A política de formação de professores na área de letras-japonês em universidades públicas federais/nacionais no contexto da internacionalização universitária : Um estudo comparado Brasil/Romênia com foco na atuação de agências com vínculo governamental japonesas

Abstract

The present work aimed to analyze the way in which Japanese agencies with governmental ties act upon the politics involving training and performance of professors of public federal/national degrees in Letters-Japanese in Brazil and Romania. Previous research, by Nye (2004) and Sá (2018), reveals their actions as a way to increase Japan's soft power. The path of comparative research in Education was followed, based on Bray (2000), anchored in the dialectical approach (KOSIK, 1969; BENSON, 1977), and in the concepts of production and reproduction of the scientific field of Bourdieu (1977, 1988, 2004, 2014). The research locus consists of 4 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Brazil and 2 national HEIs in Romania – Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ); University of Brasília (UnB); Federal University of Paraná (UFPR); Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), University of Bucharest (UNIBUC) and Babes Bolyai University (UBB), with regular Japanese language courses and the possibility of graduation with a teaching license. The choice of the federal and national management courses mentioned above was made to enable the comparative research Brazil/Romania to be carried out, thus excluding the Brazilian state management universities, which have no equivalent in Romania. La elección de los cursos de gestión federal y nacional mencionados anteriormente se hizo para permitir la realización de la investigación comparativa Brasil/Rumania, excluyendo así las universidades estatales brasileñas de gestión, que no tienen equivalente en Rumania. Data collection was carried out through documentary research, using official documents of the courses and official curricula of the professors as a source, including LATTES curricula, and through field research, with a mixed questionnaire with quantitative and qualitative questions (CRESWELL, 2012) in Google Forms, applied to professors who work or worked between 2018 and 2022 in the courses indicated above. The content analysis (BARDIN, 1977; FRANCO, 2008) of the data proved that the training, both initial and continuous, of the professors who work in the analyzed undergraduate courses, is influenced by the following Japanese government agencies: Ministry of Education, Science and Technology -MEXT and Ministry of Foreign Affairs – MOFA, through government agencies Japan Foundation and JICA. In the initial training, the use of didactic materials produced with the participation of the agencies, obtained by the degree courses in Japanese language through donations and recommendations from the agencies, as well as the receipt of scholarships and courses with exchange to Japan, stands out. In continuing education, professional improvement carried out through courses in Japan or regionally stands out. It was also observed, as part of the reproduction of the scientific field of Japanese studies at the university level, that teaching professionals in the analyzed Japanese language degrees reproduced the relationship with Japanese agencies with governmental ties with students, through the recommendation of courses and exams proficiency tests organized by Japanese government agencies. It was noted, in both countries, the existence, in the curriculum of most professors, of courses offered by MEXT and Japan Foundation, and official recognition was observed, by the degree courses in Japanese language, of training activities and programs and of the Japanese language proficiency test offered by Japanese government agencies. This research is important for the Amazon region because it includes in its locus the only Japanese-language degree course in the northern region of Brazil, opened in 2011 at the Federal University of Amazonas, with the

asd support of the community of Japanese descent and Japanese agencies with government ties such as the Japan Foundation and the Consulate General of Japan in Manaus.