The Current State of Japanese Language Education in Australian Schools

4.2 Numbers of Teachers in Each State, Territory and Sector

The numbers of teachers are given in Table 6. The figures are for the number of teachers, not full-time equivalent (FTE). Many teachers of Japanese are part-time, however, statistics on this were unavailable. There was also insufficient data on the breakdown of primary and secondary teacher numbers to include in this report. Information about teacher background and/or qualifications was also unavailable. Information from teacher associations in Table 7 (page 63), however, provides some indication of the proportion of non-native and native speakers of Japanese (the latter ranges from 12–33 per cent), and of male and female teachers.

4.3 Teacher Supply and Employment Conditions

4.3.1 Teacher Supply

The supply of qualified and partially qualified teachers of Japanese appears to have improved considerably since the period of rapid expansion. Generally, there does not seem to be a serious problem with teacher supply in metropolitan areas (in terms of numbers, but not necessarily quality), at least for permanent teaching positions, although there are some problems with finding short-term replacement staff. Challenges remain in the recruiting of teachers to rural and remote locations, or particularly difficult school environments, and there are suggestions that more needs to be done in terms of offering incentives to encourage teachers to move to these areas. Where there were complaints about the ability to find suitable teachers in metropolitan locations, it was often apparent that the conditions being offered were not very attractive; for example, part-time contract or casual positions, or positions which involved teaching hundreds of students for 10–30 min a week, across several schools.

Table 7: Membership Figures for Japanese Language Teacher Associations

Table note 1: NS = native speakers of Japanese; NNS = non-native speakers of Japanese.

State/Territory	Association	Membership 2009
ACT	Japanese Language Teachers’ Association of the Australian Capital Territory – affiliate of MLTA of the Australian Capital Territory – no website currently	15 (70 members in the Japanese Language Teachers’ Network) (Reference to footnote 20)
NSW	Japanese Teachers’ Association of New South Wales (JTAN)	195 Male: 26; Female: 169 NS: 42(21%); NNS: 153*
NT	Language Teachers’ Association of the Northern Territory	N/A
Qld	Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Queensland – Japanese branch	258 Male: 24; Female: 234 NS: 57(22%); NNS: 201 (approx.)
SA	Japanese Language Teachers’ Association of South Australia (JLTASA)	150 Below are estimates only (Male: 30; Female: 120) 10% or less native speakers
Tas	JATNET Japanese Teachers’ Network of Tasmania	45 Male: 3; Female: 42 NS: 5 (12%); NNS: 40
Vic	Japanese Language Teachers Association of Victoria	540 Male: 95; Female: 442, NA: 3; NS: 180 (33.5%); NNS: 357
WA	Japanese Language Teachers Association of Western Australia	113 Male: 17; Female: 96 NS: 30 (26.5%); NNS: 83

Footnote 20 JLTN is a free service provided by the Department for all teachers.

Despite the apparent adequacy of teacher numbers, the quality of teachers is more problematic. Interviewees indicated that while there might be several applicants for available positions, many of them were lacking in terms of expertise and other qualities. There also seems to be very little data available indicating the age and qualification profile of teachers, and little central coordination of and planning for teacher supply into the future.

There is a clear need for more data regarding the profile of the current workforce to enable better planning for current and future requirements. There is also a need for better mechanisms to ensure that graduates of high quality are trained to meet future demand, and are able to be given stable employment on graduation. Currently, some newly graduated teachers with good qualifications are being employed on insecure contracts in part-time positions, situations unlikely to encourage them to stay in the profession. This means that others are unlikely to be attracted to enter the profession in future.

4.3.2 Conditions for Primary Teachers

Conditions for primary teachers are of particular concern. Language teachers incur heavy workloads, and are often marginalised from the main school community, being regarded as less than full members of staff, and having little input into decision making (see Case Study 2, page 40). A common comment was that the Japanese teacher is seen primarily as the provider of non-contact time for classroom teachers, and their contributions to the overall program are not valued. With the minimal time allotments for Japanese in many schools, some teachers are unable to find a full-time position unless they teach in another specialist area or across a number of schools. It is not uncommon for a teacher to be asked to teach across five schools, one day per week in each. Trained teachers often prefer to take other kinds of positions rather than accept language positions with those kinds of conditions. Interviewees noted that where such positions were filled, appointees were often less qualified (and therefore more desperate) or soon lost motivation faced with the difficult conditions. Principals then complained about the quality of the teacher, and the difficulty in finding a replacement, and used this as a justification for terminating the program.

Career paths for primary language teachers are not well developed, and there are many examples of successful Japanese teachers who have moved into mainstream classroom positions in order to advance their careers. It is unfortunate that such teachers often give up language teaching entirely, although some creative arrangements whereby teachers combine Japanese with classroom teaching have many advantages. Even if such arrangements are not common, they do exist, and are often used in bilingual programs. Schools should think laterally about ways of organising teaching differently in order to solve the problems of less than full-time Japanese allotments, and of teachers of Japanese who are not properly integrated into the school community and curriculum planning. Such arrangements would have many benefits for both the Japanese and general curriculum, as well as for individual teachers.