I wonder about a great number of things.
First, some of us have English that is more valuable than others.
In the US, most Brittish accents are considered signs of education and refinement. For most of our students this is not the case. I apologize for offending, but the cash cow, right now, is definitely American English.
As an American, I don’t necessarily think much of the country, the people, or the type of English, but bottom lines are bottom lines.
I have extremely strong suspicions that, despite the fact that I have an extremely good education, experience as a writer, and was an award winning speaker in high school, that my language is suborned here because I’m ethnically part Chinese (from parents) and come from Georgia (a place in the States characterize as having low intellectual pedigree). I don’t (and people confirm) have a noticeable accent, but I have to prove myself everyday.
Here’s a guy teaching English without a college degree. Sure, I spent many years in school getting my degrees, but I dont care.
How many other people rely on their face more than anything to slide here?
How many people here jump on the incompetence of anyone with formal training in teaching?
I think that teaching here without a degree is just what most of us are afraid of. We’re afraid that our own lack of preparation or qualification becomes glaringly apparent when someone with nothing more than a Western passport glides onto this island without anymore scrutiny than buying a lottery ticket here.
If we actually wanted to unionize and have some power here, we would have to do what every other union in history has focussed upon, first: standards.
Master craftsmen established unions to protect their jobs AND the trade.
What if we required a language based degree? It could be broad, but hey.
There are tons of things that could be added as criteria.
Would any of them improve the quality of teachers? Yes (in aggregate).
There are tons of great teachers who may never have even graduated high school. There are terrible teachers with CELTA certificates, Masters of Education in English, EFL endorsements: you name it, people’ve got it.
Measures are to improve in aggregate. You take the losses of good teachers with the pay raises, job security, and professionalism.
May some one have mercy on us.
Uhm, is there a question in here?
But, unfortunately, we can’t unionize. It’s not legal for us to do.
And we have no say in who gets the nod for an ARC. I don’t think that’s going to change without some sort of radical movement where a lot of people get deported…
Taking your idea in hand, though, there really should be a place for apprentice and journeyman teachers. Teaching English is the kind of job where you can get trained while you work and see a vast improvement in a matter of months.
If there were ever a successful teaching reform movement among buxiban teachers it should let teachers with no training or experience come and teach, but regulate their salaries. Teachers with experience and training should have a mandatory pay above those without the credentials or experience. Moreover, for every 2 apprentices or journeyman you should have 1 senior teacher.
Apprentice= No experience/no training
Journeyman= 1 year experience, or 4 months experience + certificate, or 2 months experience + related degree (education/linguistics/TESOL)
Senior= 3 years experience, or 2 years experience + degree/certificate
Master= 5 years experience, mandatory degree/certificate, and passing an evaluation from an independent board (preferably attached to the Taiwan government)