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How to get university/college teaching experience?

universeman

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7 Oct 2014
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Hi everyone,
Recently, I am considering becoming an English professor in Japan. I have checked the job listings at Publications of the Japan Association for Language Teaching | JALT Publications , and many of them seem to need experience teaching in a college/university. So my question is , since the majority of professor jobs require, prior teaching experiences in a college/uni , how do I get such experience in the beginning? What methods are there do help me get teaching experience at the college/uni level?

Moreover, I am currently qualified to teach Eikaiwas and ALT. With the ultimate goal of becoming an English professor , which experience would be more useful: teaching at an eikaiwa or being an ALT?

If there is any who is an English professor in japan, I would really like to hear how you got that initial stepping stone into the world of uni teaching.

Thank you so much!
 
You'll at least need an MA, more likely a PhD. You can get experience by working part-time at universities--many do this with the hope that that uni will then hire them as full-timers. It is just so competitive now (and in '88 I was so horribly lucky). My wife's uni advertised a year ago and the first thing they did was restrict it to only those w/PhD, even tho they had not advertised it that way. There were enough of those people that that was the easiest way to reduce the pool.

Edit for clarification: If you want to become a full time regular/permanent employee now at the uni level, you need a PhD. If you're willing to work a succession of contract jobs for up to five years at any given school, an MA will be enough to get around on (and you might even be called "professor" there).
 
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Good answers so far. Here's more.
Moreover, I am currently qualified to teach Eikaiwas and ALT. With the ultimate goal of becoming an English professor , which experience would be more useful: teaching at an eikaiwa or being an ALT?
Some "experience" you're going to need is a proper degree (already mentioned). You're also going to need in most cases some Japanese language ability (reading, writing, speaking). Publications are a huge factor, so get published in journals. You'll typically need at least 3 articles, and yes that often also applies to PT jobs.

If the only options you have to offer an employer are eikaiwa vs. ALT experience, go with ALT. Practically nobody will make you a prof with eikaiwa experience only. Even ALT work in itself is considered slim pickings for any uni job.

Realize that the uni job market is not the best right now. Most jobs are PT, and recently a cap of 5 years was placed on them, such that after 5 years at one place, if you want to stay permanently, they are obligated by law to keep you...and most won't!! It's just too expensive for them. So, be prepared to get shuffled around a lot, and have your schedule filled with lots of classes as a PTer.

Why do you want this opportunity, if I may ask?

(and yes, I'm a FTer at a uni, who has worked his way up from eikaiwa and private HS, for what it's worth. I got my job because I had the above experience, a degree the school wanted, a spouse visa which suggested I'd be sticking around, some Japanese language ability, and several publications. I was also older than most other applicants and still am. I've since gotten Permanent Resident status, so the visa issues are no longer pertinent.)
 
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If you are trying to step up, as mentioned ALT is probably looked upon more favourably, but I thnk that is not important.

More important: You must at least have a masters degree, and you should have experience in teaching at Uni. The typical way would be to be in Japan and try and get some part-time work a university. Take any part-time tertiary opportunity that comes up (which will help you network), be conscientious and professional, use word of mouth/network, and hope for a break. Try to publish in a referred journal (usually if you are part time, you can sneak something into the university's journal which are often un-refereed but are better than nothing). Get you J skills up, join prof org, try and present at something.

Types of jobs:

There are many limited term positions (1,3, or 5 year contracts- 1, and 3 being most common) which means theoretically there should be a lot of open jobs any given year. But these are often filled before being advertised do NETWORKING is essential.

Tenured-type jobs. I am not sure of the process for private ui-niversities, but from my understanding, it really depends on the university.

For "national" universities, generally you are hired on a 5 year terminal contract and in the 4th year you are invited to apply for a tenured position (assuming you meet the requirements). Apparently, these positions are quite few and far between.

Hope that helps
 
Try to publish in a referred journal (usually if you are part time, you can sneak something into the university's journal which are often un-refereed but are better than nothing).
In my experience, this is usually possible only if the PT teacher can coauthor with a full-timer there.

There are many journals that accept authors, regardless of their FT or PT status. What they want is just good work.
 
In my experience, this is usually possible only if the PT teacher can coauthor with a full-timer there.

There are many journals that accept authors, regardless of their FT or PT status. What they want is just good work.

Depends somewhat on the field, I'd imagine. To publish in the journals from my professional organization it's a tough battle without those magical letters: PhD... Even a clinical doctorate gets a bit of the cold shoulder.
 
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