by David Vincent
Introduction
Many native speakers in our profession are children of the 60s and 70s, the decades when, my students kindly inform me, old people were born. Consequently, many of us remember the decade that followed, when pop stars wore gold suits and politician’s names entered dictionaries with the creation of new words such as reaganomics and thatcherite. This decade of Texas oil barons and shoulder pads had a great influence on those of a certain generation, and particularly it seems for those in our profession, in our ability to identify with the A word. Search for it in the body of literature surrounding ELT, I promise you, it’s hard to find. Look for it on teaching forums; you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone raising the issue. Indeed, one of the few places you will find mention of the word ambition is in job ads, such as those for the enticingly bird flu free schools in South East Asia. So, why is it so difficult to find mention of the word ambition in our profession, and what exactly do those non-life threatening languages schools in China and elsewhere really want when they ask for dynamic, ambitious teachers? Putting images of Simon Le Bon on a yacht singing ‘her name is Rio’ aside for a minute, there are several very good reasons why mention of the A word remains so elusive in our profession today.
In at the deep end
Firstly, we must consider the bizarre nature of certain aspects of our profession. Very few, perhaps no other, professions deliver such a baptism of fire as ours offers. Consider the path of entry for native speakers, most of whom have an incredible amount to deal with in their first few weeks on the job. In most industries, despite the forces of globalisation greatly changing the nature of work in the twenty-first century, the experienced professional throughout any number of disciplines, ten to fifteen years into their career, will embark on a post in some foreign clime, by which time they will know their jobs inside out, have developed a level of confidence in their ability, may well take family as a further support system, and, given they will be arriving to fulfill a high level position in their organisation, will have neither financial worries nor as many feelings about being stranded alone in a strange land. Contrast this with the experience of the ELT professional: the first day on the job will, in many cases, be in a country likely to be completely alien, furthermore during this period of adjustment the new teacher will be getting their first ever experience of being in the position of teacher, daunting enough without the effects of culture shock. Ally this to factors such as financial insecurities, linguistic difficulties and little in the way of emotional support and it is easy to see why the start of our careers is so traumatic. This must have some influence on the ambitions of those taking their first steps into the world of English teaching.
Running to standstill?
Another way in which our profession works in contrast to many others can be made obvious by comparing it to just about any other. I think back to a friend of mine who started working part-time at the local supermarket when he was sixteen. After several years, he had worked his way up from lowly shelf stacker to assistant manager, and to a position in Eastern Europe overseeing the acquisition of a Hungarian supermarket. Along the way, he developed a wide range of skills and steadily progressed, having a satisfying career full of upward mobility. What he didn’t do was spend many years looking at every aspect of shelf stacking to become as good and accomplished a shelf stacker as he could be. So, along with an overseas position only coming after serving many years in his profession, there was always a sense of upward movement in his career. As teachers, we do the opposite; we spend a large part of our career progression trying to get better at the same job that we had when we first entered. Whichever way we look at it, this lack of tangible progression has some effect on the teacher’s ability to show ambition. We work very hard in a lot of cases to stay at what could be considered the bottom rung of the ladder. Professional development is an admirable thing, and our profession is all the better for it. Are we, however, thinking about ourselves when we broaden our abilities to deliver in the class room? Are we satisfying our own needs when we embark on training courses? Are we thinking about our own careers and futures? Are we really able to perceive ourselves as ambitious individuals simply because we devote time to enhancing our abilities to teach?
Admitting we have ambition
Another good reason why ambition is hard to track down is this perception of the A word amongst us ELT professionals. Consider the following and see how familiar it sounds; whenever I ask colleagues whether they would consider themselves ambitious, I’m often met with a response such as this, ‘I don’t know if I’d call myself ambitious but…’ which is often followed with some justification about achieving personal satisfaction or self actualisation. It feels sometimes like we’re frightened to admit that we want to achieve anything for ourselves, almost as though it were a character flaw. Of course, there is undoubtedly a good reason for this, although there is even less doubt that the reason is a source of great debate. Several possible causes spring to mind. Firstly, we must think about what kind of people enter language teaching to begin with. Could we describe ourselves as money driven go-getters with a desire to succeed or be damned? It doesn’t really sound right, does it? Maybe we don’t possess what traditionally would be viewed as the need to succeed, the need for money, power and possessions. This argument in itself seems too simplistic, and other external issues must surely come into play. An infamous article in Britain’s Telegraph newspaper a couple of years ago highlighted, in graphic detail, the horrors that we face in terms of mistreatment by employers and the low income positions we are forced to endure. After years of poor treatment and living in the gutter, the ELT Professional is conditioned into seeing low self-esteem as an inescapable part of their lives. Sadly, I think we all know true life cases that exemplify this symptom of the language teaching industry. After all these downtrodden experiences resulting from time spent teaching English, can any ambitious individual retain their desire? When we can so easily think of people we know who seem caught in a cycle of low paying jobs, who are scared to return to their home country in case they find out just how badly off they are, can we really consider this a profession in which a meaningful career can be had, or just an industry that some of us adventurous, free-spirited souls were unlucky enough to get caught up in?
The industry vs. the profession
Let’s examine that word industry. The late great Sir Alec Guinness once famously commented, upon returning to the stage after a spell in Hollywood, how nice it was to get back to the acting profession after spending some time in the industry. The contrast between the two factions is as strong in our chosen field as it was for old Ben Kenobi, and the difference between the two sides also has a great influence on ambition. Many of us work in private language schools and are constantly aware of the need to get the punters in. Perhaps we also use course books chosen because the incentive offered by the publisher was too good to turn down. Of course, there are any number of reputable, professional schools out there, but these two brief examples illustrate where the a lot of main priorities lie for a large number of language instruction providing institutions, and it’s not always with the aspirations of their teaching staff. Furthermore, as many of us start out in such work environments, we come face to face with the realities of the TEFL industry almost immediately. Naturally, language teaching is not alone in experiencing such issues but it does explain why the job can become so dispiriting to so many. Furthermore, English teaching shares characteristics with other jobs which are seen as not offering careers for the ambitious amongst us. Few people embark on a career in hospitality or food service, for example, if they want to get on in life. The hospitality industry is renowned for factors such as labour intensivity, high staff turnover and poor pay and working conditions due to issues such as a lack of trade union representation or professional support. Ring any bells? The stranger in a strange land factor mentioned previously goes to compound the problem; people entering the profession aren’t only being offered poor pay and dubious contracts from employers, they’re entering these situations alone and far away from home. How many ambitious and dynamic individuals are being lost from an industry that is increasingly efficiently run, based around profits first and foremost?
Summing up
So, what are we to do? We can’t fundamentally change the nature of the job: we’re teachers and we’ll remain teachers, unless we choose to branch out into different areas of the profession such as becoming course book writers or regulars on the conference circuit. It’s more than likely that to meet our ambitions as teachers, we need to become teachers plus. Secondly, we need to admit to ourselves that it’s OK to be an ambitious person and that this doesn’t necessarily have to have negative connotations. Furthermore, we must accept that it’s not OK to live in poverty and be mistreated by employers, this is the area in which we can increasingly take control of ELT. Think about it, if you can get a job without any qualifications or experience, is it likely to be a good job? If you’re serious about doing this for a living, should you even consider taking such employment? In the past it wasn’t always easy to uncover information regarding overseas employers, although if someone is prepared to give you a job without you having undertaken any training, they’re just as likely not to care about treating you well, as there is always someone else waiting to take your place. There are even less excuses with the existence of job discussion forums such as that at the ELT World website, where you can find out what you’re getting yourselves into by reading about others’ experiences and asking questions. Blogs are another way of finding out what you are likely to be faced with if you move abroad to teach. I’m a huge supporter of teaching blogs and regularly feature them at ELT World. They will become an ever more effective way of planning for the extreme culture shock that TEFLers face when they move to a new country. Also, blogs such as The TEFL Trade (tefltrade.blog-city.com) and websites like TEFL Daddy (tefldaddy.com) and TEFL Watch (teflwatch.org) provide invaluable information on how to avoid an early departure from what many of us believe to be a rewarding career. More than ever, there’s little reason not to come into our profession without ambition. I feel that I’ve barely scratched the surface of this issue and wish to invite you all to share your thoughts on this matter. Your rebuttals will be published in forthcoming editions of the journal.
About the Author
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