One of the more recent postings here suggested that, in light of the difficulties one encounters in searching for and finding a great position in China, that once such a position has been found it should be embraced and held on to for as long as one chooses to stay in China. The writer also suggests that the alternative view, that of wanting to teach in a variety of places so that one can experience as much of China as possible, may not be a logical choice in that we have the opportunity to travel frequently - given the amount of vacation time usually available.
Personally, I think both options are worth considering but the unfortunate truth is that those of us who are ultimately lucky enough to find a great position are in the minority. And then we must also deal with our own sense of moral justice and determine from there whether or not we are sacrificing our own values in order to convince ourselves that our current position is acceptable. How many times have you heard a fellow teacher describe a school like this: "Well, it's pretty good............but." What follows the "but" can be fairly indicative of how far one is willing to go to define a position as acceptable.
I've been here long enough now to have developed a fairly simple litmus test in terms of how long I'll stay at a school, or for that matter whether or not I'll even accept the position once I've arrived. One lie and I'm gone. As you can well imagine, I've seen a lot of China this way.
But I'm not one sided about this. If an employer has discovered discrepancies, such as false documentation or erroneous resume information, I feel that said employer is well within their rights to terminate the contract. Furthermore, if an employee has agreed to the terms of the contract - flimsy as Chinese contracts may be, he or she should follow those terms to the letter.
We cannot expect to see a dramatic change in this EFL in China business until we accept that the damage has not only been inflicted by unscrupulous recruiters and administrations, but that it has also been, to a lesser degree, caused by we the teachers if for no other reason than by our oft placid acceptance of the status quo.
The aforementioned poster also stated that there is a shortage of EFL teachers in China to fill the important positions in universitites and elsewhere. This of course is the result of the constancy of recruiters hiring teachers for illegally operated private schools and training centers. And they're doing a good job of it too! Despite the warnings on this and other sites, teachers are lured and hired and the turn over is amazing. Sadly, what this indicates is that our warnings go largely unheeded and when there is a positive change in the business in won't come about as a result of our sincere desire to help others avoid the pitfalls of teaching here. It will only come about when the government itself gets fed up with the negative publicity.
And so, as I've suggested before, the real work that will get done in this context will be as the result of our making enough noise to officials that change will be unavoidable.
The bickering that we do here is kinda fun - I'll give it that, but we are a long way away from creating any kind of meaningful and lasting change. Albeit, having said that I will reitterate what I've also stated in the past. If we can save even one person from making a huge mistake by falling victim to a scam artist in China, we will have fulfilled at least a small moral obligation.