Alejandra Vives Vergara and her co-researchers have developed the Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES). This scale is important because it connects precariousness with health outcomes. Their research, published in the Occupational & Environmental Medicine (OEM) journal…
IN NOVEMBER 2019, a month into the Chilean uprising against massive inequality, I published an Open Letter to the English Teaching Community in Chile. ‘Chile has woken up’ I wrote, ‘and we have the duty…
In this interview Phil Longwell talks about his research on how teachers have handled the Covid-19 pandemic, positive psychology, and why he’s jumping ship. We’re publishing this to coincide with the final Time to Talk…
Employers believe that the fixed, temporary, zero- and short-hours contracts that dominate many workplaces today give them flexibility. And this flexibility helps them to plan, predict costs, and save money. How such flexibility helps workers is…
In April, with the first wave of Covid-19, we had our first #eltworkerchat. Many teachers had lost hours, student numbers were down – and there was a strong push to go online. Some teachers found…
Accordian to a recent survey, replacing words with the names of musical instruments often goes undetected. OK. That’s a terrible joke. But not a bad introduction. Keith Copley, author of the excellent article Neoliberalism and…
A 30 PESO PRICE HIKE ON THE METRO was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We all understand the reasons behind the nationwide protests in Chile. We see them in memes…
In August 2018 Richard Smith of the Centre of Applied Linguistics at Warwick got in touch to see if I’d be interested in writing a key definition of ‘precarity’ for the ELT Journal. So,…
I’ve taught freelance Business English in Germany since 2009 for three language schools. In none of them was I paid enough to live on. Their contracts were similar. This is my experience of the worst…
Prior to Donald Trump’s visit to the UK Ash Sarkar of Novara Media appeared on ‘Good Morning Britain’ and was bullied by host Piers Morgan. He criticized her for not demonstrating against Obama, presuming, incorrectly,…
