Pedagogy, politics and p....... (let's not let it be paperwork)

It was at the a NATECLA Y&H regional conference in 2012 that Rob Pertrell and Mel Cooke delivered their keynote speak titled Pedagogy, Politics and Professionalism. The event was a bit of a blurr for me, not only was I feeling the pressure of being on the organising committee, I was also delivering a workshop. I remembered the three P's from the key note - but always struggled to quite remember what they were!! Pedagogy and Politics I remembered but the third P always seemed to elude me.

I'm feeling a rather large slice of irony in not recalling Professionalism as the third P. So much of what I do is tied to this. Attending a Management Council meeting for NATECLA I recall talking to a fellow ESOL tutor about motives for being involved with NATECLA. For me it has always been very much around organising the conferences - I've always shied away from the more explicit political lobbying. Even during the development of the ESOL manifesto and Action for ESOL I wasn't actually teaching an ESOL class & didn't really get involved.

Professionalism for me is about having freedoms to explore new things, to be able to take risks and figure out what works best for my students. But I've never been good at doing this on my own & I've always been so lucky to work with enthusiastic ESOL teachers. Attending conferences is an extension of this, as is being engaging in Twitter, and it's good to be being reminded of this.

Reading Rob's chapter in the Twelve Dancing Princesses made me feel proud. It made me feel proud to be an ESOL teacher, to be an ESOL teacher trainer. It made me proud to be a part of NATECLA - a strong, professional organisation run by such passionate ESOL tutors, researchers and managers. It made me feel proud of the students & what they stood up for.

It's good to be reminded of this. All the more important in these difficult times; hearing one tutor talk about how it took more than half a day to register students for exams due to the complexities of all their needs and the forms needed to be complete. Seeing another tutor spending almost an hour to complete a time sheet - an hourly paid lecturer - matching the time sheet to the registers before the college would pay. Spending time outside of class re-writing ILPs to make them SMART & discussing the irony of how the more involved a student becomes in the process the harder it is to meet the college demands on specific phrasing.

While I ponder on why I wasn't/aren't more actively engaged in the P for Politics I have to remind myself that we mustn't let that final P be for Paperwork.