Transnational academic mobility in Japan

Abstract

Transnational academic mobility, defined as a broad process where mobile academics with their ideas and embedded structure are migrated in tertiary education across physical and social boundaries (Neubauer, 2012), is an important characteristic in internationalization of higher education, especially in countries that have been striving to foster policies to attract and attain academics across the globe (Maadad & Tight, 2014). Japanese higher education is no exception, especially with recent national policies and institutional initiatives aiming to attract academics globally. However, compared to the mobility of students, the mobility of academics is much less scholarly addressed. The academic mobility literature on the Japanese context is even more limited. Few has been revealed on the transnational academic mobility in Japan in terms of its mobility patterns, the lived experiences of transnational academic mobility, or the relationship between academic mobility and other mobilities and issues. Additionally, it is argued that academic mobility could be critically subject to their past history across boundaries, their transnational networks maintenance and network embeddedness (Horta & Yonezawa, 2013). Hence, drawing on the theoretical tools of Transnationalism (Vertovec, 2009; 2019) and Bourdieu’s Theory of Sociology (1984, 1991), this thesis seeks to firstly explore the lived experiences of transnational academics in Japanese tertiary education and Japanese society; secondly to examine transnational habitus development over a transnational life trajectory; lastly to critically investigate how transnational academic agency dynamically performs and negotiates with structures of power in transnational spaces and fields. With maximal sampling and snowball sampling approaches, 26 migrated academics of diverse backgrounds in various Japanese universities were recruited for this project. Data were generated and analyzed by combined methodological approaches of Narrative Inquiry, Case Study and Qualitative Social Network Analysis. The research outcomes contribute to both ontological and epistemological development of academic mobility in higher education research. The research also propels theoretical development of Transnationalism and social network embeddedness in international migration studies.

References

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