It's important to remember the grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side of the ELT publishing wall... Image: Farruska
No doubt this post is going to grate with some blog readers who feel that it's somehow important to always refer to ELT publishers as a cohort of Evil Empires... Some may even be tempted to call me a hyprocrite, based on the tone and direction of some of the posts that have appeared on this blog in the past. Well and good.
But let me say this...
When I have, in the past on this blog, referred to ELT publishers -- using that precise wording -- in any sort of negative or despairing sense, I want to make it clear that I have meant to refer to ELT publishers as the corporatised entities that they have become (or always were).
I am not referring to the people who work for publishers.
It's an important distinction to make, and although I have tried to include it in various posts (more or less as a sort of concession device), I don't think I've emphasised it enough.
I've met a very large number of people who work for ELT publishers. Of them, there was a very small handful who were over-ambitious-bordering-on-unethical gits, or arrogant and dismissive of the "market" they were supposed to be catering to, or just plain well-meaning but rather inept.
Those individuals could be counted on one hand, really, and they represent a tiny minority in my personal experience.
Of the rest, there have been dozens -- no, hundreds, actually -- of really outstanding people who had excellent backgrounds in education and a genuine empathy for teachers and learners. There have also been many who were even more exceptional, and were actually pushing the limits of their corporatised cages to really affect positive change.
I've had chats, and beers, and coffees with a lot of these people. Pretty much all of them lament the limitations they have to deal with, but try to stay positive -- usually wondering how much of their "ethical teacher" selves they've had to shelve.
I've chatted over coffee with a seriously excellent publishing person who openly admitted that he despised having to justify himself and his editorial/project decisions to people with MBAs (rather than MEds or MATESOLs) who had never set foot in an actual English language learning classroom.
I've known a really brave and inspirational publisher who pushed the limits with her coursebook selections, telling me "what's the point of churning out more of the same? Every new coursebook should represent or encourage changes according to what we've learned up to this point about effective teaching and learning..." This incredible lady quite suddenly vanished from the ELT publishing scene, curiously soon after a colleague with much less experience in publishing and even far less experience with the same company (but a more impressive sales record based on sector and a "playing it safe" mentality) was selected for promotion, in essence becoming her new boss.
I've seen entire publishing teams told they no longer have gainful employment, because a suit with a glorified abacus has decided that a rise in sales of only 10% is far below what is acceptable for the corporation and it's ever hungry shareholders in one or two given years.
And don't get me started with the sales reps on the ground... I've caught taxis and trains with them, had them drive me places, support me in presentations and workshops. Great people who work their absolute butts off, often having to deal with grumpy DoS's and school owners with delusions of grandeur and self-importance, and/or teachers who ask for training and product support, and then turn up and grumble their way through the entire session.
And company politics... You think you have to deal with politics in your school? You haven't seen anything...
Now, a lot of these publishing folk do earn considerably more than teachers at the chalkface do (sales reps excluded, I should probably add). Actually, many of them would love to have stayed in (or would like to return to) classroom teaching roles, but publishing work presents both an escape route from the deplorable salaries and conditions of most EFL teachers, as well as a chance at a job with some sort of security and upward mobility. In fact, most of the people I've met in publishing actually chose that direction so that they could at least maintain a role and active link to a profession they really love - but just couldn't really afford to stay in.
I've seen where these people work. Most of them have small office cubicles -- perhaps marginally bigger than the space you occupy in your teacher's staff room, which they vacate in order to travel all over the place for meetings, product presentations, conferences, etc -- spending an inordinate amount of time either moving or sleeping in small hotel rooms, often away from their families for considerable stretches of time. No ivory towers or glamorous working lifestyles here, I'm afraid.
Anyway, my main point here is that, easy and tempting as it can be for "us teachers" to think or assert so, the grass on the other side of the publishing wall isn't necessarily all that much greener, and in some ways it is actually a whole lot less verdant.
How frustrating it must be, to see or find excellent teaching ideas, and not be able to put them into printed action, because they won't sell a certain amount in a certain time, or can't be supported with the necessary training to open the teaching masses' eyes to their educational benefits.
How depressing it must be, to surf the blogosphere and see us self-righteous educators canning their work, or claiming they could do a whole lot better, or painting them all with the same indiscriminate anti-capitalist brush.
"ELT publishers are evil. You work for an ELT publisher. That means you do the devil's work..."
And how aggravating it must be, to personally agree with a lot of the general criticism pointed at ELT publishing, but not be able to express that beyond a hushed tone over a coffee or bottle of beer after a conference.
I would say it'd be great if more people in ELT publishing were willing to push a little harder, take a few more risks, and be braver.
But I'm not brave enough to work in ELT publishing, am I?
:-D
