EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT STATUS
Why JALT should take interest in the issues
By Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle (debito@debito.org)
Presented at JALT Hokkaido Annual Language Conference
Sunday, May 20, 2001 10:30 AM
JALT has generally taken a hands-off
approach towards employment issues. As seen at the January 2001 EBM, some members
strongly believe JALT should take no stance whatsoever on the subject of contract
employment or untoward dismissals, as it is either "unrelated to language teaching
or pedagogy" or "too political for JALT's new NPO status". However,
I will argue in this talk that there is a very real problem out there, and by not
doing more, JALT is disservicing its members and missing opportunities.
WHAT PROBLEM?
Employment in Japan for non-Japanese academics and educators has been problematic
for over a century. Japan has a long history (cf. Natsume Souseki excluding Lafcadio
Hearn from Tokyo U, 1903) of bringing in "foreign instructors" (gaikokujin
kyoushi) as temporary imparters of overseas information. While Japanese enjoyed
tenure from day one of their hiring, their foreign counterparts specifically received
one-year contracts (under a system called ninkisei). It wasn't until 1982
when a second category, "foreign staff" (gaikokujin kyouin), was
created with three years between contract renewals. This bifurcated system has created
a job market where Japanese academics enjoy lifetime employment, while foreigners
can be dismissed--through contract non-renewal--for any reason (such as age, gender,
ideological activism, disagreement with supervisor, or simply as a cost-cutting measure).
Clearly the potential for employment abuse exists, but over the past decade, as
schools saw the need to downsize with the decreasing student population, The Ministry
of Education (MoE) played a part. Under administrative guidance in 1992-94, MoE
advised all National Universities (kokuritsu daigaku) to dismiss their more
senior foreign faculty (i.e. over the age of 35), resulting in 80% of said employees
receiving pink slips. In 1997, with the passage of the Sentaku Ninkisei Law,
contract employment became an option for Japanese citizens as well, although protest
from faculty has prevented most universities from implementing it. The fact still
stands that to this day, almost all full-time Japanese academics are in tenured positions,
while most full-time foreigners are in contracted, non-tenure track positions, even
though all universities were enabled to offer tenure to foreigners as well in 1997.
Case in point: A show of hands at just about any JALT gathering will demonstrate
most non-Japanese educators are in contract positions, or know someone who is, and
a sizable proportion of those will know someone who felt they were unduly dismissed
from their position. (Most notably, one reason Thom Simmons is president of JALT
is because the president-elect, Dr Jill Robbins, was summarily dismissed from Kansei
U in Oct 1999.)
Essentially, what is wrong with contract employment, when visiting professorships
are gaining ground in overseas universities? At least ten things:
In sum, there is a very real problem here, one which educators should know about
before and after they enter Japan's job market. If JALT is indeed an academic institution
concerned for the well-being of its members and the science, can it continue to avoid
taking a stance despite the problems mentioned above? This brings us to our next
section.
WHY SHOULD JALT GET INVOLVED?
JALT is, at last notice, the largest group of language teachers in Japan,
and thus has a vested interest in serving its members and promoting educational quality
within Japan. Its explicit educational mission is "to promote excellence and
professionalism in language teaching". As I have argued above, ninkisei
has been highly detrimental not only to the individual but to the industry, and people
should be fully advised about the pitfalls in this hostile job market. Many people
come over here believing that foreigners cannot fill tenured posts, simply because
their employer insists that there are legal problems with granting them ("civil
servants", "visa restrictions", etc.). These are now falsehoods and
JALT should advise interested people of this--not only so they can choose the better
jobs, but also to encourage the universities to change their ways by making the fairer
universities receive more job applicants.
The point is that despite what some may say, employment status is in fact a matter
of pedagogy. Without stable positions, where educators can research and educate
to their fullest potential, pedagogy suffers. Even under JALT's new NPO status,
the alleged aversion to "involvement in political activity" is moot, because
a) NPOs do this sort of thing all the time--that is their job by design as groups
of concerned activist citizens, and b) other organizations, such as TESOL, are quite
comfortable in their public role as being a voice of concern and a publicizer of
problems. JALT would do nothing inordinate by helping out.
WHAT CAN JALT DO TO HELP?
Critics decry, "JALT is not a labor union, so leave it out." I feel
few of those people know much about labor unions. I am not proposing here that JALT
call for general strikes, engage in collective bargaining with employer and employee,
or even lobby the MoE. However, JALT presidents past and present have written letters
of disapproval on specific cases, and the fact they have felt compelled to either
by conscience or mandate shows how compelling the problems are. At this juncture,
what JALT can do:
1) Create a "minimum employment standards" list for public display.
2) Create a job center which lists universities which do or do not meet these
standards.
3) Entrust the SCOEP Committee with maintaining this list.
4) Formally enpower the JALT President with the mandate to make public statements
(ostensibly, it already exists, but it is unnecessarily controversial) on specific
cases.
5) Lay the debate to rest at last: Formally state that employment issues also
fall under the perview of JALT's mission, and JALT will assist members in finding
better employment.
IN CONCLUSION
JALT's membership is falling year upon year: 2500 and still slowly dropping.
With my position as an activist within JALT, I get numerous messages saying, "JALT's
do-nothingness really turned me off. Glad you are doing something about it."
Demand exists, so acting as an information source may in fact increase JALT's appeal.
Japan's job market is hardly improving for educators. JALT should help us help
it along.
SHORT LIST OF REFERENCES:
ENDS
