Ao Fujii - CH

What made you decide to apply for a grant at the Leading House Asia?
Within my research under the JSPS Research Fellowship, my current interest lies in the philosophy and the practice of multilingual education in Switzerland from the 1970s. Before applying for this programme in spring 2021, I had examined political archives which were available online, but I was willing to access further documents. Also, I was looking for a concrete case of the policy-making process at the cantonal level. It needed more advice by the researchers in Switzerland and to build relationships with teachers. In addition, as a future researcher, I needed to improve my output skills in French, English, and German. That’s why I decided to stay in Switzerland.
As the research fund for JSPS young fellowship was not enough to live in Switzerland, I was looking for another grant. This programme was attractive for me because I can conduct my research as one of the players who contribute to the development of Swiss-Japanese relationships.

How did you secure a host professor?
The ELCF (École de langue et de civilisation françaises) of the University of Geneva is one of the most prestigious research institutions for language didactics. Since my supervisor, Prof. Nishiyama, had strong relationships with the researchers of the ELCF, especially with my host Prof. Gajo, whose lecture inspired me during my exchange year at the ELCF (2015-2016). Prof. Gajo has accepted my stay without any problems.

How would you describe your experience of the programme?
During my stay, Prof. Gajo and my colleagues of ELCF encouraged me a lot. Prof. Gajo provided me with constructive and invaluable feedback on my research plan and helped me to fix my research question and methodology. He supported me initiating and establishing contact with the researchers and experts in the relevant domain to facilitate the data collection. In addition, he helped me to participate in several summer schools, which allowed me to build connections with other Swiss and international young researchers and to improve my research plan. Furthermore, the ELCF, as the host institution, prepared all the necessary environments and equipment for my research during my stay.

What role did the Leading House Asia play in the programme?
Without the financial and administrative support from the Leading House of Asia, I couldn’t have completed my research stay with success. Although I had to change more than once my departure date and period of stay, the communication with the LHA was totally smooth.
During my stay, in the name of this sponsorship, I did not have any problems to build relationships with the researchers and the interviewees (who are at the official, political and administrative post), whom I cannot reach individually.
In addition, being supported by the LHA gave me a sense of responsibility. This helped me every day to move forward in my research.

What were the impacts you made through the project/partners/individual?
During my stay, I could fix my research theme and methodology and conduct the data collection. By discussing with my host professor and other researchers in the domain, I decided to focus on one of the cantonal projects for bi-multilingual education: the German immersion education in public schools of the Canton of Neuchâtel (“project PRIMA”). Neuchâtel, where French is the only official language, has recently begun early German immersion teaching (=teaching mathematics, music, science and other subjects in Germain from kindergarten), and this has led to significant results. As Neuchâtel is the first canton to have started immersion education in public schools, PRIMA is one of the most important and promising cases for the research of language education policy.
To examine qualitatively this policy-making process, I have proposed the content analysis of the political documents and semi-structured interviews with policy-makers and finished the data collection and the first part of the analysis. The result of the first part of this analysis will be published in the article at the end of March 2023.
As the next step of the analysis, the interview data will be examined to clarify the argument of each policy-maker. It is expected to elucidate the policy-making process concerning bi-multilingual education in public schools and to focus on the variety of perspectives of each policy-maker on multilingualism and language education. The findings of this prior work will be fundamental for my thesis.

Testimonial: what were your personal experiences/thoughts on the bilateral cooperation experience?
During this stay, I could improve my output skills in French, English, and German. I had many chances to present my research plan and to discuss not only with my colleagues and the researchers of the other discipline but also with my host family and friends. This opportunity allowed me to sharpen and clarify my interest and to reflect on my research question. Moreover, I could enhance my intercultural competence, in discussing any topics related to language education policy with my colleagues from all over the world.
Furthermore, I had several chances to organise a workshop of the Japanese language and culture in primary schools (in German immersion classes for French-speaking children!). I was really impressed by the children’s strong interest in Japan and in Asia and their keen insight for Japanese and Asian society. I hope that I could contribute to the development of Swiss-Japanese relationships as well as intercultural understanding at the individual level.