The Language Teacher
05 - 2000
The Way Ahead . . .
Jim Swan & Tim Knowles
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).
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