Social representation of intercultural exchange in an international university

Abstract

This paper provides an interpretive investigation into the social representation of intercultural exchange at one of the newly established international universities in Japan. The author conducted quasi-structured interviews with 5 staff members and 22 students to gain insight into their perceptions of intercultural exchange and interactions. The findings highlight the dominance of nation-bound and instrumental representations of interculturality, and suggest the importance of integrating intercultural interaction issues into formal curriculums while celebrating intercultural connectivity, interchange and hybridity in both institutional and interpersonal levels.

Keywords:

• social representation
• intercultural exchange
• international university
• Japan
• internationalisation
• intercultural communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. While many fee-paying international students in English speaking countries (e.g. UK, USA and Australia) have become skilled permanent residents of their host country, this has rarely happened in Japan. Nevertheless, a recent survey by Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO; 2014) showed that 67.9% of graduates from pre-undergraduate to doctorate courses in 2012 remained in Japan to either further their studies or become members of the skilled workforce.

2. Materials used for data analysis are the ones used at the time of data collection.

3. The vagueness of the term was evident as the university handbook did not make clear distinction among such terms as multicultural, intercultural and international.

4. As for the postgraduate courses, the language of instruction was English. The reason for this was not clearly revealed by my interviews, but this language choice appeared to be associated with the idea of English as a global lingua franca. In the university handbook, a dean of the graduate schools stated: ‘Our use of English language for education … [would] allow for a truly international experience’.

5. ST stands for the ‘staff’. The number following these letters indicates the staff identification number for the present study. To report the findings in English, this author translated the quotes from the Japanese interviews into English.

6. IS stands for ‘international students’, and JA represents ‘Japanese students’. The number following these letters indicates the student identification number for the present study.

7. There were also a number of criticisms on the university's modus operandi, particularly from international students. The complaints included the quality of student support, an overemphasis on extracurricular activities, and the ‘bureaucratic’ (JS8) university administration, echoed by Breaden (2012, p. 22) as follows: ‘simultaneously protecting, policing and promoting international students as an object, rather than a subject, of its internationalisation agenda’.