Intercultural Perspectives in Multicultural Education

From Infinite Earths

Topic: ESL teachers in Japan

Japan remains one of the few countries in the world where ESL teachers require little or no certification or credentials in order to teach English. In comparison, most areas, if not all, of the United States require a graduate education or ESL credentials (i.e. CELTA, CELTYL) for employment as an ESL teacher.

This, in turn, creates a large workforce of relatively unskilled teachers, likely educated in other fields and for other trades. Combined with the cultural learning curve involved with the major distinctions between western and Japanese cultures, the potential difficulties of jumping into a field such as language teaching often prove daunting, and can explain the large turnover of teachers in the field. The JET Program, a cultural exchange which brings westerners to Japan for English teaching, involves a one- to three-year term; one private language company notes the average stay of a native- English teacher is somewhere between one year and three months to one year and seven months. This sort of transience is made more stark by “runners,” teachers who return home shortly after their arrival, for any number of reasons.

Yet, there are teachers in the workforce who have established a sense of permanence, making the long-term commitment to the ESL profession. It is reasonable to assume that some stay because they need to, but among others that want to, the rationale could exist somewhere between a love of their adopted culture and a love of teaching. An exploration into the mindset of the persevering ESL teacher, amid countless others who come and go at a startling rate, would provide some answers for how best to handle and overcome vast cultural differences, and even develop an appreciation for such distinctions.

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