ABSTRACT
Discussion surrounding the issue of English teaching and missionary agendas percolates among ELT educators, but it boils over when it involves Christian English teachers (CET) in a limited access country.1 There are many opinions about what CET do and don’t do; however, empirical data is lacking and would help inform this discussion. This chapter summarizes the results of a preliminary survey I conducted among 44 CET working in countries that restrict missionary activity. Yeoman (2002) and Pennycook and Coutand-Marin (2003) have commented on the “undercover” nature of CET who teach abroad, yet in my years of living in the Middle East, I found that most CET openly acknowledged their Christian beliefs. So the question arises, where does this portrayal of “ulterior motives” among CET come from and how prevalent is it? The stereotype that many CET work in a “stealth” or “undercover” capacity may be due in part to how CET are constructed in discourse (Bearak, 2001; Dixon, 2005; Sachs, 2000; Yeoman, 2002). In TESOL-related publications this stereotype portrays CET as Western missionaries with an ethnocentric agenda who lack TESOL training and experience and do not respect host cultures (Edge, 2003, 2004; Johnston, 2003; Karmani & Pennycook, 2005; Pennycook & Coutand-Marin, 2003; Pennycook & Makoni, 2005; Syed, 2003; Vandrick, 2002). In my experience, this “missionary zealot” profile is true of only a small portion of CET, not the vast majority. A few Christian TESOL educators (Griffith, 2004; Purgason, 2004a, 2004b; Snow, 2001; Stevick, 1997) have responded to this stereotype, but actual studies of CET are needed to better understand the scope and nature of CET working abroad. In June 2005, of the 882 members listed with the Christian Educators in TESOL Caucus (CETC), 137 (16%) worked overseas, with 20 (2%) in countries that restrict missionary activity. Welliver and Northcutt (2004) and Dickerson and Dow (1997) list estimates of CET who go abroad through North American churches and organizations that provide some preparation with overseas teaching opportunities. But neither account for the large and growing number of CET who are not from Western countries (Scanlon, 2004). At a Christian English Language Teachers (CELT) Conference held in Chiang Mai in January 2006, CET represented more than 10 nations. These numbers also do not account for the many CET not affiliated with mission organizations or who do not consider themselves missionaries.
