I am genuinely at a loss for words and feel so lost over the whole situation.
This woman who I’ve worked under for the last few years, and who has been setting me up to take over as an associate professor myself, who has made me toil away at absolutely ridiculous hours…has been faking her degree the entire time. I struggled for years to get my PhD and put my share of blood, sweat, and many many tears. I’ve missed out on family events, travelled all the way to Japan, and even forced myself to study the language during all of this. While she came from America mid thirties into the job and was getting paid what took me years of hard work and overtime stress to achieve. I can’t even expose her because she is the one that is heavily pushing for me to be her replacement for supervising graduate students doctoral thesis plans AND is one of my major referees. Saw her resume and the “university” she went to doesn’t exist, it’s a literal diploma mill. After doing a bit of research on her username she uses for her email, apparently she was an artist and did babysitting, nothing even related to teaching or education before she bought her degree in it..
I was suspicious from the start, her curriculum design had no transformative pedagogical approaches or aspects of social constructivism or any semblance of understanding language learners needs. She was my higher up so I said/did nothing but in retrospect it was so obvious.
My morals tells me I should do something about it, but self-preservation implies to do nothing so I can secure my financial and job security. Either I lose a referee that vouches for my hard work in the field of educational management and is heavily pushing for my candidacy for associate professor OR I have to force myself to let it go even though it’s not fair the success she has achieved from her lies when I’ve had to put in all the work and stress for real. There feels like there’s nothing I can do that’ll make me feel happy about coming to a decision.
[Throwaway, I have pictures of my university and mentioned my district on my main profile]
38 comments
If you decide to oust her, I wouldn’t do it to the school or the local board of education — they’re more likely to sweep it under the rug to avoid a scene. I’d probably wait until my job was secure and then give an anonymous tip to the prefectural board of education, as they’re more likely to slam down the hammer. Then act surprised when someone mentions it to you.
^(Not legal advice. Not job advice. Not life advice. Not advice at all.)
If I was in your position I’d just let it go. As unfair as it feels I wouldn’t want to ruin what she has now, even though she cheated to get there. I’d also be thinking of what she could do for me too.
All a bit selfish etc and I can understand how people would oppose this, but I don’t think there’s much you can gain from outing her at this point.
You got your PhD. This title comes with some responsabilites, in my professional opinion: you cannot allow that she continues and might accept new PhD students while you know that she is lying about her qualifications.
All I can say is, she figured out how to play the game in Japan and reaped the rewards.
It’s a reason why many comments are along the lines of “If you REALLY want to teach, don’t come to Japan.” Beyond the low pay, Japan only cares about checking boxes on the paperwork. Even at Uni level, it sounds like there’s truth to this.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but depending on what you want to risk… maybe the best way forward is to just find a way to make the program even better than whatever she was doing?
She’s helping you out if I’m reading this correctly and helping set you up to take her job, doing you a solid.
And you want to out her because you’re bitter?
Sucks, you worked hard and you should be proud while she found a loophole and found a way to get the position without all the extra work needed.
Sucks, but don’t be bitter. That is what this is. You should be proud of your hard work and not worry about ruining other peoples lives.
Be better and don’t snitch her out.
I may be on an extreme here, but doing the right thing has always been beneficial in the long run for me. It really depends on how much you care about doing the right thing. Ousting her may be a small step, but it will make your university look at itself and revaluate itself and its standards. If you feel like you won’t care in a year or two, don’t do anything, but if you think this is going to weigh heavily on your mind, tell the school or BoE. Even if doing the right thing isn’t immediately beneficial (probably harmful in fact) the long term consequences should come out in your favor.
Doing the right thing just for the sake of doing the right thing will also make you happy with yourself as a person. If you don’t care, then no harm, no foul I guess.
Is this at a high level university?
I’d let it go, as long as she doesn’t hurt the kids. I know it sucks that she’s a fake and didn’t actually have to work for anything, but these things will just be swept under the rug.
They should’ve weeded her out from the start. Somebody did not do their due diligence.
It’s not your responsibility.
“Not my circus, not my monkeys.” Just tell yourself that.
You want to turn her in to appease your hurt ego, not for the betterment of anyone else. Why not talk to them first and learn more about the situation before taking serious actions.
If she hasn’t been fired for under performing at this point id say let it go.
So a woman bought a fake graduate degree and then successfully acted the part of a university professor for years? That’s crazy…how did she even understand the elements of academia you are referencing (supervising students, etc). That takes a certain amount of skill and (street) smarts.
What ever happened to people being held accountable for their actions. If nothing is said, nothing is wrong and this will continue to happen with other… basically con artists! I get that your job security is important to you, mine is to me as well. Definitely a tough situation to be in. I tell my leadership that I am completely willing to fall on my sword for what is right, and I am. Not trying to tell you what to do, but there are more important things in life to me than my job, and I refuse to let my job define who I am. All that said, if you do go after her, I’d make sure your evidence is bullet proof first!
Say nothing. It will come back around to your detriment as well.
Using an ISP that is not connected with the university network, search for an anonymous academic-misconduct report form or procedure for your university and report there. Many universities have them. I agree with u/qubitwarrior: you do have a responsibility to do something. On the other hand, you don’t want to go down with her, so stick to anonymous.
You should also be prepared for nothing to happen, as both your university and whatever institutions she was associated with before joining yours have reputations to protect. I once reported faked data in a doctoral dissertation I was advising on—I was using my real name and had access to the original, non-faked data and a copy of the draft dissertation in which that data were reported differently—and nothing that I know of happened with the case: the person in question was granted the doctorate and is presently working as a researcher in a mid-level university. (It’s possible the person in question was investigated and found to not have transgressed, of course.)
Wow. “Her curriculum design had no transformative pedagogical approaches” AND lacked “social constructivism”? I say throw her under the bus so you can rise to the top of the pedagogical rubric heap here in Japan, a land full of transformation based on the hard work of fully buzzword-equipped Eikawa teachers ready to narc on each other just to prove their integrity. Sheesh, lighten up dude, this ain’t no JALT conference…
I would tell them. She can’t do anything once she’s outed, so where’s the downside? You are working your butt off and she’s a lying cheat? No way could I stay silent.
I was in a similar situation a few years back. I found out the person running my department had no qualifications, and on top of that, was being paid twice what I was being paid. Apparently when he was hired the person in charge didn’t do due diligence, and by the time I began to work there he was so entrenched that no one even cared any longer. It also would have been very hard to fire him, since he had already worked there for about 30 years.
And yes, it was infuriating. He made the stupidest decisions, wouldn’t listen to anyone, and we had to fight to improve our programs because he didn’t want anything to change, since he thought any change would make him look bad for not suggesting it himself. It was a nightmare.
Like another poster suggested, the best thing to do is repeat to yourself, “not my circus, not my monkeys” and wait for her to quit/retire/pass away.
This isn’t your problem. It’s the university’s problem. Just do your own work and happily take over – then it will be YOUR turn, and you can show them what a REAL academic can do. 🙂
Check for updates next week on r/AITA
AITA for ruining someone’s life even though they are helping me because of… reasons?
I find it interesting that, from what I can see, no one here seems to have noticed that Immigration might like a word or two with her.
Honestly, if her lacks of skills is having a detrimental effect on the students well being, you are morally obligated to do something.
In the least you should confront her about it. Record everything for your own sake, talk to your union to see what might happen… you should be part of a union.
It don’t just you who’s worked hard there are the thousands of others who have chosen your profession, many of whom probably did it for the love of teaching, to genuinely help people. She is spitting on that.
“Not my circus, not my monkeys”…. it IS your circus you work there, and if you believe this then are quite literally saying you’re a monkey.
Find a way to do it, but bring her down.
Gotta be careful about your referees! /s
It sucks, but honestly? Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Leave her be, your referral is more important than calling out your coworker, who is on your team to begin with. It would be a lose/lose situation because ratting her out doesn’t do anything for you but waste your chances.
Im curious if that breaks a law and is punishable or its just a “we messed up” and she gets fired
If i were you I would get promoted first and then immediately send an anonymous letter to her boss and the board of education
But if it would be obvious how about blackmail? She buys you lunch for the rest of the year and you dont rat her out. Half kidding
When I was at the beginning of my career as an ALT, my supervisor discovered a new hire had lied about their credentials. I didn’t see why it was such a big deal because ALTing is such an entry-level position, but the supervisor was pissed and came down hard on the new hire.
Later in my career, after I had worked hard to get my own academic credentials, I started to see why the supervisor was so upset about it, especially after I started working with people who clearly didn’t have the knowledge to do their job well, but who were able to rise up into positions of importance by kissing the right asses and BSing their way through the right meetings. So much of my career has been spent fixing the mistakes of people who have put less into their credentials but who get paid more than me, that I now feel like I should be ruthless – but only when I find fraud within my sphere of influence.
Academia isn’t fair. It’s never going to be completely fair. I think the best way to make it fairer is to police what you have the power and recognized authority to police and try to ignore everything outside that.
This sub looks down on people for not having enough qualifications, degrees, publications and wanting to advance their career in Japan. It’s ruthless sometimes to innocent questions and newcomers.
Meanwhile, supporting a complete fraud that has completely bullshit their way to highly sought after position without any of those just because they might be good at bullshitting and can get by. Hilarious, it’s time a lot of you do some self reflecting. Apparently you’re more replaceable than you think and someone with a fake degree can do what you do. At least to an acceptable degree, apparently.
That’s some serious allegations. The whole story seems fishy.
I went through a teaching credential program at a uni well known for it in order to teach high school, and as far as I can tell the entire PhD/EdD field is a diploma mill. None of the professors did anything novel or transformative, they just taught normal classes with a bunch of buzz words mixed in. The research was routinely pseudoscientific. Look at the Rosenthal study on the Pygmalion effect, they still cite it as a classic study, despite being outrageously fake. They still talk about multiple intelligences and learning styles as if it’s the settled science, when all the actual scientists who study these things disagree with them.
Whole field feels like a pyramid scheme.
Fake it until you make it
>Either I lose a referee that vouches for my hard work in the field of educational management and is heavily pushing for my candidacy for associate professor
You’re a getting a professional reference from a con-artist.
There’s a good chance you could be roped into whatever long-game she is playing. I would avoid that at all costs imo. You do not want to tie her name into ANYTHING involving yourself.
Ethically, you should report them. They faked their qualifications. They lied to get that job. It doesn’t matter how you feel about it. They lied on their application, they are entrusted to educate, and are expected to be better than this. Be better. Get this person out of academia because they didn’t belong to be there.
its so competitive to get a tenured position now, how has noone called her out before?
I’ve seen universities brush serial harassment under the cover, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a university wanted to remain blind to this situation to avoid the bad publicity and mess.
If she’s outed, what is the likelihood that she will pull a runner in the middle of the semester?
And what happens to grades that have been given by a teacher with false credentials? Are they still legitimate?
I mean Japanese people don’t really know what a good ESL teacher is (blonde? Blue eyes? White person? You’re hired) so I would doubt they could figure this out either.
Report Her!! Fraud!!!
I don’t know your situation, but I’d heavily consider what this would mean for you. The person who is your closest mentor and advocate being a fake could really damage your career. At the end of the day you have to watch out for YOU.
I would absolutely report this anonymously in some way, this is outrageous. The university didn’t do shit clearly.
As a fellow academic, this is completely unacceptable on every level. This person needs to be revealed for who they are, immediately.
Visa fraud! Serious crime in itself! Anonymously report her lying fraudster ass to immigration and the school. I spent years of hard work to get my Masters and it really pisses me off to hear this. It happens very often here and I always make sure to expose these frauds.