Bill Templer, bill_templer@yahoo.com
First published in Issue 168, Aug/Sep 2002

Six theses

1. TESOL is especially susceptible to the abuses of ageism in the workplace. Its distinctive political economy of diverse job settings across the globe - coupled with low job security and higher mobility by professionals - opens the sluice to the effects of 'cultures of age bias' in numerous national locales. Despite the planet-wide boom in the profession (cum 'industry'), ever more ex-pat TESOLers in their early 40s and upwards who try to extend contracts or (re)enter the job market run up against prejudicial practices in recruitment and contracting: age and experience are disvalued, in mesh with a maxim that more is less. At 50 or 55, EFL job-hunting can be a truly daunting prospect in most corners of the international emporium, qualifications notwith-standing. Hit 60 and you're ready for the scrap heap. Nor can many older practitioners finesse the option of 'going freelance' (Cooper, 1999).
2. English's hyperspread is intricately fused with the proto-universal youth culture permeating many of the societies where we work. This drives a pattern of preference (sometimes subtle) for 'younger' EFL teachers across the board, whatever their mix of experience or its lack. Emblematic of that tilt is perhaps the inundation along TESOL's Pacific Rim and in Southeast Asia of minimally qualified CELTA (and other) 30-day wonders, whose 'dynamism' may figure among their primary professional assets.
3. Most discriminatory practices against midlife and older EFL specialists go unreported and undocumented, in part because of the opacity of hiring procedures in various venues, the subtlety of age discrimination in internal institutional practice, the curtailment of rights intrinsic to employment as an ex-pat professional, and the near total absence of adequate networking to expose manifestations of discrimination in the profession.
4. Moreover, mandatory age ceilings of 55 in Saudi Arabia and along the Gulf, and of 60 in Thailand and a string of other countries badly in need of experienced TESOLers, impose an absolute and invidious barrier to the more seasoned in our ranks looking for a new post in dynamic markets. Such applications are normally binned upon receipt.
5. The time has come for a sustained transnational struggle against 'ageism,' its stereotypy and practice in the political economy of TESOL, and its multiple overlappings with sexism. We need to identify and combat ageist discrimination in the EFL workplace wherever we teach. Its abuses have to be addressed in conference colloquia, departments, dean's offices and at ministerial level.
6. Ageism (against the old and the young) should also be on the engaged curricular agenda. We need to incorporate materials on ageist bias and labeling as a thematic focus in our teaching - part of a critical pedagogy that looks to a more inclusive 'society for all ages,' sensitive to an ethics of difference, a 'resource for ... challeng-ing and changing the wor(l)d' (Pennycook, 2001: 176). Global Issues SIGs should seek to weave such strands into their skeins of concern.
   

Chat from the field

In some burgeoning EFL markets on the Pacific Rim, ageism would appear to be particularly rank, both in the broader society and in the political economy of recruitment and staffing. Based on observations in South Korea, Dickey (1998) comments:

My own personal perspective is that ageism and sexism in employment practices is rampant in Korea. Particularly in the language institutes that are catering to the (perceived) whims of the customer/student (and their parents!!!). At a university I worked at previously, the Dean was upset because someone he hired based on a photo and telephone conversation turned out to be not only 45 ... but a bit greyer, and much, much heavier than anticipated. This instructor's life was made pretty miserable ... at the time for contract renewal, he was told in no uncertain terms that 'his health' was the reason they couldn't rehire him. The argument I always hear from the employers is the 'level of energy' needed to teach. This argument isn't reserved for those teaching children's classes.

Such impressions (and stereotypic allusions to alleged 'energy levels' or 'states of health'), recently reconfirmed (Dickey, 2002), are doubtless but the tip of an iceberg. One that is growing as the profession expands and itself ages.

Blueprinting for action

1. Fact-finding. We need to build a better empirical picture of age structure and age diversity in TESOL, by country and educational sector, and collate data on what often are quite subtle and insidious exclusionary practices in recruitment and contract renewal. A task for IATEFL affiliates: spur discussion, gather and analyze input from the job front, do targeted surveys, proactive probing.
2. Create a caucus. At the very least, teachers with tales to recount need a professional structure to turn to. Why not a global site, maybe a body akin to the stateside Aging and Ageism Caucus in
   the National Women's Studies Association (http://www.nwsa.org/aging.htm)? This could serve to galvanize transnational debate and spark advocacy initiatives, a few convention colloquia, an online forum. And help disseminate materials for furthering the ideal of a 'quality age diverse workforce' in TESOL, encourage 'age diversity workshops' to raise consciousness, incorporating some of sociologist Sheldon Steinhauser's (1998) creative suggestions for overhauling 'cultures of negativity.'
3. Spotlight relevant paradigms in law. Administrators and authorities in our locales of practice to be apprised of the advantages and fairness dimensions of relevant legislation: such as the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) in the US, which protects most workers 40 and older from discrimination in recruitment, hiring, promotion, pay, benefits, firing, retirement. In the UK, a voluntary Code of Practice on Age Diversity in Employment was issued by the government in 1999, bolstered by a government media campaign against age discrimination launched in February 2000, its slogan: 'Age prejudice - you're old enough to know better.' [1]
4. End mandatory retirement and rigid age limits in hiring! We should spark informed debate about the evident benefits of dismantling age ceilings for teaching staff, especially in the case of critically needed teachers from abroad. Here the stateside experience is germane, a possible model for appropriation: the mandatory retire-ment age of 70 for federal workers was revoked in 1979 and eliminated for college teachers in 1993. In countries like Thailand, our bottom-line argument must be 'utility with flexibility': seasoned older hands can contribute enor-mously - they should be exempted from national labor law maximum age regulations or that law so amended. It is not a utopian demand.
5. Look to the PRC. An inventive paradigm is the flexible practice in the People's Republic of China: institutions, both public and private, are actively recruiting ex-pat TESOLers even beyond 70, including retirees who've decided to 'unretire.' Great idea. The Peace Corps has of course long known the benefit of this. As has Global Volunteers, boasting an EFL teacher in the field at 89.
6. Critical pedagogies of ageism. Useful for starters are Couper and Pratt (1997), Dodson and Hause (1996) and a lode of materials on negative age imaging and the 'unlearning' of inculcated attitudes, accessible via the website of the National Academy for Teaching and Learning about Aging (NATLA) [2]. Ageism against kids and youth can also be explored, an avenue for broaching broader issues of age stereotypy and the ways societies construct age and its demarcations (Schönert, 2000). Nuessel (1991) examines the language of ageism. As EFL specialists we all work at a complex cultural interface: its variable geometries afford a unique site to develop contrastive materials geared to illuminating ageist biases (or their absence) in the other(ed) worlds and languages of our students, a springboard to self-reflection [3].
   

References

Bytheway, Bill (1995) Ageism Buckingham: Open University Press

Cooper, Richard (1999) Going Freelance: Free at Last. TESOL Matters 9, No. 3 (June-July)

Coupland N (1997) Language, aging and ageism: A project for applied linguistics. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7, 26-48

Couper D & F Pratt (1997) Teaching about Aging: Enriching Lives across the Life Span, online at NATLA

Dickey, Robert J (March 10, 1998) Remarks, KOTESOL discussion forum, online

Dodson, Anita E & Judith B Hause (1996) Ageism in Literature. Analysis Kit for Teachers and Librarians (1981), online at NATLA

Nelson, Todd D (2002) Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice against Older Persons Cambridge/MA: MIT Press

Nuessel, Frank (1991) Semiotics of Ageism Toronto: Semiotics Circle

Pennycook, Alastair (2001) Critical Applied Linguistics: a Critical Introduction Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates

Schönert, Joachim (2000) Der alltogliche Age-Ismus. 60. Lust (July), online: http://www.lust-zeitschrift.de

Steinhauser, Sheldon (1998) Age Bias: Is Your Corporate Culture in Need of an Overhaul? HR Magazine (July). Retrieved June 6, 2002 from http://clem.mscd.edu/~steinhas

Notes

Whether this is foisting Anglo-American notions of social justice and p.c. - a form of 'value imperialism,' Eurocentric 'globalization' and homogenization - on the societies and institutions in which we work, is of course a crucial issue open to debate. See 'Resistance, Appropriation and Third Spaces' (Pennycook, 2001: 68-73).
The site contains an 'Ageism in Literature Analysis Form' and guidelines for 'Analyzing Literature for Ageism,' URL: http://www.cps.unt.edu/natla. See also the website: Aging Internet Information Note, http://www.aoa.gov/NAIC/Notes/inro.html. Bytheway (1995) and Nelson (2002) are well-researched introductions.
On ageism, aging and its sociolinguistics, see in particular the seminal article by Coupland (1997) and accompanying responses.