Limited-term contracts and tenure: the case of foreign-language teachers in a Japanese university

Abstract

This chapter examines the binary relationship between foreign language teachers on limited-term employment contracts in Japan and their tenured Japanese colleagues. The dualism here can be viewed as an insider-outsider one. The chapter focuses on the practice of limiting non-Japanese academic employees to such contracts, in the context of one Japanese university, which has been shown to impact negatively on foreign-language instruction. The primary question under consideration is: 'What conceptual model could help transcend the insider-outsider binary that seems to inform this employment arrangement?' The chapter advocates a framework based on a hybrid of Limerick, Cunnington, and Crowther's (2002) Fourth Blueprint paradigm, infused with intercultural communications (ICC) theory.