of themselves as theoretical expatriates.

Student-centered, “embodied inter-referencing” as antiracist and anticolonial pedagogy

Abstract: Abstract This article reflects on an experimental pedagogical approach I developed in a Japanese literature course that examines sex, gender, and sexuality in response to institutional and epistemic racism that exist in university in Canada and in the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic when the number of anti-Asian hate crimes rose at an enormous rate in the city where my university is situated. Building on the intellectual movements of “Asia as method” and “diaspora as method” my project attempts to move beyond the convention of studying Asian culture by referencing western theory, knowledge, and experience. More specifically, I developed an assignment called Peer- Engaged Embodied Reflection Journal where students discuss what they learned from Japanese literature by referencing their own, local experiences and engage in peer interactions in small groups. In this article, I discuss the effectiveness of my pedagogical approach based on the classroom study conducted in the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021, semi-structured interviews with teaching assistants (TAs), and my own teaching experience. Based on my qualitative analysis of student engagement with the assignment as well as TAs’ and my grading experiences, I conclude that recentring student experience and peer engagement produces meaningful sites for decolonial and antiracist pedagogy while teaching Japanese modern literature in a Canadian institutional context.

How intercultural experience affects university students’ gender views: potential for transforming higher education in Japan

Abstract: Abstract Reducing gender disparities in Japan is an urgent issue that requires the attention of multilevel stakeholders, including higher education institutions. Under Sustainable Development Goal 4, target 4.7 calls for educational institutions, including universities, to explore innovative approaches to tackle issues such as gender inequality. The transition from student life to adulthood is a crucial time for university students as they face and become aware of gender inequalities in society. This study examines various opportunities in higher education, such as short study-abroad programs and globalization-related coursework, that positively influence university students’ understanding of others and potentially broaden their gender perspectives. Historically, the impacts of studying abroad and intercultural experiences have only been subjectively assessed based on participants’ self-evaluation. However, by using the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory, quantified data can be used to evaluate the nature and form of depth-based growth and compare three cases for potential changes before, after, or during educational programs. The study’s findings shed light on opportunities and barriers to transforming students’ views especially on gender issues. The study reveals (1) signs of improvement in students’ gender perspectives after participating in a short study-abroad program, (2) that international students with diverse experiences tend to demonstrate lower gender traditionalism, and (3) that freshmen and sophomores have relatively moderate views on gender norms, indicating that further intervention could improve their gender perspectives. The results showcase the possibility of developing meaningful study-abroad programs and other coursework to drive the positive change in students’ perspectives, especially regarding gender.