Abstract:

Across the globe higher education is a competitive domain hosting multiple economies of commodification, consumption and exchange. One of the fundamental assumptions structuring the dynamics of higher education is that across any given course of study, students are recipient to the qualified knowledge, achievements and professional experiences of instructors and that these attributes can be used to advance individual aspirations for career-success after graduation. The qualified knowledge, achievements and professional experiences of instructors serves as basis for recruitment by the institution which makes recruitment decisions based on their perceived resale value as commodities to students and reputation. Students can therefore be expected to pay premiums in terms of entrance requirements and tuition fees to enroll in institutions where instructors themselves are in possession of valuable forms of qualified knowledge, achievements and professional experiences. The modern university can therefore be contextualized as a site for such consensual exchanges to take place. This presentation draws attention to particular problems within these consensual exchanges wherein institutions are unable to demand accountability from tenured faculty and effective oversight procedures for resolution are lacking. More specifically, the authors ethnographically report on the prolonged use of documented avoidance strategies used by a cliché of foreign tenured faculty within a Japanese information systems university as a means of avoiding attaining formal qualifications commensurate with local Japanese faculty, removing themselves from the need to undertake educational research and publishing, and using silence as a means of withdrawal from academic discussions with colleagues who express concern with teaching materials and other aspects of workplace performance. We situate our evidence-based analysis around Ashforth and Leeâ<80><99>s (1990) model for defensive behaviors in organizations which highlights how individuals act defensively to avoid action, avoid blame and avoid change in relation to professional development issues. We situation our discussion as relevant to professional development and quality assurances with a focus on educational provisions in non-Anglophone contexts.

Keywords:

Professional development, quality assurance, higher education, avoidance.