Job Discussion Forums

[eha]

'Through the years I have never encountered any PhDs who were working in EFL'

Don't know about the Emirates, but there are vast quantities of them now in SQU.

[MGreen]

There are many people in UAE that have Phds teaching EFL. I wont drop names, but there are a few (many be more) that are high up in the admin of TESOL Arabia that hold (or getting) Phds and teach at the various universities in the Gulf.

The Phd holders that I worked with at UAEU were hoping to get into faculty positions. Plus there are some teachers there currently getting their Phds (in education/tesol/instructional design...) through distance, I think Exter(?).

Its not uncommon now to see.

[veiledsentiments]

In the past, the ink was barely dry on the PhD before they were off for more lucrative positions... far from the Middle East... and they made it obvious that the intention was to never teach anything resembling Foundations EFL ever again.

So, it sounds like it is NOT a good choice to go on to that PhD. I can't imagine going to all that work and expense to still be teaching basic sentence structure and subject/verb agreement. I knew that ZU was actively going after PhDs.

Just out of curiosity, eha, how many of the PhD holders are Westerners? No criticism meant, but there are fewer opportunities for many of the non-westerners in their home countries. I know one of them from North Africa and another friend has been working on an unrelated PhD.

OK guys... you say that there are a few PhDs around these days. Are they at least paying them more money at most of the places now? Or do they consider them to still be teaching courses that only need an MA so they only get MA pay...

VS

[eha]

Right, VS; quite a few are non-Westerners. But some days it seems that everyone you meet all day is enrolled on a PhD programme. And some of the topics sound absolutely fascinating--- seems to be a trend away (at last!) from Tefling and Linguistics, towards wider content: more general educational and cultural issues, for instance.

Yes, I believe a PhD does influence salary, but since the whole area of scale assessment is so opaque ---- and I may add, an extremely painful issue in my case--- I can't offer any specifics. Apart from which, no doubt you'll recall the Rule of Silence that prevails in the Gulf over the whole question of Who-Gets-What: all part of the aforementioned opaqueness ( a polite word for something else).

[veiledsentiments]

At the beginning it wasn't such a big secret and the scale was available - in fact I was provided with one along with my contract. There could have been a few people who managed to finagle an extra step or two, but they were the exception.

The good old days when there were only about 50 teachers in the LC.

VS

[Iamherebecause]

There are plenty of jobs where you don't need a PhD so if you have one it doesn't get you extra increments. However sometimes they prefer PhD holders for postions of responsibility (can be the case in UGRU) but even then they break their own rule if it's politically expedient. e.g. for years head of UGRU communications had to be a PhD holding ex-professor type, and at one stage they wanted PhD only for head of UGRU ESP as well. The last 2 PD coordinators have PhDs.

Some PhD UGRU types managed to move to faculty contracts recently, but it wasn't necessarily to their financial advantage. However they will be getting support for research and fewer contact hours.

[eha]

'However they will be getting support for research and fewer contact hours.'

You mean they'll be seen as real professionals, and not as 'technical operatives', or whatever the equivalent term is for classroom teachers, situated as they are on the Respect Scale somewhere between the cleaners and the clerks?

[Iamherebecause]

Well, even though they have diferent contractual obligations they are still hired help. And attitudes of both adminstration and students range from genuine respect to that weird demanding contempt.

But I will say that over the years here there has been a bit of a shift in attitude - fewer students focused exclusively on whether or not the teacher will adjust their marks upwards, and more who are wanting an education. And to the students it doesn't matter if you have a PhD or not. You will get called 'Miss' or 'Sir' or 'Doctor' or 'Teacher' irrespective of your status and gender (actually I have never heard of a male teacher being called Miss, but I have certainly been called Sir a good few times). I think a lot of students assume all university level teachers have doctorates...