An Insider’s View: Launching a University Program

Abstract

Any new program requires a great deal of resources to realize innovations that fit the government's guidelines and to co-exist with traditions that built the basis for the innovation. However, this process has been hardly recognized. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an insider's account on the process of developing the new interdisciplinary degree program of social science to offer the curriculum partially taught in English at a private university. By elucidating the complexities of Japanese education system and the contextual factors, the author aims to help readers, especially practicing teachers, to understand some of the restrictions they might have faced in their own attempts to innovate or the restrictions they cannot be aware of until they have been involved in the actual process.