Summer 2007
Int'l Reading Award Goes to ESL Teacher in California
Stranger in Town
Petition Drive to Reinstate Tim Stewart at Essential Teacher
The Magic of Stories
Tougher ESL Visa Rules in China?
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"Blowback" Hits TESOL Administration
Petition Calls for Reinstatement of Tim Stewart
A link has been making the rounds in
past weeks on various ESL-related listservs,
alerting TESOL members and other ESL/EFL
professionals to a growing controversy
at TESOL, Inc., regarding the May 17th
ouster of Tim Stewart from his post as
editor of the Essential Teacher, the popular
magazine typically bundled with TESOL
membership benefits.
The petition is at
www.petitiononline.com/TimET/petition.html.
The document asks the TESOL Board of Directors (meeting
this week) to re-instate Stewart, arguing that "no clear
reasons were given..., due process was not followed,
and neither ET staff, nor the Serial Publications Committee,
nor the full TESOL Board of Directors were consulted
prior to Tim being removed as ET editor."
Among the signatures on the petition are
some well-known names in the TESOL world,
including:
In addition, a number of columnists and others associated
with the Essential Teacher magazine have signed the petition
and written eloquently in support of Tim Stewart as editor.
The dismissal of Tim Stewart apparently resulted from
discord between him and Charles Amorosino, Executive Director
of TESOL, over plans by Amorosino and TESOL Finance Committee
Chair Christine Coombe to reduce the Essential
Teacher's publication calendar from quarterly to three
times a year. According to memos and e-mails posted
at a blog, http://essentialteacher.blogspot.com/ ,
the dispute started in September, 2006, and continued
with various strongly worded complaints from Stewart
to TESOL Board Members and Amorosino, via e-mail
and phone conversations, about the impending changes
at Essential Teacher.
(Note added June 30, 2007: Please refer to an
editor's note on our letters page for new information
regarding the circumstances of Timothy Stewart's dismissal.)
After unsuccessful efforts by Stewart to resolve the
matter or even get a hearing with TESOL leaders at
Seattle TESOL in late March, he posted an urgent
note on the
EFL-Law site, asking readers
to forward his appeal, in a last-ditch attempt to
block the policy change on the Essential Teacher's
publication calendar. About the same time, Stewart
was begging Amorosino and the board to at least consider
making the fourth ET issue an electronic-only edition,
rather than cutting it completely.
There are a number of compelling concerns associated
with this controversy within TESOL over the firing
of Tim Stewart. What is clear is that the organization
is undergoing some structural changes, and perhaps
moving away from its more open and transparent democratic
precedents towards a more centralized, downsized operation
in hopes of remedying financial woes.
The lingering question is whether something "essential"
of the very spirit of the TESOL organization has been
irreparably wounded: or perhaps, in the resolution and
setting right of any errors made in this matter, TESOL
will rekindle its grassroots, democratic base and
come back stronger than ever.
By Robb Scott
2007 ESL MiniConference Online
PDF conversion by PDF Online
Mary Jane Curry, TESOL Quarterly Editorial Board member;
Gene van Troyer, Past President, JALT, past editor, The Language Teacher, JALT Conference Proceedings;
Anne Martin, former TESOL Board of Directors Member;
Mark Algren, Convention Chair, TESOL 2003;
Sarah Benesch, TESOL Quarterly Editorial Advisory Board Member;
Robert B. Kaplan, Past President of TESOL;
Christy M. Newman, MWIS Newsletter Editor;
William Eggington, TESOL Board Member (2003-2006);
Nevine Abdelkhalek, Immediate Past Chair of the Program Administration Interest Section;
Teresa Almeida d'Eca, former TESOL TAC Chair;
Christine Meloni, former section editor and 2005-2006 Interim Editor, Essential Teacher;
Susan Gaer, former Chair of the CALL Interest Section;
Dafne Gonzalez, Coordinator, TESOL Electronic Village;
Will Seng, Book Review Editor, TESL-EJ;
Max Koller, Editor, English Teaching Forum;
Ken Hyland, Editor, Journal of English for Academic Purposes;
Bernard Spolsky, Past President of TESOL;
Thomas N. Robb, former TESOL Board Member;
Keith Morrow, Editor, ELT Journal;
Suresh Canagarajah, Editor, TESOL Quarterly;
Judie Haynes, former Chair of Elementary Interest Section and Editor, everythingESL.com.
Editor, ESL MiniConference Online
Robb@eslminiconf.net
