Hi Heather

I guess my first question would be to ask in what sense you feel insulated from the politics as a teacher? 

More seriously, I think it is a concern, and I think the middle management role taken on by the ADOS/DOS in some organisations is perhaps the most thankless task in any language teaching organisation.   In some ways I think you answer your own question -  one has to remain true to ones own beliefs and principles, and the rest will follow. If that makes sense?  

If you like you can use teaching as an analogy.  You have a set of beliefs and principles about how teaching and learning works.  Your students are acting on this from one end (as they have their own set of beliefs) and possibly your manager (or even your coursebook) is acting on it from the other end.  In the end you work out how to do the best job you can do based on your own beliefs but bearing in mind the other issues.  (That's a little simplistic, but hopefully the point is there)

 Cheers

Andy

I concur, as long as you stay true to your beliefs, there's almost always a way to work around these issues so that you still feel true to your principles, though at times it is tough, especially since many language schools are focused on the 'bums-on-seats' approach. This conflict of interests also goes into ethical areas such as employment of teachers, and trying to educate students about who is a 'native' speaker of English. As we know, certain 'schools' out there (and I use the term loosely) harbour a lot of prejudice concerning who they employ as teachers and even secretaries of language schools - happy to employ "English-looking" Poles, South Africans, Kiwis, etc.. but not British people who are "non-white" . I've met some really dodgy operators out there who need to realise that the UK is a mutlicultural country and that they need to be educating overseas students to this fact too. They know who they are and they should be ashamed of themselves.

Hello Diana and thank you for your comments,

I myself have not been on the receiving end but I have heard numerous accounts from colleagues as well as

offensive comments by students and some practitioners themselves.  I also notice the ideological differences between myself and some schools in terms of the issues I mentioned in my previous post. I myself went to a very diverse London comprehensive and my family background is quite diverse, so now teaching in the EFL industry in London it often strikes me as odd that the image of English sold by many schools (consciously or otherwise) is at odds with my experience of London and modern Britain.

As to solutions, I was impressed with the talk by David Valente on Mainstreaming ELT equality and diversity and agree with him that issues such as prejudice should be incorporated into EFL curricula where appropriate. For example, these issues are not featured in textbooks that normally stick to 'safe' topics. The argument often goes that controversial topics would not appeal to students, yet I believe that many overseas students would find these topics motivating and indeed relevant for their lives in the UK and elsewhere. A lot of our students also come from monocultural societies (in comparison with London and the wider UK) and many seem to lack awareness of other cultures, so I think textbooks that discuss these issues more and more are the way forward. I do think some textbook series have started to take this on board.

One thing I have noticed from working in schools is that often, if a host family is 'non-white' a student may complain that they are not staying with a 'British' family. This seems to me a common phenomenon. Luckily, I have worked with fantastic accommodation officers who handle the issue well and make it quite clear to students that their attitudes are not acceptable. It strikes me that the image of Britain abroad is still languishing in the 1950s, whether that is the fault of the country concerned or the way that Britain Plc markets itself is uncertain. I do know that the British Council have been more active in trying to promote multicultural Britain, but I would like to hear from other teachers what their impressions are of this situation.

I think this also has crossover and links to comments and reflections from colleagues about how some language schools market themselves overseas with stereotypical pictures of Red buses and Horseguards etc...and I certainly think that some schools pander too much to what they think overseas students expect to find in the UK, instead of educating overseas students as to what they will encounter in the UK.

Generally though, I think that once students stay in the UK for an extended period, they do understand more of the UK and why Britain is made up of the society it is today. The responsibility lies with the schools and the way language schools project their image. I think if more schools took the courage to show students a more realistic picture of Britain in their brochures, diverse workforce etc... then a lot of these issues around prejudice could be resolved somewhat.To answer the questions, I do think these issues need to be addressed in schools and not avoided. This will take a lot of skill and tact on the part of the DoS and other teachers.