Article Review

Link to article.- Refer to page :145-163

Article review.

Introduction

This article entitled “English Teacher Professionalism and Professional Development: Some Common Issues in Indonesia” is written by Grace Ika Yuwono (a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Language and Literature at Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Indonesia) and Lesley Harbon (a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney).This article was published in “The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly Special Issue on English Language Teacher Education and Development September 2010 Volume 12, Issue 3”. In this paper, I will summarize and select several points mentioned in the article to be compared to teachers of English language in Malaysia and also from my own personal experiences.

Article Summary

Professionalism and professional development programs for English teachers are undoubtedly desirable and important in all ELT contexts throughout the world, particularly given the fact that English is now the preferred language of communication in the fields of science, communication, technology, trade and education (Senior, 2006; Walker, 2001). It is perhaps not easy to list what professional English language teachers must possess or how they should develop as professionals Perhaps for Indonesian context, English teachers – following Walker‘s (2001) brief summary - are considered to be professional ‘if they at least: (1) have educational qualifications, (2) have good subject-matter knowledge, and (3) are skilled practitioners in the classroom (Yuwono & Harbon, p.148). Discussions in this paper are based on a study conducted in the town of Salatiga in Indonesia. Forty-six English teachers who worked at various types of secondary schools participated in the study. Semi-structured interview method, which consisted of a predetermined set of questions, was the main data gathering tool.

Findings of the current study suggest that English teacher professionalism in Indonesia can be elaborated in terms of five areas, namely motives for entering the profession, teaching rewards, the society‘s views about the profession, teachers‘ career progression, and the perceptions of teachers and principals on the meaning of professional EFL teachers. This paper, however, only focuses on the area of motives and rewards, and how those two impacted upon professional development.

Critical Review

The term professional may be defined as “following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/professional). In this article, the authors try to elaborate on the issues surrounding the English teachers professionalism and career development in Indonesia. English language had been introduced in the country in the early 1950s and can be considered as a new language for the country (Nur,2003). English teachers in the country are facing several issues such as choice of approaches, teachers’ qualifications and being underpaid.

Hence, it is important to look for the real problems in developing the teachers’ professional development particularly in English language. Some 46 teachers of secondary schools in Salatiga,Indonesia have been selected to be interviewed to find out the teachers’ own perception of what is their motive in choosing the profession and their plan in professional development of the career.

The methodology used in this research, Semi-structured interview method, which consisted of a predetermined set of questions, was the main data gathering tool. The interviews ranged from 20 to 70 minutes and were undertaken in Indonesian as the researcher is a native-speaker of Indonesian. Data from those interviews were then transcribed.

A semi-structured interview is a method of research used in the social sciences. While a structured interview has formalized, limited set questions, a semi-structured interview is flexible, allowing new questions to be brought up during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says. The interviewer in a semi-structured interview generally has a framework of themes to be explored (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-structured_interview).

The article focused on two aspects namely motivation for entering the profession and rewards. According to the article, there are many reasons why someone will choose to enter teaching profession. The reasons will indicate the level of commitment and perception of the profession. The reasons include things such as passion for the profession, financial burden, influence from families, religious calling, perceived roles and positions of women in the society and love for the language (i.e English) (Yuwono & Harbon,2010).

As we are discussing about English language teachers, it is best if we look at the beliefs about language teaching as a profession:

“Language teaching is not universally regarded as a profession – that is ,as having unique characteristics, as requiring specialized skills and training, as being a lifelong and valued career choice, and as offering a high level of job satisfaction. The degree to which individual teachers have a sense of professionalism about their work depends upon their own working conditions, their personal goals and attitudes, and the career prospects available to language teachers in their community.” ( Richards & Lockhart, pg40)

It means that some people regarded English teachers not as a profession because and the degree of professionalism depends on individual teachers working conditions, personal goals and career prospects of language teachers within their local context.

In Malaysia, the government has launched “Standard Guru Malaysia” (Malaysian Teacher Standard).Standard Guru Malaysia was formulised based on these rationales:-

- teacher must have teachers professionalism, knowledge, understanding, teaching skills for them to be effective professional teacher.

- agencies & teaching practices institution should prepare clear & complete necessity like basic, curriculum, infrastructure, educators, teaching & learning source as well as quality guarantee to make sure practice process going smoothly, effective and high quality.

- MOE is still working forward to increase excellent of teacher education institution that can be a showcase.

- SGM has underline criteria and standard of teacher in line with Malaysian Framework Qualifications Framework(MQF)

(Translated into English from this source http://www.ipik.edu.my/sgmdoc/rasional.html)

This document will serve as a guideline for teachers to uphold the good name of the profession. The government should be praised for taking this initiative in promoting the professionalism of teachers in Malaysia. It is hoped that the teachers here will take this advantage in developing their skills and knowledge to better suit the level of students nowadays.

In the article, there were those who enter the profession for the passion of teaching even before they entered the profession. But there were also those who did not choose to be teachers in the first place but gradually fell in love with the profession after they had started teaching for some times. As reflected by one of the respondents, Ms. Nana, a senior teacher at Public School 5:-

“Teaching was actually not my goal in life; I didn‘t intend to become a teacher. But after dealing with students for some time, I must say I fell in love with the profession. Now I always feel satisfied whenever I can make my students understand after I explain things to them or whenever I can apply new methods in class successfully.”(pg.151)

In our country, much had been said about the teachers coming from the Post-Degree Teacher Training (Kursus Perguruan Lepasan Ijazah). They were accused of spoiling the profession, inadequate training in teaching and they chose to be teachers just because they could not find other jobs. As a product from this programme, I would like to defend myself and others like me. We had been chosen to enter teaching profession through MTest (Malaysia Teacher Selection Test), essay writing and after we had passed the test, we have to undergo an interview.

Then, we had to enrol for one-year training at selected teacher training institutes. After all that selection processes and training how could anyone say that we are not qualified to be teachers? Yes, I admit, being a teacher is not my first choice but that does not mean I am going to spoil the profession. Once I have entered this profession, it is my duty to do my best in contributing to the betterment of this country. In fact, some of us came from other professional background such as lawyers and engineers before we chose to dedicate in teaching profession. One of my friend once said, “Our first girlfriend or boyfriend in life is not guaranteed to be our wife or husband for life”. It means that, even if being a teacher was not our first choice but once we had been chosen to be one, we would give our best to uphold its good name and professionalism.

As for rewards in this profession, according to the article:-

“Most teachers who participated in the current study admitted that the teaching profession and their professionalism are not yet properly rewarded despite the hard and massive work that they have to perform daily and the high expectations from parents and society that they have to endure. This, as a result, has further affected their professional growth.”(pg.157)

The question of how much does the teaching profession is valued is a sensitive subject. The situation in our country is more or less the same. Teachers are expected to do administrative tasks apart from teaching. For example, we had heard of teachers who needed to collect schools fees, taking care of pupils’ personal files and others. These tasks will impede the professional growth of this profession simply because most of them are tired having to attend to all these. Fresh teachers who were high spirited at first will tend to be passive in giving out new ideas particularly in teaching and learning process.

But of course, we should be thankful of what we have now. If we keep on comparing salaries with other professions, the story will go on and on. As one of the respondents said in the article:-

"I think the key is being thankful for whatever we get. Of course we‘ll always think Indonesia teachers are not properly rewarded if we keep comparing ourselves with teachers from other countries, such as Japan and Malaysia. Instead, we have to compare what we are getting now and what teachers in the past received. I believe that if we keep comparing with other countries or other professions, we will feel that our rewards are too little. The fact is, it is enough if we think it‘s enough." (pg.158)

In conclusion, English Teacher Professionalism and Professional Development should be encouraged by the government through channelling enough resources in developing infrastructures and providing equipment. The teachers should also instil the spirit of self-growth and grab any opportunities that are offered such as courses and teaching materials. Motivation can be developed within oneself, the important thing is passion for the profession.

References

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/professional

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-structured_interview

http://www.ipik.edu.my/sgmdoc/rasional.html

Nur, C. (2003). “English language teaching in Indonesia: Changing policies and practices”. In H. W. Kam, & R. Wong (Eds.), English language teaching in East Asia today: Changing policies and practices. Singapore: Times Academic Press.

Richards, Jack C. & Lockhart, Charles (1996) “Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Senior, R. M. (2006). “The experience of language teaching”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Walker, J. (2001). Client views of TESOL service: Expectations and perceptions. The International Journal of Educational Management, 15(4), 187-196.

Yuwono, Grace Ika & Harbon,Lesley “English Teacher Professionalism and Professional Development: Some Common Issues in Indonesia” The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly Special Issue on English Language Teacher Education and Development September 2010 Volume 12, Issue 3.(pg.145-163)