DARING to D.R.E.A.M. : An Alternative Approach for ELT Management PART ONE

Although English Language Teaching (ELT) departments in Japan are usually made up of both Japanese and foreign English speaking faculty, to date no significant research has been done to try understand the attitude differences between these two groups, or to map what is deemed to be acceptable pedagogical, management or leadership practice by each group.What is likely true is that in most cases foreign-faculty can feel frustrated by the opaqueness of the management systems and the lack of clear and inspiring leadership in Japan that can quite often leave them feeling undervalued as professionals.This paper discusses the D.R.E.A.M. Management approach, an approach that tries to keep the teaching and learning as the core elements of a department or institution.Like the originators of the DREAM Management approach, this author also believes that it is the students and the learning that they undertake that should be at the heart of everything we do in ELT and therefore the teachers, who are those closest to both the students and learning, must be the engine of educational management, innovation and change.DREAM Management is a series of ten principles drawn from various sources which tries to keep teaching and learning at the heart of education by engaging teachers and encouraging them into management and leadership roles with the hope of creating better pedagogical models and standards and more satisfied and successful stakeholders.Part One of this paper introduces the basic concept of DREAM Management and the first five principles.