Job Discussion Forums

[chinasyndrome]

What ho, chaps!

On the 'Why stay teaching in China' thread Roger made a comment about the topic posted above. Hamish also had a few things to say on this, and I think it could be an interesting one to explore. Of course, let's look at both sides of the issue. Gotta go now and will come back later, but maybe one of you can get the ball rolling.

[Minhang Oz]

OK Les, as you're busy trying to fix my avatar, I'll begin.
In the teaching culture I come from, stability is an important feature. We all begin again when we move to a new school - find out how things work, get the respect of our colleagues and students and so on. It's a trying time, and nobody wants to do it too often. Years two and onward tend to be highly productive.
The situation here is different though. Neither party knows what they're getting, and often one or both are disappointed, in which case a one year contract is plenty. For some FT's that was all they intended; a year to "do" China, then back home, or on to fresh fields.
But a number of us, on this site at least, are career teachers. We just happen to be in a country we've chosen, for a myriad of reasons, and we'd like the security, career structure [that's another issue] and challenge we'd get at "home".
I really think sensible administrators in Chinese schools are beginning to realise this. Maybe we're a relatively new breed they haven't encountered before. I've only been in two schools, and each has offered me an extended [2 or 3 year] contract after the first year. And that's not big-noting myself as a super teacher, rather just one willing to make a longer term commitment than most.
Hamish commented on this on another thread. Who's next?

[Jed]

On the 'Why stay teaching in China' thread, Roger wrote:-

[ESL Guru]

May I stop swinging in the trees and eating bananas just long enough to remind you monkeys (that is said with great love and affection) that the current law of China (that is at the National level which is controlling on the Provinces) restricts FE contracts to one year.

My school hired me mid-semester for various reasons that are not germane to the issue. However, to avoid my contract expiring mid-semester, they wrote it for more than one year.

As the contract end (that is the one year end) approached, I advised of my intent to depart. That caused a little stir. They learned that I was right and then came the bonus offer if I would finish the semester.

One school offered a 10 year contract. When I asked them about the current law, they had no idea. Then they checked and no 10 year contract!

[Roger]

Thank you, chinasyndrome, for your PM! Now I see what the discussion is all about! It is an interesting topic!

We all are agreed then that one year is the normal thing. And, most of us would love to stay longer, preferably with the same school.
Few manage to secure themselves a second term with the same employer. In my first college in China, they had a seven-year veteran who was able to keep his job mainly because his brother was a big cheese at an US university that maintained scholarly exchange with that Chinese college. When he tried to get his eleventh one-year contract, the PSB turned him down (maybe it was his tenth), saying that only Chinese nationals can work at the same school for such a long time!
He got a new job somewhere else. But this shows what someone else pointed out: There is a legal restriction. Back in the early 1990's, I often heard from peers how counterproductive this restriction was, and that schools lost a lot of resources recruiting newcomers that had first to be broken in, so to speak! Many of them left after a short while (of course!).
These days, this complaint is weaker but the restriction has not gone away. Informally I have heard that some people have managed to get a multi-year contract (hard to believe, but changes are afoot in China!). To begin with, Shanghai is set to be the first jurisdiction in China to offer so-called 'green cards" which make the applying for a work visa superfluous. They will be as good as multiple-entry, multi-year visas.
The advantages are obvious: More job security, perhaps the beginning of some upward mobility, and long-lasting effects on the local teaching culture for the benefit of students!

Meanwhile, I still have to apply for a work visa (through my employer, of course) every year. Even marriage with a local does not do away with this! It is crazy that you can have a Chinese partner for life (and she can join you in your home country for good), but you can forfeit your residency rights by dint of having an unsympathetic employer and a little bad luck with the law!

Recently I saw an advert offering two-year tourist visas in Hong Kong. The price is lower than the price for a one-year, multiple-entry Z visa!

[chinasyndrome]

Thanks, guys. I don't want to get bogged down in the 'my contract says' stuff (but support your right to do it if you want). In terms of the '1 year only law' I was told some time ago by a Law Professor in the local university here that it is not set in stone but was issued as a guideline, as most things seem to be. He seemed to be quite clear on the topic as he's the guy who wrote the contracts for FTs at that uni and a few others up north.

It seems that there are several ways to approach this, and one favoured way is to write an extension option into the original contract, where future pay rises etc can also be noted. This would, ideally, mean that there is little or no need to renegotiate after 1 year. Even long service bonuses can be put into the original document. The idea suggests something like a commercial property lease in the 1 x 1 x 1 sense.

Back to the original and broader subject. On face value, the biggest benefits of longer term contracts are stability and continuity. There's always a danger of staleness creeping in, but that can happen after a month and isn't time-specific. Hamish made some excellent points in his other post and I hope he'll expand on them here. Roger will be joining us later.

Interestingly, it generally tends to be the older applicant with a clearer life picture who is looking at staying and making a longer-term contribution to education and potentially, the school at which they crash-land. That's not to say that younger blood seeking new experiences should be discounted or discouraged. I think there could be an excellent mix of both.

It would be interesting to note the Chinese take on this idea, too. Last year I had a chat with an Education Bureau director along similar lines, and he felt it was the FTs themselves who were controlling the issue. That is, FTs don't want to stay in one place; they want to travel. We all know the broad generalizations we make about them and they make about us. What's true for their local FT must be true for all FTs. I'll see if I can check into this further, and maybe a few of you who are on speaking terms with your bosses could do the same.

If you're interested we might also talk about strategies to get yourself more involved in the decision-making process at the school. Not always possible, I know, but not impossible either.

Cheers!

[ESL Guru]

Roger:

After one year of marriage you qualify for a "D" visa that will eliminate the problem.

[Hamish]