In this interview from the Talk to the Expert series, I had the pleasure of talking to Marjorie Rosenberg, who is the current IATEFL President. Recently, IATEFL decided to stop publishing job ads on their Jobs Market site which are for Native English Speakers only. So, in this interview we discuss the reasons behind this decision, as well as how IATEFL is planning to implement the policy. We also discuss other ways in which IATEFL works towards making ELT a more egalitarian profession. We end by emphasising that both Native and Non-Native English Speakers need to work together, collaborate and co-operate to tackle the prejudices that still exist in our profession.
You can find other interviews and articles from the Talk to the Expert series here. You can also follow TEFL Equity Advocates on YouTube here. Visit the Hall of Fame for a list of ELT Job Boards, schools and Teaching Associations who like IATEFL have implemented egalitarian hiring policies.
Marjorie Rosenberg has been teaching EFL for the past 34 years in Austria. She is currently a lecturer at the language department at the University of Graz, works with corporate clients, trains teachers and writes materials. She has written extensively in the business English field for Cambridge University Press as well as published materials with Pearson, Cengage-National Geographic and Macmillan. She is the author of ‘Spotlight on Learning Styles’ with Delta Publishing and contributed the chapter ‘The learner as a creativity resource’ in the British Council publication on ‘Creativity in the English Language Classroom’. Marjorie has served as chair of TEA (Teachers of English in Austria), Coordinator of IATEFL BESIG (The Business English Special Interest Group) and on the IATEFL Membership committee. She is currently the IATEFL President.
Thanks for Marek and Marjorie for this interview. Good to know that IATEFL will screen out discriminatory ads based only on nationality and race. I hope other organizations and online job board websites will also stop this practice. It’s about time!
Hi Sellena,
Thanks for your comment.
I was delighted to hear the news about IATEFL too, and even more so when Marjorie agreed to be interviewed. Some other organisations are already on board, for example TESOL France, TESOL International, and several job boards too. You can find a list of employers and job boards which are committed to equal opportunities for NS and NNS here: http://teflequityadvocates.com/the-hall-of-fame/
Hello everyone!
I’m an English with Tesol University student in Wales. I’m currently working on my dissertation, on issues around nNESTs and NESTs.
In the summer of 2015, it was the first time that I looked for a job on this field. Until then, I had read about the difficulties that non –native speakers face while looking for a job, but I couldn’t imagine that an employer would reject an exceptional applicant just because of their nationality. I was looking for jobs in summer camps as an English teacher, and eventually, managed to have an interview with a s
summer school in Austria. My interview went great, as my interviewer informed me, but the recruitment team ‘wouldn’t settle with hiring a non-native speaker, no matter how good my interview was’ as I was told by him. It was the first time that I realised in what a tough market I was entering, where skills and competence often come at the second place.
After so many years, dedicating a big part of my education on the English language, I never thought that my nationality (I’m half Greek, half Polish) would be my ‘weakness’. During my research for my dissertation I have read a lot of articles from people fighting for nNESTs’ equal rights on our field. It’s really uplifting to see a lot of NESTs getting involved, not just settling down and being benefited by the fact that English is their L1, but actually fight alongside nNESTs and being able to see the other side of the coin.
Thanks to all these people, including Marek Kiczkowiak, whom his name I have seen very often during my research.
Hi Anna-Maria,
Thanks for writing.
Great to see you’re doing your dissertation in this topic. Hope it goes well 🙂 What’s your specific focus? I’m doing a PhD in TESOL at University of York, and also investigating native speakerism.
Best,