Survey shows resources a problem for EFL teachers

A former teacher here has carried out a survey of foreign English teachers to look into conditions in Korea’s foreign teaching community.

Christian Thurston, who used to work at a public school in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, said he carried out the survey because he was looking to set up an online service for English teachers, and wanted to see if his impressions of the English teaching market were correct.

“Instead of relying on opinions or anecdotal evidence I wanted to see some data,” he said. 

“I went searching for it but it wasn’t there, so I thought, ‘Why not gather it myself?’”

After a week he had 270 responses, far exceeding his expectations.

“I thought that getting 25 responses would be awesome,” he said. “So I was blown away by the response.”

The survey showed that teachers were generally satisfied with their work situation, giving it an average score of 6.7 out of 10.

As many would expect, university teachers were most satisfied with their jobs, followed by public school teachers and hagwon teachers. Those least happy were at hagwon that had kindergarten-age students.

But the scores indicated that this was because bad experiences at hagwon were more common than at schools, rather than because they were necessarily worse places to work. 

Hagwon averages were dragged down by dissatisfied teachers, rather than lower marks across the board. Teachers at hagwon and schools who gave a positive score (six or more out of 10) had the same average level of satisfaction.

The survey also looked at media consumption. Those who used more media, including blogs and social media, were more likely to be satisfied with their jobs. This correlation disappeared for news media, perhaps because alternative media had more work-related content and interaction.

Thurston said he was surprised by the reported levels of racial discrimination. Sixty-four percent of respondents said they had been discriminated against, and 82 percent said they had experienced positive discrimination.

At work, lack of resources was a common problem. Only 60 percent said they had a textbook for all their classes, and 48 percent said they had no fixed syllabus. 

Searching for and creating materials was a time consuming business, with 66 percent spending an hour or more a day doing it and 48 percent spending at least two hours a day.

Aside from resources, common suggestions by respondents to improve their working environment included more standardization of roles and expectations, particularly at public schools, better hiring practices and more training.

Complaints commonly also made by Korean teachers featured heavily, including Korean work culture, classroom discipline issues and parental interference.

The survey also sought suggestions on the English teaching situation in Korea.

“The government should develop a standardized curriculum for conversation classes and teachers, the current textbooks don’t even provide for the existence of a foreign teacher despite most schools having them and it seems to be completely up to the school how to use native speaking teachers,” said one high school teacher, adding that 2-year contract terms and better training would be more effective than the frequent turnover at schools.

“Public jobs need to change to give foreigners more responsibility, training, interest, investment, tools and skills. I’m working on my masters degree and have a TESOL certificate ― more than my co-teachers,” a public elementary school teacher wrote. 

“I’m not asked to do much. In fact, I’m not told any real information about my job, responsibilities or social obligations with other teachers.”

He added: “The office of education needs to make a yearly calendar. It’s crazy that I can’t figure out my vacation to visit my family until a month before when plane tickets are not worth the money.”

Another teacher talked about the problems of hagwon: “Most of the problems I have encountered teaching in Korea stem from bullying, pushy parents who want their kid in a level that is too high for him or her. Every Korean teacher I have worked with is too afraid to tell them that. When their kid fails or is disruptive it is our fault. 

“Also, instead of getting rid of poorly behaved students, schools will often keep them in class only to poison the learning environment and inevitably drive out the good students.”

Thurston conceded that the marketing aspect had made some people skeptical, but only one person had criticized him for it. He said that while he thought the criticism unfair, the skepticism was healthy.

“I think that’s a good thing,” he said. “It just means I’ll have to show people that my intentions are good and earn their trust.”

Thurston has been blogging about his findings, starting with the social aspects such as dating and lifestyle and moving onto work-related aspects.

To see more complete details of the survey and more analysis, visit Thurston’s blog at nabunu.com/blogs/christian-thurston-esl-korea-and-nabunu/, where you can also download the raw data.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)