university-governance
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- PaperTESOL Quarterly17 Jul 2026
Tracing the Change in the Status of a Language Teacher in University Governance through English Medium Instruction
Ikuya Aizawa, Yuka Akiyama
A longitudinal case study of one language teacher in a Japanese engineering school found that top-down EMI implementation raised the teacher's status in faculty governance and enabled collaboration with a senior content teacher, leading to formalized EMI support and recognition of language support in engineering education.
Original abstract
This article examines how a top‐down English medium instruction (EMI) decision changed a language teacher's status and participation in faculty governance in a graduate engineering school at a national university in Japan. Using a longitudinal single‐case design, the study follows one language teacher across the period from policy announcement to early rollout of EMI implementation. Data comprise three milestone interviews, audio‐recorded research‐practice meetings, reflective journals and implementation documents. Two main findings emerged. First, EMI acted as a catalyst for cultural change by raising the status of the language teacher in a setting where language support had been dismissed as a distraction from “real” engineering. Second, EMI granted the language teacher access to collaborate with a senior content teacher, who served as a gatekeeper to institutional leadership. This collaboration resulted in the formal establishment of EMI support provision and repositioned language support as a recognized component of engineering education. We found that EMI transformed not only the teacher's participation in governance but also faculty‐wide decision‐making processes. The study demonstrates how process tracing can document the decision‐making mechanisms that contribute to institutional cultural change during a faculty‐level transition to EMI.