Dave Rear | Chuo University (original) (raw)
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Books by Dave Rear
Yellow Peg Publishing, 2019
Vintage Books, Random House
Textbooks by Dave Rear
Nanun'do Publishing, 2020
![Research paper thumbnail of Understanding Our New Challenges [新しい世界の読み方]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/54860024/thumbnails/1.jpg)
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Nanun'do Publishing, Jan 2015
Book Chapters by Dave Rear
Advancing English Language Education, 2020
Papers by Dave Rear
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2019
Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, 2017
Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 2017
This paper examines the widespread contention that, as a result of their cultural and educational... more This paper examines the widespread contention that, as a result of their cultural and educational backgrounds, students from Asia lack the critical thinking skills required when they study abroad at Western universities. It scrutinises this view from two perspectives. First, it problematises the use of Asia as a monolithic entity, arguing that the stereotyping of Asian students as uncritical is an act of Othering that fails to recognise the cultural and social diversity of such a large group of people. Second, it looks at studies of the critical thinking skills of Asian students to determine whether there is empirical evidence that they do indeed lack these fundamental cognitive abilities. From a comprehensive review of the literature, it finds that most of the specific skills and dispositions included within the umbrella of critical thinking can be found in equal or greater measure in the traditions, cultures and education systems of many Asian countries. Much of the supposed paucity of critical thinking amongst international Asian students can be explained by the fact that they are carrying out their studies in a foreign language, which has been shown to have a significantly negative impact on academic performance.
Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education
With a growing number of Asian students attending Western universities, the difficulties they see... more With a growing number of Asian students attending Western universities, the difficulties they seem to face in adapting to a new academic environment has provoked much discussion amongst educators, particularly with regard to the critical thinking (CT) skills. Many educators have claimed that, as a result of their cultural and educational backgrounds, Asian students lack the CT skills essential for academic tasks such as essay writing and debates. Other researchers, however, have argued this is due simply to the disadvantages of carrying out studies in a foreign language. In fact, there have been surprisingly few studies directly comparing Asian students' CT skills in their first compared to their second languages. Those that have been done have tended to employ standardised CT tests which, in their discrete, short-answer format, do not accurately reflect the tasks students carry out in university courses. In this study, therefore, two classes of Japanese university students, all with TOEFL scores high enough to enter Western universities, were asked to carry out an oral and written debate, one class in Japanese and the other in English. Evaluations of their performances by independent raters revealed stark differences between the two classes in their ability to construct and deconstruct arguments, find logical inconsistencies and express themselves clearly and persuasively.
Contemporary Japan
This paper examines the attempts of Japanese business groups to destabilize the discursive hegemo... more This paper examines the attempts of Japanese business groups to destabilize the discursive hegemony of Japanese-style management and replace it with a new neoliberal order advantageous to management interests. Japanese-style management (Nihon-teki keiei) can be seen as a key element of Japanese social identity, which interpellates both workers and management into performing particular institutional practices. Altering these practices requires not only deregulatory reforms to the labor market but also a powerful discursive intervention to undermine and replace sedimented positions. Through an analysis of public policy documents, this paper shows how Japanese business groups have been carrying out such an intervention through the articulation of two keywords – " diversity " (tayōsei) and " independent-style employee " (jiritsu-gata jinzai) – which are used ambiguously to structure a controversial deregulatory agenda into existing discourses of globalization, creativity and social values .
Modern English Teacher, 2018
Journal of Critical Policy Studies, Vol. 7, No. 4, 375–394, Dec 2013
"In combination with some key constructs of Critical Discourse Analysis this paper seeks to opera... more "In combination with some key constructs of Critical Discourse Analysis this paper seeks to operationalise the Discourse Theory of Laclau & Mouffe (1985) in the form of a practical and replicable analytical technique. It focuses on current debates in Japan on the topic of work skills, aka employability skills, identifying elements of what has been called the discourse of the New Work Order (Gee, Hull & Lankshear, 1996). Building on close textual analyses of the annual White Papers produced by the Ministry of Education in Japan between 2001 and 2009, the authors argue that just as the transition from Fordism to the New Work Order in the West was a ‘hegemonic intervention’ (Gramsci, 1971; Mouffe, 2008) intended to assimilate the demands of labour into the existing capitalist system, so the hybridised discourse of moral conservatism in Japan attempts to harness the individualism of Japanese workers to a vision of patriotism and national solidarity that upholds and will reproduce the prevailing social order.
Go to Dave Rear's Academia.edu page for more papers on Discourse Theory, Laclau & Mouffe, etc."
Critical Policy Studies Vol 7 (4), 375 - 394, Dec 19, 2013
Yellow Peg Publishing, 2019
Vintage Books, Random House
Nanun'do Publishing, 2020
Nanun'do Publishing, Jan 2015
Advancing English Language Education, 2020
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2019
Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, 2017
Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 2017
This paper examines the widespread contention that, as a result of their cultural and educational... more This paper examines the widespread contention that, as a result of their cultural and educational backgrounds, students from Asia lack the critical thinking skills required when they study abroad at Western universities. It scrutinises this view from two perspectives. First, it problematises the use of Asia as a monolithic entity, arguing that the stereotyping of Asian students as uncritical is an act of Othering that fails to recognise the cultural and social diversity of such a large group of people. Second, it looks at studies of the critical thinking skills of Asian students to determine whether there is empirical evidence that they do indeed lack these fundamental cognitive abilities. From a comprehensive review of the literature, it finds that most of the specific skills and dispositions included within the umbrella of critical thinking can be found in equal or greater measure in the traditions, cultures and education systems of many Asian countries. Much of the supposed paucity of critical thinking amongst international Asian students can be explained by the fact that they are carrying out their studies in a foreign language, which has been shown to have a significantly negative impact on academic performance.
Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education
With a growing number of Asian students attending Western universities, the difficulties they see... more With a growing number of Asian students attending Western universities, the difficulties they seem to face in adapting to a new academic environment has provoked much discussion amongst educators, particularly with regard to the critical thinking (CT) skills. Many educators have claimed that, as a result of their cultural and educational backgrounds, Asian students lack the CT skills essential for academic tasks such as essay writing and debates. Other researchers, however, have argued this is due simply to the disadvantages of carrying out studies in a foreign language. In fact, there have been surprisingly few studies directly comparing Asian students' CT skills in their first compared to their second languages. Those that have been done have tended to employ standardised CT tests which, in their discrete, short-answer format, do not accurately reflect the tasks students carry out in university courses. In this study, therefore, two classes of Japanese university students, all with TOEFL scores high enough to enter Western universities, were asked to carry out an oral and written debate, one class in Japanese and the other in English. Evaluations of their performances by independent raters revealed stark differences between the two classes in their ability to construct and deconstruct arguments, find logical inconsistencies and express themselves clearly and persuasively.
Contemporary Japan
This paper examines the attempts of Japanese business groups to destabilize the discursive hegemo... more This paper examines the attempts of Japanese business groups to destabilize the discursive hegemony of Japanese-style management and replace it with a new neoliberal order advantageous to management interests. Japanese-style management (Nihon-teki keiei) can be seen as a key element of Japanese social identity, which interpellates both workers and management into performing particular institutional practices. Altering these practices requires not only deregulatory reforms to the labor market but also a powerful discursive intervention to undermine and replace sedimented positions. Through an analysis of public policy documents, this paper shows how Japanese business groups have been carrying out such an intervention through the articulation of two keywords – " diversity " (tayōsei) and " independent-style employee " (jiritsu-gata jinzai) – which are used ambiguously to structure a controversial deregulatory agenda into existing discourses of globalization, creativity and social values .
Modern English Teacher, 2018
Journal of Critical Policy Studies, Vol. 7, No. 4, 375–394, Dec 2013
"In combination with some key constructs of Critical Discourse Analysis this paper seeks to opera... more "In combination with some key constructs of Critical Discourse Analysis this paper seeks to operationalise the Discourse Theory of Laclau & Mouffe (1985) in the form of a practical and replicable analytical technique. It focuses on current debates in Japan on the topic of work skills, aka employability skills, identifying elements of what has been called the discourse of the New Work Order (Gee, Hull & Lankshear, 1996). Building on close textual analyses of the annual White Papers produced by the Ministry of Education in Japan between 2001 and 2009, the authors argue that just as the transition from Fordism to the New Work Order in the West was a ‘hegemonic intervention’ (Gramsci, 1971; Mouffe, 2008) intended to assimilate the demands of labour into the existing capitalist system, so the hybridised discourse of moral conservatism in Japan attempts to harness the individualism of Japanese workers to a vision of patriotism and national solidarity that upholds and will reproduce the prevailing social order.
Go to Dave Rear's Academia.edu page for more papers on Discourse Theory, Laclau & Mouffe, etc."
Critical Policy Studies Vol 7 (4), 375 - 394, Dec 19, 2013
Journal of ELT Research, 2019
Asian Business and Management, Mar 6, 2013
Asia Pacific Journal of Education
This paper will examine how Japanese education policy was articulated discursively from 1996 to 2... more This paper will examine how Japanese education policy was articulated discursively from 1996 to 2010 in the semi-annual speeches of prime ministers to the Diet. It will identify three distinct discourses within these policy statements: a progressive discourse emphasizing the rights of individuals; a neo-liberal discourse of social independence and multi-tracked schooling; and a moral conservative discourse of patriotism and social conformism. In the 1990s, progressive and neo-liberal discourses held sway. Discursively, they were centred on key phrases such as kosei jūshi (“respect for individuality”) and sōzōsei (creativity), which were employed in a strategically ambiguous way to satisfy both progressive and neo-liberal demands. In the 2000s, however, right-wing politicians began to push a moral conservative agenda, which emphasized not the rights of individuals but their subservience to the wider needs of society and state. With neo-liberalism backed by powerful business interests, policymakers had to find a way to reconcile these two conflicting viewpoints discursively. They did this by binding the concept of individuality to traditional notions of Japanese identity and national citizenship, creating a hybrid discourse that attempted to blur the fundamental difference in ideologies.
Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies
Proceedings of the LIA International Conference
KOTESOL Proceedings , 2017
Working Papers in Language Education, Vol 2, 93 - 101
Research Bulletin, College of Economics, Nihon University, 2018