It’s a discussion that has long been overdue, and particularly in Asia, where so called native English speaking teachers are still riding the gravy train at the expense of qualified local teachers whose only handicap may well be color of skin, ethnicity, and/or nationality. It goes somewhere along the lines of „I’m white, male, have a random BA and some TEFL Cert and therefore I’m entitled“.
Now, in the case of private language schools who am I to piss in the wind? Business is what it is. The paying customers want or expect someone with a certain profile which includes nationality and/or ethnicity. Justifying this kind of discrimination in the public sector, however, is another story altogether. And that’s assuming a similar work ethic and commitment to a community.
My personal experience with this borders the surreal. Some of the so called native English speakers I have encountered barely show up for work (aside from contact hours in the classroom). Qualifications? Hit and miss. So we get local staff and teachers who are required to work a proper work week (often including clocking in and out and hours upon hours of grading & lesson prep), and the foreign teachers, many of whom seem to be on permanent paid holidays. Imagine a publicly funded tertiary institution treating it’s own citizens as if they were second class members of the very society it serves. Really?
And that’s without even exploring the seedy depths of the stereotypical white male teacher in Asia. The stories I could, and some day might just tell. Not that it’s just the guys, though!
So, quo vadis? One, it starts with awareness, closely followed by openness. Shine a light into a dark corner and watch the rats scurry. Follow that by taking it up a notch to expose the enablers – the colleagues and line managers who look the other way, often under the pretext of „looking out for good people“. Yea right.
Finish the process with transparency, best practices and the implementation of standards and procedures. And no folks, just because you’re held accountable and the things you do (or don’t do, for that matter) happen in a rules based, structured framework doesn’t mean your style or creativity will suffer. It just means you can’t hide behind your face or passport any longer…