Facilitate cooperation between Japanese teachers of English
Strange as it may seem, English teachers within the same school often lack common goals and let problems go unresolved. Many native English teachers find themselves at a school where they are not invited to English staff meetings. Not being a full-time teacher, this is no surprise. What is surprising is that the current NETs, all working part-time who do go to these meetings, report that the decisions often defer to the older “sempai” regardless of whether or not a particular policy results in students learning well. These NETs generally know their place—knowing that we are always at risk of not having our contracts renewed every year, it is dangerous to speak out. However, if NET teachers were to receive full-time employment and a muti-year contract, they would much more easily be able to engage in constructive conversation to work through difficulties. Furthermore, with many full-time NETs employed by the Osaka BOE, these full-timers could network with each other to work on creative solutions to problems that may be weighing down a particular school.
For example,
many schools report that tests and quizzes often result with less than 20% of
the students getting a passing grade.
Most students are failing.
The system allows for this however, by lowering the standards. So a 50% score on a test may easily
become the new average passing grade.
This process is so widespread that it has made it into every area of
English grading at every high school we have heard of. Japanese teachers have been lowering
standards for so long, they seem to have stopped looking for solutions. Native English teachers have resources
of education systems beyond Japan and could at least make suggestions and
full-time NETs could initiate a pilot program to improve test scores. This information could be shared
quickly between schools.
６、日本人英語教員の協力関係の強化
不思議な事に、同じ学校の英語教員は、しばしば共通の目標がなく、問題があっても、そのままにしている場合が多々あります。多くのネイティブ英語教員は、自分たちが「招かれざる客」に感じることがあります。正規教員でなくとも、このことは驚くべきことではありません。驚くべき事は、非常勤の現NETの報告では、特定の授業方針が生徒にいいかどうかというに関係なく、先輩教員にゆだねられてしまう事です。これらのNETは、再雇用が気になるので、徐々にこの事に気づいていますが、口外することを控えています。しかし、もしNETが正規雇用や複数年契約なら、もっと容易に教員の間の違いを埋める建設的な話し合いに関与できるでしょう。さらに、大阪府教育委員会に正規雇用されたNETは、一校では荷が重い課題を創造的に解決するためのネットワークを作ることもできます。
例えば、多くの学校ではテストやクイズの合格率は２０％以下であると報告しています。ほとんどの生徒は、合格していないのですが、基準を下げればテストの合格率は、簡単に５０％を超えます。この作業は、英語の授業やテストでもよく使われていると聞いています。ネイティブの英語教員は、日本以外に教材を持っていて、諸提案ができますし、NETは生徒のテストの点数を上げるための試験的なプログラムを主導できます。そして、このような情報はすぐに学校間で共有できることになります。