How can we best put pressure on the ESL profession to "clean...

Darryl, I think you must vote with your feet. When the trust is broken, there´s no reason to think of a future with that type of employer. The world is looking for good, decent teachers. Find your place. Will that put pressure on them to change? Don´t know... but I know we should not be a party to their practicies. Debbie

Ms. Allen, many teachers have taken such a stand but some believe there is an endless supply of teachers so there is no pressure to reform their behavior. But I would like to stress that some teachers have to reform their behavior as well, it is a two way street.

I was thinking that one direction would be for employers to sign a code of conduct contract that was legal - either in the host country or in the country they do business. Of course, it would be voluntary, but it would send a message to potential teachers that they were a serious about keeping their word. The real question then is how many employers would sign up to face potential legal issues when there are so many business stresses to running a school? That makes it less certain that it would be effective in gaining the momentum it needs to get rolling. Certainly though the ESL world would be better if such a contract existed as an alternative solution to recruit reluctant teachers - in the long run it would help more than be a legal nightmare I would hope. Of course, the teacher could sign on to some kind of agreement promising minimum behavior and attitude guarantees too, but that might make teachers nervous about going overseas as well!

It is not such an easy issue to discuss or come up with a neat solution.

I have to agree with Deborah Allen on this one, we need to walk away and sound the alarm on countries, schools, or agencies that don´t treat teachers well. Yes there are teachers who abandon their posts, but often this is for psychological as well as professional reasons (unable to handle the new country, disagreements about pay, ect) and yes there are teachers who drink and are completely unprofessional, but the question is, why do agencies and companies hire these teachers? And how can they continue being employed?

I think one way is for the companies such as SeriousTeachers to take more Seriously their role as Internet Gateways and to begin weeding out companies that have serious offenses against them. One teacher complaining could be a vendetta, but when an agency racks up 20 negative teaching comments against them how many teachers have silently walked away without saying anything?

Before I work for a school I check the forums to see any all comments that have been made and scour the internet. ONE bad comment about a school or agency is enough to put me off. We are all highly educated individuals, we don´t have to accept just any job...

Darryl my first assignment had no consideration for good business practices or education. It was private teaching for a family in Jiangmen. The ad and offer looks great but if multiple teachers have left (this was my red flag) there is a poor educational and or business practice somewhere. There is no reason for a contract anymore as the hiring party does not adhere to themselves.

Therefore, I WALKED away in the most professional manner.

Sherry, I am glad that you found the courage to leave your situation. What I am concerned about is the organizations that take advantage of teachers when they have no alternative but to stay in their jobs - some come to their overseas assignment with no money to escape or for many other reasons choose to stay. Also, there is a spate of dishonest teachers out there I am afraid that sully all ESL teachers reps. They realize they don´t have to put in an honest days effort. As a result, in the last school I was at they viewed the native speakers as entertainers only - which is a difficult perception for serious teachers to change. Classes were then designed with entertainment value in mind, so that developing students language abilities was not so easy. What was worse is that the local teachers were jealous of the pay and attention the native speakers received. writing them off as non-teachers. So the native speakers had the worst of both worlds in a way - after teaching a number of years you eventually come to think that being an entertainer only is a waste of your life´s energy, don´t you agree?

Yes, I agree with walking away. But how can we warn others. I know this company in Ukraine has going through five native teachers in 14 months. But how can we tell other teachers to stay away?