Alienation of labor: perceptions of English language teachers at Turkish universities

Abstract

This qualitative study aims to figure out what perceptions of English language teachers have about their own labor under the condition of labor as a commodity. Through these perceptions, this research tries to find the answers for the following research questions which are (1) What are the perceptions of English language teachers working in the English preparatory schools of public and private universities about their own English language teaching labor? (2) What are the perceptions of English language teachers about the extent of their alienation in their labor? (3) What are the perceptions of English language teachers about the factors that trigger their alienation in both contexts? (4) How do English language teachers respond to their alienation in their own labor? For this study, case study method was employed and data was collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with 12 participants in Turkish. All interviews based on single meetings were recorded and later transcribed and translated into English. As for the data analysis, all transcribed data were content-analyzed. Findings showed that all the participants chose to be an English language teacher because of perceiving this labor as something with an employment guarantee in a way; yet they also found teaching something monotonous which showed the alienated character of their labor since they weren’t content with it. As the majority of these participants dreamt about something else other than teaching till the end of their lives, they didn’t identify themselves with their life activity but were doing it involuntarily which made them have no control over it. Perceptions of feeling less secure in the workplace which was especially common among the females and trying to make oneself more productive with less workload and more time despite already being productive were the indicators of the extent of alienation of the participants in private context. Similarly, perceptions of feeling secure in public context were also the indicators of how alienated the participants were there because they were the contracted state employees who could be replaced any time but they were unaware of their situation. Also, perceiving students’ undemanding nature as a reason for unproductivity in the public context or again perceiving them as imposing different expectations on teachers in the private context, and perceptions about how technology eased their work showed both the students and technology as the triggering factors for the alienation of participants in both contexts. However, division of labor among the teachers which was believed to ease work and different forms of conflicting relationships with the colleagues were the triggering factors of the alienation of all participants. Regarding how they dealt with their alienation, participants of both contexts responded their alienation with extreme tiredness especially the mental one affecting their social and private life. What was seen as an advantage in public context was the opposite in the private one; yet what was seen as an advantage such as the job security or money being paid was in fact the thing causing and triggering their alienation. Additionally, the things participants didn’t like about being an English language teacher were indeed the factors triggering their alienation but they were unaware of that because of the loss of the reality.