Page 18 - ELG1704 Apr Issue 446

NEWS

Client’s prejudice

is no defence

By: Melanie Butler clients don’t want a teacher be-
cause of their religion, ethnicity,
Students just won’t accept these gender or mother tongue is now
teachers’. This common reaction direct discrimination.
from language schools, often Companies, including lan-
used to turn down job applica- guage schools, who claim that
tions from non-native speakers they have to pander to students’
and native speaker ethnic prejudice will find themselves
minorities, is now illegal and with no defence in law. ‘They
grounds for legal action across will just have to ‘change their
the European Union, following business models’, as Bougnaoui Court rules on right to wear hijab at work
the case of Asma Bougnaoui argued in the case. In terms
vs Micropole SA. The case of European ELT this should the state sector early in their to their website, including one
involved a design engineer who be good news for non-native career. As a result, few British hijab-wearing Iranian. However,
lost her job when she refused a speaker teachers and non-white minority teachers make it into there are no British Muslims,
clients’ request to remove her native speakers. the UK’s elite EFL institutions. Black Britons or Britons from
headscarf. This was ruled to be In the UK, increasing num- The renowned Bell schools, for the Indian subcontinent fea-
direct discrimination by the EU bers of white non-native speak- example, have long had strong tured in the Bell team lists.
Court of Justice. ers are finding jobs in the private non-discrimatory employment Most British ethnic minority
The Bougnaoui case, how- sector but numbers of non-white policies. teachers leave the private sector
ever, affects far more than just British teachers remain small. One in four of the Bell senior too early in their career to qual-
religious clothing. Turning down Anecdotally, many ethnic academic team members in the ify for senior positions in the top
an employee on the grounds that minority teachers switch into UK are non-natives, according UK private language schools.

Fair’s fair at Iatefl

Congratulations, you are participating in a very fair conference! The
Fair List, captained by Tessa Woodward, recognises and celebrates
‘the achievement of gender balance in plenary speakers, presenters or
speaker panels at ELT events, annually, in the UK’. It awards confer-
ences that have achieved such balance with a ‘Fair List Award’.
The Iatefl conference has won the Fair List award for the whole
conference for three years in a row (Birmingham, Manchester and
Harrogate).
But how are the single special interest groups faring? We consulted
the historic record of the Fair List to find out how many times each
group has received the Fair List award. Then, we did what any jour-
nalist at EL Gazette would do: we ranked them. So here it is:

PAST FAIR LIST WINNERS
Business English SIG Five times
English for Specific Purposes SIG,
Leadership and Management SIG,
Learner Autonomy SIG, Learning Technologies SIG,
Materials Writing, Testing, Evaluation and Assess-
ment, Young Learners and Teenagers
Three times

ESOL, Research, Teacher Development, Teacher
Training and Education
Two times

Global Issues, Pronunciation, Literature
Once
Let’s see how the new born Inclusive Practices and
SEN SIG will do this year!

editorial@elgazette.com 19

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