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Normalizing identities in educational contexts in Japan: An outline of a work-in-progress by Roibeard O'Mochain (Temple University Japan) |
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Abstract Keywords: discourse analysis, performativity, subjectivity research, problematization, essentialist ideology, critical analysis |
Background
In recent years, postmodernist and critical authors have called into
question the notion of "identity", especially in its application to
gendered identities (e.g., Butler (1990), Pavlenko & Lantolf (2000),
St.Pierre (2000), Warner, 1993). There is a growing awareness of the role
played by educational institutions in perpetuating culturally based
constructs of "female" and "male" identities as "natural",
"normative" or taken-for-granted categories of identification (e.g.,
Livia & Hall (1997), Mills (2001), Pennycook, 2001). This awareness has
also extended into the field of language education (e.g., Norton (2000),
Sunderland (1995), Vandrick, (1997). In Japan, however, few educators are
working with these issues of identity. This has increased my motivation to
research these issues as part of a doctoral dissertation study on
"Normalizing identities in educational contexts in Japan."
When one considers the dearth of research into the needs of LGBT teachers
and students in Japanese educational contexts, and the extremely worrying
figures from a recent survey of gay men's mental health in Japan (Hidaka,
2001) one can also say that the study is motivated by an ethical imperative
to help redress perceived inequalities in educational contexts, and bringing
attention to a long neglected area of educational praxis.
Perhaps the most salient potential relevance of the study to the field of
language education is with regard to teachers of English. One of the
purposes of this study is to give prominence to the fact that all teachers,
including teachers of English and other languages, are subject positioned
with regard to gendered and sexual identities. Some are affected by the
practices and technologies of power involved in a particularly negative way,
so that their professional performance becomes unnecessarily hampered.
Similarly, students who experience subject positioning as being outside of
the norms of gendered or sexual identity performances, are unnecessarily
prevented from achieving their full potential. The ultimate purpose of the
study, then, is to make some small contribution helping all participants in
education achieve their full potential.
Theoretical framework
Barker and Galasinski (2001, pp. 16-17) make a convincing case for
pragmatism which they define as sharing with post-structuralism as an
"anti-foundationalist, anti-representationalist, anti-realist view of truth.
However, this is combined with a commitment to pragmatic social reform,
pragmatism attempts to render contingent that which appears natural,
pragmatism weds itself to the need for piecemeal practical political
change, it insists on the irreducibility of human agency."
It seems to me that a theoretical framework of absolute relativism or
nihilism can have little to say to those of us who hope to affect change in
educational institutions. Yes, language is complex and meaning is slippery,
but not to the extent that we are cut off from reality and remain locked in
a world of simulation. Nor do we exist in a moral vacuum where any truth
claim is as good as another. Choice itself would be meaningless in such a
case. Obviously, then, the research project I have in mind is informed by
Postmodernism but not in its more extreme variations, as we find, for
example, in Baudrillard. The approach I adopt is eclectic, drawing from
diverse authors, but grounding itself in an ethics of concern for those who
are denied the conditions that will allow them fulfill their full potential.
Resistance to dominant narratives that seek to impose self-limiting identity
structures is a possibility, and also, perhaps, a moral imperative.
[ p. 35 ]
A key concept in my analysis is that of "discourse." Discourses can
be defined as, "ways of being in the world, or forms of life which
integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, social identities, as
well as gestures, glances, body positions and clothes — a sort of identity
kit" (Gee, 1990, p. 142). Alternatively, in a more Foucaultian vocabulary,
discourses can be understood as Knowledge-Power practices and combinations
that systematically form the objects of which they speak
The concept of "performativity" is one that is rich but often
misunderstood. Rather than being core essences, cosmically glued to the
self, Butler (1990) asserts that gender and sexual identities are products
of strings of repeated psychic performances which are socially learned,
rather than springing from an "inner reality". This notion has been
influential in my (still-developing) understanding of identities.
While I cannot claim an understanding as thorough or profound as
Foucault, I believe he offers tools for conceptual analysis that can work
well in this sort of research project. "If you say that any identity
category is limiting, then why isn't being lesbian limiting? ... I really
have a problem with the whole idea of role models and all of that stuff,
particularly with sexuality, because it involves a reification of
stereotypes and the entrapment of people in a particular place." That's the
tautological "What is a gay person like? They're gay." Over and over
againâ it's a version of narcissism, but it's also a self-limiting
narrative of self-discovery that keeps circling on itself, and if people
treat you like that's the only salient fact about you, it actually is
playing on the homophobia that you would like to get rid of" (Foucault in
Bernauer & Rasmussen, 1988).
Finally, in their wide-ranging analysis of discursive practicesâ and
silences- of sexuality in school environments, Epstein, O'Flynn, and
Telford (2002, p.168) conclude that ". . .each phase of the formal education
system produces and carries its own meanings, giving more or less permission
to different versions of sexuality, always tightly linked to questions of
gender." It may be valuable to make an evaluation of how such processes
can be seen working within educational contexts in Japan.
Study participants
The main sections of this study involved two types of participants:
resource participants and focus participants.
The first group consisted of 10 persons who provided one in-depth interview
about diverse aspects of their experience of subject positioning on the
basis of hegemonic constructions of gender or sexuality. Six months later I
interviewed these participants a second time, using the opportunity to go
over transcripts of the first interview. This was to ensure that the
participants approbated the transcripts as an integral reproduction of the
interview and also provided a chance for further commentary on particular points.
The same process was followed with the six focus participants, but more
intensively. I conduct an open-ended interview with persons in this group
once a month over a time-period of at least six months. This degree of
interaction allowed for a strong rapport to be established. I hope to gain
an understanding not only of how queer identity intersects with other
identities in this person's educational experience, but also how they
engage in meaning-making on a continuous basis.
Interviews with these and other participants are still ongoing. As much as
possible I try to make transcripts of previous interviews and reflect on the
meanings they contain before going on to new interviews. In each case I
hope to explore how the participant experiences normative discursive
practices of identity, which have implications for the quality of one's
educational experience either as a student or as an educator. An evaluation
will be made of the degree to which participation in particular discourses
either enhances or diminishes educational experiences.
Limitations
Research is rarely carried out in perfectly ideal conditions, and
limitations should always be taken into account. In the case of this
particular research project one obvious limitation is the small population
size and also that the pool of participants are limited to those who have a
high level of proficiency in English, due to my lack of proficiency in
Japanese. Perhaps, these participants also feel somewhat limited in their
own self-expression, being unable to speak their first language.
Implications
In the sense that all are interpellated by discursive practices of
gendered and sexual identities in educational contexts and elsewhere, all
participants in education can find that this study has relevance to their
lives. It has particular relevance to those who have experienced negative
subject positioning first-hand. The study should also be enlightening for
those who seek to apply an ethnic/minorities model of liberation to the
benefit of LGBT teachers and students in Japanese educational contexts.
Praxis in these areas requires a theory of self, of identity, and of
institutional and discursive influences on the formation of subjectivities.
This study will offer an exposition of how theory can inform a research
project within real-world contexts, namely in the educational experiences of
teachers and students from diverse backgrounds and within diverse
institutions. This might make some small contribution, in the long-term, to
improving the quality of educational experiences for LGBT students and the
potential of LGBT teachers as professional educators. Promotion of a more
complex understanding of sexualities and gender identities may help to
foster social practices less bound by essentialized notions, self-limiting
narratives, and power relations of inequality, and more open to the richness
of human beings in all our variations, complexities, and potentialities.[ p. 36 ]
Conclusion
To sum up, then, I would say that my study hopes to show that it is not
only homosexuals who may be subject positioned as odd, abnormal, or
"queer" in relation to the normalizing practices of heteronormativity. A
discourse of "normal desire" enjoys an unquestioned right to interrogate
and police suspected deviations from the norm, a norm constructed in terms
of gender, age, the body and an essentialist sexual order. This is a
discourse that should be problematized in Japan, as elsewhere. The way in
which this problematization should occur, however, is unlikely to benefit
greatly from adherence to a model of emancipation that leaves fundamental
assumptions unchallenged. Yet the dilemma remains that many teachers and
students may be in acute need right now, and very little is being done to help them.
Barker, C., & Galasinski, D. (2001). Cultural studies and discourse analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
