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One of the downsides to the current structure of the global ELT community is that ELT career progression can be challenging and not particularly well defined. So, for any teachers that want to develop themselves, what English language teaching career options are out there?
Well, one option is to consider a move into teacher education. In this blog, I’ll look at this in more detail, exploring the path that teachers can take towards becoming a teacher educator, looking at some of the challenges in teacher education that are met along the way and providing more detail about what a teacher educator role requires.
What does teacher education mean?
A definition may be useful first. The term ‘teacher education’ is a broad term that is used to cover both the delivery of initial teacher training courses and being involved in continuing professional development (CPD) in-service for teachers.
What does a teacher educator do?
Many teacher educators combine classroom teaching with working in teacher education, and in many ways, that is quite desirable because it ensures that they maintain contact with students and course materials, and that would seem to be appropriate. Others work full-time as teacher educators delivering train the trainer courses.
What career paths are there for ELT teachers?
As mentioned, ELT career opportunities can be a challenge and not well defined. For example, a teacher may take ELT certification programmes, such as the Cambridge CELTA, the Trinity College CertTESOL or a degree in English with a teacher training element, teach for a few years afterwards and then consider doing a diploma-level qualification or an MA in TESOL. These are significant investments but clearly a very important part of that teacher’s ELT professional development.
However, these still won’t necessarily lead to a better paid job. They could well lead to a senior teacher role or, beyond that, a director of studies (DoS) role. But many DoS jobs have limited timetabled time in the classroom and onerous administration, as well as academic tasks. They’re not for everyone.
Some teachers leave traditional teaching institutions and go to work for textbook publishers or assessment providers in editorial or commercial roles, so there are some opportunities there, but these tend to be few and far between.
Now let’s look in more detail at how to become a teacher educator.
How to get into ELT teacher training
One direction to go in, as mentioned above, is to qualify to become a Cambridge CELTA teacher trainer or lead a Trinity CertTESOL course. This is intense work, but it can be very rewarding.
These kinds of teacher educators will either work for an institution that has a large throughput of certificate courses or, in many cases, will work as freelancer teacher trainers delivering courses in person as well as online. The freelance options are particularly attractive for somebody who enjoys travelling to increasingly exotic locations. Many certificate-level teacher educators do go on to teach diploma-level courses.
The other typical category of teacher educator, and these two categories are not mutually exclusive, will be someone who delivers more ad hoc CPD for English teachers. This could be within their own institution as part of its internal CPD provision, or they could be for commercial organizations that offer CPD to teachers from around the world. These might entail online teacher training or be delivered face to face.
Equally, this work could be for publishing companies or assessment providers. These typically offer two kinds of CPD: some that is overtly commercial and based around a particular product or some that is more developmental as part of their general awareness raising. Much of the CPD provision by publishers and assessment organizations is done by freelancers online as it is less common these days to travel to do it face to face.
Another category worth mentioning, and this is largely for experienced teacher educators, is to join project teams with organizations that have a large CPD activity as part of their global remit, such as British Council teacher training programmes.
What are some similarities and differences between teachers and teacher educators?
In terms of how to transition from ELT teacher to teacher educator, some teachers just slowly take on more and more CPD work, others do formal training such as that to deliver the CELTA, and still others do train the trainer courses. One of the key considerations is what the differences between being a classroom teacher and working as a teacher educator are. The reality is that while there are some differences, there are also many similarities.
I’m essentially a teacher educator as well as an author – look out for my book Training the Trainer – a resource book for teacher educators, a new addition to Garnet Education’s Teaching Skills Kit – and sometimes people ask me in teacher CPD sessions, “When did you last teach a class?”. My response tends to be, “Well, I’m doing it now.” because delivering teacher education is still teaching; it’s just a different ‘student’ base and a different body of information.
As a starting point in terms of the similarities, most of the issues around classroom management, motivation, classroom language, dealing with unexpected reactions from the group and understanding people’s contexts and concerns are exactly the same in both ELT teaching and teacher education. In this sense, it can be a relatively easy transition to make for many teachers.
There are, of course, significant differences to be kept in mind. The most obvious is perhaps that teacher education involves working with adults, and for many teachers, teaching adults in ELT is something they haven’t necessarily had much experience with. In particular, in the case of CPD rather than initial teacher education, trainers can find themselves working with teachers who are very experienced, have their own ideas about classroom practice and will challenge what is being discussed.
This is perhaps the biggest difference as in-service teachers can often be resistant to change, sometimes resisting just because it’s new or different, and sometimes resisting because they fundamentally disagree with the approach that is being discussed. That can pose a significant challenge.
What are some challenges teacher educators face?
People working on a certificate-level teacher training programme do have the satisfaction of seeing people’s behaviours change (hopefully for the best) over a period of three or four weeks and can see positive outcomes emerging. Those working on in-service teacher education often don’t get this satisfaction because their sessions are two- or three-hour or one-day workshops, and in many cases, they never get to see the teachers putting the ideas into practice in their respective classes. That motivation we get from their progress tends to be absent. Of course, those who work on CPD within their own institutions may well get to observe lessons and spend time talking to teachers over the weeks, and they’re more likely to see their progression, but for many teacher educators, what happens in the classrooms of the people they have been working with is hidden.
Assessment in teacher education is something that’s rather different from classroom teaching. Because they offer qualifications, the Trinity and Cambridge certificate programmes and university degrees do have a significant element of assessment, whereas most CPD doesn’t. There may be certificates of attendance, but any evaluation of teacher progress, especially in very short courses, tends to be avoided as it can be quite a contentious area.
What makes a good teacher educator?
Based on the above, it should be clear that effective classroom skills are perhaps the most important thing. The second area would revolve around the word ‘empathy’, and this is particularly important when working with experienced teachers. An understanding of their concerns and anxieties is critical. Thirdly, and this is related to the above, is the ability to see the material and approaches used by a teacher educator through the ‘lenses’ of the participants.
This is particularly key when working online with large groups of teachers from around the world. It is so important to understand the vast variety of contexts, resource levels, class sizes, and so on, that people around the world work with. Without making the session bland or generic, it is important that everybody feels there is something that they can take away and use in their classes.
Another thing that teacher educators perhaps need, and this is arguably an important general teaching skill, too, is a degree of humility. Remember that teacher educators work with fellow professionals. In the case of CPD provision, they may have a lot of experience, while on initial certificate courses, there may well be participants joining who have a lot of teaching experience in another area or have training experience in a different context. Bearing that in mind, respecting and building on it is tremendously important.
The final thing needed to be a good teacher educator is to remember that it’s still teaching, and we are still teachers.
The bottom line
Becoming a teacher educator is a fulfilling TESOL career path that blends teaching expertise, training skills and professional development. Whether through formal qualifications, CPD facilitation or freelance opportunities, educators can transition into this role by developing key skills and gaining relevant experience. That should stand you in good stead, but if you’d like to read more on this topic, be sure to read Training the Trainer – a resource for teacher educators, which is part of Garnet Education’s Teaching Skills Kit.