Abstract
Building upon previous research on native-speakerism (e.g., Houghton and Hashimoto, Towards post-native-speakerism: dynamics and shifts. Springer, Singapore, 2018; Houghton and Rivers, Native-speakerism in Japan: intergroup dynamics in foreign language education. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, 2013; Swan et al., (En)countering native-speakerism: global perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, 2015), this chapter explores interactions between “native” and “non-native” English-speaking students across borders. Specifically, utilizing case study method, we examine our professional experience over the years as coordinators and instructors of a transnational education platform involving universities in Hawai‘i and Japan. Based on reflections of our experiences, coupled with the analysis of planning documents, course syllabi, student feedback, and field notes, we find that the transnational education platform has the potential to foster students’ empathy and cultural sensitivity. Most importantly, while interacting with the so-called “others” (e.g., in-/out-group identities in Stets and Burke, Soc Psychol Q 63(3):224–237, 2000), many students seem to naturally shift their focus from obvious differences between themselves toward less apparent similarities. We offer methodological and pedagogical approaches through which we as educators aim to ensure meaningful exchanges between the students across different cultures and languages. Although this study is situated in Hawai‘i and Japan, we propose that some of the findings serve as a touchstone for gauging international experience in other contexts as well.
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Appendix
Appendix
1.1 The Development of the Transnational Education Platform
Since the early 2000s, the College of Education at UiH has hosted annual and intermittent study tour groups from overseas, many of which come from Japan. Such groups generally consist of 15–20 Education major students and faculty escorts. While the College currently has about two dozen international partners all over the world, for the purpose of this study, we focused on two particular partners, both of which are four-year universities in Japan.
First, University A is located in a historical city in Japan. It is a private university that houses seven Undergraduate Schools and four Graduate Schools. Their School of Education is known for its rigorous academic programs as well as for its well-established correspondence programs. The other partner, University B is a national university located in Northern Japan. It specializes in teacher training and professional development. The university has three Undergraduate and two Graduate programs.
Both Universities A and B have been actively involved in developing and organizing study tours in Hawai‘i for their (Japanese) students as well as study away courses in Japan for our (Hawai‘i) students. While these study tours and study away courses are not identical, starting in 2013, they have been designed to purposefully overlap some of the activities where the Japanese university students who visit Hawai‘i on a study tour in the spring collaborate on projects with some of the UiH students who then visit Japan in the following summer (see Fig. 11.1 for the detailed timeline). As such, we continually fine-tune this platform to better expand the personal and professional network of students, faculty, and other community members across borders. And this strategically designed, multi-layered, transnational education platform is addressed as a case for our study.
1.2 The Authors’ Roles in the Transnational Education Platform
1.2.1 Chisato Nonaka
Born and raised in Japan, Chisato has spent over 10 years in Hawai‘i as a student and an educator. She was involved in the inception of the transnational education platform when she was a graduate student at UiH. Chisato has served as an interpreter/translator (Japanese↔English), a teaching associate, and a coordinator for the said transnational education platform.
1.2.2 Nezia Azmi
Herself a multilingual and formerly ESL individual, Nezia grew up in Malaysia and Indonesia, but spent much of her academic and professional life in the United States. She is the International Programs Coordinator for the College of Education and has been actively involved in some of the logistics and protocol support for the study tours that utilize the transnational educational platform discussed here. More recently she has also taken on a more active role in evaluating the design of these experiences as part of a program improvement effort.
1.2.3 Aaron J. Levine
Aaron is an Assistant Specialist in the Institute for Teacher Education and serves as the Partnership and Placement Coordinator for the department. His work focuses on creating rich clinical experiences for preservice teacher candidates through building strong institutional partnerships both domestically and internationally. He was the main architect of our original transnational education platform.
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Nonaka, C., Azmi, N., Levine, A. (2020). Fostering Students’ Empathy and Cultural Sensitivity to Undo Native-Speakerism: A Case Study of a Transnational Education Platform Involving Universities in Hawai‘i and Japan. In: Houghton, S.A., Bouchard, J. (eds) Native-Speakerism. Intercultural Communication and Language Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5671-5_11
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