Career paths in ELT publishing
One of the biggest frustrations I hear from TEFL teachers is that there is no clear career progression in our profession, especially for those who do not want management jobs. There is an even louder clamour from those who want to break into writing for English language teachers and students, as there aren’t even the few clear options like “CELTA leads to DELTA leads to MA leads to university job” or “one year of experience leads to International House leads to British Council” that teaching can sometimes offer. Although the way most people who now get published regularly originally broke into the business are as varied as the teaching careers of the vast majority of teachers who did not follow the two ladders I described above, I hope giving a couple of simplified examples can persuade more people that it is a ladder worth starting on, and one that can provide satisfaction on every rung even to those who don’t make it all the way to the top.
Example One- The Article Man
You can read the rest of the first of my articles on this topic here, and comment are very welcome below.
You might also want to take a look at some of the things I have written on this topic on TEFLtastic:
Top tips for getting published in ELT
An example of a perfectly written but perfectly rejected (or at least endlessly delayed) book proposal
And various more bits and pieces, including some insider gossip, can be found in the ELT publishing category of the blog.
November 29th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Sorry, but the link in for article man from (http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/teaching/efl/elt-publishing/career-paths-in-elt-publishing/) at the link (http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/wp-admin/Career%20paths%20in%20ELT%20publishing), was Error 404 - Not Found. Thought you would want to know.
Enjoz,
Jeffrey Rath
November 29th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Thanks a lot for that, I was really starting to wonder why so many people had read that post and not clicked on the link… Silly me, it was of course because of yet another technical mess up by myself. Now fixed.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Thanks for the links, I found your comments and articles interesting. Ive been teaching in Asia for a couple of years now, and after being back in the UK Im considering to do it again at the British Council. Since you mentioned the BC in your original post I am curious to know of the BCs reputation for teachers compared to say others (national institutes of the country). Reputation in terms of career progression and ne thing else you on ne one else deems relevant. Thanks.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:45 am
I’ve never worked for them myself, but your feelings on the “CPD= exploitation?” post above might give you some idea on whether you would like working for them or not.