Hey everyone,
I work for one of the big chain eikaiwas as an instructor but I’m interested in changing my job and working in curriculum development (for the same company or another). Does anyone know how I can go about this? It’s clear someone writes the textbooks but it’s unclear to me how to get into that job. Additionally, I suspect my company is not going to gladly offer me tips, or a direct route into, it as they’d rather I continue working a billion hours, for no money, as an instructor. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
4 comments
Are you asking how to get into writing in-house materials for eikaiwa companies, or are you asking about how to get in to serious textbook writing in curriculum design?
Because the first step for the second question is nearly always graduating with an MA in education, getting some publications on the topic, and getting some lesser book credits on lower tier projects (editor for new editions, 2nd/3rd author for small sections, etc) before trying to move up into project lead/lead author positions.
If you’re just talking about eikaiwa, the majority of their materials are fairly soulessly manufactured by companies that usually don’t have any qualified teachers on staff doing the actual composition with the goal being to make sales, not good materials. If you’re serious about curriculum development and textbook writing, that’s definitely not the field for you.
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Become a professor and you can design your own courses.
Eikaiwa? They usually buy access to a product like [versant](https://www.pearson.com/english/versant.html) and then have their office staff copy and paste everything into new books with different pictures. The real lazy eikaiwas run on the missionary method. They give a white person a random elf book from oxford or pearson and send them off to socialize with the local population. Anyone that claims they are a “curriculum developer” for an Eikaiwa is just the one foreigner that “makes the schedule” (they just distribute what the Japanese staff gave them)
You mean like original English language textbooks? Generally they are made by experts in the field, so you would need at least an MA or PhD and have experience with research in language learning.
I’ve written a few things (self-published textbooks, teaching manuals, lesson plans for a major eikaiwa, scope and sequence for a major international textbook series).
Started making my own materials, presenting, meeting people. The formal jobs I got through contacts basically. You need to start and put yourself out there first, then the opportunities might arrive.
Also helps to be working at a prestigious university. I’m pretty sure that contributed to the international textbook job.