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How many foreigners have tenure?

 
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Glenski



Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

PostPosted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 6:51 am    Post subject: How many foreigners have tenure? Reply with quote

I would prefer answers for the high school, junior high school, or elementary school field, but I'll also take universities.

How many do you know, when did they get tenure, and where was it?
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Smooth Operator



Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 140
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Do you mean all foreigners or English-teaching foreigners?

At my university there are 3 Americans and 1 Brit with tenure (3 of them are newly tenured). There are also between 5 and 10 Koreans and Chinese who have tenure. It's a liberal arts uni...

I don't know about schools sorry...
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Glenski



Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

PostPosted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 11:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Smooth Operator,
Since this is an ESL forum, I was hoping to get a picture at least for the English teachers, but anything is acceptable as long as it's explained like you did. Thanks.
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dokumanju



Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Posts: 2
Location: Shizuoka, Japan

PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey glenski,

I'm at a private high school in Hakodate. Both me and another guy have "sennin" status. I got mine 2 years ago and the other guy has been here for over 10 years.
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campestre



Joined: 16 Sep 2004
Posts: 46
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sorry to be abrupt,
If you have tenure does that entlite you to the winter and summer bonuses???
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campestre



Joined: 16 Sep 2004
Posts: 46
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I meant entitle....
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canuck



Joined: 11 May 2003
Posts: 1921
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

dokumanju wrote:
Hey glenski,

I'm at a private high school in Hakodate. Both me and another guy have "sennin" status. I got mine 2 years ago and the other guy has been here for over 10 years.


What does "sennin" mean? Please explain.
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PAULH



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan

PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 9:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Glenski, I found a recent survey done on university professors, the number of respondents was 330. I cant give you exact numbers of tenured teachers, but 87 (or 23%) of those who responded had tenure at their universities. 28% had limited term contracts and were full-time (sennin, tokunin sensei) At my university there are about 3 or 4 full time tenured foreign professors of assistant professor rank and above,5 contract full timers and my last university had 3 full time professors and several contract professors. There are about 750 four year universities in Japan.
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Glenski



Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 9:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
If you have tenure does that entitle you to the winter and summer bonuses???


Yes. Heck, even the PT teachers where I work get that. Not as much as the sennin, though.

Sennin is the word for FT tenured worker. Dictionary says "FT", but there's more to it than that. I'm a jokin, which means FT non-tenured teacher. More or less.
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taikibansei



Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 5:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Glenski wrote:

Sennin is the word for FT tenured worker. Dictionary says "FT", but there's more to it than that. I'm a jokin, which means FT non-tenured teacher. More or less.


Joukin and sennin mean pretty much the same thing: full-time. Now, in the case of Japanese educators, "full-time" has traditionally been equated with "tenured" because firing full-time Japanese staff was almost unheard of. However, the rules are different for foreign educators in Japan--with regards to these faculty alone, each university/school is allowed to interpret the meaning of sennin/joukin differently.

For example, I started working at Fukui National University as a sennin kyouin, and was soon promoted to a jokyouju (or associate professor). However, unlike my Japanese colleagues of the same rank, I was never "tenured" at any point--and neither were the other foreign sennin kyouin at the university. At some other universities, however, even foreign sennin kyouin receive tenure from their dates of hire.

Of course, this discussion becomes even more confusing when you consider that many sennin/joukin Japanese educators are now losing their "tenure" as well.
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dokumanju



Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Posts: 2
Location: Shizuoka, Japan

PostPosted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 7:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
each university/school is allowed to interpret the meaning of sennin/joukin differently.


yep, this is true. At my school, a joukin teacher is one who works full time but doesn't have life-time employment where as a sennin does. There's more things such as a joukin can't have a homeroom, don't go on the school trip etc. Iit is treated as a probationary period for new teachers. Usually they're given the option to go fulltime after a few years if they don't screw up. I was lucky enough to get offered a sennin position right off the bat so i didn't have to do the coupla years of sucking up to everybody that a joukin teacher has to do.

I think i'm quite fortunate at my school in that foriegn and native teachers are offered the exact same terms. Good in terms of pay and bonuses but bad in terms of workload. I wonder how many others are in a similar position as me?
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buffy



Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 57

PostPosted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 7:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

dokumanju wrote:
I think i'm quite fortunate at my school in that foriegn and native teachers are offered the exact same terms. Good in terms of pay and bonuses but bad in terms of workload. I wonder how many others are in a similar position as me?


I am. I agree on the workload, but the good points far outweigh the bad.
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Sweetsee



Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything

PostPosted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am a jokin, too. Never knew it, probably says as much on my business card they gave me. Can't read it.

Never met or heard of a tenured foreign instructor.

Glenski, can I ask you if and how much of a raise you get every year. I was told 100 yen per teaching hour was the rate. But now when I figure it out it works out to a lot more than that, glad I kept my mouth shut. In fact, I didn't say anything about a raise and then they mentioned that my salary would be the same as last year and I sort of said, oh, O.K. Then, the principal said no, since I was helping out with a club and taking care of all the plants I would get a little more. Wonder if the same thing will happen again? I best be greasing up to kocho-sensei before the end of the year. Sort of been off on the guy ever since he got all huffy with me over some accusations by the big trouble-makers.
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Glenski



Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

PostPosted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 2:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jokin at my school go on overseas trips with students, so I guess it's a case by case policy issue there.

Sweetsee,
I assume you mean 100 yen per weekly class hour, which is roughly 15 x 100 = a measly 1500 yen/month more as a raise? Talk about cheapskates. Whoever gave you that figure?

I've never heard of such math anyway (per class hour raises). It's more like a percentage from what I know (or just a flat rate). I don't know how they figure it at our school, but it amounts to an extra 25,000 yen/month.
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