Skip to main content
Log in

Evidence-informed Leadership in the Japanese Context: Middle managers at a university self-access center

  • Published:
Tertiary Education and Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study reports on the steering of a self-access learning center in a Japanese university by its “middle management” committee over the first years of its operation. Middle management practice was informed by an ethnographic archive of various facets of center use, particularly concerning language policy and curriculum integration, issues about which the archive reveals considerable shifts in stakeholder views over time. It is argued that this evidence-based middle management style has been an effective, but sometimes limited, means in decision-making as it succeeds in placing research at the center of middle management activity, not at its periphery.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adamson, J. (2010). I wonder why they don’t talk to us more: Exploring interdisciplinarity in Japanese higher education. Reflections on English Language Teaching, 9(1), 43–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adamson, J. L., & Athanasiou, A. (2011). Middle management and diversity of evaluation of self-access. Independence, 51 (Spring), 18–21. Learner Autonomy SIG Newsletter, IATEFL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adamson, J. L., Brown, H., & Fujimoto-Adamson, N. (2011). Archiving self access: Methodological considerations. Asian EFL Journal, 13(2), 11–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adamson, J., Fujimoto-Adamson, N., & Watanabe, Y. (2011, February 11). Student voices from self access: Informing language policy. Paper presented at MASH JALT Inviting Student Voices, Seisen Jogakuin College, Nagano.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benor, S. B. (2010). Ethnolinguistic repertoire: Shifting the analytic focus in language and ethnicity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 14(2), 159–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackledge, A., & Creese, A. (2010). Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching? The Modern Language Journal, 94(2), 103–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blommaert, J., & Jie, D. (2010). Ethnographic field-work. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boles, K. C. (1992, April 20–24). School restructuring by teachers: A study of the teaching project at the Edward Devotion School. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1988). Homo academicus. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briggs, A. (2006). Middle management in FE. London: Continuum Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Busher, H. (2005). The project of the other: Developing inclusive learning communities in schools. Oxford Review of Education, 31(3), 459–477.

    Google Scholar 

  • Busher, H., Hammersley-Fletcher, L., & Turner, C. (2007). Making sense of middle leadership: Community, power and practice. School Leadership & Management, 27(5), 405–422.

    Google Scholar 

  • Busher, H., & Harris, A. (1999). Leadership of school subject areas: Tensions and dimensions of managing in the middle. School Leadership & Management, 19(3), 305–317.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clegg, S. (2008). Academic identities under threat? British Educational Research Journal, 34(3), 329–345.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creese, A. (2002). The discursive construction of power in teacher partnerships: Language and subject specialists in mainstream schools. TESOL Quarterly, 36(4), 597–616.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cummins, J. (2005). A proposal for action: Strategies for recognizing heritage language competence as a learning resource within the mainstream classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 89(4), 585–592.

    Google Scholar 

  • Czander, W. M. (1993). The psychodynamics of work and organizations: Theory and application. London: The Guildford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doi, T. (1987). The anatomy of dependence. Tokyo: Kondansha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drever, E. (1995). Using semi-structured interviews in small-scale research. Edinburgh: The Scottish Council for Research in Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Floyd, A. (2012). “Turning points”: The personal and professional circumstances that lead academics to become middle managers. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 40(2), 272–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, A. (2003). Teacher leadership as distributed leadership: Heresy, fantasy or possibility? School Leadership & Management, 23(3), 313–324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvie, D. (2000). Alienation, class and enclosure in UK universities. Capital and Class, 71, 103–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvie, D. (2004). Commons and communities in the university: Some notes and some examples. The Commoner, 8, 1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heintz, C., & Origgi, G. (2008). Rethinking interdisciplinarity. Emergent issues. Interdisciplines. Retrieved October 15, 2008, from https://doi.org/www.interdisciplines.org/interdisciplinarity/papers/11

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, G. (1990). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. London: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howe, J. (2006). The rise of crowdsourcing. Wired, 14(6). Retrieved September 5, 2011, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacoby, J., & Ochs, E. (1995). Co-construction: An introduction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 28(3), 171–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, N. (2007). The learning trajectories of “old-timers”: Academic identities and communities of practice in higher education. In J. Hughes, N. Jewson, & L. Unwin (Eds.), Communities of practice: Critical perspectives (pp. 131–143). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, B. (2003). Values in English language teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, J. T. (1996). Crossing boundaries: Knowledge, disciplinarities, and interdisciplinarities. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambert, L. (1988). Building leadership capacity in schools. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lele, S., & Norgaard, R. (2005). Practising interdisciplinarity. BioScience, 55(11), 967–975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin, B. (2010). Leadership for evidence-informed education. School Leadership & Management, 30(4), 303–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, G. S. (2011). Code choice in the language classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin, A. M. Y. (2005). Critical, transdisciplinary perspectives on language-in-education policy and practice in postcolonial contexts: The case of Hong Kong. In A. M. Y. Lin & P. W. Martin (Eds.), Decolonization, globalization: Language-in-education policy and practice (pp. 38–54). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucas, L. (2006). The research game in academic life. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lumby, J., & Tomlinson, H. (2000). Principals speaking: Managerialism and leadership in further education. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 5(2), 139–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, P. W. (2005). Bilingual encounters in the classroom. In J.-M. Dewale, A. Housen, & L. Wei (Eds.), Bilingualism: Beyond the basic principles (pp. 67–87). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakane, C. (1970). Japanese society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ochs, E., & Capps, L. (2001). Living narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid, W. A. (1992). The pursuit of curriculum: Schooling and the public interest. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simkins, T., & Lumby, J. (2002). Cultural transformation in further education? Mapping the debate. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 7(1), 9–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spillane, J. P. (2005). Distributed leadership. Educational Forum, 69(2), 143–150. Retrieved September 6, 2012, from https://doi.org/www.sdexter.net/courses/589/downloads/SpillaneLeadership05.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Taysum, A. (2010). Evidence informed leadership in education. London: Continuum International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timperley, H., & Robinson, V. (2000). Workload and the professional culture of teachers. Educational Management & Administration, 28(1), 47–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trowler, P. (2010, July 15–16). Large scale university curriculum change: From practice to theory (and back again). Talk delivered at the Tomorrow’s Sustainable Universities Conference, University of Bradford, UK, pp. 1–7. Retrieved May 28, 2012, from https://doi.org/www.brad.ac.uk/sustainable-universities/media/SustainableUniversities/Keynote-Prof-Paul-Trowler.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Adamson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Adamson, J., Brown, H. Evidence-informed Leadership in the Japanese Context: Middle managers at a university self-access center. Tert Educ Manag 18, 353–374 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2012.725765

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2012.725765

Keywords

Navigation