Deconstructing Whiteness in Higher Education: Epistemological Imperialism in Japanese International Baccalaureate Teacher Training Programs
- Akira Shah, University of Oxford and SOAS University of London
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A myriad of higher education (HE) initiatives donning ‘international’ and ‘global’ branding remain unwittingly soaked in epistemologies of whiteness. The emergence of International Baccalaureate Educator Certificate (IBEC) programs strengthens this trend. Reviewing newly published findings that linguistically and pedagogically evidence this force at work inside Japanese universities, I suggest pathways for HE to better decloak, and subsequently deconstruct unwanted vestiges of whiteness.
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Akira Shah is Postdoctoral Affiliate at the School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, and Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Japan Research Centre, SOAS University of London. He received his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Anthropology at Oxford in 2023, submitting a thesis titled International Baccalaureate Teacher Training in Japanese Higher Education. Building off his initial findings, Akira’s upcoming postdoctoral fieldwork includes ethnographic research at Japanese IB schools, where he seeks to understand how educators navigate the politically complex notions of an ‘international’ and ‘global education’ in everyday life.