At the borderlands of higher education thought and practice: Professional and personal implications for faculty work abroad

• In Event: Prospects of research: building research universities

Proposal

Abstract
Internationalization in higher education can transform institutions by introducing individuals from new cultures that challenge and enrich administrative and academic life. This duoethnographic study highlights experiences of teaching, learning, and service work in the borderlands that exist between the global and local influences on higher education institutions in Japan and Korea. This project is rooted in the academic experiences of two scholars that emphasize the power of reflection as a tool for developing the work of emerging scholars working abroad at the undergraduate and graduate level in international settings with both local and foreign/international exchange students. More specifically, this research is designed to support international faculty with experiences and strategies that will help them acclimate and excel in their new foreign context. We advocate for a more localized, contextually relevant, and individualized approach to preparation for work abroad, and research that balances professors’ cultural identities, life stories, and experiences as sources of knowledge and development with the culture and practices of their host institutions.

Introduction
International education has reflected divisions between what have been characterized as developed and developing nations, and by notions about where knowledge is generated and exchanged (Cortina, 2019; Cortina & Earl, 2019). However, there is rarely authentic exchange between the domineering Anglocentric “experts” to the North and West, and the rest of the world. More recently, there has been a push towards seeking and celebrating ideas from the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres. Further, the demand for academic work has continued to grow and more scholars today are attempting to advance their scholarly agendas abroad (Xu, 2021). While some of these academics are drawing critical attention to some important and overlooked distinctions regarding education in this region (Hallinger & Walker, 2017), there has been little analysis of their experiences as foreign scholars operating in new academic contexts (Margison & Xu, 2022).

In an effort to analyze the role conflict that pervades the academic work of two American scholars formerly serving as long-term faculty in Asia, our study draws theoretically on the literature on bordering (Viefhues-Bailey, 2022; Yuval-Davis, 2019) and border thinking (Anzaldúa, 1987) in Asia (Huang, 2018; Shin & Gress, 2018). The study will apply a conceptual framework rooted in Anzaldúa’s (1987) Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. This framework encompasses her notions of borderland, cultural tyranny, intimate terrorism, and ambiguity tolerance, and will be used to aid in our understanding of the experiences of two international scholars. As Anzaldúa (1987) explains, “the Borderlands are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other, and where people of different races occupy the same territory.”

Inquiry
The cogenerative, duoethnographic research reported in this paper is framed by two American professors’ exploration of their academic practice during their seven years working abroad in Japan and Korea between 2013-2019 and 2011-2018. No phase of such ethnographic research, from formulating the research problem to writing up the findings, can be accomplished without theorizing which makes the analysis everything but a distinct and isolated part of research (Hammersley and Atkinson 2007). We rely on comparative analysis to identify points of convergence and divergence in our experiences as long-term scholars abroad and the borderlands conceptual framework (Anzaldúa, 2007) to illuminate how life at the intersection of cultures that exist within international higher education shaped our identities and experiences.

Background
Much of the past research examines the presence of international faculty members in Japanese and Korean higher education through the lens of internationalization. Policies intending to promote internationalization in higher education have led to career opportunities for international scholars who can serve as agents of internationalization; however, these individuals are confronted with significant barriers to change (Gaitanidis & Shao-Kobayashi, 2020; Ghazarian, 2020; Kim, 2017, Morley et al., 2021), often rooted in ethno-nationalist culture prevalent in Japanese and Korean higher education (Jung, 2018, S. Kim, 2016; T. Kim, 2016; Poole, 2016; Moon, 2016). However, many international faculty members in Japanese and Korean higher education institutions feel disillusionment over their roles, as though they are tokenized symbols of internationalization rather than a part of meaningful change within their organizations (Brotherhood et al., 2020; S. Kim, 2016).

In fact, international faculty members at Japanese and Korean higher education institutions report that they are prevented from participating in mainstream academic life, feel pressure to assimilate, and are marginalized within their organizations (Brotherhood et al., 2020; S. Kim, 2016). While satisfied with their general working conditions, international faculty in Japanese higher education expressed a negative perception of immigration policy, their ability to establish relationships with local faculty, and institutional internationalization efforts (Huang et al., 2019). This experience may differ, however, depending on the background of a particular international faculty member (Brotherhood et al., 2020; Huang, 2018). For instance, Chinese and Korean international faculty expressed fewer negative perceptions of policies promoting the recruitment of international faculty and their treatment as temporary visitors in Japanese higher education as compared to their US and UK peers (Huang et al., 2019). This may suggest a difference in the conceptualizations and visions of internationalization among different stakeholders (Ghazarian, 2020).

Significance
We argue that working as a short-term or long-term faculty abroad is an important step to doing analytical and critical work that allows us to actively consider our relationship to the original academic context in light of new findings. Entering these foreign contexts with a growth mindset will allow our thinking to evolve relative to old borders, self imposed or otherwise, and new borders that are created when we allow ourselves to step away from the center of what is known and operate at a point of tangency between what we know, and what others know. Between research and pedagogical approaches, and modes of collaboration, we can evolve and help to inspire and challenge others in new ways.

Authors

• Jonathan Damiani, Le Moyne College

• Peter G Ghazarian, Ashland University