The Opinions and Perspectives column offers readers a chance to air their
views on topics related to JALT, professional development, language education,
or of current interest to our readership. We invite readers to submit pieces
of up to 1,500 words to the Editor.
The Way Ahead . . .
A favourite place for JALT-ophiles with a penchant for punishment
to lurk is on the JALT-EXBO mailing list, where issues of importance to
the organisation are literally thrashed out. This month, we offered ten
of the more vocal members of the list a chance to air their views on JALT--where
we are, what we are, and where we should be heading--from their own unique
perspectives. None of the 'bad-boys' took the opportunity to reply, but
Jim Swan and Tim Knowles sent us their perspectives of JALT, printed below.
If you have your own views on JALT as an organisation, we invite your replies
to these comments.
1. James Swan, Material Writers SIG Chair
Although some people may say that JALT is now at a crossroads, I personally
don't perceive things that way: I think merely that JALT has more or less
reached maturity as an organization. Its form and functions are now pretty
firmly established, and the issues that fire people are mainly those of
any large, mature organization--essentially, what groups get how much of
the budgetary pie. Belt-tightening is not a crossroads. There will be a
shift in our group's future composition, however, that we must keep in mind
as we pursue our primary goal of influencing language teaching in Japan.
The main points of contention over the first 25 years of JALT history
were over the evolution of its structure. In at least one way, this struggle
recapitulated the history of American government: would JALT remain a loose
confederation of independent local chapters, or would its evolution produce
a stronger centralized structure? Despite some lingering voices of resentment,
echoing those of the post-Civil War "states' rights" advocates
in the US, it is now clear that the latter course has been chosen, with
all its attendant pros and cons.
The other main structural dispute was over the right of the newly developed
nation-wide Special Interest Groups to participate in JALT policy-making
on an equal basis with the traditional, locally based, geographic chapters.
That, too, has been largely decided: Although the SIGs at first may not
have been entirely happy with the proportional representation that was eventually
granted after their five-year-long struggle, they have learned to live with
it. They may yet have the last laugh, too, as runaway expenses pressure
the chapters to consider some sort of proportional representation plan for
themselves as well.
A third main area of disagreement occasionally cropping up again--that
of "menuizing" JALT's functions--is only tangentially structural
in nature. The idea is that, by the invisible hand of demand economics,
JALT members picking and choosing from a variety of membership options (i.e.,
consumers voting with their wallets in a free marketplace) will enable the
organization better to know where to apply its resources. This question,
too, has been largely (though not entirely) settled: Some members, perhaps
many, see it as an attractive answer to JALT's budgeting problems, but the
general consensus seems to be that it would be very difficult to implement
this proposal without substantial risk to individual chapters, or to other
JALT institutions, such as JALT publications.
Regarding functions, the main point of contention has been to what degree
JALT should involve itself in contract or tenure disputes between individual
teachers and schools. This battle left a bitter aftertaste in both camps,
but it has been essentially decided that JALT exists to provide professional
support by the fostering and dissemination of language-teaching research
and by the maintenance of a forum where language teachers may interact,
but that, despite personal sympathies with our colleagues' plights, JALT
as an organization will not attempt to fulfill the role of a labor union.
In the past, JALT was usually viewed as the foreigners' counterpart to
JACET, often with a considerable feeling of rivalry attached. Two decades
ago, when JACET was still largely oriented toward the teaching of English
literature, rather than language per se, an undertone of condescension could
sometimes be discerned among JALT members--the "Great White Teacher"
come to Japan to show the "Poor Backward Natives" how things should
be done. But even as the JACET ranks increasingly fill with up-and-coming
young researchers, trained in modern language-teaching methodologies, our
two groups' futures are diverging. Due to demographic changes and recent
shifts of official education policy, one unmistakable trend in Japan is
toward a greater emphasis on early foreign language instruction. University
and college teachers will no doubt remain an essential part of JALT for
some time yet. But, in contrast to JACET's unchanging future membership
pool, teachers of children will surely be an increasingly important segment
of JALT.
It is still unclear what future ramifications this demographic trend
may hold for such groups as the CUE SIG and the Teaching Children SIG, among
others, but successfully reaching out to this expanding new field of language
teachers should enable JALT as a whole to continue growing for many years
to come. Accepting that the character of JALT must necessarily change, it's
up to us, the current members, to continue building for our group's future
by ensuring that these new teachers find a comfortable home and rewarding
professional base in JALT. To do that, we must always ensure that the cutting
edge research we encourage is disseminated in relevant terms and that the
forum we maintain for teacher interaction does not succumb to the danger
of academic snobbery.
2. Tim Knowles, Teacher Education SIG Membership Chair
First, we must acknowledge our strengths. The conference may not satisfy
everyone, but I think that this alone justifies the existence of JALT, and
is the source of much energy for the rest of the year. Again, the publications
may not satisfy all, but I know of no other independent English-language
volumes devoted to Japanese teaching issues distributed on such a scale.
Without JALT, they would not exist.
In the early eighties, JALT represented an opportunity for teachers to
gather together and improve on the accepted wisdom of the time. Today, the
establishment has shifted to accommodate the energy of those days, but teachers
still need to get together: not only in print or [on] the internet, but
in person, to demonstrate, observe, and just be human. This is still a strength
of JALT. The regular chapter meetings, which cover a multitude of issues,
are a feature rarely found in other professional organisations, and are
well worth preserving. And just as vital are the SIGS, most of which (despite
some voices to the contrary) owe their existence to the energy within JALT
as a whole.
To talk of JALT 'heading' places, like some ship, is a misleading metaphor.
People do not join JALT so that JALT can go places. They join so that they
personally can progress. JALT exists only as a conduit and facilitator for
the needs of the members who will go in many directions. It is the role
of JALT to ensure those directions are clear and well sign-posted. However,
in order to fulfil this role, we must be prepared to change. The problem
is that we become so intent on keeping a direction that we become more and
more inflexible.
A simple, flexible organisation should readily be able to reduce expenditure
to fit income. However, until recently, this has not been possible. We complain
at the complexity of JALT's finances, but solve the problem not by reducing
the complexity, but by employing somebody to cope with it. Every year, sixty
people gather expensively to argue about allocation of dwindling income.
Yet the grass-roots function of JALT does not need so many centres of administration
and mini-budgets. It is a policy begun in the eighties under the misapprehension
that it signified 'expansion' (and that 'expansion' was a good thing)
If chapters are starved of funds, this rationalisation will occur naturally,
but it is not an ideal route. The politics of JALT decision making has meant
that the large city areas, with the greatest potential membership, are losing
most funding, and hence we rely more and more on the conference to increase
both income and membership. We may for a time make up the shortfall from
sponsorship, but if we forget that JALT's role is to serve its members,
then members will just drift away. The corollary to that, of course, is
that if members want change, we must do it ourselves. We cannot just wait
for it for happen. (But we probably will).