How did you get involved in university teaching?

14 comments

1. I joined JALT during my masters during my ALT time to start networking. This didn’t help me get a job. But it did help me get more academic.

   But it allowed me to do a poster presentation and publish some lesson plans.

   I ended up getting a very shit semi-fulltime job at a local university a few months after graduation. I made a salary but had to be on campus 9 hours a day 4 days a week and teach 8 koma for less than JET pay.

   However during this time I published part of my masters in the school journal. Started a project with another faculty member, did some conferences, and published in the proceedings.

   After 2 and a half years I was into a contract full-time job at a bigger university with doubled salary, more teaching but less time on campus, and long holidays.

   This is the route an unmarried person can take. If you’re married you can take part-time uni jobs and fill it in with private lessons or other part-time eikaiwa or ALT gigs. Generally adjuncts do not require publications or experience.

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3. Do some research. Get published.

4. Whilst the publications and experience requirements are common, that isn’t always the case. Especially when you don’t live in huge city.

   Networking through JALT and rubbing shoulders with the higher-ups at local universities is a good way to be offered part-time work. If you can demonstrate your skills/knowledge in some sort of presentation at your local meeting then I am sure that will help you stand out. I found that contrary to what a lot of people will often tell you, making non-Japanese teacher friends can lead to all sorts of opportunities.

   It is even possible to land full-time university jobs if you are in the right pace at the right time. Usually that place isn’t going to be a big city though.

5. As others have mentioned, getting involved with JALT will be a huge step.

   Specifically, you’ll want to join a SIG (anything that isn’t CUE will actually help you network with other people). Most SIGs have their own publications, as long as it has an ISSN that’s all a job application here will care for–so go write a book review, or maybe an article for a SIG newsletter, and that’ll get you started.

   You’ll also want to get involved with your local JALT chapter, associated with your prefecture. Most of them have monthly events at local universities, which is again a good chance to meet people. A fair few chapters hold smaller conferences each year, and those can be excellent ways to get your feet wet with presentations.

   Finally, JALT has two major annual conferences each year, the JALT conference (In Fukuoka this year, Nov 11-14) and PanSIG (will be in Kyoto in may for 2023). Of the two events, PanSIG is much more “newbie” friendly with a lot of support for first-time presenters. The group organizing everything for 2023 is especially keen on getting more ALTs and public school teachers involved, so they’re going to have even more resources available. Also, presenters at both of these conferences have a chance to publish their presentation in the conference journals afterwards (PanSIG in particular will provide a lot of support during the revision process).

   Getting involved with JALT will be your best bet for now.

   (n.b. I had 2 years of teaching at a university in my home country, but the jobs I looked for here only counted experience teaching at a Japanese university. I lucked out with a position that included years taught at Japanese public schools, but those kinds of entry-level job openings are few and far between.)

6. Out of curiosity, how easy is it to gain full time uni employment as a professor if that is what you currently are in your home country (e.g. you are applying from overseas)?

7. was at a decent university as a part-time researcher, got hired by some where in the middle, found way to keep job.

8. I was working part time at the university I graduated from while publishing papers. Published one that became somewhat popular in my field and started to get offers for speaking gigs at universities all over. I figured I would do a few years in a few different countries before settling down into a tenured position. Met someone and ended up staying.

   I have never met a single person that began as an ALT or worked at an eikaiwa in my 16 years of university teaching here. Everyone I know was hired from abroad and had the qualifications they needed before coming. If you go home to finish school and publish, you better publish something big because no university is going to give a tenured position to a person over 40 with no experience and no name.

   ​

   edit: I don’t teach English. I don’t recommend trying to become an English teacher. They are the lowest paid department we have and the turnover is insane. Most people in that department only last one year before the leave.

9. A lot of people are saying that you need to dive into part-time work before getting full time. In my opinion, this is very often incorrect. I know tons of people who started part-time and are still part-time 15 years later. The number of people who successfully jumped from PT to FT is quite a bit smaller. When you have 14-16 koma at three different universities, plus a couple of private lessons and maybe some testing work, it gets really, really hard to devote the time to applying for every full-time position in your region, publishing something (part-time instructors often aren’t allowed to publish solo papers in the university’s journals), and finding something to present about, all while hobnobbing at JALT events.

   My advice would be to try to get in as a full-timer at one of the schools that DGAF about publications. They’re out there, and they all advertise on [TESOL.org](https://TESOL.org) rather than JREC or JACET. There are “entry-level” gigs that give you 10-koma full-time contracts, an okay salary, and some research funds. Get some experience and publish in the school’s in-house journals (they all have at least one). Impact factor means dick for limited-term contract positions. If you can get three 10-15-page papers into in-house journals, that ticks the right boxes. Volunteer for a committee to show that you love long and pointless meetings and you’ll look even better.

   If you can get a full-time position, it will probably be on a limited-term contract. Prepare thyself for the stressful quinquinnial job search…

10. I would immediately shift all effort into getting published in some type of journal.

    Having even 1 published paper will give you a fighting chance. Apologies for not beating around the bush, but job applications with practically zero research will generally be placed in the “thank you” pile within seconds.

    If writing is not your thing, PT work is a viable option. You would need the correct visa (usually unis don’t sponsor visas for PT teachers), and also be aware that # of classes may vary from year to year (or even cancelled due to lack of enrolled students).

11. I had nearly a decade of experience teaching college ESL in my home country… I applied for my current university position here in Japan and got it.

    Side note, but you can get published without doing original research— many publications accept things like lesson plans and more of the practical side of ESL teaching.

12. I got my first full time job with a year of dispatch teaching and no MA. Not that long ago, but already feels like a different era.

    I’m job hunting myself and there isn’t much out there through the usual channels. Everyone is saying it’s sparse.

    There’s literally only one or two jobs up on JREC and people in this sub were saying that this should be the busiest time.

13. Private universities aren’t always as strict as national universities, so that might be something to look at.

14. Try more remote areas of the country – many struggle to find teachers with an MA. Pay will be poor, and you’ll be given a short-term contract though. But, in that time, you can publish and apply elsewhere.