Academic literature on the topic 'Openness-closedness dialectic'

This article examines a case of what Olssen et al. (2004) call ‘managerial oppression’ set in a faculty of international studies of a Japanese university. Japanese universities have, in recent times, been facing the financial pressures of a falling birthrate and dwindling enrolments. To remain solvent, some universities have had to reinvent their curriculum in the hope of attracting students. Institutional renewal, as will be noted, does not occur without accompanying complications relating to power and politics. In the present case, these complications are attributable to tensions created within an ideological dialectic of openness and closedness ( Peters and Roberts, 2012 ) as universities face the dilemmas of globalization alongside the endurance of conservative mercantilist philosophies traceable to policies set during Japan’s post-war occupation by Allied forces. Through a critical examination of a series of instances of bullying and coercion, I seek in this article to argue that bullying and coercion are not random or idiosyncratic but are instead embedded in larger socio-political epistemologies that impinge on education and influence the way institutional agendas and managerialist decisions can adversely affect or defile human behavior. In this way, I seek not only to make a contribution to current understandings of language policy, ideology, power and higher education in Japan, but more uniquely, to establish a connection between ideological closed mindedness, corporate managerialism and acts of institutionalized bullying and coercion.

An increasing number of Thai students are enrolling in international programs recently with the expectation of real-life intercultural learning experiences. Most teachers in intercultural classrooms in Thailand are native English-speaking teachers who come from different cultures and have different perspectives. These teachers roles, teaching styles and relationships with their Thai students all impact instructional success and achievement in an intercultural classroom. Conflicts and tensions are expected in an intercultural classroom where diverse cultures meet. In order to enhance the quality of international education and explore classroom interactions, relationships, and conflicts; this study used qualitative in-depth interviews with 20 native English-speaking teachers and 20 Thai students at four international colleges in Thailand. The results indicate that when native English-speaking teachers and Thai students interacted, they encountered 3 dialectical tensions: stability/change, openness/closedness, and separation/connection. Additionally, they employed 6 different strategies; selection, cyclical alteration, segmentation, integrative reframing, integrative moderation, and indifference; to negotiate those tensions.