Language Teaching Research 12,4 (2008); pp.

471494

Becoming a teacher of English in Thailand

David Hayes Brock University, Canada

This paper explores the motivation and circumstances of a group of Thai teachers in government schools which influenced their becoming teachers of English. Through data derived from in-depth interviewing it seeks to privilege the perceptions of the informants and thus illuminate features of teachers experience of their educational systems, in this particular case how they entered the teaching profession. The paper contends that the reasons why individuals who are non-native speakers decide to teach English as a foreign language has been little studied in the TESOL professional discourse, but that such research is crucial for any educational discipline, given that initial motivation and personal circumstances may have a significant impact upon future classroom practices and long-term commitment to teaching. The findings here suggest that individuals may choose to become members of their state teaching systems first and foremost and that their choice of subject to teach is a secondary consideration, simply arising from their own school performance in and aptitude for that particular subject. Keywords: English as a foreign language teachers, non-native speakers, motivation to teach, state education systems

Motivation and personal circumstances are acknowledged to have a key role in learning a language (Drnyei, 2001, 2005; Cohen & Drnyei, 2002) but, having experienced a language as a learner, the issue of why a non-native speaker (NNS)1 should become a teacher of that language has been little studied. Indeed, Drnyei (2001, p. 170) notes that the literature on the motivation of language teachers is even more scarce than on teacher motivation in general and, in his review of such work as there is in the area, motivation to enter teaching in contrast to motivation deriving from work satisfaction in teaching itself was not represented at all. Given this paucity of investigation into why individuals become language teachers, in this paper I shall examine from their own perspectives the motivation and personal social circumstances of a group of Thai teachers in government schools which influenced their becoming teachers of English as a foreign language. The paper uses data derived from in-depth interviews and analyses the various influences on informants career choice, both direct and indirect. By focusing on the perceptions of these Thai teachers the paper also has a wider purpose in contributing
Address for correspondence: David Hayes, Department of Applied Linguistics, Brock University, 500 Glenridge Avenue, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada L0S 1M0; email: dhayes@brocku.ca
2008 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) 10.1177/1362168808097160

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to an ecological perspective on language teaching (Tudor, 2001) which encompasses knowledge of teachers as socially-situated beings, in a mutually interactive relationship with their contexts. It hopes to contribute to the understanding of the realities of schooling in particular contexts for NNS teachers of English by illuminating features of teachers own broader experience of their educational systems. For the purposes of this particular paper the feature of teachers broader experience under investigation is their motivation and personal social circumstances as they entered the teaching profession.

I Entry to teaching in the professional discourse 1 Entry to teaching in the general educational discourse
It has long been accepted that influences from ones own schooling have an impact on motivation to enter the teaching profession. In the UK amongst a group of trainee teachers, Cole (1985) identified innovators, those who wished to somehow improve teaching following from their own experiences, and contrasted them with conservatives who had no real commitment to the profession. Huberman (1993), in his longitudinal study of 160 Swiss teachers, labels such influences from schooling as modelling (from teachers) and natural inclination (from learning experiences), subsets of active motivations by which is meant deliberate choice and which may have aspects of a i calling or vocation to teach. Kre c c and Grmek (2005) incorporate modelling in the category of reasons arising from aspirations or stereotypes in their study of 237 student teachers in Slovenija. Lai et al. (2005) in a study of 1249 Hong Kong senior secondary school students views on teaching as a career had a separate category influenced by others but operating in both a positive and negative sense. Huberman (1993, p. 114) found that approximately 17% of his cases reported modelling and 9% natural inclination as motivations for teaching while Kre ci c and Grmek (2005) do not give raw scores or percentages but note that reasons arising from aspirations or stereotypes come fourth in their list of five categories. In Kyriacou and Koboris (1998) earlier study in Slovenia2 of motivation to teach (and learn) English it is noteworthy that only 2% of the 95 student teachers rated as very important the statement Other people encouraged me to become a teacher with 83% rating it as not important and 15% as fairly important (Kyriacou & Kobori, 1998, p. 348) though this may not be the same, of course, as being influenced by the example of ones own teachers. In the Hong Kong study respondents who expressed an interest in teaching as a career ranked influenced by teachers as 14th in a list of reasons for choosing teaching, influenced by family members as 20th and influenced by peers as 21st out of 22 reasons (Lai et al., 2005, p. 158). In contrast, Su et al. (2002) interviewed 85 student teachers to investigate reasons to enter teaching in Tibet and Wuhan in China and concluded that about half of the Chinese students interviewed came into

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teaching because they respect and love the profession, and because they were positively influenced by their own former teachers or family members who were teachers (Su et al., 2002, p. 25). Similar perceptions were reported by Linses (2005) respondents in Belarus but she does not give numerical data. We should observe that the Slovenian studies post-dated Hubermans study and used student teachers for their samples rather than serving teachers, though it is not possible to determine from the evidence presented whether these are significant factors (i.e. whether serving teachers, with hindsight, might look back more positively on their school experiences than students who had only just graduated from school); and whether later generations in European countries had more negative appraisals of their schooling than earlier ones. The Hong Kong study sampled students still at school and so comparisons with the other studies are difficult. Nevertheless, we can reasonably conclude from these studies that there is contextual variation in the frequency with which motivations to enter teaching connected with ones own schooling are cited by groups of teachers given the contrast between the results of Su et al.s (2005) study in China and those in Slovenia and Hong Kong, and to a lesser extent Switzerland and Belarus. When compared with other classifications, Coles (1985) binary system of innovators and conservatives would seem to be too limited to express the whole range of motivations to enter teaching. Hubermans (1993) study developed a tripartite classification of active, material and passive motivations, by which he meant, respectively, a deliberate choice (discussed above); a way of earning a living and becoming financially independent; and drifting into the profession or lacking anything better. Each major motivation was illustrated by a number of sub-categories which are summarized in Table 1, in order of mentions. Hubermans (1993) work offers the most comprehensive means to date of classifying motivations to choose teaching as a career.

2 Entry to teaching in the TESOL professional discourse

In contrast to the range of literature in general education, the TESOL literature seems little troubled by the reasons why individuals become English language teachers or the effect that initial motivation may have on commitment to the profession. Roberts (1998, p. 68, citing Lortie, 1975), in his overview of language teacher education, notes:
Conditions of entry to teaching are certain to affect the occupational culture of any group of teachers, with effects on their expectations of and reactions to LTE [language teacher education] These include differing attractions to teaching ; social influences on entry ; and the tendency for any particular group to be skewed in terms of gender, class, age range, or education. We are unaware of comparable research specific to language teaching, and so can only speculate on the effects on LTE of teachers entry.

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Table 1 Motivations to enter teaching (from Huberman, 1993, pp. 114121) Motivations to enter teaching: Hubermans (1993) classification Active Contact with youth, at ease with young people Love of the subject matter Material Passive

A way of earning a living, For lack of something of being financially better or by process independent of elimination Favourable working conditions Sinking into it: tentative commitment, then the inability to change

Discovery, success with initial substitute teaching Desire to share ones knowledge

Job freedom; flexibility and diversity in ones work

Job security; easily acquired tenure; stability

Modelling: influence of a Feminine profession: former teacher or of the possibility of family parents who were life in parallel teachers Desire to influence young people socially Success as a pupil; desire to remain in an academic environment Natural inclination as a result of prior studies and choices Power: a desire to direct others Compensate for a perceived educational deficit; desire to do better than ones own teachers Access to a higher social status

These variables do not feature in other overviews of second language teaching and learning (Nunan, 1999), in discussions of teacher learning (Freeman & Richards, 1996), or in the state of the art volume Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning where an inclusion or exclusion of a particular theme or topic reflects its prominence in L2 research, as well as the importance of the topic to the profession (Hinkel, 2005, p. xix). The implication is that the reasons why individuals become teachers of English are not important to the profession and consequently have been little researched. The lack of research seems surprising given the huge numbers of NNS teachers of English globally and what we might take

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as a parallel recognition of the importance of motivation to successful learning in language classrooms (Drnyei, 2001, 2005). Where comments are made on reasons for becoming teachers, they often betray an underlying native-speakerist (Holliday, 2005) conception that teachers of English as a foreign/second language will be native speakers (NS) of that language, will not be part of a state school system and are most likely to be teaching in private institutions to which their students come beyond regular school or work hours. This is found in its most extreme form in Woodward (1996, p. 4):
Teachers of EFL/ESOL come into the field from diverse routes. Some may have done one-to-one teaching for paying guests in their homes, or been substitute teachers at peak times in local holiday resorts. Others may have finished post-graduate teacher training courses or be refugee teachers from other subjects. Many, once they have found that TEFL is enjoyable or offers respite from unemployment, redundancy or sundry other hard knocks, take a preliminary qualification or certificate.

It is also reflected in works such as Celce-Murcia (2001) and Nunan (2003). Celce-Murcia (2001, p. viii) sees her edited collection as being primarily for pre-service training but also a useful reference and guide for those who are teaching ESL or EFL without having had specific training; while Nunan (2003, p. v) is designed for the practicing teacher who may or may not have had formal training in teaching English as a second or foreign language. These works seem, at least in part, to be targeted at NS teachers who take up teaching prior to seeking qualifications. Professional teachers of English in this conception are certainly not those who have spent several years at college or university in their home countries in order to acquire the necessary certification to enable them to take up employment within their state education sectors. Going beyond entry to the profession, there seems too to be a general divorce of TESOL literature from the wider issues of education with which teachers in a state system must engage. It is as if the teacher of English as a foreign/second language were disengaged from education as a whole, working in isolation from other teachers, playing no part in the life of the institution beyond a particular classroom or in education in the wider society. The disconnection between TESOL and the broader educational systems within which it is located persists despite the widespread and long-standing recognition of the importance of context in language teaching (Richards, 1985; Harmer, 2003). While there have been significant developments more recently in research on the context of teaching and the place of TESOL in education in particular contexts see, for example, Canagarajah, 1999; Tsui, 2003; Braine, 2005; Hayes, 2005; Hu, 2005 research on entry to teaching has largely been ignored.

3 Research on the experiences of NNS teachers of English

There has been a growing interest in the experiences and beliefs of non-native speaking English teachers of late but this body of work does not address in

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any depth the reasons for individuals to become teachers. Rather it concentrates predominantly on teaching practices once individuals have already qualified as teachers. For example, rva and Medgyes (2000), Medgyes (1999) and Shin and Kellogg (2007) investigate both NNS and NS to reveal differences in aspects of teaching behaviour. Interpretations of communicative language teaching (CLT) feature in Hu (2005) who gathered data from Chinese students on their teachers classroom practices, while Mitchell and Lee (2003) contrasted CLT practice in French classes in the UK with EFL teaching in Korea. Even where reasons for entering teaching are discussed, as in chapter 5 of Tsuis (2003) notable study of NNS English teachers in Hong Kong, they are recorded as background information to the study of expertise in teaching. Elsewehere, Inbar-Lourie (2005) has reported on Israeli EFL teachers self-ascription, that is their perceived identities as native/non-native teachers. Canagarajah (1999) considers the ideological nature of ELT and its instantiation in a periphery community from the viewpoint of NNS teachers but his concern is not with how individuals have become teachers but, rather, with their behaviours in the classroom as teachers. Similarly Lin et al. (2005) discuss their own appropriation of English whilst narrating their development as international TESOL professionals. They identify personal interest and ability in the language as schoolchildren, and note its use as a tool for social advancement, but do not discuss why they chose to become teachers rather than to use their knowledge of English in other ways. There is also a body of work which reveals the experiences of NNS as teachers within English-speaking western educational systems, documenting the discrimination they have faced and the challenges for NNS professionals in the west (see, e.g., Pacek, 2005, and the various papers in Braine, 1999). In another notable collection, Braine (2005) set the personal biographies of NNS teachers of English alongside accounts of the history of ELT in their various countries, yet reasons for becoming teachers were peripheral to the discussion. In sum, while Medgyess (2000, p. 445) conclusion that On the whole, the study of the non-native teacher remains a largely unexplored area in language education may no longer be wholly valid, there remain significant gaps in the literature, one such being the reasons why NNS become teachers of English in non-English speaking contexts.

II The context of the study: English in Thailand

Thailand has no colonial links with English and it is a foreign rather than a second language for the majority of the population. In terms of its functional use, English has little currency outside the tourism industry and international business. This places Thailand in Kachrus (1992) Expanding Circle of English users or, to use Phillipsons (1992) categories, as a PeripheryEnglish country. The practical relevance of English to the lives of most Thais is thus extremely limited, even in an increasingly globalized world, where

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globalization is seen as a social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding (Block and Cameron, 2002, p. 1, citing Waters, 1995, p. 3). However, writing around the time most of the participants in this study were making their career choices, Aksornkool (1985, p. 131) noted that the symbolic function of English still has a stronghold in the minds of many, if not most Thais stemming from the traditional association of English with its ideal function, i.e. its connection with education, wealth, and prestige. But, while there is some evidence to suggest that competence in English is seen as a marker of high social status, with members of the Thai elite being proficient in English, lack of competence in the language is not necessarily seen as a mark of low status (Aksornkool, 1985). For most Thais, then, English may be regarded as something of symbolic value but its lack does not have negative social connotations. Perhaps reflecting this duality, English is not a compulsory subject in state schools, at any grade level, yet virtually all schools teach it. Formal English teaching tends to begin at Grade 5 of primary school (age range 1112 years, children start school at age 6), though it is now technically permissible to introduce English from Grade 1 if school conditions allow. At the time participants in this study were at school they would only have been exposed to English from Grade 5. Generalizations are always problematic but it seems that in its traditional conception by which is meant the commonly held perception of the nature of education and of teacherstudent relationships3 education in Thailand is transmissive and authoritarian in nature. Teachers are expected to impart knowledge to their students, with most classes being teacher-fronted and controlled. The predominant teaching style tends to be expository, with translation from English to Thai very common (Chayanuvat, 2003). There are, of course, exceptions to this picture and participants in this study themselves experienced both traditional and more activity-oriented English classes, both from volunteer western teachers and from Thai teachers themselves.

III The research study 1 Methodology

The data for this paper derives from a series of in-depth life history interviews with seven Thai teachers of English. The life history research approach is located within the naturalist-interpretive paradigm which has a principal focus on understanding the meanings which people attach to phenomena (actions, decisions, beliefs, values etc.) within their social worlds (Snape and Spencer, 2003, p. 3). Data gathering through unstructured interviews aims to provide access to the meanings people attribute to their experiences and social worlds as it is only in the context of non-positivistic interviews,

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which recognize and build on their interactive components (rather than trying to control and reduce them), that intersubjective depth and deep-mutual understanding can be achieved (and, with these, the achievement of knowledge of social worlds) (Miller and Glassner, 1997, p. 100). The interviews for this study lasted between 31/2 hours for each informant and some informants were interviewed on more than one occasion. Though ranging over the entirety of the informants lives to that date my interviews nevertheless had a broad focus on the informants educational experiences as learners and teachers within their social contexts. This meant that even though the conduct of the interview was unstructured there was an array of topics which I, as researcher, wished to cover at some stage during the interview. I was not, to take an hypothetical example of a topic potentially available for discussion with my informants, interested (at this time) in their views on the role of the military in political life, though this may have impacted directly and indirectly upon their lives at some point. However, even with a pre-determined list of topics, I remained open to discussion of any topic which my informants wished to raise, acknowledging, with Goodson and Sikes (2001, p. 28), that:
a researcher can never know for certain which experiences have been influential and relevant in a particular sphere of life, for sometimes connections are apparent only to the individual concerned. Conversely, it may be that events, experiences or personal characteristics, which the researcher expects to have been important, are not seen in the same way by the informant. Too tight a structure and schedule, and relevant information may be lost or, alternatively, may be given disproportionate emphasis by the researcher.

The literature on interviewing is replete with advice on techniques (see, e.g., Gillham, 2000; Wengraf, 2001; Rubin and Rubin, 2005) but all writers agree that a central characteristic of this type of interviewing is that it becomes more like a conversation between partners than between a researcher and a subject (Schutt, 1999, p. 304). It is here that the researchers own motivation and relationship with the researched comes into play. Interviews for this study were not conducted at the first time of meeting; and five of the seven participants were known to the researcher in a professional capacity for some time prior to the interviews. The researchers involvement in the research setting goes back more than 15 years, includes periods of full-time work there and continuing personal, family connections in the country. Initial interest in the research topic was motivated by a desire to understand more fully the experiences of Thai teachers of English with whom the researcher worked and only then to seek to communicate that experience to a wider audience. Once the interviews were transcribed a process of meaning categorization (Kvale, 1996) occurred as stretches of talk were attributed to thematic categories and sub-categories. The main dimensions of categories arose from the process of analysis, akin to the process of induction in grounded theory but here the researcher was not concerned with the gradual process of abstraction

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and moving towards theory so much as look[ing] for ways to assemble the disparate data into a whole, without creating the whole forcibly (Henning, 1999, p. 9). The data in categories and sub-categories were then contrasted with relevant literature to establish commonalities and differences. Though the data from this paper arises from life history interviews it is difficult to represent adequately the nature of those interviews or the research process as a whole in a paper which focuses on just one aspect of the teachers lives and careers and which thus necessarily deals with selected extracts rather than the integrated whole. To do justice to the interviews would require extended life histories to be written of each of the seven teachers involved, which is not the purpose here. For example, it is difficult to reflect in short extracts the relationship between researcher and researched. To illustrate the general point, consider this extract from the data:
I found it more interesting than any other subject because the other subjects were in Thai, everythings in Thai but this one is a foreign language so I was particularly interested in that. I: 4But why? Maybe its what we call intrinsic motivation. I: You like languages? Yeah. (Suthee, lines 254259)

Is the interviewers comment You like languages? an instance of imposing an interpretation of what Suthee means by intrinsic motivation? At first sight this might seem to be so, but knowledge of the researcher-researched relationship and further analysis of the interview itself would reveal this not to be the case. Having known each other for more than 15 years, Suthee and I have a shared history and shared understanding of each others professional and personal situations which does not any longer need to be made explicit. I could perhaps have said at this point Could you explain what you mean by intrinsic motivation? but in the ebb and flow of conversation, knowing that Suthee did indeed have a strong interest in languages he has also learnt Vietnamese, Japanese and French this would have been redundant, as evidenced by his comment this one [English as a subject] is a foreign language so I was particularly interested in that. Selections from the data are inevitable in a paper of this kind and readers will have to make judgements as to whether the selections justify the interpretations placed upon them and, additionally, resonate with their own experience to accord the paper a sense of authenticity (Atkinson, 1998) by which the validity of the findings may be judged.

2 Informants
The seven informants in this study were all in mid-career and so reflecting on their own school years and the circumstances which had led them into

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teaching some time previously. That they were able to recall them so vividly is a testament to the enduring power of early educational and life experiences. They were all educated and trained to teach in government secondary schools in the north-east of Thailand. They have been anonymized here as Arunee, Ladda, Naraporn, Orapan, Sasikarn, Sudarat and Suthee. Of the seven informants only Suthee is male. Six are currently teaching English with one (Sasikarn) now on extended maternity leave. The informants family backgrounds are discussed in more detail in the following section and this information is summarized in Table 3 (see Section V).

IV Becoming a teacher of English in Thailand: Analysing the teachers stories

This section discusses the informants motivation to become teachers of English from two broad perspectives, the influence of their own schooling and sociocultural and economic influences.

1 The influence of informants own schooling

It is accepted wisdom that the experience of schooling has an immensely powerful effect on children, for better or worse, and that often these effects last well into later life. Shi (2002), for example, recalls the experience of a teacher forgetting her name in junior high school and the dramatic effect this had on her motivation as a student, while one of the Thai informants in this study, Suthee, recounted the trauma he suffered at primary school at the hands of his maths teacher who used physical force to try to compel him to use his righthand when he was left-handed. (Such was the intensity of this experience that he recounted it in almost exactly the same terms on two occasions almost 12 years apart.) The fact of these incidents being remembered as critical in schooling many years after they occurred indicates their power and perhaps would encourage us to label them as epiphanies (Denzin, 1989) for the depth of their impact. They illustrate too the notion that conceptions of teaching will be constructed socially in negative as well as positive ways whilst children attend school. As Priyadharshini and Robinson-Pant (2003, p. 105) comment, both negative and positive experiences could prompt an individual to go into teaching: The ideas was to either replicate their positive experiences for other children, or to try to improve what they saw as a system that had failed some. More obviously, positive experiences not only make schooling enjoyable in its own right but can often plant the seeds which lead children at school to consider teaching as a career in later life. Consider, for example, what one of the Thai informants, Ladda, said about her experience as a learner when asked why she became a teacher of English: When I was in Mathayom Suksa5 three and four I got a very good teacher of English. She changed my attitude to study

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English and apart from that I got a very good grade A. [] So I can say that [I became a teacher] because the teacher of English changed my attitude and I have to follow English (Ladda, lines 1213/1516). Another Thai teacher, Sasikarn, reported a similar experience but stemming from her very first year of learning English. The first teacher that taught me in elementary school, shes very lovely. She used the materials, the pictures, the park and whatever. She never sat at the table, she walked around the classroom and her voice is very loud. Whatever she taught in the class I remember (Sasikarn, lines 7477). Her experience at secondary school was equally positive: I met one Ajarn [teacher], she taught me in high school, Mathayom 4 and 5. They have the same characteristics I think [referring to the elementary school teacher]. Shes very active and shes very, what to say, she enjoys teaching in the classroom (Sasikarn, lines 101103). Orapan also mentioned both aptitude and an intrinsic liking for the language when asked in the first interview why she became an English teacher: I think the first thing was that I was good at English language and I like it (Orapan, line 2) as well as the influence of a teacher at primary school who encouraged her interest by giving her a book as a prize for high marks and who often called upon her to answer in class. Similarly, intrinsic liking for the language was a factor expressed by Naraporn in her decision to become an English teacher though she evaluated her own ability negatively: Im not that good but I love it, thats the main point for me to decide to be an English teacher (Naraporn, lines 2122). In engendering positive attitudes towards English, some of our Thai informants teachers were developing in them the desire to continue to learn the language, the essential subject knowledge of an English teachers professional life. It is interesting to note that both Sasikarn and Ladda were taught by Thai teachers of English who seemed to have very active teaching styles, far from the prevailing norm of English through Thai as Suthee (line 225) called it and which Arunee also experienced. There was thus no additional motivation for Ladda and Sasikarn from having a NS teacher to converse with, as was the case for Naraporn, who had a volunteer NS teacher for one year at secondary school, and Sudarat who, in her first interview, contrasted the traditional, teacher-centred grammar-translation way of teaching of her Thai teachers with the more learner-centred, communicative orientation of her foreign teachers.
Im in the keen class so I study with the foreigner, start from M1, VSO from England; M2 Peace Corps, PCV6 from America; and M3 both English and American. So I learn with my Thai teacher only one term, one semester only so I know, I think that English is very easy because I enjoy learning that way. I: Were there differences between the Thai teachers and the others? Very different, very different because a friend of mine she studied with a Thai teacher. She had a lot of homework to do, she had to write a lot of vocabulary. If they cannot answer the teacher will hit them I enjoy studying because I dont have to do a lot of

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homework, just only listening, speaking and some writing; and I think its easier but my friend thought that its difficult because she has to do a lot of homework and if they couldnt answer the teacher will punish them. (Sudarat, lines 202213)

Despite the negative portrayal of traditional teaching methods by Sudarat, the desire to learn a language could still be fostered by a perceived lack of progress at school caused by use of these methods. Suthee did not have particularly positive recollections of his English classes at either primary or secondary school, and was frustrated that he was not taught to speak English, his teachers adopting methods similar to those described by Sudarat. Nevertheless, he admired his teachers for their dedication to their work and he recalled an intrinsic desire to learn a foreign language which outweighed the negative perception of his school experiences.
I found it more interesting than any other subject because the other subjects were in Thai, everythings in Thai but this one is a foreign language so I was particularly interested in that. I: But why? Maybe its what we call intrinsic motivation. I: You like languages? Yeah. (Suthee, lines 254259)

For Suthee it was this intrinsic interest in the language which combined with his admiration for the dedication of his teachers in general They work with their heart and souls (Suthee, line 107) and the influence of his family (discussed in the next section) to provide his motivation to become a teacher of English rather than of any other subject. Of course, having positive experiences at school in a particular subject does not necessarily mean that one will want to become a teacher of that subject oneself or even a teacher at all. In spite of her enjoyment in learning English it could be said that Sasikarn drifted into teaching rather than making a positive choice, though she had always wanted to retain a connection with English. She explained When I study in the college I choose English major because I think when I graduate I can find job in different field, not only being a teacher (Sasikarn, lines 3637). She also noted that she only took the qualifying test to be a teacher because all of my friends sit their exams to be a teacher so I did the same and I passed the test (Sasikarn, lines 3839). Influences from ones own schooling have the potential, then, to be determinants in a career choice for some individuals. However, it seems rare that these are the sole sources of motivation to become teachers. Rather a complex array of influencing factors tends to be at work. Sudarat, for example, in spite of her liking for the English language and positive experiences at school had, in common with Sasikarn, no desire to become a teacher. Yet she was told by her mother that she had to do so and she acceded to her mothers wishes,

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contrary to her own inclinations. This motivation is not reported in any of the studies by Huberman (1993), Kyriacou and Kobori (1998), Krec ic and Grmek (2005), or Lai et al. (2005) and seems to arise from particular sociocultural conditions.

2 Sociocultural and economic influences

The label collectivist has been ascribed to the cultures of South-East Asia (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005)7 and the collectivist notion is said to have implications for behaviour in society such as prioritisation of group over individual needs and respect for authority and tradition. However, such categorizations are inherently problematic. As Klausner (1997, p. 3) comments: While it is easy to become enmeshed in sweeping generalizations as to the cultures of the East and West, one should not forget there are marked differences even within Asian and Western cultures. A deterministic approach to culture is always likely to be hard to sustain and, as this section will show, there is a need to be alert to the considerable heterogeneity in supposedly homogeneous cultures and the danger of characterising groups with reductionist categories (Gieve and Clark, 2005, p. 261). From this perspective, here I shall consider family influences on childrens career choice; the social construction of teaching (particularly primary teaching) as a caring profession (Nias, 1999; Isenbarger & Zembylas, 2006) and thus one more suited to women; restrictions on career choices resulting from lack of opportunities in more rural environments; and the image of teaching as advancement for children from lower socio-economic groupings. Direct family wishes and cultural influences forming part of childrens socialization have traditionally been regarded as important determinants of career choices in Asian cultures: children are expected to carry on the family business or enter the same profession. However, the experience of informants in this study revealed that the situation regarding career choices tended to be more complex than such traditional cultural perceptions would suggest. As we have seen only one of the interviewees, Sudarat, reported that her career choice had been determined entirely by her mother, against her wishes. Though there was also quite direct family influence on Suthee it did not extend to him being instructed which career to follow. Rather, his parents emphasized the material benefits deriving from being a government employee. Suthee commented:
[My parents] keep telling us to become teachers when we were very young and said when we grow up you better become a teacher They say teachers like we call government officials and we look at this in terms of security. I: So it was for economic security and not other things. Economic security and like we have welfares from the government. We dont have to.. like if we dont work we still get paid or if we are retired we get pension or something like that. (Suthee, lines 4647/5155)

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The impetus towards teaching was also to be found in Suthees environment, as he noted.
The people who came to my house, the neighbours, are teachers so [I was] only in teachers society. I: So you just follow the society. Yeah, even now. I: Even now? Yeah, even now, the neighbours are teachers. When I go back most of the people who visit my family are teachers. (Suthee, lines 594600)

The influences clearly operated not only on Suthee but other members of his family too as five of the seven children underwent teacher-training (though one brother and one sister have now left teaching for other jobs). Suthees experience has similarities with Orapans. Though her own parents were not teachers she commented that My neighbours are teachers and my aunt was a teacher. She took good care of me when I was in the primary school (Orapan, lines 1617) and of the six children in the family, her brother and one of her sisters also became teachers (the brother remains a teacher, but her sister passed away some 10 years ago). We can see the influence of Naraporns regard for her own teacher father as a role model when she was asked why she became a teacher: My parents, I mean my father, he was a school director, one thing that inspired me to be a teacher, yes (Naraporn, lines 1415). Her younger sister became a teacher of English too, though Naraporn does not comment on her sisters motivation. As one would expect, there will always be children who will take up the same careers as one of their parents, but with respect to the children of these informants only Naraporn, the daughter of a school director, the sister of an English teacher and the husband of an English teacher, had a child with any intention of becoming a teacher. She spoke of the career intentions of one of her sons: He likes English a lot, thats why he get into TEFL in [name] university (Naraporn, lines 183184). However, she reported that her other two sons did not intend to be teachers. The influence of family members other than parents could also be felt as when Arunee recalled that she decided to become a teacher partly due to the lack of career guidance from her school in north-east Thailand and partly due to the example of her elder sister: I dont know what profession should I choose at that time. In school they did not have the guidance section at that time, and I choose to be a teacher because my elder sister study in a teachers college and I want to follow her (Arunee, lines 593595). It is worth noting that all five girls in Arunees family became teachers (though now only three are still teaching), that her husband is a school director and that her husbands own parents were both teachers. Family influences

David Hayes 485

can, then, be both direct and indirect and can join with influences in the immediate environment to impel young people to take up teaching as a career. Another family influence in Asian societies worth deliberation is the preference often given to male children, especially by fathers, which may have an effect on childrens careers. Sasikarn noted that her own father put most pressure on his two sons while the six girls were largely left to determine their own career choices. She remarked, for example, that:
Dad only proud of the boys in the family, pay more attention on the boys, better than the girls. I: Yeah, why is that? Because people, you know, in Thailand they believe that the boys will carry the [fathers] last name but the girls have to change their last name when they married.8 (Sasikarn, lines 185186)

There was also an expectation in rural Thailand at that time that girl children would marry sooner rather than later and that thus a career would hardly be worth worrying about for them. Sasikarn was asked about parents expectations of girls:
I: What would parents think that girls could do after school? Parents probably think, oh girls dont study too much because not long they will get married and have a family, something like that. Like my sister, the one who is one year older than me, she graduate only Mathayom 3 and then she have to she didnt study more and then she has to help the family. We have the farm during that time so she help on the farm. (Sasikarn, lines 252258)

A similar lack of interest in girls careers may perhaps have been a contributory factor to why all five girls in Arunees family became teachers, though she did indicate that her parents would like one of their children to help with the shop but no-one wants to do that (Arunee, lines 656657) when they were younger. An added influence on girls is the social construction of teaching as a caring profession (Ben-Peretz, 1996; Nias, 1999; Isenbarger & Zembylas, 2006) and thus the perception that it was more suitable for women than men. All five girls in Arunees family became teachers, as we have seen, and she explained the perception of teaching as a profession for women.
Being a teacher, it means that not only do you teach the students, you have to guide them, you have to do, what do you call er advise them. It needs care, it needs a lot of care for the teacher. Teachers teach the subject and take care of students in many things physical, mental, moral, so maybe men are not too detailed, do you understand? I: Not so patient? Yes, not so patient. (Arunee, lines 682688)

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Becoming a teacher of English in Thailand

This image of teaching as a gendered, specifically female, profession is one that persists today and which also crosses borders. Arunee said that amongst her own students especially girls want to be a teacher (Arunee, line 289) and Acker (1999, p. 19) in the UK reports the typical conception of teachers as adults who do what they do mostly because they care so deeply about children and that the association of such images with women [original emphasis] is important in shaping the occupational culture [of teaching]. Similarly, in the Hong Kong study of secondary school students and teaching as a career choice, Lai et al. (2005, p. 164) found that females are more receptive to teaching as a career than males More females agreed with the reason to become a teacher enjoy being with children than males. Elsewhere, in her study of serving English teachers in Belarus, Linse (2005) reported that 94% of the respondents were female, consistent with the demographics of students at different tertiary institutions that provide the opportunity for students to concentrate or major in English and become English teachers (Linse, 2005, p. 370). In other countries the suitability of teaching as a female occupation seems to have a stronger sociocultural dimension. Al-Belushi (2003) found that for Omani women teachers in her survey the most frequently chosen motive for career choice (83.2%) was that teaching was suitable for women (though suitable was not defined); and the second most frequent (54.7%) was that teaching was the only career with an all-female environment. Womens domestic responsibilities in this environment were seen to be important and teaching was favoured because of its perceived convenience in allowing women to fulfil their family roles. Yet to be determined in any of these contexts however though Al-Belushi (2003) seems to suggest it for Oman is whether the image of teaching as womens work is little more than rationalization of the outcomes of objective socio-economic conditions (e.g. low pay for teachers, lack of social mobility for women) as suggested by Clifford (1989) for the USA. Lack of opportunities in the immediate geographical area also had a part to play in career choice in Thailand. For Ladda this combined both with the need to be close to home to help her parents with their business and her liking for the language. She recalled:
When I finished M5, Mathayom Suksa 5, some of my friends would like to go to the nursing school or wherever. I would like to study in the Teachers College because at that time [name] Teachers College is very famous and close to my home. My house has a business, sometimes I have to help my parents. So I came to take a test there. I feel I like the major of English and would like to be an English teacher. (Ladda, lines 3943)

A similar lack of opportunity was also noted by Arunee, effectively leaving her with career choices of teaching or nursing: We studied in the institution that [was] open in our area. In [provincial capital] there is only Rajabat Teachers College and Nursing College. I am not good at science, I am not good at mathematics, so I dont pay attention to that field (Arunee, lines 675678).

David Hayes 487

A final factor to be recorded is the socio-economic background of the families of the informants. Recent studies elsewhere (Su et al, 2002; RobertsHolmes, 2003; Lai et al, 2005) have reported that teaching is an occupation most likely to be favoured by secondary school students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Lai et al. (2005, p. 165) concluded for contemporary Hong Kong that: In terms of students socio-economic background, there was a significant difference in the students interest to join teaching with respect to their average monthly household incomes and parents education levels. This suggests that teaching was less attractive to students from relatively well-off and educated families. Similarly Su et al. (2002, p. 25) report for student teachers in Tibet and Wuhan in China that:
Our interview data revealed that most of the Chinese teacher candidates, more than 80% in some institutions, are from rural families, and their parents, many of whom have little or no formal education themselves, in general support their children to become teachers because they respect the teaching profession and they consider teaching as a higher status occupation than farming.

Of these Thai informants Orapan, from a farming family, noted in her first interview that I was brought up in a very small village and teacher seemed to be the good career at the time that I was growing up (Orapan, lines 67). Amongst the informants only Sudarat came from a professional background other than teaching (the military). The remainder either came from farming families (Sasikarn and Orapan) small businesses (Ladda and Arunee) or from teaching families (Suthee and Naraporn).

V Conclusions: Becoming teachers/becoming English teachers

An overview of the motivations for choosing teaching as a career for the Thai informants in this study in Hubermans (1993) terms is given in Table 2. Arunee, Ladda and Naraporn all had active motivations, primarily modelling of their own English (and other) teachers while Orapan and Suthee had both active and material motivations, material in that both were influenced by the view in their immediate environment that teaching was a stable profession with job security and active in that they both had a liking for the language and natural inclination from prior studies. Sasikarns motivations were primarily passive, having drifted into teaching even though she experienced strong influences from teacher models which stimulated her interest in English as a language. Sudarat is the most difficult to categorize as she is the only one of the informants who was forced into teaching against her will by her mother and, as a dutiful daughter in a socially conservative household, she acceded to her mothers wishes though without any enthusiasm. This would seem to be a passive motivation but is not captured by any of Hubermans illustrations. Though useful, examining motivation to enter teaching in these terms does not capture the richness of the individuals experiences in school themselves

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Table 2 Informants motivations to enter teaching in Hubermans (1993) classification Motivations to enter teaching Thai informants Arunee Ladda Naraporn Orapan Sasikarn Sudarat Suthee Active Material Passive

nor in their family and wider communities. The teachers narratives represented in the interviews reveal the multi-layered nature of their experiences, with various factors intersecting and combining to influence their career choices. As we have seen, the importance of sociocultural and economic factors on informants decision to enter teaching cannot be underestimated. As government servants, teachers had considerable job security and other benefits, which were emphasized by Suthees parents and influenced his own and his siblings entry into teaching. As well as its intrinsic security, for children coming from poorer socio-economic backgrounds, teaching may also have represented a step up the social ladder as was made clear by Orapan. Further, in the predominantly rural areas in which these informants grew up, educational opportunities beyond secondary school were restricted nursing or teaching seemed to be the choices for those who wished to continue their education close to home, as Arunee and Ladda observed. A final sociocultural variable in the decision to enter teaching is gender. Worldwide, teaching seems to remain an occupation socially constructed as more suitable for females than males and Thailand is no exception in this regard, as witnessed by the experience of the informants and their immediate families. Information on informants family backgrounds, their siblings and their own families is summarized in Table 3. Much of the discussion arising from the teachers stories suggests that individuals choose to become members of their state teaching systems first and foremost and that their choice of subject to teach arises simply from their own personal predispositions for the language, their school performance in and aptitude for English as a particular subject. To reiterate Naraporns (lines 2122) comment: Im not that good but I love it, thats the main point for me to decide to be an English teacher. Several informants reflected on the models provided by their own teachers, illustrated by Ladda (lines 1516) who said: So I can say that [I became a teacher] because the teacher of English changed my attitude and I have to follow English. There is no evidence in the

Table 3 Demographic information on informants and their families Demographic information Number of siblings Number of siblings in teaching Four sisters Four sisters Two brothers One sister One brother Four sisters Two brothers Five sisters Two brothers Three sisters Four brothers Two sisters None Two brothers and two sisters entered teaching; one brother and one sister remain teaching One sister Brother and one sister (deceased) One sister Teacher Unmarried Teacher Unmarried Unmarried None Unmarried Four entered, two remain teaching School director Spouses profession Number of children; numbers teaching Two; at school Three; one starting TEFL degree One; not yet at school

Thai informants (gender, age) Family background

Arunee (female)

Small business

Ladda (female)

Small business

Naraporn (female)

Teaching (father)

Orapan (female)

Farming

Sasikarn (female)

Farming

Sudarat (female)

Military (father)

Suthee (male)

Teaching (both parents)

David Hayes 489

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data that the negative effects of linguistic imperialism as propounded by Phillipson (1992), Pennycook (1994) and Canagarajah (1999) enter into the worldview of these particular informants. This may be because Thailand has not suffered directly from western colonialism and, as Sudarat expressed it, there was no apparent conflict between being a teacher of English and being Thai: I teach English but Im Thai. I like to wear Thai costume and I behave like Thai representative, to be a good Thai (Sudarat, lines 12791281). As mentioned above, there has been little research in TESOL to date into the reasons why individuals become teachers of English. Given Robertss (1998, p. 68) comment that conditions of entry to teaching are certain to affect the occupational culture of any group of teachers and the fact that most teachers of English worldwide are non-native speakers, it would seem that there is a clear and urgent need for further research into the reasons why individuals become teachers of English in the many and varied state education systems in which the language is taught. With such research the knowledge base of TESOL as a profession will be strengthened and its diversity duly recognized, in line with Lin et al.s (2005, p. 218) call for decentering the production of the discipline and discourse from Anglo-speaking countries to a diversity of sociocultural contexts in the world. I hope that this paper has contributed to these aims in some way.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the first draft of this article. I would also like to thank Chris Kennedy for his support and guidance for the wider study on which this article is based; and, last but far from least, Joseph LoBianco for his inspiration in so many ways.

Notes
1 2 3

4 5

6 7

I continue to use the terms native speaker and non-native speaker in this paper, although they are contested terms, as they retain widespread currency in the literature. The spellings Slovenija and Slovenia are those used in the articles cited but refer to the same country. This is reflected in public debate. For example, an article in the English language daily the Bangkok Post criticized the continuing prevalence of teacher-fronted classrooms and rote-learning (Bunnag, 2005). In this and subsequent extracts from the interviews I is used to refer to the interviewer. In Thailand primary schooling is Prathom and secondary Mathayom. Mathayom Suksa roughly translates as Secondary Grade. The levels are often abbreviated to P1 (Primary One) and M1 (Secondary One) and so on. VSO is the UK volunteer organisation Voluntary Service Overseas; PCV stands for Peace Corps Volunteer, the Peace Corps being an American volunteer organisation. On Hofstede and Hofstedes Individualism Index the United States, with a value of 91, ranked as the most individualist of societies, and Guatemala, with a value of 6 as the most collectivist (the higher the value, the more individualist the society). Thailand had a value of 20, ranked 56th to

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61st out of 74 countries. Where countries had equal values, the ranking reflects the number of countries with that value. (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005, pp. 7879) Until 2005, when the law was changed, women were legally required to adopt their husbands family names and to have the husbands family name on all official documents such as their identity cards and passports.

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