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Leadership and Quality in ELT Organizations
How can we contribute to shaping a successful, knowledge-sharing organizational culture? In other words, how can teachers and administrators in any ELT organization improve their leadership IQs for a program’s success? These questions will be discussed and their answers exemplified through leadership models, a leadership and climate survey, and practical activities.
Extensive work has been done on leadership and management in general, but the discussion on leadership in ELT organizations is still sparse. Recent attempts have been made to define language program leadership with the emerging significance of organizational culture and leadership to affect teaching and learning quality. Pennington and Hoekje’s Language Program Leadership in a Changing World: An Ecological Model (2010) and Christison and Murray-edited Leadership in English Language Education (2009) particularly reflect the attempt to use the leadership concept to enhance language teaching and learning quality. Cultivating basic leadership skills are requisites for language teachers: listening, having vision, motivating, inspiring, facilitating, and prioritizing for success in the classroom. Basic concepts designed for the general teacher could be easily applied to the language teacher as well.
At the same time, the characteristics that Nahavandi (2006) envisions for future leaders are definite requirements for leaders in ELT organizations: global and cultural awareness, understanding of organization from an integrated perspective, as well as flexibility and openness to change. Particularly, the potential bi-cultural or multi-cultural settings of many ELT institutions (e.g., local administrative staff and foreign teaching staff – and sometimes students) are challenging to leaders and require exceptional, and expected, leadership qualities for program success.
Biographical sketch
Dr. Kyungsook Yeum is the Director of SMU TESOL and of the faculty of the MA TESOL program at Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Korea. Currently, she is also the Chair of the Program Administration Interest Section (PAIS) of the TESOL International Association. Dr. Yeum has an MA in TESOL from the University of Maryland. Her first PhD is in English Literature, and she is currently a University of Macquarie PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics with a concentration in Program Evaluation. Dr. Yeum has served as the Administrative Professor responsible for the TESOL certificate programs at Sookmyung over the past 15 years. In the process, she has gained a deep understanding of the notion of program quality assurance and leadership. Dr. Yeum’s administrative skills and understanding of the TESOL profession have been honed through her work as National President of Korea TESOL, as Vice President of the Applied Linguistics Association of Korea (ALAK), and also as Conference Chair for the KOTESOL-hosted Pan-Asia Conference (PAC 2010).
20-20 Session
Perspectives on Leadership in Korea: East and West
Kyungsook Yeum with Tory S. Thorkelson
Have you ever been asked to take on a leadership role related to your job or another professional organization? Did the idea of being a leader excite you or make you terrified? What kind of training, if any, did you receive before taking on such a position?
Based on the presenters’ many years of leadership experience both within KOTESOL and in their professional lives, this presentation aims to look at some of the major benefits and challenges of being an administrator or leader within the Korean context. The presenters will look at both theoretical models that can help deal with these kinds of situations as well as real-life examples from their own experience.
Tory S. Thorkelson (MEd in TESL/TEFL) is a proud Canadian who has been an active KOTESOL member since 1998 and has presented at or worked on many local and international conferences in Seoul. He is a past president of the Seoul Chapter of Korea TESOL and is an Associate Professor/Past-Coordinator for Hanyang University’s English Language and Literature Department. He has co-authored research studies as head of the PEEC Research Committee (ALAK Journal and Education International) and a university-level textbook, World Class English (Hakmun), with a team of fellow KOTESOL members. Toty is presently a doctoral candidate in Professional Studies at Middlesex University in the UK. On a personal note, he is married and has a daughter, Jean. He has also acted in local drama productions for The Seoul Players – a Seoul group he helped found.
