Beatrix Price, School of English and American Studies, ELTE, Budapest, Hungary

Leaders in English Language Teachers’ Associations (ELTAs) are often asked about the financial rewards of their strenuous work. Outsiders hardly believe that these professional organizations are run by volunteers and their leaders have no financial gain for their work. Why do TESOL professionals devote so much of their time and effort, beyond their regular work, to the development of these communities, if they are not paid for it? ELTAs, usually grown as grassroots initiatives, are run by volunteers to provide better professional development opportunities to their members and establish cohesive professional communities where learning is conceptualised as an interactive activity and professional development takes place as social interaction. The interrelation between ELTAs and their members’ continuing professional development (CPD) has already gained some understanding in ELTA research as an association and member reciprocity (Gnawali, 2016), however, how leadership in ELTAs impact volunteers remained an uncharted territory. As part of my PhD research, which investigated how ELTAs support their members by providing continuing professional development to them, I set out to gain a better understanding of the underlying relationships between the professional bodies and their members. As part of my investigation, in an interview study, I aimed to explore what motivates leading TESOL professionals to pursue their CPD and volunteer in professional communities. The findings from my research (Price, 2020) and a collection of auto-ethnographic narratives, reflective narratives and narrative inquiry in the edited volume (Elsheikh et al., 2018) on personal, professional and leadership development revealed that there are some underlying similarities to leadership learning, which are necessary before the challenges and hardships the leaders of these associations take on. Some of the core features of Teacher motivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011) characterised all the participants of the different studies. 1) intrinsic motivation, i.e., internal desire for professional growth, intellectual fulfilment and meaningfulness. 2) temporal dimension with emphasis on lifelong commitment, the inclination for more challenging tasks, that are successfully delivered and repeated, and recurring CPD possibilities, and 3) social-contextual influences relating to external conditions. Some milestones were marked throughout the professional trajectories of the participants.

First steps in ELTAs

Many of the TESOL professionals reported on their various learning paths, initially often outside of ELT before joining ELTAs, experiencing different cultures and countries, but the most frequently occurring attribute they mentioned was an “influential other”, a teacher, a tutor, a colleague or a friend, who introduced them to an ELTA or invited them to a professional event or a conference. This relationship is brought up as an example to follow or sought after in ELTA mentorship programmes, where more experienced members or leaders prepare newcomers on their professional journeys. In learning organisations, such as ELTAs, shared knowledge and knowledgeability are paramount, members join in common activities and give meaning to learning. Personal growth becomes more personalised, members improve their practises, act first as knowledge consumers as their first steps in ELTAs, but gradually become knowledge creators, generators or knowledge providers. These turning points in ELTAs can be well traced in the life of leaders, reporting how ELTAs are official providers of CPD, and in retrospect, developmental stepping stones can be identified. Occasionally, members become involved through invitation or awards. Later, after attending some events, members start presenting, although a ‘mixture of delight and terror’ is also mentioned in the interviews, something that many experienced professionals have long forgotten. Thus, ELTAs serve as a nourishing cradle for professional growth, and they also give possibility for the first leadership positions, on many levels, such as in small learning communities, in regional branches, in Special Interest Groups or Inter Sections in a national ELTA or even on an international platform. In some cases, leaders are thrown into the deep water; other times it is a gradual journey, with the encouragement of ‘influential others’ in the early stages of their leader position, but in all instances with myriads of benefits.

Growing through ELTAs

As seen in the previous section, smaller, friendlier units serve as the supporting vessel for personal growth for ELT professionals. The more professional knowledge participants gain, the more motivation they have to share with others and offer it for the benefit of their learning organizations. To put it simply, learning turns into teaching or training, although it remains an everlasting reciprocal process, in which learning and teaching complement each other continuously, resulting in various volunteer positions. Looking at TESOL professionals’ trajectories, this can lead to a possible ELTA leadership path in the following way: member of ELTA, regional branch volunteer, SIG coordinator, newsletter editor, conference organiser, materials writer, treasurer, office-bearer, secretary, member of committee, general secretary, vice president, senior vice president, president or honorary committee member; either as a consecutive progress or in any order. These are the leadership positions that the interviewees hold or have held and can be proposed as a possible path for volunteers. During the various stages of different positions, apart from professional development and working with exceptional colleagues as the main motivating factors, what are the motifs that keep leaders going?

Drawing the results from the dataset it can be confirmed that the most abundant field of motivational components was connected to skills gained through voluntary work. In addition, accompanying benefits were also listed as motivational influences. So, what are those invaluable skills that professional educators gain through their voluntary work? Leadership skills, teamwork skills, organizational skills, networking skills, digital skills, negotiating skills, management skills, presentation skills, academic skills, people skills, hard skills and soft skills. So many skills one would need to pay for in the commercial world, yet, these skills are beneficial both for professional and personal growth. The examples of leaders drew a meta-perspective for the participants, but interestingly, skills and leadership development were only seen in retrospect for them, stating how surprising all the benefits of being part of ELTAs had been for them. It was emphasized, however, how important it is to prepare future leaders under the sheltering wings of others, for apprenticeship and mentorship, how to take an “Intentional TESOL career path development” with networking, advocacy and technology skills (England, 2019). In that way ELTA leaders would be ready in advance with the challenges they need to face:

1. Accountability: where leaders pay attention to members’ needs, thus representing members; and delegate tasks among board members.

2. Continuity in leadership: with a clearly set rota of leadership positions; predictable changes; a well-oiled mechanism. This way they avoid “power hunger”, burnout and apathy (the fourth component of Teacher motivation)

3. Sustainability: where there are two routes for ELTAs: a) vibrant ELTA or b) dead ELTA. The greatest threat of all enthusiastic leaders is despair and apprehension, the route of the Dead ELTA. When a leader proclaims that there is no need for teachers’ associations any longer in our days, as all CPD can be provided by outer bodies. Or the other route is envisaged by an ELTA leader, in which both tangible and intangible benefits are provided to the members of the association. In a Vibrant ELTA there are possibilities for professional development for members, and a nourishing, safe environment for personal growth, which lead to better learning outcomes in the educational scenario.

References

Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and researching motivation (2nd ed.). Harlow, UK: Longman.

Elsheikh, A., Coombe, C. & Effiong, O. (2018). The Role of language teachers associations in Professional Development. Switzerland, Springer.

England, L. (2019). TESOL Career Path Development. Routledge.

Gnawali, L. (2016). English language teacher development through teacher associations: The case of NELTA. ELT Journal, 70(2), 170–179. DOI: 10.1093/elt/ccv086

Price, B. (2020). English language teaching professionals’ trajectories within the context of learning organisations. Hungarian Education Research Journal, 10(1), 47–65. https://doi.org/10.1556/063.2020.00004