Researcher Profile and Settings

researchmap

https://researchmap.jp/read0089845

Research Areas

• Humanities & social sciences / Foreign language education

Research Experience

• -:滋賀大学教授経済学部, 2003/10 - 2016/03
• -:Professor, Faculty of Economics, Shiga University, 2003/10 - 2016/03
• :滋賀大学助教授経済学部, 2001 - 2003
• :Assistant Professor, Faculty of Economics, Shiga University, 2001 - 2003
• -:名古屋大学言語文化部外国人教師, 1998 - 2001
• -:Visiting Lecturer, Faculty of Language and Culture, Nagoya University, 1998 - 2001
• Shiga University Faculty of Economics, Department of Social Systems, Faculty of Economics International Systems, Professor, -

Education

• University of Oxford, St Antony's College, Social Science Faculty, Sub-faculty of Politics, D.Phil., 1994/10 - 1997/09
• Essex University, Centre for the Study of Contemporary Japan, MA (with distinction) in the study of contemporary Japan, 1992/10 - 1993/09
• University of Manchester, School of Government, MA in Political Theory, 1983/10 - 1984/09
• Reading University, History and Politics, BA in History and Politics, 1980/09 - 1983/07

Degree

• MA, Manchester University
• D.Phil., University of Oxford

Association Memberships

• British Association for Japanese Studies
• The Japan Association for Language Teaching
• 日本教育学会

Committee Memberships

• Director of the Japan Chapter, 2019/09 - 2022/09, British Association for Japanese Studies, Society
• 理事, 2000/01 - 2014/12, 日本国際教育学会, Society, 日本国際教育学会

Awards

• Ivan Morris Memorial Prize
  Nov. 1994
• Doctoral Scholarship
  Aug. 1994, Economic and Social Research Council, UK

MISC

• Explaining policy failure in the case of foreign language education in Japan
  Aspinall Robert W.
  The Hikone ronso, Shiga University, 344/345 165 - 183, 2003

Books etc

• Middle-Class Boys’ Schools in England and Japan
  Routledge, 02 Sep. 2024, Single work
• "The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)" in Handbook of Japanese Public Administration and Bureaucracy
  Aspinall, Robert W. and McLaughlin, John in a book edited by Nakabayashi Mieko and Tanaka Hideaki (eds.)
  MHM, Feb. 2024, Contributor
• “Controversies Surrounding Revisions of the Course of Study for English Language 1989-2020” in Japan's school curriculum for the 2020s : politics, policy, and pedagogy
  Aspinall, Robert W. in a book edited by Okada, Akito (岡田, 昭人) and Bamkin, Sam
  Springer, 2022
• “A Comparison of Foreign-Language Education Policy in Japan and England” in Cross-cultural studies : Newest Developments in Japan and the UK
  Aspinall, Robert W. in a book edited by Hada, Yumiko (秦, 由美子)
  World Scientific, 2022
• “A Comparison of Opposition Parties in Japan and the UK” in Cross-cultural studies : Newest Developments in Japan and the UK
  Robert W. Aspinall in a book edited by Hada, Yumiko (秦, 由美子)
  World Scientific, 2022, Single work
• “Violence in Schools: tensions between ‘the individual’ and ‘the group’ in the Japanese education system” in Critical issues in contemporary Japan
  Kingston, Jeff; (ed.)
  Routledge, 2019
• “Teachers’ Unions in Japan: The Frustration of Permanent Opposition” in The comparative politics of education : teachers unions and education systems around the world
  Moe, Terry M.; Wiborg, Susanne; (eds.)
  Cambridge University Press, 2017
• International education policy in Japan in an age of globalisation and risk
  Aspinall, Robert W.
  Global Oriental, 2013
• "The Rise and Fall of Nikkyoso: Classroom Idealism, Union Power and the Three Phases of Japanese Politics since 1955" in 'The Left in the Shaping of Japanese Democracy'
  Routledge Curzon, 2006
• "University Entrance in Japan" in 'The 'Big Bang' in Japanese Higher Education: The 2004 Reforms and the Dynamics of Change'
  Trans Pacific Press, Melbourne, 2005
• "Japanese Nationalism and the Reform of English Language Teaching" in 'Can the Japanese Change Their Education System?'
  Symposium Books, Oxford, 2003
• Teachers' Unions and the Politics of Education in Japan
  State University of New York Press, 2001

Presentations

• Boys’ Schools in Japan: Meritocracy Without Mobility
  Symposium: Policy and Practice in Japan’s Education, Kyoto University, 11 Jan. 2025
• “Never Send Our Children to the Battlefield Again!” Pacifism, Left-wing Politics and Japan’s Teacher Unions During the Cold War
  Re-examining Japan’s Cold War, University of East Anglia, 13 Aug. 2024, Oral presentation
• Progressive Education Reforms that Increase Inequality
  European Association for Japanese Studies Conference, Ghent, Belgium, 19 Aug. 2023
• The Bourgeois Boys: Middle class boys’ schools in Japan in the Twentieth Century
  Robert W. Aspinall
  British Association for Japanese Studies Annual Conference, Manchester University, 09 Sep. 2022, Oral presentation
• How the Political Activities of Teachers’ unions in Japan Compare to Those in Other Nations
  Robert Aspinall
  European Association for Japanese Studies 16th International Conference, Ghent, 26 Aug. 2021, Oral presentation
• Establishing EMI Programs in Japanese Universities
  Japan Association for Language Teaching Annual Conference (online), 22 Nov. 2020
• Bourgeois Boys: Middle Class Boys’ Schools in England and Japan
  Anthropology of Japan in Japan Conference, Meiji Gakuin University, Yokohama, 01 Dec. 2019
• Teachers’ Unions as Interest Groups: How teachers’ unions in Japan compare to those in other nations
  Colloquium on Japanese Politics at St Antony’s College, Oxford, 08 Mar. 2019
• Being a Migrant Academic in Japan
  Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research, University of Sussex, UK, 05 Mar. 2019
• Risk and Reform in the Japanese Education System
  XVIII International Sociology Association World Congress of Sociology, Pacifico Yokohama, 15 Jul. 2014
• International education reform in Japan and the challenges presented to policy implementation by institutional and cultural factors
  Joint East Asian Studies Conference, Nottingham University, UK, 06 Sep. 2013
• The Risky Business of ‘Study Abroad’: Individualization, Globalization and Crossing the Japanese Border in Both Directions
  Asian Studies Conference Japan, Oberlin University, Tokyo, 29 Jun. 2013
• Is ‘dynamism without risk’ possible in the university sector? A critique of the 2009 OECD report on higher education in Japan.
  British Association for Japanese Studies Annual Conference SOAS, London, 09 Sep. 2010, Oral presentation
• The New ‘Three Rs” of Education in Japan: Rights Risk and Responsibility
  Joint East Asian Studies Conference, Sheffield University, UK, 2009
• Japanese Government Policies on Internationalization: Using the façade of internationalization to defend the nation against the threat of globalization
  British Association of International and Comparative Education Annual Conference, Glasgow University, 2008
• Risk Research: Can it be applied to government policy in post-industrial Japan?
  Japan Politics Colloquium, University of Oxford, 2007
• How Cultures of Teaching and Learning Inhibit Improvements to the English Language curricula in Japanese Universities
  16th Japan Anthropology Workshop Hong Kong Conference, University of Hong Kong, 2005
• Explaining Policy Failure in the case of foreign language education in Japan
  Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, San Diego, USA, 2004
• ”ぐローカリゼーション”時代の教育改革と外国語としての英語教育の課題
  日本教育学会第63回大会、北海学園大学, 2004
• Children’s rights in Japan, the UK and the USA: A Political Perspective on the Relationship between the individual and the state
  12th World Congress on Comparative Education, Havana, Cuba, 2004
• Explaining Policy Failure in the case of foreign language education in Japan
  Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, San Diego, USA, 2004
• The Rise and Fall of Nikkyôso: Classroom Idealism, Union Power and the Three Phases of Japanese Politics since 1955
  Japanese politics workshop Leiden University, Netherlands, 2003
• The Rise and Fall of Nikkyôso: Classroom Idealism, Union Power and the Three Phases of Japanese Politics since 1955
  Japanese politics workshop Leiden University, Netherlands, 2003
• Japanese Nationalism and the Reform of English Language Teaching
  Joint Seminar Series between the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies and the Department of Educational Studies, Oxford University, 2002
• The Flag and Anthem at Tokorozawa High School
  Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Chicago, USA, 2001
• The Controversy over the National Flag and Anthem at Tokorozawa High School
  11th World Congress of Comparative Education, Korea National University of Education, Cheongju, Korea, 2001
• The Flag and Anthem at Tokorozawa High School
  Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Chicago, USA, 2001
• Policies for Internationalization in the Contemporary Japanese Education System
  International Congress of Asian and North African Studies, Palais des Congrès, Montreal, Canada, 2000
• What is New about New Labour’s Education Policy?
  Annual Conference of the Japan International Education Society, Waseda University, Tokyo, 2000
• Policies for Internationalization in the Contemporary Japanese Education System
  International Congress of Asian and North African Studies, Palais des Congrès, Montreal, Canada, 2000
• Policies for ‘Internationalization’ in the Japanese Education System (presentation given in Japanese)
  Annual Conference of the Japan International Education Society, Doshisha University, Kyoto, 1999
• What is New about New Labour?
  Hokkaido University Symposium on European Politics, 1999
• Policies for ‘Internationalization’ in the Japanese Education System (presentation given in Japanese)
  Annual Conference of the Japan International Education Society, Doshisha University, Kyoto, 1999

Research Projects

• 女性リーダー育成の社会構成要素の探究―シティズンシップ教育と平和教育を基盤に
  秦 由美子
  日本学術振興会, 科学研究費助成事業 基盤研究(B), 2023/04 -2028/03, 基盤研究(B), 同志社女子大学
• Performativity and Performance Culture at Schools-Anglo-Japanese collaborative research on an emerging mode of school governance
  KATSUNO Masaaki; ROBERT Aspinall; NAKATA Yasuhiko; KANEKO Mariko; FUJITA Hideki
  How is performativity or performance culture being enacted in schools? This question was addressed by means of investing head teachers' and teachers' related perceptions within the context of an emerging mode of school governance including a new layer of teaching force, participation in school management by parents and local people, and parental choice of schools. The findings of the research were presented on national and international conferences and journals. Furthermore, they were referred to in a national paper (Mainichi Shimbun, 15^ April 2009). This means that the research had an impact on society as well as an academic significance., Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, 2007 -2009, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), The University of Tokyo
• Research and Teaching Evaluation-a Comparison of Britain and Japan
  HADA Yumiko; KINMONTH Earl; EADES Jerry; ASPINALL Robert; YORIMOYO Akira
  1.Every year for the duration of the project, the research team organized public lectures, international symposia and international seminars, inviting researchers from overseas and from within Japan, and carrying out discussions on "University Evaluation in Britain". 2.On 24 and 25 January, 2005, an international symposium on "A University for Society" as well as a special lecture on "University Evaluation-Research and Teaching" were organized at the Nakanoshima Center, Osaka University. Participants from the United Kingdom included Sir Michael Bichard, former Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education and Employment and currently Rector of the University of the Arts London, and from Japan Mr Masato Kitani, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and Professor Masakazu Yano from the University of Tokyo, as well as Professor Earl Kinmonth, one of the research investigators. A report of the symposium was featured in a two-page spread in the Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper on 12 February, 2005. 3.For the duration of the research project, research investigator Jerry Eades served as an elected committee member of COE. 4.Every year during the project, Head investigator Yumiko Hada as well as investigators Earl Kinmonth, Jerry Eades, and Robert Aspinall gave presentations on Japanese university education at the University of Hawaii, the University of Oxford, the University of Kent, Osaka University, Yokohama National University, Nihon University, and other venues. 5.Research investigator Jerry Eades set up an international academic association at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. 6.The results of this research were brought together in the form of an interim report (University Evaluation-Data Box) as well as a final research report (see attached document)., Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, 2001 -2004, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)