This study explores the production, dissemination, and reception of the discourse of educational excellence and internationalisation in Japan's Designated National University Corporation System. The study frames the policy initiative within the longstanding goals of the Japanese government and demonstrates how the work of Michel Foucault helps…

Objective: With growing international interest in youth mental health as well as the other health issues faced by young people, school health education draws the attention of scholars from both East and West. However, what stands for health education in the context of a 'health and physical education' (HPE) curriculum varies widely between…

This critical discourse analysis explores cosmopolitan nationalism as neoliberal reform within East Asian higher education (HE). Placing cosmopolitan nationalism within the Foucauldian genealogical oeuvre, we draw comparisons between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean HE policy to expand the theoretical basis of this emerging framework. Against this…

This paper examines variations and shifts of emphasis in the 'internationalising education' discourse and practice, and attempts to identify patterns in these variations. By examining two sectors, compulsory education and universities, it identifies four main strands of discourse: (1) international (understanding) education ("kokusai rikai…

Young people around the world are calling ever more urgently on policymakers to address today's global challenges of sustainability, structural inequality and social justice. So it is little surprise that learning in a global society, understanding sustainable development and being active global citizens are increasingly popular themes for…

Foreign language education primarily aims to cultivate learners' competence to communicate in an additional language. However, the meaning of communication competence is not entirely transparent, especially given the current neoliberal valorization of communication in the knowledge economy. The meaning of communication can be scrutinized in two…

This paper focuses on the rhetoric surrounding "internationalization" in Japanese education. Internationalization is now used both in scholarly circles and in the media. Since discussions of internationalization are accompanied by calls for hiring more foreign faculty in higher education, increasing diversity, etc., one may be led to…

Governments are challenged with pursuing macro-level interests for the good of the group, while also needing to accommodate and to acknowledge the needs and preferences of people at the micro-level. Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's (MEXT) "English Education Reform Plan corresponding to…

Linguistic landscape (LL) research seeks to account for the visible displays of multilingualism on public signage. While surveys of signage in the LL produce quantitative descriptions of language contact in a given area, such analyses shed little light on people's interpretations of multilingual signs. Moreover, even within more qualitative…

This research investigates the ideological character of the English language in East Asia. It focuses on the prevailing beliefs, values and propositions relating to English as a global language and the spread of English in the non-English East Asian countries, namely China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. By analyzing how English is presented in…

The present study explores how scholars working in the field of applied linguistics, language policy and language education might best contest and negotiate the increasingly economics-driven language polices enacted at the institutional levels of schools and workplaces. The study focuses on Japan as an interesting case of incongruence between…

The term "globalization" does more than represent a set of material (and ideological) processes that have impacts on education and schooling. Additionally, "globalization" operates as a conceptual lens or set of interventions, which is significantly impacting academic discourses in Education and in other disciplines. Not only…

This article examines the ways in which a multimodal text--a YouTube video on globalization and business--was mediated in two English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classrooms, and how these mediations shaped the instructor's and her students' meaning-making in specific ways. I first explore the complex multimodal discourses involved with this…

This paper explores the consequences of these discourses for the ways that international students are identified and positioned within school communities. My argument is developed in four sections. The first describes my ongoing exploration into the impact of international student programmes in Australia. The second exemplifies my argument:…

This article challenges the common-sense observation that Japanese and American education have been moving in "opposite directions" in recent times. Drawing on postcolonial discourse studies and cultural studies, the article extracts from this observation an Orientalist binary epistemology that continues to set discursive limits on the…